Current Affairs - February 12, 2018 Current Affairs

HDFC Bank has announced the appointment of Rakesh Singh as the private banking head. He will continue to head the bank's investment banking, capital markets and financial institutions businesses. Private banking is wealth management service of the bank catering to High Net Worth & Ultra-HNW individuals, families who aim to successfully manage and grow their wealth.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)-led consortium of Indian state oil firms have acquired 10% stake in Abu Dhabi's offshore Lower Zakum Concession. The acquisition is part of deal inked between company executives and UAE officials in presence of visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abu Dhabi. The Lower Zakum Oil Field is located 84 km north-west of Abu Dhabi Islands. It was discovered in 1963 and is owned and developed by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The total proven reserves of it are around 17.2 billion barrels and production is centered on 425,000 barrels per day (67,600 m3/d).

Sharmila Nicollet become the first Indian golfer to qualify for the China Ladies PGA Tour. The 26-year-old Bengaluru golfer fought her way back into the tournament in the last two rounds to earn a card for the Tour. Sharmila, who played on the Ladies European Tour before losing her full card, played her three rounds in the CLPGA Tour Qualifying School to finish in tied 21st and pick one of the 30 cards available in the 88-player field.

India and Oman have signed eight Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) in different areas including defence, health and tourism. The MoUs were inked during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to Oman. They were signed after delegation-level talks between PM Modi and Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said in Muscat. They held wide-ranging discussions on measures to strengthen co-operation in trade and investment, energy, defence, security, food security and regional issues. Oman was last leg PM Modi's visit to three west Asian countries viz. Palestine, UAE and Oman.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the first Hindu temple to be built in Abu Dhabi. The temple spread over an area of 55,000 square meters will be located off the Dubai-Abu Dhabi Sheikh Zayed Highway at Al-Rahaba. The temple's construction will be completed by 2020 and will be open to people of all religious backgrounds.

The Muthoot Group, a leading business conglomerate has engaged Amitabh Bachchan as their Brand Ambassador. Amitabh Bachchan will hereafter be representing The Muthoot Group across all their national campaigns. The Muthoot group has interests in Financial Services, IT, Media, Healthcare, Education, Power Generation and operates in 29 states in India.

National Productivity Council is observing National Productivity Day February 12 and National Productivity Week till 18th February. The theme for the National Productivity Week is - Industry 4.0 Leapfrog Opportunity for India.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is considering to establish National Women Entrepreneurship Council (NWEC). NWEC will promote entrepreneurship as it would be the umbrella organization for socio-economic gender parity, financial inclusion and economic empowerment of women in India. It was announced by Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Dr. Virendra Kumar.

Microsoft & Paisabazaar.com have entered into a partnership to develop industry first innovations on Microsoft's Cloud platform using artificial intelligence & machine learning. The collaboration would help Paisabazaar identify customer needs more accurately, factoring in their lifestyle & life-stage. It would also expedite processes on Paisabazaar platform through automation & digitisation.

National Deworming Day is observed on 10 Feb & 10 Aug each year to tackle the countrywide public health threat of intestinal worm infections in children & related morbidity. It is a single fixed-day approach to treating intestinal worm infections in all children aged 1- 19 yrs. It aims to create awareness about the most effective & low-cost STH treatment administering albendazole tablets.

The country's largest lender SBI write off bad loans worth Rs 20,339 crore in 2016-17. It is the highest among all the public sector banks, which had a collective write off of Rs 81,683 crore for the fiscal. Besides SBI, Punjab National Bank had a write-off of Rs 9,205 crore in 2016-17, followed by Bank of India (Rs 7,346 crore), Canara Bank (Rs 5,545 crore).

The Central government has appointed Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta as the Special Public Prosecutor for cases related to the 2G scam.However, the status of current SPP Anand Grover appointed by the Supreme Court remains unclear. On December 21 last year, a special CBI court acquitted all the accused in the 2G scam, including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

India and Palestine have signed six agreements on the infrastructural development in the Palestine. A MOU was signed by the two countries for the construction of an India Palestine Centre for empowering women, "Turathi" at a cost of USD 5 million. A MOU for setting up of a new National Printing Press at Ramallah at a cost of USD 5 million was also signed between the two nations.