Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs Update of 3rd January, 2017. These are important for the upcoming RBI Assistant Mains, IPPB Mains and Other exams.
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Team ExamPundit
Daily Current Affairs at a Glance - 3 January, 2016
- Paytm today said it has received final approval of the Reserve Bank to formally launch its payments bankand it expects to start operations next month.
- The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)has partnered with mobile wallet company MobiKwikto convert all its payment facilities into cashless mode.
- Clean India Technology Week, a three day event, will be hosted from January 18 at Hitex Exhibition Centre, Hyderabad.
- The Reserve Bankon Tuesday imposed a Rs 1 lakh penalty on the Mumbai District Co-operative Bank (Mumbai Bank)for violating know-your-customer and anti-money laundering norms.
- National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is soon going to introduce trash skimmers to clean the surface of Ganga in six more Indian cities in the first week of January 2017.
- The Reserve Bank of India has appointed Surekha Marandi as its Executive Director (ED) in place of U S Paliwal, who retired on December 31 last year, the bank announced on Tuesday.
- Senior IAS officer S P Singh was on Sunday appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Telangana government.
- Kerala-born entrepreneur Shaikh Rafik Mohammed, 42, has been appointed Major General of Kyrgyzstan, in a first for an Indian in the Central Asian country.
- Hindi writers Shraddha and Ghyansham Kumar Devanshwere on 29 December 2016 selected for the Bharatiya Jnanpith Navlekhan Award 2016.
- A British-Indian professor, Shankar Balasubramanianhas been awarded knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his immense contribution in the field of science and medicine.
Financial and Banking News:
Paytm gets RBI approval for payments bank
- Paytm today said it has received final approval of the Reserve Bank to formally launch its payments bank and it expects to start operations next month.
- Payments banks can accept deposits from individuals and small businesses up to Rs 1 lakh per account.
- Paytm was earlier slated to begin operations around Diwali last year. In 2015, RBI had awarded 'in-principle' approval to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of One97 Communications, to set up a Payments Bank along with 10 others.
- With the objective of deepening financial inclusion, RBI kicked off an era of differentiated banking by allowing SFBs (small finance banks) and PBs (payments banks) to start services. A total of 21 entities were given in-principle nod last year, including 11 for payments banks.
- Later, three entities -- Tech Mahindra, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company and a consortium of Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services -- backed out of the payments bank licensing.
AIIMS ties up with MobiKwik
- The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has partnered with mobile wallet company MobiKwik to convert all its payment facilities into cashless mode.
- To begin with, resident doctors, staff and visitors can pay through MobiKwik at the institution's cafetaria. Payment of doctor's consultation, tests and other services will be made cashless by the first week of January 2017.
- Upasana Taku, co-founder of MobiKwik, said that AIIMS is the foremost medical institution in India and that MobiKwik was glad to have partnered with them. "We are proud to support Indians during the current situation of cash crunch and lead India's transformation into a less cash economy," Taku said in a statement here on Tuesday.
Hyderabad to host Clean India Technology Week
- Clean India Technology Week, a three day event, will be hosted from January 18 at Hitex Exhibition Centre, Hyderabad.
- The event will have four concurrent exhibitions — Clean India Show (14th edition), Laundrex India (2nd edition), Waste Technology India Expo (2nd edition) and Car Care Expo (2nd edition). For the first time, there will be separate section for Pest Management as well.
- Supported by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Show expects to attract over 8,000 potential trade and industrial visitors. The show is being organised by the VIS Group.
- The event, with over 150 exhibitors, serves as a platform for networking with leading players of the industry and enhancing business opportunities.
- Karcher India, Charnock, Comac, IPC, Roots Multiclean, Cannon Hygiene are among companies to be present at the event.
RBI fines Mumbai Bank Rs 1 lakh over money laundering charges
- The Reserve Bank on Tuesday imposed a Rs 1 lakh penalty on the Mumbai District Co-operative Bank (Mumbai Bank) for violating know-your-customer and anti-money laundering norms.
- "The RBI has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank for violating the directives of the RBI relating to KYC norms and AML measures," the central bank said.
- The central bank had first issued a show cause notice to the bank and after going through its submissions it had found that the violations committed by the bank "substantiated and warranted an imposition of a penalty", it added.
- Bank Chairman Pravin Darekar, who joined the ruling BJP and has been a member of the Maharashtra legislative council, denied that the fine has anything to do with the Centre's demonetisation exercise.
- He explained that this is a two-year-old matter wherein the RBI had first fined the bank Rs 5 lakh for not doing KYC of the office-bearers of 495 housing societies and after explaining our position the fine was reduced to Rs 1 lakh, he said.
Non-financial News – India & States:
Trash Skimmers to be introduced in six more Ganga cities
- National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is soon going to introduce trash skimmers to clean the surface of Ganga in six more Indian cities in the first week of January 2017.
- The announcement was made through an official statement by the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
- According to the statement, the new cities to get the trash skimmers include Rishikesh, Garh Mukhteshwar, Sahibganj, Haridwar, Navdweep and Kolkatta. Urban local bodies have been given the responsibility of monitoring the work.
- While State Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) will be overseeing the project at the state level under the aegis of the NMCG, the Collectorate office will be responsible for its progress and completion at the district level.
- River Surface Cleaning (RSC) work was first introduced last year to clean the Ganga basin in cities including Allahabad, Kanpur, Mathura-Vrindavan and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Patna in Bihar. Trash skimmers were used to collect tonnes of floating waste, which was later disposed off in an organised manner.
Andhra Pradesh Government launches NTR Arogya Raksha Scheme
- The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, on 1 December 2017 launched NTR Arogya Raksha Scheme in Vijayawada.
- The scheme aims at providing the medical treatment to the people belonging to Above Poverty Line (APL) at Rs. 1200 premium per annum. It will offer medical insurance to those people who are not covered under any of the existing health schemes of the state government.
- The NTR Arogya Seva has already been launched for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. That scheme provides medical treatment for 1044 health and medical ailments and offers free of cost services at corporate and government hospitals.
- Also, a similar service has been provided to employees and journalists in the form of health cards.
- On the other hand, the state Chief Minister stated that the health care spending in the state had come down substantially to about 17% after the government launched around 30 initiatives in 2016. He also requested the students of medicine, nursing, psychology and home science to contribute their best to improve the public health through the Swasthya Vidya Vahini.
Appointments – India & World:
RBI appoints Surekha Marandi as Executive Director
- The Reserve Bank of India has appointed Surekha Marandi as its Executive Director (ED) in place of U S Paliwal, who retired on December 31 last year, the bank announced on Tuesday.
- Marandi, who assumed charge on Monday, will look after Consumer Education and Protection Department, Financial Inclusion and Development Department, and Secretary's Department, an RBI release said.
- She has, over a span of three decades, served in regulatory and supervisory, financial inclusion and development and human resource management areas in the Reserve Bank.
SP Singh Appointed as New Chief Secretary of Telangana
- Senior IAS officer S P Singh was on Sunday appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Telangana government.
- Singh, who is currently serving as Special Chief Secretary in Panchayati Raj department, takes over the charge of office from K Pradeep Chandra, who retired from service on Saturday.
- Chandra held the post for a brief tenure of just one month.
- In another appointment, A K Khan, who retired as Director General, ACB, has been made an adviser for Telangana State Minority Welfare, an official release issued here said.
Kerala-born entrepreneur Shaikh Mohammed is Kyrgyz major general
- Kerala-born entrepreneur Shaikh Rafik Mohammed, 42, has been appointed Major General of Kyrgyzstan, in a first for an Indian in the Central Asian country.
- Mr Mohammed assumed the prestigious post in the presence of defence minister Ali Mirza at an official ceremony held in Kyrgyzstan. He holds Kyrgyzstan nationality, conferred by former President Kurmanbek Saliyevich Bakiyev, whom he had met in his late-20s while working in Iran.
- Mr Mohammed, who heads Gammon Middle East in Saudi Arabia, used to be an adviser to Kyrgistan President and the latest appointment is in recognition of his contributions to the country, sources in Dubai said.
David R Syiemlieh appointed as Chairman of UPSC
- President Pranab Mukherjee on 2 January 2017 appointed Professor David R Syiemlieh as the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
- Syiemlieh will take over the position with effect from 4 January 2017 till completion of his term as member on 21 January 2018.
- Syiemlieh, who is serving as the Member of UPSC, will succeed Alka Sirohi, a former IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre.
Awards & Honors:
Shraddha, Ghyansham Kumar Devansh chosen for 2016 Bharatiya Jnanpith Navlekhan Award
- Hindi writers Shraddha and Ghyansham Kumar Devansh were on 29 December 2016 selected for the Bharatiya Jnanpith Navlekhan Award 2016.
- They were unanimously named by a Selection Panel which is chaired by eminent poet Vishnu Nagar. The selection Board also comprised of writer and journalist Madhusudan Anand and poet and critic Om Nischal and Mandloi.
- Shraddha was selected for her short story ‘Hawa Mein Phadphadati Chitthi‘ and Devansh was chosen for his poem ‘Akash Mein Deh‘.
- They were shortlisted from the list of other writer's work that included short stories ‘Amarbel Ki Udas Shakhein’ by Amiya Bindu and ‘Bohani’ by Bhumika Dwivedi, ‘Anantim Geet Ke Beech’ by Sujata and ‘Ek Atirikt’ by Reshmi Bharadwaj.
British-Indian Shankar Balasubramanian knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
- A British-Indian professor, Shankar Balasubramanian has been awarded knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his immense contribution in the field of science and medicine.
- Balasubramanian, who is a Professor of Chemistry and DNA expert at Cambridge University, has received the recognition for his work as a co-inventor of Next Generation DNA sequencing, which is described as the most transformational advance in biology and medicine.
- The professor’s work, also known as Solexa sequencing allows an individual genome to be sequenced in a day or two at a rate less than 1000 pounds. Earlier the same procedure took years of work and cost around billions.
- Apart from this, the professor has also contributed immensely in understanding the role of DNA quadruplexes in cancer and invented a method for the sequencing of epigenetic modifications.
- Olympic stars Andy Murray, Mo Farah, track and field athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, actor Mark Rylance, designer Victoria Beckham and Vogue editor Anna Wintour are among others whose names featured in the 2017 New Year Honours list. While Murray who won the tennis championship at Rio Olympics 2016 and Farah who won double gold received the knighthood, athlete Ennis-Hill received the title of a dame.
Obituaries:
K V Pusa, former NPCC President and Minister, passes away
- Former President of Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) K V Pusa passed away on 2 January 2016 following a brief illness. He was 63. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
- Other than serving the political career, Pusa was also associated with social activities such as leading various students, farmers and sports organizations.
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Team ExamPundit