CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Private Train Operations Likely To Begin By April 2023
- Private train operations in the country will begin by April 2023, and the ticket fares in these trains will be competitive with airfares on similar routes.
- The improvement in technology will also mean that the coaches that now require maintenance after running 4,000 km, will need maintenance after every 40,000-km, that is either once or twice a month.
- Private participation in passenger train operations will only be five per cent of the existing 2800 Mail/Express trains over IR.
- The private entity has to ensure 95 per cent punctuality and record not more than one failure per lakh kilometre of travel.
About Indian Railways
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Chairman: VK Yadhav
Govt clears Defence acquisition worth Rs 38,900 Cr
- Defence Acquisition Council ( DAC) in its meeting accorded approval for Capital acquisitions of various platforms and equipment required by the Indian Armed Forces. Proposals for an approximate cost of 38900 Crore rupees were approved. The meeting chaired by Defence minister Rajnath Singh focused on indigenous design and development. These approvals include acquisitions from Indian Industry amounting to 31130 Crore rupees.
- The equipments are to be manufactured in India involving Indian Defence Industry with participation of several MSMEs as prime tier vendors. The Indigenous content in some of these projects is up to 80 per cent of the project cost.
- A large number of these projects have been made possible due to Transfer of Technology by DRDO to the Indigenous Industry. These include Pinaka ammunitions, BMP armament upgrades and Software Defined Radios for the Army, Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile Systems and Astra Missiles for Navy and Air Force. The cost of these Design and Development proposals is in the range of 20400 crore rupees.
- Further, addressing the long felt need of the Indian Air Force to increase its fighter squadrons, the DAC also approved the proposal for procurement of 21 MIG-29 . It also approved upgradation of existing 59 Mig-29 aircraft and procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft.
Drug Discovery Hackathon jointly launched by Union Ministers Dr Harsh Vardhan and Ramesh Pokhriyal
- Human Resources and Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan jointly launched the Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020. It is an online competition and anybody from anywhere in the country or world can participate.
- Mr Pokhriyal stated, Drug Discovery Hackathon is first of its kind national initiative for supporting drug discovery process. He stated, to attract international talent, the hackathon will be open to participation from across the globe from professionals, faculty, researchers and students.
- Dr Harsh Vardhan emphasized the need to establish the culture of computational drug discovery in the country. In this initiative, HRD Innovation cell and AICTE will focus on identifying potential drug molecules through the Hackathon while CSIR will take these identified molecules forward for synthesis and laboratory testing.
- He stated, the objective of this Hackathon is to identify drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 by in-silico drug discovery through the hackathon and follow up by chemical synthesis and biological testing.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
World Bank approves US $500 mn budgetary support for Pak to tackle Covid-19
- The World Bank (WB) has approved US $500 million in budgetary support for Pakistan to address the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The money will help Pakistan strengthen fiscal management, promote transparency and private sector growth, and undertake foundational reforms in the energy sector to transition to low-carbon energy.
- The money support for Pakistan has been approved under the “Resilient Institutions for Sustainable Economy”
- The project will be financed by a US $250 million credit from the International Development Association and a US $250 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
About World Bank
- Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
- President: David Malpass
ICICI Bank launches instant loan facility against mutual funds
- ICICI Bank has launched a facility that enables retail customers to get loan of up to 1 crore instantaneously by pledging their holdings in both debt and equity mutual funds.
- The fully digital and paperless facility empowers the customers to avail this loan as an overdraft (OD) in a matter of few minutes, without visiting a branch and submitting physical documents.
- ICICI Bank has launched ‘Insta Loans against Mutual Funds’ in partnership with ‘Computer Age Management Services’ (CAMS). ‘Insta Loans against Mutual Funds’ is an extension of the Insta LAS, an instant loan facility against equity.
Salient features of ‘Insta Loans against Mutual Funds’
- Instant access to funds:The customers get access to instant liquidity by leveraging their existing mutual fund portfolio, without selling them.
- Flexibility of mutual funds:The loan can be availed against a wide range of debt and equity schemes of mutual funds serviced by CAMS and approved by the Bank
- Wide range of loan amount:Minimum loan amount is Rs. 50,000 for both debt and equity schemes of MFs. Maximum loan amount is Rs. 1 crore for debt schemes of MFs and Rs. 20 lakh for equity schemes of MFs
- Competitive margin:Minimum 20% for debt and 50% for equity MFs
- Advantage of OD; No fixed EMI:Since the loan is available as an OD, the customers do not have to pay fixed EMI. They only need to pay interest on the limit utilised and for the number of the days it was utilised
- No foreclosure charges:The customers have the flexibility to repay the principal as and when they choose to, without any foreclosure charges
About ICICI bank
- Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Managing Director(MD) & Chief Executive Officer(CEO): Sandeep Bakhshi
Kotak Mahindra Bank, Innoviti tie up to offer EMIs
- Kotak Mahindra Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions announced that they have collaborated to offer equated monthly instalments (EMI) billing options on Kotak debit cards swiped on Innoviti POS terminals.
- The facility will allow over 1 crore Kotak customers to pay for their purchases in instalments by using the EMIs on debit cards facility at over 70,000 Innoviti POS terminals across more than 1,000 cities.
- Importantly, with over half of Innoviti’s POS terminals installed in 350 smaller cities and towns in India with a population of less than 20 lakh, this arrangement will help consumers particularly in tier 2 and 3 cities access credit conveniently through their Kotak debit cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank stated.
About Kotak Mahindra Bank:
- CEO: Uday Kotak
- Headquarters: Mumbai
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Carlyle Group to acquire 25% stake in Airtel’s data centre biz for $235 mn
- US-based Carlyle Group will invest $235 million (approximately Rs 1770 crore) for approximately 25 per cent stake in Nxtra Data Ltd, an arm of Bharti Airtel engaged in the data centre business.
- The transaction is subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, including approval from the Competition Commission of India.
- US-based Carlyle has prior experience in data centre ownership through investments in Coresite in the US and Itconic in Spain.
- Nxtra, which is building multiple large data centres across India, will use the proceeds from the deal to scale up its infrastructure.
- Carlyle invested $700 million during the first half of 2020, excluding $235 million for 25 per cent stake in Airtel’s data which was announced today. In 2019, the company invested $698 million over three deals which rose to $700 million during the first half of 2020.
- Besides Airtel data center investment, the other top investments by Carlyle in India includes $200 million in Financial Services firm Destimoney (in February 2015), $260 million in payment services firm SBI Cards & Payment Services (in December 2017), $653 million SBI Life Insurance (March 2019) among others.
Fitch slashes India’s growth projection from 9.5% to 8% for FY22
- Fitch Ratings cut India’s growth forecast for 2021-22 fiscal to 8 per cent from 9.5 per cent projected last month. It retained its projection of Indian economy contracting by 5 per cent in the current fiscal.
- Indian economic growth stood at an estimated 4.2 per cent in 2019-20. In its June update of Global Economic Outlook, Fitch projected Indian economy to grow 5.5 per cent in 2022-23.
- In India, where authorities imposed one of the most stringent lockdowns globally to try to halt the spread of the virus, measures are being relaxed only very gradually; with a limited policy easing response and ongoing financial sector fragilities, we have pared our 2021 forecast to 8 per cent from 9.5 per cent in the previous GEO, Fitch stated.
- In May update to the outlook, Fitch had predicted 9.5 per cent growth in 2021-22.
- S&P has forecast a 5 per cent contraction in the fiscal year starting April, and the growth to recover to 8.5 per cent next fiscal.
- Moody’s expects India’s real GDP to contract by 4 per cent in fiscal 2020 due to the shock from the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdown measures, followed by 8.7 per cent growth in fiscal 2021 and closer to 6 per cent thereafter.
About Fitch Ratings:
- Headquarters: New York, United States
- CEO: Paul Taylor
