CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
Hiroshima Day
- Hiroshima Day is observed annually on 6 August. Hiroshima Day 2020 marks the 75th year of walking the path of the atomic bomb.
- Hiroshima Day commemorates the remembrance of the bombing attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II in 1945.
- This day aims to raise awareness about the threat of nuclear weapons and the dangers of nuclear energy.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
India contributes over $15 million to India-UN Development Partnership Fund
- India has contributed $15.46 million to the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, underscoring the country’s commitment to supporting developing nations in their developmental priorities across all the Sustainable Development Goals.
- India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti handed over a cheque of $15.46 million to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) Director Jorge Chediek at a low-key ceremony held within social distancing guidelines at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN.
- The tranche of $15.46 million includes $6 million to the overall fund, in which all the developing countries are eligible for partnership, and $9.46 million dedicated to the Commonwealth countries.
- The India-UN Development Partnership Fund is managed by the UNOSSC and implemented under the leadership of partner developing countries leveraging the strengths of United Nations Agencies, Funds and Programmes.
The Indian government has renewed its commitment to supporting fellow developing countries in their national developmental priorities across all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
About UNOSSC
- Director: Jorge Chediek
- Headquarter– New York, United States (US)
NIDM in collaboration with IMD organises webinar series on “Hydro-Meteorological Hazards Risk Reduction”
- National Institute of Disaster Management in collaboration with India Meteorological Department organised a webinar series on “Hydro-Meteorological Hazards Risk Reduction”. The webinar series include four webinars focusing on Thunderstorms and Lightning, Cloudburst and Floods, Cyclones and Storm Surges and Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events.
- The webinar series exhorted on enhancing human capacity in terms of better understanding of Hydro-Meteorological Hazards Risk and effective collaborative actions.
- Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai inaugurated the first webinar on “Thunderstorms and Lightning”. He highlighted the major interventions carried out by the Government departments and agencies for reducing the adverse risks of Hydro-Meteorological disasters.
- He also emphasised on focusing on collaborative short and long term mitigation and reduction measures to diminish the adverse impacts of these disasters.
About National Institute of Disaster Management:
- Executive Director: Major General Manoj Kumar Bindal
- Location: New Delhi
About India Meteorological Department:
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Agency executive: Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology
CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL
India extends Line of Credit worth 18 million US dollars to Maldives for expansion of fishing facilities at MIFCO
- India has extended Line of Credit worth 18 million US dollars to the Government of Maldives for the expansion of fishing facilities at Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO).
- The project envisages investment in fish collection and storage facilities and the setting up of a tuna cooked plant and fishmeal plant. It is part of the 800 million US dollars line of credit offered by India with repayment tenor of 20 years and a 5-year moratorium.
- This project will benefit the Maldives in accessing new markets, increasing fish collection and storage capacity, along with creating greater value addition and additional sources of income.
About Maldives:
- Capital: Malé
- Currency: Maldivian rufiyaa
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
Reserve Bank of India keeps repo rate unchanged at 4 percent
- RBI governor Shaktikanta Das stated that the apex bank’s monetary policy committee has decided to unanimously leave the policy repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent. He added that RBI will continue with the accommodative stance of monetary policy as long as necessary to revive growth, mitigate the impact of COVID-19, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward.
- He stated, the reverse repo rate stands unchanged at 35 per cent. He stated the MPC’s assessment is that the global economic activity has remained fragile and in retrenchment in the first half of 2020.
- The RBI Governor stated the headline CPI inflation, which was at 5.8 per cent in March 2020, was placed at 1 per cent in the provisional estimates for June 2020.
- He stated given the uncertainty surrounding the inflation outlook and extremely weak state of the economy in the midst of an unprecedented shock from the ongoing pandemic, the MPC decided to keep the policy rate on hold, while remaining watchful for a durable reduction in inflation to use available space to support the revival of the economy.
About RBI:
- Governor: Shaktikanta Das
- Headquarters: Mumbai
BOB Financial Solutions Limited partners Fiserv Technology for Digital Transformation
- BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda, has selected Fiserv, Inc., to enable the digitization of their end-to-end card issuance and processing cycle and support the unveiling of several new and high-tech products namely contactless credit cards, tokenisation and integration with branded wallets, and virtual credit cards.
- BFSL is one of India’s earliest issuers of credit cards in India and has been delivering card products and services to its customers. To speed-up their digital strategy and keep pace with rapidly changing consumer expectations, BFSL will be deploying FirstVisionTM from Fiserv, an end-to-end managed services solution that enables card issuing and processing with global economies of scale and integrated capabilities that span the card lifecycle.
