CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
National Handloom Day
- The National Handloom Day is observed annually on 7th of August to honour the handloom weavers in the country and also highlight the handloom industry.
- The Union government had declared 7 the August as the National Handloom Day in July 2015 with the objective to generate awareness about the importance of handloom industry.
- August 7 was chosen as the National Handloom Day to commemorate the Swadeshi Movement which was launched on this day in 1905 in the Calcutta Town hall to protest against partition of Bengal by the British Government. The movement had aimed at reviving domestic products and production processes.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Indian Railways to run first Kisan Rail special service between Maharashtra-Bihar
- Indian Railways is all set to run its first timetabled “Kisan Rail” special parcel service.
- Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry is introducing the first Kisan Rail service from Devlali in the state of Maharashtra to Danapur in the state of Bihar.
- The Kisan Rail, which comprises 10 parcel vans and one luggage cum brake van, will run on a weekly basis.
- The city of Nasik in Maharashtra and its surrounding region produces a huge quantity of fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, onions, other perishables, as well as other agro products.
- Mainly, these perishable items are transported to areas around Allahabad, Patna, Satna, Katni, etc. The Kisan Rail special parcel service has been provided scheduled halts at Nasik Road, Jalgaon, Manmad, Bhusaval, Burhanpur, Itarsi, Khandwa, Jabalpur, Satna, Katni, Prayagraj Chheoki, Manikpur, Buxar and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar.
About Ministry of Railways
- Minister of Railways and Minister of Commerce and Industry: Piyush Vedprakash Goyal
- Constituency: Maharashtra
Govt to launch National Clinical Registry for COVID-19
- The Government is set to launch a National Clinical Registry for COVID-19. The main objective of this registry is to collect real time clinical data which will help in evidence based clinical practice, research, formulation of guidelines and policy making.
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences have proposed to establish a COVID-19 clinical registry for data collection from 100 hospitals across the country. The duration of the study will be one year and any COVID-19 lab confirmed and hospitalized patient will be enrolled.
- ICMR invited a letter of intent from institutions, hospitals identified as dedicated COVID Hospitals and COVID Health Centres to establish this registry.
- This study is aimed at collecting data regarding clinical and laboratory features, treatments and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in India.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
South India Bank gets RBI nod for setting up non-financial subsidiary
- Private sector lender South Indian Bank (SIB) said the RBI has given an in-principle approval for setting up a wholly owned non-financial subsidiary.
- SIB, which has been struggling to come out of its large bad loans trap, seems to be preparing the ground to set up subsidiaries or associate companies in order to try its hand at other areas including retail financing, insurance, reinsurance etc.
- However, the bank has not given additional details on the new entity or what the activity of the new non-financial subsidiary will be except that it will be a wholly-owned subsidiary.
About SIB
- CEO: V. G. Mathew
- Headquarters: Thrissur
RBI permits banks to invest in debt instruments through mutual funds
- RBI has permitted banks to invest in debt instruments through mutual funds or exchange traded funds without allocating additional charges.
- As per RBI’s extant Basel III guidelines, if a bank holds a debt instrument directly, it would have to allocate lower capital as compared to holding the same debt instrument through a mutual fund- or exchange traded fund.
- While unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy review, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das stated it has been decided to harmonise the differential treatment existing currently.
- He stated, this will result in substantial capital savings for banks and is expected to give a boost to the corporate bond market.
- The RBI Governor stated the general market risk charge of 9 per cent will apply on both direct holdings, as well as through mutual funds or ETFs.
NPCI launches loyalty platform ‘nth Rewards’
- NPCI has launched a business intelligence and analytics enabled omni-channel multi-branded loyalty platform, nth Rewards. It will allow users to earn points through various bank transactions and redeem them on various products, such as e-vouchers, donations, hotel and flight bookings.
- NPCI has created a comprehensive platform for the banks, which will enable them to retain and grow their customer base. This integration with the banking system will be secured with PCI-DSS compliance and APIs, with an onboarding time of 4 to 6 weeks. The platform can then be integrated in any existing website or app which will reduce the market time without changing customer’s experience.
- It will consist of four platforms, starting with a loyalty engine that will allow consumers to earn points from various digital transactions, the analytics and business intelligence will provide access to the product portfolio, the offers and rewards platform will curate customer-specific offers and the campaign manager will enable communication with consumers through emails and messages.
About NPCI:
- Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Non-Exe Chairman: Biswamohan Mahapatra
- MD & CEO: Dilip Asbe
SBM Bank collaborates with InstaReM to enhance outbound remittance
- SBM Bank India has partnered with InstaReM to improve existing outbound remittance service offerings from India. The users of both SBM Bank and InstaReM will be able to remit money to more markets and send funds overseas in real-time.
- SBM Bank India has partnered with InstaReM, the consumer and SME brand under global fintech platform Nium, to improve existing outbound remittance service offerings from India, including introduction of new remittance corridors, increased frequency of transactions for outbound transactions and enhanced delivery timings for transfers.
- The lender will be utilising InstaReM’s payment rails to facilitate last mile outbound transfer deliveries for the users in India. Meanwhile, the customers will be able to remit money to over 100 corridors that InstaReM is present in, 65 of which are in real-time.
- SBM Bank will become the licensed banking partner for InstaReM and gain access to the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong and users of both SBM Bank and InstaReM will be able to remit money to more markets and send funds overseas in real-time.
About SBM Bank:
- Headquarters: Port Louis, Mauritius
- Chairman: Mr. Kee Chong LI KWONG WING
IBBI amends Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India, Liquidation Process, Third Amendment, Regulations, 2020
- The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, Liquidation Process, Third Amendment, Regulations, 2020.
- The Regulations require the committee of creditors to fix the fee payable to the liquidator. Where the fee has not been fixed by the committee of creditors, the Regulations provide for a fee as a percentage of the amount realised and of the amount distributed by the liquidator.
- There have been instances where a liquidator realises the amount while another liquidator distributes the same to stakeholders. The amendment made to the Regulations clarifies that where a liquidator realises any amount, but does not distribute the same, he shall be entitled to a fee corresponding to the amount realised by him. These are available at mca.gov.in and www.ibbi.gov.in.
About Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India:
- Chairperson: M. S. Sahoo,
- Founded: 1 October 2016
- Headquarters: New Delhi
CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES
Foundation stone laid for Indian Institute of Management in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh
- Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal along with Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur; Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre laid the foundation stone of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh
- The IIM Sirmaur was operationalised by IIM Lucknow as the mentor institution with the commencement of the first batch of PGP of 20 students, from its temporary campus at Paonta Sahib, Sirmaur and over a period of less than five years, it has a student strength of over 300.
- The Centre has sanctioned an amount of Rs 531.75 crore out of which Rs 392.51 crore is for construction works covering the area of 60,384 sq mtr in Phase-I which caters to 600 students.
About Himachal Pradesh
- Capitals: Shimla (Summer), Dharamshala (Winter)
- Chief minister: Jai Ram Thakur
- Governor: Bandaru Dattatreya
