Daily Current Affairs June 28 2023 | Latest News

 

CURRENT AFFAIRS : BANKING & FINANCE

Indian Overseas Bank signed an MOU with the Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission

• Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), a leading financial institution, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission (TNSRLM).

Objective :

• To foster the growth of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the state and provide them with vital financial support.

About the MoU :

• As part of the MoU, TNSRLM will facilitate credit linkage of eligible SHGs with the Indian Overseas Bank.
• The collaboration is expected to catalyze the growth of SHGs targeting 1875 Crores and increase the disbursal under DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission) during the current Financial Year, effectively doubling the impact of financial assistance.
• This strategic collaboration aims to streamline access to financial resources for SHGs, enabling them to undertake entrepreneurial activities, expand their ventures, and contribute to the economic development of the state

About IOB :

• Established : 10 February 1937
• Headquarters : Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
• MD & CEO : Ajay Kumar Srivastava
• Tagline : Good people to grow with

About TNCDW :

• Established : 1983
• It was established by the Government of Tamil Nadu with the objective of social and economic empowerment of women through education, employment, economic development and self-reliance.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL NEWS

PM Narendra Modi flags off five Vande Bharat trains from Rani Kamalapati Railway Station in Bhopal

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off five new Vande Bharat trains of the country from Rani Kamalapati Railway Station in Bhopal.
• The Prime Minister first virtually launched Ranchi-Patna, Dharwad-KSR Bengaluru and Goa (Madgaon)-Mumbai and then also flagged off two Vande Bharat trains of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal-Indore and Bhopal-Jabalpur.
• Both these trains left simultaneously from Rani Kamalapati Railway Station.
• The Prime Minister said that these trains will improve connectivity in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Bihar and Jharkhand.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the students after reaching Rani Kamlapati station.
• The students presented paintings and sketches to the Prime Minister.
• Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Rani Kamlapati station by road from Bhopal airport.

Shri Parshottam Rupala to launch the ‘Report Fish Disease’ App developed by ICAR- NBFGR:

• Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala will launch the Report Fish Disease(RFD) App at Krishi Bhawan in the presence of Dr L. Murugan, Minister of State, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and senior Officers from DARE, ICAR and NSPADD.
• The app has been developed by ICAR-NBFGR under the National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD), funded under Pradhan Mantri MatsyaSampadaYojana by the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India.

Benefits:

• The RFD app will help the farmers in reporting the incidence of diseases in finfish, shrimps, and molluscs on their farms with the field-level officers and fish health experts.
• This shall help farmers in getting scientific advice for the efficient management of a disease.
• The data regarding the diseases will be stored on temporal & spatial scales and can be used for mapping the disease cases.
• The App would support farmers in improving farmer-based reporting, getting scientific advice, and reducing losses due to diseases, thereby increasing farmers’ income.
• Also, Fish Disease Reporting App shall have a massive impact on fish disease management, promoting early detection, rapid response, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
• It will contribute to the sustainability and resilience of aquaculture systems by minimizing the negative impacts of fish diseases on fish populations, industry, and ecosystems.

8th edition of the World’s Largest Urban Cleanliness Survey Begins

• 8th edition of the world’s largest urban swachhata survey, Swachh Survekshan 2023 – Mera Shehar, Meri Pehchan.
• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the Field Assessment for Swachh Survekshan (SS) 2023.
• Under SS 2023, around 3,000 assessors will take the field for assessment from 1 July, 2023.
• The assessors will study the performances of 4500+ cities across 46 indicators and it is expected to be completed within a month.
• Swachh Survekshan 2023 champions Waste to Wealth and is curated towards processing and scientific management of waste.
• Originally designed as a competitive monitoring tool, Swachh Survekshan was introduced under the aegis of MoHUA in 2016, with the objective to sanitation, helping cities to achieve the goal of sustainable sanitation and waste management in a fast-track competitive manner.
• Swachh Survekshan has enthused cities with a healthy spirit of competitiveness to improve urban sanitation and ensure the best service delivery to their citizens.
• It is expected to engage with a whopping 10 Cr citizens during this year’s assessment making it indisputably the world’s largest annual urban cleanliness survey.
• A new third quarter for Swachh Survekshan 2023 was introduced this year and the States/ cities geared up for the survey enhancing their activities and level of preparedness.
• Avoiding the acute heat wave conditions across the nation in the last two months, the fourth quarter is now being launched from 1 July, 2023.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India, Egypt elevate ties to ‘Strategic Partnership’ during Modi’s Visit

• India and Egypt elevated their relationship to a ‘Strategic Partnership’ as Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi held wide-ranging talks with a particular focus on enhancing political and security cooperation.
• Modi, who is visiting Egypt at the invitation of President Sisi, held one-on-one conversation with El-Sisi during which they also took stock of what is happening on important issues of the region and the world.
• This was the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Egypt in 26 years.

Key Highlights :

• Modi and El-Sisi inked the strategic partnership document after their wide-ranging talks encompassing further enhancing political and security cooperation, defence collaboration, trade and investment ties, scientific and academic exchanges and strengthening people-to-people contacts.
• Besides the agreement on strategic partnership, the two countries also signed three more pacts on agriculture and allied sectors; protection and preservation of monuments and archaeological sites; and competition law.
• El-Sisi also conferred the ‘Order of the Nile’ honour on Modi, the 13th highest state honour to be awarded to the Prime Minister.
• They also discussed further cooperation in G-20, highlighting the issues of food and energy insecurity, climate change and the need for the Global South to have a concerted voice.

About Egypt :

• President : Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
• Prime Minister : Moustafa Madbouly
• Capital : Cairo
• Currency : Egyptian pound

CURRENT AFFAIRS : STATE NEWS

India’s largest private rail coach factory inaugurated in Telangana’s Kondakal village

• India’s largest private rail coach factory was inaugurated in Kondakal village, Telangana.
• Chief Minister Shri K. Chandrasekhar Rao formally inaugurated the facility built by Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, a Telangana company that designs and manufactures complex electrical and electronic Railway products in a joint venture with Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail.

Key Highlights :

• The first phase of the factory has been set up in about 100 acres with an investment of over Rs 805 crore.
• It has an annual production capacity of 500 coaches and 50 locomotives.
• The plant has reportedly provided employment to over 550 people so far and 1,000 more will be added soon.
• Medha Servo Drives is the largest propulsion equipment supplier to the Indian Railways.
• The Medha Servo Drives designs and manufactures electrical and electronic railway products.
• It is also the only Indian firm with in-house research and development (R&D) facilities.
• In 2017, the Medha Group signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) to establish a private rail coach factory, and its foundation stone was laid in 2020.

About Telangana :

• Governor : Tamilisai Soundararajan
• Chief Minister : K. Chandrashekar Rao
• Capital : Hyderabad
• National Park : Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park, Mahaveer Harina Vanasthali National Park
• Wildlife Sanctuary : Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, Lanja Madugu Siwaram Wildlife Sanctuary

Kerala to launch mobile app to promote women-friendly tourism

• Kerala Tourism will soon come out with a mobile app to strengthen the country’s first ‘women-friendly tourism’ initiative launched by the State Government to turn the State’s tourism sector gender inclusive.
• State Responsible Tourism Mission (RT Mission), the nodal agency for implementing the ‘women-friendly tourism’ project, has been asked to prepare the content of the app.
• Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas rolled out the initiative in October,2022 in tune with the UN Women’s ‘Gender Inclusive Tourism’ concept.

Project implementation :

• Aiming at participation of5 lakh women from the State, the project is being implemented with the support of various organisations, including UN Women.
• It has set a target of creating 10,000 women ventures and 30,000 jobs in the tourism sector.
• The mobile app marks the commencement of the second phase activities of the pioneering project.
• Apart from providing information about tourism centres in Kerala, the app will have all the details of women-friendly tourism products and packages, resorts, hotels, women enterprises, recognised tour operators, women tour operators, travel agencies, homestays and women tour guides.
• RT Mission has started a massive information-gathering exercise for inclusion in the app, besides studying the safety of women in tourism centres.
• Elected women representatives will undergo training in July, 2023.

About Kerala :

• Governor : Arif Mohammad Khan
• Chief Minister : Pinarayi Vijayan
• Capital : Thiruvananthapuram
• National Park : Eravikulam National Park, Silent Valley National Park
• Wildlife Sanctuary : Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

Telangana tops all States in per capita income at ₹3.08 lakh

• Telangana’s per capita income is highest in the country (among all States) at ₹3.08 lakhs against national average of ₹1.72 lakh.
• According to a report released by the State government on the economic development of Telangana during the last decade, the per capita income in the State was 1.8 times higher than the national average at the current prices.
• In 2014-15, the year of formation of Telangana, the State was in the 11th position in terms of the per capita income.
• The average growth rate in per capita income in Telangana from 2014 till now was pegged at 12.1%, which is highest among southern states.
• Within the State, Ranga Reddy district had the highest per capita income of ₹7.58 lakh while Vikarabad was at the bottom with ₹1.54 lakh.
• The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) increased from ₹5.05-lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹12.93-lakh crore in 2022-23.
• The State accounts for 5% of national GDP.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS NEWS

India’s MSME sector contributes 30% to GDP and nearly 50 % to exports

• The country’s MSME sector contributes 30 percent to the GDP and nearly 50 percent to exports.
• On the occasion of International MSME Day, the Minister was speaking at Udyami Bharat-MSME Day in New Delhi.
• Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Minister Narayan Rane has said that efforts should be made to make India the third largest economy in the world by giving a boost to the MSME sector.
• The Minister also launched various initiatives for the growth and development of MSMEs on the occasion.
• These include the CHAMPIONS 2.0 Portal, MSME Idea Hackathon 3.0 for Women Entrepreneurs, and a Mobile App for Geo-tagging of Cluster Projects and Technology Centers.
• Various MoUs were signed between the Ministry of MSME, GeM, Tripura Government, and SIDBI.
• CHAMPION portal is a platform for speedy, convenient, and effective redressal of MSMEs’ grievances.
• It also provides guidance and advisory services in the areas of Finance, Marketing, Technology, Raw Material, Labour, Infrastructure, and Capacity Building.

India’s current account deficit narrowed to 1.3 billion US Dollars or 0.2 % of GDP in the January-March quarter of FY22-23

• India’s current account deficit narrowed to 1.3 billion US Dollars or 0.2 percent of GDP in the January-March quarter of FY22-23.
• According to a press statement relea sed by the Reserve Bank of India, the sequential decline in CAD in Q4 was mainly on account of a moderation in the trade deficit to 52.6 billion US Dollars in Q4 from 71.3 billion US Dollars in Q3, coupled with robust services exports.
• Current Account Deficit is a key indicator of the balance of payment of a country.
• The Net services receipts increased, both sequentially and on a year-on-year basis, on the back of a rise in net earnings from computer services.
• Private transfer receipts, mainly representing remittances by Indians employed overseas, increased to 28.6 billion US Dollars, up by 20.8 per cent from their level a year ago.
• The Net Foreign Direct Investment at 6.4 billion US Dollars in this quarter, was higher than 2.0 billion US Dollars in Q3:2022-23.
• The Net foreign portfolio investment recorded an outflow of 1.7 billion US Dollars-driven by the equity segment, as compared with an outflow of 15.2 billion US Dollars during the corresponding period a year ago.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOUS AND AGREEMENT

Directorate General of Resettlement inks MoU with the private sector to generate employment for Ex-servicemen

• Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) under the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IBM to engage ex-servicemen and to facilitate their seamless integration into the civilian workforce.
• Through this MoU, DGR will collaborate with IBM to tap into the rich talent pool of ex-servicemen for relevant job opportunities that may continue to arise at the company and its affiliates.
• As part of this association, IBM aims to bridge the gap between military service and civilian employment, by providing veterans with exciting opportunities for professional growth and personal development.
• DGR and IBM will collaborate, on a continuous basis, to identify ex-servicemen with skillsets and aptitudes suitable for various open positions within the company.
• After the assessment & shortlisting of candidates, IBM will leverage its resources and expertise to facilitate the recruitment, training, and upskilling of ex-servicemen for those roles.
• Their partnership with IBM India would bring in more visibility for our Ex-servicemen to the industry and corporates and help in achieving the objectives of providing skilled manpower and giving a dignified second career to our Ex-servicemen.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

DBS Bank India appoints Rajat Verma as managing director & head of institutional banking

• DBS Bank India has appointed Rajat Verma as managing director and head of institutional banking in India.
• He will succeed Niraj Mittal, who will be taking up a new role as country head of DBS Bank in Australia.
• Mittal will focus on growing the DBS franchise there, including improving linkages with South-East Asia and South Asia.

About Rajat Verma :

• With 26 years of banking experience, Rajat has demonstrated an outstanding record of steering business growth and delivering results.
• Prior to this new appointment, Rajat was with HSBC Bank where he was the managing director and country head of commercial banking, India.

About DBS Bank :

• Founded : 16 July 1968
• Headquarters : Singapore
• CEO : Piyush Gupta
• DBS, is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation.
• It is one of the “Big Three” banks in Singapore, along with OCBC Bank and the United Overseas Bank (UOB).

Conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis wins second term as Greek PM

• Greece’s conservative New Democracy (ND) party chief Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the national election & secured a second four-year term as Prime Minister (PM) of Greece.
• He served as the PM of Greece for the first term from July 2019 to May 2023.
• Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party received over 40% of the vote, securing at least 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament with around 96% of the votes counted.
• The main leftist opposition party, Syriza, was far behind in the early results, receiving over 17% of the vote.

About Kyriakos Mitsotakis :

• Kyriakos Mitsotakis was born on 4 March 1968 in Athens, Greece
• He has been serving as the president of the New Democracy party since 2016.
• In 2015, he served as a parliamentary representative for New Democracy, representing the President of the party in Parliament, as well as the body of the party’s Representatives.
• Previously, he was Leader of the Opposition from 2016 to 2019, and Minister of Administrative Reform from 2013 to 2015.

About Greece :

• President : Katerina Sakellaropoulou
• Prime Minister : Kyriakos Mitsotakis
• Capital : Athens
• Currency : Euro

Airtel Business CEO Ajaya Chitkara quits

• The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti Airtel’s enterprise arm Airtel Business, Ajay Chitkara, has resigned from the company.
• He will continue with the company until the third week of August 2023.
• Following the resignation, Bharti Airtel has restructured leadership in the enterprise arm by dividing it into 3 segments.
• Airtel Business will now operate as 3 businesses and channel segments – Global business, led by Vani Venkatesh, Domestic business, led by Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, and Nxtra Data Centers, led by Ashish Arora.
• Airtel Business is a provider of ICT services with offerings to enterprises, governments, carriers, MNO’s and small and medium businesses.

About Ajay Chitkara :

• Chitkara is an Airtel veteran, who has been associated with the company for 23 years, he joined Airtel in 2001 as sales manager.
• Before he was appointed the CEO of Airtel Business, he was the Director and CEO of Global Business and Nxtra.
• He was responsible for creating business strategies for carriers, global enterprise and OTT segments, and implementing them.
• He is also a board member at Nxtra.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : DEFENCE NEWS

IAF carried out Exercise Ranvijay with focus on integrated operations

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out Exercise ‘Ranvijay’ with a focus on integration.
• The Exercise Ranvijay was conducted in UB Hills and Central Air Command (CAC) Area of Responsibility (AOR) from June 16-23, 2023.
• It was conducted from different air bases of the command headquarters of IAF in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh (UP).
• The IAF conducted day and night operations with its various combat fleet including the Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft, a twin-engine multirole fighter aircraft developed by Russia’s Sukhoi and built under license by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
• Different commands within the IAF, along with the Army and Navy, have been conducting wargames to enhance coordination and strengthen integration among the forces.

About Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft :

• The Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft is a heavy, all-weather long-range fighter.
• It is the most advanced fighter of the IAF after the French-made Rafale jets.
• The first fighter joined the fleet of the IAF in 2002, while the first aircraft assembled in India entered service with IAF in 2004.

About IAF :

• Headquarters : New Delhi, Delhi
• Chief of Defence Staff : General Anil Chauhan
• Chief of the Air Staff : Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS NEWS

Table Tennis, Indian women’s doubles pair of Sutirtha and Ayhika clinches WTT Contender tournament title in Tunis

• The Indian women’s doubles pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee won the World Table Tennis, (WTT) Contender tournament in Tunis, after beating the Japanese pair of Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto.
• The Indian duo won 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 5-11, 13-11) in a challenging final.
• The pair also became the first Indians to win a Contender title this year.
• The Indian pair had advanced to the final after beating Korean duo of Shin Yubin and Jeon Jihi 3-2 (7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9) in a hard-fought last-four clash.
• Meanwhile, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Manika Batra and G Sathiyan as well as the men’s doubles duo of Manav Vikash Thakkar and Manush Utpalbhai Shah had lost their respective semifinal matches.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : OBITUARIES

BJP Rajya Sabha MP & former Uttar Pradesh minister Hardwar Dubey Passed away

• The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Uttar Pradesh (UP) Hardwar Dubey passed away at the age of 74 in New Delhi, Delhi.

About Hardwar Dubey :

• Hardwar Dubey was born on 1 July 1949, Husainabad, Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India.
• He was elected twice as BJP MLA from Agra Cantonment.
• In 1989, he contested and won the Agra Cantonment seat.
• He again won the 1991 elections and was made the minister of state for Finance in the Kalyan Singh ministry.
• In 2020, he was elected Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh.
• He had also worked as vice-president in the BJP state organisational unit.

Daily CA One- Liner: June 28

• Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), a leading financial institution, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission (TNSRLM).
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off five new Vande Bharat trains of the country from Rani Kamalapati Railway Station in Bhopal
• The Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala will launch the Report Fish Disease(RFD) App at Krishi Bhawan in the presence of Dr L. Murugan, Minister of State, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and senior Officers from DARE, ICAR and NSPADD
• The 8th edition of world’s largest urban swachhata survey, Swachh Survekshan 2023 – Mera Shehar, Meri Pehchan
• The country’s MSME sector contributes 30 percent to the GDP and nearly 50 percent to exports.
• India’s current account deficit narrowed to 1.3 billion US Dollars or 0.2 percent of GDP in the January-March quarter of FY22-23
• Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) under the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IBM to engage ex-servicemen and to facilitate their seamless integration into the civilian workforce
• The Indian women’s doubles pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee won the World Table Tennis, (WTT) Contender tournament in Tunis, after beating the Japanese pair of Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto
• India and Egypt elevated their relationship to a ‘Strategic Partnership’ as Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi held wide-ranging talks with a particular focus on enhancing political and security cooperation.
• India’s largest private rail coach factory was inaugurated in Kondakal village, Telangana.
• Kerala Tourism will soon come out with a mobile app to strengthen the country’s first ‘women-friendly tourism’ initiative launched by the State Government to turn the State’s tourism sector gender inclusive.
• Telangana’s per capita income is highest in the country (among all States) at ₹3.08 lakh against national average of ₹1.72 lakh.
• DBS Bank India has appointed Rajat Verma as managing director and head of institutional banking in India & he will succeed Niraj Mittal, who will be taking up a new role as country head of DBS Bank in Australia.
• Greece’s conservative New Democracy (ND) party chief Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the national election & secured a second four-year term as Prime Minister (PM) of Greece.
• The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti Airtel’s enterprise arm Airtel Business, Ajay Chitkara, has resigned from the company.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out Exercise ‘Ranvijay’ with a focus on integration, was conducted in UB Hills and Central Air Command (CAC) Area of Responsibility (AOR) from June 16-23, 2023.
• The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Uttar Pradesh (UP) Hardwar Dubey passed away at the age of 74 in New Delhi, Delhi.