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CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
India-Monaco Business forum held in New Delhi
- Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, addressed the India-Monaco Business Forum in New Delhi
- Bilateral trade between India and Monaco in 2017-18 was USD 3.01 million, and there is immense potential to scale up the bilateral trade between the two nations
- Monaco is ranked 106th among foreign direct investor in India (from April 2000 to June 2018) with USD 2.51 million FDI equity inflow
| USEFUL INFO |
| Monaco Capital | Monte Carlo |
| Monaco Currency | Euro |
| Monaco Prince | Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi |
India’s steel production increased by over 14 million tonnes in 3 years
- The total steel production in the country has increased from 88.98 MT in 2014-15 to 103.13 MT in 2017-18
- The Government has notified the National Steel Policy, 2017 and the Policy for Providing Preference to Domestically Manufactured Iron and Steel (DMI&SP) in Government procurement
- According to World Steel Association (worldsteel) India has jumped ahead of Japan to become world’s second largest steel producing country in the world
- Crude steel production of India in 2018 stood at 106.5 MT, an increase of 4.9 percent from 101.5 MT in 2017
| USEFUL INFO |
| Minister of Steel | Birender Singh |
| Constituency | Haryana, Rajya Sabha |
| Minister of State for Steel and Mines | Vishnudeo Sai |
NBHC released kharif crop estimates for the year 2018-19
- National Bulk Handling Corporation (NBHC) has released kharif crop estimation for the year 2018-19 which shows that basmati rice production is expected to decline by 9.24% to 5.18 million metric tonne.
- The pulses production is projected to drop marginally to 9.10 million tonne from 9.35 million tonne last year.
- Total oilseeds production is estimated to be 19.87 million metric tonne which is 5.36 % lower than last year’s of 21 million metric tonne.
| USEFUL INFO |
| National Bulk Handling Corporation Headquarters | Mumbai |
| National Bulk Handling Corporation CEO | Ramesh Doraiswami |
CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATE
Kerala State sets up Price Monitoring and Research Unit
- Kerala has become the first State to set up a price monitoring and research unit (PMRU) to track violation of prices of essential drugs and medical devices under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO).
- The move comes more than five years after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) proposed such a system for the States and the Union Territories.
| USEFUL INFO |
| National Pharmaceutical Pricing AuthorityHeadquarters | New Delhi |
| National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority Chairman | Bhupendra Singh |
| Kerala Capital | Thiruvananthapuram |
| Kerala Chief Minister | PinarayiVijayan |
| Kerala Governor | P. Sadasivam |
“Sopan 2019” The Festival of Young Musicians and Dancers held in New Delhi
- Music and dance festival ‘Sopan 2019’ has started, to encourage young and upcoming artistes to take up traditional art, in New Delhi.
- It is organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad and the Delhi government in association with New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC)
- These six day long festival is an opportunity for upcoming talents from vocals and instruments to dance forms to set an audience base for themselves
Haryana government approved new MSME, Pharma policies to boost development
- The Haryana government approved new policies for MSME and pharmaceutical sectors with a view to boosting the industrial growth and attracting investment in the state
- Haryana Pharmaceutical Policy 2019
- Aiming to attract investment in the pharmaceutical sector to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore and to generate 25,000 new jobs, and establish a state-of-the-art Pharma Park at Karnal and to develop Haryana into a hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing.
- Haryana Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Policy 2019
- It enables access to finance to MSMEs, promote entrepreneurship through start up and incubation support, support for revival of sick enterprises and enhance competitiveness through ease of doing business
| USEFUL INFO |
| Haryana Capital | Chandigarh |
| Haryana Chief Minister | Manohar lal Kathar |
| Haryana Governor | Satyadev Narayan Arya |
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
Asian Development Bankbuys 14% stake in Annapurna Finance
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has bought a 14% stake in micro-financier Annapurna Finance for 137 crore, reinforcing the belief that India’s microfinance sector is on course to attracting long-term funds from global lenders and investors.
- The expansion of equity will help the firm expand its loan portfolio in asset classes such as MSME and affordable housing
- ADB has backed MFIs to help achieve its broader objective of reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific
- The investment by ADB will expand Annapurna’s net worth to Rs 580 crore.
- This was Annapurna second equity expansion in as many years, following OIJIF’s Rs 155-crore investment in June last year. OIJIF is backed by State Bank of India and State General Reserve Fund of Oman.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Asian Development Bank Headquarters | Mandaluyong, Philippines |
| Asian Development Bank President | Takehiko Nakao |
Two RRBs to be merged to form Tamil Nadu Grama Bank
- The Ministry of Finance has announced the amalgamation of two regional rural banks in Tamilnadu- Pallavan GramaBank, sponsored by Indian Bank and Pandyan Grama Bank, sponsored by Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) into a single regional rural bank in the state and name the new entity as Tamil Nadu Grama Bank
- The amalgamated regional rural bank Tamil Nadu Grama Bank will be under the sponsorship of Indian Bank, with its head office at Salem. The amalgamation would be effective from 1 April.
Fitch Group arm projects fiscal deficit to slip to 3.6% in 2019-20
- Fitch Solutions, the research arm of Fitch Group, projected the government’s fiscal deficit to overshoot the budgeted target by 0.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 fiscal.
- Fitch Solutions revised its forecast for the central government fiscal deficit to come in at 3.6 per cent of GDP in FY 2019-20, from 3 per cent previously
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS
Swiggyacqui-hires Bengaluru-based AI startup Kint.io
- Online food ordering and delivery firm Swiggy announced it has acqui-hired Bengaluru-based AI startupKint.ioan artificial intelligence (AI) startup, for an undisclosed sum.
- Acqui-hiring refers to buying out a company or an entity primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff, rather than for its products or services
- The team at Kint.io will join the company to boost its computer vision technology and superior consumer experience
- The founding members of Kint.io, Pavithra SolaiJawahar, and JagannathanVeeraraghavan, will join the Swiggy team
CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOU
Ministry of Coal signs an MoU with Ministry of Energy, Republic of Poland
- Ministry of Coal entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Energy, Republic of Poland.
- The MoU has been signed between Sh. Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, Hon’ble Minister of State for Coal and Mines and Mr. Grzegorz Tobiszowski, Secretary of State, Ministry of Energy, Republic of Poland
- The objective of this MoU is to foster relations in the field of coal mining and clean coal technologies through the already established Joint Coal Working Group as well as research institutes and academia between the two countries.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Poland Capital | Warsaw |
| Poland Currency | Polish złoty |
| Poland President | AndrzejDuda |
CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOBILE APP AND PORTAL
National Testing Agency (NTA) launched mobile application for mock tests
- The National Testing Agency (NTA) has launched a mobile application through which students can practice or take mock tests on their smartphones
- The candidates who are appearing for JEE Main, NEET or NTA NET exams will be able to practice for these competitive exams using an official app.
- National Testing Agency, the newly formed organisation which conducts Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) main for undergraduate engineering admissions and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions
- The NTA recently conducted two competitive examinations under its supervision, the first edition of JEE Main 2019 in January and National Eligibility Test (NET) in December last year.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS
India’s Ramit Tandon wins Seattle Open
- Indian squash player Ramit Tandon defeated Egyptian Mohamed El Sherbini in the finals to win the Seattle Open, a Professional Squash Association challenger squash Tour event
- The Indian won 11-4, 11-7, 2-11, 11-2 for his first PSA title in 2019 and fourth title overall in his career.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARIES
Veteran Marathi actor Ramesh Bhatkar passed away
- Veteran Marathi actor Ramesh Bhatkar passed away
- Bhatkar was known for his roles in the TV series “Commander” and “Hello Inspector”
- He has worked for more than three decades in the Marathi and Hindi industry. He was much appreciated for his role in Ashroonchi Zaali Phule (1975) which ran in the Marathi theatre industry for about 28 years.