Current Affairs Update 26 September 2018
Current Affairs is an important part for many exams. Be prepared for this section with ByScoop which brings all the important Current Affairs in one place. 26 September 2018
Important Cabinet Approvals: September 26
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the certain important MoUs and initiatives on September 26, 2018
Cabinet Approves 100% Government Ownership in Goods and Services Tax Network
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved increasing of Government ownership in Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) to 100 percent from the current 49 percent.
- The entire 51% equity held by the Non-Government Institutions in GSTN will be acquired equally by the Centre (50%) and the State Governments (50%).
- The Cabinet also decided to allow change in the existing composition of the GSTN board, which will have a total of 11 directors. These include
- Chairman – 1
- Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – 1
- Central Government nominated directors – 3
- State Government nominated directors – 3
- Independent directors nominated by the board of directors – 3
Finance Ministry Launches Mobile Application “Jan Dhan Darshak”
- The Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance and National Informatics Centre (NIC) has jointly developed a mobile app called Jan Dhan Darshak as a part of financial inclusion (FI) initiative .
- Jan Dhan Darshak app will act as a guide for the common people in locating a financial service touch point in the country such as banks, post office, ATMs, CSC, etc based on current location.
Cabinet approves National Digital Communications Policy-2018
- The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018) to achieve the objective of broadband for all by 2022.
- The cabinet has also approved to re-designate the Telecom Commission as the “Digital Communications Commission”.
- Important features of NDCP-2018
- Provide universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps to every citizen;
- Provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022;
- Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas;
- Attract investments of USD 100 billion in the Digital Communications Sector;
- Train one million manpower for building New Age Skill;
- Expand IoT ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices;
Venkaiah Naidu Inaugurates Smart City Expo India-2018 in Jaipur
- Vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the Smart City Expo India-2018 in Jaipur.
- The object of the three days long expo is to have discussions among different experts and groups to utilize benefits of new technology, town planning, capacity management, challenges before socio-economic development and development of networking in the Smart City sector.
Finance Minister launches web portal www.psbloansin59minutes.com for MSME loans within 1 hour
- Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley has launched the web portal www.psbloansin59minutes.com that will enable in principle approval for MSME loans up to Rs. 1 crore within 59 minutes from SIDBI and 5 Public Sector Banks (PSBs)- State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Vijaya Bank, and Indian Bank.
- Subsequent to this in principle approval, the loan will be disbursed in 7-8 working days.
Arun Jaitley Launches the Financial Inclusion Index
- The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley has launched the Financial Inclusion Index to measure access and usage of a basket of formal financial products and services such as savings, remittances, credit, insurance and pension products.
- The Annual Financial Inclusion Index (FII) will be released by the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance in January, 2019..
- The index will have three measurement dimensions namely
- Access to financial services
- Usage of financial services
- Quality.
Mukesh Ambani Tops Hurun India Rich List for 7th year
- According to the latest Barclays Hurun India Rich List for 2018, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries has topped for the seventh year in a row for being the richest individuals in India by way of net worth with a wealth of Rs 3,71,000 crore.
- As per the list, 831 people have a minimum wealth of Rs 1,000 crore which is up by 214 persons compared to last year.
- Ambani’s wealth is more than the combined wealth of the next three people on the list. He is followed by:
- SP Hinduja and family (Hinduja)- Rs 1,59,000 crore,
- LN Mittal and family (ArcelorMittal) – Rs 1,14,500 crore,
- Azim Premji (Wipro) – Rs 96,100 crore, and
- Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharmaceutical) – Rs 89, 700 crore
- Besides, the list self-made women billionaire list has been topped by Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw with a whopping Rs 22,700 crore net worth followed by Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks with a net worth of Rs 9,500 crore and Shradha Agarwal with Rs 8,200 crore.
India Ranks 158th in Human Capital Index; Finland Tops
- India has been ranked 158th out of 195 countries in the world for its investments in education and health care according to the first-ever scientific study that ranks countries for their levels of human capital.
- The ranking is based on systematic analysis of available data for 195 countries from 1990 to 2016.
- Other South Asian countries ranking below India in this report include Pakistan (164), Bangladesh (161) and Afghanistan (188) however Sri Lanka (102), Nepal (156), Bhutan (133) and Maldives (116) have fared better than India.
- Top 3 nations in the rankings are:
- Finland
- Iceland
- Denmark
- The U.S. is ranked 27th, while China is at 44th.
India ranks 96th on Economic Freedom Index; Hong Kong tops
- India has been ranked 96th among 162 countries in the Economic Freedom Index published by Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in conjunction with Canada’s Fraser Institute. Last year India was ranked 98.
- Top- HongKong
- Second- Singapore.
ADB Approves $500 mn Loan For Climate Resilient Infra Development in Tamil Nadu
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) of $500 million for climate resilient infrastructure project in Tamil Nadu.
- The loan will be used to develop climate-resilient water supply, sewerage, and drainage infrastructure in at least 10 cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
- The Manila-headquartered ADB will fund the approved loan in three tranches between now and March 2022.
ADB predicts 6% GDP growth in Asia in 2018; 5.8% in 2019
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced the GDP forecast for Asia for 2018 at 6% and for 2019 at 5.8%.
- For Indian Economy the GDP growth is predicted at 7.3 percent in 2018-19 and 7.6 percent in 2019-20 respectively.
- Other projections for 2018-19 (for India):
- Fitch: 7.8 percent
- RBI: 7.4 percent
- International Monetary Fund (IMF): 7.3 percent
- India Ratings: 7.2 percent
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley: 8 percent
- Central Government: 7.5 percent
Raveena Tandon named brand ambassador of Sanjay Gandhi National Park Mumbai
- Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon has been appointed as the brand ambassador of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Mumbai.
- Spread across 103 sq km, SGNP is the biggest national park in the world to be located within metropolitan limits.
Jasdev Singh, The Voice of Indian Hockey, Passes Away
- Renowned Hindi sports commentator Jasdev Singh passed away after prolonged illness. He was 87.
- He was awarded Padma Shri in 1985 and Padma Bhushan in 2008.
- Over the years, he had covered nine Olympics, eight hockey World Cups and six Asian Games, and was awarded the Olympic Order, the highest award of the Olympic movement, by Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC president.
- He was also an official commentator on Independence Day, and Republic Day parade broadcasts since 1963 for state run media, Doordarshan and also All India Radio.
International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons: September 26
- The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day) has been observed annually since 2014 on September 26.
- The UN General Assembly declared the International Day in December 2013, to enhance ‘public awareness and education about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination, in order to mobilize international efforts towards achieving the common goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.’