Daily Current Affairs 29 March 2019: We have collected the latest current affairs for 29 March 2019 that are important for all competitive exams like bank, ssc, ibps, sbi exams. The GK current affairs will help you score more in these competitive exams. Improve your general knowledge with our daily online current affairs. You can also read the current affairs on our mobile app.
Current Affairs 29 March 2019
RBI raises FPI investment limit in G-Secs to 6%
- The Reserve Bank of India has increased the limit for foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in Central government securities (G-Secs) to 6 percent of outstanding stock of securitiesfor FY2019-20 against as against 5.5 percent in FY2018-19.
- The limit for FPI in State Development Loans (SDLs) and corporate bonds is 2%, and 9% of outstanding stocks of securities, respectively and is unchanged.
Govt keeps interest rates of Small Savings Scheme unchanged for Apr-June qtr
- The government has kept the interest rates on small savings schemes for April-June quarter unchanged. The interest rate is mentioned below:
|
S.No
|
Scheme
|
Interest Rate
|
|
1
|
Savings Deposit
|
4%
|
|
2
|
Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS)
|
8.7%
|
|
3
|
Public Provident Fund Account (PPF )
|
8.0%
|
|
4
|
National Savings Certificates (NSC)
|
8.0%
|
|
5
|
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP )
|
7.7% (maturity- 112 months)
|
|
6
|
Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts
|
8.5%
|
Next census of India to be held in 2021: Home Ministry
- Home Ministry has announced that the next census of India will be carried out in 2021. March 01, 2021 will be the reference date for the census.
- However, for the state of Jammu and Kashmir and snowbound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be October 01, 2020.
- The decision has been taken in power of section 3 of the Census Act, 1948. India’s last census was carried out in the year 2011 when India’s population stood at 121 crores.
PFC completes buyout of REC shares worth ₹14,500 crore
- Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has completed the process of buyout of shares of PSU Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).
- PFC has acquired 103.94 crore shares held by the government in REC at for ₹14,500 crore. The price of each share of REC was ₹139.50.
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the strategic sale of the government’s 52.63 percent shareholding in REC to PFC, along with the transfer of management control in December 2018.
- Now, PFC will be the holding company of REC and also its promoter.
- PFC plans to complete the process of the merger with REC in the next fiscal year in consultation with the government. This would make PFC India’s second largest state-owned financial firm by market capitalization after State Bank of India (SBI).
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen honoured with Bodley Medal by Oxford University
- Indian economist and philosopher, Amartya Sen has been awarded with the prestigious Bodley Medal for the year 2019 by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University
- Bodley Medal is the highest honour granted by the Bodleian Library to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of communications, culture, science and literature.
- The other winner of the Bodley Medal 2019 is Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.
- The 85-year-old, Mr. Sen, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998.
World’s Longest Salt Cave ‘Malham Cave’ Discovered in Israel
- A team of cave researchers have discovered the world’s longest salt cave “Malham Cave” in the Negev Desert of Israel.
- The total length of the cave is around 10 km (6.2 miles).
- Malham Cave is located under Mount Sodom (Israel’s largest mountain located southwest of the salty Dead Sea).
- The new discovery has taken away a 13-year record held by the Cave of the Three Nudes (3N Cave) since 2006. It is a 6.85 km (four miles) salt cave in Iran’s Qeshm Island.