Roadmap for Banking of the Future

Current Affairs 07 October 2020

Daily Current Affairs 07 October 2020: This post contains the latest current affairs for 07 October 2020 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.

National

MoHUA partners Swiggy to take street food vendors’ businesses online under PM SVANIDHI Scheme

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bengaluru-based foodtech major Swiggy, to onboard street food vendors on the e-commerce platform.
The initiative has been launched as a part of the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme to provide the street vendors online access to consumers and help grow their businesses.
The programme has been launched on pilot basis in 5 cities by onboarding 250 vendors. These cities are Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, and Varanasi.
Swiggy will help street vendors with PAN and FSSAI registration, technology or partner app usage training, menu digitisation and pricing, and best hygiene and packaging practices.

Indian-built Sittwe port in Myanmar to be operational in the first quarter of 2021

India and Myanmar are working towards the operationalization of the Sittwe port in the Rakhine state of Myanmar in the first quarter of 2021.
Sittwe Port is a deepwater port constructed by India in 2016 at Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Myanmar, on the Bay of Bengal.
The port is part of the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project which is being viewed as India’s gateway to Southeast Asia.
The port will connect India’s landlocked northeastern region with the Bay of Bengal through Mizoram.

One of the world’s spiciest chillies, Dalle Khursani of Sikkim, gets GI tag

The famous red-hot cherry pepper of Sikkim, which is known as Dalle Khursani, has earned the geographical indication (GI) tag from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
A GI tag is a name given to certain products that have a specific geographical location or origin.
With GI, the crop will have global recognition and the marketing of the product will be beyond the national borders.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launches mega anti-pollution campaign “Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh”

The Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal has launched a mega anti-air pollution campaign titled “Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh”, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the campaign, separate plans have been prepared for each of the 13 pollution hotspots in the city.
The state is setting up a “war room” to monitor all anti-pollution measures being taken by his government.
The government is also preparing a mobile app named “Green Delhi” using which, the people can bring pollution causing activities, such as garbage burning or industrial pollution, to the notice of the state government.

Conferences & Summits

Quad Countries’ Foreign Minister Meet held in Tokyo

The Foreign ministers of all four Quad countries – the United States, Japan, India and Australia – met on 6th October 2020 in Tokyo, Japan to hold bilateral discussions over “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) initiative amid coronavirus pandemic.
The Quad FM meet was represented by External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
This is the second Quad FM meeting. The first was held in 2019.
Quad or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), is an Inter-governmental security forum between the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
The ministers discussed regional issues and collectively affirmed the importance of maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
They also discussed the post-COVID-19 international order and the need for a coordinated response to the various challenges emerging from the pandemic.

12th BRICS Summit to be held on 17 November virtually under Russia’s Chairmanship

The 12th BRICS Summit is scheduled to be held on 17th November 2020 via video conference. This is the first time in the history of the forum that the meeting will be held virtually, due to the global COVID pandemic.
The Summit is being held under the Chairmanship of Russia.
The theme of the Meeting of the Leaders of BRICS countries is “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”.
The five member BRICS states are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Technology

C-DAC will commission India’s fastest HPC-AI Supercomputer ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’ with NVIDIA

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be commissioning India’s largest HPC-AI supercomputer ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI.’
This initiative will place India among the top countries in global AI supercomputing research and innovation.
This high-performance computing-Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer is a machine with 210 AI Petaflops (6.5 Petaflops Peak DP).
It is built on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture comprising of 42 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, connected with NVIDIA Mellanox HDR InfiniBand networking along with C-DAC’s indigenously developed HPC-AI engine, Software Frameworks, Cloud Platform.

Banking & Economy

GOI Appoints Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R Varma & Shashanka Bhide as RBI’s MPC members

The Government of India has appointed three new economists as members of the six-member rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on 5th October 2020.
Government had formed a committee for selection of these three new members of MPC. This search-cum-selection committee for MPC was headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj.
As per the RBI Act, the three new external members would have four-year terms.
The new members are:
- Prof. Ashima Goyal, a professor at the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research
- Prof. Jayanth R Varma, a professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad
- Dr. Shashanka Bhide, an agricultural economist and a senior adviser with the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi
They replaces the three previous external MPC candidates, Chetan Ghate, Ravindra Dholakia and Pami Dua, whose terms expired with the last policy meeting in August 2020.
It must be noted that the MPC committee of RBI comprises six members which includes three officials of the Reserve Bank of India and three external members nominated by the Government of India.
The three members from RBI Side are Dr. Mridul K. Saggar, Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra and Shri Shaktikanta Das.
Governor of RBI is the exofficio Chairman of MPC.

Sebi introduces ‘very high risk category’ in risk-o-meter tool for mutual fund schemes

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has introduced a new “very high risk” category on its Mutual Funds (MF) riskometer tool, to warn investors, investing in mutual fund schemes.
Currently the mutual fund (MF) risk-o-meter has five categories – low, moderately low, moderate, moderately high and high. It indicates the scheme’s risk level.
The revamped 6 categories Risk-o-meter will come into effect from 01 January 2021.
It will be evaluated on a monthly basis and the mutual fund houses will have to disclose the risk-o-meter along with portfolio disclosure for all their schemes on their respective website and on the industry body Amfi website within 10 days from the close of each month.

ICICI Bank in partnership with VISA launches debit card facility for customers availing LAS

ICICI Bank has launched a debit card facility for the customers availing the Loan Against Securities (LAS) from the Bank.
The debit card is available on the Visa platform.
The LAS debit can be used by customers across all domestic merchant establishments to make seamless POS and online transactions like payments on e-commerce portals among others, using their sanctioned LAS amount.
With this launch, ICICI Bank has become the first bank in India to launch such a facility.

Key benefits of the debit card include:

Transaction limit: The card offers a maximum daily transaction limit of Rs. 3 lakh each for POS and online transactions.
Digital card: The Bank provides a digital card to customers, which is made available on iMobile app within one business day. (Physical card will be made available within seven business days.)
Automatic renewal: The card is automatically renewed upon renewal of the LAS account.

Awards

Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez wins 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics on 6th October 2020.
One half of the award has been given to Roger Penrose for black hole discovery; and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez.
UK’s Roger Penrose has been awarded “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”
America’s Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez have jointly won “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.

Important Days

World Cotton Day: 07 October

The WHO-recognised World Cotton Day (WCD) is observed on 7th October since 2019 to celebrate the international cotton industry and its contribution to communities and the global economy..
The day was inaugurated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva on October 7, 2019.
WCD Day was initiated by the Group of Cotton-4 countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali to the reflect the importance of cotton as a global commodity.

66th Wildlife Week being observed in India from 02 to 08 October 2020

The Wildlife Week is celebrated in India every year from 02 to 08 October to conserve and protect the fauna or animal life of the country.
Wildlife Week was conceptualized in 1952 to raise awareness of safeguarding the lives of wildlife through critical action.
Theme 2020- RoaR (Roar and Revive) – Exploring Human-Animal Relationships.
In 2020, we are celebrating 66th Wildlife Week.

Obituary

Veteran Actor Vishal Anand, Who Starred In 1976 Chalte Chalte, Passes Away At 82

Veteran Bollywood actor Vishal Anand, who came to fame with 1976 super-hit song and film ‘Chalte Chalte’ has passed away, due to prolonged illness. He was 82.
His real name was Bhishmam Kohli. He has appeared in 11 Hindi films during his acting career like Hindustan Ki Kasam and Taxi Driver.
Apart from acting, Anand had also directed and produced a few films, including Chalte Chalte.

Afghanistan Batsman Najeeb Tarakai passes away in Road Accident at 29

Najeeb Tarakai, the Afghanistan right-handed batsman has passed away from injuries following a road accident on 2nd October 2020. He was 29.
Tarakai played 12 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for Bangladesh, after making his international debut in the 2014 T20 World Cup.
He played his only one-day international against Ireland in 2017.

Current Affairs Quiz – 07 October 2020

Click Here For Daily Current Affairs

Click Here for Daily Current Affairs Quiz

Daily Current Affairs – 07 October 2020