Roadmap for Banking of the Future

Daily Current Affairs – 17 February 2022

This post contains the current affairs for 17 February 2022. These current affairs are important for banking exams, insurance exams and other competitive exams like IBPS PO and Clerk, SBI PO and Clerk, RBI Assistant and Grade B, etc. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.

National

Government forms G20 Secretariat in view India’s G20 Presidency in 2022-23

India will hold the Presidency of the G20 from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023 and the G20 Summit will be held in India in 2023 (18th edition)
For its preparation, the government has approved the setting up of a G20 Secretariat and its reporting structures. The G20 Secretariat will be guided by an Apex Committee headed by Prime Minister and it will have the following members:
- Finance Minister- Nirmala Sitharaman,
- Home Minister- Amit Shah,
- External Affairs Minister- S. Jaishankar, and
- G20 Sherpa- Piyush Goyal
The G20 secretariat will be responsible for implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements needed for steering India’s forthcoming G20 Presidency.
In 2021, the G20 summits was held in Rome, Italy. In 2022 the G20 summit will be held in Bali, Indonesia while in 2023 it will be held in New Delhi, India.

Banking News

The NITI Aayog Fintech month commenced on February 7, 2022; Theme- “OPEN”

NITI Aayog has started the Fintech Open Month from February 07, 2022 in coordination with PhonePe. It is a first-of-its-kind initiative where fintech professionals can collaborate, exchange ideas, and innovate. It will continue till Feb 28, 2022.
The overarching theme of Fintech Month of NITI Aayog is ‘OPEN’. It aims to achieve three key objectives –
- encourage an OPEN ecosystem across the FinTech industry;
- Foster co-innovation and growth;
- Ensure financial inclusion and leverage new models like Account Aggregator to unleash the next wave of fintech innovation.
It will bring together regulators, Fintech professionals and enthusiasts, industry leaders, the start-up community, and developers on a common platform to exchange ideas for fintech.

Sebi changes its provision of separation of chairperson & MD/CEO roles from mandatory to voluntary

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced to make provision for separation of the roles of chairperson and MD/CEO as ‘voluntary’ against ‘mandatory’ earlier.
In 2017, SEBI had formed a Committee on Corporate Governance under the chairmanship of Shri Uday Kotak. One of the recommendations of this committee was:
- Listed entities with more than 40% public shareholding should separate the roles of Chairperson and MD/CEO with effect from April 1, 2020. After 2020, SEBI may examine extending the requirement to all listed entities with effect from April 1, 2022.
- i.e. companies that are listed on the stock exchange should have a separate Chairperson and separate MD/CEO.
As per the latest decision from SEBI, the top 500 listed companies had to keep a separate Chairperson and MD/CEO role with effect from April 01, 2022. Now with less than 2 months for this deadline, SEBI has revised its guidelines and changed this instruction from mandatory to voluntary.
i.e If a company wants it can keep the role of Chairperson and MD/CEO separate. i.e. now it is their voluntary decision. Earlier this was to be followed mandatorily.

Yes Bank launches ‘Agri Infinity’ programme to develop digital financial solutions for the food and agriculture ecosystem

Yes Bank has launched a programme named ‘Yes Bank Agri Infinity’ through which the bank aims to co-develop digital financial solutions for the food and agriculture ecosystem by mentoring entrepreneurial ventures in this field.
Agri-fintech start-ups working on financial innovations across the food and agriculture value chain are eligible to apply under this programme and can work with Yes Bank for digital solutions.

SIDBI launches ‘waste to wealth creation’ programme in West Bengal

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched the ‘Waste to Wealth Creation’ programme for women in the Sundarbans in West Bengal.
In this, the women will make ornaments and showpieces from the fish scales. SIDBI will extend benefits to 50 women in directly generating revenues from alternate livelihoods.
Later, these women are expected to become a trainer for replicating and disseminating the knowledge among other aspirants.
This is a part of mission Swavalamban of SIDBI that aims to support artisans to become sustainable.

Scheme

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launches Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED)

The Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr. Virendra Kumar launched a central sector scheme named the Scheme for Economic Empowerment for DNTs, (SEED) on February 16, 2022 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.
The objective of SEED is the welfare of De-notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic tribal Communities, which are the most neglected, marginalized and economically and socially deprived communities.
Total financial outlay for SEED Scheme is approximately Rs 200 crore to be spent over a period of 5 years starting Financial Year 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Conference

Power Minister RK Singh co-chairs 4th India-Australia Energy Dialogue

The 4th India-Australia Energy Dialogue was on February 15, 2022 through video-conferencing.
The dialogue was co-chaired by Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, RK Singh and Australian Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor.
The main topic of discussion during the dialogue was, energy transition, with focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, storage, electronic vehicles, critical minerals among others.
Both the countries signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for working towards reducing the cost of new and renewable energy technologies and scaling up their deployment to reduce global emissions.

Apps

WHO launches Quit Tobacco App

The World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region (SEAR) has launched a ‘Quit Tobacco App’ to help people give up the use of tobacco in all forms, including smokeless and other newer products.
The App was launched by Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO-SEAR, on February 15, 2022 during WHO’s year-long ‘Commit to quit’ campaign.
This latest tobacco control initiative in the form of app will help users to identify the triggers, set their targets, manage cravings, and stay focused to quit tobacco.

Sports

Keegan Petersen of South Africa and England’s Heather Knight named ICC Players of the Month for January 2022

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the winners of the ICC Players of the Month Award for January 2022 on February 14, 2022. The winners are:
- Men’s category- South African batsman Keegan Petersen
- Women’s category – England skipper Heather Knight

Days

International Childhood Cancer Day: 15 February

The International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD) is observed every year on 15th of February.
Purpose: to spread awareness on cancers that affect the younger population, and support its victims and survivors.
Theme 2022: ‘Better Survival’ is achievable #throughyourhands. It is a part of the three year campaigns (2021-2023) launched for ICCD.
ICCD was launched in 2002 as a collaborative initiative by the Netherland-based Childhood Cancer International (a global network of 176 parent organisations), cancer societies and childhood cancer support groups in more than 93 countries.

Obituary

Singer- Music composer Bappi Lahiri passes away at 69

Singer and music composer Bappi Lahiri, passed away at the age of 69 at Mumbai’s CritiCare Hospital on February 16, 2022 due to OSA (obstructive sleep apnea).
He won Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award at 63rd Filmfare Awards in 2018.
Bappi Lahiri joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.
His real name was Alokesh Lahiri.

Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee passes away at 90

Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee passed away at the age of 90 years due to cardiac arrest. Her full name was Geetashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay.
She had recently refused to accept the Padma award from the central government that was awarded in January 2022.