9th FEBRUARY CURRENT AFFAIRS

1. Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia sentenced to five years in prison

A Special Court in Dhaka has sentenced former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to jail for five years in a 10-year-old graft case.

• The court also sentenced her son, Tarique Rahman, and four others to jail for 10 years. Rahman is a resident of London.
• The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case, accusing Ms. Zia and the five others of misappropriating over 2.1 crore Bangladeshi Taka that had come from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.

2. 11 states are now open defecation free: Government

The government informed the Lok Sabha that till date 11 states and union territories (UTs) have been declared open defecation free (ODF) under Swachh Bharat Mission.

• The government is taking various steps under the SBM to make all states in the country ODF, the minister of state in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, said in a written reply.

3. Pon. Radhakrishnan inaugurates the Third Global Procurement Summit

The Minister of State for Finance and Shipping, Government of India, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan said that the Government of India attaches great importance to fairness, transparency and accountability in public procurement and it has raised the citizen’s expectation in terms of efficiency and outcomes of public spending.

• He said that the present Central Government has a clear vision of transforming the procurement and public service delivery.
• The Minister for State for Finance Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan was delivering the Inaugural Address after inaugurating theThird Global Procurement Summit in New Delhi.
• The two day Summit is being organized by All India Management Association(AIMA), World Bank and the Government of India.

4. Inter-Ministerial Committee to tackle menace of trafficking

An Inter- ministerial Committee (IMC) with concerned stake holders, Ministries/ departments of Government of India along with representatives of some State/UT Governments and CSOs under the Chairpersonship of Secretary, Women and Child Development has been constituted to tackle the menace of trafficking.

• As per Ministry of Home Affairs, National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) the total number of cases of ‘Procuration of minor girls’ has risen from 231 in the year 2006 to 2465 in the year 2016.

5. Two-day Conference on Jobs and Livelihood opportunities with CII

NITI Aayog has organized a two-day Conference on Jobs and Livelihood opportunities in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries, CII at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in the capital.

• The Conference will provide a platform for dialogue between various stakeholders to share their views on the potential of job creation and livelihood opportunities. 

6. 1,86,777 Affordable Houses Sanctioned for Urban Poor Under Pmay(Urban)

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of 1,86,777more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) with an investment of Rs.11,169crwith central assistance of Rs. 2,797 cr.

• The approval was given in the 30th meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee in its meeting.
• With the above proposed houses, cumulative houses under PMAY(U) would become 37,83,392 after final approval from CSMC. 
• Further after subsuming projects of RAY scheme the total number of houses being funded under PMAY(Urban) would be 39,25,240 houses.

7. Forbes releases first-ever crypto-rich list

Forbes has released its first ever list of richest people in cryptocurrency, which is topped by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, with an estimated crypto net worth of USD 7.5-8 billion.

• According to Forbes, the average 2017 price change of Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, three of the most common cryptocurrencies, is a whopping 14,409 per cent.
• As per the publication, there are now nearly 1,500 cryptoassets in existence, valued at an aggregate USD 550 billion.

8. CCI imposes Rs 135.86 crore penalty on Google for search bias

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has found Google to have violated in online general web search and web search advertising services in India, and imposed a penalty of Rs 135.86 crore against the company.

• The order was passed in response to informations filed by Matrimony.com and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) in 2012.

9. 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics will take place at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Pyeongchang, South Korea on February 9, 2018.

• The site of the opening ceremony Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium was built specifically for the games.
• These Games will feature 102 events in fifteen sports disciplines.
• ‘Peace will be the central theme of the games.

10. Rajnath Singh Release Book Titled “Mere Sapnon ka Bharat”

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh released a book titled “Mere Sapnon ka Bharat”. It is a compilation of interviews of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by Tarun Vijay, an ex-MP, at a function in New Delhi.

• The Home Minister described Mr Vajpayee as a distinguished personality who stands alone because of his stature. He is respected by all cutting across the political parties divides.

8th FEBRUARY CURRENT AFFAIRS

1. THE rankings 2018: 42 Indian Universities in list, none in top 25

The Times Higher Education (THE) released the list of the best colleges in Asia in the Asia University Rankings 2018 on 6 February.

• While the top 10 spots were secured by universities from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, India managed to improve its score on the index with a total of 42 finding a place among just over 350 Universities.
• Indian Institute of Science (IIS) in Bengaluru was the topmost Indian University in the list coming in at rank 29.
• At rank 44 was the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, followed by IIT-Kharagpur at 60 with 11,016 students.
• IIT-Roorkee, rank 65, IIT-Kanpur, rank 81 and IIT-Delhi, rank 86. At rank 100, Tezpur University in Assam was the last Indian university in the top 100 list.

2. Sushma Swaraj inaugurates Saudi cultural festival

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has inaugurate Saudi Arabia’s annual ‘Janadriyah Festival’ where India has been invited as guest of honour this year, officials said.

• Earlier, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had said that India’s participation in the festival will be multifaceted and would take relations of the two nations “to new heights”.
• According to the minister, the Indian pavilion at the festival will project a number of Indian themes and projects.

3. First-ever Pelican Festival held at Atapaka Bird Sanctuary

Andhra Pradesh government has held the first-of-its kind, one-day Pelican Festival at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on Kolleru lake.

• Koleru is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country.   
• Officials made elaborate arrangements to attract tourists for the ‘Pakshula Panduga’ at Atapaka village, located on the borders of the Krishna and the West Godavari districts.

4. Centre to link driving licence with Aadhaar

The Centre is in the process of linking driving licences with Aadhaar number to weed out fake licences and a software for this covering all states on a real time basis is under preparation, the Supreme Court was told.

• A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was informed about it by a court-appointed committee on road safety headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan.
• This assumes significance as a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra is currently hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the enabling 2016 law.

5. ISRO sets up 473 Village Resource Centres for rural development

To demonstrate the potential of satellite technology for development of rural areas, ISRO established Village Resource Centres (VRCs) on a pilot scale, in association with selected NGOs, Trusts and State Government Departments.

• VRCs have provided various space technology enabled services such as tele-healthcare, tele-education, natural resources information, advisories related to agriculture, career guidance to rural students, skill development and vocational training etc.
• About Rs 18 crores was spent for establishing 473 VRCs.

6. Gadkari Inaugurates 5 Highways Projects Around Allahabad

Shri Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation inaugurated / laid foundation stone for 137 km of highways projects worth Rs 5632 crore around  Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

• Besides widening of national highways, this includes construction of a new, six-lane  bridge  over Ganga at Fafamau, Allahabad.
• Gadkari said that his Ministry plans to build highways worth Rs 2 lakh crore in Uttar Pradesh before the government’s five year term ends next year.

7. RBI keeps repo, reverse repo rates unchanged

On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.0 per cent.

• Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF remains at 5.75 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.25 per cent.
• The central bank has upped the inflation forecast for Q4 of this fiscal year to 5.1 percent from 4.3 percent to 4.7 percent earlier and to 5.1-5.6 percent in the first half of next year.
• The GVA forecast for FY18 has been revised down to 6.6 percent from 6.7 percent earlier.

Current Monetary Policy Rates:

• Repo Rate: 6%
• Revrese Repo Rate: 5.75%
• Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate: 6.25%
• Bank Rate: 6.25%
• Cash Reserve Ratio: 4%
• Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): 19.5%

8. Mumbai Dabbawalas partner with Paytm Payments Bank

Paytm Payments Bank , a digital bank which provides zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions, partnered with the Mumbai Dabbawala Association, the pioneers of home-cooked food delivery.

• As part of this association, around 5000 dabbawalas will now be able to collect instant payments for their Dabba service through Paytm QR.
• Additionally, they will also avail an easy access to banking and other financial services by opening their bank accounts with Paytm.

9. RBI to set up ombudsman to further regulate NBFCs

The Reserve Bank of India wants to further tighten the regulations around the Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) by setting up an ombudsman for these entities.

• Till now, for consumer complaints, the RBI had made it mandatory for all the the NBFCs to have a grievance redressal officer, whose name and address has to be put up in the offices of the NBFCs.
• However, with an ombudsman in place, the customers can directly file a complaint, as per the RBI guidelines announced during the monetary policy.
• According to RBI, the scheme will cover all deposit-taking NBFCs and those with customer interface having asset size of one million and above initially.

10. RBI to link base rate with MCLR from 1 April

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said it will link the base rate for loans with the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) from 1 April to improve monetary policy transmission.

• This is likely to narrow the gap between the base rate and MCLR, and benefit borrowers who are still using the base rate, said some analysts.

Points to Remember

• Base rate is the minimum rate set by the Reserve Bank of India below which banks are not allowed to lend to its customers. The Base Rate was introduced by RBI in year 2010.
• MCLR stands for Marginal Cost of fund based lending rate, as per RBI notification to be used from 1st April 2016. MCLR is the minimum rate below with a Bank cannot fund any loan.
• MCLR it is set by the Banks or the particular lender while Base Rate was set by the RBI.

11. Jhulan Goswami first female cricketer to take 200 ODI wickets

India's veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami has added another feather to her illustrious cap by becoming the first female cricketer to take 200 ODI wickets.

• Goswami achieved the feat during the second ODI between India and South Africa.
• The 35-year-old, playing her 166th ODI, dismissed opener Laura Wolvaardt for her 200th scalp.
• She was adjudged ICC Women Cricketer of the Year in 2007.

7th FEBRUARY CURRENT AFFAIRS

1. President to inaugurate the Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav 2018

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, will be in Karnataka to inaugurate the Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav 2018 of Gommateshwara Bhagwan Sri Bahubali Swami at Shravanabelagola February 7, 2018.

• The Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav is celebrated once every 12 years.
• It has been celebrated for about a 1,000  years.

2. 60 Solar Cities to be developed across country

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy under its scheme “Development of Solar Cities” has approved/sanctioned 60 Cities including 13 Pilot and 5 Model Cities up to 12th Five-year Plan period.

• In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (IC) for Power & New and Renewable Energy, Shri R K Singh informed that the master plans of 49 Solar Cities have been prepared. 
• The Stake-holders Committees have been constituted in 21 Cities and Solar City Cells have been created in 37 Solar Cities.
• Solar PV projects with aggregate capacity of 8069.16 kWP and Solar Water Heating System with aggregate capacity of 7894 meter square collector area have been sanctioned under the programme.
• While Rs. 101.64 crore has been sanctioned, Rs. 25.92 crore has been released under scheme “Development of Solar Cities” so far.

3. India-UAE to ink 12 pacts during PM Modi's visit

As many as 12 agreements will be signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UAE later this week as India and the oil-rich Gulf nation look to intensify economic cooperation.

• The agreements will include areas like finance and skills development.
• Modi will start his visit to three West Asian countries - Palestine, the UAE and Oman - on February 9 with focus on cooperation in key areas of defence, security and counter- terrorism.
• The Prime Minister will participate in the 6th World Government Summit in Dubai on February 10-11 in which India is a partner country.
• This will be PM Modi's second visit to the UAE. He first visited the country in August 2015.

4. Haryana launches 'Gobardhan Yojana' to support farmers

The Haryana government has launched the 'Gobardhan Yojana' to provide for the sale of organic manure and cow urine with an aim to benefit farmers.

• A provision of Rs 11 crore has been made to provide benefits of various projects under this scheme, Khattar said while addressing villagers at a 'Kisan Samman Samaroh' in Nizampur village of Sonipat district.

5. Mumbai airport becomes world’s busiest single-runway airport

On January 20, Mumbai airport created a new world record for single-runway operations by handling 980 arrivals and take-offs in 24 hours.

• With this, the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport bettered its own feat of 974 flights in 24 hours, recorded on December 6, 2017.
• Gatwick, the U.K.’s second largest airport, remains the most efficient single-runway airport in the world.

6. Uber, transport ministry partner to push road safety awareness

As part of its ongoing efforts to encourage road safety awareness, ride-sharing company Uber has joined hands with union ministry of road transport and highways to push for the cause in the country which witnesses around five lakh accidents every year.

• Uber will jointly promote road safety messaging on its mobile application and the social media through co-branded materials and mediums.
• The ministry and Uber will jointly be preparing the learning materials which will be shared and utilised by over 200 driving schools.

7. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank approve JFC Finance's bid to acquire Palogix Infrastructure

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have approved JFC Finance (India) Ltd's bid to acquire the insolvent Palogix Infrastructure, a 20-year old firm in railways logistics.

• JFC Finance, the Delhi-based non banking firm, has proposed to acquire close to 80% in Palogix for Rs 100-crore.
• The logistics firm owes Rs 150 crore to creditors.

8. Hardayal Prasad appointed as SBI Card MD & CEO

SBI Card, the country's second largest credit card issuer, has a new Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer in Hardayal Prasad.

• Prasad has taken over from Vijay Jasuja, who superannuated on January 31.
• Prior to this appointment, Prasad was with State Bank of India, holding multiple leadership positions in the bank.
• He had joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1983.

9. Shubhankar Sharma becomes highest ranked Indian golfer

In-form young golfer Shubhankar Sharma was elevated from 193 to 72, a gain of 121 spots, in the world rankings making him the highest-ranked Indian in the world.

• Sharma has enjoyed a golden run over the past few months on the international stage.
• When Shubhankar entered the event in South Africa he was ranked 462 in the world.

10. Kathakali maestro Madavoor Vasudevan Nair passes away

Kathakali maestro Madavoor Vasudevan Nair collapsed on stage and died while performing at Agasthyacodu Mahadeva Temple, Anchal. He was 89.

• A recipient of several awards, including Padma Bhushan, he was the follower of the Kaplingattu School, the particular style of south Kerala.

IDBI BANK EXECUTIVES RECRUITMENT 2018 760 VACANCY OUT

IDBI Bank Executives Recruitment 2018: Apply Online for 760 Executives Post in IDBI Bank

Dear Aspirants,

IDBI Bank Executives Recruitment 2018:

IDBI Bank has released the notification for recruitment for the post of Executives. There are a total of 760 Vacancies in IDBI Bank Executives Recruitment 2018. IDBI Executives 2018-19 brings a big and bright opportunity for all banking aspirants. Keep on reading for all details of IDBI Recruitment 2018.

Following are some important dates as mentioned in the Official IDBI Bank Executives Recruitment Notification:

Download IDBI Bank Executives Recruitment 2018 Notification PDF

Important Dates:

Start date for Online Registration- 06th February 2018

Online Payment of Application Fees- 06th February 2018 to 28th February 2018

Last date for Online Registration- 28th February 2018

Date of Pre-Examination training for the SC/ ST / OBC applicants at all centers: 16th April 2018 to 21st April 2018
Date of Online Test at all centers: 28th April  2018