Banking & Finance
Yes Bank gets RBI nod to open offices in London, Singapore
- Yes Bank has received the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval to open two representative offices in London and Singapore.
- It will help in further diversification and expansion of financial services to the NRI diaspora.
- In the year 2015, Yes Bank opened its first representative office in Abu Dhabi and launched IFSC banking unit (IBU) at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
Note:
- Yes Bank is India's fourth largest private sector bank, founded by Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur in 2004.
- Yes Bank is the only Greenfield Bank license awarded by the RBI in the last one decade.
State Bank of India allows cash withdrawal from PoS devices
- The State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to allow depositors to withdraw cash from its point of sale (PoS) devices available with merchants.
- According to Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines, customers can withdraw up to Rs. 1,000 per day per card in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities, and Rs. 2,000 per card per day in Tier-3 to Tier-6 cities.
- Debit card holders of SBI and all other banks can withdraw cash from PoS machines installed by SBI across various merchant locations.
- SBI has a total of 6.08 lakh PoS machines of which 4.78 lakh PoS machines are enabled to dispense cash to the customers of SBI.
Standard Chartered ties up with Zoho
- The Standard Chartered Bank has announced an alliance with Zoho (a software products company) to offer solutions to enhance corporate banking experience.
- Now, the bank’s business account holders can pay their suppliers and automate reconciliation right from Zoho Books (Zoho’s cloud accounting software).
- Bank’s corporate clients can avail benefits of this integration, in addition to supply chain financing for SME retailers.
Note: The company Zoho was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in Pleasanton, California, and now has offices in seven countries.
Important Dates
20th April: Chinese Language Day
- The UN Chinese Language Day is observed annually on 20th April to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization.
- The day was chosen as to pay tribute to Cangjie, a mythical figure who is presumed to have invented Chinese characters about 5,000 years ago.
Obituaries
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar passes away
- Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar (94-year) passed away.
- Justice Sachar was the Chief Justice in Delhi High Court from 6th August to 22nd December 1985.
- He was the chairperson of a committee to look at the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India.
- The panel, named the Sachar Commitee, had submitted its findings in a 403-page report in Parliament in November 2006.
National Affairs
Rajasthan govt introduces a loan-waiver scheme for farmers
- The Rajasthan govt has introduced a loan-waiver scheme for benefit an enormous number of farmers in the state.
- Under the scheme, Crop loan of up to Rs. 50,000 will be waived as per the budget announcement of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
- The scheme has been launched under which cooperative banks will hold camps for waiving loans up to 50,000 rupees of small and marginal farmers.
Chhattisgarh to distribute free smartphones to over 55 lakh People
- The Chhattisgarh state govt. will start distributing smartphones to over 55 lakh people for free from May this year, under the Sanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY).
- In the 1st phase, the state government will distribute about 50 lakh smartphones while the rest 5 lakh will be distributed in the 2nd phase.
- Women heads of households will be the priority recipients of the smartphones.
- The Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) has started the preparation for the distribution of phones.
Note: The objective of this free smartphone scheme is to make poor people digital by providing them free smartphones and increase mobile connectivity in the state.
International Appointments
US Senate Narrowly Confirms Trump's new NASA Chief
- US Navy veteran Jim Bridenstine (42-year) will become the 13th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration seven months after Trump named him to lead the agency (by 50-49 votes).
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.
- Previous full-time administrator of NASA's former astronaut ‘Charles Bolden’ resigned In January 2017.
Sports
FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 unveils official mascot
- 'Son of Dreams' was unveiled as official Mascot of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.
- The mascot finalists are a Chinese dragon ('Son of Dream'), a Siberian tiger ('Speed Tiger') and a lion ('Qiu Qiu').
- The selection of Son of Dreams as China 2019's Official Mascot was the culmination of a unique process by FIBA.
- The tournament will take place in eight Chinese cities and 32-team from 31st August to 15th September 2019.
Federation Cup junior national athletics meet from today
- Over 800 athletes from 32 states across the country are taking part in the 16th Federation Cup Junior (under-20) National athletics championship at the Nehru Stadium, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
- The meet will serve as the selections trials for the 18th Asian Junior Athletic Meet to be held at Gifu, Japan, in June.
- The three-day event will see 440 boys and 352 girls in the age group of 16 to 20 years take part in 44 events, Organised by the Tamil Nadu Athletics Association (TNAA).
Birmingham Organising Committee of CWG decides to exclude shooting from 2022 Games
- The Birmingham Organising Committee of CWG has decided to exclude shooting from the 2022 Games, citing logistical issues.
- The Commonwealth Games Federation has awarded the 2022 CWG to Birmingham.
- South Africa (Durban) was to originally host the 2022 CWG but it later expressed its inability to host the Games due to financial problems.
- At the recently concluded Gold Coast Games, India’s shooting squad bagged as many as 16 medals, seven of them gold.
