07 August 2019 - Daily Current Affairs
1. Reserve Bank of India cuts repo rate by 35 basis points
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced its third Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Rates for 2019-20 in Mumbai today.
- The RBI reduced the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 35 basis points (bps) from 5.75 per cent to 5.40 per cent with immediate effect.
- This is the fourth consecutive time that the Monetary Policy Committee has reduced the rates (25 basis points each).
- Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands revised to 5.15 per cent.
- The marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 5.65 per cent.
- The MPC also decided to maintain the accommodative stance of monetary policy.
| Policy Repo Rate | 5.40% |
| Reverse Repo Rate | 5.15 % |
| Marginal Standing Facility Rate | 5.65% |
| Bank Rate | 5.65% |
2. RBI announces NEFT facility will be available round-the-clock for customers
- The Reserve Bank of India has announced that the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) facility will be available round-the-clock for the customers.
- According to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, the RBI will make available the NEFT system on a 24x7 basis from December 2019.
- Currently, NEFT payment system operated by the Reserve Bank as a retail payment system is available for customers from 8 AM to 7 PM on all working days of the week except 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month.
- RBI has also decided to create a central payments fraud information registry system to deal banking frauds adding that the details of the same will be shared later.
- To leverage the advantages of the Bharat Bill Payment System and harness (BBPS)its full potential, it has been decided to permit all categories of billers (except prepaid recharges) who provide for recurring bill payments to participate in BBPS on a voluntary basis.
- The BBPS, an interoperable platform for repetitive bill payments, currently covers five segments that are direct-to-home, electricity, gas, telecom and water bills.
Obituaries
3. Former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj passes away
- Veteran BJP leader and former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (67-years) passed away in New Delhi last night after suffering a massive cardiac arrest.
- Sushma Swaraj has been elected Member of Parliament (LS& RS) 7 times and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for 3 times.
- In 2014 when Narendra Modi lead NDA won the General Election, she became the first women External Affairs Minister.
- She was also the 1st woman Chief Minister of Delhi (5th) from 13th October to 3rd December 1998.
- Sushma Swaraj was awarded the Best Parliamentarian award two times in 2008 & 2010.
- Swaraj was called India's "best-loved politician" by the US daily Wall Street Journal.
- Sushma Swaraj was born on 14th February 1952 Ambala Cantonment, Punjab.
4. Nobel Prize-winning author ‘Toni Morrison’ passes away
- Nobel laureate Toni Morrison (88 years) passed away following a short illness.
- Morrison was one of the most iconic writers of her time, excelling as a novelist, essayist, editor, and short story writer.
- Her most celebrated works are ‘Beloved’, ‘Song of Solomon’ and The Bluest Eye.
- She was the 1st African American woman to win the Nobel in literature (in 1993).
- For her acclaimed book ‘Beloved’ she also awarded with the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
- Her book Song of Solomon has received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977.
Important Days
4. 7th August: National Handloom Day
- The National Handloom Day (5th) is being observed annually on 7th August to honour the handloom weavers in the country and highlight India’s handloom industry.
- In this occasion Union Textile and Women & Child Development Minister, Smriti Jubin Irani, presided over a function at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
- To honour the handloom weavers in India every year on this date in a day is being celebrated.
- National Handloom Day seeks to focus on the contribution of handloom to the socio-economic development of the country and increase the income of weavers.
Source: PIB
National Affairs
6. Rajasthan Assembly passes a bill on honour killing
- Rajasthan state assembly has passed a bill on honour killing which is named as ‘The Rajasthan Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill, 2019’.
- This bill makes the honour killing a punishable offense which may award death penalty or life imprisonment.
- This bill was brought by the state government in order to curb the incidents of honour killing in the state.
7. Government unveils draft e-com norms for consumer protection
- To protect consumers’ interest, Ministry of Consumer Affairs has proposed guidelines for e-commerce firms that entail a 14-day deadline to effect refund request, mandate e-tailers to display details of sellers supplying goods and services on their websites and moot the procedure to resolve consumer complaints.
- Among key guidelines, the e-commerce companies will also be required to ensure that personally identifiable information of customers are protected.
- The e-Commerce guidelines for Consumer Protection, 2019 will be applicable on all business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce platforms.
- E-Commerce norms will act as the guiding principles for e-commerce business for preventing fraud, unfair trade practices and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
- The key areas that have been covered in the rules include preventing price influencing, addressing counterfeit, improving integrity of reviews as well as increasing transparency of terms e-commerce have with sellers and disclosure of seller information.
8. India contributes USD 5 million to UNRWA working for Palestinian refugees
- India contributed USD 5 million to the UN Palestine refugee agency and called for ensuring sustained fiscal support for the organisation's work.
- The cheque for the amount was handed over to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees by Representative of India (ROI) in Palestine, Sunil Kumar, at the Agency's headquarters in Jerusalem.
- The UNRWA has been providing health, education, relief and social services, as well as emergency humanitarian assistance, across its five areas of operations in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip since 1950.
9. Mohali gets first 3-D traffic signal
- Mohali traffic police has launched the 3-D Smart Traffic Signal system based on Artificial Intelligence.
- This 3-D technique is first of its kind in the country.
- The new system called ‘Intelights’ will have sensors which would automatically switch on the green and red signals depending upon the number of vehicles coming from that particular side.
- It will regulate with a smart bird’s eye view wireless sensor system.
- The system proposes a 360-degree solution to curb the rising problem of traffic congestion.
- An Intelligent Traffic Timer Control which uses dynamic signal control technology to adjust the timers of red, yellow and green lights according to the traffic density at an intersection.
- The system also uses existing CCTV cameras to gather live traffic video feed and automatically evaluates the traffic density using Artificial Intelligence and sets the signal timers accordingly.
Science & Defence
10. Chandrayaan-2 successfully completes its final earth-bound orbit-raising manoeuvre
- India’s lunar probe Chandrayaan-2 has successfully completed its fifth and final earth-bound orbit-raising manoeuvre.
- The manoeuvre led the spacecraft to reach an orbit of substantial apogee, that is the farthest point from the Earth, at nearly one lakh-forty-three thousand kilometres.
- The next important move would be to inject Chandrayaan-2 in a trans-lunar path. It is scheduled to be held early in the morning on the 14th of this month.
- The country’s second lunar expedition to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2 is expected to reach an orbit around the Moon on the 20th of this month. It will have a touch down on the lunar South Pole on 7th September.
- Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second lunar mission which was launched on 22nd July, 2019 by its GLSV Mk III launch vehicle called ‘Bahubali’. The first Lunar mission of India Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October, 2008.
Sports
11. Nick Kyrgios beats Daniil Medvedev to win 6th ATP title
- Australia’s Nick Kyrgios (24-years) kept his composure and captured the ATP Washington Open title, defeating Russia’s 10th-ranked Daniil Medvedev.
- Nick Kyrgios claimed the USD 365,390 top prize and his 6th career ATP crown at the US Open tune-up event.
12. German cancer researcher first woman to win 4,000km cycling
- German cancer researcher Fiona Kolbinger (24-years) has won the mixed annual 4,000 km cycling Transcontinental race. She became the first women to do so.
- She managed to complete the route, which travelled from Burgas on the eastern coast of Bulgaria to Brest in northwest France, in a time of just 10 days, two hours and 48 minutes.
- The race was the cyclist's first ever ultra-distance challenge.
13. India tops latest ICC Test rankings
- India topped the latest ICC Test team rankings while New Zealand is placed 2nd and South Africa is in 3rd position.
- India skipper Virat Kohli retains his number one position in the latest ICC Test batsmen’s rankings.
- Australian batsman Steve Smith overtook India's Cheteshwar Pujara to grab the No.3 spot.
- Pujara is placed fourth in the fresh standings.
- Australian speedster Pat Cummins retains his top position in Test bowling, with a seven-wicket match haul.
- In rankings for Test all-rounders, Jason Holder of the West Indies tops the list while Ravindra Jadeja is placed 3rd and Ravichandran Ashwin is in sixth place.
| Rank | Team | Rating |
| 1. | India | 113 |
| 2. | New Zealand | 111 |
| 3. | South Africa | 108 |
| 4. | England | 105 |
| 5. | Australia | 98 |
