Test: March 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 3 - UPSC MCQ

The Government of India states that Rs 1.83 lakh crore is spent under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (MNREGA) in 2017-2020 which is nearly double the amount of Rs 92,483 crore spent in 2011-14. As on 9th March 2020, 526.97 lakh families have been provided employment, against 603.81 lakh families seeking employment under the scheme.
MNREGA – enacted on August 25, 2005. It provides legal guarantee of 100 days of employment in every financial year.

The Cabinet approved the reconstruction scheme proposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) titled “Yes Bank Ltd. Reconstruction Scheme, 2020” for Yes Bank that will be led by State Bank of India (will hold 45% of stake). Other participants in the plan include HDFC Ltd & ICICI (will hold 6% of stake each), Axis Bank (3-4% of stake), Kotak Mahindra Bank, RK Damani, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and the Azim Premji Trust (around 3% each).

Government appointed former Chief Financial Officer & deputy Managing Director(MD) of SBI Prashant Kumar as MD & Chief Financial Officer(CEO), the former Punjab National Bank(PNB) MD Sunil Mehta as Non-Executive Chairman, Mahesh Krishnamurthy & Atul Bheda as non-executive directors of the reconstructed board of Yes Bank. State Bank of India (SBI), which has a 49 % stake in Yes Bank, will nominate 2 directors & Reserve Bank could appoint one or more additional directors. The moratorium on Yes Bank to be lifted by March 18 which means depositors will be able to withdraw an amount without a cap.

A 4 day (March 12-15) biennial event WINGS INDIA 2020 themed as ‘Flying for All’ is an International Exhibition & Conference on Civil Aviation sector held at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad, is organized by Ministry of Civil Aviation & Airports Authority of India(AAI) & Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revised exposure limits for urban cooperative banks (UCBs) of tier-1 capital to a single borrower to 15% and a group of borrowers to 25%. The revised exposure limits shall be applicable to all types of fresh exposures taken by UCBs. The RBI had earlier permitted UCBs to have exposures up to 15% and 40% of their capital funds to a single borrower and a group of borrowers, respectively.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India (GoI), Justice (Retd.) Bansi Lal Bhat has been appointed as the officiating Chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) for a period of 3 months with effect from March 15, 2020 or until a regular Chairperson is appointed, whichever is earlier. The first Chairperson of NCLAT, Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya has retired on March 13,2020.

RBI has revised the priority sector lending (PSL) target for UCBs from 40% to 75% of the adjusted net bank credit (ANBC), or credit equivalent amount of off-balance sheet exposure (CEOBSE). These norms will also have to be fulfilled by 31 March 2024.

PM Modi has proposed the creation of COVID-19 Emergency Fund through voluntary contributions from all SAARC Nations. This fund can be used by any of the partner countries to meet the cost of immediate actions. India has offered the US $10 million for the fund.

Flipkart, an E-commerce company based partnered with Aegon Life Insurance to sell comprehensive insurance solutions to customers seeking instant digital policies with an assured sum up to Rs 10 lakh.

Achanta Sharath Kamal (37), a professional table tennis player from Tamil Nadu (TN) has ended the title wait of a decade by winning the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) Challenger Plus Oman Open 2020 men’s singles title by defeating Portugal’s top seed Marcos Freitas with 4-2 scores in the final played at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat, Oman.

2020 All England Open (officially known as the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships 2020), was the 112th edition of oldest badminton tournament organized jointly by Badminton England & Badminton World Federation (BWF), held at Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, England from March 11 -15, 2020. Viktor Axelsen became the 1st Denmark player to win the All England title for 21 years.
List of Winners:

Dr Puthussery Ramachandran a Veteran Malayalam poet, a scholar of Dravidian linguistics and a teacher passed away due to age-related illness at the age of 91 years.

The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari revealed that the number of deaths caused due to road accidents has been reduced by 10% in India after the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019.

Microsoft India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation & NASSCOM Foundation, the social arm of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), have jointly launched the ‘Innovate for Accessible India campaign’, a nation-wide innovation challenge aimed at empowering people with disabilities with the new technologies required for better integration into society and access to equal opportunities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken part in the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through video conferencing. Rahman, who is the first President of Bangladesh, was born on March 17, 1920, in Tungipara village in Faridpur district and also referred to as ‘Jatir Pita’.

India assured to provide a grant of Nepalese Rupees(NPR) 107 million (approximately 6.67 crores) to construct 3 schools in Nepal & to create better facilities for students.

ATK FC (Football Club) won the 6th edition of ISL (Indian Super League) trophy for the year 2019-20 defeating Chennaiyin FC in the final match by 3-1 held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Margao, Goa. This is the 3rd ISL trophy for ATK FC.

According to the Union Minister of State (Independent) for tourism and culture, Prahlad Singh Patel, the central government has included grand Konark Sun Temple, the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) world heritage site in Odisha & Statue of Unity in Gujarat in the Iconic Tourist Sites list, taking the total number of such places from 17 to 19.

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adithyanath has passed the ‘Recovery of Damage to Public Properties Ordinance 2020‘for recovery of losses due to damage to public property during violent protests.

Philippines become the first country to close its financial markets due to the COVID 19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. It resumed its trading on March 19, 2020.  This measure was taken to ensure the safety of their employees and the people they interact with.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued new guidelines for the payment aggregators (PAs) to provide an ease for payments industry players with effect from April 1, 2020. The guidelines are issued under Section 18 read with Section 10(2) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. RBI has reduced the minimum capital requirements (MCR) for PAs at the time of application for the licence to Rs 15 crore from Rs 100 crore. However, the net worth needs to be increased to Rs 25 crore within three years of operations. Means the PAs who apply for authorisation on 01/04/2020 they need to achieve Rs 25 cr net-worth by March 31, 2023, and thereafter.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has opened a six-month dollar sell-buy swap window and will also inject Rs 1,00,000 crore additional Long-Term Repo Operations (LTROs) at the policy repo rate. These measures taken by RBI are to boost liquidity in the foreign exchange market of India and will serve the requirement of U.S. dollars in the market.

In March 2020, L&T Technology Services (LTTS) signed a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) to collaborate on research industrial and infrastructure cybersecurity.

On March 17, 2020, Barham Salih, President of Iraq appoints 54- year- old Adnan al-Zurfi as Prime Minister (PM) of Iraq who has 30 days to form his cabinet in an attempt to resolve a months-long political crisis. He will succeed Mohammed Allawi, the 1st politician named by the president as PM-designate who withdrew his candidacy for the post.

The 7th World Cities Summit (WCS) is to be held from July 5 to 9, 2020 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, in Singapore. It is organized by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.  The theme for WCS 2020 is” Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Adapting to a Disrupted World”.