Current affairs : January 2, 2017 for all competitive exams
Govt permits 12 PSU banks to raise Rs 3,000 crore from market
The Finance Ministry granted approval to 12 proposals of PSBs
to raise a sum of Rs 2,914.038 crore through preferential allotment and
permission given to raise Rs 200 crore by United Bank of India through QIP
mode.
PM’s New Year eve speech has opened up opportunities for
digital lending players, including startups in the space.
- PM has
announced the inclusion of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in the
credit guarantee scheme for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMEs) and
also extended the scheme for loans up to Rs 2 crore.
- The
credit guarantee scheme for SMEs was so far open only for banks, and the
inclusion of NFBCs will help new-age NBFCs reach out to more borrowers.
- Extension
of credit guarantees to NBFCs will help innovative players to penetrate
under-served, new-to-credit borrower segments.
India, Pakistan
exchange lists of nuclear sites
India and
Pakistan recently exchanged for the 26th consecutive year the list of their
nuclear installations under a bilateral agreement that prohibits them from
attacking each other’s atomic facilities.
- The
exchange was carried out under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack
against Nuclear Installations between India and Pakistan.
- This is
the 26th consecutive exchange of such list between the two countries, the
first one having taken place on January 1, 1992.
Rs. 5.5 lakh for each PoK
refugee
The Centre will deposit Rs. 2,000
crore into the bank accounts of 36,000 Hindu refugees from Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir (PoK).
- The
compensation package for the Hindu refugees was announced by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi last year, and it got the clearance from the Union
Cabinet in December. These refugees migrated to Jammu and Kashmir in 1947,
1965 and 1971.
- Each
PoK refugee would get Rs. 5.5 lakh in his or her bank account, and the
Centre will bear the cost.
Fossil fuel
formation linked to rise in atmosphere’s oxygen
The rapid rise
in the atmospheres oxygen roughly 500 million years ago which made advanced
animal life possible on Earth is linked to the process that led to the
formation of fossil fuels, suggests new research.
- According
to the study, the rise in oxygen was associated with a rapid increase in
the burial of sediment containing large amounts of carbon-rich organic
matter – the raw material of coal, oil and natural gas.
Drug discovery for
GPCR signalling made easy by IIT Kanpur
Researchers
have shown that the regulation of G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) by new
drugs can be simpler than generally thought — it can be mediated by engaging
only the end of the receptor, which is called the tail of the receptor.
- With this, discovering new drugs that bind to G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), which are central to almost every physiological process in our body such as vision, taste, immune response and cardiovascular regulation, becomes easier.
SBI cuts lending rate by 0.9% across
Country’s largest lender SBI cut benchmark interest
rate across various maturities by 0.9 per cent, effective from 1st January
2017, a move that is expected to be shortly followed by other banks also.
- The bank has reduced marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 0.9 per cent from 8.90 per cent to 8 per cent for 1-year tenure.
‘Leap second’syncs Indian time with
Earth’s spin
The atomic clock was programmed to add an extra seconde to 2017 to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth's rotation.
- A ‘leap
second’ was added to the Indian clock at 5:29.59 hours on January 1 to
synchronise with the Earth’s rotational clock. As the atomic clock at the
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) here struck 23:59:59 last night, it was
programmed to add an extra second to 2017 to compensate for a slowdown in
the Earth’s rotation.
- A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to keep its time of day close to the mean solar time, or UT1.
Bharatiya Jananpith announces Navlekhan
award 2016
Two new Hindi writers Shraddha and Ghyansham Kumar Devansh
have been chosen for Bharatiya Jnanpith Navlekhan Award for the year 2016, the
literary organisation announced.
- The decision to confer the award on Shraddha for her short story, 'Hawa Mein Phadphadati Chitthi' and on Devansh for his poem 'Akash Mein Deh' was taken unanimously by a selection panel chaired by eminent poet Vishnu Nagar.
Somdev Devvarman announces retirement
from professional tennis
India's star singles player Somdev Devvarman has announced
his retirement from professional tennis.Somdev touched a career-high rank of
number 62 in 2011.
- He has
two runners-up finishes on the ATP World Tour as his best performances on
the Tour. He made the finals of Chennai and Johannesburg ATP events.
- Somdev also won Singles and Doubles medals in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
