Current Affairs 8 February 2018

International Current Affairs 1. THE rankings 2018: 42 Indian Universities in list, none in top 25 The Times Higher Education (...

International 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.

National Current Affairs

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.

Business

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.

Sports

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.