DAILY GK 24 FEB
1.
RS 19,000
CR DEAL TO PROCURE OVER 200 BRAHMOS MISSILES FOR INDIAN
NAVY
·
The Cabinet Committee on
Security (CCS) approved the
procurement of more than 200 BrahMos Extended Range (ER) supersonic cruise missiles and associated
equipment for the deployment on the Indian Navy Warships..
·
The BrahMos missiles
can strike a target at a range of around 290
kilometres (km) and its extended range variant can strike a target at a
range of 450 km.
·
BrahMos missile flies at
a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost 3 times
the speed of sound.
·
BrahMos variants can be
launched from land, air and sea.
·
All three variants are in
service in the Indian armed forces.
·
India has set a defense
export target of Rs.35,000 crore by 2024-25.
·
India is set to deliver BrahMos missiles to the Philippines in
March 2024.
·
BrahMos Aerospace the
Indo-Russian multinational aerospace and Defence Corporation. It is a joint
venture (JV) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and
joint stock company “Military Industrial Consortium” “NPO Mashinostroyenia”.
2.
INDIA’S
1ST ‘VIRTUAL ATM’
·
The Fintech startup Paymart India Pvt. Ltd.,
has partnered with 5 Indian banks, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Axis Bank, Jammu &
Kashmir Bank, and Karur Vysya Bank (KVB),
to introduce India’s 1st Virtual
ATM (VATM) to offer innovative
virtual, cardless, and hardware-less cash withdrawal service.
·
Virtual
ATM’:The service requires a smartphone, mobile banking app, and internet connection for cash withdrawal.
·
The Mobile Banking App
will initiate withdrawal requests from the bank and a OTP will be sent to the
registered numbers.
·
The OTP can be used at
the Paymart-partnered (VATM affiliated) shopkeepers to collect cash.
·
The shopkeeper acts as a
virtual ATM to pay cash by using the merchant login at www.vatm.in.
·
Transaction
Limits: Minimum withdrawal of Rs 100, maximum
Rs 2,000 per transaction.
·
Monthly
Cap: Rs 10,000 maximum limit for virtual ATM
withdrawals.
·
Paymart India
Private Limited: Headquarters– Chandigarh
3.
WBG’S
MD & CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
·
World Bank Group (WBG)
has appointed Wencai Zhang as
Managing Director (MD) and World Bank Group Chief Administrative Officer.
·
He also served other
International Organisations such as the New Development Bank(NDB) and
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
4.
SUPREME
COURT HALT SBI ELECTORAL BOND ISSUANCE
·
Electoral
bonds are interest-free bearer bonds or money instruments
that can be purchased by companies and individuals in India from authorised
branches of the State Bank of India (SBI).
·
The
bonds are similar to bank notes that are payable to the
bearer on demand and are free of interest.
·
Purchase
and denominations : These bonds are sold in
multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1
lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore.
·
Tax exemptions: Donations
made through electoral bonds are considered tax-exempt under Section 80 GG and
Section 80 GGB of the Income Tax Act
·
With the latest tranche
last month, 30 tranches of electoral bonds issued so far have collected over Rs 16,518 crore.
·
Mumbai
emerged as the city with the largest share
of electoral bond sales since the inception of the donation scheme in 2018.
·
However, most of the
bonds were encashed in Delhi during
the period.
·
Eligibility and
Purchasing Criteria: Electoral Bonds are accessible for purchase by individuals
who are citizens of India or entities incorporated or established within the
country. Individuals, whether acting singly or in collaboration with others,
have the opportunity to acquire these bonds.
5.
RUPEE
CO-OPERATIVE BANK LIMITED EXCLUDED FROM 2ND SCHEDULE OF THE RBI ACT, 1934
·
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has officially excluded "Rupee Co-operative Bank Limited" from
the Second Schedule of the Reserve Bank of India Act,1934.
·
Scheduled banks are those
financial institutions that are listed under Schedule II of the Reserve Bank of
India Act, 1934.
6.
69TH
HYUNDAI FILMFARE AWARDS 2024
•
The 69th Hyundai Filmfare
Awards 2024 was held in Gujarat in partnership with Gujarat Tourism.
•
Best Film (Popular)- 12th
Fail
•
Best Film (Critics)-
Joram
•
Best Director- Vidhu
Vinod Chopra (12th Fail)
•
Best Actor In A Leading
Role- Ranbir Kapoor (Animal)
•
Best Actor (Critics)-
Vikrant Massey (12th Fail)
•
Best Actor In A Leading
Role (Female)- Alia Bhatt (Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani)
•
Best Actress Critics-
Shefali Shah (Three Of Us), Rani Mukerji (Mrs Chaterjee Vs Norway)
•
Best Actor In A
Supporting Role (Male)- Vicky Kaushal (Dunki)
7.
ISSF
WORLD CUP 2024 CAIRO SHOOTING
•
India’s Divyansh Singh
Panwar won the gold medal in the men’s 10m air rifle shooting event at the ISSF
World Cup 2024 in Cairo.
•
India
finished their campaign at the top of the table with six medals.
•
India’s
six medals at the first ISSF World Cup of the year
included two gold, three silver and one bronze.
•
Great
Britain finished second on the medal
table with two gold and one silver while Germany was third with two gold and
three bronze medals.
8.
SAMSUNG
RECLAIMS LEADING POSITION IN SMARTPHONE MARKET
·
India’s smartphone
shipments remained flat in 2023 at 152 million units and Samsung took the top
spot, for the first time since 2017, with an 18% share, though lesser than what
it had in 2022 at 19.4%.
·
Apple became the largest
smartphone brand by revenue in India in 2023 for the first time ever
9.
RAISINA
DIALOGUE IN DELHI
·
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi will inaugurate the 9th edition of Raisina Dialogue in Delhi.
·
Prime Minister of Greece,
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will join the inaugural session as the Chief Guest, and
deliver the keynote address.
·
The Raisina Dialogue is
India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo- economics.
·
The theme of this edition
is "Chaturanga: Conflict, Contest, Cooperate, Create”.
·
Over two thousand 500
participants from about 115 countries joined the Dialogue in-person.
10.
INDIA
EMERGES AS TOP BUYER OF VENEZUELAN CRUDE OIL
·
After a gap of over three
years, India emerged as the top buyer of Venezuelan crude for two consecutive
months of December 2023 and January 2024, as per shipping fixtures and ship
tracking data.
·
Indian refiners had
stopped oil imports from the Latin American country in 2020 after the United
States (US) imposed sanctions on Caracas.
·
India is the world’s
third-largest consumer of crude oil and depends on imports to meet over 85 per
cent of its requirement
11.
OPENAI
UNVEILS ‘SORA’ THAT MAKES INSTANT VIDEOS FROM WRITTEN TEXTS
·
Open AI, the creator of
the Chat GPT, has unveiled a new generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI)
model that can convert a text prompt into video.
·
The
model, called Sora, can generate videos up
to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s
prompt.
·
Sora is capable of
creating “complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion,
and accurate details of the subject and background.
·
Sora in Japanese means
sky, an imagery that evokes 'limitless creative potential'.
12.
INDIA'S
FDI REACH $2.1 BILLION IN JANUARY 2024
·
India’s outward foreign
direct investment (FDI) commitments
rose by 25.7% on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis to $2.09 billion in January 2024, compared to over $1.66 billion in January
2023.
·
However, there was a
sequential decline from $2.5 billion
in December 2023, as reported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
·
Foreign Direct Investment
meaning is a type of investment in which a company or individual from one
country invests in a company or asset in another country.
·
The purpose of FDI is to gain long-term involvement in
the foreign market, generate profits, access new markets, and transfer
technology and expertise.
·
This includes the
purchase of shares, bonds, or other securities; the establishment of a new
business; or the acquisition of an existing business.
13.
RUSSIAN
OPPOSITION LEADER PASSED AWAY
·
A Russian opposition
leader, lawyer, anti- corruption activist, and political prisoner Alexey Navalny died in prison.
·
The cause of his death is
not clear.
·
Navalny
was a Russian Opposition Coordination Council member, the leader of the Russia
of the Future party and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK)
