DAILY GK 17-18 OCTOBER 2024
1.
WOMEN’S ASIAN CHAMPIONS TROPHY-2024
·
Nitish Kumar, Chief
Minister (CM) of Bihar, unveiled the Logo and mascot named
“Gudiya” of the Women’s Asian Champions
Trophy-2024 which is scheduled to be held in Rajgir, Bihar.
·
Gudiya
is the term of endearment in Bihar for
young girls.
·
The Mascot
is inspired by the house sparrow, an endangered species and the state bird
of Bihar. It represents resilience, strength, and natural heritage.
·
Gudiya,
holding a hockey stick, symbolizes the sport, while
the goalkeeper’s glove and nearby hockey
ball represent strategy and teamwork, emphasizing the
government’s commitment to women’s empowerment.
·
The
logo featurs the Bodhi tree and
a hockey stick.
·
2024 Women’s Asian Champions Trophy is the
8th edition of the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy, a biennial field hockey
tournament for the six best Asian women’s national teams.
·
Participating countries–
India (host and defending champion), China, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and
Japan.
2. FOOTBALL - SAFF U-17 CHAMPIONSHIP
·
India’s Under-17 men’s football team(the Blue Colts), won
the 6th South Asian Football Federation (SAFF)
U-17 Championship by defeating Bangladesh (2-0)
in the final held at the Changlimithang
Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan.
·
The 2024 SAFF U-17 Championship is the 9th
edition of the international football competition for men’s U-17
national teams.
·
Mohammedd
Arbash (India) was named the Player of the Tournament.
·
Aheibam
Suraj Singh (India) was named the Goalkeeper of the Tournament.
·
Seven teams – India, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan participated
in the 2024 Men’s SAAF U17 Championships.
3.
ITTF-ASIAN TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024
·
Indian Table Tennis contingents won 3
bronze medals and finished 7th on the
Medal tally of the 27th edition of International
Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Asian Table
Tennis Championships (2024).
·
The 2024 championship was held from 7th
to 13th October 2024 at the Beeline Arena in Astana,
Kazakhstan.
·
Japan topped the Medal tally with 8 medals
(3 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze) followed by China with 5 medals (2 Gold; 2
Silver and 1 Bronze) and North Korea with 3 medals (1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1
Bronze).
·
International Table Tennis Federation
(ITTF): Headquarters– Lausanne, Switzerland
4. ICC HALL OF FAME LIST
·
Former Indian cricketer Neetu David, along with England’s Alastair Cook and South
Africa’s AB de Villiers, has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame for
2024.
·
David becomes
the second woman from the country to receive this honor, following Diana
Edulji’s induction in 2023.
5.
KHO KHO WORLD CUP IN 2025
·
The
Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI), in association with
the International Kho Kho Federation, announced that India is set to host the inaugural Kho Kho
World Cup in 2025 and will feature 16 men’s and women’s teams from 24
countries and six continents.
·
The
KKFI aspires to secure Kho Kho’s place in the 2032 Olympic Games.
6. WR CHESS MASTERS
·
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi won the WR
Chess Masters title after defeating
France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in an Armageddon game held in London.
·
Arjun edges closer to the 2800 Elo rating
mark, finishing with a live rating of
2796.
·
The 21-year-old earned a prize of 20,000
Euros, defeating R. Praggnanandhaa in
the semifinals
7. 2024 SHANGHAI MASTERS TENNIS
·
World number one Jannik Sinner emerged victorious
over Novak Djokovic, clinching the title with a scoreline of 7-6 (7/4),
6-3.
8. ASIAN TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024
·
The Indian
men’s and women's table tennis team secured a bronze medal at the Asian
Table Tennis Championships 2024 held in
Astana, Kazakhstan
·
India’s top-ranked women’s doubles duo Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee,
became the first all-Indian women’s doubles pair to win a medal at
the Asian Championships, following Gool Nasikwala’s gold medal win with Japan’s
Yoshiko Tanaka in 1952.
·
The Indian
men’s team clinched the bronze medal
after losing in the semi-finals to Chinese Taipei
9.
INTEREST EQUALISATION SCHEME EXTENDED FOR 3 MONTHS
·
The
Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has extended the Interest
Equalisation Scheme on pre-
and post-shipment rupee export credit for 3 more months till 31st December
2024 to promote India’s outbound
shipments.
·
The scheme is fund-limited, and benefits
to individual exporters were earlier
capped at Rs 10 crore per annum per IEC (Import Export Code).
·
Now
the cap is Rs 50 lakh.
·
This
scheme was started on April 1, 2015 and was initially valid for 5 years up to
March 31, 2020.
10.
NITI AAYOG RAISED
ASSET MONETISATION TARGET FOR FY25
·
The National
Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) has
raised the Asset Monetisation(AM) target for
Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25) by Rs
23,000 crore to Rs 1.9 trillion.
·
This move will bring closer to achieve the
overall target of Rs 6
trillion set under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) for
a period of 4 years i.e. from FY22 to
FY25.
·
It has estimated that highways monetisation will generate Rs 54,000 crore for the centre government in FY25.
·
Also, coal
block monetisation is expected to generate Rs 55,000 crore.
·
NITI Aayog
has estimated that combined assets of
railways, power, and petroleum and natural gas will raise nearly Rs 46,000 crore.
·
NITI Aayog Chairperson- Prime Minister of India
·
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- B.V.R. Subrahmanyam
·
Headquarters- New Delhi
·
Formed- 2015
11. RBI BARS 4 NBFCS FOR LENDING
VIOLATIONS
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred
four non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including Sachin Bansal’s Navi Finserv, Asirvad Microfinance, Arohan Financial
Services, and DMI Finance, which were found guilty of charging exorbitant
interest rates and failing to comply with regulatory pricing policies.
·
Definition:
NBFCs are financial institutions that
offer banking-like services but do not hold a banking license. They are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI).
·
They provide loans, credit facilities, retirement planning, investments in the stock
market, money market instruments, and savings products, but do not accept demand deposits.
·
Key
Differences from Banks :
NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits,They are not part of the payment and
settlement system,NBFCs cannot issue
cheques drawn on themselves.
12.
INDIA TO JOIN FTSE RUSSELL GOVERNMENT INDEXES
·
London (the United Kingdom, UK)-based
index provider Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Russell announced
that the Market Accessibility Level for India will be reclassified from 0
to 1 and the Indian sovereign bonds will be included to its
Emerging Markets Government Bond Index (EMGBI) from
September 2025.
·
FTSE Russell is the 3rd index provider to include Indian
bonds in its emerging market following the successful inclusion of Indian
bonds in JP Morgan’s Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) index, in
June 2024 and Bloomberg Index Services’ Emerging Market Local
Currency (EMLC) starting from 31st January,
2025.
·
It
has also announced the inclusion of the South Korean government
bonds to its World Government Bond Index (WGBI) after
2 years on its watch list.
·
Indian
government securities will be included into FTSE’s EMGBI after being on
the index provider’s watch list for the last 3 years.
·
FTSE WGBI: It is a broad benchmark
providing coverage
of the global sovereign fixed income market. It measures the performance of
fixed-rate, local currency, investment-grade sovereign bonds from more than 20
countries, denominated in different currencies.
·
FTSE EMGBI: It provides a
broad benchmark for portfolio managers looking for a measure of sovereign
emerging markets. It measures the performance of local currency government
bonds from 16 countries
13. WORLD’S RICHEST CITY IN SOVEREIGN
WEALTH FUNDS
·
Abu Dhabi has been recognized as the richest city globally regarding sovereign
wealth funds, boasting an impressive
$1.7 trillion in capital.
·
Other notable cities in this ranking are Oslo, Beijing, Singapore, Riyadh, and Hong
Kong.
·
Sovereign
Wealth Funds (SWFs) are state-owned investment funds
or entities that manage a country’s reserves for various purposes, including
stabilization of the economy, saving for future generations, and funding social
programs.
14. HAL BECOMES 14TH MAHARATNA COMPANY
·
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has
been upgraded to the status of Maharatna,
making it the 14th Central Public Sector
Enterprise (CPSE) to receive this prestigious classification from the
Government of India.
·
To
qualify for Maharatna status, CPSEs must first hold Navratna status and meet stringent
financial criteria, including Average
Annual Turnover: Exceeding Rs 25,000 crore.,Average Annual Net Worth: More than Rs15,000 crore, Average Annual Net Profit: Over Rs 5,000
crore for the past three years
·
Other
maharatn are Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
(BHEL),Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL),GAIL India Limited
(GaAIL),Coal India Limited (CIL),Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
(HPCL),Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL),National Thermal Power
Corporation (NTPC),Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC),Power
Finance Corporation (PFC),Power Grid Corporation of India Limited
(POWERGRID),Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL),Oil & Natural Gas
Corporation Limited (ONGC),Oil India Limited (OIL),Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited (HAL)
15.
SEBI CHANGES NOMINATION RULES FOR DEMAT ACCOUNT, MF
INVESTMENTS
·
The
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has changed the
nomination rules between Mutual Funds (MF) and Demat
Accounts allowing the holders
of both instruments to include up to 10 nominees.
·
The
new rules will allow nominees to act on behalf of investors who are unable to
do so, with some safeguards in place.
·
The
non-submission of ‘choice of nomination’
will not lead to freezing of demat accounts and mutual fund folios.
16.
WORLD BANK APPROVES RS 15,000 CRORE LOAN FOR
AMARAVATI DEVELOPMENT
·
The World Bank (WB), in
collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has
approved an in-principle loan of Rs 15,000 crore to
Andhra Pradesh (AP) for developing Amaravati as
its capital city.
·
The
total project cost is estimated at Rs 49,000 crore,
with Rs 15,000 crore being a soft loan from the WB.
·
The “Swarna
Andhra Pradesh 2047” vision document aims to transform the state into
a USD 2.5 trillion economy with a per capita income of USD 40,000.
·
ADB President– Masatsugu Asakawa
·
Headquarters– Mandaluyong, Philippines
·
Establishment– 1966
·
Members– 69 (49 from region)
17.
WHITE-LABEL ATM LICENCE TO EPS COMPANY
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has
granted a White Label Automated Teller
Machine (ATM) License (WLA) after a gap of 10 years to Mumbai-based Electronic Payment and Services Limited (EPS),
a privately-owned ATM outsourcing company.
·
It has issued the license under the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act,
2007, with the primary objective of expanding the ATM networks in
rural and semi-urban areas of India.
·
With this, EPS has become the 5th company to receive a license to operate WLAs in India.
·
White-Label ATMs are those ATMs, owned and managed only by non-bank entities for instance: Non-Banking
Financial Company (NBFC) and customers of any bank can use them.
·
As
RBI guidelines, The interested non-bank entity must have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore as
per the last audited balance sheet. The minimum net worth has to be maintained
at all times.
·
The license issued by the RBI to set up the WLAs will be valid for 1 year.
18. 3% DA HIKE FOR CENTRAL GOVT EMPLOYEES
·
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, has approved a 3% hike in the dearness allowance (DA)
for central government employees and pensioners,
·
This will bring the total DA to 53% of the basic pay.
·
The decision, announced will result in an
annual cost of Rs 9,448.35 crore to
the exchequer, benefiting approximately 49.18
lakh employees and 64.89 lakh pensioners.
19.
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH – OCTOBER 1 TO 31, 2024
·
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) is
observed globally from October 1 to 31 every year to raise awareness about
breast cancer and its impact worldwide.
·
The
theme for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2024 is “No
one should face breast cancer alone.”
20.
INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY 2024- OCTOBER 1
·
International Coffee Day (ICD),
is annually observed across the globe on October 1, to
honor coffee and the people behind it.
·
The
2024 Theme of International Coffee Day is, “Coffee:
your daily ritual, our shared journey.”
·
International Coffee Organization (ICO) Headquarters – London
