Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the important Daily Current Affairs 15 January 2019. These are important for the upcoming NIACL AO and SBI PO 2019 Exams.
Daily Current Affairs 15 January 2019 for Bank, SSC and Competitive Exams
Banking and Finance
All time high Rs. 61,084 Crores for MGNREGA
- The Centre has allocated an additional 6 thousand 84 crore rupees to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, MGNREGA.
- With this the total allocation for the scheme has reached an all time high of 61 thousand 84 Crore rupees.
- Over the last 4 years, the Ministry of Rural Development has completed major reforms in the MGNREGA to transform it into a resource for sustainable livelihoods for the poor.
- The Ministry said, there has been a remarkable increasing trend in the budget allocation and release for the programme from nearly 33 thousand crore rupees in 2014-15 to over 55 thousand crore rupees in 2017-18.
- It said, in the last four years MGNREGA has focused on creation of durable community and individual beneficiary assets, sustainable livelihoods and wage employment for the poor.
- The Ministry said, to ensure transparency, geo-tagging of assets, AADHAAR linking of Bank Accounts, DBT transfers for all wages, and material payments and Geographic Information System (GIS) based planning of works have been implemented.
RBI announces OMO purchase of government securities on Jan 17
- Reserve Bank will inject 10,000 crore rupees into the system through the purchase of government securities tomorrow to increase liquidity. The central bank said in a statement that the purchase will be made through open market operations (OMOs).
- The statement said the eligible participants should submit their offers in electronic format on the RBI Core Banking Solution (E-Kuber) system. The result of the auction will be announced tomorrow itself and payment to successful participants will be made on the following day.
- The RBI plans to inject liquidity under OMOs for 50,000 crore rupees this month.
Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2018-19 (Series-V) opens
- The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2018-19 (Series-V) opened on January 15, 2019 for subion.
- The issue price of the Bond during this subion period will be three thousand two hundred and fourteen rupees per gram with the settlement date of January 22, 2019.
- The Centre in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India has decided to allow discount of 50 rupees per gram from the issue price to those investors who apply on-line and make the payment through digital mode.
PM Modi launches development projects worth over Rs 1500 crore in Odisha
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 15, 2019 visited Odisha and launched several development projects worth over Rs 1,500 crore at Balangir, Odisha.
- PM Modi dedicated electrified Jharsuguda-Vizianagaram and Sambalpur-Angul lines spanning 813 kilometres to the nation. These railway lines were electrified at a cost of around Rs 1,000 crore.
- The Prime Minister inaugurated the doubling of Barpali-Dungaripali and Balangir-Deogaon railway lines in the state.
- The 15 km-long Balangir-Bichhupali railway line laid at a cost of Rs 115 crores was also launched. It is part of the new 289 kilometre Balangir-Khurda road line which connects Howrah-Chennai main line on Khurda Road and Titlagarh-Sambalpur line at Balangir.
- A new train on Balangir-Bichhupali route was also flagged off. It would benefit commuters of the region, besides connecting Bichhupali to Jharsuguda and Vizianagaram main line through Balangir.
- PM Modi also dedicated to the nation the Multi-Modal Logistics Park at Jharsuguda. The Park promotes movement of goods for domestic as well as global trade. It will establish Jharsuguda as a prime logistics hub and boost ease of doing business in the state.
Government launches ‘Womaniya on Government e Marketplace’ initiative
- The Union Government on January 14, 2019 launched the ‘Womaniya on Government e Marketplace (GeM)’, an initiative to enable women entrepreneurs and Women Self-Help Groups (WSHGs) to sell handicrafts, handloom, accessories, and other products directly to Government departments and institutions.
- The Womaniya on GeM initiative aims to develop women entrepreneurship on the margins of society to achieve gender-inclusive economic growth.
- India has approximately 500 million Internet users and nearly 54 percent of them are more than 25 years of age with higher discretionary income and likely to transact more online. Women constitute 33 percent or 143 million Internet users and control 44 percent of household spending in India.
- Nearly 80 percent women-owned establishments in India are self-financed and more than 60 percent of 8 million units are owned and led by women entrepreneurs from socially-challenged sections.
- Artist Anukta M Ghosh’s artwork “Magan”, an illustration of women empowerment and grace, is the face of Womaniya on GeM.
- The Womaniya homepage (gem. gov. in/womaniya) will inform procurement officers in various government ministries, departments and CPSEs about the drive to promote procurement of common use goods and services from women entrepreneurs.
Maharashtra Government Signs MoU WITH UKIBC on Ease of doing business between UK and INDIA
- UKIBC had yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Govt of Maharashtra. This MOU is about increasing the connections between UK businesses and Maharashtra that deliver investment, jobs, and economic growth for both.
- The MoU was signed during a UKIBC delegation to the Partnership Summit 2019 in Mumbai where leading UK Businesses at showcased their commitment toward intensifying strategic investment in Maharashtra.
- At the Summit, the delegation held roundtable meetings with both Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and Shri Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce & Civil Aviation, focusing on the businesses investments plans in Maharashtra and the support needed from government and local industries to realise these opportunities.
India and states
India’s first smart electric cabs Blu-Smart launched in Delhi
- Gensol Mobility has launched India’s first ever 100 percent smart electric fleet of taxis namely Blu-Smart in Delhi NCR.
- The company has said in a press statement that it has invested over Rs 50 crore as capital expenditure and is currently setting up charging infrastructure of 65 stations, with each offering up to 20 charging points across the NCR.
- With this, the company aims to offer an assured charging point within 5 km radius.
- Blu-Smart is a shared travel solution and will be surge-price free according to the company.
- In the first phase, 70 Blu-Smart cabs will be available in Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram and Aerocity.
Sikkim launches ‘One Family, One Job’ scheme
- Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on Saturday launched ‘One Family, One Job’ scheme.
- The scheme envisions employment to a member of every family which does not have a government job in the state.
- Under this scheme, all loan debts in the farming and agriculture sector would be revoked.
- At present recruitments are being made for Group C and Group D posts in 12 government departments.
Teachers, academic staff of tech institutes to get 7th Central pay commission benefits
- The government has approved a proposal to extend the 7th Central Pay Commission benefits to teachers and other academic staff of the state government and government-aided degree level technical institutes.
- This will have additional Central government liability of over 1240 crore rupees. The Centre will reimburse 50 per cent of the total additional expenditure from 1st January 2016 to 31st March this year to be incurred by these institutes for payment of arrears.
- An official release said, the measure will directly benefit more than 29 thousand teachers and other academic staff of state government funded colleges and institutes.
- Besides, about three-and-a-half lakh teachers and academic staff of private institutes under the AICTE will also benefit.
Tamil Nadu introduces road safety robot ‘ROADEO’
- The Chennai Traffic Police inducted a road safety robot into service on January 14, 2019 for traffic management.
- The robot is named as ‘ROADEO’.
- The robot will help police in traffic management and assist pedestrians in Chennai roads.
- It will also ease the work of traffic police as the robot can be integrated with the traffic signals.
- The robot can also be operated manually through a Bluetooth app.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan launches DD Science and India Science channels
- The Department of Science and Technology, along with Doordarshan, launched two science communication initiatives – DD Science and India Science.
- The aim is to launch a 24/7 channel dedicated to science.
- The two channels will have science based documentaries, studio based discussions, and virtual walkthroughs of of scientific institutions, interviews and short films and will be free to access.
- While DD Science is a one hour slot on Doordarshan National channel, India Science is an internet based science channel.
Sports
10-year-old Abhinav Shaw becomes youngest gold medallist in Khelo games
- 10-year-old, Abhinav Shaw teamed up Mehuli Ghosh and won the gold medal in 10 m air rifle mixed team event in Khelo India Youth Games on Sunday. This makes him the youngest gold medallist at Khelo Games.
- The sixth-standard student had to bide his time to get on the range and display his talent, not being among the 16 shooters chosen to compete in the individual events in either Junior (under-21) and Youth (under-17) categories.
- The West Bengal team scored 501.7 points in the final, better than their 498.2 in the Junior final and the 498.8 in the Youth final in Thiruvananthapuram.
- Abhinav and Mehuli scored strong to help West Bengal to the gold with a big margin of 5.6 points over Rajasthan’s Divyansh Singh Panwar and Manini Kaushik.
Days
71st Army Day celebrated in India
- 71st Army Day was celebrated across India on January 15, 2019.
- President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended their greetings to the soldiers and their families on Army Day.
- The Day is celebrated every year to commemorate the day when General (later Field Marshal) KM Carriappa took over the command of Indian Army from General Sir FRR Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief in 1949 and became the first Commander-in-Chief of Indian Army.
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