BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SR.NO TOPIC
1. Top 100 Current Affairs of December
2. Top 50 Banking and Business affairs of December

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BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

TOP 100 CURRENT AFFAIRS OF DECEMBER

APPOINTMENTS
1. At the age of 34, Sanna Marin of Finland (Capital: Helsinki,
Currency: Euro) who recently became the Prime Minister of the country is
also the youngest Prime Minister in the world currently.
2. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has appointed Girish Chandra
Chaturvedi as its new chairman.
3. Former Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has been appointed as
India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He will be a Four-star
General.
4. Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty has been appointed as the brand
Ambassador of National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) (Headquarters:
New Delhi)
5. Government has appointed Soma Roy Burman, as 24th Controller
General of Accounts (CGA) of India.
6. Rajendran Chinna Veerappan was appointed as the Managing
Director and Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director (CMD) of
Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) (Headquarters: Thrissur, Kerala).
7. Asian Development Bank (ADB) unanimously elected Masatsugu
Asakawa of Japan as its new president.
8. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google has been made the CEO of Alphabet,
the parent organization of Google.
9. Greta Thunberg, a teenage Swedish climate activist was named
TIME’s Person of the Year for 2019, she is the youngest person to be
honoured with the title in the 92-year history of TIME magazine.
10. Niranjan Hiranandani, has been appointed as the President of
ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India)
which is headquartered at New Delhi.
11. Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of
Jharkhand (Capital: Ranchi, Governor: Draupadi Murmu).
12. Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Group
was appointed as the President of Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI) which is headquartered at New Delhi.
SCHEMES

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13. Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt of India Krishnasamy

VijayRaghavan launched national program called “EChO Network” in
New Delhi to bring citizens, govt etc to solve problems in the areas of
research knowledge, and awareness of Indian ecology and the
environment.
14. To improve ground water management Union Government recently
announced “Atal Bhujal Yojana” (ATAL JAL) which is a central sector
scheme with an outlay of Rs 6000 crores.
The scheme will be implemented for a 5-year period (2020-21 till 2024-
2025) in 7 States- Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
15. In collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF),
Jigneh Patel, a fellow at the Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CfHE)
at IIT-Hyderabad, has launched India’s 1st ‘Vaccination On
Wheels’(VOW) Clinic ($100 million initiative) in Pune, Maharashtra.
16. “WE” (women) Hub, a Telangana State promoted incubator to
promote women entrepreneurship, has partnered with Start-up India
of DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) to
launch programme for women entrepreneurs called “WING” in
Telangana.
17. As per the ministry of Labour and Employment, loans under the
Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) which was launched in 2015
crossed the value of 10 Lakh crore (10.24 lakh crore as on November
1, 2019).
18. Andhra Pradesh government (CM: Jagan Mohan Reddy, Governor:
Biswabhusan Harichandan) launched a scheme “Nethanna Nestham”
for the weavers, under the scheme Rs 24,000 per annum would be
provided to each handloom weaver family.
19. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has launched an
Education Loan Subsidy scheme called “Abhinandan”, under which a
one-time subsidy of up to Rs 50,000 to all educational loans will be
provided.
20. Union Government has decided to extend the initiative Atal Mission
for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme for urban
renewal from 2020 to 2022.
Also, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has announced to
extend the deadline of Accessible India Campaign to March 2020.
21. Ministry of Electronics a++++nd Information Technology
(MeitY) has approved Rs.436 crore for Future Skills PRIME (Programme

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for Reskilling/Upskilling of IT Manpower for Employability) over a period of

three years. The program aims to skill 412,000 IT professionals in new
technologies.
STATES
22. Haryana Police has adopted a unique barcoding software —
“Trakea” — to ensure that thousands of forensic reports that form the
backbone of the criminal investigation system and subsequent trials in
courts are not tampered.
23. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 27th edition of National
Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) 2019 based on the theme
“Science, Technology and Innovation for a clean, green and healthy nation”
held in Thiruvananthapuram.
24. ‘Oxygen Parlour’ has been opened at Nashik Railway Station in
Maharashtra by Indian Railways in collaboration with Airo Guard to
provide an experience of breathing clean air and to battle against rising
air pollution.
25. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has inked a $490 million loan
agreement with Government of India for upgrading about 1,600 km of
Madhya Pradesh.
26. “Hornbill Festival” also called Festival of Festivals was recently
organised in Kohima.
27. Popular classical music festival ‘Tansen Samaroh 2019’ was held in
Gwalior, MP. Eminent vocalist Pandit Vidyadhar Vyas conferred with
National Tansen Award for 2019.
28. Human Library, a concept which seeks to replace books with humans,
was held in Mysuru, Karnataka.
29. Odisha won the ‘World Habitat Award’ by World Habitat, UK for
Jaga Mission also called Odisha Liveable Habitat Mission (OLHM), a slum
land project executed for the benefit of millions of urban-poor people living
in slums.
30. Jharkhand’s Mahuamilan station which comes under East Central
Railway (ECZ) zone has become 5500th station in the country to get
free Wi-Fi facility.
31. Odisha government has launched a smart learning phone
application ‘MadhuApp’ for school children. This app is aims to help
school students in learning their lessons via videos and tutorials.
32. Union Ministry of Home Affairs has sent an alert to all States
warning about a bug in Android operating system called ‘StrandHogg’.

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It is a real-time malware application which would pose as genuine

applications and access all the users’ data.
33. Constructed by Akhil Bhartiya Kinnar Siksha Seva Trust (All-India
transgender education service trust) India’s first transgender
university will be opened in Kushinagar district of UP.
34. Department of Telecom Minister Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad launched a
web portal ‘Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR)’ to trace the
stolen mobiles for Delhi subscribers, earlier the system was launched
in Mumbai.
35. Odisha government has launched the “Jalsathi” program (app
was also launched) in Bhubaneswar, to engage women under mission
“Shakti” in water distribution and consumer management. Also, the state
government has approved ‘SAMRIDHI’, the new Agriculture Policy for
the year 2020 for Odisha.
36. UNICEF has awarded the Kamareddy district of Telangana for
effective implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission in water
sanitation and hygiene sectors for the year 2019.
37. The Mumbai Central Terminus has been certified as India’s first
‘Eat Right Station’ with a 4-Star rating awarded by Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), as a part of ‘Eat Right India’.
38. Foundation stone of India’s first Ganga centralised “Aqualab” was
laid at Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
NATIONAL
40. King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden inaugurated
Sarai Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Uttarakhand. It is the first STP
to be completed under Hybrid Annuity (HAM) Based Public Private
Partnership Model (PPPM).
41. First “Pashu Kisan Credit Card” that can be used to meet the day-
to-day expenses on animal feed was given in Bhiwani, Haryana
recently.
42. Union Minister for food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal
inaugurated Avantee mega Food Park in Dewas, MP. This first food
park of central India.
43. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has
set up a 28 member Standing Committee headed by India’s first Chief
Statistician Pronab Sen on Economic Statistics (SCES) in order to
develop methodologies in conducting surveys on the industry, services
sector and employment in place of multiple panels on these issues.

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44. Operation “Clean Art” to crack down the illegal trade for
mongoose hair was launched by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
(WCCB).
45. President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind approved the
Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019. Now the bill has changed into
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. This act grants citizenship to
undocumented non-Muslims migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan
and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
The act will also relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship
by naturalisation from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants.
46. “Aberdeen” police station from the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands has topped the list of best performing Police Stations across
the country for the year 2019 released by Ministry of Home Affairs.
47. PM Narendra Modi chaired the first meeting of the National
Ganga Council (National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and
Management of River Ganga) (formed in 2016) in Kanpur, UP.
The Central Government, has approved Rs. 20,000 crores for the
period 2015-20 to the five states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Jharkhand, and West Bengal) through which Ganga passes, to ensure
adequate and uninterrupted water flows in the river.
48. According to the new report, “2019 Pollution and Health Metrics:
Global, Regional and Country Analysis” released by Global Alliance on
Health and Pollution (GAHP), India leads the world with about 2.3
million (23,26,771) deaths in 2017 in terms of premature deaths due
to pollution.
49. For the first time in the history of the Indian Parliament, on
December 6, 2019, tribal language “Santhali” was used when MP
Sarojni Hembram from Odisha used it to demand Bharat Ratna for
Pundit Raghunath Murmu, the Santhali scholar who introduced Ol Chiki
script for the language in 1925.
50. As per the 7th edition of the India Skills Report 2020 about 46.21%
students were found employable or ready to take up jobs in 2019.
Maharashtra and Mumbai emerged as the top ranked state and city
respectively in terms of employability.

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51. ISRO launched RISAT-2BR1 which is a spy satellite that is launched

to boost Indian military’s Earth surveillance. This was PSLV’s 50th launch.
52. On ‘The Forbes 2019 list of the ‘World’s 100 Most Powerful
Women’, Union Finance Minister of India Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman
was ranked 34th in the list. The list was topped by German Chancellor
Angela Merkel.
53. Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change
released the biennial “India State of Forest Report (ISFR)”, in New
Delhi, according to the report, the total forest and tree cover of the
country now stands at 80.73 million hectare which is 24.56% of the
geographical area of the country.
MP has the largest forest cover. It was followed by Arunachal Pradesh.
Mizoram (85.41%) has the highest land under forest cover as a percentage
of total geographical area.
54. Union Government has announced to rename world’s longest
tunnel (connecting Manali to Leh) under Rohtang Pass in Himachal
Pradesh after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it will be now
known as Atal Tunnel (8.8 Km length).
EVENTS
55. Winter Solstice this year fell on December 22. The winter solstice
happens every year when the Sun reaches its most southerly declination of
-23.5 degrees. In other words, it is when the North Pole is tilted farthest
away from the Sun, delivering the fewest hours of sunlight of the year.
56. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) hosted the sixth Indian Ocean
Dialogue and the eleventh edition of the Delhi dialogue in New
Delhi.
Indian Ocean Dialogue Theme: “Indo-Pacific: Re-imagining the Indian
Ocean through an Expanded Geography”.
Delhi Dialogue Theme: “Advancing Partnership in Indo-Pacific”.
57. National Tribal Dance Festival namely “Tribal fest 2019” was held
in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
58 4th edition of International Seminar cum Exhibition on Naval
weapon Systems – NAVARMS-19 with the theme “Make in India – Fight
Category: Opportunities and Imperatives” was held in New Delhi.
59. 7th edition of India-Sri Lanka joint training exercise- ‘Mitra
Shakti 2019’ was held in Pune recently.

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60. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) 10th

Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) meeting was held at Kota
Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia.
61. Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan
inaugurated the second edition of the ‘Eat Right Mela’ along with
11th National Street food festival at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in New
Delhi. The theme of the mela was “Healthier Diets”.
62. Transforming Education Conference for Humanity (TECH) 2019
jointly organized by UNESCO and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of
Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) was held in
Vishakhapatnam, AP.
63. Organised by Ministry of Jal Shakti and IIT-Kanpur, fourth India
Water Impact Summit was held in New Delhi. The theme for this year’s
summit was: ‘Valuing Water – Transforming Ganga’.
64. The Joint tri service exercise between India and Russia,
“INDRA” was held in Goa and Pune simultaneously.
65. Second edition of “Startup India Global Venture Capital
Summit” was held in Goa. The summit was organized by DPIIT under
Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Theme: ‘India Opportunity-
Investing in tomorrow together’.
66. International Seminar on Climate Smart Farming Systems’ for
BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and
Economic Cooperation) countries was held in New Delhi.
67. First ever Global Refugee Forum (GRF) was held in Geneva,
Switzerland, which was co-hosted by United Nations Refugee Agency
(UNHCR).
68. Eighth edition of India-China joint training exercise Hand-in-Hand
2019 was conducted at Umroi, Meghalaya recently.
RANKS
69. Global Climate Risk Index 2020, published by “German watch”
found Japan to be the most vulnerable country to climate change,
followed by Philippines, Germany, Madagascar and India.
70. India was ranked 129 in the Human Development Index
released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for 189
countries.
The report was titled “Beyond Income, Beyond Averages, Beyond Today:
Inequalities in Human Development in 21st century”. The rankings were

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listed based on the assessment of poverty, education, life

expectancy and access to health care.
71. According to the Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum
(WEF), India is ranked 112th in terms of gender gap. Iceland is the most
gender-equal country. The global gender gap –is measured across four key
areas, or sub-indexes: health, education, work and politics.
72. According to the US agency National Science Foundation’s (NSF)
report ‘Science and Engineering Indicators 2019’ on the number of
scientific papers published worldwide for the year 2019, India was ranked
as the world’s 3rd largest publisher of science and
engineering(S&E) articles. The list was topped by China.
73. Tamil Nadu’s Molugamboondi gram panchayat topped the
ranking for the year 2019 on gram panchayats in the country, on
implementation of development and infrastructure programmes under
the Mission Antyodaya scheme. Gujarat has most top 10 entries with 99
gram panchayats in the list.
74. India was ranked 9th out 57 countries & EU in the Climate Change
Performance Index released during the COP25 held in Madrid. As
none of the countries assessed is already on a path compatible with the
Paris climate targets, the first three places of the ranking remain
unoccupied, at fourth spot is Sweden.
75. Kerala with the score of 70 topped the 2nd edition of Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG) India Index released by the NITI Aayog in
New Delhi recently. The composite score of India has improved to 60
in 2019 from 57 in 2018.
The index gives a brief analysis on the progress made by states and union
territories (UTs) towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.
The Index this year ranked states based on 54 targets spread over
100 indicators out of 306 outlined by the UN.
76. Tamil Nadu stood at the first position in the big states category in
the first ‘Good Governance Index’ (GGI) launched by Dr Jitendra Singh
in New Delhi. Jharkhand was last in this category.
In the “North east & hill states” and “Union Territory”” category, Himachal
Pradesh and Puducherry stood first respectively.
77. According to a UK-based market research company Euromonitor
International, seven Indian cities — including the national capital —
have made it to the list of the ‘Top 100 City Destinations’ of 2019.
While Delhi currently features as the 11th city on the list, it is expected
to take on the eighth position in the rankings in 2019.

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INTERNATIONAL
78. United States President Donald Trump has signed the 2020 National
Defense Authorization Act, authorising the establishment of Space Force
which would become the sixth branch of the armed forces.
The main goal of the Space Force is to secure and extend American
dominance of the space domain.
79. Abu Dhabi, capital city of UAE has been selected as the World’s
Leading Sports Tourism Destination at the World Travel Awards (WTA)
2019 held in Muscat, Oman.
80. An island in South Pacific region, Bougainville was voted to
become the world’s newest nation by gaining independence from Papua
New Guinea.
81. Netherlands (Capital: Amsterdam, Currency: Euro) has officially
announced to drop the nickname ‘Holland’ from January 2020.
82. The Prime Minister of Portugal (Capital: Lisbon, Currency: Euro),
António Luís Santos da Costa, announced the Portuguese govt’s launch
of Gandhi Citizenship Education Prize to perpetuate Mahatma Gandhi’s
ideals during the 2nd meeting of National Committee (of which he is
a member) for Commemoration of the 150th Birth anniversary of
Mahatma Gandhi held in New Delhi.
First edition of the prize will be awarded to animal welfare.
The National Committee which was formed for two years i.e. from
October 2, 2018 to October 2, 2020 has 125 members (including nine
International members).
83. US astronaut Christina Koch has set the record for the longest
single spaceflight by a woman when she reached, and crossed, 289 days
in her current mission.
84. Donald Trump became the third President to be impeached by
the US House. He was accused of enlisting foreign government to
investigate political rival before 2020 election. The other two American
presidents to have been impeached are Bill Clinton (in 1998) and Andrew
Johnson (in 1868).

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85. Russia recently unveiled world’s first Avangard hypersonic

intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It can fly 27 times the speed
of sound.
AWARDS
86. B.P Raju, Deputy superintendent in CBI has won ‘India Cyber Cop
of the Year 2019’ award given by NASSCOM (National Association of
Software and Services Companies)-DSCI (Data Security Council of India)
in the Annual Information Security Summit (AISS) held at Gurugram.
87. Sahitya Akademi announced Awards in 23 languages for the
year 2019 were announced for 7 books of poetry, 4 novel, 6 short stories,
3 essays.
Shashi Tharoor, renowned Indian politician, writer won the Sahitya
Akademi award for his book “An Era of Darkness: The British Empire
in India”.
88. Author Amitabha Bagchi has won DSC Prize for South Asian
Literature 2019, for his novel “Half the Night is Gone”.
89. Author Tony Joseph has won 12th ‘Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize’
for his 2018 book, ‘Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where
We Came’.
90. Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani activist for female education was named
as “the most famous teenager in the world” of the decade by the
United Nations.
91. Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone won the World Economic
Forum’s (WEF) Annual Crystal Awards 2020 for her leadership in
raising mental health awareness.
92. Cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth former Indian women’s Cricket
team captain Anjum Chopra will be awarded prestigious CK Nayudu
Lifetime Award of the BCCI for the year 2019.
93. Miss South Africa Zozibini Tunzi was crowned as Miss Universe
2019 at the event held in Atlanta, United States.
SPORTS
94. Wasim Jaffer, from Mumbai, Maharashtra and former Indian Cricketer
becomes the first Indian to play 150 Ranji Matches.
95. Gandikota Sarva Lakshmi, former Indian Cricketer became the first
woman referee in the Men’s ODI match. The match was played
between USA and UAE in Sharjah, UAE.

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96. India topped the South Asian Games held in Nepal with a best-
ever medal haul of 312 including 174 Golds. Next South Asian games is
scheduled to be held in Karachi, Pakistan in 2022.
97. 2019 Ballon d’Or awards winners:
Best Male Player: Lionel Messi of Argentina. He won the award for a
record 6th time in his career.
Best Female Player: Megan Rapinoe of United States
Kopa Trophy (for best player in world under age of 21): Matthijs de
Ligt of Netherlands
Yashin Trophy (for best goalkeeper in the world): Alisson Becker of
Brazil.
98. Virat Kohli was ranked in the “Wisden’s Five cricketers of the
decade list” released by Wisden for the last decade (2010-2019). The
other four cricketers in the list are Steve Smith, Ellyse Perry of Australia
and Dale Steyn, AB DE Villiers of South Africa.
OBITUARIES
99. Inventor of Universal Product Code (UPC) or Barcode, George
Joseph Laurer, passed away.
100. Noted Indian Film and theatre actor Shriram Lagoo passed away
in Pune.

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TOP 50 BANKING & BUSINESS AFFAIRS OF DECEMBER

1. The 8 West African countries namely- Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso,
Benin, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Guinea-Bissau have agreed to change
the name of their common currency to ‘Eco’. currently they use CFA
France as their currency. All these countries, except Guinea-Bissau, are
former French colonies.
2. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has retained India’s economic
growth forecast at 6.1% for FY20.
3. Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman launched an
online auction platform named “eBkray” in New Delhi in order to
increase transparency in auctioning of assets attached by banks.

4. State Bank of India (SBI) and Germany’s KfW Development Bank

have signed a loan agreement of US $277 million to establish an
energy-efficient housing programme in India.
5. Union Government has announced “Partial Credit Guarantee
Scheme”, for Public Sector Banks (PSBs), the scheme will allow
purchasing of high-rated pooled assets from financially sound Non-Banking
Financial Companies (NBFCs) / Housing Finance Companies (HFCs)
amounting to a total of Rs 1 lakh crore.
6. According to to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index 2019” released
by UNCTAD’s India has been ranked at 73rd spot out of 152 countries
in the index that measures an economy’s preparedness to support online
shopping. Netherlands topped the index.
7. Axis Bank and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has entered into a
partnership to launch co-branded credit cards for customers
preferring cashless and hassle-free payments.
8. American business, financial company & rating agency Moody’s has
downgraded India’s FY20 GDP growth projection to 4.9%.
9. Bengaluru headquartered PhonePe Private Limited (PhonePe), an
Indian e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company, has
crossed 5 billion transactions on its app.
10. Afghanistan recently became the first nation to formally recognize
Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP), an official book of standards for drugs
manufactured & marketed in India in terms of their identity, purity and
strength.

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BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

11. New Development Bank (NDB) (Headquarters: Shanghai, China)

has agreed to provide $100 million to India’s National Investment and
Infrastructure Fund’s (NIIF).
12. Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Ltd (RSBVL), a wholly-
owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has acquired a
51.78 % stake in Asteria Aerospace (Headquarters: Bengaluru).
13. The appellate court of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that
acts as trade dispute settlement body for the members was shut down
by the United States.
14. Reliance Industries Limited topped the list of Fortune India 500 list
for the first-time surpassing IOC.
15. (RBI) has set a Rs. 50-lakh limit on the aggregate lending to all
borrowers across all Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer
(NBFC-P2P) lending platforms.
16. According to a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI) report, arms sales worldwide rose up by 4.6% in 2018 and
India was ranked 10th in the overall country ranking while, United
States (US) topped the list.
17. Wipro has partnered with NASSCOM (National Association of
Software and Services Companies) to launch ‘Future Skills’ platform to
train 10,000 students in new age technologies such as artificial
intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, cyber security and
internet of things (IoT).
18. According to the report titled “Global House Price Index 2019”,
released by Knight Frank, India was ranked at 47th place out of 56
countries, while Hungary topped the list.
19. To facilitate smooth settlement of NEFT transactions in the
accounts of the member banks maintained with the Reserve Bank in a
24x7 environment, RBI has announced an additional collateralised
intra-day liquidity facility, to be called Liquidity Support (LS).
20. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has announced to
grant a loan worth of $210 ($145-million will be given to improve
irrigation service delivery and strengthen flood risk management in
West Bengal and remaining $65-million will be given for 250-megawatt
(MW) solar power project in Jodhpur) million to India.
21. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted $250 million loan to
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to expand energy efficiency
investments in India by way of identifying new business opportunities.

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BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

22. Department of fisheries of govt. of India, NABARD and the state

government of Tamil Nadu have signed the first tripartite Memorandum
of Agreement (MoA) for implementation of Fisheries and Aquaculture
Development Fund (FIDF).
23. According to the report titled “Digital States of India – A
Comparative Analysis” which maps all the States and Union Territories
on their policy and infrastructure readiness and mission mode project’s
performance Chhattisgarh has emerged as the top state.
24. Napean Opportunities LLP has acquired 16.01% and Honey
Wheat Investment Ltd has acquired 9.99 % paid-up share capital of
SBI General Insurance.
25. In order to boost small value digital transactions, RBI has launched
semi-closed prepaid payment instrument (PPI) for transaction of
goods and services up to a limit of Rs 10,000.
26. RBI conducted simultaneous sale and purchase of government
bonds under the Open Market Operations (OMO) mechanism, (this
concept is similar to “Operation Twist” that adopted by US Federal
Reserve) with an aim to reduce interest rates on long-term bonds &
improve the liquidity position in the market.
27. In a first, Walmart India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc
has joined hands with HDFC Bank to launch a co-branded credit
card.
28. RBI has allowed 24×7 transactions facility under the National
Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system to customers on all days
including weekends and holidays from December 16,2019.
29. RBI has restricted Primary Urban cooperative banks (UCBs)
exposure to a single borrower & a group of connected borrowers at 10%
and 25%, respectively.
Bank has also hiked the priority sector lending (PSL) target for UCBs
to 75% of adjusted net bank credit (ANBC). The target has to be reached
in phases — 50 per cent by March 2021, 60 per cent by March 2022, and
75 per cent by March 2023.
30. Exim bank has provided $500 million Line of Credit (LoC) to
Bangladesh for defence-related procurement in the neighbouring
country.

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BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

31. Union government has approved the signing of a Memorandum of

Cooperation (MOC) between India and Japan regarding the
formation of ‘India-Japan Steel Dialogue’ to strengthen
cooperation in the steel sector.
32. International Finance Corporation (IFC) will invest around $ 200
million in Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited (MMFSL),
a rural NBFC to create a ‘pool’ specifically for MSMEs in low income states.
33. Canada's biggest public pension fund Canada Pension Plan
Investment Board (CPPIB) is investing up to $600 million in India's
National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
34. Fitch Ratings slashed India's GDP growth forecast in the current
fiscal to 4.6 per cent. India’s growth rate will be 5.6 % in FY 2020-21 and
6.5 % in FY2021-22
35. SEBI has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with
the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) to strengthen cross-
border cooperation in areas such as securities regulation and at the same
time improve the efficiency of monitoring operations.
36. CRISIL – a credit rating agency has lowered its estimate of India’s
gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to 5.1 % for the current
financial year –FY20.
37. Best Performing Award for Rural Self Employment Training
Institutes (RSETI) was given to Andhra Bank for the financial year
2018-19.
38. To deepen the bond market and bring in retail participation in the bond
market the Union Government, cleared the launch of India’s first Bharat
Bond Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which will be managed by
Edelweiss Asset Management.
39. Mastercard has tied-up with Federal Bank to provide an
additional layer of security function called ‘Mastercard Identity
Check’ for digital transactions done by bank’s cardholders.
40 RBI has appointed J&K Bank and SBI as the UTLBC (Union Territory
Lead Bank Convenor) of the newly formed UTs of Jammu & Kashmir
and Ladakh respectively.
41. As per RBI’s ‘Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Small Finance
Banks (SFB), for Private applicants minimum paid-up voting equity
capital/ net worth requirement shall be Rs.200 crore.
For Primary Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs), aspiring to voluntarily
transit into SFBs, initial requirement of net worth shall be at Rs.100

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BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

crores that will have to be increased to Rs.200 crores within 5 years.

Also, payment banks can convert into SFBs after five years of operations.
42. HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, has launched “my: health
Woman Suraksha policy”, a comprehensive medical insurance scheme
specially designed for women. Women aged 18–65 years are eligible for
the policy & they will be offered a sum insured ranging from Rs. 1 lakh to
1 crore.
43. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered India’s GDP
growth forecast to 5.1% for the FY – 20.
44. According to the UK-based Centre for Economics and Business
Research (CEBR) report titled ‘World Economic League Table 2020′(WELT
2020), India is expected to overtake Germany as the fourth-largest
economy in the world by 2026. It also estimated that India will overtake
Japan as the third-largest economy by 2034.
45. ZestMoney, an AI - driven EMI financing platform has partnered with
Chinese smartphone company, Xiaomi, to launch new loan service app
called “MiCredit” in the Indian market.
46. According to the RBI’s annual report on “Trend and Progress of
Banking in India 2018-19”, the gross NPA of the Scheduled Commercial
Banks (SCBs) improved to 9.1% in March 2019 from 11.2% in March
2018.While, Net non-performing assets of all commercial banks declined to
3.7 % in 2018-19 as compared to 6 % in the previous fiscal.
Also, in the FY-19 bank frauds grew 74% as compared to FY-18 to
reach 6801 cases worth of Rs 71,543 crore.
47. IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) has
constituted a 10-member working group headed by IRDAI member T.
L. Alamelu to make recommendations for loss prevention &
minimization in the general insurance industry.
48. RBI’s fifth bi-monthly monetary policy statement, the rates were kept
unchanged:
Repo rate: 5.15%.
Reverse repo rate: 4.9%
Bank Rate: 5.4%
Marginal Standing Facility: 5.4%
49. Vakrangee Finserve Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Vakrangee Limited (VL) has partnered with Union Bank of India for

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BAZOOKA: JANUARY EDITION

20,000 Banking Business Correspondent (BC) points for Nextgen

Vakrangee Kendra.
50. Government of India signed MoU with Flipkart for selling the
products made by women self-help groups under Deendayal
Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) on
the e-commerce platform.

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