SBI will buy shares worth 7,250 crore rupees of the cash-strapped Yes Bank in accordance with the draft reconstruction scheme envisaged by the Reserve Bank of India. SBI’s shareholding in Yes Bank will remain within 49 percent of the paid-up capital.
Per share price is 10 Rs.
Observing mismatch in US dollar liquidity across the world, the Reserve Bank has announced a six-month US dollar sell/buy swap to provide liquidity to the foreign exchange market. The 1st swap worth 2 billion US dollars will be conducted on March 16th.
Indian Forex reserves stood at $487.24 billion as of 6th March.
Swiss brokerage UBS sharply cut its 2020-21 GDP growth forecast for India to 5.1 percent on fears around the coronavirus outbreak and also the weak credit growth domestically. The brokerage also cut its FY20 growth estimate marginally to 4.8 percent.
Growth rate will continue to be under potential in FY22.
The Reserve Bank of India said that the Central Government has nominated Department of Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda as a Director on the RBI central board. The nomination of Panda is effective from March 11, 2020 and until further orders.
RBI can have a maximum of four deputy governors.
National Crime Records Bureau celebrated its 35th Inception Day, on March 12. Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai launched Crime Multi Agency Centre (Cri-MAC) for sharing of information on heinous crime & issues related to inter-state coordination.
NCTC- For quality eLearning services on cybercrime analysis.
Minister of State for Power, New & Renewable Energy R.K. Singh informed that as per the extant National Electricity Plan, installed capacity of thermal power plants, comprising of Coal based and Gas & diesel plants, is likely to be 243,037 MW in 2021-22.
Plant Load Factor of Coal based capacity in 2021-22 is 56.5%.
Parliament passed amendments to the insolvency law- Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2020-that will help ring-fence successful bidders of insolvent companies from risk of criminal proceedings for offences committed by previous promoters.
IBC, which came into force in 2016, has already amended thrice.
GOKADDAL, world’s first Digital Solutions Exchange in the cloud has been launched in India. It is a one of its kind Solutions Aggregator, Marketplace & Cloud delivery platform with focus on 4A’s: Automation, AI, Analytics and Augmentative Technologies.
GOKADDAL Technologies is a Dubai based Technology company.
Major Port Authorities Bill 2020 was introduced in the Loksabha. It seeks to provide for regulation, operation and planning of Major Ports and to vest the administration, control and management of such ports upon the Boards of Major Port Authorities.
Bill will replace Major Port Trusts Act, 1963.
India surged back to tie the second position with China in KPMG's 2020 global technology industry innovation survey which includes responses from more than 800 global leaders in the technology industry. Bengaluru entered in the top 10 rankings of the list.
Singapore leaped to the top of this year's global rankings.
Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Management of Manipal Academy of Higher Education entered the Limca Book of Records for establishing 'India's 1st Living Culinary Arts Museum' at WGSHA. Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna is the Founder & curator of Museum.
The culinary arts academic block in WGSHA was opened in 2018.
Close on the spread of COVID-9, there are reports that India could invoke a 123-year-old law, Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. It was enacted to tackle bubonic plague in the then Bombay state, is meant to contain dangerous epidemic diseases.
Disobeying any regulation is punishable under IPC section 188.
India is one of the better-performing countries in the global Animal Protection Index 2020, created by international animal welfare charity, World Animal Protection. The index ranks countries from A (being the highest score) to G (being the weakest score).
India has attained a C ranking in the index.
Parliament approved Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The bill envisages curtailing time lag in operationalization of the coal blocks even after their allocation & was needed to ensure uninterrupted coal supplies to thermal plants and other industries.
Minister of Coal and Mines- Pralhad Joshi.
Uttar Pradesh government has launched three ambitious schemes for skill development and employment generation for youths in the state and also announced to depute 'Arogya Mitras' at all primary health centres to inform people about govt health schemes.
3 Schemes- Kaushal Satrang, Yuva Hub & Apprenticeship Scheme.
Assam is to construct 33 stadiums under Uttaran scheme. Rs 300 Cr will be spent to build the stadiums across the state. 500 playgrounds are being developed at the state to encourage rural talents. State of the art sports facilities are also being set up.
Rs 50,000 will be given to 1000 players & 2500 clubs.
Ministry of Minority Affairs executes schemes for 6 notified minority communities-Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis & Sikhs in J&K. USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills & Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development) was launched in May 2015.
Hamari Dharohar- To preserve heritage of minority communities.
The Maharashtra cabinet approved a proposal to rename Mumbai Central station in the city as 'Nana Shankarsheth Mumbai Central Railway Station'. Jagannath 'Nana' Shankarsheth who libed between 1803-1865, was a Maharashtrian philanthropist and educationist.
He is famous for his contribution to Mumbai's development.
Hola Mahalla is an important Indian Sikh festival held in Anandpur Sahib in Punjab which follows Holi festival. Unlike festival of Holi, when people playfully throw coloured powders, Hola Mahalla is an occasion for the Sikhs to demonstrate martial skills.
The fair is also known for community service.
Wings India 2020, an International conference and exhibition on the Civil Aviation sector, has begun on 12 March in Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India organize the biennial event along with FICCI.
2020 Wings India Theme: 'Flying for all'.
Tamil Nadu hosted the 1st-ever regional event 'Divya Kala Shakti: Witnessing the abilities in disabilities a unique cultural' event at Chennai on 12 March 2020. National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities hosted the event.
Dept of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities partnered.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the postponement of the Saudi African & Arab-African summits, scheduled to be hosted by the Kingdom in the first quarter of 2020. Postponement was done as a precaution in view of the spread of COVID-19.
Saudi Arabia Capital- Riyadh, Currency- Riyal.
Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank will provide $200 million (about Rs 1,480 crore) to companies manufacturing and distributing medicines, and other items needed to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) through its Supply Chain Finance Program.
ADB had given a total of $4 million in February.
Distinguished NRI businessman Rajesh Chaplot was honoured with the Highest Civilian Award (Golden Jubilee Medal-Civilians) of Uganda for his excellence in the field of Business and Commerce, Social Service and for fostering better India- Uganda ties.
He was the recipient of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman.
Researchers at the IISc have developed a new method to rapidly identify and check whether a disease-causing bacterium is alive or dead. The uniqueness of the method is the rapidity and sensitivity of the method. It uses Raman spectroscopy technology.
Raman spectroscopy: Used to identify chemical bond in materials.
American golfer Tiger Woods will be inducted into the male competitor category of World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2021. The hall of fame is located in St. Augustine, Florida. Woods was among 10 finalists named in March as candidates.
Woods is a three-time winner of the career Grand Slam.
With an MoU signed with the Gujarat govt., flying car-maker PAL-V of The Netherlands gears up to set up a manufacturing unit in India. PAL-V, which stands for Personal Air Land Vehicle, has targeted to commence production at its manufacturing plant by 2021
The PAL-V Liberty is a combination of a car and an autogiro.
IDA has announced that the tiny island nation of Niue will become the world’s first Dark Sky Nation. At just 101 square miles, Niue has received certification as both a dark sky sanctuary and a dark sky community. Niue is over 1,700 miles from New Zealand.
International Dark-Sky Association(IDA),HQs Tucson, Arizona, US.
