GK & Current Affairs Quiz: October 25, 2017

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has formed a 10-member task force on Public Credit Registry (PCR) for India to improve market efficiency. The task force will be headed by M Deosthalee, former chairman of L&T Finance Holdings. The terms of reference of the task force include, reviewing the current availability of information on credit in the country, assessing gaps in India that could be filled by a comprehensive public credit registry and suggesting a “roadmap including the priority areas, for developing a transparent, comprehensive and near-real-time” public credit registry for India. The task force will also study the best international practices on public credit registry and will decide the structure of the new information system. It will submit its report by April 4, 2018.

Notes:
Suresh Sethi, the former MD of Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd., has been appointed as the new Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). He succeeded A.P. Singh, who had been the interim MD & CEO of IPPB since January 2017. Sethi has broad international experience of over 27 years in the banking and financial services industry with Citigroup and YES Bank, across India, Kenya, the UK, Argentina and the US.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) has recently signed an agreement with Escorts Ltd to finance farmers for purchase of Escorts tractors. The aim of the tie-up with Escorts is to promote, market and make accessible, organised finance facility, with superior features, at competitive interest rates to farmers across the country, who wish to purchase Powertrac and Farmtrac tractors manufactured by Escorts. Escorts is a leading tractor and construction equipment manufacturer at Faridabad in Haryana.

Notes:
Irruppam Veedu Sasidaran (also known as I V Sasi) (69), the legendary filmmaker, has passed away at Saligramam, Chennai, on October 24, 2017. He was best known for his films “Avalude Ravukal” and “Devasuram”. In his more than three-decade career, Sasi directed over 150 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi and worked with stars such as Mohanlal, Mammootty, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth.

Notes:
The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Punjab National Bank (PNB) to provide easy access to export finance for SMEs and merchant exporters of the council. The PNB will provide finance with assurance that loans up to Rs 10 crore would be provided within six to seven weeks at competitive rates. As per the agreement, PNB would also extend foreign currency loan facilities and provide advisory support to EEPC India members to finance projects through its more than 200 authorised foreign exchange branches. Besides, engineering exporters would be given a ‘Gold card’ under which additional benefits like quicker sanction and disbursal of loan will be extended. The gold card facilities would be extended to the exporters with internal credit rating of B1 and above and those outside the RBI caution list.

Notes:
Freedom fighter and lawyer Gaur Kishore Ganguli (96) has passed away in his native village in Purulia in West Bengal. Born on October 21, 1923 in Purulia in West Bengal Ganguli was influenced by his father Sasodhar Ganguli, a freedom fighter. He joined the Quit India movement in 1942 when he was 19 years old and a student of Ranchi College. He served a two-and-half-year long jail term along with his father in the prisons of Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Patna. He began practising in Dhanbad district court after the reorganization of states in 1956 and was a member of the bar association.

Notes:
As per report by Coeus Age Consulting, Madhya Pradesh has emerged as the top state in terms of digital initiatives undertaken, with a maximum score of 100.1 on performance index, followed by Maharashtra at 99.9 and Andhra Pradesh at 99.8. The assessment by the knowledge domain service provider was done using a scoring framework made up of two key constructs, Policy and Infrastructure Readiness (PIR) Score and Mission Mode Projects’ Performance (MMP) Score for each state. Chhattisgarh (97.4) and Karnataka (95.3) occupied the fourth and fifth positions in the list, respectively, the company said in a release. The report is based on a comparative assessment of digital initiatives by 36 states and Union Territories. The assessment is based on 109 key performance indicators related to policy, infrastructure and mission mode projects.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon make Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) compulsory for companies having aggregate fund-based and non-fund based exposure over Rs 5 crore. Before this, RBI made LEI mandatory for transactions in interest rate, forex and credit derivative market. LEI is a unique 20 digit alphanumeric code that will be assigned to corporate borrowers. Banks will be required to capture this number in the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) database that captures details of loan above Rs 5 crore. LEI mechanism will help banks to effectively monitor debt exposure of corporate borrowers. It would also enable banks in preventing multiple loans to companies against the same collateral.

Notes:
The Topchanchi Wildlife Sanctuary (TWS) is located in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand and covers an area of 8.75 Sq. Km. It is home to Leopard, Jungle Cat, Cheetal, Barking Deer, Wild Boar, Mongoose, Langur, Jackal, Fox, Wild Dog, etc. The Topchanchi Lake increases the richness of the habitat and is visited by migratory winter birds such as pochards, red crested pochards and coots. The forests here are of Dry Mixed Deciduous type with Dry Peninsular Sal in Baneshpur and Bawardaha, the other tree species being Asan, Bijasal, Dhow, Semal, Kendu, Piar, Karam, Siris, Sidha etc. The grassland and bamboo crops are also present.

Notes:
The President of India Ram Nath Kovind has constituted a Commission under Article 340 of the Constitution to examine Sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the central list. The four-member Commission headed by Justice G. Rohini will submit its report to the President within 12 weeks. The commission has commenced functioning on 11th October 2017, from its office at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The sub categorization of the OBCs will ensure that the more backward among the OBC communities can also access the benefits of reservation for educational institutions and government jobs. On receipt of the report, the Central Government will consider ways and means for equitable distribution of the benefits of the reservation in Central Government jobs and admission in Central Government Institutions amongst all strata of the OBC.