Current Affairs - 2019-20

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Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Shri. Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the breakthrough event of Chamba Tunnel under Chardham Pariyojana through video conference. Originating from Rishikesh, Char Dham highway network will have four distinct routes connecting the four holy places in Uttarakhand viz. Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. The foundation stone of Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana (Char Dham Highway Development Project) was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 27 December, 2016.

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Recently, the divers discovered an Enigma encryption machine used by Nazis in Baltic sea. The divers discovered the machine while searching the seabed with sonar devices for abandoned fishing nets that might harm the sea life.Enigma is an encryption device that was used by the German Nazis during the 2^nd World War to encode secret messages.

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It has decreased from 13.6 percent in triennium 2010-13 to 8.4 percent in triennium 2016-19. [Source: Bihar Economic Survey 2019-20].

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On February 22, 2020, The former Indian Footballer Ashok Chatterjee who was a part of India’s bronze-medal winning teams in the Merdeka Cup in 1965 and 1966, passed away at the age of 78 in Kolkata due to age-related issues. Chatterjee also represented India in the 1966 Asian Games, Bangkok and the Asian cup Qualifiers in 1967.

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The banking license of Mantha Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd. Was canceled by the Reserve Bank of India. With this, the bank is restricted to perform any banking business. The reason behind the cancellation of the license was that the bank was having inadequate capital and earning prospects and was not in compliance with provisions of section 11(1) and section 22 (3) (d) read with a section of Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) offers banks four external benchmark options for lending rates: RBI repo rate, 91-day T-bill yield, 182-day T-bill yield, or other market interest rates from Financial Benchmarks India Pvt. Ltd. The Marginal Cost of Lending Rate (MCLR), effective since April 2016, is the minimum interest rate for floating-rate loans, based on marginal cost of funds, cash reserve ratio, operating costs, and tenor premium. The base rate is determined by the cost of funds, unallocated resource costs, and return on net worth, varying by bank. The Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) was used until June 2010, pricing loans based on actual cost of funds.

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The Malasar are a Scheduled Tribe in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, among the earliest inhabitants of the Western Ghats. The Chenchu tribe worships the tiger as a deity and part of their spiritual family, while the Baiga and Mising tribes view it as a forest companion. The Baiga tribe actively aids in tiger conservation in Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha National Park. The Singchung Bugun Community Reserve received the India Biodiversity Award for conserving the Critically Endangered Bugun Liocichla bird, named after the Bugun tribe.

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.au is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. It was first created on 5 March 1986. Domain name policy is managed by .au Domain Administration (auDA). As of July 2018, the registry is currently operated by Afilias. Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses.

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Paralympian star Devendra Jhajharia, who clinched gold in men’s F46 javelin throw at the Rio Olympics, and former Indian hockey skipper Sardar Singh were honoured with 2017 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli and world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu received the 2018 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.