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1. Saurabh Kumar has been appointed as

the Director General of Ordnance Factories
(DGOF) and chairman of the Ordnance Factory
Board (OFB) in Kolkata.

2. The Government has appointed Sudhir

Bhargava, as the new chief information
commissioner along with four new information
commissioners.

3. Amitabh Chaudhry replaced Shikha Sharma MD and CEO of the Axis

bank from 1st January 2019.

4. Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in as Brazil’s (Capital: Brasilia, Currency:

Real) 42nd

5. President Ram Nath Kovind nominated Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri as

Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).

6. Justice Asif Saeed Khosa was appointed as the new Chief Justice of
Pakistan.

7. General Manager of South-Central Railway, Vinod Kumar Yadav, has

been appointed as Chairman of Railway Board and ex-officio Principal
Secretary to Government of India.

1. ISRO (Headquarter: Bengaluru) has

launched an outreach programme called
“Samwad” with students. The programme
was aimed at motivating young India and
tapping their scientific potential.
2. Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
extended the Credit-Linked Subsidy Scheme
(CLSS) for Middle Income Group (MIG)
scheme by another 12 months till March
31, 2020.

3. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik

(Governor: Ganeshi Lal) announced interest-
free loans of up to Rs.3 lakh for six lakh women self-help groups
(WSHGs) under the Shakti scheme which was started in 2001.

4, West Bengal government (CM: Mamta Banerjee, Governor: Keshari

Nath Tripathi) has announced the Krishak Bandhu scheme to address
the farm distress in the state, the scheme will give annual financial
assistance of Rs 5,000 per acre in two instalments, one during Kharif
and another during Rabi season.

5. The Government in association with Global Environment Facility (GEF)

and FAO (Headquarter: Rome, Italy) has launched the “Green – Ag:
Transforming Indian Agriculture for global environmental benefits
and the conservation of critical biodiversity and forest landscapes”.

6. Under Atal Solar Krishi Pump Yojana, the state government of

Maharashtra (CM: Devendra Phadnavis, Governor: Vidyasagar Rao) has
decided to give two LED bulbs, a DC fan and a mobile charging
socket. The scheme provides a subsidy of up to 95% on solar pump sets.
The State plans to install one lakh solar pumps.

7. The Union Cabinet has approved the restructuring of existing

National Health Agency as National Health Authority. This NHA would
be empowered with full autonomy, accountability and the mandate to
implement Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).

8. The Ministry of Textiles (Union Minster: Smriti Irani, Rajya Sabha MP

from Gujarat) had launched a Yarn Bank Scheme as one of the
components of Power Textile India scheme with an aim to avoid fluctuation
in yarn price.

Under the scheme, an interest-free corpus fund up to Rs 2.00 crore would

be provided to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)/Consortium formed by
power loom weavers.

9. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (Union Minister:

Prakash Javdekar, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra) has launched 70-
Point Grading Index to assess the quality of school education in the
states.
10. Power Minister New & Renewable Energy Shri RK Singh (Lok
Sabha MP: Arrah, Bihar) announced that 25 states have achieved 100
per cent household electrification under Centre’s ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj
Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’ (Saubhagya).

1. RBI releases bi-annual Fiscal Stability

Report, important points from the report are:

a. Credit growth of scheduled commercial

banks (SCBs) has improved between March
2018 and September 2018, driven largely by
private sector banks (PVBs).

b. The banking stability indicator (BSI) shows

that the asset quality of the banks has improved, although profitability
continues to erode.

c. The asset quality of banks showed an improvement with the gross

non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio of SCBs declining from 11.5 per
cent in March 2018 to 10.8 per cent in September 2018.

d. Under the baseline scenario, the GNPA ratio may decline from
10.8 per cent in September 2018 to 10.3 per cent in March 2019.

e. Analysis of the financial network structure for the period September 2017
- September 2018 reveals a shrinking inter-bank market and
increasing bank linkages with asset management companies-
mutual funds (AMC-MFs) for raising funds and with NBFCs/Housing
Finance Companies (HFCs) for lending.

f. The liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), improved for PSBs and Private
Banks in September 2018. PSBs are able to maintain better LCR than the
PVBs.

g. The capital to risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR) of SCBs declined

marginally from 13.8 per cent in March 2018 to 13.7 per cent in
September 2018.

h. As of September 30, 2018, there were 10,190 non-banking financial

companies (NBFCs) registered with the Reserve Bank, of which 108
were deposit accepting (NBFCs-D). There were 276 systemically
important non-deposit accepting NBFCs (NBFCs- ND-SI.

2. RBI has formed an expert committee headed by former SEBI

chairman UK Sinha to look into the various challenges being faced
by MSMEs and suggest ways and measures to rejuvenate them.
3. Allahabad Bank (Headquarter: Kolkata) & Syndicate Bank
(Headquarter: Manipal, Karnataka) signed a bancassurance pact with
SBI Life Insurance (Headquarter: Mumbai) to sell the policies of the
insurer from over 3,238 branches of the Allahabad Bank.

4. ‘Growth Outlook for 2019’, report of Confederation of Indian Industry

(CII) stated that India will remain the fastest growing major
economy with GDP growth estimated to be 7.5% in FY19.

5. Bharti AXA Life Insurance started delivering policies and renewal

premium receipt to customers via instant messaging platform
WhatsApp as a part of its alternative service option to the policyholders.

6. Three Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) – Punjab Gramin Bank, Malwa

Gramin Bank and Sutlej Gramin Bank has been amalgamated into a
single RRB by the Government.

1. Loan subsidy for the middle-income

group under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,
(PMAY) has been extended till 31st March
2020.

2. France (Capital: Paris, Currency: Euro)

introduced a new “GAFA tax” for companies
Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to ensure
the global giants pay a fair share of taxes
on their massive businesses in Europe.

3. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has

established an Export Promotion Cell to create to create a sustainable
ecosystem.

4. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has estimated that the economy is
expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in the FY – 19. India’s per capita
income in real terms (at 2011-12 prices) during 2018-19 is likely to
attain a level of Rs 91,921 as compared to Rs 86,668 for the fiscal year
2018-19.

5. SEBI has allowed custodial services in the commodity derivatives

market enabling the participation of institutional investors, including
mutual funds, in the segment.

1. Cuttack Mahotsav an International

Dance and Music festival was held in Cuttack,
Odisha, in the event Kathak (folk dance of UP)
 exponent Anindita Neogy Anaam has been
honoured with the prestigious National
Nritya Shiromani award.

2. Andhra Pradesh (CM: Chandrababu Naidu,

Governor: ESL Narsimhan) bagged Central
Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP’s) “Best Implementation of Water
Resources Project” for better planning, implementation, monitoring
and speedy execution of Polavaram multipurpose project on the
Godavari River.

3. Manoj Das, an eminent English and Odia Litterateur received the

“Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja National Award for Lifetime
Achievement” in literature.

4. Three Indian-origin women scientists -Onisha Patel, Devika

Kamath and Asha Rao were among the 60 Superstars of STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) list awarded by the
Australian government.

5. IIT Roorkee professor Jayanta Kumar Ghosh was felicitated with

the National Geospatial Award for Excellence for his contribution
towards the development of geospatial science and applications.

6. To honour his exemplary work in children’s healthcare paediatrician, Dr

Rajan Deshpande, received the Shankar Vaidya Shree Award.

1. Andhra Pradesh (CM: Chandrababu Naidu,

Governor: ESL Narasimhan) has topped the
Ease of Doing Business rankings released by
Asia competitiveness institute
(ACI). Maharashtra and Delhi came in second and third place respectively.

1. The 27th New Delhi World Book Fair will

be held at the Pragati Maidan, the theme of
the Fair is “Readers with special needs”. The
UAE’s third largest emirate (state) Sharjah is
the guest of honour for the New Delhi
World Book Fair.

2. The 13th edition of Global Healthcare Summit 2019 will be held

in Hyderabad in the month of July.

3. PM Modi inaugurated the 106th session of the Indian Science

Congress at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar.
The theme of the event is ‘Future India: Science and Technology’.

4. Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) will organize a two-day mega

food international event, the Indus Food Meet 2019, at Greater Noida
in Uttar Pradesh. Odisha to participate as a partner state.

5. 30th edition of the nine-day long international kite festival was

recently inaugurated at Ahmedabad, Gujarat (CM: Vijay Rupani,
Governor: OP Kohli).

6. First ever World Braille Day was celebrated by UN on January

4th.

Attempt IBPS Clerk Mains Free Test

1. The Panel headed by IIT-Hyderabad

chairman B V R Mohan Reddy has
suggested All India Council for Technical
Education (AICTE) not to allow setting up of
new Engineering colleges from 2020.

2. Union Government has given its approval to

list seven Central Public Sector Enterprises
(CPSE) on the Stock Exchange through Initial Public Offering (IPO)
/Further Public Offer (FPO).

These seven CPSEs are: Telecommunication Consultants (India) [TCIL],

RailTel Corporation India, National Seed Corporation India (NSC), Tehri
Hydro Development Corporation (THDC), Water & Power Consultancy
Services (India), FCI Aravalli Gypsum and Minerals (India) (FAGMIL),
Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL).

3. Scientists from the IIT, Guwahati, have developed a paper kit to

test the freshness of milk and determine how well the milk has been
pasteurized.

4. Recently around 30 lakh women stood shoulder to shoulder to form

Vanitha Mathil, “women’s wall” that ran across the length of Kerala.
The wall (620 Kms) stretched from Kasaragod in the north to
Thiruvananthapuram in the south for about 620 Kms.

5. 21-day annual Makaravilakku festival season was recently

celebrated tribes in the forest of Ponnambalamedu, Kerala.

6. PM Modi recently inaugurated Dolaithabi Barrage project in

Imphal.

7. PM Modi recently laid the foundation stone for the Mandal Dam
Project on the North Koel River, Jharkhand (CM: Raghubar Das,
Governor: Draupadi Murmu).

8. Rail Kumbh Seva Mobile App has been launched by the North
Central Railway (NCR) to help the devotees arriving in Prayagraj
(Allahabad) for the Kumbh Mela.

9. The government has set up a committee headed by former Union

tourism secretary M.P. Bezbaruah to review the implementation of
clause 6 of the Assam Accord.

Clause 6 of the Assam Accord provides for Constitutional, legislative and

administrative safeguards to protect preserve and promote the cultural,
social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.

10. After a long wait, Andhra Pradesh got a separate high court in
Amravati since the bifurcation of the state on June 2, 2014, Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana have had a common high court at Hyderabad.

Justice C Praveen Kumar was appointed as acting Chief Justice of AP

High Court,

Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan took over as the first Chief Justice

of the Telangana (CM: KCR Rao, Governor: ESL Narsimhan) High Court
with effect from January 1, 2019.

11. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu handed over papers for an LPG
connection to Jasmina Khatoon from Shivpark, Khanpur in New
Delhi to mark the 6 crore LPG connections under PMUY.

12. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) recently declared 6 more

monuments as ‘protected and of national importance’ taking the total
number to 3693.

These newly added sites are:

1. High Court Building in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

2. Haveli of Agha Khan in Agra.
3. Haveli of Hathi Khana, Agra.
4. Neemrana Baori in Alwar district of Rajasthan (CM: Ashok
Gehlot, Governor: Kalyan Singh)
5. Group of Temples in Ranipur Jharail in Bolangir district of
Odisha. (CM: Naveen Patnaik, Governor: Ganeshi Lal)
6. Vishnu Temple in Kotali, Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand
(CM: Trivendra Singh Rawat, Governor: Baby Rani Maurya). 
13. Arunima Sinha became the world’s first female amputee to
climb Mount Vinson, the highest peak of Antarctica.

14, Secunderabad Railway Station, in Hyderabad, became the first

railway station of South-Central Railway (SCR) zone to hoist a huge
tricolour on a 100-foot tall pole.

Attempt NIACL AO Prelims Free Test

1. The ruling coalition led by Bangladesh

(Capital: Dhaka, Currency: Taka) Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina of Awami League
has won the Parliamentary elections and
are set to again run the government.

2. China’s lunar rover Yutu-2 or Jade Rabbit-

2 of the Chang’e-4 spacecraft made the
first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon.

3. To counter the encroaching influence and growing threat from China, the
US president has signed the ‘Asia Reassurance Initiative Act’.

4. Japan (Capital: Tokyo, Currency: Yen) has announced its decision to

withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The
withdrawal would enable Japan to resume commercial whaling activities.

5. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (provincial government of Pakistan) has

declared the ancient Hindu religious site of “Panj Tirath” in
Peshawar as national heritage.

6. USA and Israel officially quit the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) amid concerns that the
organization encourages anti-Israel bias.

7. Russia recently tested “Father of all Bombs”, after China

successfully tested its most powerful non-nuclear weapon, dubbed as the
Mother of All Bombs.

1. Women’s cricketer Smriti Mandhana was

adjudged ‘Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for
the Women’s Cricketer of the Year ‘as well
as the ‘Women’s ODI Player of the Year by ICC
(Headquarter: Dubai). Besides this
Harmanpreet Kaur has been named the
captain of ICC Women’s T20I Team of the
Year.

2. Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah became

the highest international wicket-taker of
2018 with 78 wickets.

3. France recently accorded its highest honour

Legion of Honour, to France’s football team
which won the FIFA WC last year.

4. Shooters Divyansh Singh Panwar Nupur Patil from Maharashtra

have won 10th R.R. Lakshya Cup 2018 in senior and junior category
respectively.

5. Switzerland (Capital: Bern, Currency: Franc) tennis team of Roger

Federer & Belinda Bencic won the Hopman Cup held in Perth,
Australia.

1. ARPAnet head and early internet pioneer

Larry Roberts passed away.

2. Hong Kong-born filmmaker and “City on

Fire” director Ringo Lam passed away.

3. Veteran actor-writer Kader Khan passed

away.

4. Veteran Kannada actor C H Loknath passed away.

5. Bengali writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee Dibyendu Palit passed

away.

6. Dronacharya awardee cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar, (he coached

Sachin Tendulkar) passed away.

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