UN declares Malala decade’s ‘most famous teenager’

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1.UN declares Malala decade’s ‘most famous teenager’

The UN has declared Pakistani education activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai as “the most famous teenager in the world” in its ‘Decade in Review’ report.In 2014, Malala became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts for children’s rights which started even before she was shot in the head two years ago by Taliban militants.

She became a UN Messenger of Peace in 2017, with a special focus on girls.

2.PM Modi says ISRO is planning to launch satellite Aditya to study Sun

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that ISRO is planning to launch a satellite called Aditya to study the sun.The aim of the mission is to keep a permanent eye on the sun without any disturbance.

Aditya-L1 is meant to observe the solar corona.

In his ‘Mann ki Baat’ programme of AIR, Mr Modi said, India is quite advanced in the field of astronomy and ISRO has taken path-breaking initiatives in this field.

3.India likely to surpass Germany to become the fourth-largest economy in 2026: Report

India will overtake Germany to become the fourth-largest economy in the world by the year 2026.According to a report by the UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), India is all set to overtake Japan to become the third-largest economy by 2034.

The report titled ‘World Economic League Table 2020’ said that India is also set to become a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2026, 2 years later than the government’s target of 2024.

India has decisively overtaken both France and the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2019.

The base data for 2019 is taken from the IMF World Economic Outlook.

4.MyGov reaches 1 crore registered users

Central government’s citizen engagement platform, MyGov has reached one crore registered users.MyGov is a citizen engagement platform founded by the Government of India to promote the active participation of Indian citizens in their country’s governance and development.

It is also aimed at creating a common platform for Indian citizens to “crowdsource governance ideas from citizens”.

The portal is hosted and managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

5.Belum Caves Festival in Andhra Pradesh postponed

The Belum Caves Festival has been postponed to January after the dates clashed with Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan’s visit to the district.The plan was to organise the festival on December 21 and 22.

Belum Caves, also known as Belum Guhalu in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh is the second-longest cave in the Indian subcontinent open to the public.

6.MDR charges will not be applicable on transactions through RuPay, UPI platforms from 1st of January

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that no Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) will be applicable on transactions through homegrown RuPay and UPI platforms beginning 1st of January next year.Ms Sitharaman announced this in New Delhi after meeting Chiefs of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Chief executive of Indian Banks’ Association and representatives of leading private sector banks to discuss banking issues.

Department of Revenue (DoR) will soon notify RuPay and UPI as the prescribed mode of payment for digital transactions without any MDR.

MDR is the cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from their customers via digital means.

7.RBI directs large co-op banks to report exposures above Rs 5 cr

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed large cooperative banks to report all exposures of 5 crore rupees and more to the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC).The move is aimed at early detection of financial distress.

The Reserve Bank has created a CRILC of commercial banks, all India financial institutions and certain non-banking financial companies with multiple objectives, including strengthening offsite supervision and early recognition of financial distress.

Earlier in its bi-monthly monetary policy review this month, the RBI had announced to bring UCBs with assets of Rs 500 crore and above under the CRILC reporting framework.

8.SBI to launch OTP-based cash withdrawal at all its ATMs from January 1, 2020, onwards

The State Bank of India (SBI) will switch to a one-time password (OTP) based cash withdrawal system at all its ATMs from January 1, 2020, onwards.With this latest move, the lender aims to ensure the protection of its customers from unauthorised transactions at ATMs.

The new OTP-based ATM withdrawal will be applicable for transactions above Rs 10,000, between 8 pm to 8 am.

Customers withdrawing cash from SBI ATMs will receive an OTP on their mobile number registered with the bank.

However, the facility won’t apply in case of transactions made by SBI cardholders at any other bank’s ATM.

9.Kris Srikkanth, Anjum Chopra to Get CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Awards

Former India captain and member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team Kris Srikkanth will be the recipient of this year’s prestigious CK Nayudu Lifetime Award given by the BCCI.Former India women’s captain Anjum Chopra is the co-recipient of the lifetime achievement award for the year 2019.

The BCCI Annual Award function will be held in Mumbai on January 12 ahead of the first ODI against Australia on January 14.

10.Koneru Humpy becomes Women’s World Rapid Chess Champion

Indian grandmaster Koneru Humpy has become the 2019 Women’s World Rapid Champion.She defeated China’s Lei Tingjie in a dramatic final in Moscow, Russia.

After losing the opening game, Humpy made an impressive comeback and collected nine points each in 12 rounds to be tied with Tingjie.

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen claimed the men’s title.