Current Affairs 26th October 2018

Current Affairs 26th October 2018 - Important Points

• Government to create special fund to boost fish production by 2020 , endorsed on - 24th October 2018
• Ethiopia appoints Sahle-Work Zewde as first female president on - 25th October 2018
• IDFC Bank renamed as IDFC First Bank on - 25th October 2018
• World Polio Day observed worldwide on - 24th October 2018
• Satish Kumar Gupta appointed as new CEO of Paytm Payments Bank on - 24th October 2018
• Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank to set up internal committees to merge operations on - 24th October 2018

Current Affairs 26th October 2018 - Details

Government to create special fund to boost fish production by 2020 , endorsed on - 24th October 2018

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs led by the PM Narendra Modi on October 24th, 2018 gave its endorsement for the creation of a special Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund.
The fund amount is projected to be about Rupees 7,522 crore, out of which about Rupees 5,266.40 crores would be fetched from the Nodal Loaning Entities, Rupees 1,316.6 crore through beneficiary’s contribution and Rupees 939.48 crore via budgetary support from the central government.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, National Cooperatives Development Corporation and all listed Banks will be the nodal loaning entities.
Important Highlights

• The formation of the special fund will facilitate the formation of fisheries infrastructure amenities both in marine and inland fisheries sectors.
• It focuses to increase fish production and assist attaining the target of producing 15 million tonnes of fish by 2020, which was marked under the Blue Revolution.
• The deposit will also improve employment options for more than 9.40 lakh fishermen and other entrepreneurs in fishing and allied actions.
• It will also fascinate private investment in the formation and management of fisheries infrastructure services.
• Further, it will boost the adoption of new technologies in the fisheries sector.

Ethiopia appoints Sahle-Work Zewde as first female president on - 25th October 2018

Ethiopia on October 25th, 2018 designated diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde as its 1st-ever female President. The post of the President is largely ceremonial in the country. Sahle-Work Zewde was designated by the Ethiopian law formers via a unanimous vote. She would be replacing Mulatu Teshome Wirtu who resigned on October 24th. Preceding to her nomination, she was working as the United Nation's elite official at the African Union.
She is now supposed to work for two 6-year terms as President.
More about Sahle-Work Zewde

• The 60 years old Zewde has earlier worked as Ethiopia's ambassador to France, Djibouti, Senegal and the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
• She started her diplomatic career as an ambassador to Senegal in 1989 with accountabilities in neighbouring African nations and further went to Djibouti prior eventually working as ambassador to France.
• She is fluent in English,  French as well as Amharic. So far she was working as the special representative of the UN Secretary General to the African Union.

IDFC Bank renamed as IDFC First Bank on - 25th October 2018

IDFC Bank on October 25th, 2018 projected to change its name to “IDFC First Bank Ltd” in the wake of its merger with the non-banking financial firm Capital First. This  decision was made during the meeting of the Board of Directors of IDFC Bank. 
IDFC was unified on January 30th, 1997. It started as a non-operative financial holding company in 2014. It manages its 5 subsidiaries including IDFC Bank, IDFC MF, IDFC Alternatives, IDFC IDF and IDFC Securities according to the Reserve Bank of India norms.
The proposal now requires the endorsement of the RBI. It would additionally need the endorsements of
regulatory authorities including the Registrar of Companies and other Shareholders.
Merger of Capital First with IDFC Bank

• The merger of Capital First with the IDFC Bank is currently at an advanced stage and has got endorsements from the Competition Commission of India, stock exchanges, Reserve Bank of India, stakeholders and creditors of all the parties involved.
• With this amalgamation, Warburg Pincus funded Capital First and IDFC Bank, in an all-stock deal, would form Rupees 88000 crores joint entity.
• The share swap ratio for the merger is fixed at 139:10. The IDFC Bank will release 139 shares for every 10 shares of Capital First.
• After the amalgamation, V Vaidyanathan, Chairman and MD Capital First, will succeed Rajiv Lall as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the joint entity.

World Polio Day observed worldwide on - 24th October 2018

The World Polio Day was celebrated annually worldwide on 24th October to spread awareness about
hazards of the crippling Polio disease. The day was introduced by Rotary International to honour birth of Jonas Salk who had headed 1st team of scientists which had developed vaccine against poliomyelitis virus. This development had resulted into extensive use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and later
usage of oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin. It also had resulted further into founding of Global
Polio Eradication Initiative- GPEI in 1988 which has assisted to diminish polio cases around the world by 99 percent.
More about Global Polio Eradication Initiative

• Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched in 1988 has played crucial role in eradication of crippling poliovirus.
• When it was initiated wild poliovirus existed in 125 nations. Now, it occurs in 2 nations
  including Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• Till 2012, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation was reservoir of above half of the Polio cases in the world.
• But in 2015, it was detached from list of Polio endemic nations by World Health Organization.
  Poliovirus Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly infect young children below age of five.
• The virus is communicated from person-to-person. It mainly passes via polluted water or food. After entering body, it grows in the intestine, from where it can attack the nervous system and can cause paralysis.
• Its starting symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs.
• In few cases, it causes permanent paralysis. There is no treatment for polio, however it can only be
  prevented by immunization.
• Polio vaccine is given multiple times to almost always protects a child for life.

Satish Kumar Gupta appointed as new CEO of Paytm Payments Bank on - 24th October 2018

The Paytm Payments Bank proclaimed on October 24th, 2018 that they have designated Satish Kumar Gupta as its new MD and CEO. Gupta would be succeeding Renu Satti, who stepped down from her current post to head the bank’s new retail segment.
SK Gupta, who has more than 35 years of leadership experience, formerly worked as the Chief Product Officer at National Payments Corporation of India and the State Bank of India. His nomination comes a few months after Renu Satti had stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer of Paytm Payments Bank to take over as the Chief Operating Officer of Paytm’s new retail segment.
With his appointment, SK Gupta has become the 3rd Chief Executive Officer of the Paytm Payments Bank in the span of just 2 years. The 1st Chief Executive Officer Shinjini Kumar had left Paytm in May 2017.
More about SK Gupta

• Satish Kumar Gupta joined the State Bank of India in April 1979.
• He apprehended various posts in the Bank and served as Branch Manager in rural, semi-urban and urban branches for a time period of 5 years, staff training centre in Jammu for 2 years, credit appraisal cell for 4 years and the corporate centre in Mumbai for 8 years. 
• In totality, he worked with State Bank of India for above 3 decades. In February 2011, he deputed to the National Payments Corporation of India to form India’s own card-RuPay. 
• He completed the task in less than 1 year and sustained to work for the National Payment Corporation of India even after-retirement. He was designated as the Chief Project Officer and Chief Project Advisor.
• The payments bank had recently come under inspection following the RBI instructed the bank to stopover enrolling new clienteles following audit annotations.
• The bank is still awaiting Reserve Bank of India’s authorization on enrolling new customers. 

Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank to set up internal committees to merge operations on - 24th October 2018

Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank on October 24th, 2018 finalised to establish internal committees to assist integrate the workings of the banks prior to the merger occurs. These committees consist of committees on credit, human resources and IT. The committees will include the CEOs and Executive Directors of all the 3 banks. 
The banks also finalised to employ 3 separate valuers to fix the swap ratios of merger. The valuer selected by one bank will also evaluate the other two banks, before a common ratio is concluded at. 
The merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank

• The Union Finance Ministry on September 17th, 2018 proclaimed the proposal to merge 3 public sector banks including Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank.
• The joint lending entity is supposed to form India’s 3rd largest bank with a sum business of above Rupees 14.82 lakh crore, following the State Bank of India and ICICI Banks.
• The merger would be through share swap which will be the part of scheme of merger. The plan of merger will be presented before Parliament.
• This merged entity will raise banking operations and expansion is inevitable. The 3 banks will continue to work autonomously after amalgamation.
• The merger would be carried out under Alternative Mechanism. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the leader of Alternative Mechanism, guaranteed capital support to the merged entity.
• After this amalgamation, the number of PSU banks will come down to 19.