31st August 2019 Current affairs

1) On August 28, 2019, The first ever India-Ghana Foreign Office Consultations was held in New Delhi. The Indian delegation was led by Shri. T.S Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) while the Ghanaian delegation was led by Mr. Charles Owiredu, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration. They agreed to enhance cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, development partnership, dèfence & security, health & pharmaceutical sector, capacity building & training and people to people contacts.

2. On August 26, 2019, The President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo stated that the government has chosen sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on forested Borneo Island, known for orangutans for its new capital. The current capital of Jakarta, overcrowded (home to more than 10 million people), sits on watery land. Parts of the city are sinking by as much as 25cm a year and almost half now sits below sea level.
3. On August 30, 2019 , In the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking space, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made a big announcement that the formation of four large banks by merging 10 banks under the scheme of amalgamation. The decision aimed at making state-owned lenders global sized banks.
4. PNB (Punjab National bank) merged with Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India to become the 2nd largest bank in India. After merging the Business size of the bank is 17.94Crore.
5. In order to boost the economy, the centre also announced capital infusion of amounting of Rs 55250 crore into PSBs: It includes,

S.No	Bank Name	Capital infusion
1	PNB (Punjab National Bank )	Rs.16,000 crore
2	Union Bank of India	Rs.11,700 crore
3	Bank of Baroda	Rs.7000 crore
4	Indian Bank	Rs.2500 crore
5	Indian Overseas Bank	Rs.3800 crore
6	Central Bank of India	Rs.3300 crore
7	UCO Bank	Rs.2100 crore
8	United Bank	Rs.1,600 crore
9	Punjab and Sind Bank	Rs.750 crore

6. After merging 10 public sector banks, the number of public sector banks will be 12 as against 27 in the year 2017.
7. I stand for Instruments. The full form of PPI Is Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs).

8.The country’s central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has again extended the deadline for prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), including digital wallets, to do full KYC(Know your customer) by six months(till February 28, 2020). The deadline was expiring on August 31,2019. The extension, which was announced a day before the deadline expired, will benefit the companies such as Paytm, Amazon Pay and PhonePe.

9. M stands for Merchant. The full form of MDR is Merchant Discount Rates. 

10. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has waived merchant fees for offline UPI transactions of up to Rs 100 made using QR(Quick Response) code scan-and-pay. For the large transactions, merchant fees have been capped at Rs 100. ii. For other transactions, the merchant discount rate (MDR) has been hiked to 0.30% (maximum Rs 100). Currently, it is 0.25% for transactions up to Rs 2,000. It will be 0.65% for transactions above Rs 2,000. iii. The revised MDR rates will come into effect from October 1, 2019.
11. In a bid to promote digital payments, an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments in India, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has rationalised merchant discount rates (MDR) for BHIM UPI (Unified Payment Interface ) transactions.
12. On August 29, 2019, The Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar has handed over the ₹47,436.18 crore to 27 States for compensatory afforestation and other green activities, including prevention of forest fire, biodiversity management and soil conservation.
13. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation notified that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India registered a growth of 5% in April to June quarter of 2019-20 from 8% of 2018-19 quarter. It is the lowest in 7 years due to a sharp dip in the manufacturing sector and agriculture output.
14. C stands for Compound. The full form of CAGR is Compound Annual Growth Rate.
15. According to the report titled “Fintech in India – Powering mobile payments” released by KPMG, a global advisory firm, Digital payments in India have grown with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7% in the number of non-cash transactions.