DAILY GK 1 -3 JAN
1.
PUNJAB
& SIND BANK AND SBI CARD TO LAUNCH
CO-BRANDED CREDIT CARD
●
Punjab & Sind
Bank (PSB), has partnered with SBI Card to
launch co-brand credit cards for the bank’s customers.
●
This marks the entry of
PSB into ‘credit cards’ as a new product segment under the bank’s portfolio.
●
Under the partnership,
three card variants have been launched including, PSB SBI Card ELITE, PSB SBI Card PRIME, and PSB Simply SAVE SBI Card.
2.
ARVIND
WALIA IS INDIAN ARMY NEW ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF
●
Lieutenant (Lt) General
(Gen) Arvind Walia, a 1986 batch
officer and an alumnus of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun has been
appointed as the next Engineer-in-Chief of the Indian Army.
●
He succeeds Lt Gen Harpal
Singh who is superannuating on 31st December 2022.
3.
INTEREST
RATES ON A NUMBER OF SMALL SAVINGS SCHEMES INCREASES
●
The Department of
Economic Affairs (DEA), a department of the Ministry of Finance (MoF),
has raised the interest rate on a number of small savings schemes for
the fourth quarter (Q4) of the current fiscal year 2022–23 (FY23), which runs
from April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2023.
●
The rates on the various
instruments have increased by 20 to 110 basis points (bps), and they now range
from 4.0 % to 7.6 %.
●
The interest rates on the
Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Account, and Savings
Deposit have remained unchanged.
●
The Shyamala Gopinath Committee provided
the formula to calculate the interest rates for the small savings scheme.
4.
GOI
INTRODUCES NEW
INTEGRATED FOOD SECURITY SCHEME FOR 2023
●
The Government of India
(GoI) has introduced a new Integrated Food Security Scheme beginning January 1, 2023,
to supply free food grains to more than 81.35 crore beneficiaries under
the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
●
The new integrated scheme
will subsume two present food subsidy schemes run by the Department of Food and
Public Distribution (DFPD), MoCA and F&PD. They are:
●
Food Subsidy to Food
Corporation of India (FCI) for NFSA
●
Food Subsidy for
Decentralized Procurement States, which deals with procuring, allocating, and
delivering free food grains to the states under the NFSA
5.
CROATIA
JOINS SCHENGEN ZONE & SWITCHES TO EURO
●
Croatia,
the youngest member of the European Union (EU), adopted the ‘Euro’ currency, and
it became a part of Europe’s border-free Schengen zone.
●
Croatia, a Balkan
country, is now the 20th member
of the Eurozone and the 27th country to join the passport-free
Schengen zone.
●
Croatia
is a former Yugoslav republic that fought an
independence war in the 1990s and joined the EU in 2013.
●
Schengen
Area signifies a zone where 27 European
countries including four which are not members of the European Union
(EU), abolished their internal borders, for the free and unrestricted movement
of people.
●
This largest free-travel zone in the
world was first established in 1985 as
an intergovernmental effort including five EU nations—France, Germany, Belgium,
the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
●
The European Union (EU)
member states that have adopted the “Euro” as
their national currency collectively
refer to themselves as the “Euro
Area” or “Eurozone.”
●
With Croatia, 20 EU
Member States and 347 million EU citizens will share the EU’s common currency.
6.
CAD
WIDENS TO 4.4% OF GDP IN Q2FY23- RBI REPORT
●
According to the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI)’s 26th issue of of the Financial Stability Report (FSR) on December 29 2022 ,India’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) widened
to 4.4 per cent of GDP in Q2:2022-23 from 2.2 per cent of GDP in the previous
Q2:2022-23 and 1.2 per cent in 2021-22.
●
In
absolute terms, CAD was $36.40 billion in Q2FY23 which is highest in more than a
decade.
●
India’s foreign
exchange reserves on BoP basis recorded a deficit of $30.4 billion compared to
a $31.2 billion surplus in the Q2FY22.
●
The
Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio of scheduled commercial banks
(SCBs) fell to a seven-year low of 5%
and Net Non-Performing Assets (NNPA) have dropped to ten-year low of 1.3% in
September 2022.
7.
39TH
PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL
●
Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva, the veteran left-wing
politician, known widely as Lula, was sworn in for the 3rd term as the President of the Republic
of Brazil
●
He was sworn in as
the 39th president of
Brazil by winning the 2022 Brazilian general election against far-right leader
Jair Bolsonaro (incumbent President of Brazil (from 2019 to 2022).
●
Geraldo
Alckmin was sworn in as Brazil’s Vice
President
8.
FIDE
WORLD RAPID AND BLITZ CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022
●
Indian Grandmaster (GM) Koneru Humpy, a former world rapid
champion, has won a Silver medal
in the Women’s World Blitz Championship at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz
Championship 2022 held in Almaty, Kazakhstan
●
Koneru Humpy has won
India’s 1st ever Silver medal in the World Blitz Chess Championships defeating Zhongyi Tan of China.
●
Bibisara
Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan won the gold medal.
●
Koneru Humpy is the 2nd Indian to win a medal at World
Blitz, after Viswanathan Anand.
●
GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway won the World Blitz Chess Championship
2022 in the Open Blitz category.
9.
59TH
NATIONAL SENIOR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
●
Kolkata-based chess
player Koustav Chatterjee (19-year)
became India’s 78th Grandmaster
(GM) in MPL 59th National
Senior Chess.
●
The 59TH MPL Senior
National Chess Championship 2022 was held at New Delhi