Daily Current Affairs, 21st December 2018

1) Lok Sabha Passes Consumer Protection Bill

•The Lok Sabha passed the Consumer Protection Bill, 2018 that seeks to replace the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The Bill enforces consumer rights and provides a mechanism for redressal of complaints regarding deficiencies in goods and services.

•It seeks to establish Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions at District, State and National levels. The district Commissions are authorised to look into complaints involving claims worth one crore rupees, which was 20 lakh rupees earlier.

2) India, China Hold First People-to-People Exchanges Meeting

•External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi co-chaired the first-ever meeting of India-China High-Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges in New Delhi.

•India and China had decided to set up people to people mechanism during the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in China.

3) Government Moves To Enhance Bank Recapitalisation Outlay To Rs. 1,06,000 Crore

•The government will infuse an additional Rs 41,000 crore into cash-starved public sector banks (PSBs). The outlay will go up from Rs. 65,000 crore to Rs. 1,06,000 crore in the current financial year to propel economic growth, cementing India’s position as the fastest growing economy of the world.

•This would enable infusion of over Rs. 83,000 crore in the coming few months in Public Sector Banks (PSBs). This is in addition to the Rs 2.11 lakh crore bailout package announced by the government in October 2017.

•The enhanced provision is aimed at:

(1) Meeting regulatory capital norms.
(2) Providing capital to better-performing PCA Banks to achieve 9% Capital to Risk-weighted Asset Ratio (CRAR); 1.875% Capital Conservation Buffer and the 6% Net NPA threshold, facilitating them to come out of PCA.
(3) Facilitating non-PCA banks that are in breach of some PCA thresholds to not be in breach.
(4) Strengthen amalgamating banks by providing regulatory and growth capital.

4) Government Launches Asiatic Lion Conservation Project

•The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the “Asiatic Lion Conservation Project” to protect and conserve the population of Asiatic Lion and its associated ecosystem.

•The Asiatic Lion Conservation Project is aimed at the conservation and recovery of Asiatic Lion with the help of up to date techniques, instruments, regular scientific research studies, disease management, modern surveillance and patrolling techniques. The total budget of the project for 3 years amounts to around Rs 9784 lakh.

5) Gujarat Emerges As Best Performing State In Start-Up Ranking 2018

•Gujarat has emerged as the best-performing state in the Startup Ranking 2018.The National Report on States’ Startup Ranking was unveiled by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi.

•Gujarat, with 100 percentile, has performed better than all other states in all the seven areas including start up policy, incubation support, seeding innovation and scaling innovation. Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan, with a score of more than 85 percentile, have been adjudged the top performers. 

•Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana have been recognised as Leaders. 27 states and 3 union territories participated in the ranking process.

6) Mobile App For Global Aviation Summit 2019 Launched

•Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha launched an official mobile application for Global Aviation Summit 2019. The Global Aviation Summit (GAS) 2019 is scheduled to be held in January 2019 in Mumbai.

•The application was launched in the presence of R.N. Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI),Dr. Shefali Juneja, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and other officials of AAI.

7) 10 Monuments Adopted Under ‘Adopt A Heritage’ Project

•The ‘Adopt A Heritage: Apni Dharohar, Apni Pehchaan’, scheme is a collaborative effort by Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), to enhance tourism potential and cultural importance in a planned and phased manner.

•No fund is given by Ministry of Tourism. The list of monuments/sites identified and adopted by companies (monument-wise, company-wise and state-wise) under the adopt a heritage scheme are:

Sl. No.	Agency/Monument Mitras	Sl. No.	Name of Monument	State
1.	Dalmia Bharat Ltd.	1.	Red Fort	Delhi
		2.	Gandikota Fort	Andhra Pradesh
2.	Adventure Tour Operators Association of India	3.	Area surrounding Gangotri Temple and Trail to Gaumukh	Uttrakhand
		4.	Mt. Stok Kangri Trek, Lakakh	Jammu and Kashmir
3.	Apeejay Park Hotels	5.	Jantar Mantar	Delhi
4.	Bliss Inns (V-Resorts)	6.	Surajkund	Haryana
5.	Yatra Online	7.	Qutub Minar	Delhi
		8.	Ajanta Caves	Maharashtra
		9.	Leh Palace, Leh	Jammu & Kashmir
		10.	Hampi (Hazara Rama Temple)	Karnataka

8) FAA Retains Highest Aviation Safety Ranking For India

•The US regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has retained the highest aviation safety ranking for India. The Federal Aviation Administration carried out an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in July 2018.

•FAA formally confirmed that India’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA)rating remains ‘Category 1’. Category 1 means the carriers from the assessed state may initiate or continue service to the US in a normal manner and take part in reciprocal code-share arrangements with American carriers.

9) IGOT And RTI Portal On Judgments Launched

•The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singhlaunched the iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training Programme) developed by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

•The Right to Information (RTI) Portal on Judgments/Orders of Supreme Court, High Courts and CIC has been developed by the Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM), New Delhi. This Portal will provide a learning environment for all stakeholders under which a repository on the landmark cases on the RTI will be available at one place.

10) RBI Limits Total Outstanding ECBs To 6.5% of GDP

•The Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with the government, has decided to have a rule-based dynamic limit for outstanding stock of External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) at 6.5% of GDP at current market prices.

•As per the statement based on the GDP figures, the soft limit works out to $160 billion for the current financial year. The outstanding stock of ECBs as on September 30, 2018, stands at $126.29 billion.