1) India-African Union Sign MoU On Strengthening Cooperation In Healthcare Sector
•To carry forward the vision of a structured and concrete partnership in the health sector, the MEA partnered with Indian Council of Medical Research and had jointly organised the first India-Africa Health Sciences Meet in 2016 in New Delhi.
2) ISRO Launches Young Scientist Programme ‘YUVIKA’ For Schoolkids
•The program is primarily aimed at imparting basic knowledge on space technology, space science and space applications to the younger ones with the intent of arousing their interest in the emerging areas of space activities.
3) India, US Ink Pact To Check Tax Evasion By MNCs
•The agreement for the exchange of CbC reports, along with the Bilateral Competent Authority Arrangement between the two competent authorities, will enable the two countries to automatically exchange the reports filed by the ultimate parent entities of the multinational enterprises in the respective jurisdictions pertaining to the years commencing on or after January 1, 2016.
4) RBI’s Maiden Dollar-Rupee Swap Auction Gets A Big Thumbs Up
•The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to resort to a dollar-rupee swap, instead of the traditional open-market purchase of bonds, to infuse liquidity into the economy marks a significant shift in the central bank’s liquidity management policy. Under the three-year currency swap scheme, the RBI planned to purchase $5 billion from banks in exchange for rupees. For the banks, it is a way to earn some interest out of the forex reserves lying idle in their kitty. Apart from injecting fresh liquidity into the economy, the move will have implications for the currency market even as it helps shore up the RBI’s dollar reserves.
•RBI’s OMO (Open Market Operations) purchases, however, has its own twin limitations of indirectly funding the government borrowing programme and in having an overbearing influence on the sovereign yield curve. There has been an increase in the domestic assets in the RBI’s balance sheet due to these purchases and there was a need to balance the same by increasing the foreign exchange assets.
•The RBI received 240 bids worth $16.31 billion at an average premium of Rs 7.92. The central bank accepted 89 offers totaling $5.02 billion at a cut-off premium of Rs 7.76. These premiums represent what banks are willing to pay to the central bank at the end of the swap tenor, which is fixed at three years.
•The RBI received an overwhelming response to its dollar swap window on establishing the instrument as a credible liquidity tool and paving the way for more such auctions in the coming months. Banks offered $16.31 billion for the proposed swaps of up to $5 billion. The RBI accepted $5.02 billion at a cut-off premium of Rs 7.76 for three-year dollars — close to the rate at which the market was trading at.
•Banks had bid to pay such that three-year MIFOR (Mumbai Interbank Forward Offer Rate) would be at 6%. The cut-off of 776 paise for three years is 6.01%. MIFOR is the rate that banks use as a benchmark for forwards. It is a mix of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and forward premium derived from the market. Before the auction, the three-year MIFOR was near 6.15%. The absolute premium is the amount added to the spot rate to gauge the future rate of the rupee against the dollar.
•In this swap, the RBI received dollars from banks and promised to return the greenbacks at 76.62 a dollar three years down the line, irrespective of the exchange rate prevailing at that time. The idea behind the swaps is to infuse rupee liquidity by buying dollars. So far, the central bank has been buying bonds from the secondary market to infuse liquidity. In this financial year, the RBI’s bond buying under OMOs was over Rs 2.8 trillion, a record. But this also exhausted banks’ bond holdings to pledge against future liquidity borrowing.
5) Bank of Baroda Set To Develop Digital Agri Platform ‘Baroda Kisan’
•The platform intends to make a holistic approach towards solving agricultural plights by means of providing reliable and customised information, inputs for use, the convenience of renting farm equipment, and market linkage for sale of agriculture produce.
6) Government To Infuse Rs 5,042 crore Into Bank of Baroda
•The Finance Ministry has decided to infuse Rs 5,042 crore into state-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) ahead of the merger of two other public sector lenders Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB. The merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB would be effective from April 1.
7) Skytrax World Airport Awards: Singapore’s Changi Tops, India’s IGI Ranks 59th
•The list has been compiled by the UK-based Skytrax, a consultancy firm which runs an airline and airport review and ranking site, featuring 100 airports. New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is India’s best Airport. New Delhi’s IGI Airport was eight points up this year after featuring at the 66th spot in 2018.
