Daily Current Affairs, 29th May 2019

1) Record 78 women MPs elected to 17th Lok Sabha

•Record 78 women candidates have been elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently held general elections. According to the Election Commission, the number has grown from the previous 62 women who were elected to the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014.

•In the country’s first general elections in 1951, twenty-four women were elected to the Lower House, and since then, the number has been increasing.

2) Naveen Patnaik takes oath as Odisha CM for 5th term

•Naveen Patnaik took oath as the Chief Minister of Odisha for the fifth time after a decisive victory in the state elections that were held along with national elections. The 72-year-old is the longest-serving chief minister of the coastal state.

•Odisha Governor Prof. Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr. Patnaik and his twenty councils of ministers. The council of ministers comprises 11 cabinet and nine state rank ministers.

3) Scott Morrison sworn in as Australia’s PM

•Scott Morrison has been sworn in as Australia’s Prime Minister, 11 days after retaining the position in the country’s general election. Along with Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, Morrison was sworn in by Queen Elizabeth’s official representative in Australia, Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, in the capital, Canberra.

•Also sworn in was Morrison’s revamped Cabinet, which includes a record seven women,and Australia’s first Aboriginal federal Cabinet member, Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt, who wore a traditional kangaroo skin.

4) Sri Lanka signs tripartite agreement with India and Japan

•Sri Lanka has signed a tripartite agreement with India and Japan for development of eastern terminal of Colombo port. The Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) was signed in Colombo by Sri Lankan ports minister Sagala Ratnayake, Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu and a Japanese representative.

•As per the agreement, Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) will hold 51 percent majoritystake in the port development while Japan and India will have combined stake of 49 percent.

5) NSIC signs MOU with Ministry of MSME

•The National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC) signed an MoU with Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) for the year 2019-20. The MoU envisages provision of enhanced services by NSIC under its marketing, financial, technology, and other support services schemes for MSMEs in the country.

•The Corporation projects to increase Revenue from Operation by 22% from Rs. 2540 crore in the year 2018-19 to 3100 crore in the year 2019-20.

6) US removes India, Switzerland from its currency monitoring list

•The Trump administration removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners, citing certain developments and steps being taken by New Delhi addressing some of its major concerns. Switzerland is the other nation that has been removed from the list. However, the list includes China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam among others.

7) RBI extends timings for RTGS from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

•RBI has extended timings for customer transactions in the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to 6:00 pm from 4:30 pm. The new time window for RTGS will come into effect from 01st June 2019.

•The customer is charged a ‘time-varying charge’ on each outward transaction in addition to the flat processing charge. The fee for transfers between 8 am to 11 am is nil, from 11 am to 1 pm is Rs 2, and from 1 pm to 6 pm is Rs 5. The fee for transfers made after the initial cut off of 6 pm will be Rs 10. The initial cut off for customer transactions will be 6 pm and the final cut off for inter-bank transactions will be 7:45 pm. The IDL reversal will take place between 7:45 pm and 8 pm.

8) India moves up to 43rd in competitiveness; Singapore tops chart

•India has moved up one place to rank 43rd most competitive economy in the world on the back of its robust economic growth, a large labour force and its huge market size, while Singapore has toppled the US to grab the top position, a global study showed.

•Singapore has moved up to the top, from the third position last year, while the US has slipped to the third place in the 2019 edition of the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings. Hong Kong SAR has held onto its second place, helped by a benign tax and business policy environment and access to business finance.