Kapil Kathpal

Exemption for PSUs from Minimum Public Float Rules

Banking &
• The Indian government has announced that public sector entities Financial news
will be exempted from the Minimum Public Shareholding norm.

• The MPS norm mandates that listed companies must have at least
25% of their shares held by the public.

• However, this exemption will apply to public sector entities

regardless of the government’s direct or indirect holding in them.
The exemption will be in effect for a “specified period” and will
remain valid even if there is a change in ownership or control after
the exemption has been granted.

• The exemption was announced in the Securities Contracts

(Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2022
 Kapil Kathpal
India’s external debt at $610 billion in Q2 FY23
Banking &
Financial news
• As per the figures from the Ministry of Finance,
India’s external debt stood at USD 610.5 billion
in Q2 FY23 (July-September 2022) showing a
decrease of USD 2.3 billion from Q1 FY23
(April to June 2022).

• The external debt to GDP (Gross Domestic

Product) ratio stood at 19.2% at the end of
Q2FY23 as compared to 19.3% at end of
Q1FY23.
 Kapil Kathpal
Top Profit Making Public Sector
Enterprises in 2021-22 Banking &
Financial news
• The net profit of operating public sector enterprises jumped 50.87
per cent to ₹ 2.49 lakh crore during 2021-22, with ONGC, Indian
Oil Corp, Power Grid, NTPC and SAIL emerging as the top five
performers.

• The net profit of operating central public sector enterprises stood

at ₹ 1.65 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.

• The Public Enterprises Survey 2021-22 also revealed that the net
loss of loss-making CPSEs narrowed to ₹ 0.15 lakh crore in FY
2021-22 from ₹ 0.23 lakh crore in FY 2020-21, showing a
decrease of 37.82 per cent.

• Major loss-making CPSEs include Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd

(BSNL), Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Air India Assets
Holding Ltd, Eastern Coalfields Ltd and Alliance Air Aviation Ltd.
 Kapil Kathpal

• The contribution of all CPSEs to the central exchequer by way of

excise duty, custom duty, GST, corporate tax, interest on central
government loans, dividend, and other duties and taxes stood at ₹
5.07 lakh crore in FY 2021-22, as against ₹ 4.97 lakh crore in FY
2020-21, showing an increase of 2.14 per cent.

• The top five CPSEs contributing to the central exchequer were

Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd,
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd
and Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

• Besides, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure of

all CSR eligible CPSEs (160) stood at ₹ 4,600 crore in FY 2021-22
compared to ₹ 4,483 crore in FY-21, up 2.61 per cent.

• The top five CPSEs contributing the highest under CSR were
ONGC, NTPC, Indian Oil Corporation, NMDC and Power Grid
 Kapil Kathpal
HDFC Bank & Yes Bank Partners with Microsoft
Banking &
• HDFC Bank partnered with Microsoft for the Financial news

next phase of its digital transformation journey

and unlocked business value by transforming
the application portfolio, modernising the data
landscape and securing the enterprise with
Microsoft Cloud.

• Yes Bank also partnered with Microsoft to Microsoft India:

• President – Anant
introduce the next generation mobile Maheshwari
application for providing personalised banking • India Country Manager –
Ashutosh Gupta
experience to its customers. • Headquarters – New
Delhi
 Bandhan Bank launches ‘Jahaan Kapil Kathpal

Bandhan, Wahaan Trust’ campaign Banking &

Financial news
• Bandhan Bank launched its integrated
marketing campaign ‘Jahaan Bandhan,
Wahaan Trust’ featuring Sourav Ganguly.
 Kapil Kathpal
India Accelerator Partners with
ICICI Bank & Infosys Finacle Banking &
Financial news
• India Accelerator has launched “i3 Launchpad,” which
was developed in partnership with ICICI Bank and
Infosys Finacle, which is part of EdgeVerve Systems, a
wholly- owned product subsidiary of Infosys.

• “i3 Launchpad” is a programme that fosters and co-

innovate with India’s start-up ecosystem, to support a
network of entrepreneurs on a quest to develop brands
with global impact.

• It is intended to assist start-ups in expediting their

progress by utilising mentorship, resources, and
opportunities from Infosys Finacle, ICICI Bank, and IA.
 Kapil Kathpal
28 BRO infrastructure projects & Siyom Bridge in
National News
Arunachal Pradesh inaugurated
• Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Ministry of Defense
dedicated to the nation 28 infrastructure projects of the
Border Roads Organization worth Rs. 724 crores in
seven bordering States/Union Territories (UTs), during
an event held at the Siyom Bridge along the Along-
Yinkiong Road in Arunachal Pradesh.

• These projects are Eight in Ladakh, Five in Arunachal

Pradesh, Four in Jammu and Kashmir, Three each in
Sikkim, Punjab & Uttarakhand, and Two in Rajasthan.

• With the inauguration of these 28 projects, which were

completed in 2022, a total of 103 BRO infrastructure
projects worth Rs. 2,897 crore were dedicated to the
nation in 2022.
 Kapil Kathpal

• The Siyom Bridge was physically inaugurated during the event

• The Siyom Bridge on the Along-Yinkiong Road in Arunachal

Pradesh is a 100-meter-long superstructured Bridge that spans
the Siyom River.

• Three telemedicine nodes—two in Ladakh and one in Mizoram—

were also virtually inaugurated

• The three telemedicine nodes will be linked to service hospitals

using a VSAT satellite communications system.

• It would offer fast medical care for medical and surgical crises,
through telemedicine consultation with experts in service hospitals
using SATCOM VSAT communication.
 Kapil Kathpal
Captain Shiva Chauhan becomes the 1st women
officer to be operationally deployed in Siachen National News

• Captain Shiva Chauhan from the Corps of Engineers

has been posted at a frontline post in Siachen Glacier,
in first such operational deployment of an woman Army
officer at the world’s highest battlefield.

• The Siachen glacier lies in the Karakoram Range .It is

75 km (47 miles) long, which makes it the second
longest nonpolar glacier in the world, after Fedchenko
Glacier in Tajikistan.
 Kapil Kathpal
Himachal Pradesh Launched Chief
Minister Sukhashray Sahayata Kosh National News

• Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu

announced to set up of Rs 101 crore CM’s Sukhashraya Sahayata
Kosh for the destitute in the state.

• Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh informed that 40 Congress

MLAs agreed to contribute Rs one lakh each from their first salary
for the fund and also requested the MLAs from BJP and other
parties to contribute.

• The collected fund will be spent on the higher education of

destitute children to encourage them to pursue courses such as
engineering, medicine, management, and other streams from
reputed institutions like IIT, IIM, AIIMS, and NIT.

• Other than bearing the educational expenses, the government

would also provide Rs 4000 monthly pocket money to the destitute
children and women pursuing higher education.
 Kapil Kathpal
Hydrogen Blended PNG Project Starts
Operation at NTPC Kawas Gujarat National News
• India’s first green hydrogen blending operation in the piped natural gas
network at NTPC Kawas, Gujarat.

• The project is a joint effort of NTPC and Gujarat Gas.

• The set-up is geared up to supply H2 Natural Gas to households of

Kawas township at Surat.

• Green hydrogen in Kawas is made by electrolysis of water using power

from an already installed 1 megawatt (MW) floating solar project.

• Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has approved 5% vol./vol.

blending of green hydrogen with PNG to start with and the blending level
would be scaled phase-wise to reach 20%.

• Green Hydrogen when blended with natural gas reduces CO2 emissions
keeping the net heating content the same.
 Kapil Kathpal
Govt seeks to ban social media sites’
promotion of online betting National News

• The Government of India is proposing the ban on promotion of

Online Betting on the Social Media platforms.

• The government has suggested banning the promotion of online

bookmakers on websites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

• The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital

Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, have recently been
recommended for revision by the Central government to control
the Indian online gaming market.

• Online games will also need to register with a self-regulatory

organisation and only those approved by the organisation will be
permitted to legally operate in India.

• The gaming companies will have to adhere to the rules

established for organisations under Reserve Bank of India
regulation.
 Kapil Kathpal
President Droupadi Murmu Inaugurates
Samvidhan Udyan in Jaipur National News

• The President of India Droupadi Murmu inaugurated

Samvidhan Udyan, Mayur Stambh, National Flag Post,
Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, and Maharana Pratap at
Raj Bhavan, Jaipur.

• The President of India virtually inaugurated the

Transmission System for Solar Energy Zones in
Rajasthan and laid the foundation stone for the 1000
MV Bikaner Solar Power Project of SJVN Limited.
 Kapil Kathpal
CJI DY Chandrachud launches E-SCR Project
National News
• The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud launched the Electronic
Supreme Court Reports (E-SCR) project to provide free access to about
34,000 judgements of SC to lawyers, law students and the common
public.

• A search engine comprising elastic search techniques in the database of

e-SCR was developed by the SC along with the National Informatics
Centre Pune

• The verdicts of SC will be available on the SC website, its mobile app and
on the judgement portal of the National Judicial Data Grid

• Under this project, all judgements will be placed online within 24 hours.

• Neutral citations will also be introduced. A committee comprising three

judges viz. Justice Rajiv Shakdher of the Delhi High Court, Justice Raja
Vijayaraghavan of the Kerala High Court and Justice Suraj Govindraj of
the Karnataka High Court – have been constituted to work on the process
of neutral citations.
 Kapil Kathpal
UP Govt Signs MoUs with Six UAE Based Companies
MOUs
• The Government of Uttar Pradesh signed Memorandum of
Understanding worth Rs. 18,590 crores with six United Arab
Emirates based companies ahead of the “Uttar Pradesh Global
Investors Summit 2023,” which will be hosted in Lucknow in
February 2023.

• Astha Green Energy Venture, Shree Siddharth Infratech &

Services, Sharaf Group, Hindustan Port, The Lulu Group & Sobha
Realty

United Arab Emirates (UAE):

• President – Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

• Capital – Abu Dhabi
• Currency – Arab Emirati Dirham (AED) (Dirhams)
 Kapil Kathpal
Government starts process to buy 100 more K9-Vajras
Defence
• The Defence Ministry has started the process for the
procurement of 100 more K9-Vajra tracked self-
propelled howitzers which are built in India by Larsen &
Toubro (L&T) using technology transferred from South
Korean defence major Hanwha Defence.

• The 100th gun was delivered to the Army in February

2021, the contract for which was signed in May 2017.
 Kapil Kathpal
108th Indian Science Congress
Conferences
• Indian Science Congress’s 108th edition was officially
inaugrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University is

hosting the five-day 108th session of ISC

• “Science and Technology for Sustainable Development

with Women Empowerment” is the main theme of this
year’s Science Congress.
 Kapil Kathpal
China Becomes First Country in Asia
to Launch Hydrogen Powered Train International

• China’s CRRC Corporation Ltd. Launched a hydrogen urban

train, and it is the first in Asia and the second such train in the
world.

• Germany introduced green trains a few months back.

• The hydrogen trains have a speed of 160 km per hour and the
operational range without refueling is 600 km.

• The trains launched by Germany have a record of 1175 km range

set.

• The Indian Railways on the other hand is moving fast to induct the
‘World’s Greenest Train’ soon.

• India will get its first-ever Indigenous Hydrogen trains by

December 2023.
 Kapil Kathpal
New Members Join United Nations Security Council
• Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland officially began International
their two-year term as non-permanent members of the United Nations
Security Council.

• The United Nations Security Council is composed of 15 members, with 5

permanent members (the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
Russia, and China) and 10 non-permanent members.

• The non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms by the UN

General Assembly, with five new members replacing outgoing ones each
year.

• The incoming members are replacing India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and
Norway, whose two-year terms have now come to an end.

• Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates are
currently in the middle of their two-year term as non-permanent members
of the Security Council.
 Kapil Kathpal
Manipur Gaan Ngai festival
Festival
• The Gaan Ngai festival is a major event in the state of
Manipur, celebrated by the Zeliarong community every
year after the harvest season.

• The Gaan Ngai festival is celebrated for a full five days

 Kapil Kathpal
MHA constitutes HPC to protect Ladakh’s
Culture, Language & Employment Committee

• The Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted a 17-member High

Powered Committee to discuss measures for the protection of
Ladakh’s unique culture, language and employment.

• It will be chaired by Minister of State Nityanand Rai, MHA.

• Its members will include Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Radha

Krishna Mathur, MP (Member of Parliament) Jamyang Tsering
Namgyal, Chairmans of Leh and Kargil Hill councils,
representatives of Apex Body Leh, Kargil Democratic Alliance and
nominee officials of MHA.
 Kapil Kathpal
Canara Bank MD & CEO L V Prabhakar Retires
Appointment &
• Lingam Venkata Prabhakar, the Managing Director and Resignations

Chief Executive Officer of Canara Bank retired from his

services

Canara Bank:
• Non-Executive Chairman- Vijay Srirangan
• Headquarters- Bengaluru
• Tagline- Together we can
 Kapil Kathpal
BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer resigned
Appointment &
• Suhail Sameer, the Chief Executive Officer of BharatPe has Resignations
announced has resigned from the CEO position

• Nalin Negi, Chief Financial Officer of BharatPe, is set to take over

as the interim CEO of BharatPe.

• Suhail Sameer, who was previously CEO of the FMCG business at

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, joined BharatPe in August 2020 as
President.

• He has been overseeing BharatPe’s operations ever since Co-

Founder Ashneer Grover was ousted. In August 2021, Sameer
was formally made the CEO of BharatPe.

BharatPe:
• Chairman- Rajnish Kumar
• Headquarters- New Delhi
 Kapil Kathpal
BSE appoints Sundararaman Ramamurthy as MD and CEO
Appointment &
• Sundararaman Ramamurthy has been Resignations

appointed as the Managing Director and Chief

Executive Officer of BSE Limited for a period of
5 years.

• The post has been vacant since July 2021 after

the MD & CEO of BSE Ashishkumar Chauhan
left the post
 Kapil Kathpal
BCCI Releases Names of India’s Best Players of 2022
Sports
• Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the names of
the players who were the best performers of Team India across all
3 formats

Team India’s Best Performers 2022:

Title Players
Best Performers in Rishabh Pant
Tests (Wicket-Keeper Batsman)
Jasprit Bumrah (Bowler)
Best Performers in Shreyas Iyer (Batter)
ODIs Mohammed Siraj (Bowler)
Best Performers in Suryakumar Yadav (Batter)
T20Is Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Bowler)
 Kapil Kathpal
World Boxing Council to Create Transgender Category
Sports
• The World Boxing Council will introduce a transgender category
from 2023 to ensure safety and inclusion.

• Previously, WBC banned trans-identified males from competing

against women.

• Woman-to-man or man-to-woman transgender change will not be

allowed to fight a different gender by birth.

• A ‘at birth rule’ will be used, which means a transgender boxer

who is registered as male at birth will be allowed to fight others
who have also been registered as male at birth and same for
female boxers too.
 Kapil Kathpal
Shashi Tharoor’s Book “Ambedkar: A Life” Launched
Books &
• Renowned Author Shashi Tharoor, Member of Authors

Parliament (MP – the Lok Sabha –

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) has launched his
book “Ambedkar: A Life”, a biography of
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
 Kapil Kathpal
Siddheshwar Swamiji seer of Sri
Jnanayogashrama Passed away Obituary

• Noted spiritual leader Siddeshwar Swami, the seer of

Sri Jnanayogashrama in Vijayapura, Karnataka passed
away in Karnataka

• Siddeshwar Swami spent over 67 years as a monk.

• Siddeshwar Swami is often referred to as the “Walking

God of North Karnataka”. He was also fondly known as
Buddiji.

• He was a Lingayat priest and saint at Sri Jnana

Yogashram in Vijayapura, Karnataka.
 Kapil Kathpal
World Braille Day 2023 - 4th January
• World Braille Day, marked on January 4, emphasises Important Days

the significance of Braille as a form of communication

for the partially sighted and blind.

• World Braille Day also commemorates the birth

anniversary of Louis Braille, who was born on January
4, 1809. After losing his sight during childhood, the
French educator devised the Braille technique.