Daily Current Affairs 1 February 2020

Daily Current Affairs 1 February 2020: Your guide for daily General Knowledge Preparation

Dear Readers,

This post contains important current affairs of 1 February 2020. It includes all Major National, International, Business and Sports related current affairs of 1 February 2020. A brief explanation of every current affair is provided to further enhance your general knowledge. Once you have gone through these current affairs we would recommend to you to try 1 February 2020 Current affairs test.

National News

1. India’s first Governmental Waste-to-Energy Plant

• Indian Railways has commissioned India’s first Governmental Waste-to-Energy Plant in Bhubaneswar under the East Coast Railway zone.
• Union Minister of Ministry of Railways: Piyush Goyal.

2. SurajkundMela 2020

• President Ram Nath Kovind has inaugurated the 34th Surajkund International Crafts Fair on February 1, 2020, in Faridabad, Haryana.
• Partner Country: Uzbekistan
• Theme State: Himachal Pradesh

3. Yashwant Sinha’s Autobiography

• Former President Pranab Mukherjee released Yashwant Sinha’s autobiography ‘Relentless’.
• It describes Yashwant Sinha’s journey from normal life to a high political powered life.
• Yashwant Sinha is a former Indian administrator, politician and a former Minister of Finance. He was a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party before he quit the party on 21st Apr 2018.

4. Secretary of National Commission for Minorities

• Senior bureaucrat B Anand has been appointed as the secretary of National Commission for Minorities.
• Constitution of India doesn’t define the word ‘Minority’ but has used the word minorities considering religion and language of a person. For minorities Constitution of India has envisaged a number of rights and safeguards.
• The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by the Union Government all over India .

International News

1. Exercise SAMPRITI-IX

• The 9th edition of military training exercise ‘SAMPRITI-IX’ between India-Bangladesh will be conducted at Umroi, Meghalaya.
• Bangladesh: Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina || Capital: Dhaka || Currency: Taka.

2. Australia declares

• Australia has declared the state of Emergency as Bushfires threaten its capital Canberra.
• The state of emergency will run for 72 hours.
• Capital: Canberra || Prime Minister: Scott Morrison || Currency: Australian dollar

3. World Leprosy Day

• World Leprosy Day is observed internationally every year on the last Sunday of January to increase the public awareness of the Leprosy or Hansen’s Disease.
• This date was chosen by French humanitarian Raoul Follereau as a tribute to the life of the Mahatma Gandhi who had compassion for people afflicted with leprosy.
• Theme: ‘Leprosy isn’t what you think’.

Business News

1. New Monetary Policy Committee Member

• RBI appointed its Executive Director Janak Raj as member of the Monetary Policy Committee replacing Michael DebrataPatra.
• Michael DebrataPatra was recently elevated as Deputy Governor of the RBI.
• The Monetary Policy Committee of India is responsible for fixing the benchmark interest rate in India. The meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee are held at least 4 times a year and it publishes its decisions after each such meeting.

2. Economic Survey 2019-20

• Prepared by : Krishnamurthy Subramanian (Krishnamurthy Subramanian is an Indian economist and the current Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India).
• Color : Lavender
• Theme : Enable markets, promote ‘pro-business’ policies and strengthen ‘trust’ in the economy.
• India’s economic growth at between 6 to 6.5% for FY21.
• National Infrastructure Pipeline 2019-2025 was announced with a funding of the Rs 102 lakh crore.
• Economic Survey 2020 talked about a new phrase called ‘Thalinomics’ which is the economy of a plate of food in India. It says that food plates are becoming more affordable in India which indicates improvement in the welfare of the common man.
• Two Schemes Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin/Urban seek to achieve the target of housing for all by 2022.
• India’s top five trading partners: 1. USA || 2. China || 3. UAE || 4. Saudi Arabia || 5. Hong Kong
• According to the Survey, It takes more documents to open a restaurant in Delhi as compared to documents needed for a license to procure new arms and major fireworks.
• Bank Credit growth (Year to Year) moderated from 12.9% in April 2019 to 7.1% as on December 20, 2019.
• Consumer Price Index inflation increased from 3.7% in 2018-19 to 4.1% in 2019-20.
• ‘Assemble in India for the world’ into Make in India.
• India can create 4 crore well-paid jobs by 2025 and 8 crores by 2030.
• Wholesale Price Index inflation fell from 4.7% in 2018-19 to 1.5% during 2019-20.

3. Union Budget 2020

• Government has estimated fiscal deficit on 3.8% of GDP in FY20 and 3.5 percent for FY21.
• Government has estimated nominal growth of GDP for the year 2020-21 on the trends available, at 10%.
• Income tax slabs and rates have been revised. The taxpayer can now opt to pay income tax either under the 2019-20 tax slabs, which allow tax exemptions, but a slightly higher tax rate, or under the 2020-21 tax slab, which has removed several exemptions, around 70 of more than 100, but calculates income tax at a lower percentage.
• The Life Insurance Corporation will be going public. The government has proposed to sell a part of its holding in the LIC, through an initial public offering (IPO).
• Depositors to be insured up to Rs 5 lakh, up from the previous amount of Rs 1 lakh, under the DICGC, in case a bank fails or goes under.
• The Centre has also proposed allocation of Rs 30,757 crore for Jammu and Kashmir, and Rs 5,958 crore for Ladakh for 2020-21. Jammu and Kashmir suffered a loss of at least Rs 17,300 crore in four months following the abrogation of article 370.
• Top 100 institutions will offer full time online degree courses
• Rs 99,300 crore is the budget for the education sector and another Rs 3,000 crore for the skill development for the next fiscal year.
• E-commerce operators to deduct TDS on all payments to e-commerce participants at 1 per cent with PAN/Aadhaar, 5 per cent in non-PAN/Aadhaar.
• Rs 1.7 lakh crore to be provided for transport and transport infrastructure in 2020-21.
• 150 trains will run under the public private partnership (PPP) mode
• 100 more airports will be developed by 2024 to support the UDAN scheme.
• New simplified GST system from April 2020.
• Dividend distribution tax abolished. Companies will no longer be required to pay Dividend distribution tax.
• Rs 4,400 crore to be allocated for ‘Clean Air’ initiatives in states across India.
• Government has proposed reduction of tax on cooperative societies to 22 per cent plus surcharge and cess, from 30 per cent at present.
• Health sector to get a boost with a proposed budget of Rs 69,000 crore.
• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a 16-point action plan to boost agriculture and farmers’ welfare. She said that the government has insured 6.11 crore farmers under the Pradhan Mantri FasalBimaYojna.
• A tribal museum will be set up in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
• Five archaeological sites will be set up with museums on site in RakhiGadi in Haryana, Hastinapur in UP, Dholavira in Gujarat, Shivsagar in Assam and Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu
• Rs 85,000 crore has been allocated for empowerment of Scheduled Caste and Rs 53,700 crore for Scheduled Tribes.

4. New Income Tax Slab According to Union Budget 2020

• No income tax for those earning less than Rs 5 lakh.
• Income between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh annually will be taxed at 10 per cent.
• Income between Rs 7.5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh will be taxed at 15 per cent.
• Income between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 12.5 lakh will be taxed at 20 per cent.
• Income earning between Rs 12.5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh will be taxed at 25 per cent.
• Income above Rs 15 lakh will continue to be taxed at 30 per cent.

Sports News

1. World Games Athlete of the Year 2019

• India Women Hockey Captain Rani Rampal has been named 2019 World Games Athlete of the Year.
• Founded in 1980, the International World Games Association (IWGA) is a non-governmental and non-profit-making international organisation constituted under Swiss law.
• Made up of International Sports Federations, it administers a quadrennial and multidisciplinary sports event, The World Games, which aspires to equal and exceed the importance of World Championships organised by each federation individually.
• The principal aim of the IWGA is to develop the popularity of the sports governed by its Member Federations, to improve their prominence through excellent sporting achievements, and to conserve all the traditional values of sport through The World Games.

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