DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: March 14, 2022

Government reduces EPF interest rate to 8.1% for 2021-22

Tags: National Popular

The Central Board of Trustee, Employment Provident Fund (EPF) under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has decided to reduce the interest to be paid on the EPF fund to 8.1% for the financial year 2021-22. 

During the 2020-21 the interest rate was 8.5%.

The meeting of the Central Board of Trustee was held in Guwahati ,under the chairmanship of the Union Minister  for Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav.

 This is the lowest interest rate  since 1977-78 when the EPF interest rate stood at 8%.

Employees provident Fund (EPF)

• Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a retirement benefits scheme framed under the Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. 

• The Act is applicable to every factory or industry mentioned in Schedule 1 of the Act, wherein 20 or more persons are employed or to any other establishment which the Central Government specifies by notification in the official Gazette, even when the number of employees is less than 20.

• It includes any worker having salary(basic salary and Dearness allowances ) of Rs 15,000 or less per month .

• The Employee has to contribute 12% of its salary and a similar contribution is made by the Employer. The Government of India pays interest on the amount every year.

• On retirement, the employee receives a lump sum corpus of EPF, including the employee’s contribution, employer’s contribution and the interest amount credited every year.

• The fund is managed by Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) under the  Union Ministry of Labour  

Government allows self enumeration for Census 2021

Tags: National

The Government of India has changed the Census Rules 1990 to allow self enumeration and capturing and storing of data in electronic format .

• The 2021 Population census will be held in both digital and through paper modes where respondents are asked a set of questions by the census enumerator and the response of the respondent is recorded.

• The self enumeration means the respondent has to fill the census form and then submit it through mobile phone.

•  Census enumerators are those who conduct census . They are mainly government employees and government school teachers.

• The 2021 census will be conducted in two phases . The first phase called “Houselisting  and Housing census” along with updating the National Population Register (NPP) was scheduled to be held from April 2020 but was postponed due to the corona pandemic . The second and the main phase “Population Enumeration “ was to be concluded by March 2021. However it has been delayed due to the corona pandemic.

Census 

• The first population census in India was held in 1872 under Viceroy Lord Mayo but it didn't cover all of India .

• The first proper census was conducted in 1881 under Viceroy Lord Rippon  and after that census was conducted every 10 years .

• After Independence the census was conducted under Census act 1948.

• Census is conducted by the Registrar General Population under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

• The 16th Census will be held in 2021.

Maternal Mortality Ratio declines to 103 in India

Tags: National Popular

According to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) special bulletin on maternal mortality in India (2017-19), brought out by the office of the Registrar General of India,the Maternal Mortality Ratio(MMR) has declined to 103 per lakh live births.

• It was 113 per lakh live births, according to the special bulletin on maternal mortality(2016-18) in India.

• The lowest MMR was in Kerala 30 per lakh live births and the highest  MMR was in Assam,205 per lakh live births.

• The MMR for Uttar Pradesh was 167, Bihar 130,Madhya Pradesh 163,Chhhatisgarh 163,Odisha 136, Rajasthan 141,Uttrakhand 101.

• The target of the government of India under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is 70 MMR per lakh live births by 2030.

• The number of states which have achieved the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target has now risen from 5 to 7 . These states are  Kerala (30), Maharashtra (38), Telangana (56), Tamil Nadu (58), Andhra Pradesh (58), Jharkhand (61), and Gujarat (70).The states which have  recently achieved this target are Jharkhand and Gujarat.

• The target of 100 MMR per lakh live birth under the National Health Policy by 2020 is likely to be achieved by the country .

• The number of states which have achieved the National Health Policy target are Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh ,Jharkhand ,Gujarat Karnataka (83) and Haryana (96).

• Four states West Bengal, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh have shown an increase in MMR. Haryana MMR increased from 91 in 2016-18 to 96 in 2017-19.  Similarly in West Bengal it increased from 98 to 109,in Uttarakhand the MMR increased from 99 to 101 and in Chhattisgarh it increased from  159 to 160.

States in India have been divided into three groups for better monitoring of MMR situation in India .

• Empowered Action Group  (EAG) States comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand and Assam. These states have high MMR.

• Southern States which include Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu; and

• “Other” States covering the remaining States/UTs(Union Territories).

Concept Clearing 

Maternal Mortality Ratio(MMR)

 It refers to the death of the mother while delivering a child . It does not include children which are born dead and includes only children which are born alive. 

It is a statistical tool which refers to the proportion of maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births. 

Lakshya Sen loses the German open Badminton final

Tags: Sports

World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen lost to Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the  final of the German Open Super 300 badminton tournament on 13 March 2022. 

The German open was held in the German city of Mulheim.

Lakshya Sen is ranked 12th in the world while the Thailand player Kunlavut Vitidsarn is ranked 20th in the world.

Rishab Pant scores India’s fastest fifty in Test Match

Tags: Sports Popular

The wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant made history by scoring the  fastest half-century by an Indian cricketer in the history of Tests during Day 2 of the Bengaluru Test against the Sri Lankans on 13 March 2022.

• He scored his fifty in 28 balls beating the record of Kapil Dev who scored 50 runs in 30 balls against Pakistan in the Karachi test in 1982. He was eventually out at the score of 50.

• The world record is held by Pakistani batsmen Misbah-ul who scored 50 runs in a test match against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014 in 21 balls.

Important for Exam 

Bengaluru Cricket Stadium name : Chinnaswamy stadium 

Cricketer G.R.Vishwanath Autobiography released

Tags: Books and Authors

Former Cricketer and batsman G.R. Vishwanath’s autobiography “Wrist Assured” was released at the Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru. 

The book has been co-authored by senior journalist R. Kaushik.

Gundappa Vishwanath played test matches for India from 1969 to 1983. He played 91 Test Matches for India. 

RBI lifts all restrictions on HDFC Bank's new digital launches

Tags: Economics/Business

Reserve Bank of India has lifted the restriction placed on the largest private bank , HDFC Bank digital business plan . In December 2020, RBI imposed a ban on the bank from new digital launches and getting new customers for its credit card business.

• This was done by the RBI after it received complaints from the bank customers of glitches in the bank's internet banking and mobile banking based services.

• In August 2021, RBI lifted the ban on its credit card business but the restriction on its new digital launches was not lifted. Now all the restrictions have been removed.

Important for Exams 

• The Largest issuer of Credit cards in India : HDFC Bank 

• The second largest issuer of credit  is SBI and then ICICI bank 

• The largest issuer of Debit Cards in India : SBI .

HDFC Bank 

• It is the largest private bank in India .

• It is the second largest bank in India after SBI

• The headquarter of HDFC bank is Mumbai. 

•  Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Shashidhar Jagdhisan 

Indian embassy shifts to Poland from Ukraine

Tags: International News

The Government of India has temporarily shifted its embassy from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to Poland. The decision has been taken due to the fear that the Russians will launch a full scale attack on Kyiv after many of the foreigners have left the Ukrainian capital.

• The decision of the government of India also was influenced by the fact that all Indians had been evacuated from Ukraine under operation Ganga.

• The last big group of students from the besieged town of Sumy in Ukraine were flown back to India on 11 march 2022, after being seen off on trains to Poland by Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy.

The neighbouring countries of Ukraine are Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Russia, and Belarus.

Important for Exam 

Poland 

It is an Eastern European country.

Capital : Warsaw

President : Andrzej Duda

Currency : Polish zloty

• Poland is located in the exact geographical centre of the European continent.

• Poland is the first European country (1791) and second country overall to have written a constitution. The first country in the world to have a written constitution was the United States of America (1789).

Note-  russia-ukraine