Current Affairs Daily Digest – May 5 2019
1. Musk’s SpaceX Launches Falcon Rocket With Dragon Spacecraft
Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched its 17th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for longtime customer NASA early Saturday.
The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule rumbled aloft at 2:48 a.m. local time from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Dragon will deliver almost 5,500 pounds (2,495 kilograms) of science supplies and hardware, according to NASA, and is slated to attach to the station on Monday. SpaceX recovered Falcon 9’s first stage on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Bank of Baroda hikes lending rate by 0.05%
State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has hiked its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 0.05 per cent with effect from May 7.
BoB has hiked the lending rates for overnight tenor to 8.30 per cent from the previous 8.25 per cent. Similarly, for one-month and three-month tenors the interest rates have been increased to 8.35 per cent and 8.45 per cent, respectively.
3. Disney to sell Fox regional sports networks to Sinclair for $9.6 billion
Walt Disney Co said it would sell its interests in 21 regional sports networks and Fox College Sports to Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc for $9.6 billion, a deal that clears the way for its purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s film and television assets.
The deal will help Sinclair, the largest U.S. broadcast station owner, add channels such as Fox Sports Detroit and Fox Sports Florida to its existing sports business that includes Marquee Sports Network and Ring of Honor Wrestling.
4. India, Australia agree to further deepen counter-terrorism co-operation
India and Australia have agreed to further deepen counter-terrorism co-operation through regular exchange of information and sharing of best practices on countering extremism and radicalization.
The two countries held the 11th Meeting of Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism at Canberra yesterday. In a release, the External Affairs Ministry said, the two sides discussed contemporary counter terrorism challenges such as financing of terrorism, the use of the internet for terror purposes, radicalization and Foreign Terrorist Fighters.
5. RBI penalises Vodafone m-pesa, PhonePe and three others over regulatory violations
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday said it has imposed penalties on five prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers, including Vodafone m-pesa and PhonePe, for violation of regulatory norms.
Also, penalties have been imposed on Western Union Financial Services Inc and MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc, both US firms, for non-compliance of guidelines.
A penalty of Rs 3.05 crore has been imposed on Vodafone m-pesa and Rs 1 crore each on Mobile Payments, PhonePe, Private and GI Technology. Also, a penalty of Rs 5 lakh has been imposed on Y-Cash Software Solutions.
6. India to attend G-7 meet in France
India will be attending the Group of 7 industrialised nations meet organised by France in Biarritz in August along with Australia, Chile and South Africa, in a sign of the recognition of India’s growing economic heft in the international arena.
According to analysts, the invitation clearly reflects the strong strategic connect between India and France.
The G-7 groups together the US, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany.
The grouping had included Russia but it was left out following tensions with Western nations over the annexation of Crimea in 2015.
7. Bhushan Patil quits Paytm
Paytm, India’s mobile payment and commerce platform’s President, Bhushan Patil, has quit the company. He had joined Paytm in March 2016 after serving five years at the Chinese company Alibaba.com.
8. ADB Launches $5 Billion Healthy Oceans Action Plan
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched the Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for the Asia and Pacific region at the 52nd Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors in Fiji.
The Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies will expand financing and technical assistance for ocean health and marine economy projects to $5 billion from 2019 to 2024, including cofinancing from partners.
It will focus on four areas: creating inclusive livelihoods and business opportunities in sustainable tourism and fisheries; protecting and restoring coastal and marine ecosystems and key rivers; reducing land-based sources of marine pollution, including plastics, wastewater, and agricultural runoff; and improving sustainability in port and coastal infrastructure development.
9. International Firefighters’ Day: May 4
International Firefighters’ Day (IFFD) is observed on May 4. It was instituted after a proposal was emailed out across the world on January 4, 1999 due to the deaths of five firefighters in tragic circumstances in a bushfire in Australia.
10. Nepali teen dances for continuous 126-hour to set new world record
A Nepali teenager danced continuously for 126 hours to set a Guinness World Records on ‘Longest Dancing Marathon by an Individual’, a feat previously hold by an Indian.
At a function held in his official residence here on Saturday, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli honoured the 18-year-old girl, Bandana Nepal, for achieving the feat.
11. New initiative measuring violent deaths worldwide
SIPRI has set up a new initiative aiming to establish the annual number of violent deaths worldwide. SIPRI’s Global Registry of Violent Deaths (GReVD) will count deaths caused by all forms of violence and display these in an open-source database that will allow researchers, policymakers and the general public to track trends in violence at global, regional, national, provincial, city and municipal levels.
The database will hold a single entry for every violent death, including time, location, perpetrator, victim and type of violence.
12. Pakistan appoints IMF official for new central bank governor
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s newly chosen governor of the central bank joined the country’s economic team to negotiate a fresh loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is considered central to reviving the country’s badly ailing economy.
13. Mumbai’s Last Captive White Tiger, Bajirao, Dies at Age 18 in Sanjay Gandhi National Park
Bajirao, the last captive white tiger at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Borivali, died at the age of 18.
Bajirao was born at the SGNP in 2001 to Renuka and Sidharth. He was the last surviving white tiger in the park, it said.
