Current Affairs (29/09/2018)

(1.) Four Northern states and 2 UTs to fix uniform tax rates on petroleum products

The states are Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and UTs of Delhi and Chandigarh.
Further, a subcommittee would be instituted which would recommend with regard to uniformity in tax rates in the next fifteen days.
Punjab is one of the highest rates of VAT on petrol in the country and it is second to Maharashtra.

(2.) Ravi Shankar Prasad Launched Centre Of Excellence For Data Analytics And DigiVaarta

National Informatics Centre (NIC) and National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI) have jointly set up a Centre of Excellence for data analytics to support Government departments to unlock the hidden potential of the data that they are generating as part of the governance processes and use it to improve the overall governance.

(3.) IRBI eased cash reserve rules to allow banks to get increased liquidity from SLR

The Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to dip further into statutory cash reserves to ease a liquidity squeeze afflicting the nation’s money markets. 

The move by the central bank follows concerns over tight liquidity conditions and banks unwillingness to lend to NBFCs.

(4.) Centre may soon merge PNB, OBC, Andhra Bank

After deciding to merge Bank of Baroda (BoB), Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, Centre is reportedly planning the amalgamation of Punjab National Bank (PNB), Andhra Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC).

The government has been battling for years to clean up its banks, which have the highest bad-loan ratio after Italy among the world’s 10 largest economies.

(5.) Sreeshankar sets national record in mens long jump

M.Sreeshankar, the 19-year-old, defeated Ankit Sharma’s National and meet record in the men’s long jump in the National Open athletics championships. He recorded a jump to break the meet record of 7.87m a by covering a distance of 8.11m. His previous best was 7.99m at the Federation Cup in March.