General Awareness PYQs

• The Reserve Bank of India had set up an eight member expert committee to review the current framework for the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME sector) under the leadership of UK Sinha, former SEBI chairman.
• Its mandate was to suggest long-term solutions for the economic and financial sustainability of MSMEs.
• The committee has recommended doing away with collateral security for loans up to Rs 20 lakh extended to units in this sector.
• The current ceiling for a collateral free loan for MSMEs is Rs 10 lakh  and these are disbursed under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).
• Nitin Gadkari-Minister of MSME
• Shaktikanta Das-Governor of RBI
• Sudha Balakrishnan-First Chief Financial Officer of RBI
• Mahesh Kumar Jain-Deputy Governor of RBI

• World Tourism Day is observed annually on 27 September. It was first celebrated on 27 September 1980.
• The United Nations observes 27 September every year as World Tourism Day.

The UN World Tourism Organization expects that tourism will continue to grow at an average of 3% annually until 2030.

The sector also represents an estimated 10% of the world’s GDP and 1 in 10 jobs globally.

The theme for 2019: Tourism and Jobs: A Better Future For All.

• Liverpool beat Chelsea 5-4 on penalties and won the UEFA Super Cup in Istanbul.
• It is Liverpool’s 4^th Super Cup victory, with their last coming in 2005 in Champions League triumph, also in Istanbul.
• They have now won 13 European trophies overall.

From bureaucrat to politician, and from one century to the next, Yashwant Sinha's incredible journey from modest beginnings to the highest corridors of power is a tribute to a family's determination and sacrifices, a young man's indomitable grit and an enduring ode to a nation in the throes of constant churn and change.

• Operation Sunrise ,a millitary excercise conducted between India and Myanmar.
• Named Operation Sunrise, the strategy is aimed at hitting militant groups
• The transit project will connect Kolkata to Sitwe port in Myanmar and finally end up linking Mizoram

• In Tennis, Serbian Novak Djokovic won his fifth Wimbledon title after defeating Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, 4-6, 13-12.
• The match had to be decided in the fifth set, as both of them won two sets each in the longest ever final to be played so far.
• This is Djokovic's 16^th Grand Slam and 5^th Wimbledon title. He is now level with Bjorn Borg as a five-time Wimbledon winner.

• NASA's newest planetary science mission is a quadcopter that will fly around the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. Sporting 8 rotors and a nuclear power source like the Mars Curiosity rover, Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive at Titan in 2034.
• The mission will build on key discoveries made by Cassini

Fugdi is a Goa folk dance performed by the women in the Konkan region during Hindu religious festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Vrata.

• Indian journalist Ravish Kumar has been awarded the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award for harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless.
• The award was started in 1957 and celebrates the leadership example of the former Philippine President Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay.
• The awardees are presented with a medallion with a right side facing profile image of Ramon Magsaysay and a certificate.

• International Cricket Council has inducted Sachin Tendulkar, Allan Donald and Cathryn Fitzpatrick into the ICC’s Hall of Fame.
• Other Indians on the list are Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid.
• Sachin Tendulkar has 34,357 runs across formats and is the only batsman to have 100 internationals hundreds under his belt.

• President Ram Nath Kovind has been awarded the National Order of Merit by the President of Guinea.
• He was awarded for his exceptional contribution to the advancement of overall relations and development of mutual cooperation between India and Guinea.
• This is the highest award of the Republic of Guinea.
• Three MoUs were also signed between the two countries.

• Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal, will attend the 7^th RCEP Ministerial Meeting, 16^th ASEAN India Economic Ministers meeting and the 7^th East Asia Economic Ministers Summit being held in Bangkok from 8-10 September 2019.
• The meetings will be attended by Economic Ministers and senior leaders of 10 ASEAN member countries and 8 East Asia Summit (EAS) countries
• Bangkok is the capital of Thailand.
• Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia.
• Tokyo is the capital of Japan.
• Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia.

• The RBI set up a working group to review the regulatory and supervisory framework for core investment companies (CICs).
• The six-member working group was headed by Tapan Ray, Non-Executive Chairman, Central Bank of India.
• The working group has also been tasked with recommending appropriate measures to enhance RBI’s off-sight surveillance and on-site supervision over CICs.

The correct answer is Madhabi Puri Buch

Key Points

• Madahabi Puri Buch is the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• She is the first woman chairman of SEBI.
• She's also the first SEBI chief who's not an ex-bureaucrat in 17 years.
• She was appointed chairman on March 2022.
• SEBI is the regulator for the securities market in India.

• U.S. celebrates the Apollo 11 mission’s 50^th year anniversary.
• In the celebrations, new statues of Astronaut Neil Armstrong were unveiled and an education centre was dedicated to him in Ohio, US.
• Present Administrator of NASA - James Frederick Bridenstine.
• Headquarters - Washington, D.C.

• The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) is founded by Steve Killelea.
• It is a global think tank headquartered in Sydney, Australia with branches in New York, Mexico City, and Oxford.
• The institute for IEP is impacting traditional thinking on matters of security, defence, terrorism and development. They aim to create a paradigm shift in the way the world thinks about peace.

• IIT-Bombay has been securing top position among all Indian institutes for past three years and in 2020 edition it has improved its rank globally at 152^nd position and has emerged as best-ranked Indian institute globally.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops the global list for eighth year.
• IIT-Delhi and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore at 182^nd and 184^th position respectively.
• Out of top 10 universities in the 16^th edition of the QS World Ranking, five were US based

The Correct Answer is Marginal cost of funds based lending rate

• The MCLR stand for the marginal cost of funds based lending rate.
• The MCLR was introduced by RBI on April 1, 2016.
• It is the current rate-setting method for lending money by commercial banks.
• MCLR is set by the banks on the basis of the structure and methodology followed. To summarise, borrowers can benefit from this change.
• MCLR is an improved version of the base rate. It is a risk-based approach to determine the final lending rate for borrowers. It considers unique factors like the marginal cost of funds instead of the overall cost of funds. The marginal cost takes into account the repo rate, which did not form part of the base rate.
• When calculating the MCLR, banks are required to incorporate all kinds of interest rates which they incur in mobilizing the funds. Earlier, the loan tenure was not taken into account when determining the base rate. In the case of MCLR, the banks are now required to include a tenor premium. This will allow banks to charge a higher rate of interest for loans with long-term horizons.

The Asian Development Bank has its headquarters in Philippines. It is a regional development bank aimed at promoting social and economic development in Asia.