Kapil Kathpal

IRDAI makes KYC mandatory from January 1, 2023

Banking &
• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India Financial News
has made Know Your Customer norms mandatory for the
purchase of all new insurance policies, irrespective of their
premiums, starting January 1, 2023.

• This rule will apply to all types of insurance — life, general and
health insurance.

• At present, KYC documents are not mandatory for buying non-life

or general insurance policies such as health insurance, auto
insurance, and travel insurance policies.

• Currently, only at the time of claim in health insurance policies,

especially if the claim value is greater than Rs 1 lakh, the
customer is required to submit the PAN (Permanent Account
Number) card and Aadhar.
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• Till now, sharing KYC documents is a voluntary choice by the

customer while purchasing a new general insurance product.

• Currently, a policyholder is required to provide PAN card or Form

60 if the aggregate insurance premium is Rs 50,000 or more in
a financial year.

• For existing customers, the insurers will collect the KYC

documents within a specified time frame.

• The time limit will be two years for ‘low-risk’ policyholders and one
year for other customers including ‘high-risk’ customers.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India

(IRDAI):
• Chairperson – Debasish Panda
• Headquarters – Hyderabad,
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India’s April-November Fiscal Deficit Widens
Banking &
• The government’s fiscal deficit in end-November touched 59 per Financial News
cent of the full year Budget Estimate on increased capital
expenditure and slow growth in non-tax revenue.

• In actual terms, the fiscal deficit, which is the difference between

expenditure and revenue, was Rs 9.78 lakh crore during the
April-November period of 2022-23.

• In the corresponding period last year, the deficit was 46.2 per cent
of the Budget Estimates of 2021-22.

• The government has budgeted fiscal deficit to be Rs 16.61 lakh

crore or 6.4 per cent of the GDP in the current year ending March
2023.

• Capital expenditure was at Rs 4.47 lakh crore or 59.6 per cent of

BE between April-November. In the last fiscal, capex was 49.4 per
cent of BE.
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Index Of Eight Core Industries Increases By 5.4 Per Cent
Banking &
• Production of eight infrastructure sectors increased by 5.4 per cent Financial News
in November against a 3.2 per cent growth in the same month last year

• The growth rate of eight infrastructure sectors — coal, crude oil, natural
gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — stood at
8 per cent in April-November this fiscal as against 13.9 per cent during the
same period last fiscal.

Index of Industrial Production (IIP):

• It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry

groups

• These comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of

Industrial Production

• The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage:

Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas>
Cement> Fertilizers
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BHIM Celebrates Sixth Anniversary Banking &
Financial News
• Indigenously developed payment application BHIM
(Bharat Interface for Money) celebrated its sixth
anniversary.

• BHIM App was launched on 30th December 2016

• BHIM stands for Bharat Interface for Money. It is a

biometric payment systems app using the Aadhar
platform and is based on a Unified Payment Interface
to facilitate e-payment directly through the bank.

• BHIM app developed by the National Payments

Corporation of India
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Niva Bupa & Swara Fincare signs
agreement to pay debtors' EMIs Banking &
Financial News
• Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Limited
signed a pact with Swara Fincare Limited to
pay the debtors' 3 EMIs (equated monthly
instalments) if they were hospitalised for more
than 5 days.
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MCA extends virtual AGMs & EGMs till September 2023
Banking &
• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has allowed Financial News

companies to hold their Annual General Meetings and

Extraordinary General Meetings through video
conference mode till September 30, 2023.

• EGM can be held through VC till September 30, 2023

for passing of any type of Ordinary and Special
Resolution

• In May 2021, the MCA had extended virtual AGM

facility till December 2022 in respect of companies that
were to hold AGM in 2022.
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Tata Motors to complete acquisition of
Ford India’s manufacturing Plant Banking &
Financial News
• Tata Motors to complete the acquisition of Ford India’s
manufacturing plant at Sanand through its subsidiary.

• The company has announced that its arm Tata

Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd would acquire Ford
India Pvt Ltd Sanand Plant in Gujarat for Rs 725.7
crore.
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Mobile Phones Banned in Tamil Nadu’s Temples
National News
• The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has prohibited
devotees from carrying mobile phones inside temples in Tamil
Nadu.

• The Tamil Nadu Temple Entry Authorization Act 1947, and the
Rules empower the trustees or any authority in charge of the
temple to make regulations for the maintenance of order and
decorum in the temple.

• The court noted that mobile phone ban have been implemented in
famed temples.

• These temples include Sri Krishna Temple at Guruvayur, Kerala,

Meenakshi Sundareshwara Temple at Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and
Sri Venkateshwara Temple at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
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AP Govt Introduces Lesson on India’s First
Muslim Woman Teacher Fatima Sheikh National News

• The Andhra Pradesh government has introduced a lesson on the

contribution of Fatima Sheikh in the textbooks of the eighth class.

• Fatima Sheikh was India’s first woman Muslim teacher and one of
India’s greatest social reformers and educators.

• She was known to have given shelter to Jyoti Rao Phule and Savitribai,
the well-known social reformer couple who worked for the education of girl
child.

• Fatima Sheikh is credited with allowing the Phule couple to start the first
all-girls school at the former’s house in erstwhile Poona in Bombay
Presidency.

• Fatima Sheikh taught at all five schools which were run by the Phule
couple.

• She on her own founded two schools in 1851 in Mumbai.

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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurates
the new Zuari bridge in Goa National News

• Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and

Highways of India, inaugurated the new Zuari bridge
in Goa, which links North and South Goa.

• Zuari bridge is India’s 2nd largest Cable Stayed

bridge, located on NH-17/NH-66 on the Panjim (Goa)-
Mangaluru (Karnataka) section in the state of Goa.

• The 13.20-kilometre bridge connecting Bambolim and

Verna over the Zuari River will greatly improve
transportation between North and South Goa.
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Remote Electronic Voting Machine
National News
• The election Commission of India has developed a prototype for
the Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) aimed to
facilitate voting for domestic migrants across India.

• The prototype of the RVM will be demonstrated to political parties

on January 16th, and if it is successful, it will allow domestic
migrants to vote without having to travel back to their hometowns.

• The RVM is a multi-constituency electronic voting machine that

can handle up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling
booth.

• The Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951, The

Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and The Registration of
Electors Rules, 1960 will also need to be amended to introduce
remote voting.
 Kapil Kathpal
TRAI recommends 10-year Renewal for
Multi-System Operators’ Registrations National News

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued its

recommendations on ‘Renewal of Multi-System Operators
(MSOs) Registration’.

• It has recommended that the renewal of registration of multi-

system operators who are master cable operators should be done
for a 10-year period and the process fee kept at Rs 1 lakh.

• MSOs are large cable operators, who provide cable or direct-

broadcast satellite television channels to consumer homes via
local cable operators

• All such registrations, which have either expired or are about to

expire within the next eight months should be deemed to expire
after eight months from the date of implementation of the
rules/guidelines for renewal.
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• Window for applying for renewal of registrations should open not

earlier than 7 months from the date of expiry and not later than
2 months prior to the date of expiry.

• The application process for renewal shall be made end-to-end

online with facility to upload all the documents in digital mode via
single point facility i.e., Broadcast Seva Portal.

• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had asked for

TRAI recommendations on the matter, since the Cable Television
Networks Rules, 1994, did not have a provision for the renewal of
MSO registrations.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India:

• Chairman- Dr. PD Vaghela
• Headquarters- New Delhi
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Atal Incubation Centre signs agreements with MSMEs
MOUs &
• Atal Incubation Centre at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Agreements
Mumbai signed an agreement with Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises for incubation of newer technologies into commercial
products.

• The agreement was signed to commemorate the launch of the

AIC at the BARC to speed up to conversion of products from
research labs to markets.

• Under the framework of AIC-BARC, The scientists at the BARC

will mentor the incubatee industries for further improvisation and
development of market-ready products.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC):

• Director- Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty
• Headquarters- Mumbai
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Cyprus & India signs 3 agreement
MOUs &
• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his contemporary Agreements
Foreign Minister of Cyprus Ioannis Kasoulides and signed three
key agreements on defence and military cooperation,
migration and International Solar Alliance.

• One is the Memorandum of Understanding on defence and

military cooperation between our two countries. The second is the
letter of intent on Migration and Mobility Partnership, which we
believe will provide a common framework of arrangement and
cooperation to facilitate the mobility of students, academics,
business people and professionals and it will also help in
combating irregular migration. Third one signed the framework
agreement on International Solar Alliance by Cyprus

• Commemorative Stamps on the occasion of 75 years of India’s

Independence and marking 60 years of India's diplomatic
relations with Cyprus are also released on this occasion.
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• Cyprus is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea

that has been divided into the Republic of Cyprus (ROC), which
has a majority of Greeks, and the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus since the Turkish invasion there in 1974. (TRNC).

• The TRNC is only recognised by Turkey, while the ROC, which

claims two-thirds of the island, is recognised globally. Ethnic
conflicts between the island’s Greek and Turkish residents have
also long plagued it.

• Reunification negotiations and even two-state agreements have

not advanced much in the 48 years after the island gained
independence from the British.

Capital: Nicosia
Currency: Euro
President: Nicos Anastasiades
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MahaMetro to Raise Rs 3,586 crore for from ADB & EIB
Funds
• The Mahametro Corporation has finalised its debt arrangement and Sanctioned
raised a loan of Rs. 3,586 crore from Asian Development Bank and the
European Investment Bank for the second phase of its Metro project in
Nagpur.

• ADB would be contributing USD 200 million whereas EIB would be

contributing around 239 million Euros to the project.

• Around 630 million Euros was arranged during the first phase of the
project and was funded by France’s AFD and KFW, a German agency.
Asian Development Bank:
• Both, phase I and phase II will collectively lead to an investment of Rs
15,388 crore. • President - Masatsugu
Asakawa
• Establishment – 1966
• The total cost of the second phase of the project is around Rs. 6,700 • Headquarters –
crore, out of which Rs. 3,100 is in the form of equity from both Central Mandaluyong City, Manila
and State governments. (Philippines)
• Members – 68 members
• The Phase II of the project will extend the existing 4 corridors of Phase-I
covering a total distance of 43.8 km. The second phase will be
completed by 2026.
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Tamil Nadu Information Commission
Lowest Performing in RTI Responsiveness Reports &
Indices
• The State Information Commission of Tamil Nadu has the lowest
performance of responsiveness under the RTI Act concerned,
with only up to 14% of the information sought.

• Maharashtra was second lowest with sharing only 23% of the

information asked for.

• The report was issued on the Performance of Information

Commission in India for 2021-22 by Satark Nagrik Sangathan.

• Only 10 ICs provided the full information in response to the RTI

applications filed as part of this assessment.

• These included Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, and the

northeastern states of Tripura, Nagaland, and Sikkim.
 Kapil Kathpal

• The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of

the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and
procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It
replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002.
Under the provisions of RTI Act, any citizen of India
may request information from a "public authority" (a
body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which
is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days

• The RTI Bill was passed by Parliament of India on 15

June 2005 and came into force with effect from 12
October 2005.
 Kapil Kathpal
Chhattisgarh police ‘Nijaat’ campaign gets IACP 2022 Award
Awards
• International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the US-
based international organisation has selected the anti-drug & illicit
liquor campaign ‘Nijaat’ of Chhattisgarh police for ‘Leadership
in Crime Prevention’ award in the institutional category.

• The campaign was launched by the Chhattisgarh police under the

leadership of the IPS officer Santosh Kumar Singh

• The drive took the onus to wipe out the abuse of illicit drugs,
narcotics and bootlegging while simultaneously preventing its
smuggling or trading.

International Association of Chiefs of Police

• Headquarters: Alexandria, Virginia, United States
• President: Cynthia E. Renaud
 Kapil Kathpal
Odisha’s ‘Dhanu Yatra’ the largest open-air theatre
Festivals
• The ‘Dhanu Yatra’ festival, the largest open-air theatre festival began after a gap
of two years, in Bargarh at the Odisha.

• It is an open-air theatre festival stretching more than 5 square K.M and comprising
a village and a town in between.

• The Dhanu Yatra was started after the harvesting season of the year 1947-48,
just after independence of India as a reflection of joyous atmosphere in the society
for the end of British misrule.

• Since then it is performed every year at the end of the harvesting of paddy, the
major crop of the locality.

• It starts from the 5th day of ‘Pousasukla’ to end on ‘Pousapurnima’. During the
11 days the entire area of Bargarh town and the adjacent sub–urban parts of
Bargarh Block like Cement Nagar, Padhanpali, Jamurda, Tora etc, render into the
kingdom of KANSA – ‘The Mathura Nagari’.

• The river Jeera flowing by the side of Bargarh transcribed as river Jamuna and
‘Ambapali’ at the other side of the river becomes ‘Gopapura’ as per the
mythological nomenclature.
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Laxmi Singh named UP’s first woman
Police Commissioner Appointments

• The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed IPS

officer Laxmi Singh as the new Noida Police chief,
making her the first woman officer to head a Police
Commissionerate in the state.
•
• She replaced Alok Singh who has been posted as an
additional director general of police (ADGP) at the DGP
office in Lucknow.

• She holds the distinction of being the first woman IPS

topper (33rd rank overall) in the UPSC-held exams and
was adjudged the best probationer at the Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in
Hyderabad, as per official records.
 Kapil Kathpal
Brazilian Footballer Legend Pelé Passed Away
Obituary
• Former Brazilian Footballer and 3 time FIFA World Cup Winner Pelé
(Real name: Edson Arantes do Nascimento) passed away

• He was nicknamed O Rei (The King) and fondly known as “The King of
Football”.

• He started playing football at the age of 15 and joined the Brazil National
Team at 16.

• He holds the record for all time leading scorer of brazil national football
team with 77 goals which he scored in 92 appearances.

• He scored the most number of goals in football's history. He scored a

total of 1,283 goals in 1,366 matches.

• During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cups: 1958,
1962 and 1970 and He is the only Men’s football player to have won 3
FIFA World Cup titles.

• In January 1995, then President of Brazil, Fernando Cardoso, appointed

Pelé as minister of sports.