Former Australia captain Ponting inducted into ICC Hall of Fame
Ricky Ponting, the former Australian captain, on 26 Dec became the 25th Australian cricketer to be officially inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in the presence of thousand supporters.
Earlier, in February, Ponting was also inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
Ponting joins the list alongside India's Rahul Dravid and England's Claire Taylor this year, increasing the total members in the Hall of Fame to 87.
The exclusive club includes Australian greats Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist.
Ricky Ponting: A t a Glance
Australia's most successful captain, Ponting is the highest run-scorer for his country in both Tests (13,378 runs) and ODIs (13,704 runs).
In his glittering career, he won the 1999 World Cup under Steve Waugh and the next two World Cups as captain in 2003 and 2007.
He was at his prime form when Australia whitewashed England in the 2006-07 Ashes Test series at home.
CA Kuttappa takes over as India's chief boxing coach
Dronacharya awardee C A Kuttappa has taken over as India's chief boxing coach at the ongoing national camp.
The national camp for boxing started on Dec 10.
He will replace veteran coach S R Singh who has announced his retirement.
Who is CA Kuttappa?
The 39-year-old Kuttappa, credited with shaping some of the country’s most successful boxers such as Vijender Singh, Suranjoy Singh and Shiva Thapa among others.
He was given the Dronachraya Award in September 2018.
Bimal Jalan to head panel on RBI capital reserve
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 27 December 2018 set up an expert committee, headed by its former governor Bimal Jalan, to suggest how the central bank should handle its reserves and whether it can transfer its surplus to the government.
Bimal Jalan Committee
- The committee has been formed to review the existing Economic Capital Framework (ECF).
- The committee will have former RBI deputy governor Rakesh Mohan as its vice chairman.
- Other members are RBI central board directors Bharat Doshi and Sudhir Mankad; deputy governor N.S. Vishwanathan; and economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.
- The panel will submit its report within 90 days of its first meeting.
Capital Reserves: Government and RBI Stand
The central government has been insisting that the central bank hand over its surplus reserves amid a shortfall in revenue collections. Access to the funds will allow finance ministry to meet deficit targets, infuse capital into weak banks to boost lending and fund welfare programs.
The Jalan panel will decide whether RBI is holding provisions, reserves and buffers in surplus of the required levels.
The ECF committee will also suggest an adequate level of risk provisioning that the RBI needs to maintain.
That apart, any other related matter, including treatment of surplus reserves created out of realized gains, will also come within the ambit of this committee.
RBI’s Core Reserve
RBI’s core reserve or contingency fund is only around 7% of its total assets and the rest of it is largely in revaluation reserves, which fluctuate with corresponding changes in currency and gold valuations.
In 2017-18, the central bank’s contingency funds and revaluation reserves stood at ₹2.32 trillion and ₹6.92 trillion respectively.
RBI data shows that the growth in revaluation reserves has far exceeded the growth in contingency fund.
While revaluation reserves have more than tripled from ₹1.99 trillion in 2008-09 to ₹6.92 trillion in 2017-18, the contingency fund has grown 50% during the same period from ₹1.53 trillion to ₹2.32 trillion.
Andhra Pradesh gets new HC; to start functioning from Jan 1
Andhra Pradesh will have a separate high court which will function from Amravati, the new capital of the state from 1 Jan 2019, as President Ram Nath Kovind on 26 Dec issued orders to this effect.
Since the bifurcation of the state on 2 June 2014, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have had a common high court at Hyderabad, the latter's capital city.
With the creation of High Court in Amravati, India will now have total 25 HCs in the country.
Amravati High Court
According to the order, Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, who is at present the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, will head the new high court.
In effect, he will be the first chief justice of the latest high court. It will have 15 judges besides the chief justice.
Ten judges, who were part of the common high court, will now be the judges of the Telangana High Court.
In effect, he will be the first chief justice of the latest high court. It will have 15 judges besides the chief justice.
Ten judges, who were part of the common high court, will now be the judges of the Telangana High Court.
RBI launches survey to capture retail payment habits in 6 cities
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will capture payment habits of individuals in six cities, including four metropolitan towns.
For the purpose, the central bank has launched a 'Survey on Retail Payment Habits of Individuals (SRPHi)'.
According to RBI release, the survey will cover a sample of 6,000 individuals from various socio-economic backgrounds across six cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Guwahati.
The survey seeks qualitative responses from individuals on their payment habits.
The findings may provide some idea about awareness and usage habits of digital payment products.
Sigma Research & Consulting Pvt Ltd will conduct the survey on the behalf of RBI.
Those not approached by the agency can also participate in the survey by sending their responses in a prescribed format available on the RBI’s website.
Niti Aayog releases second Delta Ranking of Aspirational districts
Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on 27 Dec released the Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts Program.
The ranking details the incremental progress achieved by the districts during June to October this year across six key development sectors.
Top Performing Districts
Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu has shown the most improvement overall, followed by Nuapada district in Odisha, Siddarthnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar's Aurangabad and Koraput in Odisha.
These districts have championed the development narrative in fundamental parameters of social progress.
Least Performing Districts
Meanwhile, Nagaland's Kiphire district, Jharkhand's Giridih, Chatra in Jharkhand, Hailakandi in Assam, and Pakur in Jharkhand have shown least improvement.
Parameters
The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across various performance indicators like Health and Nutrition, Education, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure among others.
The rankings are based on the data that is publicly available through the Champions of Change Dashboard, which includes data entered on a real-time basis at the district level.
Backgorund
The Aspirational District Program was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018 with the aim to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas.
Centre reviews guidelines for FDI in E- commerce
Ministry of Commerce on 26 December clarified that from February 1, e-commerce companies would be barred from selling products firms in which they have stake or control over.
Commerce Ministry clarified regarding the Consolidated FDI Policy 2017.
What is Inventory Model?
The Policy 2017 says that 100% FDI under automatic route is permitted in marketplace model of e-commerce.
But FDI is not permitted in inventory based model of e-commerce.
What does it mean?
Suppose Wal Mart creates a website and sells all the consumer products through it then this is similar to inventory model as both e-commerce platform and inventory is owned by the same entity. So, in this case, FDI is not permitted through automatic route.
However, the new draft policy proposed 49% FDI in inventory model.
What is Marketplace Model?
When an e-commerce company simply provides an information technology platform in order to act as a facilitator between the buyer and the seller, it is called Marketplace Model.
What the guideline says?
E-commerce entity providing a marketplace will not exercise ownership or control over goods purported to be sold.
But if the company control over the inventory then, it will render the business into inventory –based model.
Inventory of a vendor will be deemed to be controlled by e-commerce marketplace entity if more than 25% of purchases of such vendor are from the marketplace entity or its group companies.
The marketplace model must remain neutral to foster healthy competition in the market.
Centre to launch Atal Bhashantar Yojana
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is instituting the Atal Bhashantar Yojana for training language experts towards creating a pool of ‘Specialised Interpreters’ for interpretation to and from Hindi language in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Under Atal Bhashantar Yojana Scheme, one candidate each will be selected through a multi-stage selection process, in the above foreign languages and trained in the foreign language at Government cost in reputed language schools abroad. On completion of their training, the successful candidates shall be engaged as ‘Specialized Interpreters’ by MEA for a five-year period.
Who are eligible under the scheme?
Graduates and above or their equivalent, in the 6 languages, from UGC accredited universities with NAAC categorization of ‘A’ or higher, with proficiency in Hindi and English and between 21-26 years of age would be eligible to apply for Atal Bhashanter Yojana.
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