Current Affairs 02 October, 2019

1. SS Mallikarjuna Rao is appointed as the new MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank

• SS Mallikarjuna Rao is appointed as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive of the Punjab National Bank(PNB).  Currently serving as chief executive of the Allahabad Bank, Rao will replace Sunil Mehta of PNB and will head the Delhi based bank till September 18, 2021. S S Mallikarjuna Rao is appointed as the new MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved Department of Financial Services’ proposal for Rao’s appointment as PNB’s CEO. Rao had also previously worked as Executive Director(ED) in Syndicate Bank.
• PNB is currently under three-way amalgamation process with Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India.

Foot Notes:
1. About PNB:
2. Founded- 19 May 1894.
3. Founder- Dyal Singh Majithia and Lala Lajpat Rai.
4. After the amalgamation of OBC and Union Bank of India, PNB will be the second largest bank in India.

2. Delhi govt first in country to implement Street Vendors Act, says CM Kejriwal

• Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Delhi government has become the first government in the country to implement the Street Vendors Act.
• "Street Vending Act was passed in 2014. The law was good but it was never implemented in the country. Delhi government is the first government to implement it. Under that law, Street Vending Committees have to be formed. These committees have already been formed in Delhi. The notification has been passed in this regard," the Chief Minister said while addressing a presser here.
• The Chief Minister also said that street vendors were facing harassment due to not being organised and not have any legal status.

3. Arogya Manthan event was organised by the National Health Authority, to mark the completion of one year of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the valedictory function of 'Arogya Manthan', a two-day event organised by the National Health Authority, to mark the completion of one year of 'Ayushman Bharat' or 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana' (PM-JAY).
• It has been organised to mark the completion of one year of 'Ayushman Bharat' or 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana'
• The purpose of the 'Arogya Manthan' is to provide a platform for all the crucial stakeholders of PM-JAY to meet and discuss the challenges faced in the implementation of the scheme in the past year and to forge new understanding and pathways towards improving implementation.

Foot Notes:
1. About Delhi
2. Chief Minister: Arvind Kejriwal

4. Government appoints economist Surjit S Bhalla as Executive Director for India at IMF

• Eminent economist Surjit S Bhalla appointed as the Executive Director for India on the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Bhalla (71) will succeed former RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn, who died in the US on July 30 after a brief illness.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the appointment of Bhalla for a period of three years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders.

Foot Notes:
About International Monetary Fund
1. Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
2. Managing Director (MD): David Lipton
3. Chief Economist: Gita Gopinath

5. PM Modi pays tribute to Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 115th birth anniversary on 2nd October.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled the grit and determination of Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 115th birth anniversary.
• He recalled the grit and determination of Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 115th birth anniversary.

6. 3 Railway stations in Rajasthan emerged as top clean stations: Railway cleanliness survey 2019

• Three railway stations of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Durgapura have topped the Railway Cleanliness Survey 2019, conducted at 720 railway stations by the Ministry of Railways.
• Mumbai’s Andheri, Virar and Naigaon stations have topped the total 109 stations in the category of suburban stations.
• Among the railway divisions, North Western Railway stood at the top, South Eastern Railway at the second position and East Central Railway at the third position.

Foot Notes:
About Ministry of Railways
1. Headquarters: New Delhi
2. Founded: 16 April 1853
3. Union Minister: Piyush Goyal

7. Former Indian cricketer, Kapil Dev resigned as chairman of CAC

• Following a conflict of interest complaint, India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain, Kapil Dev has resigned as the chairman of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) days after Shanta Rangaswamy stepped down from the 3-member committee.
• CAC also stars Anshuman Gaekwad in addition to Kapil and Shanta. The trio were named in the CAC after Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman refused to be part of the process for selecting India’s women’s coach in 2018.
• Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) member Sanjeev Gupta filed a complaint against the CAC, where the coach-elect committee members are playing multiple roles simultaneously. Kapil Dev, along with being the head of CAC, is a commentator, owner of a Floodlight company and a member of the Indian Cricketers Association. Gaikwad, on the other hand, is a BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India)-accredited committee member besides owning an academy.

8. PV Sindhu slips to number 6th, Kashyap rises to 25th position: BWF Rankings 2019

• As per the recently released BWF (Badminton World Federation) Rankings 2019, World Champion women’s shuttler PV Sindhu  (24) has slipped a rank to 6th  due to poor performance in the last two weeks but Parupalli Kashyap (33) has benefited from a good performance and is in 25th position.
• Sindhu, who was earlier in the fifth position, had eliminated in the first round of the 2019 China Open (held in Changzhou, China) and 2019 Korea Open (held in Incheon, South Korea). While, Kashyap has the advantage of reaching the semi-finals of Korea Open.
• Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag remain 12th in men’s doubles while Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy moved up one place to 19th in women’s doubles.

9. Hollywood tycoon Eric Pleskow passed away at the age of  95

• On October 1, 2019 American-Austrian film producer Eric Pleskow, the Hollywood tycoon, passed away at the age of 95 in United States(US) due to old age ailments. He was the president of the film company United Artists from 1973 to 1978 and then as co-founder of Orion Pictures where many films under these film companies won Oscar awards.
• Born in April 24, 1924 in Vienna, the capital of Austria, Eric’s famous films include ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Amadeus’, ‘Platoon’, ‘Dances with Wolves’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.
• He had been the president of the Vienna International Film Festival (VIFF), or Viennale, since 1998.

10. Book titled ‘The RSS: Roadmaps for the 21st Century’, written by Sunil Ambekar released

• The book titled ‘The RSS: Roadmaps for 21st Century’, written by Sunil Ambekar, the organising national secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was released in New Delhi by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
• It is published by Rupa Books. It describes the challenges of 21st century social, cultural life and lists the RSS’ response to the same.