Current Affairs 22-23 February, 2020

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1. SBI Card join hands with Landmark group to launch 3 new retail co-branded credit cards.

  • SBI (State Bank of India) Cards & Payments Services Ltd( previously known as SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited), a payment solutions provider in India, has entered into the partnership with Landmark Group, one of the largest retail and hospitality organizations, to launch 3 new retail co-branded credit cards namely Lifestyle Home Centre SBI Card, Max SBI Card and Spar SBI Card —with 4 Landmark Group brands – Lifestyle, Home Centre, Max and Spar .
  • The co-branded cards are available in three variants. It includes, Base, SELECT and PRIME and cater to the needs of consumers ranging from Value for Money to Premium and Super Premium.
  • Cardholders of any of the above said cards can enjoy the same benefits across all participating Landmark brands. In this way, they can get many other benefits along with saving in many categories through the same card.
  • From all variants, customers can earn SBI Card reward Points that can be redeemed across all brands of Landmark in India thereby rewarding loyal customers.

Foot Notes:
About SBI card
Founded:
1998
Headquarters: Gurugram, Haryana
CEO: Hardayal Prasad

2. Indian freelance journalist “Ahmer Khan” won  “AFP’s Kate Webb Prize”.

  • On February 20, 2020, The 27-year old Indian freelance reporter Ahmer Khan was announced as the winner of the 2019 Kate Webb Prize by the Agence France-Presse, for his series of videos and written reports on how people in Kashmir impacted while scraping article 370 by the Government of India.
  •  In 2008 AFP established the Kate Webb Prize with a cash reward of euro 3000 ( approximately Rs.3.2 lakhs) to recognize Journalists working in difficult conditions in Asia, for the remembrance of Kate Webb.
  • And later in 2020, the Award will be formally presented in a ceremony at Hong Kong.

3. Irish PM "Leo Eric Varadkar" resigned but retained interim leader's role.

  • Irish Prime Minister Leo Eric Varadkar resigned due to the insufficiency of the majority after the parliamentary vote.
  • He will remain as an interim leader and the government will continue to carry on their duties until the successor has been appointed.
  • Leo Varadkar served as ‘Taoiseach’ (means Prime Minister of Ireland) since June 2017.

Foot Notes:
About Ireland
Capital:
Dublin.
Currency: Euro.

4. Indian Railways launched upgraded version of  AI based online Chatbot "ASKDISHA".

  • Ministry of Railways upgraded services of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based ASKDISHA chatbot to converse with Railway customers in the Hindi language. It aims to resolve queries of railway passengers over the internet pertaining to various services offered.
  • Indian Railways introduced the services of AI-based ASKDISHA chatbot in October 2018.
  • The Chatbot was initially launched in English. In order to further enhance the customer services rendered and to further strengthen the services of the chatbot, IRCTC has now powered voice-enabled ASKDISHA to converse with customers in the Hindi language.
  • The customers can now ask queries to ASKDISHA in the Hindi language by voice and text.

Foot Notes:
Minister of Railways: Piyush Goyal

5. Maharashtra govt banned the cultivation centres of Thai Mangur fish.

  • The Maharashtra state government has launched a special drive to destroy the centre that cultivates the centres of the exotic Thai Mangur fish. The decision was made at a meeting which was held between fish traders and officials of the Maharashtra fisheries department headed by Minister “Aslam Shaikh” after a detailed review of the situation.
  • The fish is popularly known as Thai Mangur or African Mangur or foreign MangurIt looks like freshwater Mangur.
  • Thai Mangur is cultivated in highly unhygienic conditions, which may lead to people falling sick after consuming it.

Foot Notes:
About Maharashtra
Governor:
Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Capital: Mumbai

6. RBI appointed “Sunil Gurbaxani” as Dhanlaxmi Bank MD & CEO.

  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed Sunil Gurbaxani as MD (Managing Director) and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Dhanlaxmi Bank for a period of 3 years. Sunil was the successor of T.Latha.
  • Sunil Gurbaxani served as the Executive Vice President of Axis Bank. Dhanlaxmi bank was removed from the RBI PCA (Prompt Corrective Action) framework, as the bank is found to be not breaching any of the risk thresholds of the framework.
  • During the end of the third quarter in December 2019, the bank reported a 26% rise in a net profit to Rs 21.28 crore & registered a net profit of Rs 16.90 crore during the year 2019.

Foot Notes:
About Dhanlaxmi Bank
Headquarters:
Kerala.
Tagline: Tann.Mann.Dhan.
Chairman: Mr. Sajeev Krishnan.

About RBI
Governor:
Shaktikanta Das
Headquarters location: Mumbai
Founder: British Raj
Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata

7. Larry Tesler, creator of copy, cut and paste function, died at 74.

  • Lawrence Gordon Tesler known as Larry Tesler was an American computer scientist who worked in the field of human-computer interaction and also the Inventor of Copy-Cut-Paste functions for computers in 1973 has passed away at the age of 74.
  • Tesler was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1945 and served as a young researcher in photocopying company Palo Alto Research Center (Parc), and he also worked for blue-chip firms including Apple, Amazon, and Yahoo. Later he Established UX consultancy in California.

8. Northeast Frontier Railway built India’s tallest pier bridge in Manipur.

  • India’s tallest railway pier bridge which is 100 m tall has been constructed by the Northeast Frontier Railway Construction Organisation.
  • The bridge has built across Makru river in the Tamenglong district of Manipur. The bridge has been constructed at the cost of Rs 283.5-crore.

Foot Notes:
About Manipur
Capital of Manipur:
Imphal
Governor of Manipur: Najma Heptulla.
Chief Minister of Manipur: N. Biren Singh.

9. 1st edition of Bharat-Bangla Paryatan Utsav commenced in Agartala.

  • The 1st edition of the Bharat-Bangla Paryatan Utsav-Tourism festival has commenced in Agartala, Tripura to promote tourism in Tripura.
  • The festival has been organized in memories of the contribution of Tripura in 1971 Bangladesh liberation war as well as to boost the tourism sector of Tripura.

Foot Notes:
About Tripura
Chief Minister:
Biplab Kumar Deb.
Governor: Ramesh Bais.

10. Former FICCI president “V L Dutt” dies in Chennai.

  • V L Dutt, the former Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) president has passed away.
  • He headed the federation in 1991-92 and also served as the chairman of the India Vietnam Joint Business Council of FICCI.

Foot Notes:
About FICCI
Headquarters location:
New Delhi
Founded: 1927
Members: over 250,000 companies
Number of employees: 500
Founders: Ghanshyam Das Birla, Purshottamdas Thakurdas

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