Current Affairs of 3rd April 2016

Daily Current Affairs of 3rd April 2016 for all competitive exams. Read Daily Current Affairs play important role in competitive exams.

1. In a first, DCB Bank offers ATM transactions sans PIN 

1. In a first for any domestic bank, small-sized lender DCB Bank has started an Aadhaar-based ATM usage facility wherein a customer can transact using his biometric details instead of the PIN. 

2. The user can key-in the 12-digit Aadhaar number or swipe the card at an automated teller machine (ATM) to start a transaction, but at the stage of confirming the identity, it requires biometric details rather than the PIN. 

3. Seeding the bank account with the Aadhaar number will be essential before a customer can use the facility.

4. The first of the Aadhaar-based ATMs has been installed at its corporate office in the megapolis' Lower Parel area and Natrajan said it will be waiting for a month more for the technology to stabilise before a mass rollout. 

2. PM to launch scheme for loans to SC/STs, women on April 5

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the ‘Stand up India’ scheme under which banks will give loans of up to Rs. 1 crore to SC/ST and women entrepreneurs.

2. The ‘Stand up India Scheme’ is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and women by giving loans in the range of Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 1 crore for setting up a new enterprise.

Features of Scheme

i. The scheme is expected to benefit a large number of such entrepreneurs, as it is intended to facilitate at least two such projects per bank branch on an average — one for each category of entrepreneur

ii. SC/ST and women entrepreneurs who avail of the loan would be given a RuPay Debit Card for withdrawal, besides comprehensive support such as pre-loan training, facilitating loan, factoring and marketing.

iii. There would be a Rs. 10,000-crore refinance window through the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) will create a corpus of Rs. 5,000 crore.

iv. The government will create a web portal for online registration and support services and also prepare a credit history of borrowers.

v. During the launch, 5,100 e-rickshaws would be distributed by Bhartiya Micro Credit (BMC) under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna scheme.

vi. In addition, the recipients will also be covered under the Pradhan Matri Jan Dhan Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana and eight other significant schemes.

3. PM visits TCS’ all-women IT centre in Riyadh

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Saudi women IT professionals at the first-of-its-kind all-women TCS training centre in the heart of the city here and invited them to visit India.

2. At the TCS Centre 1,000 women work in BPO operations, 85 per cent of whom are Saudi nationals.

3. TCS established the first all-women Business Process Services (BPS) centre in Riyadh in 2013.

4. India jumps to 6th place in top-10 manufacturers list: Report

1. With its ranking going up by three places, India has now been ranked sixth among the world’s 10 largest manufacturing countries. The country previously held the 9th rank.

2. The Yearbook, published by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), finds that in India, the Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) grew by 7.6 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year.

3. It also said that the quarterly index of industrial production (IIP) shows 1 per cent growth of manufacturing output in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of previous year.

4. The report also said that the global growth rate of manufacturing production has slowed to 2.8 per cent in 2015.

5. China tops the list of 10-top industrial producers followed by the US, Japan, Germany and Korea. Indonesia was at the bottom of the list.

5. Flipkart acquired UPI-based payments start-up PhonePe

1. E-commerce giant Flipkart announced that it has acquired payments start-up PhonePe Internet Pvt. Ltd.

T2. he start-up PhonePe was launched in December 2015 by former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer.

3. As per the deal of acquisition, PhonePe will function as an independent business unit. The details of the transaction were not disclosed, however, the deal is not cash transaction.

4. PhonePe is Flipkart’s third major acquisition in payments, after it bought payments start-up NGPay in 2014, and FX Mart Pvt. Ltd, which owns a prepaid wallet licence, in August 2015.

6. Chandrayaan II to be indigenous mission with 'minor' US help 

1. Opting to go solo in its ambitious Chandrayaan II project, India has decided not to take Russia on board and keep the mission completely indigenous with "minor" help from the US. 

2. ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar said Chandrayaan II, having an indigenously built Lander and Rover, will be launched by December 2017 or first half of 2018. The spacecraft will also have instruments that will collect samples and send the data back to earth. 

3. Chandrayaan, the country's Lunar Exploration Programme, is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). 

4. In its Chandrayaan Mission I, ISRO was able to make the important discovery of water on the earth's sole satellite. India has now jettisoned Russia in the Chandrayaan II project and would be embarking upon an indigenous venture but with a bit of help from the United States. 

7. Shahid Afridi quits as Pakistan T20 captain 

1. Facing criticism for Pakistan's dismal show in the ICC World Twenty20, Shahid Afridi stepped down as captain of the team but will continue to play in the shortest format of the game.

2. The mercurial cricketer played 27 Tests for Pakistan before retiring from the format in 2010 with 1716 runs and 48 wickets. 

3. In 398 ODIs, he has 8064 runs and 395 wickets, while 98 T20 International appearances have fetched him 1405 runs and 97 wickets.