General Awareness for IBPS PO Mains | 13th November 2018

Legendary Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush, whose passionate, a jazz-influenced sound influenced generations of musicians, has died. He was 84. Otis Rush won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1999 for "Any Place I'm Going." Rush was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984.

Yuvraj Wadhwani has won the 25th Asian junior individual squash championship title. He defeated Anas Ali Shah of Pakistan.

The International Day of Older Persons is observed on October 1 each year to recognize the contributions of older persons and to examine issues that affect their lives. The theme for the 2018 celebration is “Celebrating Older Human Rights champions”.

Under the scheme, an amount of Rs 12,000 will be given to the pregnant women so that they can take care of themselves and the unborn baby. The compensation of wages to pregnant women will be given in 4 instalments - Rs 2,000 in the first trimester, Rs 4,000 in the second trimester, Rs 3,000 for institutional delivery and Rs 3,000 for registration of the child's birth by Assam government.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned an amount of Rs 335 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) to West Bengal. The fund, alloted in August, would be used for 158 minor irrigation projects and 23 flood protection projects.

NABARD All India Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS), conducted by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), revealed that farm households register higher income than the families solely dependent on non-farm livelihood activities in rural areas. Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog released the NAFIS report at a function held at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. 88.10 per cent of the households reported having a bank account in this survey.

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) along with its knowledge partner and the government Think Tank, NITI Aayog are organizing two-day India Banking Conclave 2018 (IBC) in New Delhi between August 23-24, 2018. The conclave, planned with the objective of making the banking sector more adaptable to face multiple future challenges in the coming years, will be addressed by Union Ministers such as Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, Piyush Goyal, Railways Minister and Suresh Prabhu, Civil Aviation Minister apart from other important dignitaries such as Amit Shah, BJP President and Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.

In pursuance of its objective of ensuring that Legislation is in sync with the needs of strong economic fundamentals, the Government has constituted a Competition Law Review Committee to review the Competition Act. The Committee will be headed by Injeti Srinivas, Secretary of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Economic Affairs Secretary SC Garg has announced a reduction in gross borrowing estimate for the current fiscal by 70,000 crore rupees and maintained that the government will contain fiscal deficit target at 3.3%.

The Government constituted a seven-member ministerial panel headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi to examine modalities for revenue mobilisation in case of natural calamities and disasters.

According to Association of Mutual Funds of India’s (AMFI) statistics, Maharashtra tops the chart for state with the maximum penetration and Assets Under Management (AUM). Also, as per August, average assets under management (AUM) of mutual funds rose to an all-time high of Rs 25.2 lakh crore across the country.

Nicosia is the Capital of Cyprus.

Moroccan dirham is the currency of Morocco.

Lal Thanhawla is an Indian politician who has been the Chief Minister of Mizoram since 11 December 2008.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) launched a Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System (FFEWS) for Kolkata City. It is also India’s first comprehensive city-level FFEWS. It will reduce economic loss and impacts on livelihood and improve flood awareness and safety at the community level.