Daily Current Affairs: August 19, 2016, Friday

Court of Arbitration for Sport suspends wrestler Narsingh Yadav for four year

• The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), situated in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 18 August 2016 banned wrestler Narsingh Yadav for four years following an appeal by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
• The CAS also ruled to disqualify all the competitive results obtained by Narsingh from 25 June 2016. The CAS panel further stated that there was no evidence to accept his claim that his food/drink was spiked.
• Yadav, whose suspension begins immediately, will not be able to participate at the Rio 2016 Olympics. He was scheduled to commence his campaign on 19 August 2016 against Zelimkhan Khadjiev of France in the 74 category.

Purav Raja and Divij Sharan win Los Cabos Open Men’s Doubles title

• India's tennis doubles pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan, clinched the Abierto Mexicano Los Cabos title in Mexico, on August 16, 2016
• The duo defated Israel's Jonathan Erlich and England's Ken Skupski by a score of 7-6(4), 7-6(3).
• Individually, Raja was appearing in his third career ATP World Tour final, while Sharan was contesting his second. They earn 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split 38940 US dollar in prize money.

Assam Assembly passes Assam Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016

• The Assam Assembly on 13 August 2016 passed the Assam Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• This bill will reduce the service charge of cinema tickets with an aim to boost to the local film industry. The government, however, raised the entertainment tax on cinema tickets by up to ten percentile points.
• Provisions of the Bill•The government proposed to make service charge 8 rupees per ticket for the halls without air conditioning system and 12 rupees for the halls with air conditioning system with back-up generator.•The government also advised to increase the entertainment tax to 20 per cent from 15 per cent at present for entry charges between 5 rupees and 20 rupees per ticket. •There will be no entertainment tax if the entry charge is 5 rupees or less.•It raised the government tax to 30 percent on service charge from the existing 20 percent.•It proposes to fix the service charge at a maximum of 12 rupees per ticket, which is as high as 40 rupees at present.•A cess of 1 rupee will be levied on each ticket for creating a welfare fund for film and theatre sectors.

India Post Payments Bank incorporated

• The India Post Payments Bank Limited (IPPB) on 17 August 2016 was incorporated. In this regard, it has received the Certificate of Incorporation (CI) from the Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs under the Companies Act, 2013.With this incorporation, the bank has become the first Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Department of Posts (DoP).

Features of India Post Payments Bank Limited

• It will allow all citizens of India, especially the 40 percent of the country's population that is outside the ambit of formal banking in the country will benefit from this project.
• Its services will be available across the country through 650 payments bank branches, linked post offices and alternative channels riding on modern technology including mobiles, ATMs, PoS/m-PoS (mobile-Point of Sale) devices etc and simple digital payments.
• Coupled with the physical presence across 1.55 lakh post offices and the reach of “The Dakiya”, the India Post Payments Bank aims to become a powerful and effective vehicle of real financial inclusion in the country.
• It will generate new employment opportunities for skilled banking professionals and will generate opportunities for propagating financial literacy across the country.
• It will create the largest bank in the world in terms of accessibility and in time, will encourage the move towards a less cash economy.

Union Government launched TARANG, e-Trans & DEEP to enhance transparency in power sector

• Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal on 17 August 2016 launched TARANG Mobile App, e-Trans and DEEP e-bidding web portals in New Delhi.
• They were developed by Rural Electrification Corporation Transmission Projects Company Limited (RECTPCL), a subsidiary of REC Ltd.
• The initiatives were launched keeping in line with the Digital India initiative. The primarily seek to enhance transparency in power sector.

SBI board approved merger of 5 associate banks, BMB with itself

• The State Bank of India (SBI) board on 18 August 2016 approved merger of its five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB).Apart from the BMB, the 5 associate banks that will be merged with the SBI are -
• i. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur
• ii. State Bank of Hyderabad
• iii. State Bank of Mysore
• iv. State Bank of Patiala
• v. State Bank of Travancore.

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Here is a list of last four articles on Current Affairs and the Monthly Bullet on Current Affairs