A monkey, which apparently crossed into Pakistan from India last week, was handed over to a local street performer after authorities at a local zoo in Pakistan's Punjab province refused to take the primate into the facility citing space crunch and lack of veterinarians.

Rescue teams captured the monkey from a 200 feet-high cellular tower after hours-long operation.

One of Vietnam's largest shoe manufacturers for major brands such as Nike and Adidas will cut thousands of workers at the end of the month due to a slump in orders.

PouYuen Vietnam, a unit of Taiwan-based Pou Chen Group, will lay off 3,000 factory workers and will not renew the contracts of 3,000 others because of "very few production orders in 2023".

Vietnam, one of the world's largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture, has been badly affected by the cost-of-living crisis in major markets in Europe and the United States, with the buying power of worldwide consumers plunging.

A South Korean court delivered a landmark ruling on  Feb 21 recognising the rights of a same-sex couple for the first time, with activists hailing the verdict as a major victory for LGBTQ rights in the country.

The case -- which will now go to the Supreme Court -- was brought by a gay couple, So Seong-wook and Kim Yong-min, who live together and held a wedding ceremony in 2019.

It had no legal validity, however, as South Korea does not recognise same-sex marriage.

Adani Ports & SEZ (APSEZ) on Feb 20 said that they have paid Rs 1,500 crore loan and promised to repay another Rs 1,000 crore as the embattled conglomerate led by billionaire Gautam Adani is working on a comeback strategy.  Adani Group is trying to overcome the ongoing onslaught triggered by a report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.

Adani Ports and SEZ paid SBI Mutual Funds’ due amount of Rs 1,500 crore on  Feb 20 as scheduled and will also pay another Rs 1,000 crore of commercial papers due in March (as per the payment scheme).

The county’s largest private port operator recently said it is considering repaying a debt of about Rs 5,000 crore in the next financial year, thereby improving net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ratio to about 2.5 times from l 3 times currently. APSEZ’s cash and cash equivalent were Rs 6,257 crore as of December 31, while its net debt was Rs 39,277 crore.

Adani Group’s total net debt was about Rs 1.96 lakh crore by the end of the December quarter.  This is the second instance in one month when the Adanis have taken a similar step of prepaying loans to silence critics who raise concerns regarding the high leverage of the Group and win back investors’ confidence. On February 6, Gautam Adani & family have prepaid loans worth $1.1 billion taken against shares as collateral before the end of its maturity in September 2024.

Despite these actions, Adani Group shares are on a free-fall trajectory, plummeting up to 75%. The group also faced a big setback after Credit Suisse, Citigroup, and Standard Chartered stopped accepting its bonds as collateral and rating agency Moody’s downgraded the outlook of four group companies. 

Bank of Baroda (BoB) will continue to give loans to the Adani Group as long as it satisfies the lender’s underwriting standards. Sanjiv Chadha, managing director and chief executive officer of BoB said the lender will consider extending loans to the group for its Dharavi redevelopment project.

Adani Group, with its `5, 069 crore bid, won Dharavi redevelopment project in November last year.  The chief of public sector lender added that he is not concerned about the market volatility around Adani firm shares. The bank has underwriting standards and it follows them all the time, he said.

The statement comes as a relief for Adani Group as shares of its group companies have suffered a huge crash following a report from US- based short seller Hindenberg Research that alleged share manipulation and irregularities by the ports-to-media conglomerate.

The bank’s CEO had earlier said that banks give corporate loans not based on share prices but by book value and assets as collateral. While announcing its results earlier this month, the public lender had said that it has ‘absolutely no concern’ about its exposure to the Adani Group. The public sector bank has already said that Adani Group entities are not among one of its largest borrowers. 

Keeping in view the emerging cyber security threats, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive director Rohit Jain said banks should continuously evaluate the threat profile of their critical information assets, test for vulnerabilities and ensure their resilience to cyber security risks.

Delivering a keynote address at an event related to cyber security in Bengaluru on Feb 20, he said, before onboarding new products and new technologies proper due diligence should be conducted.

The event was organised by the RBI in view of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) and Finance and Central Bank Deputies (FCBD) meeting to be held in Bengaluru from February 22-25.

The RBI wants to promote innovation in financial technology, and at the same time, it has been cognizant and also aware of cyber risks and IT risks that come with new technologies and the effort is to manage both these aspects.

He also spoke about the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to enhance cyber security defences and augment predictive analytics in areas of threat detection as this is an area that is fast developing and offers huge scope and potential in the cyber security space.

He further spoke about the RBI's guidelines on information security and also about phishing simulation exercises that are conducted by the central bank. In 2016, the central bank said banks should immediately put in place a cyber-security policy elucidating the strategy containing an appropriate approach to combat cyber threats.

Q1. The logo of RBI consists of which animal?

1. Elephant
2. Panther                  
3. Black Buck
4. Lion
5. None of These

Q2. In which year the head quarter of RBI is moved from Kolkata to Mumbai (Then Bombay)?

1. 1936
2. 1937
3. 1938
4. 1939
5. None of These

Q3. Who was the first Governor of RBI?

1. David Warner
2. Sir Phillip Smith
3. James Watson
4. Sir Osborne Smith
5. None of These

Q4. RBI has withdrawn the circulation of coins in the denomination of 1 paise, 2 paise, 3 paise, 5 paise, 10 paise, 20 paise and 25 paise in which year?

1. 2010
2. 2011
3. 2012
4. 2013
5. None of These

Q5.  According to which section of the RBI Act of 1934, RBI is liable to pay the value of banknote to its holder?

1. Section 22
2. Section 24
3. Section 26
4. Section 28
5. None of These

Answers

1-----------------2   Panther      

2---------------------2   1937

3---------------------4    Sir Osborne Smith

4---------------------2    2011

5---------------------3    Section 26

During the last four weeks, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made a record seizure of cash, liquor, precious metal and drugs worth Rs 147 crore from the three-poll bound states--Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. According to the election body, the seizure made till 15 February is 20 times higher as compared to goods and cash confiscated in the 2018 assembly elections.

In 2018, the total seizure was just Rs 7.24 crores.

Besides Rs 14 crore in cash, the agency has compounded over three lakh litre of liquor, drugs worth Rs 85.76 crore, precious metals of Rs 4.32 crore and freebies having a value of Rs 34.39 crore.

Voting in Nagaland and Meghalaya will take place on February 27. The counting of votes in three states will be held on March 2.