Q1. Which of the following team has won the U-19 Asia Cup cricket  title recently ?

1. UAE
2. Pakistan
3. Bangladesh
4. India
5. None  of These

Q2. Name the country which has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world ?

1. Brazil
2. UAE
3. South Korea
4. India
5. None  of These

Q3. Name the ruling emir of oil-rich Kuwait who died recently  ?

1. Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah
2. Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah
3. Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
4. Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah
5. None  of These

Q4. Name the Gujarat Congress MLA  who has  resigned from assembly recently ?

1. Chirag Patel
2. Bachubhai Khabad
3. Praful Pansariya
4. Bhikhusinh Parmar
5. None  of These

Q5. Name the  Egypt's President  who has  won a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote in the Arab world's most populous country ?

1. Hazem Omar
2. Abdel-Sanad Yamama
3. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
4. Farid Zahran
5. None  of These

Answers

1--------------------3 Bangladesh

2---------------------4  India

3----------------------1   Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah

4----------------------1     Chirag Patel

5----------------------3      Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Associate Attorney General of the US, Indian-American Vanita Gupta, will step down from the post in February 2024.

Gupta, the first woman of colour to serve as the Department of Justice's third-highest ranking official, led its "Reproductive Rights Taskforce to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law," a statement by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.

The 49-year-old has served as the Associate Attorney General since confirmation by the Senate in 2021 and will depart from the post in February 2024, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Amid an uproar by the Opposition over the breach of Parliament security and statements from the Home Minister, the Upper House of Parliament passed two bills on Dec 18 by a voice vote, following the introduction of the bills by MoS Nityanand Rai.

The bills in question are the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Second Amendment). They were presented in the Rajya Sabha and passed amidst protests by opposition parties, who demanded that Union Home Minister Amit Shah make a statement on the security breach that occurred on December 13.

The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill aims to ensure that one-third of the total seats are reserved for women in the legislative assembly of the Union Territory of Puducherry. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Second Amendment) Bill stipulates that one-third of the seats shall be reserved for women in the legislative assembly of the union territory of J&K.

Reiterating his resolve to make India the third largest economic power in the world in his third innings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a bid to reject the Opposition’s demand for a caste census, said that only four castes comprising women, youth, deprived sections and farmers existed in the country. He added that their empowerment would catapult the country into a developed nation.

Dedicating and laying the foundation of development projects worth over Rs 19,000 crore to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi during his 43rd visit in the last nine years as its MP, the PM said, “When Kashi develops, UP develops and when UP develops, the country develops.” The PM took part in a rural leg of Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra in Sevapuri block of Varanasi on the concluding day of his two-day trip to Kashi on Dec 18 .

The Prime Minister also flagged off four trains, including the second Vande Bharat train from Varanasi to New Delhi on the occasion.

Iraqis voted  on Dec 18  in the first provincial council elections in a decade, which are expected to strengthen powerful Shiite pro-Iran groups.

The vote comes at a time of widespread disillusionment among the country's 43 million inhabitants, with endemic corruption eating away at the oil-rich nation.

Ballots are being cast in 15 Iraqi provinces but not in three which are Kurdish and operate under a separate autonomous system.

The election is seen as a key test for the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Some 17 million people are eligible to vote, with 6,000 candidates vying for just 285 seats in the powerful provincial councils.

They were established after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and wield important powers, including selecting regional governors and allocating health, transport and education budgets.

To reflect Iraq's multi-confessional and multi-ethnic population, 10 seats are reserved for minorities, namely Christians, Yazidis and Sabians.

In addition, a 25 percent quota has ensured that 1,600 of the candidates are female.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna pressed for an "immediate and durable" truce in the Gaza war, adding Paris is "deeply concerned" over the situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"Too many civilians are being killed," Colonna said during remarks in Tel Aviv with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, as Israel presses on with its offensive after the October 7 attacks that has sent tensions spiralling across the region.

Israel has come under growing international pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza, where its war against Hamas militants has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's Hamas government.

People from all walks of life use bank lockers to store their valuable items like jewellery and documents securely. Banks provide enhanced security measures like surveillance cameras, alarms and restricted access, reducing the risk for theft or damage.

Earlier customers often faced issues like lack of transparency in locker allotment, security concerns, and unclear liability terms for locker contents. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2021 after the Supreme Court ruling changed several guidelines with respect to bank lockers.

In 2021, a Supreme Court ruling clarified the responsibilities and liabilities of banks and their locker users. The new regulations redefine the bank-user relationship as lessor and lessee. Customers can use lockers for legitimate purposes, but storing cash, weapons, drugs, or hazardous materials is prohibited. Banks may inspect lockers if they suspect illegal substances. Customers are responsible for key/password misuse, while banks must exercise reasonable care. The new rules do not mandate higher fees, and banks will bear documentation costs.

The RBI has introduced a phased renewal process for bank locker agreements. Account holders who submitted their agreements on or before December 31, 2022, must sign a revised agreement and submit it to their bank branches by December 31, 2023. Banks are responsible for facilitating the execution of new or supplementary agreements, which may involve arranging stamp papers, electronic execution, franking, e-stamping, and providing customers with a copy of the executed agreement.

Earlier this year, according to reports, a woman in Udaipur lost R 2.15 lakh when termites attacked the currency notes in the locker. Unlike such cases, the bank will still bear the responsibility for the safekeeping of the locker contents provided they are permissible items.

Liability of  banks in case of loss

According to the new rules, the liability of a bank towards a loss faced by the user due to the bank’s negligence will be up to 100 times the prevailing annual locker rent, excluding any damage or loss due to natural calamities. The bank shall not be liable for any damage and/or loss of contents of locker arising from natural calamities, earthquake, floods, lightning and thunderstorm or any act that is attributable to the sole fault or negligence of the customer. 

Banks shall, however, exercise appropriate care to their locker systems to protect their premises from such catastrophes, according to RBI rules. It is the responsibility of banks to take all steps for the safety and security of the premises in which the safe deposit vaults are housed. It has the responsibility to ensure that incidents like fire, theft/ burglary/ robbery, dacoity, building collapse do not occur in the bank’s premises due to its own shortcomings, negligence and by any act of omission/commission. 

The Finance Ministry  Dec 17 said that the number of GST return filers rose about 65% to 1.13 crore in 5 years till April 2023. The number of active taxpayers registered under GST too increased from 1.06 crore as of April 2018 to 1.40 crore.

As per data shared by the ministry, 90%of eligible taxpayers are filing GSTR-3B returns by the end of the filing month in current fiscal year, up from 68% in 2017-18. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out on July 1, 2017. The number of GSTR-3B filers increased from 72.49 lakh in April 2018, to 1.13 crore as of April 2023. GSTR-3B is the monthly return form for filing outward supplies details and tax payment.

Increase in return filing across the years indicates improvement in compliance level, the ministry added. Monthly collection from GST came in at R1.68 lakh crore in November. It is for the sixth time that gross GST collection has crossed R1.60 lakh crore mark in current fiscal.

The GST collection has been showing an upward trend on an annual basis since its rollout on July 1, 2017, and the average gross monthly mop-up in the current fiscal so far is R1.66 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the Lok Sabha earlier this month. The collection had touched a record R1.87 lakh crore in April.