State-owned SBI and private lenders Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank have revised their lending rates under marginal cost of fund-based lending rate (MCLR), making consumer loans such as personal, home and auto costlier.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has revised the MCLR for the benchmark one-year tenor to 7.95 per cent, up by 25 basis points from previous rate.

SBI said the new MCLR is effective from October 15, 2022.

The one-year tenor MCLR is the rate against which most consumer loans are tied to.

Besides, SBI has also raised the two- and three-year tenor MCLRs to 8.15 per cent and 8.25 per cent respectively, as against 7.90 per cent and 8 per cent.

Kotak Mahindra Bank said the MCLR for various tenors has been set in the range of 7.70-8.95 per cent with effect from October 16, 2022.

Its revised one-year MCLR rate is 8.75 per cent.

South-based Federal Bank said its one-year MCLR on loans and advances has been revised to 8.70 per cent with effect from October 16.

State-owned Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) on  Oct 17 posted a two-fold jump in its net profit to Rs 535 crore in the September 2022 quarter aided by a decline in bad loans and a rise in net interest income.

The lender had reported a standalone profit of Rs 264 crore in the year-ago period.

1983 World Cup-winning Roger Binny has been appointed as the new President of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) replacing the outgoing president Sourav Ganguly.

JP MLA Ashish Shelar is likely to be the Treasurer replacing Arun Dhumal as per sources.

Jay Shah will retain his position as the BCCI Secretary.

Jyothi Yarraji becomes the first Indian woman to clock under 13 seconds in women's 100m hurdles, creating a new National Record to win the Gold medal at the National Open Athletics Championships 2022 in Bengaluru.

The ace athlete clocked 12.82s (wind +.9 m/s) to beat her own national record as per the Olympics website.

This was the fourth time this year that Jyothi Yarraji has reset India's 100m hurdles national record. After being denied the National Record multiple times due to wind assistance and other factors, the Andhra Pradesh-born runner first took possession of the mark in May 2020, clocking 13.23s at the Cyprus International athletics meet in Limassol.

She surpassed Anuradha Biswal's earlier mark of 13.38 seconds in 2002 at the Cyprus competition. Since then, Jyothi Yarraji has clocked 13.11 seconds at the Loughborough International in the UK and, within a few weeks, lowered it to 13.04 seconds at the Harry Schulting Games in the Netherlands.

The 23-year-old recently set a personal best time of 12.79 seconds to win the gold medal at the National Games in Gujarat, becoming the first Indian woman to run under 13 seconds in her discipline. However, because the wind assistance exceeded the permitted threshold, it was not considered a national record.

With a time of 13.26 seconds, Sapna Kumari of Jharkhand took home the silver medal, while Telangana's Agasara Nandini earned the bronze clocking in at 13.51s.

Q1. In a virtual meeting with farmers belonging to various parts of the country on Oct 17 , the PM  has said  that his government was able to revive the country’s six biggest urea factories that were closed for years under one brand name

1. Bharat
2. Hindustan
3. India
4. Akhand Bharat
5. None of These

Q2. Name the state government which  on  Oct 17 has  announced a reduction in VAT (Value Added Tax) on CNG and PNG by 10 per cent and said two cooking gas cylinders will be given free every year to 38 lakh beneficiaries who have got gas connections under the Centre's Ujjwala scheme ?

1. Punjab
2. Delhi
3. Gujarat
4. UP
5. None of These

Q3. Name the Sri Lankan author  who on Oct 17  has  won Britain's Booker Prize for fiction for his work "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida", about a journalist murdered amid the country's sectarian strife ?

1. Michael Ondaatje
2. Margaret Atwood
3. Hilary Mantel
4. Shehan Karunatilaka
5. None of These

Q4.  Name the country  which has decided to  reverse its recognition of west Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite fierce criticism by Israel ?

1. Japan
2. Australia
3. China
4. Canada
5. None of These

Q5. The government on Oct 18 hiked the minimum support price for wheat by Rs 110 per quintal to

1. Rs 2,125
2. Rs 2, 525
3. Rs 2, 725
4. Rs 3,125
5. None of These

Answers

1-----------------------------1   Bharat

2-----------------------------3   Gujarat

3----------------------------4   Shehan Karunatilaka

4----------------------------2   Australia

5------------------------------1    Rs 2,125

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on  Oct 16  released textbooks in Hindi of three subjects for MBBS students as part of an ambitious project of the Madhya Pradesh government to impart medical education in the Hindi language. Terming it as an important day in history, Shah said Madhya Pradesh has become the first state in the country to start the MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) course in Hindi.

The PM had given a call to provide Medical and Engineering education in regional languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Bengali and the Government of Madhya Pradesh led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the first to fulfill the PM’s wish,” Shah said.

Today Medical education is commencing in Hindi and soon Engineering studies will also begin in Hindi and translation of Engineering books has commenced in eight languages across the country, and soon students across the nation will be able to pursue Technical and Medical education in their Mother Tongue.

The Supreme Court on  Oct 17 dismissed a plea for minority status filed by Smartha Brahmins living in Tamil Nadu and propagating the religious philosophy of Advaita.

A bench comprising justices Krishna Murari and S Ravindra Bhat upheld a Madras High Court order which had held that Smartha Brahmins are not a religious denomination and hence, could not be accorded minority status.

The government’s response to the latest Global Hunger Index (GHI) rankings, which put India in 107th place out of 121 countries, is not very unpredictable. It has summarily rejected the rankings that show India faring much worse than some of our neighbouring countries. Afghanistan is the only Asian country that has fared worse than us.

The government’s usual response to any global survey, or study—for example, Press Freedom Index or Democracy index––in which India does poorly, is to reject the same by calling the methodology erroneous or the study inaccurate. But the slightest praise by a global agency, like the recent admirations for India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, and the government goes to town boasting about it. The government needs some consistency on this front.

As for the latest Global Hunger Index rankings, the government has pointed out several faults and shortcomings in the methodology. But the rankings have been there for long, and India has been doing badly since the start. It has remained one of the lowest-ranked countries for some time now. Rankings in recent years might have also been impacted by the distress caused by the pandemic in the lower strata of the population. It is no secret that the Indian poor have been the worst affected by the pandemic, and the government measures during that period were inadequate.

Recently, a World Bank report said that of the 71 million people pushed into poverty by the pandemic, 56 million were from India. Many agencies have pointed out in past India’s relatively poor handling of the pandemic, especially with regard to providing relief to the poor. Some estimates suggest India is home to the largest number (83 million) of people living below the poverty line. While there could be differences of opinion on the number of people below the poverty line in India, it is no secret that many people in India are forced to live in wretched conditions.