Important Current Affairs 19th June

AGREEMENT'S AND MOU’s:

KSEB signed an agreement with GJ Eco Power Pvt. Ltd. to establish Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants.

• The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) signed a power purchase agreement with Kochi-based GJ Eco Power Pvt. Ltd. to establish Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants across the State. GJ Eco Power Pvt. Ltd. has been implementing the project at the Brahmapuram solid waste treatment plant.

• The proposed plant is expected to be commissioned within 18 months of the launch of its construction. The power purchase agreement was signed in the presence of Electricity Minister M.M. Mani, Electricity Department secretary B. Ashok and KSEB chairman and managing director N.S. Pillai.

• Under the agreement, the KSEB will purchase the power generated from the 9.76 MW WtE plant at a rate of Rs.6.17 per unit for a period of 20 years from the commercial operation date. Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved the tariff.

• The company had been roped in by the Kochi Corporation to implement the State’s first WtE project in the public-private partnership mode.

• KSEB will be supplied with 330 tonnes per day (TPD) of municipal solid waste by the local body. It is tasked with generating 47 million units (mu) of power.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS:

Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd has appointed Naveen Uppal as the Chief Risk Officer.

• Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd has appointed Naveen Uppal as the Chief Risk Officer (CRO). The appointment complied with norms of National Housing Bank (NHB), the housing finance sector regulator. His appointment will be for a period of three years with effect from June 17, 2019. He will be directly reporting to the managing director and CEO of the company.

RBI's norm:

• The appointment comes after the announcement made by RBI on 16 May which said that all non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) with assets of more than ₹5,000 crore to appoint a chief risk officer (CRO). RBI’s move was in the wake of ongoing rating downgrades of non-banks which has raised fears of another liquidity crisis.

Mr.Uppal:

• Uppal has over 23 years of experience in operations, audit and credit risk within the finance industry. He has been associated with Indiabulls Housing Finance for 12 years and presently heads risk and compliance. He was also associated with ICICI Bank as its zonal operations head.

Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd:

♦ Founded on: January, 2000   

♦ Headquarters: Gurgaon, India

♦ Chairman and Founder: Sameer Gehlaut

♦ Vice Chairman and MD: Gagan Banga

♦ Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. (IBHFL) is India’s second largest housing finance company, regulated by the National Housing Bank (NHB).

♦ It was rated the 13th largest consumer finance company worldwide by Forbes Global 2000 in June 2018.

Kona Raghupati was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

• Kona Raghupati was unanimously elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on 18 June 2019. He is a two-time MLA from the ruling YSRCP who is representing Bapatla constituency.

• Mr. Raghupati was nominated by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botsa Satyanarayana which was backed by other members of the cabinet and senior leaders of the ruling party. Speaker Tammineni Sitaram declared the election of Kona Raghupathi as Deputy Speaker as he was the only contestant.

Mr. Raghupati:

• He is from political family. He holds a Bachelors degree. His father, Kona Prabhakara Rao, was a veteran Congress leader who even served as the Speaker for the Assembly of united Andhra Pradesh, for a brief period between 1980 and 1981. Rao also acted as Governor for three states, Pudducherry, Sikkim and Maharshatra, serving a brief period in each state between 1983 and 1986.

Om Birla has been elected as the 17th Lok Sabha Speaker.

• Om Birla has been unanimously elected as the 17th Lok Sabha Speaker with the opposition Congress coming out in support of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s candidate. Birla will replace Sumitra Mahajan.

Mr.Om Birla:

• He is a two-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) from Rajasthan. Birla is also a member of theStanding Committee on Energy in Parliament, member of Committee on Petitions and Consultative Committee for Ministry of social justice and empowerment. He has an 86% average attendance in the House.

Nominated by:

• Mr.Birla was nominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defence minister Rajnath Singh, home minister Amit Shah and minister for transport and highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari. He was also backed by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).

• The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which was led by the Congress has also decided to support Birla’s candidature.