The Daily Brief – 26th April 2019

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sold its entire stakes in the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) and National Housing Bank (NHB) for Rs 20 crore and Rs 1,450 crore respectively. The decision to divest its entire stake was taken based on the recommendations of the second Narasimham Committee. The committee had stated that RBI could not own those entities which are regulated by it. The government now holds a 100 per cent stake in both NHB and NABARD.

World Immunization Week 2019 is being observed in the last week (from 24-30) of April with the theme Protected Together: Vaccines Work. The week celebrates Vaccine Heroes from around the world from parents and community members to health workers and innovators who help ensure we are all protected, at all ages, through the power of vaccines.

In its 2^nd edition, the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2019 was awarded to author Rana Dasgupta for his 2010 novel “Solo” which is a tale of estrangement and the ultimate failure of material existence. The prize which aims to revive poetry and books that can change lives has a cash prize of $10000 and comes with a Tagore statue and a certificate.

In the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2019 has been released by INSEAD, Adecco Group and Tata Communications recently, India ranked 80 while Singapore took the lead in this region. The report measures levels of Global Talent Competitiveness by looking at 68 variables covering 125 national economies and 114 cities. In this sixth edition, Switzerland continued to lead the index, while Singapore and the United States came in second and third respectively.

The World Malaria Day was observed across the globe on April 25, 2019 with the theme “Zero malaria starts with me”. The day aims to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment towards malaria prevention and control. According to WHO’s latest World Malaria Report, no significant efforts were made in reducing malaria cases during 2015 – 2017. The estimated number of malaria deaths in 2017 stood at 435000, no change over the previous year.

African country Malawi on April 24, 2019 became the first to immunise children against Malaria through the vaccine ‘RTS,S’ (Mosquirix) under the WHO-coordinated Malaria vaccine pilot programme that aims to reach 360000 children every year across the three countries-Malawi, Ghana and Kenya. Malaria remains one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the life of one child every two minutes.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held summit talks for the time ever in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok. Both the leaders will talk about the Korean peninsula’s nuclear problem. Kim is expected to seek support of Russia after failing to reach an agreement with US President Trump on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme at Hanoi. Russia has previously been involved in talks to end North Korea’s nuclear programme.

The Supreme Court on April 23, 2019 constituted a three-judge panel headed by Justice SA Bobde, the senior-most judge in apex court after the Chief Justice of India (CJI), to inquire into the sexual harassment complaint by a former junior court assistant against CJI Ranjan Gogoi. The other members of inquiry panel are Justice NV Ramana and Justice Indira Banerjee. This is the first in-house inquiry on a sexual harassment complaint conducted in the Supreme Court and it is the first time in 69 years of SC history that an inquiry is being conducted against the CJI.