Daily Current Affairs for Competitive exams: November 29, 2016

Hello readers,

Here are today’s important headlines with key details for UPSC, SSC, IBPS and other competitive examinations.

Akodara in Gujarat becomes India’s first Digital Village

Akodara village in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat has recently earned the title of becoming the first digital village in India. The village, which sustains a total population of 1191 people, uses various cashless systems for payments of goods and services. All transactions in the village are carried out through digital modes like net-banking, SMS or debit cards.

Highlights

Akodara was adopted and developed by the ICICI Foundation as a digitised village with a rural branch of the bank. In the village, most transactions between Rs. 10 and Rs. 5000 are done via SMS. The payment goes directly into the shopkeeper’s bank account as the buyer and seller are both connected through their accounts in the same bank.
Akodara is one of the few villages to have its own website: http://akodara-digitalvillage.in.
Its wi-fi with high speed broadband connectivity has some 50 subscribers across 200-odd households.
The wi-fi facility also enables farmers to access the latest price of agricultural commodities on NCDEX, with the bank acting as a hub for business activity. The ICICI Bank has developed a dedicated and customised SMS banking platform and software for the village to enable users to do basic banking transactions in English and Gujarati.
The bank has also developed a micro-ATM-based solution to facilitate the local mandi commission agents to make payments to farmers for their produce.

Goa to become India’s first Cashless state

Amidst the confusion created by demonetization, the Indian state of Goa prepares itself to become the first state to operate cashless in the country from 31 December 2016.

Highlights

All vendors would be given Mobile Money Identifier (MMI) codes when they register at the bank. Customers would be able to make the transaction by dialing *99# and following the instructions that appear on the screen. The information to be filled by them would include their bank account details, the total amount that is to be transferred along with the MMI code of the vendor.
The mobile required to make the payment wouldn’t have to be a Smartphone. There will be no minimum limit on the cashless transfer of money and these transactions will also be immune from any sort of fees.
This way the money will directly be debited from the sender’s account and credited to the receiver’s account. It will take away the hassle of installing swiping machines, especially in the case of small retailers and vendors.
A drive to educate people on the working of the same system has already been initiated in Mapusa and Panaji.

Here is a list of last few articles on Current Affairs and the Monthly Bullet on Current Affairs for SSC
Monthly Bullet Pdf for November2016