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- Vidarbha lifted their second successive Ranji Trophy title with a comfortable 78-run win over Saurashtra in the final, proving that their maiden triumph last year was no “fluke”.
- Vidarbha needed five wickets to defend their title while Saurashtra, in a chase of 206, were left a mountain to climb after a top-order collapse on 6th Feb. They required 148 runs for their maiden title on the fifth and final day at the VCA stadium in Nagpur.
- “Everyone thought it was a fluke when we won last year and we were under pressure to retain the title. But our focus was process, we never bothered about reputation,” Vidarbha’s talismanic coach Chandrakant Pandit said.
- The fiercely fought final swung early on but Vidarbha went into the final day with a tight hold on the proceedings and bundled out the visitors for 127 with more than two sessions to spare
- Overnight batsmen Vishvaraj Jadeja (52) and Kamlesh Makvana (14) batted resolutely for the first hour but once the partnership was broken, the end was inevitable for Saurashtra.
- Man of the match left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate claimed three of the five wickets that fell on Thursday, to end with career-best match figures of 11/57. He took six for 59 in the second innings.
- It was his maiden haul of 10 or more wickets in a first-class match. He had scalped five batsmen in the first innings.
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- "David's extensive knowledge of the World Bank's challenges and opportunities make him a uniquely qualified steward of a great institution that is operating below its full potential," Ivanka Trump said.
- US President Donald Trump has nominated a senior Treasury official David Malpass as the next president of the World Bank. If voted by the Directors of the World Bank Group, he would replace Jim Yong Kim as the president of the world bank, a position which has traditionally been held by Americans.
- The position of Managing Director of International Monetary Fund has gone to Europe. Given the vote share of various countries inside World Bank, the confirmation of Malpass as its next president is now a mere formality.
- Announcing his nomination on 6th Feb, Trump declared Malpass as a “special man”, and as someone who was eminently qualified for the position.
- In his current capacity as the Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, Malpass, 62, oversees the working of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
- An internationally renowned economist, Malpass brings 40 years of experience in economics, finance, government, and foreign policy to his new assignment, Trump said.
- After receiving a degree in international economics from Georgetown University’s prestigious School of Foreign Service, Malpass served as deputy assistant secretary of the treasury under President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President George H W Bush.
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- NASA has lost touch with the first mini-spacecraft that ventured into deep space, according to the US space agency which said that it is unlikely the twin CubeSats will be heard from again
- The MarCO CubeSats were launched last year to test if such low-cost technology can operate in deep space.
- The twins, nicknamed EVE and WALL-E after characters from a Pixar film, served as communications relays during the InSight’s Mars landing, beaming back data at each stage of its descent to the Martian surface in near-real time, along with InSight’s first image.
- WALL-E sent back stunning images of Mars as well, while EVE performed some simple radio science.
- Having travelled well past Mars, the twin CubeSats seem to have reached their limit, NASA said in a statement.
- It has been over a month since engineers have heard from MarCO, which followed NASA’s InSight to the Red Planet. At this time, the mission team considers it unlikely they will be heard from again.
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- The Reserve Bank of India on 7th Feb. cut benchmark lending rate by 0.25 per cent to 6.25 per cent on expectation of inflation staying within its target range, a move that may make home and other loans cheaper.
- The RBI, under its new Governor Shaktikanta Das, changed the monetary policy stance to 'neutral' from the earlier 'calibrated tightening', signalling further softening of rates if inflation remain benign.
- With Deputy Governor Viral Acharya and another member Chetan Ghate voting for a status quo, Das and three others outvoted them for reduction in repo rate to 6.25 per cent from the existing 6.50 per cent.
- Accordingly, reverse repo was reduced to 6 per cent from 6.25 per cent. Repo rate is the rate at which commercial banks borrow money from the RBI; while reverse repo rate is the rate at which RBI collects money from banks.
- The RBI cut its estimates on headline inflation which cooled off to an 18-month low of 2.2 per cent in December for the next year, and expects the number to come at 2.8 per cent in March quarter, 3.2-3.4 per cent in first half of next fiscal and 3.9 per cent in third quarter of FY20.
- "Headline inflation is projected to remain soft in the near term reflecting the current low level of inflation and the benign food inflation outlook," the MPC resolution said, adding that it needs to be watchful of vegetable prices, oil prices, trade tensions, health and education inflation, financial market volatility and monsoon outcomes.
- The rate cut is in consonance with achieving the medium-term objective of maintaining inflation at the 4 per cent level while supporting growth, it said.
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- US President Donald Trump vows to rectify calamitous trade policies; seeks to expand his power to impose reciprocal tariffs which could have implications on bilateral trade with countries like India.
- Trump, during his annual State of the Union address, told Congress that Washington's aggressive trade negotiations with China would mean an end to its alleged "theft" of US jobs and wealth.
- "We are now making it clear to China that after years of targeting our industries, and stealing our intellectual property, the theft of American jobs and wealth has come to an end," Trump said in his address to the joint session of the US Congress.
- "Therefore, we recently imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods and now our treasury is receiving billions of dollars a month from a country that never gave us a dime. But I don't blame China for taking advantage of us, I blame our leaders and representatives for allowing this travesty to happen."
- Trump said he has great respect for Chinese President Xi Jinping and his administration was working on a new trade deal with China.
- To build on American incredible economic success, he said one priority is paramount - reversing decades of calamitous trade policies.
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