Maldives separated from the Commonwealth about three years ago on the issue of human rights. The Maldives seceded from the Commonwealth due to its lack of progress on democratic reforms. The Maldives requested the Commonwealth to let them rejoin the group.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems, has approved part of the banks request to remove interchange fees on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay card transactions as long as the merchant discount rate (MDR) remains zero. In contrast, it still reviewing other fees like payments service provider (PSP) fee and switching fees as it is concerned that the decision will obstruct its revenues and PSPs like PhonePe & Google-Pay.

India observes Martyrs’ Day every year, to pay homage to honor the sacrifices made by Mahatma Gandhi and countless other brave Indians. This year India is observing the 72nd death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

World Leprosy Day is observed internationally every year on the last Sunday of January to increase public awareness of the Leprosy. This year theme of World Leprosy Day 2020 is “Leprosy isn’t what you think”.

According to the survey “Transparency In Budgetary Process Report 2.0.” conducted by Transparency International’s India (TII), Assam tops in the ranking of best practices followed by states in budget formulation with a score of 70. Assam is the only state out of 29 states and 2 UTs (Union Territories) to publish a citizens budget in the public domain and also to conduct budget awareness campaign across 17 districts. Assam was followed by Andhra Pradesh-AP (2nd with the score of 67) & Odisha (3rd with the score of 66).While Meghalaya ranked bottom with the score of 21. Along with Meghalaya, Manipur, Punjab and Maharashtra were figured at lower positions.

According to the Economic Survey 2019-20, about 2.62 crore new jobs were created between 2011-12 and 2017-18. About 1.21 crore jobs were created in rural areas, while 1.39 crore jobs were created in urban areas.

China has announced that it is to launch its Mars probe in July 2020. The spacecraft will be launched onboard the Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket.

The 2019-20 recipient of the PEN Gauri Lankesh Award for Democratic Idealism is Srinagar journalist Yusuf Jameel.

The MPC is headed by the RBI Governor. The present Reserve Bank of India governor is Shaktikanta Das.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed Rs 1-crore fine on HDFC Bank for violating know-your-customer (KYC) norms in 39 accounts, which were used for bidding in an initial public offering (IPO). Transactions carried out through these accounts were found to be disproportionate to the declared income of the customers The penalty has been imposed under the provisions of section 47 A (1) (c) read with section 46 (4) (i) of the Banking Regulation Act 1949, taking into account the failure of the bank to adhere to the aforesaid direction.

The International Summit on Women in STEM “Visualizing the Future: New Skylines” was held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The summit was organized by the Department of Biotechnology.

The 44th edition of International Kolkata Book Fair 2020 (IKBF) has commenced at Central Park Mela Ground in SaltLake, Kolkata , West Bengal with Russia as a “Focal Theme Country”.