Gist of current affairs from September 2013 Megazines.

                           Gist of current affairs from September 2013 Megazines. 

• Quatar’s Dahlan Jumman Al-Hamad elected new president of Asian athletics association defeating Suresh kalmadi of India.
• Dr. T.C.A Raghavan  next high commissioner of India to Pakistan.
• Hemant Soren sworn in as ninth Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
• NASSCOM , National Association of software companies gets new president R. Chandrashekhar.
• Sujata Singh is next Foreign Secretary of India in place of Ranjan Matthai.
• P sadashivam , new Chief Justice of India replacing Justice Altmas kabir.
• IIFA awards- Best film – Barfi , Best actor Ranbir kapoor, best Actress Vidhya balan (Kahani).
• Kerala chief minister gets UN public service award for his mass contact program .
• Vandana Gandhi first Indian woman to receive Dubai Govt.’s Emirates woman award for her ISO certified British Orchard Nursery Chain in middle east.
• Veteran actor Pran , winner of 2012 Dada sahib falke award , passed away.
• Douglas anglebart , inventor of computer mouse .
• The United Nations General assembly (193 member)constituted a new High Level Political Forum(HLPF) to replace the united nations commissions on Sustainable Development ( UNCSD). The decision is based on the recommendation of RIO+20’S outcome document of 2012 “UN conference on sustainable development , The future we want.” The forum will meet once in a year under the sponsorship of UNECOSOC  Economic and social council.
• Croatia joins European Union as 28^th member.
• European Union signed a deal for 7 year budget 2014-20.
• Iran agreed to take all oil payments from India in rupees, after US and western ban blocked all other payment routes.  Rupee transactions to Iran are routed through UCo Bank in  Kolkata , where Iranian oil companies have opened their accounts. India has not bought a single barrel of oil from Iran since April 2013 as insurance firms had refused to provide insurance cover to refiners processing Iranian oil.
• India Srilanka and Maldives sign tripartite maritime security pact. India was represented by our National security advisor Shri Shivshankar menon.
• Indian and Nepal agreed for making joint publicity of their tourist destinations and offering joint tour package to the tourists of other countries.
• India Albania signed double taxation avoidance agreement.
• MGPSY scheme for blue collar Indian workers in gulf. Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Surksha Yojana .a pension and life insurance scheme for Indian workers in Gulf Countries.
• Visit of Britain prime minister David Cameron to India on 30 june 2013. UK will assist in development of  Bangluru- Mumbai Economic Corridor.
• Kundanklam Nuclear power plant commenced operations on 13 th July. Presently it started producing 400 mw power. Full capacity 1000 MW. In joint collaboration with Russia.
• Airport authority of India will set up 51  low cost airports in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India.
• Bhiwani , mahendragarh (Hryana) and Bharatpur (Rajasthan) districts are included in NCR Delhi . National Capital Region.
• Govt. lauched National Cyber Security Policy 2013. aimed to protect information and build capabilities to prevent cyber attacks.
• Two new national universities decided to be setup  in Raibareli (UP). 1.) Indira Gandhi National university for Women. And  Rajeev Gandhi  National Aviation University. In 2006 the Kaw committee had recommended setting up of National Aviation University
• UNESCO (United nations education , scientific and cultural organization) grants  world heritage status to Six forts of Rajastahan  and mount fuji of japan  in its World heritage committee metting at Phnom penh in Cambodia.
• Rail link extended to Kashmir, Banihal (Jammu) to Qazigund (Kashmir) link inaugurated by Prime minister.
• Himachal Pradesh became first smoke free state of the country. It achieved 85.42 % compliance under section 4 of Cigarettes and other Tobacco products act (COTPA)2003. The state had increased state taxes on bidi and cigarettes from 11 and 18 to 22 and 36 % to discourage this habit.

• Rajasthan , Mukya mantri bijli bachat lamp yojana . Two CFL free to all village household  and Urban BPL families.

• Latest warship with guided missile technology  “ INS TRIKAND” was inducted in the Indian Navy. This one is the last of the 6 warships ordered from Russia . Earlier ones are Talwar, Trishul, Tabar, Teg, and Tarkash.

• Special Liquidity facility for Mutual Funds. RBI on 17 July 2013 opened additional liquidity facility of max 25000 crore to commercial banks to lend onwards to mutual funds, which are facing heavy redemption (withdrawals) due to liquidity tightening by RBI to control Rupee depreciation against dollar.

• SEBI act was amended for providing powers to the market regulator to crack down on Ponzi Scheme.

• What are Ponzi schemes - A fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned.

• RBI announced measures to control Rupee fall with tightening of liquidity and increasing the cost of funds . 1) Increased Marginal Standing facility rates and Bank Rates from 8.25 to 10.25. 2) Planned  a total sale of 12000 crore Govt. bonds. 3) The overall allocation of funds under the LAF will be limited to 1.0% of the Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL) of the banking system, reckoned as Rs. 75,000 crore for this purpose.

• RBI tightens control on  foreign currency outflow  from India.

1) Overseas investment limit of companies under automatic route brought down from 400% of net worth to 100% of net worth. Investment beyond this ceiling will require RBI permission.

2) For individuals , limit under Liberalised remittance scheme is brought down from 200000 $ to 75000 $.

3) Foreign currency  inward deposits coming to Indian banks made exempt from CRR/SLR requirement.

3) Banks may offer higher interest rates to foreign currency deposits by one percent. It allowed banks to offer 400 basis point (4%) above LIBOR (London Inter bank offered rate) in place of 300 basis point ceiling earlier.

• RBI imposed fines (penalty) on 22 private and public sector banks including SBI for violating KYC norms and their alleged involvement in Money laundering practices , exposed by a private web site magazine Cobrapost in a sting operation.

• DGCA Director General of Civil Aviation office will be replaced with CAA Civil Aviation Authority.  It will have full operational and financial autonomy and will meet the standards set by  UN’s ICAO International civil aviation authority.

• District Rural Development Agency DRDA dissolved. These were setup as independent societies in 1980 to oversee implementation of  Rural Development ministry’s programs at district levels. V. Ramchandran committee recommended their dissolution.

• Natural gas prices to be increased (nearly doubled) from April 2014. Govt. approved this on the basis of   C. Rangarajan ‘s formula under whose chairmanship a committee was formed to recommend a  Gas pricing formula.

• India successfully launched its first navigational Satellite IRNSS-1A, Equivalent to US’s GPS system.

          FDI  allowed in various sectors in India : Updated up to Sept 2013 from Ministry’s website

SECTOR	TOTAL	AUTOMATIC	Govt. APPROVAL
Tea sector including tea plantations	100		100
Petroleum and natural gas refining	49	49
Exploration	100	100
Defence	26		26
Courier services	100	100
Telecom	100	49	Above 49
Single brand retail	100	49	Above 49
Multi brand retail	51		51
Asset Reconstruction company	100	49	Above 49
Commodity exchange	49	49
Credit information companies	74	74
Power Exchanges	49	49
Banking Private sector	74	49	Above 49
Public sector	20		20
NBFC	100	100
Pharmaceuticals Greenfield	100	100
Brownfield	100		100
E-Commerce activities	100	100
Cash and carry wholesale trading	100	100
Industrial parks	100	100
Aviation	49	49
Airport Greenfield	100	100
Brownfield	100	74	Above 74
Print media –newspaper magazine etc	26	26
DTH and Cable network	74	49	Above 49
FM Radio	26		26
Mining	100	100
FDI is prohibited in: (a)Lottery Business including Government /private lottery, online lotteries etc. (b)Gambling and Betting including casinos etc. (c)Chit funds (d)Nidhi company (e)Trading in Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) (f)Real Estate Business or Construction of Farm Houses (g)Manufacturing of Cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes, of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes (h)Activities / sectors not open to private sector investmente. eg.Atomic Energy and Railway Transport (other than Mass Rapid Transport Systems)

• Wimbledon 2013

1)      Andy Murray (England) Defeated Novak Djokovic  to become first Briton in 77 years to win wimbledon . Fred perry was last britishman to win wimbledon in 1936.

2)      Marion Bartoli of France won women’s single category defeating Sabine Lisicki of Germany.

• Brazil won FIFA Confederation cup defeating SPAIN .
• India to host 2016 T-20 and 2023 World cup in cricket.