NEWS PAPER EXTRACTS FOR GENERAL AWARENESS

AND SOME CURRENT TOPICS

29^th Oct 2015

Nepal’s first female president Bidhya Bhandari , replaced Rambaran yadav. Prime minister is Khadga Prasad Oli.
India improved its Ease of Doing business rating in World bank study from 142 in 2014 to 130 in 2025 mainly because of improvement in Company law act and better electricity supply factor. World bank country director for India Onno Rohl said , GST if implemented would be another booster to India growth.
RBI board , terms of nearly 6 directors coming to end. Govt. is to appoint new directors.

Central Board 5+10+2+4=21
The Reserve Bank's affairs are governed by a central board of directors. The board is appointed by the Government of India in keeping with the Reserve Bank of India Act.

Appointed/nominated for a period of four years
Constitution:

Official Directors

Full-time : Governor and not more than four Deputy Governors

Non-Official Directors

Nominated by Government: ten Directors from various fields and two government Official
Others: four Directors - one each from four local boards

28^th Oct. 2015

Former Justice R V Easwar Committee formed by Finance ministry to suggest simplification and justification of income tax rules. Earlier Justice A P Shah Committee was constituted to advice on retrospective applicability of MAT on profits made by FIIs and FPIs and after its recommendation retrospective MAT was withdrawn by the Govt.
Divestment (Disinvestment )Target may not be achieved this year. This years target of Rs. 69500 Crore was highest of last 10 years., but so far Govt. could sell shares of value Rs, 12701 only.

27^th Oct 2015

26^th Oct 2015

NITI aayog panel to suggest ways to promote innovation and build an entrepreneur friendly ecosystem to drive job growth headed by noted academician Taru Khanna suggested a provision of cash prize of 30 Crore for innovative entrepreneurs and setting aside 1% of corporate profits to encourage innovative ideas.
Gold schemes to be ready by diwali : PM. ( Please read details of scheme in the latter part of this write-up.
SEBI thinking to permit sale of Mutual Funds through E-commerce sites.
Central Vigilence commissioner – KV Choudhary
As on June 2015 , public sector bank’s gross NPA was 6% and adding restructured assets it becomes 13% compared with private sector 4.60%. Iron and steel, Infrastructure , textile and food processing lead the list of NPA.

Third India Africa forum summit 26 to 29 oct 2015 to be held in New Delhi. The summit will be attended by 54 heads of state.
India trade with Africa increased from $39b in 2009-10 to $71 bn in 2014-15 . we are exporting processed petroleum products, drugs and pharmaceuticals and motor vehicles. Main Import is crude petroleum followed by Gold , Coal and other mining products.

25^th Oct 2015

24^th Oct marked RK Laxman’s 94^th birthday. Maharashtra Govt. plans to erect a befitting memorial to the legendary cartoonist on the campus of Sir JJ school of arts.

24^th Oct 2015

Indian origin politician Ashok shridharan has become Mayor of German city Bonn.

23^rd Oct 2015

Foundation stone laid for new capital of Andhra Pradesh and to be named as Amravati. It was capital of this region in the reigns of Kings Satvahanas. Foundation ceremony was held in a small village named uddandarayunipalem situated on the banks of Krishna river.
Japan offers $15 bn soft loan for bullet train

21^st Oct 2015

The Reserve Bank of India has today placed on its website the Report of the Working Group on the Implementation of Indian accounting standards (Ind AS) by Banks in India (Chair: Shri Sudarshan Sen, Principal Chief General Manager, Department of Banking Regulation) for suggestion and comments. Ind AS means Indian Accounting standard to be formulated to match with IFRS International Financial Reporting Standards.
RBI invites Applications for authorising Bharat Bill Payment System Operating Units (BBPOUs). under the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). The BBPS will be an authorised payment system operated by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). BBPOUs will function as entities facilitating collection of repetitive payments for everyday utility services, such as, electricity, water, gas, telephone and Direct-to-Home (DTH). Entities currently engaged in such bill payment activities and desirous of continuing the activity are mandatorily required to apply for authorisation to the Reserve Bank of India under the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act 2007. Both Banks and Non Bank entities may apply for it. All entities (including banks) failing to apply for authorisation/approval and continuing to engage in bill payment activities covered under the scope of BBPS may invite penal action by the Reserve Bank. All entities providing these bill payment services currently will have to register themselves with RBI under BBPS .
Justine Trudeau is the new PM of Canada .

19^th Oct 2015

Vivo replaces Pepsi as IPL Title sponsor.
Economic Times award 2015 . Business leader – Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahendra bank . Business reformer – Piyush Goyal , Union minister of power and coal. Policy change agent- Amitabh kant , Secretaty , Department of Industrial policy and promotion.
A willful defaulter is a defaulting borrower who doesn’t honour an obligation despite having the capacity to pay or siphon off the funds or dispose off the assets without the knowledge of the bank. 7035 willful defaulters owe 59000 crore to PSBs.

18^th Oct. 2015

Kailash satyarthi gets Humanitarian of the year award 2015 from Harward university. First Indian to receive this award.

17^th Oct. 2015.

Collegium vs NJAC : Supreme court 5 judge constitution bench declared the NJAC act ( National Judicial Appointment Commission ) and 99^th amendment to the constitution as unconstitutional and revived the old collegium system for appointment of Chief Justice , supreme court judges and high court Chief justices.
NJAC and 99^th constitution amendment was passed unanimously by Rajya sabha and Lok Sabha in the year 2014 . only one member Shri Ram Jethmalani opposed it.
Five judge bench headed by Justice J.S.Khehar , Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph , Adarsh kumar Goyal , Justice Chalameshwar gave their decision with 4-1 majority with Justice Chalameshwar opposed the decision.
Collegium comprised of CJI and forum of four seniormost judges of supreme court. NJAC comprised , CJI(Chairman) , two seniormost judges of supreme court , Union minster of Law, two eminent persons nominated by a committee having Prime minister , leader of opposition , CJI .
Present law minister Shri Ravi shankar Prasad also holding charge of IT ministry .
A constitution amendment can be passed through both houses of parliament by two third majority and approval from atleast one half of the state assemblies .
Adhar is now voluntarily be allowed on four more schemes 1) MNREGS 2) Pension fund 3) Provident fund 4) Jan dhan yojana . Before this it was allowed for LPG subsidy and PDS .
US needs to raise its debt limit before Nov. 3 to avoid default on its debts or to meet its day to day cash requirement. Current debt limit is 18.1 trillion dollar which is more than its GDP.

16^th Oct 2015

Former president APJ Abdul kalam’s Memoriam will be built in Rameshwaram , which has also been declared as AMRUT city under Atal Mission for rejunevation and Urban transformation .
Julian Assange of Wikileaks was given political asylum by a country named Ecuador.
Under Public records act 1993 , all records more than 30 years old are to be transferred to the National or State archives.
All files and records related to Netaji Subhash Chandra bose will be made public in a phased manner from 23^rd Jan 2016 (Netaji’s Birthday ) onwards.
Zaheer Khan , Indian pace bowler , quits international cricket.

15^th Oct. 2015

Agartala (Tripura) – Kolkata bus service via Dhaka started.
Indian is third largest startup initiator in the world after US and UK .
Longest nonstop flight will be Singapore airlines flight between Singapore and Newyork/ Los Ageles .
PS Jayakumar takes over as MD and CEO of Bank of Baroda.
SBI revised the base rate to 9.3 per cent effective October 5

13^th Oct 2015

IIP figure grew for August 2015 at 6.4% , highest in last three years on account of manufacturing growth, mining activities and better off take of capital goods.
Foreign policy think tank Observer Research Foundation ORF’s Sudheendra Kulkarni organized a program in Mumbai to launch a book written by Pakistani former foreign minister Khurshid mehmood kasuri . Book title – Neither a hawk nor a dove: An insider’s account of Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Base rate new formula based on marginal cost basis will be uniformly implemented by RBI on all banks from April 2016. It calculates the cost of fund on the basis of average rates of last one month. It is more transparent and ensure effective transmission of policy rates to borrowers . Interest rates changes will be more frequent.

12^th Oct 2015

Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund Plenary Session was held October 9-11, 2015 in Lima , capital of Peru. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

Currency: Peruvian nuevo sol

Official languages: Spanish, Quechua, Aymara

President - Ollanta Humala

Brazilian Football legend Pele visited Kolkata. His full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento .

10^th Oct. 2015

9^th Oct 2015

In a significant relaxation for the housing finance segment, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday increased the amount of loan banks can give against a property purchase — loan-to-value (LTV) — and also reduced the risk weights for home loans.
RBI said that in the case of ‘individual housing loans’ falling under the loan category of up to Rs 30 lakh, the LTV ratio is now up to 90 per cent. For properties above Rs 30 lakh and up to Rs 75 lakh, the LTV is up to 80 per cent and those above Rs 75 lakh, the ratio comes in at 75 per cent. It has also modified the provisioning or risk-weights norms for home loans.

Category of loan	LTV ratio (%)	Risk Weight (%)
Upto ₹ 30 lakh	≤ 80	35*
Upto ₹ 30 lakh	> 80 and ≤ 90	50*
Above ₹ 30 lakh and upto ₹ 75 lakh	≤ 75	35
Above ₹ 30 lakh and upto ₹ 75 lakh	> 75 and ≤ 80	50
Above ₹ 75 lakh	≤ 75	75

Two risk weights for Loan to Value up to 80% (35*) and Loan to value 80+ up to 90 (50*).

7^th Oct 2015

· Investment by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) in Government Securities will be increased form current US$30 Billion to 35 Billion in a phased manner till March 2018.

GOLD MONETISATION SCHEME -2015

1.1 Objective

GMS, which modifies the existing ‘Gold Deposit Scheme’ (GDS) 1999 and ‘Gold Metal Loan Scheme (GML), is intended to mobilise gold held by households and institutions of the country and facilitate its use for productive purposes, and in the long run, to reduce country’s reliance on the import of gold.

· All Scheduled Commercial Banks excluding RRBs will be eligible to implement the Scheme.

· Collection and Purity Testing Centre (CPTC) - The collection and assaying centres certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and notified by the Central Government for the purpose of handling gold deposited and redeemed under GMS.

Short Term Bank Deposit (STBD) - The deposit of gold made under the GMS with a designated bank for a short term period of 1-3 years.

· Medium and Long Term Government Deposit (MLTGD) - The deposit of gold made under the GMS with a designated bank in the account of the Central Government for a medium term period of 5-7 years or a long term period of 12-15 years or for such period as may be decided from time to time by the Central Government.

The Scheme

The GMS will replace the existing Gold Deposit Scheme, 1999. However, the deposits outstanding under the Gold Deposit Scheme will be allowed to run till maturity unless the depositors prematurely withdraw them.
Resident Indians (Individuals, HUF, Trusts including Mutual Funds/Exchange Traded Funds registered under SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations and Companies) can make deposits under the scheme.
The minimum deposit at any one time shall be raw gold (bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals) equivalent to 30 grams of gold of 995 fineness. There is no maximum limit for deposit under the scheme. The gold will be accepted at the Collection and Purity Testing Centres (CPTC) certified by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and notified by the Central Government under the Scheme. The deposit certificates will be issued by banks in equivalence of 995 fineness of gold.
The principal and interest of the deposit under the scheme will be denominated in gold.
The designated banks will accept gold deposits under the Short Term (1-3 years) Bank Deposit (STBD) as well as Medium (5-7 years) and Long (12-15 years) Term Government Deposit Schemes. While the former will be accepted by banks on their own account, the latter will be on behalf of Government of India. There will be provision for premature withdrawal subject to a minimum lock-in period and penalty to be determined by individual banks.

Reserve requirements

The short term bank deposits will attract applicable cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR). However, the stock of gold held by the banks will count towards the general SLR requirement.

KYC to apply

The opening of gold deposit accounts will be subject to the same rules with regard to customer identification as are applicable to any other deposit account. Utilisation of gold mobilised under GMS

The designated banks may sell or lend the gold accepted under STBD to MMTC for minting India Gold Coins (IGC) and to jewellers, or sell it to other designated banks participating in GMS. The gold deposited under MLTGD will be auctioned by MMTC or any other agency authorised by the Central Government and the sale proceeds credited to the Central Government’s account with the Reserve Bank. The entities participating in the auction may include the Reserve Bank, MMTC, banks and any other entities notified by the Central Government. Banks may utilise the gold purchased in the auction for purposes indicated above.

Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon notify a sovereign gold bond scheme. This follows the notification of a gold monetisation scheme last week. The government will launch three new schemes: Apart from bonds, the others pertain to gold monetisation and selling of gold coins. investors will get returns that are linked to gold price, the scheme is expected to reduce the demand for physical gold. The bonds will offer same benefits as physical gold. They can be used as collateral for loans and can be sold or traded on stock exchanges as they are available in demat form. At the same time investors need not worry about holding physical gold.

· The gold bonds will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India. Since these are Government of India bonds, they are sovereign. The bonds will be denominated in grams of gold.

· The bonds can be purchased only by resident individuals or entities. There will be a cap on bonds that can be purchased. It could be 500 gms per person per year.

· The government will decide the rate of interest. The rate will be calculated on the value of the gold at the time of investment. It could be floating or fixed rate. The principal amount of investment, which is denominated in grams of gold, will be redeemed at the price of gold at that time. If the price of gold has fallen from the time that the investment was made, the depositor will be given an option to roll over the bond for three or more years.

· The bonds will be available both in demat and paper form. They will be issued in denominations of 2,5,10,50,100 gms of gold or other denominations.

· The price of gold may be taken from the reference rate, as decided and the rupee equivalent amount may be converted at the RBI reference rate on issue and redemption. This rate will be used for issuance, redemption and Loan to Value purpose and disbursement of loans.

* The tenor of the bond could be for a minimum of five to seven years.

* These bonds can be used as collateral for loans. The LTV will be equal to that of ordinary gold loans. As per RBI regulations, the maximum LTV allowed for gold loans is 75 per cent.

* It will be possible to sell and trade the bonds on exchanges, in case investors want to redeem them before maturity. The KYC for the bonds is same as that for gold. Currently, if you purchase gold worth more than Rs 50,000 you have to show proof of KYC, such as PAN card, etc.

* Capital gains tax will be the same as for physical gold for individual investors. This means that short-term capital gains tax will apply if you sell within three years. The profits will be added to your income and taxed at income slab. Long term capital gains tax is 20 per cent with indexation.

INDIA GOLD COINS

The first lot of 'India gold coins' bearing the Ashok Chakra is likely to generate some investment demand in a lacklustre market and reduce the country's dependence on imported coins. Such an Indian Gold Coin would help reduce the demand for coins minted outside India and also help recycle the gold available in the country.” India has been importing about 60 tonnes of gold coins annually that are sold at a premium of 8-10 per cent. The imported gold coins carry a premium of 8-10 per cent. It is expected that the premium on India gold coin will not be more than 5-6 per cent,"

According to industry executives, the government has initially ordered 50,000 gold coins, of which 20,000 coins are of 5 gm and 30,000 coins of 10 gm, they said.

The coins are being manufactured by the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India and will be sold through banks, post offices and state-run MMTC .

But Rajiv Popley, director of Mumbai-based jewellery firm Popley & Sons, said India gold coins can only become popular if they match the Swiss standards. "At present, Swiss gold coins, which have a purity of 999.9 (24 carat), are imported to India whereas those manufactured in India have a purity of 995. The India gold coin has to match the Swiss standard," said Popley.

Swiss coins are tamper-proof and come with a certification that is acclaimed worldwide, said Popley. "The India coins can give a tough fight to imported Swiss coins if they have all these qualities. India also imports coins from Australia and Canada," he said.

2015

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald

"for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass"

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015

Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar

"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015

William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura

"for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites"

Youyou Tu

"for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria"

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015

Svetlana Alexievich

"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"

The Nobel Peace Prize 2015

National Dialogue Quartet

"for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011"

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2015

Angus Deaton

"for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare"

Announcement of Domestic – Systemically Important banks

Reserve Bank of India announced today (31^st August 2015) the designation of State Bank of India and ICICI Bank Ltd. as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs).
Systemically Important banks two category – Domestic and Global . SIB are those banks who are crucial for the country’s economy and their failure can be disastrous. In other words they are “too big to fail”.
Such banks will have to mobilize additional capital. SBI has to increase its capital base by further 0.6% while ICICI will need 0.2% extra capital to their risked assets. This additional requirement is for Common Equity Tier 1 capital. The additional CET1 requirement will be in addition to the capital conservation buffer.
The selection of banks in the sample for computation of SIS is based on analysis of their size as a percentage of annual GDP.
These banks need to implement this requirement in a phased manner from 1 april 2016 to 1 april 2019 , however incidentally both banks are already having a higher capital than the combined requirement of basel II + D-SIB norms.

Bank holidays on 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays every month

Government of India issued a Notification on August 20, 2015 [published in the Gazette of India, Extra Ordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-Section (ii)] declaring every second and the fourth Saturday of every month as public holiday under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (26 of 1881). Accordingly, all banks whether or not included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934) will observe holidays on second and fourth Saturdays with effect from September 1, 2015.

Payment banks

The objective of setting up of payments banks will be to further financial inclusion; the strategies will be by providing (i) small savings accounts and (ii) payments / remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low income households, small businesses, other unorganised sector entities and other users. The scope of the activities permitted for the Payment Banks included:

· Acceptance of demand deposits.(Current and savings bank ) Payments bank will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of ₹ 100,000 per individual customer. No NRI deposits

· Issuance of ATM / debit cards

· Payments and remittance services through various channels

· BC of another bank and

· Distribution of non-risk sharing simple financial products like mutual fund units and insurance products, etc.

Small finance banks

The small finance bank shall primarily undertake basic banking activities of acceptance of deposits and lending to unserved and underserved sections including small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and unorganised sector entities. It can also undertake other non-risk sharing simple financial services activities, not requiring any commitment of own fund, such as distribution of mutual fund units, insurance products, pension products, etc. with the prior approval of the Reserve Bank and after complying with the requirements of the sectoral regulator for such products. The small finance bank can also become a Category II Authorised Dealer in foreign exchange business for its clients’ requirements. There will not be any restriction in the area of operations of small finance banks. It is expected that the small finance bank should primarily be responsive to local needs.
27. It will be required to extend 75 per cent of its Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) to the sectors eligible for classification as priority sector lending (PSL). While 40 per cent of its ANBC should be allocated to different sub-sectors under PSL as per the extant PSL prescriptions, the bank can allocate the balance 35 per cent to any one or more sub-sectors under the PSL where it has competitive advantage.
28. The maximum loan size and investment limit exposure to a single and group obligor would be restricted to 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its capital funds, respectively. Further, in order to ensure that the bank extends loans primarily to small borrowers, at least 50 per cent of its loan portfolio should constitute loans and advances of upto 25 lac.

RBI releases 'Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks: June 2015'

Total Scheduled commercial banks SCBs – 146 of which total RRBs - 56
Growth of deposits and credit decelerated to 10.6 per cent and 8.6 per cent, respectively, in June 2015 from 11.9 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively, a year ago.
The all India credit-deposit (C-D) ratio was 75.8 per cent as on June 26, 2015.

· Public sector banks accounted for the largest share of 72.5 per cent in aggregate deposits and 70.4 per cent in gross bank credit followed by private sector banks (19.8 per cent and 20.6 per cent, respectively) as on June 26, 2015.

Total bank branches of all SCB s 1,27,343 of which 48531 in rural areas. (38.11%).
Rural growth Dep 15.1 % credit -12.1% metropolitan dep 7.8 credit 7.3
Growth SBI group Dep 13.6 credit 4.6 % private banks dep 17.2 and credit 17.9.

Annual report of RBI year ending – June 2015

Reserve bank financial year is treated as July to June every year.

RBI is progressively moving from a performance based CAMELS (Capital adequacy, Asset Quality , Management, Earnings, Liquidity , System and control) framework to a forward looking Risk Based Supervision RBS framework for early detection of risks, timely and appropriate supervisory interventions.

Base rate

· Monetary transmission to occur, lending rates have to be sensitive to the policy rate. With the introduction of the Base Rate on July 1, 2010 banks could set their actual lending rates on loans and advances with reference to the Base Rate. At present, banks are following different methodologies in computing their Base Rate – on the basis of average cost of funds, marginal cost of funds or blended cost of funds (liabilities). Base Rates based on marginal cost of funds should be more sensitive to changes in the policy rates.

STATE BANK BUDDY

The State Bank Buddy, the mobile wallet application of State Bank Group has been launched in collaboration with Accenture and MasterCard.
State bank buddy was not specific only for tech savvy people, but being in 13 different language , it could cater to all kinds of users. With this application the face of consumer spending in India is going to change.
SBI’s size of operation, geographical reach and reach among different segment of India could fascinate anyone. In spite of the constraint faced by public sector over private sector banks, SBI remains the market leader in social and economic programmes of the state. He cited the examples of Jan Dhan yojna and insurance schemes wherein SBI performed the commendable job and led others way ahead.

REGULATION OF LENDING INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA.

Banks and NBFCs are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) supervising and inspecting RRBs; SHGs are regulated by NABARD; cooperative societies are regulated by the state-appointed Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) and state government (with NABARD conducting supervision and inspections); and cooperative banks are regulated by RBI and RCS. Because not all register as NBFCs, most MFIs fall outside of the regulatory gambit though hundreds have joined umbrella self-regulatory organizations including Sa-Dhan and Micro Finance India Network (MFIN). Under pressure from RBI, MFIN has created a code of conduct in order to prevent over-lending to individual borrowers and plans to form ombudsmen offices to address grievances, while Sa-Dhan is developing a code of conduct as well. NBFC MFIs have also come together to form Alpha Micro Finance Consultants P Ltd, in order to provide credit bureau services to MFIs in India.

11 December 2014

Times Person of the year declared – Ebola fighters, the medical team treating EBOLA patients was awarded this titile. EBOLA turned to be an epidemic in Liberia , Guinea, and sierra leone , all African countries.
J&K defeats 40 times winner in Ranji trophy in the first round.
Suicide will no more be considered as crime . Govt. moves towards ending section 309 of Indian Penal Code.
Nobel peace price 2014 was given to India ‘s Kailash satyarthy and pakistan’s Malala Yousufjai in OSLO capital of Norway. Veteran artists Amjad ali khan (sarod) and Rahat ali khan (sufi vocalist) performed on the occasion . Kailash satyarthy hails from Vidisha(MP) is an indian campaigner against child labour practices (Bachpan bachao abhiyaan) and Malala is fighting for right of education specially to Girl child.
World human rights day - 10 December
Most talked about topics in India – 2014 general elections, IPL,2014 , MOM mangalyaan , Kashmir floods, jan dhan yojana, swachchhata abhiyan
Most talked about topics in world- Gaza Conflict, Malaysian airline tragedy, ice bucket challenge, Ebola virus attack, ferguson shootout, Fifa world cup
Richard Rahul Verma will be the new US ambsssador to India. The post is lying vacant since March 14 , when Nancy powell resigned .

10 December 2014

GST is scheduled to be rolled out from 1 april 2016.
Uber CEO and co founder Travis Kalanick .company based in san Francisco. Smartph0ne app based booking . Running its services at around 200 centres across 50 countries. Other companied in this field are Lyft, Sidecar, Ola, Taxiforsure.
PMO’s initiative to boost “Ease of doing business” in India. Identified 36 areas under various ministries to be improved . EoDB rankings are given and published by world bank. Modi has set an ambitious task of moving India from 142^nd position to the 50^th slot. Some of the important proposals are mentioned here 1) All approvals and clearance processes to be placed online. 2) three forms instead of 17 for import and export 3) only one identity number instead of Permanent Account Number PAN, Tax deduction account no. TAN, Corporate Identification number CIN, Labour identification no. LIN. All organizations like EPFO, CBDT,ESIC will integrate their processes and issue one account no. 4) Winding up and insolvency laws to be made easy. 5) National company law tribunal to be constituted. 6) special focus on Delhi and Mumbai. 7) No pollution control certificate will be required for industrial electricity connection.
Soon 100% FDI in medical devices to cut imports.
Uber cup and Thomas cup- The Thomas Cup or Men’s World Team Championships was first staged in 948-49, and the Uber Cup or Women’s World Team Championships was added for the first time in 1956-7. The Uber Cup Finals have been held alongside the Men’s competition since 1984, with both then taking place bi-ennially

9^th December 2014

India ranked 65^th on tourism competitiveness index of world economic forum.
GOSF Google online shopping festival from 10 to 12 dec 2014.
Satyam founder Ramlinga raju gets 6 month jail for 2008 scam.
CAD risen to 10 bn $ that comes out to 2.1% of GDP in second quarter ending sept.14. It was mainly on account of increased Gold import. CAD would have been higher, had the oil import bill not come down.
ATM transactions dips 9% in November , with the passage of festival season and certain banks limiting the number of free ATM usages.

8^th December 2014

ISRO satellite GSAT-16 launched from French guinea successfully.
Roger federer was on a sports tour to India for playing for Indian aces team under IPTL International premier tennis league. Indian aces team defeated singapur slammers .
Most states favor replacing plan panel with policy panel. It has no futuristic vision in post reform period. There is a need to reverse the top down approach in planning, in which state be given a key role. There is no structured mechanism for regular engagement with states. The forum is not effective in resolution of centre-state and interministerial issues.
Philipines hit by typhoon named Hagupit.

6^th December 2014.

Maldivian capital Male faces acute drinking water crisis as the only desalination plant was damaged in a fire incident. India has airlifted 1000 ton of water to provide relief .

5^th December 2014

INS Vikramaditya visited Mumbai for celebration of Navy week. The aircraft carrier was dedecated to the nation by PM Modi on 16 August 2014.
Originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987, the carrier served with the Soviet and later with the Russian Navies (as Admiral Gorshkov) before being decommissioned in 1996 as she was too expensive to operate on a post-Cold War budget.^[16][17][18] The carrier was purchased by India on 20 January 2004 after years of negotiations at a final price of $2.35 billion.^[1.
Dena bank plans to offload 500 crore Rs. Npa to ARC Asset reconstruction companies.

4^th December 2014

India improved on corruption index from 94^th last year to 85^th this year among 175 countries rated by Transparency international . Denmark retained its least corrupt status while srilanka has shared 85^th ranking with India.
After success of green bench , The supreme court has decided to set up a separate social justice bench comprising Justice B. Lokur and U. U. Lalit to deal with complaint against implementation of government welfare schemes.
President Pranab Mukerjee’s forthcoming book titled The dramatic decade : the Indira Gandhi years will be released on 11^th Dec, which happens to be his birth day.
Mona Lisa portrait was painted by Leonado da vinci.
Disinvestment- Govt. to sale 5% stake in SAIL to raise around 1700 crore, to meet fiscal target of 4.1% this year.
BSE is the largest bourse globally for number of listed companies on its platform. It has over 4000 actively traded companies and nearly 2.7 crore investors trading on it.
BSE sensex consist of 30 companies whereas NSE Nifty has 50 and MCXSX SX-40 has 40 companies on their index.

3^rd December 2014

American Golf legend Tiger woods has become a Global brand ambassador for Hero Motocorp.
Russian president Vladimir Putin will address joint parliament sessions during his visit to India next week.
30^th year of Bhopal gas tragedy observed . The tragic incident happened in the night between 2^nd/3^rd December 1984 . Warren Anderson Chairman of Union carbide died on 29^th Sept. 2014 in the US.
Bhopal – A prayer for rain(English) is a film directed by ravi kumar to be released on 5^th Dec. 2014. The film is based on Bhopal gas tragedy and is made for international audience.
World top 20 exchanges as per their market capitalization (Don’t memorise the table , just go through it)

	Name of the stock exchange	Country	city	M-CAP BN $
1	New York Stock Exchange	United States	New York	18,779
2	NASDAQ	United States	New York	6,683
3	Japan Exchange Group – Tokyo	Japan	Tokyo	4,485
4	Euronext	Netherlands, France Belgium Portugal	Amsterdam Paris Brussels Lisbon	3,504
5	London Stock Exchange Group	United Kingdom Italy	London	3,396
6	Hong Kong Stock Exchange	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	3,146
7	Shanghai Stock Exchange	China	Shanghai	2,869
8	TMX Group	Canada	Toronto	2,204
9	Shenzhen Stock Exchange	China	Shenzhen	1,913
10	Deutsche Bourse	Germany	Frankfurt	1,716
11	SIX Swiss Exchange	Switzerland	Zurich	1,527
12	Bombay Stock Exchange	India	Mumbai	1,519
13	National Stock Exchange of India	India	Mumbai	1,485
14	Australian Securities Exchange	Australia	Sydney	1,344
15	Korea Exchange	South Korea	Seoul	1,273
16	NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange	European Union	New York	1,243
17	BME Spanish Exchanges	Spain	Madrid	1,146
18	BM&F Bovespa	Brazil	São Paulo	992
19	JSE Limited	South Africa	Johannesburg	951
20	Taiwan Stock Exchange	Taiwan	Taipei	848

Monetary policy review 2^nd Dec. 2014 - No change in policy rates. Repo rate 8%, Reverse repo 7%, Bank rate and MSF rate 9%, CRR 4% and SLR 22%.
2^nd December 2014

PM announces Rs.28000 crore for rail projects in North east to explore untapped tourist potential of the area.
Core sector growth jumps to 6.3% in October owing to improvement in coal , refinery products and electricity. Eight core sectors are Coal , Crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, cement , power, fertilizer and steel.
Uruguay’s new president Tabare Vuzquez
Kisan vikas patra – 8.7% interest, period -100 months (8 years and 4 months), can be encashed in six monthly intervals after lock in period of 2 year six months, can be transferred to another person by an endorsement, minimum investment 1000 maximum no limit, no tax benefit, denominations 1,5,10,50 thousand, available at post office but soon will be at PSU Banks also.

1 December 2014

Modi’s definition of SMART police Strict yet sensitive, Modern and mobile, Alert and accountable, Reliable and responsive , Techno savvy and trained.
HRIDAY Haritage city development and augmentation yojana will be launched in seven cities Amritsar, Ajmer, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Varanasi and Vellankani by Urban development ministry.
P.S.Sindhu wins Macau open title Badminton defeating Kim Hyo Min of Korea.

30 November 2014

As per government directive India Government Mint Kolkata is releasing commemorative coins on the anniversaries of following dignitaries.
(1) 125^th birth anniversary of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. 1888-1958 ( 2) Birth centenary of Begam Akhtar 1914 – 2014 (3) 150^th Birth anniversary of Rabindranath tagore 1861-2011 (4) Mother Terasa 1910-2010 (5) 150^th Birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand 1863-1902 (6) Lal Bahadur shastri Birth centenary 1904-2004 (7) Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukarjee Centenary (8) Sant Tukaram
Coins are of demomination from Rs. 2 to Rs. 150 .

29^thNovember 2014

India is second biggest consumer of Gold after china.
Govt. removed 80:20 scheme for Gold, wherein importer has to ensure that at lease 20% of imported gold should be converted into jwellery for exports.
GDP growth slows down in July to September 2014 to 5.3 % from its previous quarter, April to June 2014 , growth of 5.7 %, mainly on account of stagnated growth of manufacturing sector 0.1 % and slow growth of agriculture production 3.2% . As per economic survey , estimated growth for this year is in the range of 5.4 to 5.9 %
Sensex breaches 100 trillion rupees mark in market capitalization, became 4^th in the world in market cap. Top three being NYSE, NASDEQ, and JAPAN stock exchange. BSE is already number one in maximum number of listed companies.
Despite fall in prices of crude oil to $72 a barrel , OPEC decided not to decrease oil exploration and extraction. This resulted in strengthening of dollar prices but drop in currencies of oil exporting countries. Norwegian crown and malaysian ringgit fell to five year lows

SEBI fines merchant banking arms of 6 major banks for suppressing some of the facts in IPO documents of some of their clients. Merchant Banking provides consultancy and process support to large business houses and industries for their capital and credit needs , through IPO

28 November 2014

Australian batsman Philip Huges succumbs to his injury (died) played 26 tests and 25 ODIs.
Sanskrit will be 3^rd language in all kendriya vidhyalayas from 6^th to 8^th standard. Students will be asked to switch to Sanskrit from German.
E-visas on arrival for visitors from 43 countries to promote tourism. Important countries being US, Australia, Japan, Israel , Germany , Brazil, Singapore, Mauritius .
SMALL FINANCE BANKS AND PAYMENT BANKS NORMS
RBI issues guidelines for new small finance banks and payment banks. Elaborating the eligibility criteria, the central bank has included non-bank prepaid card issuer, mobile companies, telecom companies, business correspondents, PSU companies, real sector cooperatives and supermarket chains as promoters of payments banks, while it has allowed NBFCs, MFIs and local area banks to convert to small banks.
RBI says that promoters can have joint ventures with banks for payments bank but they must have experience of running the business for 5 years. These banks can take demand deposits of maximum Rs 1 lakh per customer and can issue ATM/debit cards but not credit cards. Also, they can offer payments, remittance services and can distribute financial products like mutual funds and insurance. However, the RBI has made it clear that payments banks cannot undertake lending activities. Small finance banks are aimed at lending to “unserved and underserved sections including small business units”, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.
As per the new guidelines, the banks must maintain cash reserve ratio (CRR) and should keep 75 percent of their deposits in SLR up to 1 year maturity. Moreover, these banks need to keep maximum 25 percent as deposits with other banks for operational use
for such banks, the minimum paid-up equity capital is Rs 100 crore and the promoters must hold 40 percent of equity for the first 5 years. Moreover, the guidelines say that foreign holding should be as per FDI policy for private banks and they must have a high-powered customer grievances cell. Companies will have to apply by January 16, 2015, for licences in both categories.

payment banks should have a leverage ratio of at least three per cent (its outside liabilities should not exceed 33.33 times its net worth). This was around five per cent earlier.

FOR PAYMENT BANKS
Dos

Have to use the word ‘Payment Bank’ in their name
Can accept demand deposits; that is, current deposits and savings bank deposits, from individuals, small businesses and other entities
Can hold a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer
Will be allowed to set up branches, ATMs, business correspondents
Will be allowed to issue debit cards and offer internet banking
Can accept a large pool of money to be remitted, but the balance should not exceed Rs 1 lakh at the end of the day
Can accept remittances to be sent to, or receive remittances from, multiple banks
Permitted to handle cross-border remittances in the nature of personal payments on the current account
Allowed to distribute mutual fund, insurance and pension products
Can undertake utility bill payments

Don’ts

No NRI deposits should be accepted
Cannot issue credit card
Not allowed to set up arms to undertake NBFC activities
Other financial and non-financial services of promoters should not be mingled with the working of payment banks

Initial capital requirement for payment banks, as well as small banks, have been set at Rs 100 crore. In case of the former, the promoter will have to retain a 40 per cent stake in the first five years.For small banks, a promoter’s minimum initial contribution will be 40 per cent of the paid-up equity capital. If the initial shareholding is over 40 per cent, it has to be brought down to 40 per cent in five years. Further, the promoter’s stake should be brought down to 30 per cent within 10 years, and to 26 per cent within 12 years.
For small banks, the maximum loan size and investment limit exposure to single and group obligors has been restricted at 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its capital funds, respectively. Additionally, at least 50 per cent of their loan portfolio should constitute loans and advances of up to Rs 25 lakh, the RBI has said.
NBFC s like Muthoot finance , Shriram capital have expressed their interest in small finance banks . Telecom companies like Vodaphone , Airtel and prepaid card issues like Oxigen, Itzcash may be contending for payment banks.

27 November 2014

Meghalaya to get first rail connectivity
Sania mirza appointed Unite nations women’s goodwill ambassador for south asia.
Lionel messay (252) broke 59 year old record of telmo zara , being the highest goal scorer.
Jack ma , Chinese richest man and founder of e-commerce firm Alibaba visited India and expressed his desire to invest more in India. He started Alibaba in 1999.
SAARC.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries that are primarily located in South Asia.^[10] The SAARC Secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.^[11]
The member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.^[21]
States with observer status include^[26] Australia,^[27] China, the European Union,^[28] Iran, Japan,^[28] Mauritius,^[29] Myanmar, South Korea and the United States.^[30]
Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Bhutan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, President of Afghanistan, and Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are taking part in the SAARC Summit for the first time while Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, and Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka took part in the previous SAARC Summits.
Share of Manufacturing in india’s GDP is only 15% vis-à-vis 34% china , 31% south korea and 22% Germany. Three broad areas , which need to be tackled for establishing make in India campaign are regulatory hurdles, infrastructure bottlenecks and developing skills.
European Commission Chief Jean-Claude Juncker announced a huge 315 billion Euro investment plan to improve European economy. He was former Luxemberg prime minister.

26 November 2014

The father of white revolution (milk) Dr Vargese kurien ‘s birth day is declared as National Milk day.
The famous kathak exponent Sitara devi died. She also acted in many films , the last being Mother India.
Indian American Smt Renu Khatod has become chairperson of Federal reserve bank of Dullas.
Prime minister’s Nepal visit to attend SAARC .

25 November 2014

18^thSAARC summit in Kathmandu Nepal
Champions trophy Hockey from 6 to 14 Dec. 2014 in New delhi. Sardar singh to lead Indian team. India has recently won Gold in Incheon Asiad .
US defence secretary – Chuck hagel.
A british Iranian women Ghoncheh Ghavami was jailed by Iranian authorities for attending men’s volley ball tournament.
Norway’s Magnus carlsen defeated Vishwanathan Anand of INDIA second time in world championship held in Sochi, Russia.
Lewis Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi formula 1 Grandprix race . He has won 11 titles this year.

24 November 2014,

Sainthood conferred to two Indians – Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sister Euphrasia , with these two , church of kerala has now three Saints . First being Sister Alphonsa declared saint in 2008.
China has built a major hydropower dam Zangmu on Yarlung Zangbo ( Bramhaputra) river in Tibet region.
INS Vikrant , which played a key role in Indo-pak war 1971 has become outdated and now being dismantled to scraps.
Republic day guest of honour 2015 Barack Obama 2014 Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe
Vistara is the name of airlines floated by Tata and Singapore Airlines, launching of operations delayed..
A panel comprising of expenditure secretary Ratan wattal , RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and education secretary R. Bhattacharya was set up by finance minister Shri Arun Jaitley to review the appointment of Bank chiefs and EDs , in the wake of CBI enquiry of corruption charges on S K Jain CMD of Syndicate Bank has submitted its report.
NPA and restructuring assets have reached up to 20.5% in Central Bank, 19.7% united bank , 18.0 Uco bank . Highest NPA in Gems and Jewellery sector 14.2% followed by Coal, cement and textiles.

22 November 2014

Mangalyaan- the supersmart space craft is named among best inventions of 2014 by Times magazine.
US presidents visited India so far – Eisenhower, Nixon, carter, Clinton, Bush, Obama
Jawaharlal Nehru’s 125^th birth anniversary celeberated . 14^th Nov. celeberated as bal swachhata diwas.
Kotak Mahindra bank acquires ING Vysya bank for 15000 crores., making it fourth largest private bank after ICICI,HDFC and axis bank. It is first bank merger case going to seek approval of CCI Competition commission of India . 725 shares of Rs. 5 each of Kotak mahindra will be issued against 1000 shares of Rs 10 each of ING
CCI chairman – Ashok chawla
CCI keeps a check on anti-competitive practices at the market place across sectors and works to prevent such activities.
Kishore biyani led Future group buys Convenience store chain Nilgiris for Rs 300 crore.

21 November 2014

Henry Kissinger , ex foreign minister of US has written a book titled “ World order: Reflection on the character of nations and the course of history “ in which he has amply quoted Bhagvatgita and also the book titled “Arthshastra” which was written by Kautilya (later became famous as Chanakya).
Mike Nicholas famous Hollywood director best known for his oscar winning films like “Who’s afraid of the Virginia wolf” , The Graduate and Carnal knowledge”
ICICI to introduce NFC( Near Field Communication) or contactless payment cards, which will take 1/10^th processing time than swipe cards. Card information will be read from a distance , just like bar code reader. Card holder will not need to hand it over to POS assistant.
Firefox – Yahoo deal. Its internet browser Mozilla will have yahoo as its default search engine.
RBI new norms for minimum balance penalties by banks. 1) banks need to inform the customer through SMS,/E-mail or letter about the default and penal charges levied on such instance. 2) banks will not be allowed to create negative balances in the accounts for recovering penal charges. 3) board of directors need to approve the penal rates and procedures.
Damodaran committee on customer services in banks has also recommended some changes in minimum balance treatment and the same have also been taken care of in the new RBI norms.

20, November 2014

Modi visits Fiji. · Fiji FEE-jee, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand's North Island.

· Capital: Suva

· Currency: Fijian dollar

· Prime minister: Frank Bainimarama

· President: Epeli Nailatikau

· Continent: Oceania

Modi announced $75 million credit for the Fiji’s sugar industry. Three MOU were signed including earmarking land for diplomatic mission in each other’s countries.

Sebi prepares rigid insider trading norms in line with international conventions. Insider trading refers to dealing in securities after having access to unpublished price sensitive information. Such information provide unfair advantage to the entity who has access to such details of the company.
OECD organization for economic cooperation and development , a paris based think tank has revised the Indian GDP estimates to 6.6% in 2015-16.
Anshu Jain – is Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank

19 November 2014

Govt. relaunches Kisan vikas patra , which will provide trusted investment option to poor and keep them off Ponzi schemes. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator.
Kisan vikas patra to double the money in 100 months with annualized return of 8.7. Interest income will be taxable.
In the last two to three years savings rate has declined from 36.8 to 30 %.
AMU VC shri Zamiruddin shah was in the news , as he did not allow girls students to sit and study in the library.

· Australia

Country

· Australia, or colloquially, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Wikipedia

· · · Capital: Canberra

· Currency: Australian dollar

· Prime minister: Tony Abbott

· Queen: Elizabeth II

16 November 2014

The 2014 G-20 Australia summit was the ninth meeting of the G-20 heads of government.^[1] It was held in Brisbane. The hosting venue was the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre at South Brisbane.^[2] The event was the largest ever peacetime police operation in Australia.^[3]A part from G-20 regular members, the leaders of Mauritania, Myanmar, New Zealand, Senegal, Singapore, and Spain were also invited to this summit.^[7]
Previous summit Russia and next summit Turkey.
The members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
European space agency ‘s robot Philae landed on a comet.

15 November 2014

WPI inflation at 5 year low of 1.8% on the back of cooling food and fuel prices . It follows retail inflation slowing to 5.5% . RBI has set a target of bringing retail inflation to 8 by jan 2015 and to 6 by Jan 2016.
Tata Ratan appointed on board of Interpol foundation
FIPB clears HDFC banks plan to hike foreign holding to 74%, which is maximum FDI allowed to private banks in india.
SBI Q-2 net profit increased by 31% to Rs. 3100 crore.
Asean meat in Myanmar

14^th November 2014

India – US reach food security deal paving the way for WTO global trade deal.
Rohit sharma blasts against Sri Lanka 264 runs, highest in one day cricket. Only cricketer to have hit double century on two occasion in one day international.
US-CHINA climate deal. China is world largest emitter of green house gases and US is second. US committed 26-28% reduction from its 2005 emission levels by 2025. China first time agreed to reach its maximum emission by 2030 . means it will not increase its emission after 2030. This gives hopes for UN Climate talks in paris next year.US –china deal also puts pressure on India to commit emission cap of its own . India’s share of global carbon emission last year was 7% compared to china’s 28 and US’s 14%.
The taxi hiring smartphone application Uber has tied up with paytm company’s mobile wallet facility for taxi charges payments. RBI had objected to its earlier payment method , which allowed credit / debit cards payment without using pin authentication. Now taxi charges payment through this third party mobile wallet will not directly involve credit card / debit cards.
Small and payment bank license process to start by month end – RBI

OLD MATERIAL

9th July 2013

Gold imports fall dramatically over 80% in June. It has come down from 162 tonnes in May and 141 in April to just 31 tonnes in June. Govt. strategy worked. import duty hiked from 2 to 8 % in stages and RBI has also discouraged sale of gold through banks.
Rupee continues to sink , Government and RBI are out of options. RBI is talking to Oil companies and PM is to meet top industrialist of the nation to discuss the situation. Reasons for rupee devaulation includes huge current account deficit, slowing down of economic growth, slow pace of economic reforms, improving of US economy, continued outflow of foreign investments from emerging markets and none seems to be coming under control in near future.

8th July 2013

7th July 2013

Venezuela,Nicaragua offer asylum to Edward Snowden.
Marion Bartoli of france won her first Wimbledon title defeating Sabine Lisicki , a German.

6th July 2013

Parveez Rasool first cricketer from J&K to be included in Indian Cricket team.In 2009 he was detained by banguluru police for alleged terror links, when police found explosive near the Chinnaswami stadium. He was later released with a clean chit from the same authorities. He did not allow this incident and kept the hard work on.
Airport Authority of India (AAI) to issue Rs.1000 crore tax free bonds to finance development of 51 small airports proposed the government.
SAFEMA Smugglers and foreign exchange manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act.
Sainthood for Pope John Paul II approved .
Diageo , the British Liquor Giant buys 25% of United Spirits Limited (of Vijay Malya). With Vijay Malya left with only 11% shares, the control of the company goes to Diageo.
Separate Insurance scheme for education loan. Govt. has proposed to setup a credit guarantee fund to allay the fears of banks about education loan defaults. The indian education loan sector is pegged at Rs.65000 crore of which Rs.2500 crore (4%) is NPA . The repayment period has also been extended to five-ten years from three to five years earlier, resulting in lower and affordable EMIs.
Singapore is emerging as top financial hub and may replace switzerland in next few years, a study reveals. Switzerland's tradition of banking secrecy is under massive pressure from US and elsewhere to adopt transparency and more regulatory standards.

5th July 2013

Douglas Engelbart, inventor of computer mouse died at california.
British animator , John David wilson , who created characters like Micky mouse and donald duck has passed away at the age of 93.
Food security ordinance was signed by president last night. Times of India Editorial toady remained critical of the scheme considering it to be inflationary (specially food inflation) by making food grain shortages in the open market and causing fiscal imbalance through increasing subsidy burden. PDS which is notorious for corruption and inefficiency is given additional responsibility of delivering of food security consignment.
Airforce concluded its Operation Rahat in flood affected uttarakhand.
National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) MD and CEO Shri A P Hota, in an interview published in TOI highlighted the achievements of NPCI since its establishment in Dec. 2008. NPCI is emerging as infrastructure provider to banks for payment systems. It enabled banks to share their ATMs through NFS. Its payment gateway Rupay is an promising alternative to VISA and Mastercard. Efforts are on to convince indian banks to use Rupay gateway for all POS operations and e-commerce in india as it is cheaper and saves foreign exchange .He also made it clear that ATM and other cards should be chip and pin based to be more secure. For rural areas biometric authentication through adhar database is a better option than PIN. For a mixed clientele of india all these features (PIN, CHIP and Adhar authetication) should go togather.

4th July 2013

Food security bill : Cabinet decided to implement it through Ordinance route. After being cleared by the cabinet an ordinance goes to the President for approval and becomes a law as soon as President signs it. Later on Govt. needs to get it passed in both houses of Parliament within six months failing which it becomes null and void. It is just reverse of normal law making process of parliament where a bill is presented in parliament and after being passed from both the houses it goes to President for signature. The ordinance route is resorted to by the governments when parliament is not in session and immediate action is required.
Food security bill - Highlights. 1) It guarantees 5 Kg. of rice or wheat or coarse cereals per month per person at Rs. 3, 2, and 1 respectively however, 2.43 crore Antyodaya Anna Yojna (poorest of the poor) beneficiaries will continue to get their legal entitlement of 35 kg a household a month. Around 67% (two third ) population will be covered with 75% in rural and 50% in urban areas. 3) States will identify the beneficiaries and will also implement the programme under the Targeted Public Distribution Scheme. . 4) Total Govt. spending estimated to be Rs. 1,25,000 Crore per year but after deducting current PDS expenditure of Rs. one lac crore , additional burden will be 25000 crores. 5) Eldest women will be considered as head of the family and ration card will be issued in her name. 6) Pregnant and lactating mothers and children within the age group of 6 months to 6 years will be provided cooked nutritious food from aanganbadi kendra. . 7) maternity benefit of Rs. 6000/- will be provided to pregnant women. 8) Adhar cards will be extensively used for identification of beneficiary. 9) PDF will be revamped and computerised. Audit and other checks will be put in place. 9) No distinctions between BPL and APL families, but states need to decide the cut off point for APL families to keep the benefits confined to 50% urban and 75% rural population.
Atal Jyoti abhiyan now covers whole state providing 24X7 electricity in all districts of MP making it the third state to do so.
Banks asked by P Chidambaram to reduce lending rates , base rate and to pass on the RBI's repo rate easing . Other observations are modest deposit growth and slow credit growth.

3rd July 2013

Sujata singh will succeed Ranjan Mathai as foreign secretary, india.
India launches navigational satellite through PSLV-C22 from Sriharikota. IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System )will be on the lines of United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), European Union's Galileo (GNSS), China's BeiDou satellite navigation system and Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System. India will launch 7 such satellite to cover its target region.
Mr. F W De Klerk , ex president of South Africa , who shared Noble peace price 1993 with Shri Nelson Mandela was in news for a pacemaker heart surgery scheduled on him.
HSBC PMI depicts core sector growth slowing to 2.3% while manufacturing growth remaining sluggish.

2nd July 2013

Brazil wins confederation cup 3-0 against Spain.
Government has accepted the Rangarajan formula of gas pricing and accordingly decided to nearly double the prices of natural gas. The Reliance Industries, ONGC and other agencies involved in oil and gas exploration/production have been pitching for substantial increase in gas pricing to make this activity viable. This will hugely incentivise investments in exploration and production of gas in India, compensating through reduction in oil import bill , CAD and consequently stabilise Rupee against dollar. Sectorwise consumption of Natural Gas during 2010-11 55%-Power generation, 27% Fertilizer industries, 5% industrial fuel , 9% Captive use-LPG. On the other side such double fold hike will increase power generation and fertilizer production costs resulting in inflation and rise in subsidy bill. Many power projects will become non-viable. Before 1987 gas prices were fixed by ONGC and OIL India Limited, but from Jan 87 government took over the role of regulating prices.
Falling rupee has increased overseas deal cost through merger and acquisition . also will increase ECB repayments by 20000 crores for india inc.
Brazil's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, Man of the tournament - Neymar of Brazil.

1st July 2013

Shri P. Sadashivam will be new Chief Justice of India after Shri Altmas kabir retires.
State Bank day 1st July (1955).
RBI has directed banks to accept fake currency notes from their customers and pay them full value of such notes. The new rule will induce people to surrender fake notes, which they inadvertently possess. Banks should keep such notes separately and report them to RBI and police for further action.

29^th March 29, 2013

Manmohan meets Xi Jinping in Durban on the sidelines of BRICS summit. Chinese president put forth a 5 point formula for dealing with bilateral issues. He scored off the issue of dam construction over Bramhaputra river, describing them as run of the mill projects that would not hold water.
Three important decisions of BRICS summit 1) Agreement on establishing new development bank to fund infrastructure, 2 A $100 billion contingency fund to provide themselves financial help in times of trouble, 3 A business council with great potential to boost trade and investment.
Divestment process faulty. Companies loosing market capitalization .
Q3 CAD at record high of 6.7% if GDP on account of rise of imports.

26 March 26, 2013

PPF, Post office small savings to yield 0.10 % less for the year 2013-14. PPF 8.8 to 8.7 5 year NSC 8.5 to 8.4 10 year NSC from 8.9 to 8.8 SCSS to 9.2
Advani urges to revisit the collegium system of appointment of Judges. Presents a case of including executives also in the process. In the present collegium system comprised Chief Justice and four senior most judges of the supreme court.

24-25 March 2013

Ponds Femina Miss India world contest Winner Navneet kaur dhillon patiala. Miss India Earth Shobhita Dhulipala of Vishakhapattanam and Miss India International Zoya Afroj of Mumbai Lucknow.
India recorded 4-0 test series win over Australia.. Player of the series R.Ashwin with 29 wickets.
Union Housing ministry is pushing hard the real estate regulator bill.
Two new foreign banks were allowed to open branches in India. Westpac banking corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui banking corporation..
Govt. realized Rs.23900 crore during this fiscal out of disinvestment drive.
Banks not in a position to cut rates even after two consecutive repo rate cuts by RBI on account of high cost of and slow growth on deposit front. Deposit have grown by 13% this fiscal agaist 17% growth in advances. A cap of 15% on bulk deposits (of the total bank deposits) imposed by RBI has added to the problem.
The department of post secretary Padmini Gopinath makes a strong case for All women bank to be launched by Post office.

23 March 2013

Earth hour to be observed. 8.30 to 9.30 switch off the light voluntarily. Started in Sydney, now 200 nations observe it.
Pope francis I , Jorge Mario burgoglio of argentina taken over from Pope benedict 16th
Italian mariners conflict resolved. Massimilano lattore and Salvatore girone returned to India. Italian ambassador Daneil Mancini.
Bad debts are increasing in banks. Except PNB and PSB all other PSUs are focusing on write off and compromise rather than recovery. 1/3 write off 1/3 recovery and 1/3 restructuring.
Difference between gross and net NPA.
Banking industry is most bullish. As per chart published in TOI Banking sector is expected to give maximum salary hike of 13 % in 2013 .

22th March

India votes against Sri Lanka in at UNHRC.
UPSC restores regional languages paper in main exams. English paper marks will not be counted for making merit list.
Anti rape bill cleared in parliament. Lok sabha followed by Rajya sabha.
Egyptian president Mohd Morsi will visit India soon.
New team in china . President Xi jinping and PM Li Kekiong
CCI clears 5 exploration projects.

21^st March

SAIL’s 5.82 % disinvestment.
Bramhos test fired from under water successfully for 290 km.range. First in the world.

20^th March 23, 2013

RBI slashes repo rate by .25% to 7.5 . CRR unchanged at 4.
Old format cheque to continue till 31 July 2012. CTS -2010
SBI gets 3004 crore capital from govt. Preferential allotment route.62.31% now share of govt.
D-SIB and G-SIB Domestic and Global systemically important banks.

The original Basel III rule from 2010 was supposed to require banks to hold 4.5% of common equity (up from 2% in Basel II) and 6% of Tier I capital (up from 4% in Basel II) of "risk-weighted assets" (RWA). Basel III introduced "additional capital buffers", (i) a "mandatory capital conservation buffer" of 2.5% and (ii) a "discretionary counter-cyclical buffer", which would allow national regulators to require up to another 2.5% of capital during periods of high credit growth. In addition, Basel III introduced a minimum "leverage ratio" and two required liquidity ratios.^[13] The leverage ratio was calculated by dividing Tier 1 capital by the bank's average total consolidated assets;^[14] the banks were expected to maintain the leverage ratio in excess of 3%. The "Liquidity Coverage Ratio" was supposed to require a bank to hold sufficient high-quality liquid assets to cover its total net cash outflows over 30 days; the Net Stable Funding Ratio was to require the available amount of stable funding to exceed the required amount of stable funding over a one-year period of extended stress.^[15]

19^th March 23, 2013

60^th National film award – Pansingh tomar best film. Best actor Irfan khan (pansing) and Vikram Goghle (anumati). Best actress Usha Jadhav (Dhaag), Best popular film Vicky donor & ustad hotel(Malyalam) . Best director Shivaji lotan patil (Dhaag).
India beat Australia in test series. Third consecutive win. Border Gavaskar trophy.
Inflation bonds to be part of Govt. borrowing between April – Sept 2013. 5.79 lakh borrowing target in budget.
RBI declared Loans to individuals for setting up of solar grids /equipments will come under Priority sector .
Petroleum ministry appoints Vijay Kelkar panel to look at ways to raise oil, gas production. We only produce 20% of crude oil and 50% of our gas consumption. Aims at substantial reduction of imports by 2030.

18^thMarch 23, 2013

SBI to open 1200 branches , 8 foreign offices in the next fiscal.13-14. SBI having 14677 domestic branches currently. Banks Gross NPA rose to 5.30% during Oct. Dec 12 against 4.61 last year same quarter. Net NPA is now 2.59% in Dec.12.
RBI – asks all co operative banks to come on CBS. Mulls common customer number to check multiple accounts..
India has come down to 136 position in human development index prepared by UNDP.(2012) it was 134 in 2011.
The report said that the rise of south is unprecedented. The term south is referred to developing countries and north is used for developed countries.. Brics countries aggregate GDP will surpass combined GDP of US,Europe and Canada by 2020.

17^th March 23, 2013.

National Institute of

Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP). In its 1985 report on Aspects of Black Economy, the NIPFP defined

‘black income’ as ‘the aggregates of incomes which are taxable but not reported to the tax authorities’.

Further, black incomes or unaccounted incomes are ‘the extent to which estimates of national income and

output are biased downwards because of deliberate, false reporting of incomes, output and transactions

for reasons of tax evasion, flouting of other economic controls and relative motives’.

2.1.3 Thus, in addition to wealth earned through illegal means, the term black money would also legal income that is concealed from public authorities:

What is Money Laundering?

Money laundering is the generic term used to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and control of the proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to have derived from a legitimate source.
The processes by which criminally derived property may be laundered are extensive. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, the reality is that hundreds of billions of dollars of criminally derived money is laundered through financial institutions, annually. The nature of the services and products offered by the financial services industry (namely managing, controlling and possessing money and property belonging to others) means that it is vulnerable to abuse by money launderers.

How is money laundered?

The processes are extensive. Generally speaking, money is laundered whenever a person or business deals in any way with another person’s benefit from crime. That can occur in a countless number of diverse ways.
Traditionally money laundering has been described as a process which takes place in three distinct stages.
Placement, the stage at which criminally derived funds are introduced in the financial system.
Layering, the substantive stage of the process in which the property is ‘washed’ and its ownership and source is disguised.
Integration, the final stage at which the ‘laundered’ property is re-introduced into the legitimate economy.
This three staged definition of money laundering is highly simplistic. The reality is that the so called stages often overlap and in some cases, for example in cases of financial crimes, there is no requirement for the proceeds of crime to be ‘placed’.

14-15-16^th March 23, 2013

Creamy layer bar for OBCs raised to Rs. 6 Lacs.
Sting operations by a website cobrapost.com reveals moneylaundering in hdfc,icici & axis banks.
Rs.2481 crores lying in unclaimed deposit accounts of banks. As per Banking laws amendment bill 2011 a new fund named Depositor awareness and education fund will be set up. All unclaimed deposits after 10 year will be credited to this account.
Postal deparment considering to start commercial banking operations. Its deep penetration in rural areas (1.4 out of 1.55 lacs offices) can be leveraged to give a Philip to financial inclusion. All banks together are just having 87000 offices of which approx a quarter are in rural areas.
Postal dept has a balance sheet of 6.18 lakh crores which includes deposits of 5.5 lakh crore. Ernst and Young appointed as consultant for the project post bank. Similar experiments have been working in Japan, South Africa,Germany and Italy.
World bank president Jim Yong Kim visits India.
Inflation rises to 6.84 in Feb.
PM’s UAE visit cancelled to review language of Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreement(BIPA) after notices from Voda, Systema,Telenor etc. for compensation.
IIP improves . rose to 2.4% after two months of contraction.
PMAEC chairman Shri C. Rangarajan sees a stagflationary trend in india’s high inflation and slowing growth.
World bank ot provide $3-5 billioin funding to India for next four years.

12-13^th March 24, 2013

NCC to be elective subject in school and colleges.
Britain splits its financial regulator body named Financial services authority in to two separate bodies. The Prudential Regulatory authority will monitor britain’s largest banks while Financial conduct authority will be responsible for consumer protection and market abuse.
9 teams will play in IPL-6.
Do we have too many ministries ? China offers a lesson by downsizing its government.

10-11 March 24, 2013

MP CM Shri Shivraj singh chauhan inaugurates 24x7 electricity supply under Atal Jyoti Abhiyan in shahdol division .
Nirbhaya posthumously awarded The Rani Laxmi bai Stree Shakti Puraskar by govt. of India.
Olympic medalist vijender singh suspected of involvement in drug trafficking .

CAD and BOP - Ideally CAD must equal net capital inflows (K) minus additions to RBI foreign reserves (R) :- CAD=K-R . By definition CAD is the total value of imports minus the sum of the total value of exports and net foreign remittance. Capital inflows include investments made by foreign entities in Indian stocks, bons and companies, increases in NRI deposits, Government borrowing abroad and external commercial borrowing(ECB).

7-8-9th March 2013

MPLADS Member of Parliament Local area development scheme. MP has a choice to suggest one or more scheme to collector of his district up to the tune of 5 crore.
8^th March is International women’s day .
Govt to cut subsidies outgo to 1.5% of GDP by 2016-17
Moody’s talks favourable about post budget scenario.
The right of citizens for time bound delivery of goods and services and redressal of grievances bill providing for time bound delivery of services like pensions, passports, caste certificates , ration card and tax refunds with a penalty of 250 per day max 50000/- for default approved by cabinet. Bill will apply from central to panchayat level.
Air asia – Tata venture receives govt. approval to start new airline. Air asia 49% Tata 30% Arun Bhatia of Telestra tradespace 21% .
Mauritius to check tax pact misuse. Nearly 60% of all FII flow in India are routed through Mauritius .
Prime minister Shri Manmohan singh said that the government aims toachive and average growth of 8 percent by the end of 12 five year plan.

6^th March 2013

Nirbhaya gets US international women of courage award.
e-filing of tax returns compulsory for people with annual income above Rs.500000/-
CAD is a more worrying deficit than fiscal. Says Chidambaram.
As per budget provisions, service tax evasion of Rs.50 lacs or more will be cognizable and non bailable offence.

5^th Mar 2013

Irom Sharmila Chanu of Manipur has been on fast since 12 years demanding repeal of AFSPA.
Dr. Debrah Perusad led the team of US docs claiming to have cured a child of HIV.
Over Rs.22636 crore lying in inoperative accunts of EPFO. Employee Provident Fund Organisation.
Shri Pranab mukarjee , President of India was awarded a Doctorate by Dhaka university and also given the “ Bangla desh liberation honour” for his contribution of 1971 liberation war.
In the last election in 2009, 61 women candidates were elected out of 543 seats of Lok Sabha. This percentage has increased from 5.5(1957 ) to 11.2 (2009).
Chinese defence budget rose last year by 11.2 % to $106.4 bn.
The decision of US to cut 85 bn dollar every year may affect Indian exports and FII flow adversely. The Debt GDP situation of major countries ( Country-GDP in $tn-Debt in $Tn ) US-15.7-16.6, China-8.3-2.3, Japan -6-11.2, Germany -3.4-2.9, France-2.6-2.4, UK-2.4-1.7,Brazil-2.4-.0.98, Italy -2.0-2.6, Russia -2.0-0.2, India -1.9-0.87.

4^th March 2013

Chandigarh Shatabdi to have first Anubhuti coach, luxury AC class.
PC rules out amnesty to Income tax payers. Tightened process to identify tax dodgers.
Women’s bank to boost financial inclusion.Move will help improve social security, income levels. There are lot of women planning to start their own business. This will help them to become financially independent. Women bank will serve as a model to other banks to realize women as a segment and will change their approach. Women can bring a large amount of household savings in to the banking sector.
Videocon group planning to enter in banking foray .

3^rd Mar 2013

Obama order $85 bn spending cuts apply to remainer of 2013 fiscal. In US fiscal year is from 1^st oct to 30 sep . This came after Obama failed to convince the republicans to agree on a plan to increase tax revenue to whittle away (cut / reduce in a phased manner) contry’s enormous debt of $ 16.6 trillion debt. The Bush era tax cuts were due for redemption in Dec 12 when the two parties agreed to extend it up to 28^th Feb 2013. The republicans had their view upheld that shortfall should be covered through spending cuts and not by resumption of higher taxes on riches. Some economists have also termed it a fiscal cliff as economy may again slip on a path of recession as a consequence of these spending cuts.

2^nd March 2013

Mukul Sangama became CM of Meghalaya for a second term.
India – UK sign accord to help improve weather forecast.
On Friday the 10 year yield closed at 7.91% pa compared to 7.87 on Thursday and 7.78 on Wednesday. The increase in yield of Govt. bonds in secondary market indicates and erosion in the value of the bond. So with government securities losing value for the second day in a row, the Finmin stepped in to calm the bond market saying that Projected borrowing of 6.29 lakh crore for the next fiscal includes Rs. 50000 crore that would be raised only to buyback bonds that are due between 2014-15 and 2016-17. Hence the Gross borrowing for 2013-14 is Rs,5.79 lakh crore only. The yield on 10 years govt. securities which is the benchmark for the bond market also increased further as bond dealers were apprehensive that government would not be able to meet its aggressive budget targets .
Euro area inflation drops to 1.8% which is below ECB ceiling of 2% may result in a rate cut by the central bank. Unemployment rose to record high 11.9%.
UK manufacturing sector shrinks, revives triple dip fears.The UK economy contracted in the forth quarter and a chances of returning to positive GDP in first quarter is bleak.
India’s mfg growth marginally rises in FEB 2013(54.2) from Jan `13 (53.2) , though it was (54.7 ) in December 12. The PMI HSBC survey index above 50 represents growth and below 50 indicates contraction.
US economy grows just 0.1% in the last quarter . Hoping a better figure in future.

BUDGET ISSUES DEALT SEPARATELY

25^th Feb.2013

DBT(Direct benefit transfer) Kerosene pilot project at Alwar (Raj) and LPG pilot at Mysore.
An ATR (Action Taken Report) is presented along with Union Budget which gives the status on all previous budget announcements.
India to vote agaist Sri Lanka in UNHRC supporting US backed resolution holding Sri Lanka responsible for war crimes and human rights violations.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters that Rocket PSLVC-20 is scheduled to launched indo French satellite SARAL .
Companies queue up for banking licenses. More than a dozen corporates including Aditya Birla group, M&M, L&T, Videocon, state owned PFC, LIC India Post , IFCI, Shriram group,Religare,ADA group, Srei infra, India Infoline Ltd. , India Bulls, Reliance industries Ltd, and Tata group are eyeing for new bank license. Last date for applying is 1^st July. 2013. Companies with minimum track record of 10 years and ready to invest 500 crore as initial capital (49 % FDI allowed for 5 years) are eligible. On receipt of license , promoters need to start the bank within one year and list the bank in stock market in three years. 25% of branches to be opened in rural area. New guidelines will fecilitate entry of serious and credible players.
Financial analysts welcomes new banking license guidelines as it allow a broader set of entities in the banking sector besides ensuring maximum prudential norms to avoid any systemic risks. RBI is not averse or prejudiced agaist any sector like realty or broking firms. NOFHC Non operative financial holding company will work as a buffer between promoter groups other businesses and financial services(banking business) will be totally insulated. No promoter can have more than 10 % voting rights in the NOFHC.
A veteran Banker and industry expert , hdfc ltd. Chairman Shri Deepak Parikh favors consolidation of existing banks.
Fauja singh at the age of 101 says good bye to marathon. World oldest marathoner ran his last race at Hongkong.

24^th Feb 2013

Moody’s cuts UK rating of AAA for the first time since 1978 preducting a sluggish growth to Aa1. Britain’s Finance minister George Osborne austerity policy could not save his country’s economic rating.

22 Feb 2013

MP govt. announces a raft of announcements. 1) Land patta to slum dwellers for the land occupied till Dec.2012. 2) Rs. 2000 cr subsidy to farmers to waive off surcharge and also half of their power bill. 3) Govt. to take bank guarantee of youth for bank loan. 5% interest to be paid by govt for 5 years. 4) 24 hours power supply in villages from May end this year.
Excerpts from Adi B. Godrej (President of CII) article : “The fiscal deficit has emerged as critical to rejunevating growth drivers. Every 0.1% rise in fiscal deficit requires government to borrow Rs.10000 crore more from the market .This restricts availability and raises cost of funds for other sectors. Moreover it adds to inflationary pressures in the economy.” “ The budget of 2011-12 had taken up granting of infrastructure status to educational institutions and hospitals so that viability gap funding could be applicable.”

21^stFeb 2013

Highlights of camroon’s visit – 1) Terms jalianwala bag massacre( ordered by Brig-gen dyer) deeply shameful event in british history. 2) Turned down the demand for Kohinoor , which the east India company had confiscated from Raja Duleep Singh of Punjab in 1850 3) Pm seeks help to probe chopper scam, camroon assures. 4) Britain would be keen to assist India in setting up universities , on meeting its targets of doubling up its spends on health and also in building a corridore between Mumbai to Bangalore.5) RIL and BP to jointly invest over 27000 crore in next 3-5 years in KG-D6 block. 6) British PM has come with the largest ever delegation of over 100 representatives .
Money market and forex operations affected due to industry wide strike including banks . The estimate loss to the GDP is 25-26000 crore.
Cabinet to take call on conciliation offer of Vodaphone about 11200 crore tax dispute.
Air asia is the first FDI after relaxing norms to 49%.

20^th Feb 2013

Study by a Delhi think tank says that a whopping amount of 238471 crore. In the current year 12-13 , the centre spent Rs.75366 crore as food subsidy. A major share of it goes to FCI with a small fraction also going to the states who route it to their procurement agencies.( 82 % FCI 18 Others) Govt can reduce its distribution cost by decentralized procurement.
UP Budget 2.21lac crore fiscal deficit 2.94 crore, 750 crore towards loan waiver.
Two time Booker prize winning author Hilary Mantel is again in the news for her controversial remarks over Kate middleton –the duchess of Cambrige and british princess calling her a show piece and jointed doll.
RBI dy gov. says that we have not set any number cap on new banks to be licensed. It will depend on the quality of proposals. Currently we have 26 PSB. 22 Private sector and over 40 foreign banks.
Iconic magazine Reader’s Digest goes bankrupt. It was founded 91 years back by Dewitt and Lila Wallace in US . The publishing company RDA Holding filed for bankruptcy to cut $465 m in debt as consumers shift from print media to electronic media .
Gold EFT can now invest in bank scheme. SEBI allows . This will help Gold mutual funds to earn little more interest on their IDLE gold securities.

19^th Feb 2013

Two days strike on Feb 20 ,21 feb , Demands 1) control price rise 2)more employment generation 3) strict enforcement of labour laws 4)universal social security to all workers 5)stop disinvestment 6) Abolition of contract labour 7) increasing PF and gratuity benefit. 8) assured pension 9) remove ceiling on bonus.
French president Francois Hollande visited India . No big deals were signed.
Sebi alerted by its DWBIS Data warehouseing and Business Intelligence system about suspected Pump and Dump Activities in stocks. The modus operandi generally starts with huge buying alongside circulation of positive news about some companies , followed by large scale sale of the same shares while their values are high.

Noted social worker Ela Ramesh Bhatt was conferred the indira Gandhi prize for peace, disarmament and development for 2011. She was the founder of Self Employed Women’s association SEWA

18^th Feb 2013

· Oscar Pistorious , the olympian and paralympian runner, a double amputee , who runs with the help of carbon fibre blades was arrested by police for killing her female friend Reeva Steenkamp.

· 3600 crore VVIP helicopter scam involving Anglo-Italian firm Agusta westland has surfaced. Westland used to be a UK firm and was taken over by Italian Defence giant Finmeccanica.

· Post cancellation of 2g licenses by supreme court Uninor has shut its operations in Mumbai.

· World’s highest railway bridge is coming up across Chenab river in J&K .

16^th/17 Feb 2013

Bhojshala in Dhar (near indore MP) was in the news for dispute over offering Namaz by muslims and vasant panchmi pooja by hindus simultaneously in the same premises.
Serena at the top of world tennis ranking at the age of 31.

15^th Feb 2013

France is first nuclear supplier country which has no objection over india’s nuclear civil liability law fixing liability on nuclear equipment / raw material supplier company , in case of any accident in future arising out of faulty material.
France is building india’s largest nuclear power complex at Jaitapur and has bagged biggest fighter aircraft supply deal for Rafale.
Highlights of financial results of SBI for DEC. 2012 quarter. Agg dep 1156691 crore , Agg adv 1009110 cr., Net profit for 1^st nine months 10806 cr., Net Interest Margin 3.72%,
On Jan 17 2013 GOI has infused additional capital of Rs.3004 crore in SBI through preferential allotment of shares.
Provision coverage ratio is around 61.49%
Gross NPA 4.44% and Net NPA 1.82%. Public shareholding 38.42% GOI 61.58%.
Nearly 30 companies have split from NASSCOM National association of software companies to form a new group called ispirit.

14^th Feb 2013

Ex Maldives president Mohammad nasheed seeks refuge in Indian embassy at Male.
NAC National Advisory council, a UPA think tank headed by Smt. Sonia Gandhi will discuss over implementation issues of Cash Transfer Scheme.
Obama’s second term priorities are job creation , growth, gun control, af war, North Korea and Iran.
Rules for set up and functioning of electoral trusts notified and come in to effect from Jan 31 2013. 2009 budget speech mentioned about electoral trusts under income tax act. Companies / corporates can form electoral trust under section 25 (not for profit company) , sole object of which should be to fund political parties, but for tax exemption certain norms to be followed. Companies can delink political donations from their business operations. Tata Birlas and Bharati group have already set up such trusts.
Banks decided to recall loans given to kingfisher airlines. A loan recall is an extreme steps when even a loan restructuring fails and there are no chance of revival of sick unit. As part of this banks will start selling collaterals and other tangible securites and take legal action for the rest.

13 Feb 2013

Bribe charges surfaced over V VIP helicopter deal. Italian firm Finmeccanica CEO Guiseppe Orsi arrested for allegedly bribing Indian officials.
Wrestling is out of Olympics from 2020.
IIP Index of industrial production slides again for the second month . reasons being High interest rates,slowing global economy, stubborn inflation and delay in policy approvals.
The Chief Statistician of India Shri TCA ANANT sees no controversy in Govt. not agreeing to his data showing 5% growth this year. He says Economic turning points can not be captured in data. Any policy change takes time to reflect its impact on statistics . Investors should look both statistics as well as policy.

12 Feb 2013

Pope Benedict 16has expressed his desire to retire on health ground.
One billion rising is a campaign launched throughout the world for the rights of women . It was started by Playwright and activist Eve Ensler.
CIL will fund $1.4 billion to railways to build 327 km railway network in three mining rich states , Odisha, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. The ambitious project will help in making India self reliant in coal supply. Currently we are the world’s second biggest thermal coal importer, despite abundant local reserves.
British liquor major Diageo awaiting CCI clearance for his deal with United Spirits India (Vijay malya group) . Under the deal Diageo will purchase 27.4% shares amounting to 5725.4 crore.

Competition Commission of India

Chairperson Shri Ashok chawla

Objectives: An Act to provide, keeping in view of the economic development of the country, for the establishment of a Commission to prevent practices having adverse effect on competition, to promote and sustain competition in markets, to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants in markets, in India, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Competition Commission of India is a body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India and to prevent activities that have an adverse effect on competition in India. It was established on 14 October 2003. It became fully functional in May 2009.^[2][3]

RBI and Government are in disagreement over allowing corporates to open new banks. Corporate houses , brockerage houses and realty bigwigs should not have a easy access to hard earned cheap deposits of public. It is difficult to control the misuse of funds in their own interest. RBI is not alone in its caution, US regulators and south korea do not allow industrial houses to setup their own bank. Even IMF is averse to this. The govt. wants to cover the rest half of the population with banking facilities and interested to bring in economically and systemically strong players in this field. Govt. thinks that prudent regulations by RBI can avoid fund misuse and recent amendments in Banking Regulation act has given sufficient powers to RBI to tackle such abuses of trust.
RBI Governor feels that at 7.2% , inflation is still high and monetary easing needs to be carefully considered.

11^th Feb 2013

MCX-SX has named its stock index as SX40 . It will be free float based index of large cap and liquid stocks representing diverse sectors. The base value wil be 10000 with a base date of 31^st March 2010.
RBI had told banks to strengthen security features of credit cards. It had told banks to have PIN based authentication and chip reading card machine by June.
Base rate regime is working to its purpose. Reliance Industries limited is forced to take External commercial borrowing at a cheaper rate as no bank can now lend at below base rate.

10^th Feb 2013

Afjal Guru , the main conspirator in Parliament attach on 13 Dec. 2001 was hanged in Tihar jail on 9^th Feb 2013 .

9^th Feb 2013

MCX SX set to be inaugurated toaday by P chidambaram as India ‘s 3^rd stock exchange.
Army gets its first indigenously made Rudra attack chopper.
CCI Competition commission of India fines BCCI Rs. 52 crore for misusing its monopoly. CCI acted on the basis of a common cricket lover delhi based Surinder singh barmi. CCI has warned the cricket board to stop denying access to potential competitors citing the case of ICL floated by Kapil dev and others. He also found substance in the allegation of irregularities in the grant of franchise rights ,media rights on a partisan basis.
SBI opens 101 branches on a single day today. Simultaneous inauguration by Shri P Chidambaram.
Ratan Tata has resigned form the board of director of Bombay Dying.
Excerpts from an article titled “ Leave Tendulkar Poverty Line Alone” by Arvind Panagaria. In March 2012 Planning commission release estimates of 2009-10 , which showed marked decline in Poverty condition in India. Critics say that govt. manipulated the figures by lowering the scale of poverty line. The figures were criticized by media and public, which forced the govt. to withdraw the estimates and appoint a fresh committee under the chairmanship of Shri C Rangarajan to submit its report by 1 April 2013 . Late Suresh tendulkar was one of the most distinguished Povery specialists . He based his proverty definition at just above subsistence level. Author argues that this bar should not be raised as it would make impossible to ascertain that how many poors of the earlier period have come above the line. Raising the bar will also dilute the attention to poorest of the poor lot. Grants / subsidies will be diluted in distribution of it to more people.
CAD record high at 5.4% of the GDP in July to sept quarter 2012.
EU ambassador Joao Cravinho advocates for a Free trade Agreement with India.
US drags India to WTO about india’s alleged discriminatory policy agaist foreign solar products.

8^th Feb 2013

The CSO’s advanced estimates suggests that this years growth may hit a 10 years low of 5% vis a vis 6.2 % last year. The provisional estimates showed the farm sector 1.8 down from 3.6 and mfg sector 1.9 compared to 2.7 last year. The services sector which accounts for nearly 60 % of the GDP is likely to grow 6.6 agaist 8.2 last year.
Kiran bedi ‘s new book titled “ uprising 2011 : India against corruption” co authored by Pavan choudhry.
An all girl rock bank “Pragaash” was threatened by fundamentalists.
NABARD authorized capital raised to 20000 crore from 5000 crore. Cabinet approved amendment to NABARD act 1981 . post of chairman and managing director merged . transfer of balance 1 % share from RBI to Govt. The increased capital base will enable NABARD to issue new credit product,lend to new institutions like multi state cooperative societies etc.
Govt. approves Special Purpose vehicle for TAPI ( Turkeministan, Afganistan,Pakistan and INDIA) gas pipeline project. GAIL will join the SPV as Indian representative.

7^th Feb 2013

CAG found irregulaties in farm loan waiver scheme implemented by govt. in 2008-09. 150 crore were disbursed directly to Micro Finance Institutions with no records available for their ultimate credit to beneficialry. It was meant for farmers with less than 2 hectares of land but those with bigger holding were benefited.
Dell , the world’s third biggest maker of personal computer is going private in a deal valued at $24.4 billion. CEO Michael dell and silver lake management will buy back all shares from public.

6^th Feb 2013

PNB has launched a new insurance co. with Metlife India insurance co.
US sues S&P (a credit rating co.) and its parent co. McGraw hills over mortgage bonds ratings.
President Shri Pranab Mukharjee calls for private sector participation in higher education with formulation of appropriate policies by the govt.
Indian nominee to this years Man Booker international prize is UR Ananthmoorthy best known for his novel “Samskara- a portrait of traditional bramhin village on the brink of modernity.”
Asian Development Bank’s president Shri Haruhiko Kuroda . Excerpts of his interview. 1) A super rich tax should be levied only if income inequality rises, which is not the case with India. 2)When your economy grows faster , the need for infrastructure also rises significantly.

5^th Feb 2013

Rohinton nariman quits as solicitor General. Gopal Subramanian will be the new man in.
China has approved three hydro power projects on bramhaputra river, assures zero damage to India. Bramhaputra river is known as Yarlung zangbo in china.
Govt is thinking over selling off its residual shares in BALCO, HZL in market instead of selling it back to company to avoid any controversies as these companies are now privately owned by Vedanta group.
FIPB Foreign Investment Promotion Board will take up in its next meeting , the proposals from four major single brand retail giants. French sports giants Decathlon and US based accessories firm Fosil Inc. French fashion brand PROMOD, and France based crockery maker Le Creuset. The proposal have been sent by DIPP Department of Industral policy and promotion to FIPB last week. Recently FDI under single brand retailing has been increased from 51% to 100 %.

4^th Feb 2013

Kila raipur games , also known as the rural Olympics, held at killa raipur, 20 km from ludhiana.
President approves anti – rape ordinance. Important changes – 1) Death sentence to rapists whose victims end up dead or in a persistant vegetative state. 2) Gangrape will attract minimum 20 years imprisonment. 3) punishments have been fixed for Voyeurism, stalking,disrobing and acid attacks also.
Glenn Maxwell of Australia commanded the highest price in IPL -6 Season’s auctions. One million dollar or Rs. 5.3 crore.
Actor Jackie chan and Noble prize (literature) winner Mo Yan have been nominated in the house of parliament.
Indian CFO of Washington city Mr. Natwar Gandhi quits after a successful tenure.
With prices of white goods(consumer durable products) rising , people’s preference has again shifted to getting finance from banks and NBFCs for these products.
RBI released a discussion paper on minimizing the use of paper cheque. Advises banks to dissuade from asking PDCs Post dated cheques from borrowers for future installments . The use of cheque should also be charged on the basis of amount at par with electronic payment charges. Bulk payments by companies to their shareholders, dealers , customers should always be made through electronic means. Study found three reasons for cheque preference by customers 1) In cheques only payee’s name is required while in electronic payment account number, payee bank branch name and codes are also required. 2) people are not aware of security features available in Electonic payments . Sub section 5 of section 25 of Payment and settlement systems act 2007 provides for punishment of two years + double the amount , for the dishonour of electronic funds transfer , similar to the dishonor of cheque under Negotiable instrument act 1881. 3) Cheque books are easily available from the banks without any charges hence there is no disincentive to use cheques. RBI is also bringing cheque truncation scheme.
Some Credit agencies like CRISIL, ICRA has warned that proposed tightening of NPA provisioning by RBI will hit the banks profitability and increase NPA . RBI has proposed to increase provision on restructured assets to 5 % by march 2015 . Additional requirement of all banks will be 15000 crore which will bring down profits by 7%. Similarly NPA norms tightening will increase the npa figure as well.
Finmin creates a databank to check black money and tax evasion. The online data bank also called “virtual office “ will generate STR Suspicious Transaction reports . An STR is a transaction of 10 lacs and above which gives a reasonable ground of suspicion of its illegal origin. FIU-ind Finacial Inteligence Unit- India is and agency tasked with receiving , analyzing and dissiminating information relating to STRs to enforcement agencies to probe and take action.

3^rd Feb 2013

Product labeling guidelines soon for Mutual funds , says SEBI. It envisages a compulsory display of labels for MF products to determine their suitability to investors.The label should indicate if the product is regular income generator or capital growth oriented. A coloured box should be added to indicate risks to the principal. The guidelines are effective from 1^st July 2013.
MGNREGA latest figures reveals a picture of declining employment generation. A 48% decline from 284 crore man days in 2009-19 to 146 crore in 12-13.
MP Govt receives Krishi karman award 2012. highest agriculture growth rate of 18% in 11-12.
John kerry sworn in as secretary of state in US replacing hilary Clinton. Chuck Hagel became Defence secretary.
Lobsang Sangay , head of the state of Tibetan government in exile in dharmshala .

1^st Feb 2013

Confusions regarding UID and NPR process overlap referred to a GOM . Group of ministers.
P Chidambaram and C Rangarajan pitched for entry of corporates for new banking licenses.
An article says that banks are not passing on the benefit of rate cut by RBI to customers. Bank says the repo rate only benefits a small portion of our funds, which we borrow from RBI for our temporary shortages in liquidity.
RBI cuts repo rate from 8 to 7.75 and CRR from 4.25 to 4% . CRR cut will infuse 18000 crore liquidity in the banking system. RBI has cut the rate to encourage investment,support growth and anchor inflationary expectations. Repo rate was last cut in april 2012. .
Commerce and industry minister anand sharma said that sustaining a high growth for a country like india is not an optional choice but a social imperative as through only this we will be able to lift millions out of poverty net.

Some questions on Budget 2013-14

1) While reiterating the commitment to fiscal consolidation , finance minister said “ we must redeem our our promise by 2016-17 and bring down the fiscal deficit to 3% and the revenue deficit to 1.5 % and effective revenue deficit to zero”. What he mean by effective revenue deficit.

2) Commenting on the budget , the city group economist Rohit malkani said “The budget arithmetic is based on nominal GDP growth of 13.4 % , total receipt increase by 23.4% and expenditure up by 16.4%, all of which we believe are a tad optimistic.” What is nominal GDP growth.

3) FIIs continued to be bullish on the Indian equities and heavily invested in Sensex and Nifty companies. What this term bullish means.

4) Despite Govt. directive to invest surplus funds or pay them back as special dividend, all major coal, mining, and steel industries are set to miss their capex target this fiscal. What are these caped targets.

5) There was a separate chapter in the pre budget economic survey titled “Seizing the Demographic dividend” what was the main thrust of this article. 1) consolidating benefits of democracy 2) creation of quality jobs 3) distributing dividend to all citizens 4) accuracy of census data.

6) Who authored the pre budget economic survey 2012-13.

7) Which of the following is /are not mentioned in pre budget economic survey.12-13. 1) Economic growth pegged at 6.1 to 6.7 in 2013-14 . 2) Survey calls for increase in taxes across the board. 3) growth without jobs is the biggest risk 4) Survey admires mauritius economic policy and terms it as “ Mauritian miracle”.

8) Which of the following or both or none is/are the clarification issued by the finance ministry regarding some of the budget proposal. 1) With the Govt. securities loosing value for the second day in a row, Govt. clarified that Projected borrowing of Rs. 6.29 lakh crore for the next fiscal includes 50000 crore buyback of earlier bonds and as such should not be treated as fresh borrowing. 2) Just after presentation of budget, Sensex was down by 300 points on concerns that Indian tax authorities may go beyond the TRC(Tax residency certificate) issued by another government to look for the origin of funds being invested from Mauritius and other countries that have Tax treaties with India. This might have a bearing on FII inflow to our country. Later it was clarified that TRC will be accepted as residential bonafide of investor and no further enquiries will be made.

9) Which of these is/are not true about this budget. 1) Fiscal deficit to remain at 5.2 in 12-13 and at 4.8 by the end of March 14. 2)Total budget expenditure proposed is Rs.16,65,297 crore of which Plan exp is 555322 croew. 3) All towns of India to have an LIC and GIC office. 4) 1000 crore for green revolution in eastern estates. 5) All are true.

10) Which of following items will become cheaper owing to some concessions proposed in the budget. 1) Mobile phone priced above 2000/- 2)dining at AC restaurants 3) set top boxes 4) Branded readymade garments. 5)Sports Utility vehicles.

11) Nirbhaya fund was set up under which ministry ? 1) Ministry of Law and justice 2) Finance ministry 3) Ministry of women and child development. 4) respective state governments.

12) The gender budget has Rs 97,134 crore and the child budget has Rs 77,236 crore in 2013-14. What is gender budgeting.

13) What is not true about Rajiv Gandhi Equity savings scheme. 1) Scheme is to boost participation of small investor in stock market. 2) Only first time participants are eligible 3) Tax exemption can be taken for three consecutive years. 4)Income limit of investor is increased to 12 lakh from earlier 10 lakh. 5) Scheme was introduced in the year 2008-2009.

14) Which of the following are direct taxes. 1) Income tax 2) Corporate tax 3) STT 4) CTT 5) Wealth tax.

15) How many citizens of India have declared their income to be more than a crore a year as per FM’s revelation. 42200 / 42400 / 42600 / 42800.

16) What is FRBM act.

17) Which provision was included in 13-14 budget for the first time. 1)security transaction tax 2) Commodity transaction tax 3) service tax 4) capital gain tax.

18) Which of the two countries have grown faster than India in terms of economy in the year 2012-13 1) USA 2) JAPAN 3) South Korea 4) China 5) Brazil 6) Indonesia 7) South Africa.

19) What were the pre budget economic constraints. 1) High fiscal deficit 2) reliance on foreign inflows to finance CAD 3) lower savings and investments 4) Tight monetary policy to control inflation and thereby hampering growth environment. 5) Global slowdown in economy.

20) Sector wise allocation 37330 crore for health . National health mission 21239 crore increase of 24.3 %. Ayurved Yunani siddha and homeopathy AYUSH to get 1069 crore. HRD to get 65867 increase of 17 % Sarva shiksha 27258 ICDS 17700 11.7% Increase . Midday meal 13215 crore. Rural development to get 80194 out of which MGNREGA 33000 PMGSY 21700 Agricultural credit target 7lac crore.

21) “ M-cap of eight blue chip companies dives Rs. 58504 crore last week “ a new heading reads in TOI. What are M-cap and Blue chip companies.

Bargad Aashram desk

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