Current Affairs Update – 13th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 13th May, 2015. These are very important for Upcoming SBI PO exam. Today's News features, RBI, Insurance and Appointment news in Major.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) 12 May 2015 released the report titled State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2014-15. The theme of this year’s report is Fiscal Consolidation: Assessment and Medium Term Prospects.
• The report is an annual publication that provides data, analysis and an assessment of the finances of state governments. It provides the snapshot of the changing dynamics of fiscal federalism over the years.

• It calls for renewed and sustained efforts by states towards fiscal consolidation in the years following the global financial crisis so as to increase states’ own revenues.
• It calls for freeing up resources for higher capital outlays, improving the quality of fiscal consolidation and setting the consolidated debt-GDP ratio of the states, including off budget liabilities on a declining trajectory.
• The rapidly growing e-commerce could contribute to states’ own revenue efforts, provided there is greater clarity in rules and procedures to enable better compliance.
• Windfall gains accruing over time from auctioning of natural resources need to be channelised effectively for meeting developmental needs of the mineral rich states.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 11 May 2015 advised all public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
• The objective of this initiative is to further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.
• The internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.
• Besides, it also asked some private sector and foreign banks to appoint such Ombudsman. These are ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd. These banks have been selected on the basis of their asset size, business mix, etc.

• NDA government on Wednesday faced tough questions in Lok Sabha from its own members over a bill, which aims at making filing of cases more convenient for payees in cheque-bounce matters, with some BJP members wondering if it would be used by corporates to harass the common man.
• The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill 2015 was later passed by a voice vote, with Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha insisting that it would boost the “integrity of financial system” and not lead to the harassment of the common man.
• The bill was necessitated due to an “impractical” Supreme Court order that cases against those having defaulted on their cheque payments could only be filed in courts under which jurisdiction the bank account of the accused fell, he said.
• Pitching for the legislation, Mr. Sinha said the courts were currently dealing with 21 lakh cheque-bounce cases with 259 courts hearing them exclusively and the new law would help consolidate the cases and aid the judicial system.

• Trade deficit between India and China increased about 34 per cent to USD 48.43 billion in 2014-15 from USD 36.21 billion in the previous fiscal, Parliament was told on Wednesday.
• India’s concern on the rising deficit has been discussed with China at various fora, including the highest level of leadership of the two countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
• The issue is also likely to figure during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week to China.

• Kolkata Knight Riders co-owners, actors Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta, have been served Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons for allegedly violating Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) norms, official sources said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
• The ED move follows a notice sent in March in 2015 and Mr. Khan and others would be required to appear before the agency by May-end.
• The Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd is suspected to have violated FEMA norms by undervaluing its shares in a transfer deal with Jay Mehta’s overseas company, Sea Island Investments Ltd.
• However, none of the co-owners have officially reacted to the development.

• A study by ICICI Lombard and Google India has revealed that online purchase of non-life insurance products has been growing in India.
• Buying was higher for motor insurance with 24 per cent users buying policies online, compared to 12 per cent buying health insurance online.
• The study was commissioned to understand patterns of online purchase of non-life insurance products.
• Over 3,000 active internet users, spread across 18 cities in the 25–55 age group, participated in this survey.
• The findings revealed that users in the 25–35 age group were most active in the online purchase. Ease of purchase and convenience were the primary drivers.
• Consumer behaviour for research and purchase across desktop and mobile was similar with 80 per cent users accessing the Net for insurance-related search or purchase through desktop/laptop and 85 per cent through mobile/tablet, indicating a clear tendency to shift between devices.

• President of India Pranab Mukherjii on 12 May 2015 appointed four Governors and transferred two others. These appointments and transfers were done in accordance with Article 155 of the Constitution of India.

• V Shanmuganathan was appointed as the Governor of Meghalaya. He is a member of BJP national executive.
• Draupadi Murmu was appointed as the Governor of Jharkhand. She is from BJP and was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Odisha’s Rairangpur constituency in 2000.
• Tathagata Roy was appointed as Governor of Tripura. Roy had unsuccessfully contested on BJP seat from Kolkata Dakshin Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.
• JP Rakkhowa was appointed as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. He is a 1968-batch IAS officer. He has been involved in issues related to Northeast after his retirement.

• Syed Ahmed, Governor of Jharkhand was shifted to Manipur. He was appointed in September 2011. His tenure will end in September 2016.
• Lt General (retd.) Nirbhay Sharma, who was serving as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh since May, 2011, was transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of his term, which ends in 2018. He is the eighth Governor of the state since 2014.

• Deepak Iyer was on 12 May 2015 appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
• Currently, he is working as the Managing Director-Indian subcontinent at Wrigley India, a subsidiary of the US-based Mars.
• He will take the charge from June 2015. He will take charge from Interim CEO and MD Milind Chalisgaonkar.
• Earlier, he worked with PepsiCo for 16 years handling multiple international assignments, including those of Senior Franchise Director-Africa, General Manager-North & East India (including Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka) and Director-Sales for Modern Trade/ Food service/ Leisure/ Travel & Transport channels of the company.

• An Indian-origin councillor woman has became the first Asian woman elected mayor of Ealing Council in London.
• Harbhajan Kaur Dheer, 62, at a ceremony at the Victoria Hall at Ealing Council yesterday became the Mayor of Ealing Council after succeeding councillor Tej Ram Bagha.
• Her husband councillor Ranjit Dheer is a former Mayor of Ealing. Born in Punjab in 1953, Harbhajan Kaur came to Britain in 1975.
• The early years in Britain were difficult and she had to work very hard to establish herself and raise two children.

• The Supreme Court (SC) on 13 May 2015 issued guidelines on regulating government advertisements. The guidelines were issued by a SC bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
• The new guidelines by the apex court were framed with a view to discourage such advertisements from creating personality cults and it applies to the frequent advertisements that are placed by the centre and state governments to publicise schemes.

• Only photographs of the President, Prime Minister (PM) and Chief Justice of India (CJI) can feature in the newspaper advertisements released by state and central government departments.
• The photographs of these dignitaries can only be used with their prior approval.
• Besides, these three, the photos of late leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru can also be used in the government advertisements.

• Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on 12 May 2015 launched the water ATM facility Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations. This facility was installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and at other 100 bus stations of the state.
• Through this service, the passengers will get best potable water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.
• Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh government also flagged off four luxury buses Scannia to four different destination including Delhi. It also inaugurated an IVRS number 149 enquiry facility regarding bus services of UP.
• The state government also laid the foundation stone for up gradation of 25 bus stations where state of the art technology and best passenger and civic facilities will be available.

• The Cabinet approved the flagship “Namami Gange” programme, which integrates the efforts to clean and protect the River Ganga in a comprehensive manner.
• The programme has a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore for the next 5 years. The amount was a significant four-fold increase over the expenditure allocated to the task of cleaning the Ganga over the past 30 years, a government release said.
• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Mr. Modi, approved the flagship programme which integrates the efforts to clean and protect the Ganga river in a comprehensive manner, a government statement here said.
• The programme has a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore for the next five years and a significant increase over the expenditure in the past 30 years.
• The Centre has incurred an overall expenditure of approximately Rs. 4,000 crore vis-a-vis Ganga rejuvenation since 1985, it added.
• In order to push the efforts for the Ganga’s clean-up, the statement said that the Centre will now take over 100 per cent funding of various activities/projects under this programme.

• Celebrated writer Suchitra Bhattacharya, many of whose books had been made into cult Bengali films including Dahan, died at her south Kolkata residence this midnight, her family members said.
• Bhattacharya, who was born in 1960 in Bihar, was busy with her next puja fiction even this evening but suddenly felt sick after dinner and was declared dead by her family physician at around 10:45 pm, the family member said.
• Suchitra penned over 20 novels including Dahan, Kachher Manush, Hemonter Pakhi, Aleek Shukh most turning best sellers in Bengali literature and being popular among the new generation women as well as others.

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