Current Affairs Update – 23rd May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 23rd May, 2015.

• State-run Bank of India (BoI) and MasterCard launched new products on Friday in a bid to enhance the payment experience for customers with BoI Business Debit MasterCard, Platinum Credit MasterCard and International Travel MasterCard.
• The Bank of India business debit MasterCard will help businesses better manage expenses and move beyond cheques and petty cash. Similarly, the Bank of India platinum credit MasterCard could be used for everyday purchases to help consumers monitor and control expenses. Besides that traveling is now made even more safe, secure and convenience through the launch of Bank of India international travel card.
• MasterCard rewards will be made available as a feature on Bank of India’s newly launched MasterCard card programs with an aim to drive cardholder spend and help the bank acquire, retain and grow their best customers.
• The MasterCard rewards program is a merchant-funded loyalty program which will allow Bank of India's MasterCard Platinum card cardholders to earn up to 5 per cent of their spends at participating retail and e-commerce merchant establishments as MasterCard rewards.

• The Reserve Bank of India today extended the time-frame to spread over the shortfall arising out of sale of bad assets to securitisation companies/asset reconstruction companies at a price below the net book value, to March 2016.
• "As an incentive for early sale of NPAs, banks can spread over any shortfall, if the sale value is lower than the net book value (NBV), over a period of two years. It has been decided to extend this dispensation for assets sold on or after March 31, 2015 and up to March 31, 2016," the Reserve Bank said in a notification.
• The earlier facility was up to March 31, 2015. Net book value is the book value less provisions held by banks for the bad assets.
• The move comes as state-run banks continue to report higher bad loans, including restructured accounts, which rose to 13.2 per cent during the year ended March 2015, raising alarm bells for the Reserve Bank.

• ICICI Bank has sold Rs 250 crore of non-convertible debentures issued by Lavasa Corporation, a subsidiary of HCC, to loan recovery firm Arcil Ltd.
• Lavasa had raised around Rs 700 crore through issue of NCDs to ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of India, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, India Opportunity II PTE Ltd and SSG Investment India Ltd in 2010, according to its draft red herring prospectus filed with the Securities & Exchange Board of India in June last.
• IDBI Bank and Union Bank of India have recently sold bad loans over Rs 6,000 crore to Arcil to clean up books. Assets, including Ramswarup Industries, Murali Industries, Sakthi Sugars, Ishwar Alloys and Deva Projects, have also been sold. IDBI Bank holds 19.2 per cent in the asset reconstruction company.
• The banking industry has seen a spurt in bad loans due to a sluggish economic environment. Banks had restructured debt of Rs 2.86 lakh crore at the end of March 20 15, up 18.22 per cent from Rs 2.42 lakh crore a year ago.

• The Finance Ministry has imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty on ‘USB Flash Drives’ imported from China and Taiwan.
• ‘USB Flash Drives’ are data storage devices which use flash memory and USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface to interact with computers and other multimedia devices for data exchange.
• They are popularly known in the market as pen drives. They are also available as keychain drives, key drives, USB sticks, flash sticks, memory keys and USB keys.
• For ‘USB Flash Drives’ imported from China, the revenue department has imposed an anti-dumping duty of $ 3.12 per unit.
• In the case of pen drives imported from Taiwan, the anti-dumping duty has been pegged at $ 3.06 per unit.
• The anti-dumping duty will be valid for a period of five years.

• Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will lead a business delegation to Algeria from May 26 to June 1, 2015, a FICCI statement said on Saturday.
• FICCI with the support of ministry of commerce and industry, and Indian embassy in Algeria are organising the India Pavilion at the 48th Algiers International Trade Fair.
• Ms. Sitharaman will also inaugurate the India Pavilion jointly with the Prime Minister of Algeria on May 26, 2015.
• On the sidelines of the event, meeting of India-Algeria Joint Commission, the first since 2003, will also be held.
• Indian brands like TATA Motors, Sonalika, Preet Tractors, L&T, IRCON, C&S Electric, Kohinoor Foods, J.K. International, Raymonds, Shapoorji Paloonji and Bry Air will showcase their products and expertise in the India Pavilion at the fair.
• Algeria is the fourth-largest economy in the African continent after South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt and the second largest in North Africa.

• A Vellayan was on 22 May 2015 stepped aside from the chairmanship of the Murugappa Group Corporate Board. He also relinquished the post of Chairman in the Coromandel International Ltd. and the EID Parry India Ltd.
• Vellayan took this decision in the backdrop of an order issued on 21 May 2015 by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) linking A Vellayan to trades by two individuals in shares of Sabero Organics Gujarat Ltd., a company that was acquired by Coromandel International Ltd. (subsidiary of Murugappa Group) in May 2011.
• As per the SEBI, A Vellayan passed on unpublished sensitive information related to the acquisition to the traders which amounted to insider trading practices prohibited under the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992.

• Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and ArcelorMittal on 22 May 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up an automotive steel manufacturing facility under a Joint Venture (JV) arrangement in India.
• The MoU was signed in London by CS Verma, Chairman of SAIL and Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal in the presence of Rakesh Singh, Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Steel.
• The JV will construct a state-of-the-art cold rolling mill and other downstream finishing facilities in India that will offer technologically advanced steel products to the country’s rapidly growing automotive sector.
• To operationalise the MoU, a working group with representatives from both companies will be set up to evolve a structure for the proposed JV and carry out feasibility studies as part of a comprehensive due diligence process.

• Pharmaceuticals company Lupin will replace Tata Power in the BSE Sensex, the stock exchange said in a statement, reports fe Bureau in Mumbai.
• The change in the Sensex’s constituents will be effective from June 22. Apart from benchmark indices, the BSE announced changes in the BSE 100, BSE 500 and Bankex indices as well.
• Adani Power is to be excluded from the S&P BSE 100 and be replaced by Aurobindo Pharma. In addition, Tata Motors class ‘A’ shares or DVR shares will also be included in BSE 100.
• Asia’s oldest exchange also removed Canara Bank and Bank of India from the Bankex, and replaced 26 companies from the BSE 500 index by introducing 27 stocks as part of their index rebalancing.

• AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time today along with a 28-member Cabinet.
• At the event attended by thousands of supporters, a galaxy of film stars and a smattering of industrialists, Governor K Rosaiah administered the oath of office to Jayalalithaa who returns after being acquitted of corruption charges earlier this month.
• The ministers who were then sworn in two batches recited the oath in chorus, bringing the 25-minute ceremony to a close.
• Some of the industrialists present were K Mammen, CMD, MRF; N Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and MD, India Cements; Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals; and AC Muthiah.
• The entertainment industry was represented by superstar Rajinikanth, Music Director Illayaraja, and actors Prabhu, Arjun, Karthi, Vikram Prabhu and stars and singers of yesteryears such as P Susheela, MN Rajam, Sivakumar and Sachu.

• Indian boxers rounded off a thoroughly commendable performance at the AIBA Women's Junior World Championships, clinching three gold and two silver medals on the final day of the event here today.
• Savita (50kg), Mandeep Sandhu (52kg) and Sakshi (54kg) struck gold for the country, while Soniya (48kg) and Niharika Gonella (70kg) settled for silver medals.
• Soniya was the first to take the ring for India today, squaring off against American Heaven Garcia. She went down 1-2 to open the Indian account with a silver medal.
• Next in was Savita and she edged past her Ukrainian rival Kateryna Rohova 2-1 to clinch the first gold of the day for India.
• This was followed by Mandeep's 3-0 triumph over Ireland's Niamh Earley before Sakshi made it three in a row by out-punching American Yarisel Ramirez 3-0.
• However, Niharika proved no match for Russian Anastasiia Sigaeva and lost 0-3 to settle for a silver medal.
• Earlier in the youth competition, Jamuna Boro (57kg) had bagged a bronze medal after losing in the semifinals.

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