Current Affairs Update – 28th June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 28th June, 2015. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains and RBI Assistant 2015 Exams.

• Bank of Maharashtra and MUDRA Bank have signed an agreement to finance new entrepreneurs and small businesses.
• To provide credit facilities to small business, the central government aims to facilitate credit up to Rs 1 lakh crore under MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) scheme in the current year.
• Under the new scheme, there are three categories of loans -- 'Shishu' (loan of up to Rs 50,000), 'Kishor' (loan above Rs 50,000 up to Rs 5 lakh) and 'Tarun' (above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh) -- that will be sanctioned and disbursed by banks, it said.
• The amount will be refinanced through MUDRA Bank, it added.
• S Muhnot, Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Maharashtra, said the bank has already started financing new entrepreneurs/small business and sensitised its field functionaries on extending finance under the scheme.

• United Bank of India has topped the list of public sector lenders with maximum bad loans including restructured assets as a percentage of total advances.
• According to the data provided by the RBI to the Finance Ministry, United Bank of India's 21.5 per cent assets are either bad or have been restructured to save them from turning non-performing assets (NPAs)
• The other banks that have significant amount of gross NPAs and restructured loans include, Central Bank of India (21.30 per cent), Indian Overseas Bank (19.40 per cent), Punjab & Sind Bank (18.74 per cent) and Punjab National Bank with 17.94 per cent as on March 2015.
• State Bank of Patiala, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, UCO Bank and Dena Bank all have bad and restructured loans in excess of 15 per cent.
• The rising bad loans have been a major concern for the Reserve Bank as well as the government and steps are being taken to deal with it.
• Most of the restructured loans are from the corporate sector. The top-30 defaulters are sitting on bad loans of Rs 93,769 crore, which is more than one-third of the gross non-performing assets of PSU banks at Rs 2,55,180 crore as on March 2015.

• Leading private sector lender HDFC Bank has "exceeded" the single-borrower limits prescribed by regulator RBI in case of its credit exposure to corporate giant Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
• The bank, however, said its board of directors approved "the said excess in respect of this exposure" and it was within the 20 per cent ceiling of capital funds.
• The central bank has fixed the credit exposure ceiling of a bank at 15 per cent of capital funds in case of a single borrower and at 40 per cent in case of a borrower group.
• The RBI allows banks to enhance this exposure by further 5 per cent of capital funds in exceptional circumstances, with approval of their boards.
• Incidentally, some other top lenders including private sector rival ICICI Bank and state-run SBI have also breached the RBI's prudential limits in terms of their credit exposure to RIL in the past.
• However, ICICI Bank has not breached these norms for four consecutive years now, including in the latest fiscal 2014-15.

• The government plans to set up Rs 500 crore venture capital fund to boost domestic pharma industry and provide cheaper loans to entities looking to establish or upgrade manufacturing facilities.
• The government is working on various proposals, including single window clearance for drug approvals, to rejuvenate the local pharma sector and make medicines more affordable.
• The steps were suggested by a task force formed by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) in a report submitted to Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar.
• While releasing the report last week, Kumar had said this is in line with the government's agenda of promoting 'Make in India' and the Ministry will take action on all the steps suggested by the task force.

• The Reserve Bank has warned against the rising popularity of superfast algorithm trading, saying its complex coding and ultra-low latency due to its advanced communication platforms increase risks of erroneous trades and manipulations in stock markets.
• RBI's Financial Stability Report(FSR) says the volumes in algo trading and high frequency trading (HFT) have increased substantially over the past few years in the cash segment from 17 per cent on NSE and 11 per cent on BSE in 2011, respectively, to around 40 per cent of total trades in both the exchanges by March 2015.
• Algorithm (algo) trading refers to the use of electronic platforms for entering trading orders with a computer programme (algorithm) determining the decisions on aspects such as the timing, price, or quantity of the order or in many cases initiating the order without human intervention.
• Algo trading is subject to Sebi regulations issued in March 2012 and May 2013.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today voiced concern over the declining sex ratio in 100 districts of the country, with situation being “more serious” in Haryana, and pitched for a campaign to save girls through the social media.
• In his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on radio, he, however, refrained from speaking on politics or recent controversies surrounding Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over the Lalit Modi issue which some quarters were expecting.
• Narendra Modi talked about the recently-launched three social security schemes and three developmental schemes, including ‘housing for all’ by 2022, as well as the Yoga Day celebrated on June 21.
• He also emphasised on the need for saving water and planting trees to preserve the environment.
• During his 20-minute programme, Modi mentioned about the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padao’ (save daughter, educate daughter) scheme launched by the government.
• In this context, he mentioned that a Sarpanch of Bibipur village in Haryana Sunil Jaglan had started “selfie with daughter” competition wherein fathers were to post their ‘selfies’ with their daughters.
• Appreciating the initiative and pitching for a campaign to save the girl child, Modi asked all fathers to send their ‘selfies’ with their daughters to him, out which he will retweet the good ones.

• Three squadrons of the aging MiG 21 and MiG 27 fighter jets are set to be phased out this year even as Indian Air Force focuses on cannibalization to keep the serviceability rate of its aircraft high.
• Top defence sources said that while three squadrons, 18 aircraft each, will be pulled out due to the end of their life cyle, an additional squadron of the Su-30 fighter aircraft is expected. The planes - MiG 21s and MiG 27s, were bought from Russia in the 60s and 70s.
• Air Force currently operates 35 squadron even though the sanctioned strength is 42. The sanctioned strength for a possible two way fight - Pakistan and China combined - is 45. While no one was willing to come on record about whether the force is content with the 36 Rafales instead of the earlier 126, a senior official said "At least in this government we are getting 36. The UPA was there for 10 years and nothing was decided".
• The Air Force is hopeful that the government might go in for more Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft than the 36 Rafales that have been decided. Talking about serviceability (aircraft available for operation), the sources said the force was depending on 'Christmas tree' to keep it high.

• A committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal has suggested that use of fresh water should be prohibited and made an offence in order to maintain the minimum environmental flow of Yamuna river.
• The principal committee, headed by Shashi Shekhar, the Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources, was constituted by the green panel on January 13 for implementing the " Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalization Plan, 2017".
• The tribunal had directed the committee and the Chief Secretary of the states, through which the river passes, to submit their suggestions on the issue of minimum environmental flow.
• The principal committee has suggested a slew of measures to be adopted for maintaining the natural "ecological" flow of Yamuna while it passes through the capital.
• The committee has recommended that in all the urban towns situated along the river, the sewage water must be mandatorily treated and supplied for industrial processes, railway and bus cleaning, fire-fighting, city parks, construction activities etc.

• Two Indian organisations -- Army and Railways -- are among the world's biggest employers, together employing a whopping 2.7 million people, said a report.
• Though it is often said that Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, but it seems it is not. The organisation is ranked at the eighth place in the list of world's biggest employers.
• Immediately after Indian Railways in the 8th rank with 1.4 million staff is the Indian Armed Forces with 1.3 million people.
• According to a research published by the World Economic Forum, the US Department of Defense is the world's biggest employer which claims over 3.2 million employees on its roster.
• McDonald's is the 4th biggest employer with 1.9 million employees, however, as the majority of its restaurants are franchises, this figure falls to 4,20,000 when they are excluded, the report said.
• UK's National Health Service was ranked at the 5th place, with 1.7 million employees, followed by state-run China National Petroleum Corporation with 1.6 million.

Regards



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