Current Affairs Update – 3rd July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 3rd July, 2015. These are very important for the SBI PO Mains Exam 2015 and RBI Assistant 2015.

• India’s GDP crossed the $2-trillion mark in 2014, according to data released by the World Bank in Washington late on Wednesday. After taking 60 years to reach the $1-trillion mark, India added the next trillion in just seven years.
• The World Bank data also show that India’s gross national income per person rose to $1,610 (around Rs. 1 lakh) a year during 2014 from $1,560 the previous year. An analysis by The Hindu found that it would take India a little more than a decade to rise from its current ‘lower middle income’ category to the ‘upper middle income’ level.
• India’s growth rate, at 7.4 per cent in 2014, makes it the fastest growing major economy along with China’s, which is a whopping $10.4 trillion in size. The Indian economy, at $2.06 trillion, has almost doubled in size since the financial crisis hit the country in 2008, and has more than quadrupled from the start of this millennium.
• Despite its increase in per capita gross national income (GNI), India has remained in the ‘lower middle income’ category ($1,046-$4,125). Using the World Bank’s data, The Hindu extrapolated from India’s average annual growth rate in per capita GNI over the last decade — of 8.9 per cent — and found that it would become an ‘upper middle income’ country ($4,126-$12,735) in 2026, a little more than a decade from now. This will put it in the category China occupies now.
• China, however, with a per capita GNI of $7,380 and an average annual growth in this parameter of 15.6 per cent, will leave the ‘upper middle income’ category by 2018 to become a ‘high income’ country like the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Japan. It will take India till 2039 to reach that level, at the assumed growth rate.

• Country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Friday launched an initiative to provide doorstep services and expedite home loans application process.
• The initiative known as ‘Project Tatkal’ will help get the loan within 10 days after receipt of application form and relevant supporting documents, the bank said in a release.
• “It will bring down the average time taken for delivery of home loan to within 10 days from the date of receipt of completed home loan application form and relevant supporting documents from the customer,” the release said.
• The implementation will be done at large centres with sizable home loan business.
• The bank has also recently introduced an online customer acquisition solution (OCAS) for instant e-approval of home loan applications.
• The bank has over three million home loan customers with a portfolio of over Rs. 16,60,000 crore.

• Kotak Mahindra Bank's proposal to raise foreign investment limit in the lender to 55 per cent was cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) today.
• After deferring a decision on the proposal in the past, the FIPB cleared the application during today's meeting after the Department of Financial Services gave its opinion on the matter, sources said.
• FIPB is headed by Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.
• Kotak Bank had approached the Board after the Reserve Bank barred overseas investments in it as foreign shareholding hit the permissible threshold following the merger of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Bank.
• Investments from FIIs, FPIs and foreign banks had reached 48.55 per cent in the merged entity.
• The clearance comes days after Kotak Bank's shareholders gave approval for issuance of bonus shares.

• European major Airbus teamed up with diversified Mahindra Group, to establish a joint venture for manufacturing helicopters for the Indian Armed Forces.
• The joint venture between Airbus Helicopters and Mahindra Defence aims to become the first private Indian helicopter manufacturer under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the companies said.
• To be set up in the coming months, the venture would produce helicopters to meet the country’s military requirements.
• According to the statement, the venture would create hundreds of high-tech jobs locally and lead to a flow of cutting edge technologies to India, should it be selected in the governmental helicopter tenders.
• Guillaume Faury, Airbus Helicopters President & CEO, said the joint venture would be dedicated to supply the Indian Armed Forces with Made-in-India, state of the art helicopters of high reliability, quality and safety standard based on combat-proven platforms
• Mahindra Defence is a Mahindra Group subsidiary and Airbus Helicopters is a division of Airbus Group.

• Leading mobile wallet MobiKwik on 2 July 2015 tied up with books and stationary retailer WHSmith India to enable offline shopping at all its retail stores.
• With this tie-up, WHSmith India stores will also serve as MobiKwik Nodes where users can load money on their MobiKwik wallet.
• MobiKwik targets to create India's largest independent payments network with 100 million digitally paying users and two lakh retailers by the end of 2015.

• Around 73 per cent of households in India are rural, according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data released by the government on Friday. Of these, 18.5 per cent and scheduled caste households and 11 per cent belong to the scheduled tribe category.
• The SECC, jointly released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh, also shows that the bulk of India’s rural households subsist on very low incomes. According to the data, 74.5% of rural households have an income of the highest earning member below Rs. 5000 per month. Only 8.3% of rural households have an income of the highest earning member above Rs. 10,000 per month.
• Only the provisional data pertaining to rural India was released on Friday. The Census also provides data on households regarding various aspects of their socio-economic status-housing, land-holding/landlessness, educational status, status of women, the differently-abled, occupation, possession of assets, SC/ST households, incomes, etc.
• The data also shows the hand-to-mouth existence of large parts of rural India. For example, over 50 per cent of rural households get the bulk of their incomes from manual casual labour and 56 per cent do not own any land.

• India in June 2015 launched online registration system named eMigrate system (www.emigrate.gov.in) for foreign employers (FEs) who wants to recruit Indian workers, including nurses. Under the system, FEs will have to register in the eMigrate system.
• The filled registration application will be vetted by the Indian mission.
• The new system will be implemented in phases.

• It will allow FEs to raise their demand for Indian workers and seek a permit to recruit directly or select Recruiting Agents (RAs) in online manner.
• Such FEs will have to declare the terms and conditions of employment of each category of the job at the time of applying for the demand registration.
• The declared terms and conditions of employment will act as a specimen contract and will form the part of employment contract at the time of actual recruitment.

• FEs recruiting more than 150 Indian workers are required to register online with immediate effect in order to raise demand and seek a permit to recruit directly or select RAs.
• FEs recruiting between 50-150 Indian workers are required to register online before 30 June 2015.
• FEs recruiting between 20-50 Indian workers are required to register online before 31 July 2015.
• FEs recruiting less than Indian workers are required to register online before 31 August 2015.

• The countrywide Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has become a reality today. This means mobile subscribers can now keep their existing mobile phone numbers even while shifting between states and circles.
• So far, while mobile users could retain their existing number when switching service provider, this was possible only within the same state or telecom circle. The move lays the first stone for the government's 'One nation, One number' plan and is sure to benefit millions of people across the country.
• Earlier, the deadline to rollout full MNP was May 2, 2015. This was, however, extended by two months after the Cellular Operators Association of India asked for an extension from the telecom department.
• India is divided into 22 telecom service areas or circles.
• With about 3 million intra-circle MNP requests every month, more than 157 million subscribers have ported to other operators as of April, according to Trai data.

• Now, rag pickers’ services will be recognised by the government which has decided to give national award for their contribution to keep India clean.
• “There are millions of rag pickers in the country. This informal sector has saved the country. They are doing a good job and I have decided to recognise their efforts. We will grant national award,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said at an event on waste management in New Delhi.
• The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers and three associations involved in innovation of best practices, he added.
• Stating that rag pickers are helping to some extent in handling waste, the Minister pitched for setting up of a credible agency like Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) that can guide municipal bodies to take measures to address waste management in a scientific way.

• The Union Cabinet on 2 July 2015 approved the institutional framework for the National Skill Development Mission 2015. The Mission will provide a strong institutional framework at the Centre and States for implementation of skilling activities in the country.

• The Mission will have a three-tiered, high powered decision making structure.
• The Mission’s Governing Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, will provide overall guidance and policy direction.
• The Steering Committee, chaired by Minister in Charge of Skill Development, will review the Mission’s activities in line with the direction set by the Governing Council.
• The Mission Directorate, with Secretary, Skill Development as Mission Director, will ensure implementation, coordination and convergence of skilling activities across Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments.
• The Mission will also run select sub-missions in high priority areas.

• Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on 2 July 2015 launched the state Portal ePMS (Electronic Projects Management System) to fast track infrastructural development. The portal was launched during the Digital India week.
• The project was started to enhance efficiency, bring transparency, boost the investor confidence, revive the investment cycle, eliminate the human interaction and improve the communication between industries to Government (B2G), State to Centre (G2G), or vice versa (G2B).

• It will fast track infrastructure investment stalled projects, both in the public and private sectors, involving investment between 100 crore rupees and 1000 crore rupees.
• It will allow submission of a new project, editing/updating the projects, reviewing the projects, submission of details relating to bottlenecks.
• It will provide various Graphical Analysis, Reports and Investment Monitoring module.

• Four Indian-Americans, including top US attorney Preet Bharara, are among 38 distinguished personalities who have been honoured with this year's prestigious "Great Immigrants: The Pride of America" award.
• Among other Indians honoured with the top annual award by the prestigious New York-based Carnegie Corporation are Rakesh Khurana, Dean of Harvard College and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership and Development; Madhulika Sikka vice president, executive editor, Mic and Abraham Verghese, eminent physician, professor and author.
• The immigrants have been honoured for their "vital" contributions to the fabric of the nation and the strength of its democracy.
• The 38 immigrants honoured this year come from more than 30 countries around the world and represent leadership in a wide range of professions.
• Other notable honorees include Nobel Prize-winning Biochemist of Israeli origin Arieh Warshel, German-origin Nobel Prize-winning Neuroscientist Thomas Sudhof, Pakistani-American immigration attorney Rabia Chaudry, Colombian-origin actress Sofia Vergara among others.

• The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), has inducted the Old City of Sana'a to the list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the “serious damage” done amidst clashes between Shiite Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in Yemen.
• The decision was made on Thursday during the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany, while the Old Walled City of Shibam in Yemen and the ancient Iraqi city of Hatra were also added to the list.
• The committee issued a statement voicing its sadness and concern over the destruction and damage that inflicted “an Islamic city of great historic and heritage” significance.
• Sana'a, located in a mountainous valley 2,200 meters, dates back more than 2,500 years and was an important center of Islam thought in the 7th and 8th centuries.
• The Old City of Sana'a, with a legacy of 103 mosques, 14 public bathhouses, 6,000 homes built before the 11th century and its flagship tower-houses built of rammed earth, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986.
• The Old Walled City of Shibam was also included in the list of sites in danger due to threats posed by the conflict in Yemen.

• Former Indian cricketers Hrishikesh Kantikar and Ajay Ratra on 2 July 2015 retired from all forms of cricket.
• Kanitkar, a left-handed batsman and a right-arm off break bowler, played his last Test match from 2 January to 4 January 2015 against Australia in Sydney. He played his last ODI on 30 January 2000 against Australia in Perth.
• Ratra, a right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper, played his last Test match from 5 September to 9 September 2002 against England at the Oval. He played his last ODI on 9 July 2002 against England at the Oval.

• K P P Nambiar, founding Chairman of Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keltron) died on 1 July 2015 due to age-related illnesses. He was 86.
• Nambiar is survived by wife Umadevi Nambiar, a son and a daughter.

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