Current Affairs Update – 5th April, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the current affairs update of 5th April, 2015.

• The Centre has released an aggregate ₹37,420 crore to 29 States for 2015-16 as the first instalment of devolution recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
• As much as 54 per cent of this amount has gone to just six States, with Uttar Pradesh getting the highest share of ₹6,735.81 crore.

• The other five States that have got a significant share of the first instalment are Bihar (₹3,624.37 crore), West Bengal (₹2,746.91 crore), Madhya Pradesh (₹2,835.75 crore), Maharashtra (₹2,075.59 crore) and Rajasthan (₹2,065.79 crore).
• The YV Reddy-headed 14th Finance Commission had earlier this year recommended a 10 percentage point hike in the States’ share of the tax divisible pool to 42 per cent for each of the award years 2015-20.
• This would translate into States getting an additional ₹1.78 lakh crore in 2015-16.
• The total devolution to States in 2015-16 is expected to be ₹5.26 lakh crore, against ₹3.48 lakh crore in 2014-15.

• For 2015-16, the 14th Finance Commission had also recommended a grant-in-aid of ₹48,906 crore for 11 revenue-deficit States, such as West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
• In the first instalment of devolution for 2015-16, the States with low share are Sikkim (₹137.46 crore), Goa (₹141.51 crore), Mizoram (₹172.40 crore), Manipur (₹231.27 crore), Meghalaya (₹240.75 crore) Nagaland (₹186.68 crore) and Tripura (₹240.62 crore).
• While Andhra Pradesh has got ₹1,616.78 crore, Telangana has got ₹915.85 crore.
• Tamil Nadu has been allocated ₹1,510.51 crore towards the first instalment. Kerala has got ₹937.15 crore and Karnataka has been allocated ₹1,770.46 crore.
• Odisha has got ₹1,743.46 crore and Gujarat has been allocated ₹1,159.56 crore.

• Central Bank of India has topped the list of public sector banks 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, Central Bank of India’s 21.5 per cent assets are either bad or have been restructured to save them turning non-performing assets (NPAs).
• The other banks which have significant amount of gross NPAs and restructured loans include, United Bank of India (19.04 per cent), Punjab & Sind Bank (18.25 per cent) and Punjab National Bank with 17.85 per cent as on December 2014.
• Indian Overseas Bank, State Bank of Patiala, Allahabad Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce all have bad and restructured loans in excess of 15 per cent.
• The rising bad loans have become a major concern for the Reserve Bank as well as the government.
• Most of the restructured loans are from the corporate sector. The top-30 defaulters are sitting on bad loans of Rs. 95,122 crore, which is more than one-third of the gross non-performing assets of PSU banks at Rs. 2,60,531 crore as on December 2014.
• There are four kinds of restructuring. The first and foremost is restructuring of advances extended to industrial units, restructuring under Corporate Debt Restructuring and restructuring of loans extended to MSME as per RBI guidelines.

• The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party marked the completion of its 50 days in power in Delhi by re-launching the anti-corruption helpline number - 1031. The service can be used by people to lodge complaints if they are harassed for bribes by government official.
• The helpline is a revival of the service which the AAP government had launched during its earlier 49-day stint after the 2013 Assembly elections.
• A dedicated helpline for reporting cases of corruption was one of the major promises made by AAP in its manifesto for the Assembly elections this year.
• A group of volunteers has been trained to run the 24/7 helpline and attend the calls in English and Hindi. The executives will also direct the callers on how to conduct sting operations. All the calls will be divided into two categories - serious and non-serious.

• The Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police has arrested former Agriculture minister Agri S S Krishnamoorthy in connection with the suicide of senior engineer S Muthukumarasamy in Tirunelveli on February 20.
• Krishnamoorthy, who was summoned at the CBI CID office in the city on Saturday night, was arrested early morning on Sunday, after an eight-hour-long interrogation, and was taken to Tirunelveli for further probe.
• It was on February, Muthukumarasamy jumped in front of a train near Tirunelveli. The executive engineer’s suicide had snowballed into a major controversy in the state leading to the resignation of agriculture minister S S Krishnamurthy on March 7. He was also removed from the party posts. The minister’s office allegedly demanded Rs 14 lakh from Muthukumaraswamy for the temporary contract posts, which pays a salary of Rs 9,000 a month.

• In the largest evacuation as part of Operation Raahat so far, three Air India flights airlifted 488 people from Sana’a to Djibouti while naval patrol vessel INS Sumitra rescued 203 people, including 19 foreign nationals from eight countries, from Ash Shihr via Al Muqalla port.
• India secured a four hour window for evacuation from Sana’a on Sunday. Meanwhile, late on Sunday two Air Force C-17s with 452 passengers landed in Mumbai while an Air India AI-777 with 352 passengers landed in Kochi.
• In addition, the civilian liners Kavaratti and Corals, with a total capacity of 1100 passengers, have reached Djibouti on Sunday afternoon and will join in the evacuation, officials said.
• Op Raahat is now a global endeavour with nationals from several countries evacuated by India; INS Mumbai on Saturday evacuated 179 people from 17 countries from Aden.

• The 33-year-old raced to a 6-2 6-0 victory in 56 minutes to secure her third straight title at Crandon Park.
• The American won the final 10 games as she outclassed Suarez Navarro, who will make her top-10 debut next week.
• Suarez Navarro, 26, went into the biggest final of her career having won just 10 games in four previous meetings with the younger Williams sister, and the 12th seed could add only two more.
• The Spaniard began well, even threatening a break of serve at 2-2, 30-30, but Williams slammed the door shut with successive aces and was soon 4-2 in front.
• Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis to play in Women's Doubles final in Miami Tennis Open tonight.

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