Current Affairs Update - 9-10 Nov, 2014

• ·         Tightening norms for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), the Reserve Bank of India on Monday raised the capital adequacy requirement and the net owned fund limit, among others, with an objective to mitigate risks in the sector.
• ·         With a view to streamlining the regulations for the sector, the RBI also revoked temporary suspension on issuance of Certificate of Registration (CoR) to companies that want to conduct business of non-banking financial institution (NBFI). As per the latest directives, the RBI has raised the limit for NBFCs to maintain the net owned fund (NOF) requirement to four times by 2017 to Rs.2 crore.
• ·         At present, the NOF requirement is at Rs.25 lakh. In a phased manner, the NBFCs would be required to raise it to Rs.1 crore by March, 2016, and to further double it to Rs.2 crore by 2017. “NBFCs failing to achieve the prescribed ceiling within the stipulated time period shall not be eligible to hold the CoR (Certificate of Registration) as NBFCs. The bank will initiate the process for cancellation of CoR against such NBFCs,” it said in a notification.
• ·         Also, NBFCs primarily engaged in lending against gold jewellery, will have to maintain a minimum Tier I capital (or equity capital) of 12 per cent with effective from April 1 as against existing requirement of 10 per cent.
• ·         For deposit and non-deposit taking NBFCs, Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio or CRAR, which includes Tier I capital of 7.5 per cent, is 15 per cent at present.
• ·         However, as per the new norms, NBFCs have to raise the Tier I capital to 8.5 per cent by end of March 2016 and 10 per cent by March, 31, 2017. Towards provisioning of standard assets, the RBI said that NBFCs would be required to raise it to 0.3 per cent by end of March 2016; 0.35 per cent by March 2017 and to 0.4 per cent by end of March 2018.
• ·         Presently, every NBFC is required to make a provision for standard assets at 0.25 per cent of the outstanding.
• ·         In the interest of harmonisation, the asset classification norms for NBFCs-ND-SI and NBFCs-D will be brought in line with that of banks, the RBI said. “At present, an asset is classified as non-performing asset when it has remained overdue for a period of six months or more for loans; and overdue for twelve months or more in case of lease rental and hire purchase instalments, as compared to 90 days for banks.”
• ·         For NBFCs-ND with an asset size of less than Rs.500 crore, the RBI said they shall not be subjected to any regulation either prudential or conduct of business regulations, example, Fair Practices Code (FPC), KYC, if they have not accessed any public funds and do not have a customer interface. Also, those having customer interface will be subjected only to conduct of business regulations including FPC, KYC, if they are not accessing public funds.

• ·         National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and Origo Commodities, a collateral management firm, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to realize better pricing for their harvest.
• ·         This will be done by providing them a facility for pledging their produce under Negotiable Warehouse Receipt financing. Origo allows farmers to make deposits of their produce in its warehouses and obtain pledge financing.
• ·         “This MoU is going to help farmers to a great extent by realising the right price by offering them options to sell their produce at the right time. The initiative also focuses on Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) accreditation so that farmers can benefit from post-harvest loans at 7% p.a. with interest subvention,’’ Jiji Mammen, Chief General Manager, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Regional Office, Nabard said on Monday.
• ·         The joint would enable farmers to use the warehousing infrastructure of Primary Agriculture Co-operative Societies (PACS) and also more than 100 warehouses managed by Origo Commodities across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

• ·         In a big relief to over a crore retired employees of government and PSUs, a pensioner can now digitally provide proof of his existence to authorities for continuity of pension every year instead of requiring to present himself physically or through a Life Certificate issued by specified authorities.
• ·         The “Jeevan Pramaan” scheme, an Aadhar-based Digital Life Certificate for pensioners, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, is one more enabling mechanism for the benefit of the common man after the push towards self-certification.
• ·         The Department of Electronics and IT has developed a software application which will enable the recording of the pensioner’s Aadhar number and biometric details from his mobile device or computer, by plugging in a biometric reading device.
• ·         Key details of the pensioner, including date, time, and biometric information, will be uploaded to a central database on real-time basis, ultimately enabling the pension disbursing agency to access a Digital Life Certificate.
• ·         This will conclusively establish that the pensioner was alive at the time of authentication, the statement said.
• ·         The earlier requirement entailed that a pensioner either personally present himself before the pension disbursing agency, or submits a Life Certificate issued by authorities specified by the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO).
• ·         At present, 50 lakh individuals draw pension from the central government alone. A similar number draw pension from State and Union Territory governments. Several PSUs also provide pension benefits besides which over 25 lakh retired personnel draw pension from the Armed Forces.

• ·         Arundhati Bhattacharya, the Chairperson of country’s largest bank SBI, has been named as the most-powerful woman in business in India by Fortune Magazine.
• ·         ICICI Bank’s Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank follow Bhattacharya at the second and the third place respectively.
• ·         In the Fortune India list of 50 most-powerful businesswomen, there are as many as eight new entrants.
• ·         Interestingly, two first timers—Bhattacharya and Nishi Vasudeva, the Chairperson and Managing Director at HPCL (fourth place)—have made a cut into the top 10.
• ·         Bhattacharya made to number one spot “due to her relentless fight against bad loans. Since she took over a year or so ago, she has improved assets quality, cut costs and recapitalised SBI (State Bank of India).”
• ·         “That’s no mean feat when you consider that SBI has 190 foreign offices, a market cap of Rs. 1.9 lakh crore and 2,22,033 employees,” Fortune India noted.
• ·         These powerful women represent various sectors such as banking, finance, healthcare, media, fashion and entertainment.

• ·         After private banks – HDFC Bank and Axis bank – decided to charge own customers for more than five transactions at their ATMs, public sector lender Union Bank of India has also joined the bandwagon.
• ·         The Mumbai-based bank will charge own customers for more than eight transactions per month at its ATMs and more than five at other banks ATMs. It will be charging Rs 15 per (excluding tax) from November 15, 2014.
• ·         Many public sector banks are still in "wait and watch mode". They would like to see how pricing is firmed up by the private banks and large state-owned banks.
• ·         HDFC Bank and Axis Bank will charge their own customers for more than five transactions at their Automated Teller Machines starting 1 December.
• ·         HDFC Bank will be charging Rs 20 for financial transactions and Rs 8.5 (excluding taxes) for non-financial transactions (balance enquiry, mini statement). Axis Bank will be charging Rs 20 (excluding taxes) for financial transactions and Rs 9.5 for non-financial transactions
• ·         At other bank ATMs, the customers of these banks will be charged beyond three transactions. Earlier five transactions were free at non-home bank ATMs.
• ·         However, Axis Bank has made ten transactions free for its Prime Plus Savings Account and Prime Salary account holders. These account holders are mandated to have a minimum opening balance of Rs 1 lakh.

• ·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 November 2014 expanded his Council of Ministers and added 21 more ministers to his government. This is first expansion of cabinet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government, since it came into power on 26 May 2014.
• ·         The 21 new ministers include four Cabinet Ministers, three Minister of State (Independent Charge) and 14 Minister of State.
• ·         With this expansion, the total number of ministers under different ranks including the Prime Minister has gone up from previous 45 to 66. The expanded council of ministers was from two parties, 20 from BJP and one YS Chowdary was from TDP, Andhra Pradesh.
• ·         The President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office and secrecy to the above twenty-one members of the Council of Ministers at a swearing-in ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

• ·         Goa Health Minister Laxmikant Yashwant Parsekar was on 8 November 2014 sworn-in as 18th Chief Minister of Goa. He succeeded Manohar Parrikar who resigned on 8 November 2014.
• ·         Along with Parsekar, seven other BJP ministers were also sworn-in including Francis D'Souza, Dayanand Mandrekar, Ramesh Tawadkar, Mahadev Naik, Dilip Parulekar, Milind Naik, and Alina Saldanha and two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) ministers Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar and Pandurang Deepak Dhavalikar.
• ·         Laxmikant Yashwant Parsekar is the member of the Goa Legislative Assembly from Mandrem constituency. Parsekar started as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) party worker.

• ·         The Darjeeling Zoo or the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park was on 1 November 2014 selected for the prestigious International Award The Earth Heroes Award 2014.
• ·         It has become the 1st zoo in India. It has competed with 300 zoos across the world.Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park  is largest high altitude zoo of India. It is located in West Bengal.
• ·         The Earth Heroes award is annually awarded by the Royal Bank of Scotland in collaboration with the Government of United Kingdom.
• ·         Darjeeling Zoo was established in 1958 and has played a key and proactive role in promoting the conservation and preservation of Himalayan fauna and flora.
• ·         Darjeeling Zoo is one of the very few places on earth that has successfully bred some of the rarest animals in the world including the majestic Snow Leopards, the Tibetan Wolf and the cute Red Pandas.

• ·         Haryana Government was on 10 November 2014 appointed Baldev Raj Mahajan, senior advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, as Advocate General (AG) with immediate effect.
• ·         He is considered as an expert in civil law. He is currently the national president of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad.

• ·         The Union Government on 3 November 2014 appointed  GS Sandhu as Chairman of National Chemical Weapon Convention.
• ·         His appointment was confirmed by the Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for the post of Chairman, National Authority for the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• ·         Sandhu is a 1980 Rajasthan cadre IAS officer.  Prior to this, he was serving as the financial services secretary in the Union Finance Ministry.

• ·         Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the World Bank has agreed in principle to consider a mega project in the state under Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project (AACP) proposed by the state.
• ·         The new project, 'Assam Agricultural Commercialization and Rural Transformation Project', worth Rs 12,000 crore, was submitted to the Centre on June 4 and the proposal has been cleared by the Ministry of Agriculture and was now pending with the Planning Commission, an official release said.
• ·         Gogoi, while reviewing the projects, asked all officers concerned to complete the remaining works under the project, including accelerating the disbursement and timely execution of contract immediately.
• ·         World Bank's country director for South Asia Region Rajni Khanna appreciated the progress in all sectors under AACP with particular reference to successful innovative activities including the establishment of a statewide groundwater monitoring system, farmer producer organisation and a pilot program of using solar power for running irrigation pumpsets, the release said.

• ·         Ukrainian People's Front Party led by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk won the country's eighth parliamentary elections on 8 November 2014.
• ·         The People's Front Party gained 22.14 percent of the vote while the political bloc that supports Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came second by winning 21.81 percent.

• ·         A South African Indian-origin radiographer has been elected as the president of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists (ISRRT).
• ·         Dr Fawzia Peer, who has been a radiographer for three decades, is the Manager of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and also an honorary lecturer at the Albert Luthuli Central Hospital’s Nuclear Medicine Department in Durban.
• ·         Peer said she would pursue the organisation’s objective of being the international liaison representative for Medical Radiation Technology, an area in nuclear medicine which involves the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

• ·         China and Russia signed energy cooperation agreements on 9 November 2014. The agreements were signed by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.
• ·         The deals include a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a second major supply route to supply Russian natural gas to China along a western route.
• ·         Earlier in May 2014, both the countries signed China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline deal of 400 billion US dollars, which will provide China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from 2018.
• ·         Both the countries agreed to support cooperation in high-speed rail, high technology, aero-space and finance sectors. The discussion between the two countries also included new cooperation projects of nuclear and hydropower.

• ·         Germany on 9 November 2014 celebrated the 25th anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall. The celebrations were attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• ·         On the occasion, white balloons marking a stretch of the wall were released to symbolize the disappearance of the wall.
• ·         The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 was the most significant event in recent German history and the wall. 
• ·         The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) to stop people fleeing from East Germany to the West.
• ·         The wall was a symbol of division between the Eastern and Western Germany and its fall in 1989 marked a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War. Within a year of its collapse, Germany divided after its defeat in World War Two was reunited.
• ·         The Berlin Wall stretched for 155 kilometers through Berlin of which only 3 kilometer is in existence now also. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the death strip) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, fakir beds and other defenses.

• ·         Indian cricketer Virat Kohli on 9 November 2014 became the fastest cricketer in the history to reach 6000 one-day international run mark. During his 53-run knock in India's third ODI against Sri Lanka, he overtook legendary West Indian Vivian Richards' record.
• ·         While playing his 144th match and 136th innings, 26-year-old Indian began the match 50 short of 6000 and reached the milestone with a single off left-arm spinner Chaturanga de Silva in the 39th over at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal, Hyderabad.
• ·         While playing his 144th match and 136th innings, 26-year-old Indian began the match 50 short of 6000 and reached the milestone with a single off left-arm spinner Chaturanga de Silva in the 39th over at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal, Hyderabad.
• ·         Richards reached the milestone in 1989 by playing 141 innings in 156 matches.
• ·         Kohli who made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Dambulla in August 2008, has reached the milestone with help of 20 centuries and 32 half-centuries. He is the eighth Indian to have scored 6000 or more runs and 47th overall.

• ·         Hockey India on 10 November 2014 announced the Hockey India Annual Awards wherein outstanding hockey players in the men’s and women’s categories will be awarded the prize money of 25 lakh rupees each.
• ·         Hockey India will identify and reward the most promising and potent players from the current as well as upcoming teams. Moreover, the organization decided to name the individual trophies after Hockey India president Dr Narinder Batra’s son Dhruv who passed away recently.
• ·         Each award will consist of a trophy, certificate and cash award.

• ·         Indian Hockey team on 9 November 2014 won four match Men's Hockey Test series against Australia by 3-1.
• ·         In the fourth and the final match of the series played at the Perth Hockey Stadium, Australia, India defeated Australia by 3-1 margin. 
• ·         After losing the opening match 0-4, India emerged winners in the remaining three games. All the matches were played at Perth.
• ·         This is the first time that India defeated Australia in a bilateral series. Prior to this series, the two countries have played five Test series in past of which three were won by Australia and one ended in a draw.
• ·         In this series, Indian men's hockey team skipper Sardar Singh registered a milestone as he completed his 200th international cap in the fourth and final Test against world champions Australia.