Current Affairs Update – 13th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 13th May, 2015. These are very important for Upcoming SBI PO exam. Today’s News features, RBI, Insurance and Appointment news in Major.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) 12 May 2015 released the
  report titled State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2014-15. The theme of this
  year’s report is Fiscal Consolidation: Assessment and Medium Term Prospects.
• The report is an annual publication that provides data,
  analysis and an assessment of the finances of state governments. It provides
  the snapshot of the changing dynamics of fiscal federalism over the years.

• It calls for renewed and sustained efforts by states towards
  fiscal consolidation in the years following the global financial crisis so as
  to increase states’ own revenues.
• It calls for freeing up resources for higher capital
  outlays, improving the quality of fiscal consolidation and setting the
  consolidated debt-GDP ratio of the states, including off budget liabilities on
  a declining trajectory.
• The rapidly growing e-commerce could contribute to states’
  own revenue efforts, provided there is greater clarity in rules and procedures
  to enable better compliance.
• Windfall gains accruing over time from auctioning of natural
  resources need to be channelised effectively for meeting developmental needs of
  the mineral rich states.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 11 May 2015 advised all
  public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal
  Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it
  should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
• The objective of this initiative is to further boost the
  quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to
  resolution of customer complaints in banks.
• The internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank
  customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking
  Ombudsman.
• Besides, it also asked some private sector and foreign banks
  to appoint such Ombudsman. These are ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank
  Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank,
  Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd. These banks have been selected on the basis of
  their asset size, business mix, etc.

• NDA government on Wednesday faced tough questions in Lok
  Sabha from its own members over a bill, which aims at making filing of cases
  more convenient for payees in cheque-bounce matters, with some BJP members
  wondering if it would be used by corporates to harass the common man.
• The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill 2015 was later
  passed by a voice vote, with Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha
  insisting that it would boost the “integrity of financial system” and not lead
  to the harassment of the common man.
• The bill was necessitated due to an “impractical” Supreme
  Court order that cases against those having defaulted on their cheque payments
  could only be filed in courts under which jurisdiction the bank account of the
  accused fell, he said.
• Pitching for the legislation, Mr. Sinha said the courts were
  currently dealing with 21 lakh cheque-bounce cases with 259 courts hearing them
  exclusively and the new law would help consolidate the cases and aid the
  judicial system.

• Trade deficit between India and China increased about 34 per
  cent to USD 48.43 billion in 2014-15 from USD 36.21 billion in the previous
  fiscal, Parliament was told on Wednesday.
• India’s concern on the rising deficit has been discussed
  with China at various fora, including the highest level of leadership of the
  two countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written
  reply to the Rajya Sabha.
• The issue is also likely to figure during the visit of Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi this week to China.

• Kolkata Knight Riders co-owners, actors Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi
  Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta, have been served Enforcement Directorate (ED)
  summons for allegedly violating Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) norms,
  official sources said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
• The ED move follows a notice sent in March in 2015 and Mr.
  Khan and others would be required to appear before the agency by May-end.
• The Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd is suspected to have
  violated FEMA norms by undervaluing its shares in a transfer deal with Jay
  Mehta’s overseas company, Sea Island Investments Ltd.
• However, none of the co-owners have officially reacted to
  the development.

• A study by ICICI Lombard and Google India has revealed that
  online purchase of non-life insurance products has been growing in India.
• Buying was higher for motor insurance with 24 per cent users
  buying policies online, compared to 12 per cent buying health insurance online.
• The study was commissioned to understand patterns of online
  purchase of non-life insurance products.
• Over 3,000 active internet users, spread across 18 cities in
  the 25–55 age group, participated in this survey.
• The findings revealed that users in the 25–35 age group were
  most active in the online purchase. Ease of purchase and convenience were the
  primary drivers.
• Consumer behaviour for research and purchase across desktop
  and mobile was similar with 80 per cent users accessing the Net for
  insurance-related search or purchase through desktop/laptop and 85 per cent
  through mobile/tablet, indicating a clear tendency to shift between devices.

• President of India Pranab Mukherjii on 12 May 2015 appointed
  four Governors and transferred two others. These appointments and transfers
  were done in accordance with Article 155 of the Constitution of India.

• V Shanmuganathan was appointed as the
  Governor of Meghalaya. He is a
  member of BJP national executive.
• Draupadi Murmu was appointed as the Governor of Jharkhand. She is from BJP and was a
  Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Odisha’s Rairangpur constituency in
  2000.
• Tathagata Roy was appointed as Governor of Tripura. Roy had unsuccessfully
  contested on BJP seat from Kolkata Dakshin Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.
• JP Rakkhowa was appointed as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. He is a 1968-batch IAS officer. He has been involved in
  issues related to Northeast after his retirement.

• Syed Ahmed, Governor of Jharkhand was
  shifted to Manipur. He was appointed
  in September 2011. His tenure will end in September 2016.
• Lt General
  (retd.) Nirbhay Sharma, who was serving as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh since May,
  2011, was transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of his term, which ends in 2018. He is
  the eighth Governor of the state since 2014.

• Deepak Iyer was on 12 May 2015 appointed as Managing
  Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA General
  Insurance.
• Currently, he is working as the Managing Director-Indian
  subcontinent at Wrigley India, a subsidiary of the US-based Mars.
• He will take the charge from June 2015. He will take charge
  from Interim CEO and MD Milind Chalisgaonkar.
• Earlier, he worked with PepsiCo for 16 years handling
  multiple international assignments, including those of Senior Franchise
  Director-Africa, General Manager-North & East India (including Bangladesh,
  Nepal & Sri Lanka) and Director-Sales for Modern Trade/ Food service/ Leisure/
  Travel & Transport channels of the company.

• An Indian-origin councillor woman has became the first Asian
  woman elected mayor of Ealing Council in London.
• Harbhajan Kaur Dheer, 62, at a ceremony at the Victoria Hall
  at Ealing Council yesterday became the Mayor of Ealing Council after succeeding
  councillor Tej Ram Bagha.
• Her husband councillor Ranjit Dheer is a former Mayor of
  Ealing. Born in Punjab in 1953, Harbhajan Kaur came to Britain in 1975.
• The early years in Britain were difficult and she had to
  work very hard to establish herself and raise two children.

• The Supreme Court (SC) on 13 May 2015 issued guidelines on
  regulating government advertisements. The guidelines were issued by a SC bench
  headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
• The new guidelines by the apex court were framed with a view
  to discourage such advertisements from creating personality cults and it
  applies to the frequent advertisements that are placed by the centre and state
  governments to publicise schemes.

• Only photographs of the President, Prime Minister (PM) and
  Chief Justice of India (CJI) can feature in the newspaper advertisements
  released by state and central government departments.
• The photographs of these dignitaries can only be used with
  their prior approval.
• Besides, these three, the photos of late leaders like
  Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru can also be used in the government
  advertisements.

• Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on 12 May
  2015 launched the water ATM facility Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP
  Roadways bus stations. This facility was installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and
  at other 100 bus stations of the state.
• Through this service, the passengers will get best potable
  water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.
• Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh government also flagged off four
  luxury buses Scannia to four different destination including Delhi. It also
  inaugurated an IVRS number 149 enquiry facility regarding bus services of UP.
• The state government also laid the foundation stone for up
  gradation of 25 bus stations where state of the art technology and best
  passenger and civic facilities will be available.

• The Cabinet approved the flagship “Namami Gange” programme,
  which integrates the efforts to clean and protect the River Ganga in a
  comprehensive manner.
• The programme has a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore for
  the next 5 years. The amount was a significant four-fold increase over the
  expenditure allocated to the task of cleaning the Ganga over the past 30 years,
  a government release said.
• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Mr. Modi, approved the
  flagship programme which integrates the efforts to clean and protect the Ganga
  river in a comprehensive manner, a government statement here said.
• The programme has a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore for
  the next five years and a significant increase over the expenditure in the past
  30 years.
• The Centre has incurred an overall expenditure of
  approximately Rs. 4,000 crore vis-a-vis Ganga rejuvenation since 1985, it
  added.
• In order to push the efforts for the Ganga’s clean-up, the statement
  said that the Centre will now take over 100 per cent funding of various
  activities/projects under this programme.

• Celebrated writer Suchitra Bhattacharya, many of whose books
  had been made into cult Bengali films including Dahan, died at her south
  Kolkata residence this midnight, her family members said.
• Bhattacharya, who was born in 1960 in Bihar, was busy with
  her next puja fiction even this evening but suddenly felt sick after dinner and
  was declared dead by her family physician at around 10:45 pm, the family member
  said.
• Suchitra penned over 20 novels including Dahan, Kachher
  Manush, Hemonter Pakhi, Aleek Shukh most turning best sellers in Bengali
  literature and being popular among the new generation women as well as others.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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