Current Affairs Update – 14th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs for 14th May, 2015. Now, if you see, today’s most important news is that RBI relaxed 2-factor authentication. 


On the other hand Modi ji’s China Visit, SBI’s Contactless Card launch is also important. Another Important news is the WPI Inflation. United Nation’s Predictions are always important. Finally we will get to see India vs Pakistan.


As SBI PO and IBPS PO is coming close, we will be providing a preface on a regular basis.

• Now, make payments up to Rs. 2,000 without punching your
  password at any retail outlet or while shopping online.
• Waiving the second or the additional factor of
  authentication (AFA) on small value transactions, RBI on Thursday released
  final guidelines for the same to enhance the convenience factor facilitating
  easy online and contact-less card payments.
• This will help consumers shopping online on e-commerce
  websites in faster payments skipping the process of typing an additional
  password while making small value payments. One can also avoid swiping cards at
  retail outlets and instead just tap or waive to the card reading machines.
• “After examining the trade-off between security and
  convenience in card transactions, Reserve Bank had placed for public comments a
  draft circular outlining the relaxation in the need for AFA in case of small
  value card present transactions using Near Field Communication (NFC)
  contactless technology subject to adherence to EMV standards.
• “Relaxation for AFA requirement is permitted for
  transactions for a maximum value of Rs. 2,000 per transaction…across all
  categories of merchants in the country where such contact-less payments will be
  accepted,” RBI said in a notification.
• It added that beyond Rs. 2,000, the card has to be processed
  as a contact payment and authentication with PIN (AFA) will be mandatory.
  However, customers cannot be compelled to do a contact-less payment.
• For cards without the NFC technology, “even for transaction
  values below this limit, the customer may choose to make payment as a contact
  payment”, which has to be facilitated by all banks and clearly tell the customer
  about the same, RBI said.

• State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest bank, has
  introduced contactless card payments technology that allows payments by waving
  or tapping of the cards near the machines.
• “The bank, and its credit card subsidiary – SBI Card – have
  launched the sbiINTOUCH Contactless Debit Card and SBI Signature Contactless
  Credit Card for quick, secure and hassle-free payments at merchant outlets.
  Contactless cards use the near-field communication (NFC) technology, enabling
  users to make payments by waving or tapping the card near the contactless
  reader instead of swiping or dipping it,” SBI said in a statement.
• At present, customers can make payments up to Rs. 2,000 per
  tap and pay transactions at select point-of-sale (POS) machines. Reducing the
  risk of card loss and fraud, the customers can tap or wave the card at the POS
  machine, enter the pin, and complete the payment transaction at busy locations,
  the bank said.
• Contactless cards are designed to replace the use of cash in
  busy retail environments such as supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol
  stations and quick-service restaurants.
• At present, SBI has about 5,000 such NFC-enabled POS
  machines in major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune,
  Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. The bank plans to further increase the number of POS
  machines to 1 lakh and convert existing machines into NFC-enabled.
• The bank has 2.20 lakh POS machines across the country.

• Deflationary pressure continued for the sixth month in a row
  with inflation dropping to a new low of 2.65 per cent in April, mainly on
  account of decline in prices of fuel and manufactured items even as food prices
  increased.
• Inflation, as measured on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI),
  has been in the negative zone since November, 2014. In April last year, it was
  5.55 per cent.
• The deflationary trend has bolstered the case for a rate cut
  by the Reserve Bank, as retail inflation has also eased and industrial
  production is down, experts said. Industrial output had slowed to 5-month low
  of 2.1 per cent in March.
• Inflation was 2.33 per cent in March, 2.17 per cent in
  February, 0.95 per cent in January, 0.50 per cent in December and 0.17 per cent
  in November.
• In April this year, the manufactured products segment
  witnessed deflation for the second consecutive month as prices dropped to a
  record low of 0.52 per cent.
• Inflation in food articles category stood at 5.73 per cent,
  from 6.31 per cent in March. For fuel and power, it was 13.03 per cent in
  April.

• Indian economy is likely to clock 8.1 per cent growth in the
  current financial year, spurred by strong consumer spending amid low inflation,
  infrastructure projects and government’s reform measures, says a UN report.
• Investment is also expected to rebound, although unevenly,
  given the still low capacity-utilisation rate at about 70 per cent, it said.
• It said however that volatile capital flows that may follow
  monetary policy normalisation in the US remain the downside risk.
• The growth projection is in line with the estimates of the
  Finance Ministry.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
  have projected India’s growth at 7.5 per cent for the current fiscal. However,
  the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has forecast a growth rate of 7.8 per cent.
• The report said, decline in inflation benefits from lower
  global energy prices, but structural factors that keep food prices remain high.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 13 May
  2015 gave its approval for 5 percent disinvestment in National Thermal Power
  Corporation Limited (NTPC) and 10 percent disinvestment in Indian Oil
  Corporation (IOC).
• Disinvestment in these two Maharatna companies will fetch
  government over 13000 crore rupees at current market price. The proposed share
  sale of 5 percent in NTPC will fetch Union government 5600 crore rupees while
  that of 10 percent in IOC will bring in 8100 crore rupees.
• Currently, Union Government holds 74.96 percent stake in
  NTPC and 68.57 percent stake in IOC. After the sale, the Government will be
  left with a 58.57 percent stake in Indian Oil and 69.96 percent in NTPC.

• The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Bill, 2015
  was on 13 May 2015 introduced in Lok Sabha after Union Cabinet gave its
  approval to amend the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988.
• The Bill seeks to amend the Benami Transactions
  (Prohibition) Act, 1988 by adding additional provisions that provides for
  stringent measures against violators in order to curb and check the generation
  of black money in the country.
• It adds provisions for attachment and confiscation of benami
  properties and imposes fine with imprisonment. It has provision for prosecution
  and aims to act as a major avenue for blocking benami property, which leads to
  generation and holding of black money especially in real estate.

• Canara Bank, a public sector bank, has signed a Memorandum
  of Understanding (MoU) with Volvo-Eicher Commercial Vehicles Ltd (VECV) for
  financing vocational education loans.
• The MoU was signed by S Ramesh, General Manager, Canara
  Bank, on behalf of PC&FI Wing and Shyam Maller, Senior Vice-President,
  Sales, Marketing and After Market, on behalf of Volvo-Eicher Commercial
  Vehicles Ltd.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday arrived on a
  three-day visit to China during which he will hold summit talks with Chinese
  President Xi Jinping on a range of issues including the festering border
  dispute and China’s plans for infrastructure projects in Pakistan—occupied
  Kashmir (PoK).
• Mr. Modi, who is undertaking his first visit to China as
  Prime Minister, would begin his day with a visit to the famous Terracotta
  Warriors museum which has a large collection of terracotta sculptures depicting
  the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.
• He would later visit the famous Buddhist Dashang temple in
  Shaanxi province, the home province of President Xi, who has restored its old
  glory by making it the headquarters of his mega Silk Road projects.
• He is being accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit
  Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and senior officials.
• China is the first leg of Modi’s three—nation tour that will
  also take him to Mongolia and South Korea.

• Punjab Agriculture Department on 13 May 2015 launched a
  pan-state programme to monitor the soil health of every farm in the state by
  issuing them personalised Soil Health Cards (SHCs). With this, Punjab became
  the first state in India to issue Soil Health Cards to farmers.
•  
• In this regard, every district of state was assigned a
  mobile soil testing lab. These labs will take soil sample from every farm and
  will issue digitalised soil health details.
• As per Punjab Government, it is mandatory for Soil Testing
  Labs to check  soil health quarterly.
  Each health card holder will be issued a written advisory on usage of
  fertilisers and seeds adaptability.

• The Government of India on Wednesday approved resumption of
  cricket ties with Pakistan, after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief
  Shahryar Khan met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
• The government reportedly does not have any issues with
  Indo-Pak cricket series, the first of which may be hosted by Pakistan at their
  ‘adopted’ home UAE since the security situation in Pakistan is not ideal to
  host India. But there is no final decision on this yet.
• The two boards have signed a Memorandum of Understanding
  (MoU) for five bilateral series over eight years.
• India had cut all cricketing ties with Pakistan since the
  26/11 Mumbai attacks; however, India did host Pakistan for an ODI series in
  2011.
• Zakir Khan, PCB’s Director of cricket operations, said, Good
  for Pakistan cricket. Shahryar is in India and pushing for the series. It’s a
  personal victory for him.
• Since 2007, India and Pakistan haven’t been involved in a
  full-fledged tour, largely due to political reasons.

• Talented Indian youngster Tejaswini Sagar won her maiden
  world title bagging the gold in the under-15 category of World School Chess
  Championship that concluded here today.
• Needing a last round win and one favourable result, the Aurangabad-girl
  defeated Kavinya Miyuni Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka in the ninth and final round.
• Tejaswini was aided by the result on the top board as
  overnight leader Irina Barbayeva of Russia lost to Alisa Kozybayeva of
  Kazakhstan in the final clash.
• For the record, Tejaswini scored seven points out of a
  possible nine, winning six, drawing two and losing one game.
• Her defeat came earlier in the championship against
  compatriot Isha Sharma when the champion fell under an opening trap but in
  other games, Tejaswini was above par.

• Enheduanna, the name suggested by an Indian space
  enthusiast, is one of the winners of a NASA contest to name five new craters on
  Mercury.
• The five winning names for the craters are: Enheduanna, Carolan,
  Karsh, Kulthum and Rivera.
• Enheduanna, suggested by Gagan Toor from India, is a
  princess of the Sumerian city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and
  Kuwait). She is the first known poet and author.
• The names were selected by the public outreach team for the
  spacecraft out of thousands of submissions to an open competition that closed
  in January, ‘Space.com’ reported.
• The new crater names have been approved by the International
  Astronomical Union (IAU).
• The rules of the IAU state that Mercury features must be
  named after an artist, composer or writer who was famous for more than 50 years
  and died at least three years ago.

• India which has contributed nearly 180,000 troops, the
  largest by any country, to the UN peacekeeping operations has been honoured for
  making significant contribution towards global peace and stability at the
  Capitol Hill here.
• The new Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh received
  the award in recognition of India’s commitment to peacekeeping at the event
  organised by Better World Campaign, The United Nations Association of the USA
  and the US-India Business Council.
• Multi-dimensional peacekeeping is a contemporary reality and
  there is a need to involve troop contributing countries in all aspects of
  mission planning, Singh said in his address.
• India has contributed nearly 180,000 troops, the largest
  number from any country, participated in more than 44 missions out of the 69 UN
  peacekeeping operations mandated so far and 158 Indian peacekeepers have made
  the supreme sacrifice while serving in UN missions.
• India has been among the largest troop contributors with
  around 8000 personnel deployed with 10 UN Peacekeeping Missions this year,
  including the first Female Formed Police Unit under the UN.

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