Current Affairs Update – 17th July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 17th July, 2015. These are important for the upcoming RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 16 July 2015 permitted
  Cooperative Banks with Core Banking Solution (CBS) to issue ATM
  cards/ATM-cum-debit cards in tie with a sponsor banks.
• The decision was taken by the RBI in an attempt to move
  towards a less-cash economy and with an aim to inculcate the habit of using
  electronic payment channels among bank customers.
• Further, these cooperative banks by virtue of being a
  sub-member of National Financial Switch (NFS) are required to fulfil the risk
  management requirements prescribed by the sponsor bank and meet expenses
  devolving on them under the agreement with the sponsor bank.
• Also, banks should set up their own arrangement for issuing
  cards, authorization of cards and customer support/redressal mechanism and
  ensure to provide uninterrupted services to their customers.
• The RBI took the decision after it received representations
  from cooperative banks not having their own ATMs and sought permission to issue
  ATM-cum-debit cards to their customers in tie-up with banks having their own
  ATM network.

• Core Banking Solution (CBS) fully implemented
• Licence for conducting banking business
• Introduction from sponsor bank (a bank having ATM network
  connectivity)
• Connectivity with National Payment Corporation of India
  (NPCI)

The decision is in addition to the earlier decision of the
RBI taken on 16 April 2015 to allow State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) to install
offsite/ mobile ATMs as per their need and potential in their area of
operation.

• CRAR not being less than 9 per cent
• No default in maintenance of CRR/SLR during the preceding financial
  year
• Net NPA being less than 5 per cent
• The bank should have a track record of regulatory compliance
  and no monetary penalty should have been imposed on the bank on account of
  violation of RBI directives/guidelines during last two financial years

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 16 July 2015 directed banks
  to ensure that their overall direct lending to farmers should not fall below
  the average of last three years.
• The direction was given by RBI against the backdrop of
  government expressing concern over adverse impact of any reduction in direct
  credit, given the adverse weather conditions.
• Further, the RBI warned the banks that direct lending below
  the target set for priority sector lending will attract usual penalties.
• The apex bank also said that banks should also continue to
  maintain efforts to reach the level of 13.5 percent direct lending to
  beneficiaries who earlier constituted the direct agriculture sector.
• In an effort to increase direct lending to agriculture, the
  RBI in April 2015 revised the target for direct lending to small and marginal
  farmers under priority sector norms to 7 percent for 2015-16 and to 8 percent
  for 2016-17.

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 17 July 2015
  imposed penalty of 671.05 crore rupees upon four Public Sector Insurance
  Companies.
• The penalty was imposed for manipulating the bidding process
  initiated by Government of Kerala for selecting insurance service provider for
  Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna for the years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. The
  beneficiaries of the schemes were BPL and poor families.
• These companies and their penalties are National Insurance
  (162.80 crores rupees), New India Assurance (251.07 crores rupees), Oriental
  Insurance (100.56 crores rupees) and United India Insurance (156.62 crores
  rupees).
• The orders were passed on anonymous information in Suo Moto
  case received by CCI under Section 19(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 against
  the four Insurance companies. The information alleged contravention of the
  provisions of section 3 of the Act which deals with anti-competitive agreements
  including bid rigging.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday asked banks to
  levy any late payment penalty on credit card customers, or report them to
  credit information companies, only if the payment has been due for more than
  three days.
• For banks, RBI said they can treat a credit card as
  non-preforming asset if the ‘minimum amount due’ has not been paid within 90
  days from the due date.
• To bring in greater credit discipline as also to provide
  operational flexibility to credit card issuers, RBI said the ‘past due’ status
  of a credit card account for the purpose of asset classification would be
  reckoned from the payment due date mentioned in the monthly credit card
  statement.
• It further asked banks to report a credit card account as
  ‘past due’ to credit information companies (CICs) or levy penal charges, such
  as late payment charges only when a credit card account remains ‘past due’ for
  more than three days.
• The number of ‘days past due’ and late payment charges
  should be, however, computed from payment due date mentioned in the credit card
  statement, it added.
• In credit card accounts, the amount spent is billed to the
  card users through a monthly statement with a definite due date for repayment.
• Banks give an option to the card users to pay either the
  full amount or a fraction of it or a minimum amount on the due date and roll
  over the balance to the subsequent month’s billing cycle.

• The Reserve Bank today signed a special currency swap
  agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka that will allow the latter to draw
  up to USD 1.1 billion.
• Under the arrangement, the Sri Lankan bank can draw up to
  USD 1.1 billion for a maximum period of six months.
• This special arrangement is in addition to the existing
  Framework on Currency Swap Arrangement for the SAARC member countries.
• In March, RBI had signed a Currency Swap Agreement with the
  Central Bank of Sri Lanka for USD 400 million under the existing SAARC Currency
  Swap Framework within the overall limit of USD 2 billion.
• The proposal to extend the additional currency swap facility
  of USD 1.1 billion for a limited period was decided by the government in April
  based on the recommendation of RBI.
• It was intended for mitigating the possible currency
  volatility in the spirit of strengthening India’s bilateral relations and
  economic ties with Sri Lanka, RBI said.

• India and World Bank on 16 July 2015 signed Financing
  Agreement for assistance of 250 million US dollars for Andhra Pradesh Disaster
  Recovery Project. It is a loan for an implementation period of 5 years and
  Andhra Pradesh Government will be the implementing agency of project.
• The Financing Agreement was signed by S Selvakumar, Joint
  Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in Union Government and Onno Ruhl,
  Country Director (India) of World Bank on behalf of the World Bank.
• While, the Project Agreement was signed by Jagdish Chander
  Sharma, Principal Secretary, Land and Disaster Management on behalf of
  Government of Andhra Pradesh.

• The Union Cabinet on 16 July 2015 approved the signing of
  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Canada in the field of
  Civil Aviation. The MoU will help in enhancing the experience and technical
  knowledge in the field of Civil Aviation between India and Canada.
• It will also deepen the bilateral cooperation between the
  two countries.

• Under the MoU, an appropriate platform shall be formalized
  for exchange of views on the possibilities of fostering economic cooperation
  between the two countries in the areas of civil aviation.
• There will be a cooperation programme in the areas of safety
  of aircraft operations and related issues that will provide more up-to-date
  knowledge to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
• Apart from the above, India firms will also be benefited
  from the exchange of technical knowhow with Canadian companies as the aviation
  industry is far more developed in Canada.
• Canadian companies will gain from enhanced access to the
  fast developing civil aviation industry in India.

• Passengers booking tatkal train tickets would not be
  required to produce identity proof anymore as Railways have decided to discontinue
  with this provision.
• The modified provision could come into effect by September
  1.
• “Under the modified rules, there will be no need to
  furnish photocopy of proof of identity while booking Tatkal ticket from
  computerised reservation counter or to indicate its number at the time of
  booking of tatkal ticket at the counter or through internet,” said a
  railway statement.
• However, one of the passengers has to produce the original
  proofs of identity during the journey to avoid being penalised.
• Officials said the decision to do away with producing
  identity card while purchasing tatkal ticket was taken to avoid any duplicity
  as the passengers had to produce identity proof at the time of the journey too.
• The present provision also led to harassment of those
  passengers carrying a different identity proof at the time of the journey than
  the one produced at the time of booking tickets, thus being penalised in the
  process, they said.
• Currently, passengers at the time of booking a ticket has to
  provide a photocopy of identity card which he/she will carry during the
  journey.

• White-Fi technology or TV White Space Technology was in news
  in the second week of July 2015 as Microsoft announced plans to introduce this
  technology in India to providelast mile connectivity and give a boost to the
  Digital India initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• According to Microsoft, its technology can provide free
  Wi-Fi connectivity to the roughly one-billion Indians who don’t have any net
  access and it plans to start with International Institute of Information
  Technology (IIIT) Bangalore campus.
• White-Fi technology uses the unused spectrum in frequencies
  utilised for broadcasting of television signals and use it for the internet. In
  technology parlance, these unused spectrum spaces are called White Space and
  thus it is also called TV White Space technology.

• INS Astravahini, indigenously built Torpedo launch and
  recovery vessel (TLRV), was on 16 July 2015 decommissioned after its 31 years
  service to the nation. The vessel had immensely contributed in the trials of
  indigenous torpedoes developed by Naval Science and Technological Laboratory
  (NSTL).
• It was decommissioned at a ceremony presided over by
  Commodore K A Bopanna, Naval Officer-in-Charge ( Andhra Pradesh Division) at
  the Ship Building Centre, Andhra Pradesh.

• A new decentralized and personalized mobile app called
  MUrgency is being set up to create a global emergency response to help people
  in distress in developing countries.
• Brain child of Indian social entrepreneur Shaffi Mather,
  MUrgency is being launched by MUrgency Inc. in global partnership with Business
  Call to Action at the United Nations Development Program, Young Global Leaders
  at the World Economic Forum, Stanford ChangeLabs, Harvard Asia Center and MIT
  Global Health.
• MUrgency is a cloud platform and mobile application which
  will connect people who need emergency response with their trusted network,
  other users of the app and/or credentialed medical, safety, rescue and
  assistance professionals as the situation requires and the individual in
  emergency requests. It will make the nearest emergency responder (doctor,
  nurse, EMT, paramedic, ambulance etc.) available to a person facing an
  emergency.
• MUrgency Inc., the San Francisco based tech company which
  has developed this emergency cloud platform and mobile app joined the Business
  Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to assist half a million people at the
  base of the pyramid by the end of 2015 through the MUrgency platform.

• Haryana government named Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra
  as the brand ambassador for the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign to promote
  the cause of girl child.
• Parineeti Chopra, hailing from Ambala in Haryana, has won
  several awards, including the Filmfare and National Film Award, a Haryana
  government release said.
• A mega event has been planned in Gurgaon on July 21 to push
  the campaign to new heights, that will be attended by the actress, it said.
• ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign, aimed at ensuring
  survival, protection and empowerment of the girl child, was launched by Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi from Panipat in the state in January this year.

• Former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar was today
  appointed as the Chief Advisor of Security and anti-corruption unit (ACSU) of
  BCCI for next year’s T20 World Cup to be hosted by India.
• Kumar was already roped in by the BCCI for a one-year period
  in the anti-corruption unit during the IPL. “The Board of Control for Cricket
  in India today announced the names of the organising committee for the mega
  event with Dr M V Sridhar as the General Manager for Cricket Operations,” the
  BCCI said in a statement.
• Amrit Mathur has been appointed as the Principal Coordinator
  while R P Shah will be the Tournament Manager, Finance.
• In other positions, KVP Rao will be the Manager for Cricket
  Operations, while Nishant Jeet Arora, Media Manager of the BCCI, will double up
  as Tournament Media Manager.
• Mayank Parikh has been nominated as Manager — Logistics and
  hospitality and Professor Ratnakar Shetty, who was the Tournament Director of
  the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011, has been appointed as an advisor to the
  Committee.

• India’s largest online retailer Flipkart on 15 July 2015
  appointed Eric Lange as the vice president of product management for its
  customer experience division.
• He is expected to take charge in August 2015 at the
  company’s headquarters in Bengaluru.
• Lange is a Silicon Valley veteran and earlier worked with
  Yahoo and search engine major Google.
• He was the third high-profile Silicon Valley technology
  executive to join Flipkart in 2015.

• Indian American woman Sunita Viswanath was on 16 July 2015
  honoured as Champions of Change by the White House of United States (US). She
  was among 12 other faith leaders who were awarded for their efforts in
  protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change.
• Sunita was selected for her work to encourage Hindus to take
  care of the environment. Sunita is co-founder and active board member of the
  14-year-old front-line women’s human rights organisation, Women for Afghan
  Women.
• Born in Chennai, she has been working with women’s and human
  rights organisations for almost three decades.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams