Current Affairs Update – 21st August, 2015

• The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) High Powered Committee
  on Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) headed by RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi in its
  report has recommended conversion of UCBs with business size of 20000 crore
  rupees or more into regular banks. This will allow them to grow and proliferate
  further for financial inclusion.
• RBI on 20 August 2015 placed the panel’s report on its
  website and invited suggestions and comments from public on this report by 18
  September 2015.

• Business Size and Conversion of Multi-State UCBs into joint
  stock bank: A business size of 20000 crore rupees or more may be the threshold
  limit beyond which a UCB may be expected to convert itself into a commercial
  bank. The conversion need not be de jure compulsory. However, the types of
  businesses to be undertaken by those choosing not to convert may remain within
  the limits of plain vanilla products and services and hence, growth will be at
  a much slower pace. Their expansion in terms of branches, area of operations
  and business lines may thus be carefully calibrated.
• Conversion of UCBs into Small Finance Banks (SFBs): Smaller
  UCBs with business size of less than 20000 crore rupees willing to convert to
  SFBs can apply to the Reserve Bank for conversion provided they fulfil all the
  eligibility criteria and selection processes prescribed by the Reserve Bank and
  further provided that the licensing window for SFBs is open.
• Issue of fresh licences: Licenses may be issued to
  financially sound and well-managed co-operative credit societies having a
  minimum track record of 5 years which satisfy the regulatory prescriptions set
  by the Reserve Bank as licensing conditions. For providing banking access in
  unbanked areas, the Reserve Bank may put in place an appropriate set of
  incentives for existing banks to open branches there.
• Board of Management (BoM) in addition to Board of Directors
  (BoDs): Putting in place a BoM as suggested by the Malegam Committee has to be
  one of the mandatory licensing conditions for licensing of new UCBs and
  expansion of existing ones.
• Entry Point Norms: The new Entry Point Norms (EPNs) may be
  as under:

• To operate as a Multi-State Urban
  Co-operative Bank- 100 crore rupees
• To operate beyond two districts and
  as a State level UCB – 50 crore rupees
• To operate as District level UCB
  (upto 2 districts) – 25 crore rupees
• In case of conversion of
  co-operative credit societies in unbanked areas and in the north-east, suitable
  relaxation may be made by the Reserve Bank.

Depositors as voting members: The depositors ought to have a
say on the Boards of UCBs. For this, a majority of the board seats may be
reserved for depositors by making suitable provisions in the bye-laws.

• Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has tied up with taxi-hailing
  app Uber for its wallet services. Now, Uber riders can pay for their trips with
  Airtel’s mobile wallet service — Airtel Money.
• Uber already has a similar tie-up with Paytm Wallet.
  Additionally, in Mumbai, riders can get free access to high-speed Internet
  inside Uber, powered by Airtel 4G. This service will soon be rolled out for
  Uber riders pan-India.
• This integration will provide riders with another
  hassle-free payment option and will make Uber the first technology platform to
  officially launch Airtel Money. For a limited time, new Uber riders who top up
  their Airtel Money wallet will earn up to Rs. 500 for free. Additionally,
  starting with Mumbai, every Uber vehicle in India will soon be equipped with
  free WiFi, powered by Airtel 4G. Whether riding to work or a night out in town,
  Uber will offer commuters high-speed internet at no data charges, powered by
  Airtel 4G.
• Airtel will also become Uber’s official telecom partner
  across India, and support the company’s rapid growth in India by offering
  mobile, data and device plans to Uber driver-partners. As part of this
  alliance, Uber will also offer exclusive promotions, discounts and experiences to
  Airtel customers — including Rs. 500 off on their first ride upon using Airtel
  Money.

• Submission of online application and generation of an
  application ID with date.
• Online screening of applications.
• Online receipt of documents.
• No loss of documents due to postal or human negligence.
• Curtailment of procedural delays.
• Minimized paper work.
• Time saving.
• The applicant can check the status of their applications
  with their ID.
• Online project approval, sanctions and release of funds.
• Online monitoring of projects.
• Reports on trained women, location of projects etc.
  available in public domain.

• The hotlines or secure lines of communication between Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama and their national
  security advisers have recently become operational, though it has not been put
  to use during its short lifespan so far.
• With this India becomes only the fourth country- after
  Russia, Great Britain and China – with which the US has a hotline.
• For India this is the first hotline at the level of head of
  state.
• In 2004, India and Pakistan agreed to establish hotlines at
  the level of foreign secretaries, and in 2010 New Delhi and Beijing announced
  to establish a hotline at the foreign minister level.
• According to publicly available information the hotline
  between India and Pakistan was established with the help of US military.
• India-China hotline is yet to become operational.

• Himachal Pradesh Government on 20 August 2015 launched the
  Rajiv Gandhi Illuminating Scheme for Hill Town Advancement (RISHTA) project, an
  efficient smart LED based street lighting project. With this, Himachal Pradesh
  became the first state in North India to do so.
• The scheme is also known as Centralized Control and
  Monitoring System (CCMS) Smart Street Lighting Scheme for Urban Local bodies
  which implements LED based street lighting project. This project is being
  implemented by collaboration of state Urban Development Department and EESL.
• EESL (Energy Efficient Services Limited) is a joint venture
  company formed by four power sectors i.e. National Thermal Power Corporation
  (NTPC), Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL), Power Finance Corporation Ltd.
  (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).

• The Union Government on 15 August 2015 launched a web portal
  named Vidya Lakshmi (www.vidyalakshmi.co.in) for the benefit of  students seeking Educational Loans.
• It is the first portal of its kind that provides single
  window for students to access information and make application for educational
  loans provided by banks as well as for government scholarships.
• The Portal was developed by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure
  Limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of Department of Financial Services
  under Union Ministry of Finance, Department of Higher Education under Union
  Ministry of Human Resource Development and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

• It provides
  information about educational loan schemes of banks
• Common educational
  loan application form for students
• It has facility to
  apply to multiple banks for educational loans
• It allows banks to
  download students’ loan applications and upload loan processing status
• It offers students to
  email grievances/queries relating to educational loans to banks
• It has dashboard
  facility for students to view status of their loan application

• Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Prime Minister of
  Sri Lanka. He was administered the oath of office by President Maithripala
  Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.
• Wickremesinghe, a lawmaker since 1977, had served the
  country as its Prime Minister on three occasions. He held the post from
  1993-94, 2002-2004 and since January 2015.
• Apart from this, immediately after the swearing-in, the
  General Secretaries of the two main parties in the country, the Sri Lanka
  Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) signed a Memorandum of
  Understanding to work together in the parliament and form a National
  Government.

• Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in a televised address
  to the nation announced his resignation on 20 August 2015. He submitted his
  resignation to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and asked for the earliest
  possible election date.
• 41-year-old Tsipras, who was elected as the Prime Minister
  in January 2015, said that he felt a deep moral obligation to lay his action
  before the judgement of the Greek people.
• Tsipras resigned with an aim to defend the massive bailout
  of 86 billion-euro (96 billion dollars), which Greece received from the
  creditors. This third bailout to the country since 2010, led to rebellion
  within his left-wing Syriza party.

• The book titled Mrs Funnybones: She’s Just Like You and a
  Lot Like Me authored by former Bollywood actress Twinkle Khanna was released on
  18 August 2015. Mrs. Funnybones is about how a modern woman looks at India and
  how India looks back at her.
• Full of wit and delicious observations, Mrs Funnybones
  captures the life of the modern Indian woman who organizes dinner each evening,
  even as she goes to work all day, who runs her own life but has to listen to
  her Mummyji, who worries about her weight and the state of the country.
• The book is the bigger version of Twinkle Khanna’s super-hit
  column Mrs Funnybones.  She is a popular
  columnist and her contributions can be seen in The Times of India and DNA After
  Hrs.

• The book titled Making India Awesome authored by Chetan
  Bhagat was released by Rupa Publications on 19 August 2015.
• This is the second non-fiction book written by the country’s
  biggest-selling writer Chetan Bhagat. His first non-fiction book was What Young
  India Wants which was well received by the readers.
• In this book of essays the author analyses and provides
  inspired solutions to the country’s most intractable problems—poverty,
  unemployment, corruption, violence against women, communal violence, religious
  fundamentalism, illiteracy and more.
• Using simple language and concepts, this book presents the
  most complex of problems facing the nation today and gives practical solutions
  to solve them.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

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

Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams