Current Affairs Update – 3rd June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 3rd June, 2015. These are Important for Upcoming SBI PO 2015 Mains Exam.

Finance/Industry/Insurance
Emami buys ‘Kesh
King’ in Rs.1,650-crore deal

  • FMCG company Emami Ltd. has entered into an agreement with
    Sanjeev Juneja to acquire his hair and scalp-care business under the Kesh King
    and allied brands. The total consideration has been pegged at Rs.1,651 crore.
  • The acquisition marks Emami’s foray in the ayurvedic hair
    and scalpcare segment. The transaction involves transfer of the business as
    going concern on a slump-sale basis, including brand portfolio of ayurvedic
    medicinal oil, herbal shampoo, conditioner and ayurvedic capsules along with
    respective formulations and all-related assets, rights and liabilities
    including working capital.
  • The five-year-old brand is a significant player in its
    segment, clocking a turnover of Rs.300 crore in 2014-15, and a CAGR of 60 per
    cent.
  • Emami is the flagship company of the Kolkata-based Emami
    Group. With 250 diverse products, its portfolio includes brands such as Zandu,
    BoroPlus, Navratna, Fair & Handsome, Mentho Plus, Fast Relief and
    SonaChandi Chyawanprash and new brands such as ‘HE’ Deodorant & Emami 7
    Oils in One.

Govt notifies FDI
policy relaxations for NRIs

  • Non-repatriable investments by NRIs, OCIs and PIOs will be
    treated as domestic investments and will not be subject to foreign direct
    investment caps.
  • NRIs would also include Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs)
    and Persons of Indian origin (PIOs).
  • Last month, the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra
    Modi, had cleared these amendments.
  • The decision is expected to result in increased investments
    across sectors and greater inflow of foreign exchange remittances leading to
    higher economic growth.
  • The government has also notified increase in FIPB’s power to
    recommend foreign investment proposals of up to Rs 3,000 crore from the earlier
    Rs 2,000 crore.
  • The Finance Minister would consider the recommendations of
    FIPB on proposals with a total foreign inflow up to Rs 3,000 crore.
  • Beyond this limit, proposals will go to the Cabinet
    Committee on Economic Affairs for approval.
  • The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP),
    which deals in FDI related matters, issues provisions in the form of press
    notes or consolidated circular.
  • In April-February of 2014-15, FDI rose 39 per cent to USD
    28.81 billion as against USD 20.76 billion in the same period previous fiscal.

Reinsurance major
Hannover Re to set up branch in India
  • Hannover Re — the world’s third largest reinsurance company
    — has decided to set up a branch in India, its visiting Chairman Ulrich Wallin
    has said.
  • Wallin — who sees a lot of potential for Hannover Re’s
    growth in India — had separate one-to-one meetings with Finance Minister Arun
    Jaitley and Health Minister J P Nadda here on Tuesday.
  • Hannover Re is among the several top global reinsurance
    giants who are making a beeline for the Indian market to tap the growing re-insurance
    opportunities here.
  • This has been made possible by the Modi-led government,
    which has pushed through several changes in the insurance law so as to enable
    global reinsurers to set up underwriting business in India.
  • As on date, Hannover Re only has a ‘service office’ in Delhi
    and Mumbai and annually writes about $130 million (cross-border) from the
    Indian market.
  • Currently, the overall market size for reinsurance in India
    is about $2 billion. Hannover Re’s global premium income is about $18 billion.

Reliance Capital to
set up global commodity exchange at GIFT IFSC

  • The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) on Wednesday
    announced plans to set up an international commodity exchange (ICEX) and
    business operations in international asset management and broking at the
    country’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in the Special Economic
    Zone within GIFT City.
  • The board of directors of Gujarat International Finance Tech
    – City Company Ltd (GIFT City) has approved the allotment of 500,000 square
    feet of area to the company for offices (300,000 sqft) and residential space
    (200,000 sqft) in the IFSC.
  • Reliance Capital will invest about Rs. 200 crore over three
    years towards setting up the office and residential facilities. The unit will
    provide employment to about 2,500 people.
  • Sam Ghosh, Executive Director, Reliance Capital Ltd, said
    the company will start some of the international businesses being done at other
    global financial centres such as Singapore, Dubai and Tokyo.

World Bank Approves
$250 Mn Loan for J&K Flood Recovery Project
  • Multi-lateral lender World Bank today approved USD 250
    million loan for Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project for reconstruction of
    flood-affected public infrastructure in Jammu & Kashmir.
  • It will also strengthen the capacity of state government to
    respond and better manage natural disasters in future, World Bank said in a
    release.
  • The project will be funded by credit from World Bank’s
    concessionary –International Development Association (IDA).
  • The loan has a maturity of 25 years, including a 5 year
    grace period.
  • A continuous spell of rains in September 2014 had caused
    Jhelum, Chenab and Tawi rivers, their tributaries and many other streams to
    flow above the danger mark which had severely affected livelihoods in the
    state.
  • Due to the unprecedented heavy rainfall, the catchment
    areas, particularly low lying ones, were flooded for more than two weeks, while
    Jhelum breached its banks at several places.

Bangladesh Allows LIC
to Run Business in Insurance Market

  • Bangladesh has granted permission to the Life Insurance
    Corporation of India (LIC) to run its business, making it the second foreign
    insurance company to operate in the country, officials said today.
  • He said the Indian state-owned insurance giant was allowed
    to start operations as a joint venture entity to be called LIC Bangladesh Ltd
    with a paid up capital of Taka 1 billion (USD 1=Tk 80) under a decision taken by
    the regulator three days ago.
  • LIC will hold half of the amount while the rest would be
    owed by its Bangladeshi partners raising the amount from the capital market and
    local entrepreneurs.
  • The approval came nearly two years after the IDRA rejected a
    LIC proposal seeking to launch its business in Bangladesh with a paid up
    capital of Tk 300 million.
  • LIC has been in the insurance business for six decades and
    is worth over 15,000 billion Indian rupees and it became the second foreign
    insurance agency after the US-based MetLife-ALICO, which too operate in
    Bangladesh as a branch office instead of being a joint venture registered
    company.
  • Apart from the two state-run insurance companies, Bangladesh
    currently has 60 insurance companies in private sector, 43 of them being
    general and 17 life.
  • Beyond India, the LIC currently operates in Nepal, Sri Lanka
    and Singapore.

Capgemini bags
multi-million euro contract extension from Nokia
  • French IT services giant Capgemini has secured a
    multi-million euro contract extension from telecom equipment maker Nokia.
  • The additional three-year agreement will see Capgemini
    continuing to optimise Nokia’s order management operations worldwide, the
    company said in a statement.
  • Capgemini started working with Nokia since 2010.
  • The contract, which was due to expire in 2017, has now been
    extended to October 2020.
  • Capgemini will continue to provide customer order management
    services, including preparation for delivery, distribution and customer
    invoicing to Nokia throughout its global network, it said.

India
India Signs Biotech
Pact With Cambridge University

  • India has signed a pact with the UK’s prestigious Cambridge
    University to create a new programme of early-career fellowships in the field
    of biotechnology.
  • The fellowships, jointly funded by the Indian government’s
    Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the university, were announced during a
    recent visit to the varsity by minister of state for science & Technology Y
    S Chowdary.
  • The minister, who led a delegation of eminent scientists
    from India to attend bilateral meetings and a worldwide conference on
    metallurgy last week, signed the letter of intent with the university vice-chancellor
    Leszek Borysiewicz.
  • The new programme includes support for research and innovation
    projects in collaboration with Indian partner institutions.
  • One of the main objectives is to establish a five-year
    fellowship for early-career researchers from the University of Cambridge.
  • Academics participating in the scheme will be jointly appointed
    by the DBT and Cambridge.
  • They will be expected to spend two years in Cambridge and
    three years at a partner institution in India carrying out translational
    research, with a focus on commercialisation and entrepreneurship, the
    university said in a release.
  • The agreement also includes collaboration in the
    establishment of a centre for crop sciences and a wholly-owned not-for-profit
    subsidiary in India by Cambridge to support wider collaborative research
    between the varsity and Indian Institutions.

L&T Wins Rs
468-Cr Defence Order for Naval Floating Dock
  • Larsen & Toubro (L&T) bagged a Rs 468-crore contract
    from the Ministry of Defence for the design and construction of a floating dock
    for the Indian Navy (FDN).
  • The floating dock is expected to significantly augment
    support infrastructure of the Navy for docking of warships and submarines for
    repair and refit. The company said the dock will conform to international
    standards and incorporate fully automated Ballast Control System.
  • The FDN will be self-sufficient, catering to service
    requirements of docked and berthed warships, it added. L&T is also
    executing MoD contract for design and construction of 54 fast Interceptor Boats
    (IBs) for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
  • It said 27 IBs have already been delivered to ICG, the
    latest one two years ahead of schedule. The company said it’s looking to
    complete delivery of all boats well ahead of the cut-off. The award of the
    floating dock contract to L&T came on the back of a recent order for design
    and construction of seven offshore patrol vessels for ICG at Rs 1,432 crore.

Awards
& Honors –
Suresh Kalmadi
conferred with Asian Athletics Association’s President Award

  • Scam-tainted Suresh Kalmadi has been conferred with the
    Asian Athletics Association President’s award for his contribution towards the
    development of athletics in the continent.
  • Kalmadi, who was jailed and later released on bail in
    connection with the 2010 Commonwealth Games scam, served as president of AAA
    for 13 years from 2000 to 2013 and was also credited with the introduction of
    top events like Asian Grand Prix series, Asian Indoor Championships and Asian
    All Star Meet, besides other competitions.
  • He was named Life President of the AAA in its council
    meeting in Jakarta in March for his contribution for Asian athletics.
  • Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwala
    received the award on behalf of Kalmadi from AAA President Dahlan Al-Hamad of
    Qatar at the function held last night ahead of the start of Asian Athletics
    Championships.

Sports
Sepp Blatter resigned
as FIFA president

  • Sepp Blatter resigned as President of FIFA on 2 June 2015
    amid the corruption scandal that has engulfed the football’s governing body.
    Blatter has been serving as president of world soccer governing body FIFA since
    1998.
  • 79-year-old Blatter who was re-elected as FIFA president on
    29 May 2015 said that soon a special congress would be called to elect his
    successor. He will exercise his functions as FIFA president until an election
    is held.
  • Apart from this, his resignation came within a week after
    Swiss police arrested seven FIFA officials, including two vice presidents, at a
    hotel in Zurich. The arrests were called out on behalf of US prosecutors who
    accuse the seven and eight other suspects of involvement in 150 million dollars
    of bribe.

Obituaries
2004 Nobel chemistry
winner Irwin Rose dies

  • Irwin Rose, a biochemist who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in
    chemistry for discovering a way that cells destroy unwanted proteins the basis
    for developing new therapies for diseases such as cervical cancer and cystic
    fibrosis has died. He was 88.
  • Rose died in his sleep early on Tuesday in Deerfield,
    Massachusetts, said spokeswoman Janet Wilson of the University of California,
    Irvine, where Rose had been a researcher.
  • Rose, along with Israelis Aaron Ciechanover and Avram
    Hershko, won the Nobel for discovering how plant and animal cells marked old
    and damaged proteins with a “kiss of death” molecule the polypeptide ubiquitin.
    The proteins are then chopped to pieces.
  • Rose was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 16, 1926, and
    spent much of his career as a researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in
    Philadelphia. His Nobel-winning work was done there in the late 1970s and early
    1980s.

Olympian Prem Nath
passed away
  • Prem Nath, a gold medallist at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth
    Games, has passed away.
  • Prem Nath, 64, breathed his last on Monday evening. He is
    survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
  • He was a student of the legendary Guru Hanuman, had hit the
    headlines at an early age when he made it to the 1972 Munich Olympics and
    finished fourth in the freestyle bantamweight category.
  • Two years later, he bagged the 57kg Commonwealth Games title
    in New Zealand. He got the Arjuna Award for the year 1972.

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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 10:23 am