Current Affairs Update – 5th July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 5th July, 2015. These are very Important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains 2015 and RBI Assistant 2015.

• Riding on the booming e-commerce
  space and increasing adoption of non-cash transactions, the combined share of
  SBI and its five associate banks in the debit cards space has touched 25 per cent
  in the financial year 2015.
• “Debit card spends at points
  of sale and e-commerce transactions of the State Bank Group crossed Rs 30,000
  crore in FY15, an increase of 38.8 per cent, which resulted in the group
  topping the market share at 25 per cent of total debit card spends,” SBI
  said in its annual report for FY15.
• State Bank of Bikaner &
  Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of
  Travancore and State Bank of Mysore form the SBI Group.
• As of March end, the SBI Group
  has issued over 20.59 crore debit cards, which is highest in the country.
• State Bank of India itself has
  been actively promoting debit card usage by running various promotional and
  cashback campaigns.
• It has recently launched loyalty
  programme for its customers for doing various banking transactions through
  debit cards, personal banking, alternate channels like internet and mobile
  banking, among others.
• In terms of the number of mobile
  banking transactions, SBI continues to be market leader with a 46 per cent
  share.

• Micro-finance institution Bandhan
  Financial Services, which got the final licence from Reserve Bank of India to
  start universal banking, would formally start operations as a banker from
  August 23.
• “We will start banking
  operations under Bandhan Bank from August 23 with the inauguration of 600
  branches in 27 states across the country along with 250 on-site ATMs,”
  Bandhan chairman Chandra Sekhar Ghosh told PTI.
• He said 247 branches would be
  opened in West Bengal, while Bihar, Orissa and Assam would also have a good
  share in terms of the number of branches.
• Ghosh said 65% of the branches
  would be rural, while the rest 35% would be opened in urban areas.
• The logo for Bandhan Bank has
  been designed by advertising agency O&M, Ghosh said adding that all the
  branches would be on core banking platform.
• Bandhan is also in the process of
  obtaining separate RBI licences for RTGS, NEFT, payments gateways and CTS, he
  said.

• The MUDRA (Micro Units
  Development and Refinance Agency) card under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana
  (PMMY) scheme was launched by the Corporation Bank on Saturday. Hasmukh Adhia,
  Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, released the
  card.
• Mr. Adhia presented the cards to
  a few customers in the presence of Corporation Bank CMD S.R. Bansal and
  Executive Director Bibhas Kumar Srivastav. The card facilitates the withdrawal
  and use of the working capital finance by micro entrepreneurs. Corporation Bank
  was the first bank to launch the MUDRA Card based on the RuPay platform, said a
  release from the bank.
• Three loan schemes are offered to
  the entrepreneurs based on their capacity to repay. “Shishu” scheme provides
  loan up to Rs.50,000. while a loan amount up to Rs. 5 lakh will be lent under
  “Kishore” scheme. Under “Tarun” scheme loan up to Rs. 10 lakh will be offered.
• As a part of the digital India
  programme of the Government of India, the bank also launched a high-tech
  paperless point of sales (PoS) terminal in association with MRL POSNET and the
  “Remit to India” portal for inward remittance by NRIs.

• MasterCard is experimenting with
  a smartphone app which allows people to confirm their identity and authenticate
  online transactions via a facial scan.
• Users will have to download the
  MasterCard phone app and at checkout they will be asked to hold up their phone
  to stare and blink at it.
• “The new generation, which is
  into selfies…I think they’ll find it cool. They’ll embrace it,” said Ajay
  Bhalla, security expert at the American financial services company MasterCard.
• Currently, users can set up
  something called “SecureCode,” which requires a password when shopping online.
• However, passwords can be forgotten,
  stolen, or intercepted.
• MasterCard is launching a small
  pilot programme involving 500 people that uses fingerprints — but also facial
  scans to verify online transactions, ‘CNN Money’ reported.
• MasterCard said it has partnered
  with every smartphone maker to make this method of verification possible.
• MasterCard said a pop-up will ask
  for authorisation after people buy something. They can choose fingerprint or
  facial recognition. Users who choose facial recognition have to stare at the
  phone and blink once.

• In the heaviest ever commercial
  mission undertaken by ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix, the country’s
  workhorse the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put in orbit five
  foreign satellites from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on July
  10.
• With the overall lift-off mass of
  the five satellites amounting to about 1,440 kg, this mission becomes the
  heaviest commercial mission ever undertaken by Antrix/ISRO, the Indian space
  agency said.
• In its 13th flight, PSLV-C28 will
  launch three identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites built by
  Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), United Kingdom (UK).
• The three DMC3 satellites, each
  weighing 447 kg, will be launched into a 647 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO)
  using the high-end version of PSLV (PSLV-XL), ISRO said on its website.
  PSLV-C28 will be the ninth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration.
• The three DMC3 satellites, each
  weighing 447 kg, will be launched into a 647 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO)
  using the high-end version of PSLV (PSLV-XL), ISRO said on its website.
  PSLV-C28 will be the ninth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration.
• In addition, the rocket will also
  carry two auxiliary satellites from UK – CBNT-1, a technology demonstrator
  earth observation micro satellite built by SSTL, and De-OrbitSail, a technology
  demonstrator nano satellite built by Surrey Space Centre.

• The government will convert
  90,000 kms of country’s national highways into green corridors, for which it is
  planning to create at least 1,000 contractors responsible for planting trees.
• The new green policy, he
  explained, will pave way for creation of employment as well as contribute towards
  the economic growth of the country.
• India’s road network of 33 lakh
  kms is the second largest in the world and consists of 92,851 kms of National
  Highways, which constitute only 1.7 per cent of the road network but carry
  about 40 per cent of the total road traffic.

• Government has taken several
  measures, including setting up of an inter-departmental committee to look into
  export-related issues and awareness programmes in emerging markets like Africa,
  to boost pharmaceutical exports.
• Pharmaceutical sector has huge
  potential in terms of increasing exports, the Commerce Ministry is taking many
  measures to boost overseas shipments, a ministry official said.
• The official said an
  inter-ministerial committee to resolve export-related issues has been set up.
  Besides, the ministry has prepared a ‘guidance document on pharma procurement’
  to help authorities in Africa, Latin America and South Asia in their purchasing
  programmes.
• Awareness programmes about Indian
  pharma industry have also been started in these markets and workshops are being
  organised with USFDA for Indian drug regulators and the industry.
• Recently, the Indian pharma
  industry has been facing the heat from the US Food and Drug Administration for
  non-compliance of regulatory framework. In the recent past, many domestic
  generic drug makers, including Sun Pharma and Wockhardt, have faced actions.
• The Commerce Ministry is
  depending on the sector to boost the country’s exports, which are in the
  negative zone since December last year.
• India’s pharma exports grew by
  about 3 per cent to USD 15.34 billion in 2014-15.

• Chile won the Copa America for
  the first time in the tournament’s 99-year history on Saturday when they beat
  Argentina 4-1 on penalties after 90 minutes and extra time failed to produce a
  goal.
• Alexis Sanchez netted the
  clinching goal from the spot after Gonzalo Higuain and Ever Banega had missed
  for Argentina.
• The nail-biting finish came after
  a tense 0-0 draw in which neither side dominated and clear-cut chances were few
  and far between.
• Chile had beaten Argentina just
  once in 38 competitive matches before the final and celebrated the triumph in
  front of an ecstatic home crowd at the National Stadium.
• Best young player was awarded to
  Jeison Murillo of Colombia.
• Man of the match in the final was
  Arturo Vidal of Chile.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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