BRILLIANCE COLLEGE General Awareness Top score making Tips Bank Lending Rates by commercial banks as a basis for (As on October 31, 2011) their lending rates. Bank Rate : 6.00% Savings Bank Interest Rate : Bank rate is the rate at which RBI : Savings – They are the most popular lends long term loans to commercial deposits for individual accounts; w.e.f banks. 25, October, 2011, RBI deregulated SB Interest rates. Repo Rate : 8.50% India & Afghanistan signed the Stra- : Repo rate is the rate at which RBI tegic Partnership Agreement (SPA) provides short term loans to commer- cial banks. : On October 4, 2011 India and Af- ghanistan signed their first ever Stra- Reverse Repo Rate : 7.50% tegic Partnership Agreement to boost : Reverse Repo Rate is the rate of in- bilateral relations in different areas. terest RBI provide to the commer- : The agreement was signed in Delhi cial banks for keeping their excess in the presence of Dr. Manmohan fund with RBI. Singh and visiting Afghanistan Presi- Cash Reserve Ratio : 6.00% dent Hamid Karzai. : It is the amount the commercial : India will train Afghan security forces banks must keep as reserve with to help them deal with situations af- RBI. ter the foreign forces leave Afghani- Statutory Liquidity Ratio : 24% stan in 2014. Both the country will : SLR - It is the amount banks are re- work for checking international ter- quired to maintain as liquid asset in the rorism, organized crimes, illegal traf- form of gold, cash and approved se- ficking of narcotics and money laun- curities. dering. Afghan will support India to Prime Lending Rate secure permanent seat in UN Secu- rity Council. : Prime Lending Rate is the interest rate charged by banks to their most secure, Meeting of Trade Ministers of India and trustworthy customers on short term Pakistan was held in New Delhi on Sep- loans. tember 28, 2011. Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Mr. Anand Sharma and Base Rate : 9.5% – 10.75% his Pakistan counterpart Mr. Makhdoom : Base rate – The rate of interest used Amin Fahim meeting was part of resump- 1 GENERAL AWARENESS tion of formal peace talk between the two Mumbai Industrial Corridor Develop- nations. It is decided to create a realistic ment Corporation (DMICDC). frame work for improving bilateral eco- : The 1483 km project running through nomic ties. seven states - Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, What is PPP ? Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Public Private Partnership Pradesh and Maharashtra - will come up along with the proposed Delhi- : The Centre on September 27, 2011 Mumbai dedicated rail freight corridor. came out with a draft National Pub- lic Private Partnership (PPP) Policy Name the former Afghanistan President for improving transperancy and pro- killed in suicide bomb blast - Burhanuddin mote infrastructure sector projects. Rabbani (Sept. 20, 2011). BPL Population The Nord Stream Gas Pipeline : In an Affidavit presented to the Su- : The Nord Stream Pipeline is a $ 12.5 preme Court, the Planning Commis- billion, 1200 km pipeline built across sion says that the total BPL Popula- the Baltic sea from Russia to Ger- tion now being served by the Public many. Distribution System (PDS) is 35.98 On September 5, 2011, the pipeline crore. The Tendulkar Committee had was inaguarated. called for that number to be revised 20% increase of poverty in USA to 40.74 crore on the basis of pro- : The US Census Bureau reveals that jected population on March 1, 2005. the incidence of poverty in the US : The affidavit says that only those in- jumped by a staggering 20% in 2010 dividual consuming less than Rs. 32 from 12.5% of population to 15.1%. per day in urban area and Rs. 26 in The report titled Income, Poverty and rural area will be treated as poor. Health Insurance coverage in the US: : Suresh Tendulkar Committee earlier 2010 said that 46.2 million Americans pegged the poverty line at Rs. 447 a were in poverty after the 2008 finan- month or about Rs. 15 a day at 2004- cial crisis. 05 prices. What is the amount included in the PM addresses UN General Assem- job package US president Barack bly Obama announced recently : Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed 66th : $ 447 Billion session of the UN General Assem- What is NSRA? bly in Newyork, USA on September : Nuclear Safety Regulatory Author- 24, 2011. ity Bill 2011 was tabled in Lok Sabha Rs. 18500 crore for Delhi-Mumbai on September 2011. NSRA is cre- Industrial corridor ated to bring about much needed in- : The Union Cabinet approved on Sep- dependence and transparency in ad- tember 15, 2011 the proposal for in- ministering the safety oversight of fusion of Rs. 18500 crore in the Delhi- nuclear operations in India. 2 GENERAL AWARENESS Comptroller and Auditor General of of Dr. Manmohan Singh and India (CAG) who has been appointed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh as the External Auditor of IAEA and Hasina. WIPRO Which Chief Minister went on 3 days : Vinod Rai fast in September 2011? : IAEA is International Atomic Energy : Narendra Modi of Gujarat. Agency, a UN Agency with head- : The fact was part of the Chief quarters at Vienna, Austria. Minister’s Sadbhavana Mission : WIPRO is World Intellectual Prop- aimed fostering communal harmony erty Organisation, a UN Agency with in Gujarat. headquarters in Geneva. : November 9 : Legal Service Day India and Uruguay signed a Double 12th Five Year Plan Taxation Avoidance Agreement : Union Cabinet on September 15, 2011 (DTAA) on September 8, 2011. approved the approach paper for the : The agreement is aimed at prevent- 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17). ing fiscal evasion with respect to taxes 12th Plan seek to raise the annual on income and capital. economic growth rate to 9% during Tiangong-1: China’s first space lab the five year period. (11th Five Year module was launched aboard a Long Plan aimed to raise economic growth March 2FTI rocket on September to 8.2%). 28, 2011. The launch was the first key : Now the approach paper will be step in the country’s objective of be- placed before the National Develop- coming only the third country, after ment Council (NDC), the final au- Russia and the US to assemble its thority to approve Five Year Plans in own space station. India. NATO shares missile technology : The chairman of both Planning Com- with India. mission and National Development : The North Atlantic Treaty Council is the Prime Minister of Organisation (NATO) announced in India. September 2011 that it would share The new Chief Minister of its missile defence with India. Uttarakhand is Bhuwan Chandra Importance of November 14? Khanduri. He belong to which politi- : Both Children’s Day and World Dia- cal party? betes Day. : Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) India-Bangladesh Treaty Who is the chairman of NMCC? : On September 6, 2011, India and : V. Krishnamurthy Bangladesh signed a treaty to solve : NMCC is the newly reconstituted long standing border dispute. The pact National Manufacturing Competitive was signed in Dhaka in the presence ness Council. The NMCC is a 28 3 GENERAL AWARENESS member body which has the Chief : Public sector banks have drawn the Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu and growth of deposits and advances at the International Economic Relations 2.2% and 2.3% respectively in the Judge Isher Ahluwalia as two econo- industry for the last four years. mists. : The growth of deposits and advances G 7 Finance Chief Meet for private sector bank in 2010-11 was stronger than that of PSBs and stood : G-7 Finance Chiefs met on Septem- at 21.9% and 26.1% respectively. ber 9, 2011 at Marseilles, France to discuss the measures to overcome : Besides the business per employee the financial crisis the major econo- and Profit Per Employee (PPE) of mies of the World faces today. all SCBs grow by 13.8% and 16.5% respectively in 2010-11 : France is the chairman of G-7 at : The PPE of all SCBs have grown present. from Rs. 3.48 lakh crore in 2006-2007 India external debt $ 305.9 billion to Rs. 7 lakh crore in 2010-11. : “India External Debt : The ratio of banking industry’s Non A Status Report 2011-12” released Performing Assets (NPAs) was also by the Union Finance Ministry on the lowest in the last four years at Sept. 9, 2011 revealed that the 0.97 country’s external debt surged by The centre has announced on Sep- 17.2% to $305.9 billion at the end of tember 29, 2011 a hefty increase of March 2011. Rs. 52800 crore in market borrow- : This figure marked an increase of ings during the current 2011-12 $44.9 billion over the March 2010 fiscal. level when it stood pegged as $261 : The reason behind the rise in borrow- billion. ing include a lower-than-budgetted Bank deposits and Advances doubles revenue collection following a slow in four years down in growth and a sharp decline in small saving collection. : As per “the profile of Banks 2010- : As a result the centre’s gross mar- 11” released by RBI on Sept. 2, 2011, ket borrowing for the entire 2011-12 the deposits and advances of all fiscal is set to increase to 4.7 lakh Scheduled Commercial Banks crore. (SCBs) doubled over the last four years. The gross borrowing during 2010-11 was Rs. 4.37 lakh crore. The deposits grew by 18.3% and ad- Fiscal deficit target of the country at vances grew by 22.9% during 2010- present is 4.6% of GDP. 11. India’s foreign exchange reserve as : The share of public sector banks in on Sept 23, 2011 the total deposits and advances is 78% and 77% respectively.