CURRENT AFFAIRS AUG 2013-JAN 2014 Sr. No. Topics Page Number 1. Reserve Bank of India 1 2. State Bank of India 13 3. Other Banks 14 4. Insurance 18 5. Supreme Court 19 6. Election Commission 21 7. High Courts and Sessions Courts 21 8. Central Government 22 9. States 24 10. Place in the News 31 11. Personalities 35 12. Defence and National Security 40 13. Committees/Commissions 45 14. Schemes/Initiatives 50 15. Summit/Conference 55 16. Agreement/Deal/Sign/Talk 61 17. Meet/Visit 73 18. Bills 78 19. Fund 83 20. Economy 85 21. Companies/Industry 89 22. Stock Market 92 23. Exports/Imports 94 BANK-PO/CLERK EXAM CA/Aug2013-Jan2014/Page-1 24. Taxation/Trade 96 25. Production/Agriculture 99 26. Space 100 27. Science and Technology 104 28. Health/Nutrition/Diseases/Drugs 108 29. Energy/Gas/Oil 111 30. Environment 114 31. Education 116 32. Transport/Cars/Scooters 117 33. Films/Film Festival 118 34. Festival 119 35. Media/Telecommunication/IT 119 36. Appointments/Election 122 37. Resignations/Dismissed/Retired/Quit 130 38. Arrests/Jailed/Released 132 39. Deaths 134 40. Awards/Honours 138 41. Sports/Game 152 42. Report 165 43. General – National 169 44. International 174 45. Abbreviation 183 46. Books and Authors 186 - - - × - - - BANK-PO/CLERK EXAM CA/Aug2013-Jan2014/Page-2 CURRENT AFFAIRS AUG 2013-JAN 2014 RESERVE BANK OF INDIA August–2013 • RBI announced weekly sale of Government Bonds - Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 8 August, 2013 announced that it will sell the government bonds every Monday to check upon the volatility in the foreign exchange market. The government bonds notified for being sold worth 22000 crore rupees. The duration of the auction will be announced one day prior to the date of auction. • RBI steps to ease liquidity, eases SLR – The RBI has relaxed the statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) to provide more funds to banks for lending. This was in view of losses suffered by banks in their investment portfolio. Revising its earlier limit, asking banks to reduce their hold-to-maturity (HTM) bond holdings gradually to 23% of deposits. RBI has now allowed banks to retain those holdings at 24.5%. To further ease rupee volatility, RBI conducted open market operations (OMOs) of long- dated govt. securities worth 8,000cr rupees. • RBI introduced Forex Swap Window for Oil Companies – RBI on 28 August, 2013 decided to open a forex swap window to meet the entire daily dollar requirements of three public sector oil marketing companies (IOC, HPCL and BPCL). Under this Forex Swap Facility, Reserve Bank will undertake sell/buy of USD-INR forex swaps for fixed tenor with the oil marketing companies through a designated bank. • RBI allowed premature encashment of 8% savings bonds for investors above 60 – The RBI on 30 August, 2013 permitted the premature encashment of 8 percent savings (Taxable) Bonds for individual investors who are 60 years and above in age. The facility would be available after a minimum lock-in period of three years from the date of issue of the bond. In case of joint holders, any one of the holders should fulfill the conditions of eligibility. • The RBI Released Discussion Paper – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the discussion paper on ‘Banking Structure in India – The Way Forward’ on August 27, 2013. Primary Features of the Discussion Paper are as follow: à The paper focuses on certain building blocks for the reorientation of the banking structure with a view to addressing various issues such as enhancing competition, financing higher growth, providing specialised services and furthering financial inclusion. à The paper also emphasised the need to address the concerns arising out of such changes with a view to managing the trade-off for ensuring financial stability. à The paper discussed that the overall thrust of the reorientation is to impart dynamism and flexibility to the evolving banking structure, while ensuring that the structure remains resilient and promotes financial stability. • RBI to scrutinize pending overseas deals – In order to check outflow of foreign exchange, the Reserve Bank imposed restrictions on Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) by Indian companies and has announced to scrutinize all pending applications, including that of Apollo Tyres, in the light of revised norms for outward investments. The RBI’s decision to restrict outward investment by corporates came in the backdrop of rising Current Account Deficit (CAD) and declining value of rupee. The CAD, which is the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign currency, touched a record high of 4.8% of the GDP in 2012-13 fiscal. What is CAD? CAD or current account deficit is a measure of the difference between a country’s foreign exchange earnings (from export of goods, services like tourism and software and remittances received from (NRIs) and payments (for imported goods, bought services and remittances sent). BANK-PO/CLERK EXAM CA/Aug2013-Jan2014/Page-3 September–2013 • RBI to issue unique identification codes – In a bid to get a better handle on financial transactions such as equity and currency derivatives, the RBI has invited limited bids from about six entities, including depositories, depository participants and custodians, to issue unique identification codes to market participants. One or two of the selected entities are likely to be tasked with the responsibility of implementing a global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) system that will uniquely identify parties to financial transactions. • RBI eases ECB norms – In order to encourage capital flows, the RBI has eased the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) norms. On a review, the apex bank has decided to permit eligible borrowers to avail ECB under the approval route from their foreign equity holder company with minimum average maturity of 7 years for general corporate purposes. Till now borrowings in the form of ECB were not permitted to be utilised for general corporate purpose. However, the RBI has put certain conditions for availing the benefits of relaxed norms. The minimum paid-up equity of 25% should be held directly by the lender. Also, repayment of the principal will commerce only after completion of minimum average maturity of seven years and no prepayment will be allowed before maturity. • RBI issued norms for Currency Swap Window – RBI on 8 September, 2013 issued norms for currency swap window at Mumbai. The Reserve Bank also cleared that the facility of currency swap would be made available to scheduled commercial banks (excluding regional rural banks) for fresh Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank (FCNRB) deposits, which would be mobilized for a minimum tenure of three years. − The Reserve Bank also mentioned that the deposits can be made in any permitted currency, but the swaps would be made available only in dollars. The Swap Window would remain functional and under operations on all working days at Mumbai on daily basis but a particular bank can access the facility of currency swap only once in a week. The Swap Window would remain operation from 10 September to 30 November 2013. • NRI allowed to buy shares under FDI scheme – The Reserve Bank of India on 6 September, 2013 allowed the Non-Resident Investors including NRIs to purchase shares of Indian entities Under FDI Scheme. The investment can be made as per the mentioned conditions. − RBI has allowed the NRIs to make investment under the FDI scheme only on the listed entities, on recognized stock exchanges. RBI has decided to include the non-residents, including the NRIs to acquire the shares of domestic companies listed under FDI scheme, on the stock exchanges through a registered broker, if the investor has already acquired and continues to hold control in accordance with SEBI, Substantial Takeover Code. − RBI has also cleared that the inward remittance using the normal banking channels can be used for payment of the transfer of shares to non-residents consequent to purchase. The debit to the NRE FCNR account of a person with authorized dealer or bank can also be considered for making the payment of the transferred shares. Escrow Accounts (non-interest bearing) maintained in India can also be used to debit the payment. • RBI increased the Repo Rate by 25 Basis Points – The RBI on 20 September 2013 increased the repo rate or the short term lending rate by 25 basis points to 7.5% from 7.25% with immediate effect. − The Governor of RBI, Raghuram Rajan while reviewing the monetary policy for the first time as a Governor, however, brought down the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate by 0.75 per cent to 9.5%. The MSF rate is the one at which the other banks can borrow from the Central Bank. − The cash reserve ratio (CRR) remained unchanged at 4%. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) is the portion of the deposits which the banks need to maintain in cash with the RBI. − The RBI, in the meanwhile, also brought down the minimum daily maintenance of CRR from 99% of the requirement to 95 percent with effect from 21 September 2013. BANK-PO/CLERK EXAM CA/Aug2013-Jan2014/Page-4 • RBI liberalised norms for banks to open branches – Reserve Bank of India on 19 September 2013 announced that banks can open their branches in tier-I centers without taking its permission in each case. According to 2011 census Tier-I center are those with population above 1 lakh. − But banks should open 25 percent of their branches in a financial year in Un-banked tier-V and tier-VI centers as earlier. Total number of branches in tier-I center’s can’t exceed the number of branches opened in tier-II to tier-VI centers during a year.