All Latest Current Affairs Month All Type Banking and Economy 653 Current Affairs were found in Month ­ All for Type ­ Banking and Economy 1. RBI Monetary Policy Rates as on Today (2­August­2016 ) Repo Rate ­ 6.50 % Reverse Repo ­ 6.00 % Bank Rate ­ 7.00 % Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate ­ 7.00 % CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) ­ 4 % SLR(Statutory Liquidity ratio) ­ 21.5 % Economy 1. Reserve Bank of India relaxed norms of Foreign Portfolio Investors by announcing higher investment limits in government securities to bring additional 1.2 lakh crore rupees by March 2018. 2. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited signed Memorandum of Understanding with Andhra Pradesh government for investment of 38500 crore rupees to take up various projects at Visakhapatnam. It was signed during 22nd Confederate of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit in Vishakhapatnam. 3. Government revised rehabilitation of bonded labour scheme, bringing it into the Central sector. Scheme proposes to increase the Budget provision from rs. 5 crore to about Rs. 47 crore per annum. 4. UK­based Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will shut down its corporate, institutional and retail banking operations in India. RBS currently operates 10 retail branches in India employing 400 people. 5. Government allowed 100 % foreign direct investment (FDI) in asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) under automatic route, up from 49%. 6. National stock exchange will launch a new trade receivable and credit exchange platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This It will help MSMEs to file their bill against large companies. 7. Government cancelled licence of Greenpeace India, a non­profit Non­Governmental Organisation (NGO) for mixing foreign and domestic funds and not disclosing the movement of its funds. 8. Government launched Niryat Bandhu @ Your Desktop online certificate programme in export import business under Niryat Bandhu Scheme of Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to train potential exporters for getting into international trade and boost India's exports. 9. Government launched e­payment module to make payments into Compensatory Afforestation Management Planning Authority (CAMPA) Funds to make payments for diversion of forest land more transparent. The e­payment module has designated accounts for States in which forest land is to be diverted. 10. Government allowed States to impose stock limits to check price rise in sugar, keeping in view recent upward trend in sugar prices. Step was taken after recent proce rises came under Government's notice, inspite of sufficient availability of sugar stocks with Sugar Mills. 11. 108 feet tall idol of Lord Rishabhdeva, the first Teerthankar of Jains, carved out of a single rock, has entered Guinness World Records as worlds tallest Jain statue. It is located on Mangi Tungi mountain near Teharabad village of North Maharashtra district (Maharashtra). 12. 208th meeting of Central Board of Trustees (EPF) held in Hyderabad under chairmanship of Bandaru Dattatreya (Minister for Labour & Employment & Chairman of CBT, EPF). Central Board of Trustees enhanced Insurance benefits under Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme for dependants of EPF members from present Rs 3,60,000 to Rs 6,00,000. EPF Mobile App was launched for benefit of EPF members for activating their UAN (Universal Account Numbers). 13. 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) headed by Justice AK Mathur submitted its report ­ Recommended 23.55 % hike in pay and allowances of government employees , from 1 January 2016. Minimum pay will be 18000 rupees / month while maximum is recommended to be 225000 rupees / month for Apex Scale and 250000 per month for Cabinet Secretary level. Increase in pay will be 16 %, increase in allowances will be 63 % and increase in pension will be 24 %. The present system of pay bands and grade pay will be replaced by a new pay matrix. Status of employee, determined by grade pay will now be determined by level in pay matrix. One Rank One Pension proposed for civilian government employees on line of OROP for armed forces. Military Service Pay for Defence Officers more than doubled to Rs.15,500 from Rs. 6,000 currently. For nursing officers, 10,800 from 4,200 and others. Abolition of 52 allowances and introduction of a Health Insurance Scheme. Pay revision will impact 47 lakh serving employee and 52 lakh pensioners of Central Government. It will cost public exchequer over 1 lakh crore rupees annually. Implementation of Pay Commission will impact fiscal deficit by 0.65 %, as compared to 0.77 % in case of Sixth Central Pay Commission. A fitment factor of 2.57 is being proposed to be applied uniformly for all employees. The rate of annual increment is being retained at 3 percent. Ceiling of gratuity enhanced from 10 to 20 lakh rupees and ceiling on gratuity raised by 25 % whenever DA rises by 50 %. Short service commission officers may exit armed forces at any point between 7 ­ 10 years service. 14. Vice President Hamid Ansari visited Indonesia. He cancelled Brunei Visit due to volcanic erruption. India signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with Indonesia for co­operation in Energy and Culture. 15. Economic Survey 2015 ­ 16 GDP Growth ­ Growth rate of GDP at constant market prices will increase to 7.6% in 2015­16 from 7.2% in 2014­15. Real GDP growth for 2015­16 is expected to be 7% to 7.75%. GDP Components ­ Services Sector ­ 66.1%. Industry andf agriculture sector account of remaining 34% withb agricuture sector being 11 ­ 13 %. Services ­ 9.2 % (2015­16), 10.3 % (2014­15), 7.8 % (2013­14) India showed fastest service sector growth with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 8.6% followed by China at 8.4%. Industry ­ 7.3 % (2015­16), 5.9 % (2014­15), 7.3 % (2013­14) Industrial sector broadly comprising mining, manufacturing and electricity attained 3.1 % growth during April­ December 2015­16 as compared to 2.6 % during 2014­ 15. Agricuture ­ 1.1 % (2015­16), ­.2 % (2014­15), 4.2 % (2013­14) Over 122 lakh toilets constructed in rural areas since beginning of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) for improving sanitation in rural India. India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) goals for renewable energy sector aim of achieving 60 GW of wind power and 100 GWs of solar power installed by 2022. Industrial sector performed well and growth is expected to strengthen to 7.3 % for 2015­16. Within industrial sector, manufacturing to register a growth of 9.5 5. JAM Trinity ­ Jan dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile can help in implementing large­scale Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) to improve economic lives of Indias poor. First variety of JAM­ PAHAL scheme of transferring LPG subsidies via DBT has reduced leakages by 24 per cent. JAM has three Components ­ Identification or First­Mile (Identification of beneficiaries), Transfer or Middle­Mile (Transfer of fund to beneficiaries) and Access or Last­Mile (Access of fund by beneficiaries) Agriculture ­ India ranks first in milk production with 18.5 % of world production with milk production growth rate of 6.26 %. Percentage share of horticulture output in agriculture is over 33 % Share of plan outlay for horticulture, which was 3.9 % during 9th Plan, has increased to 4.6 % during 12th Plan. Labour Force ­ Proportion of economically active population (15­ 59 years) increased from 57.7 to 63.3 % during 1991 to 2013. Employment growth in organized sector increased by 2% in 2012 over 2011 As per Fourth Annual EmploymentUnemployment Survey by Labour Bureau, Unemployment Rate is 4.7 % in rural areas and 5.5% in urban areas while total unemployment rate reported is 4.9%. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is 52.5 %. Under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, 3.63 crore households Were provided employment of 134.96 crore person days during Current Year. Human Capital ­ Expenditure on Social Services including Education, Health, Social Security etc was 7 % of GDP in 2014­15 while it was 6.5% during 2013­14. In this, 19.5 % was spent on Health. Climate Change ­ India has second highest number of projects registered under CDM of UNFCCC, with 1593 out of 7685 projects. National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) has been established with cost of 350 crore for 2015­16 and 2016­17 Food Security ­ According to 66th National Sample Survey (2009­10) ­ average dietary energy intake per person per day was 2147 Kcal for rural and 2123 Kcal for urban India India has second highest number of undernourished people (19.4 crore) Total Foodgrains Production stood at 253.16 million tonnes in 2015­16, higher than 252.02 MT in 2014­15 Economy ­ Over 20 Crore bank accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojan (PMJDY) and world’s largest direct benefit transfer programme in case of LPG with 15.1 crore people receiving 29000 crore. 4 R ­ Recognition, Recapitalization, Resolution, and reform required to resolve twin balance sheet challenge of Public Sector Banks (PSBs). Fiscal Deficit target of 3.9% for 2015­16 seems achievable. Total expenditure for 2015­16 was estimated at Rs.17.77 lakh crore which was 5.7 % higher than estimates of 2014­15. Direct taxes grew by 10.7% in the first 9 months of 2015­16 while indirect taxes were also pleasing. Aggregate capital expenditure increased by 0.6% in 2015­16 During April­November 2015­16, FDI inflows were 34.8 billion USD as compared to 27.7 billion USD during April­ November 2014­15. FDI equity inflows also increased from 18.9 billion USD to 24.8 billion USD in same period. Overall exports declined by about 18% in the first three quarters Trade deficit declined to 106.8 billion USD in April­January 2015­16 from 119.6 billion USD in corresponding period of 2014­15.