Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 02 June, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

02 June, 2014

Restrictions on foreign exchange proprietary trades

  • A stronger rupee has paved the way for high-street banks to have a greater play in the currency market, with last year's unnerving choppiness suddenly looking like a thing of the past.
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently told several large lenders that they are free to carry out foreign exchange proprietary trades in which bank treasuries bet on the dollar-rupee movement.
  • The move will deepen the currency market and offer finer foreign exchange rates to customers, particularly large corporates with regular exports, imports and dollar borrowings.
  • The RBI allows each bank a certain net open position (NOP) limit for prop (or, proprietary) trades; the limit varies from $20 million to $100 million, depending on a bank's size and level of treasury activity.
  • In 2013, when the rupee buckled under speculators' attack, the limits were whittled down by banks to $5 million and even zero at the RBI's instruction.

Sun-observing IRIS

  • Nasa’s sun-observing IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) spacecraft has captured its first stunning close-up of a colossal coronal mass ejection(CME) erupting from the sun.
  • The field of view for this imagery is about five times the width of earth and about seven-and-half times its length, a tremendous sheet of solar material can be seen erupting in a latest video released by Nasa.
  • The view is unprecedented for IRIS which was launched in June last year to observe the lowest levels of the sun’s atmosphere with better resolution than ever before.
  • IRIS must commit to pointing at certain areas of the sun at least a day in advance, so catching a CME in the act involves some educated guesses and a little bit of luck.

Champions of IPL 7

  • Manish Pandey played an absolute blinder as Kolkata Knight Riders held their nerves to beat a spirited Kings XI Punjab by three wickets in an exhilarating summit clash to win the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League in Bangalore.
  • This was KKR's second IPL trophy, the only team apart from Chennai Super Kings to achieve the feat.

First CM of Telangana

  • Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, which became the 29th state of India.
  • Eleven ministers have also taken oath in K Chandrasekhar Rao's Cabinet in the new state of Telangana.
  • Rao hoisted the tricolour and took salute at an impressive parade held at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad.
  • In his first public address as the CM, Rao vowed to make Telangana a model state in all respects and said that welfare and development would be the two driving forces of his government.
  • The Telangana government would maintain cordial relationship not only with the Centre but also neighbouring states.
  • Rooting out "political corruption" would also be top on his agenda to ensure transparent governance.

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