Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 03 January, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

A report card titled '10 Years of Progress and Growth' highlighting achievements of the government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that average GDP growth rate during the period of UPA government (2004-05 to 2013-14) has been 7.7 per cent despite two global slowdown in this period.
India's average economic growth rose to 7.7 per cent in the 10-year regime of the UPA government as compared to 6.2 per cent recorded in the previous decade, report says.
Agriculture growth rate has been rising consistently and the sector expanded by 2.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent during the 10th and 11th Five Year Plans, respectively, and expected to touch 4 per cent in the ongoing 12th Plan period.
It further said the country's GDP at the current price has increased almost three times to Rs 100.28 lakh crore during the last nine years from Rs 32.42 lakh crore in 2004-05.
Similarly, per capita income has risen almost three-fold during the period. The per capita income has gone up to Rs 68,747 in 2012 from Rs 24,143 in 2004, the report card said.
Referring to large projects, it said the UPA government has expedited and cleared as many 293 projects involving investment of Rs 5.7 lakh crore in 2013.
It said that in the last two years, 80,000 micro enterprises have been supported by Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme, creating job opportunities for 9.23 lakh people.

The Central Government approved the proposal of the Ministry of Power for operationalisation of the Power System Development Fund.
Power System Development Fund (PSDF) will be utilised for creating necessary transmission systems of strategic importance based on operational feedback by Load Dispatch Centres for relieving congestion in Inter-State Transmission Systems.
The fund will also be utilised towards installation of shunt capacitors, series compensators and other reactive energy generators for improvement of voltage profile in the grid, installation of standard and special protection schemes, pilot and demonstrative projects, and for setting right discrepancies identified in protection audits on regional basis and renovation and modernisation (R&M) of transmission and distribution systems for relieving congestion and any other scheme or project in furtherance of the above objectives, such as, conducting technical studies and capacity building.

Vodafone is in early talks with the Tata Group to buy its controlling stake in Tata Teleservices to create India's largest telco by subscribers.
The right of first refusal (RoFR) to the Tatas' 59.45% stake in Tata Teleservices rests with its Japanese partner NTT Do-CoMo, which owns a little over onefourth of the telecom company.
But if the Japanese company refuses to buy out the Tatas, the Indian partner has the right to exercise its 'drag along' rights and force NTT DoCoMo to sell its shares to the buyer of its choice, said two persons familiar with the development.
If the transaction happens, the Vodafone-Tata Teleservices combine, as per November 2013 figures, will become the country's No. 1 player in terms of subscribers with 248 million customers, overtaking Airtel's 196 million users.

Former Great Britain No.1 Tim Henman will be in India to spearhead a new initiative aimed at boosting the development of junior tennis in the country. India will host the first Wimbledon tennis event outside the UK as 11-time-Tour winner Henman will be in Delhi and Mumbai later this month to launch ‘The Road to Wimbledon’ with a series of coaching clinics and events offering local children the chance to play at Wimbledon next August. The clinics are part of two Under-14 National singles events in Delhi (RK Khanna Tennis Centre) and Mumbai (MSLTA Tennis Centre). The top sixteen boys and girls from these two events are invited to the Wimbledon Foundation Junior Masters in Delhi in April with the two boys and two girls finalists invited to compete in the UK HSBC National Finals on the grass at Wimbledon.
Henman, who kick-started his career in India in 1994 with three successive tournament wins on the Indian satellite circuit, will be joined by All England Club Head Coach Dan Bloxham, for the activity in Delhi and Mumbai between January 6-14.The Wimbledon Foundation, the community, charitable and development arm of the All England Club and The Championships, Wimbledon, and HSBC have linked with All India Tennis Association (AITA) on this pilot scheme as the first phase of a long term plan to support the development of Indian tennis.

In a move to forestall former IPL czar Lalit Modi from staging a comeback on the Indian cricket scene, the Indian cricket board moved the apex court against his election as the Rajasthan Cricket Association president.The elections to the Rajasthan Cricket Association were held Dec 19, 2013, under the watch of the apex court appointed former judge N.M. Kasliwal.
Modi contested for president of the RCA as the state cricketing panel rejected the objection of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to his candidature.The result of the RCA elections are likely to be announced on Jan 6, when the court may take up for hearing RCA former secretary Kishore Rungta’s plea challenging the Rajasthan Sports Act, 2005, that was read by Modi’s supporters in his favour to contest the election.
The act had taken away the individual voting rights of the members, and Modi’s supporters said the RCA elections were governed by it and not by the BCCI tules.The BCCI Dec 28, 2013, in a statement said that it would implead itself before the apex court in Rungta’s plea challenging the Rajasthan Sports Act, 2005.
The BCCI, which had imposed a life ban on Modi in September 2013, has contended that his association with the cricketing body would affect the image of the popular sports and the apex cricketing organisation.Modi was banned for life for financial irregularities while he presided over the IPL during 2008 to 2010.