Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 04 February, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

After framing criteria for selection of sportspersons for Arjuna awards, the Union Sports Ministry has approved a set of rules to select candidates for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awards.
According to the new rules, for Khel Ratna and Dronacharya awards, medals won in Olympic Games (Summer, Winter and Paralympics), Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Cup, World Championships (held once in four years) would get 90 per cent weightage.
For the Dhyan Chand award, such a medal would stand to gain 70 per cent weightage.
Marks given by the selection committees will get 10 per cent weightage for the Khel Ratna and Dronacharya awards, while it will be 30 per cent (including marks for assessment of contribution made for promotion of sports after retirement for active sports career and for qualities like sportsmanship, leadership and sense of discipline) for Dhyan Chand award.
The Ministry has stipulated that only one sportsperson will be chosen for Khel Ratna in a year. Five will be selected for Dronacharya and three for Dhyan Chand.
Sports journalists, experts and commentators have now been included in the selection committees.

The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) has announced J Prithviraj as the new president, while Tutu Dhawan will be the vice-president after the Madras High Court directed the body to make their December election results public.
The elections were held at the FMSCI’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 23, but the results were withheld due to a pending lawsuit filed by Shrikant Karani of Sportscraft (Mumbai) against the national sporting authority.

Government slashed the import tariff value on gold and silver to $404 per ten grams and $635 per kg, respectively, taking into account the volatility in the global prices
Import tariff value is the base price at which customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing. The tariff value is revised on a fortnightly basis after analysing the global price trend.
The notification in this regard has been issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
Gold is the second largest import item for India after petroleum. However, gold imports are expected to decline this year as government has taken several measures to curb shipments to address the high current account deficit.

Interest rate futures, which were launched across three bourses and touted as a much-needed hedging instrument, are seeing a sharp drop in participation already.
IRFs are contracts, which allow a bond investor to hedge against interest rates, and have the option of being settled in cash without the physical bond.
Volumes have slipped to as low as Rs 476.35 crore from Rs 3,080 crore notched on their launch day on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Turnover on the MCX-SX and BSE have seen a fall of 74% and 70%, respectively.
Banks can keep 24% of their bond portfolio under HTM and the portfolio is not required to be marked to market prices.
Banks can move their bonds from available-for-sale and held-for-trading portfolios to the HTM once in every financial year.
There is also a lack of participation from public sector banks, the biggest market participants of the bond market.