Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 05 December, 2013

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

The rupee rose to a five-week high against the dollar and stocks jumped around 1.5% to near record highs recently, as exit polls predicted a strong showing for the key opposition party in recent state elections.
The BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi are perceived by many investors in India as being more business-friendly and willing to undertake reforms to tackle an economygrowing at its slowest in a decade.
Recent data are signalling the economy may be bottoming out while the current account deficit has shrunk, adding to optimism in Indian markets despite concerns about a potential tapering in the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus.
Measures taken by India's central bank and the ruling Congress Party have been seen as having helped that recovery.
Nonetheless investors see a BJP victory as potentially being more beneficial to markets.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that a strong domestic manufacturing base in electronics and telecommunications would mitigate burden of growing imports for the sector.
He said that by 2020, it is estimated India will be importing electronics products worth about 300 billion dollars, which will be more than the value of the country's imports of petroleum products.
National Telecom Policy 2012 has brought clarity on number of issues in the sector.
Elaborating on use of telecom technologies for modernising systems, Singh touched upon Telecom Ministry's plan to provide 3G connectivity with computers for students.
The Ministry is learnt to be in process of developing a project under which a tablet PC will be given to students with 3G connection. But the proposal is yet to receive nod of inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission after which it may have to seek approval of Cabinet for final implementation.

A significant percentage of Indian consumers (81%) are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products than their counterparts, reveals a global study by UL, a leader in advancing safety, making them highly conscious about eco-friendly products.
According to the study, nearly three-quarters (73%) of Indian consumers believe that manufacturers use eco-friendly processes. UL employed an independent research firm to conduct a global quantitative survey among 1,528 consumers and 1,521 manufacturers across five countries: Brazil, China, Germany, India and the United States.
Indian consumers are driving manufacturers towards producing safer and more eco-friendly products. Consumers clearly desire stringent regulations. In response, Indian manufacturers are increasing their global operations to optimize supply chain practices, embed safety in view of regulatory compliance. They are more proactive now than ever to step up transparency and provide all information about their products to consumers. This is a positive sign for Indian industry and reveals that we will see more global corporations operating out of India soon.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has won this year's ICC LG People's Choice Award. He now becomes only the third cricketer to win this coveted prize after Sachin Tendulkar, who was the first-ever recipient in 2010, and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who won it in 2011 and 2012. Other nominees for this year's LG People's Choice Award were Australia's Michael Clarke, England's Alastair Cook, India's Virat Kohli, and South Africa's AB de Villiers.
The award, which was introduced at the 2010 LG ICC Awards in Bangalore, was voted upon by close to 188,000 cricket fans around the world, who voted for their favourite player either via www.lgiccawards.com or via Twitter using the hashtag #LGICCAwards.
Voting opened on 2 November and closed at midnight UAE time on 23 November. The short list was nominated by an elite panel of cricket experts, which is headed by ICC Cricket Committee Chairman and former India captain Anil Kumble.
Other members of the panel are England's Alec Stewart, New Zealand's Catherine Campbell, Pakistan's Waqar Younis and South Africa's Graeme Pollock.
The five players were nominated by the panel using the criteria set out by LG and the ICC. This dictated that the nominees should have displayed some of the attributes regarded by LG as being in line with its corporate qualities such as innovation, dynamism, strength in decision-making, performing well under pressure and executing a plan to distinction.

As the football world waits in eager anticipation to know their pairings for next year's World Cup, India will hope FIFA has a present in store for them when it's executive committee meets in the north-eastern Brazilian city Salvador da Bahia.
The country's bid to host the 2017 Under-17 World Cup will be tabled before the executive committee, with an official announcement of the host country expected soon. India, encouraged by FIFA to bid for the tournament, will face competition from Ireland, 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa and Uzbekistan.