Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 08 January, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

A committee on comprehensive financial services for small businesses and low-income households, set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has suggested that each low-income household and small business should be provided with convenient access to formally regulated lenders who have the ability to assess and meet their credit needs and offer a full-range of suitable credit products at an affordable price.
The committee, headed by Nachiket Mor, Central Board Member of the RBI, submitted its report and has set January 1, 2016, as the deadline for achieving this.
By that date, each district and every significant sector (and sub-sector) of the economy would have a credit to GDP ratio of at least 10 per cent. This ratio would increase every year by 10 per cent.
The committee was hopeful that by January 1, 2016, each district would have a total deposits and investments to GDP ratio of at least 15 per cent.
On priority sector, the committee recommended adjusted priority sector lending target of 50 per cent against the current requirement of 40 per cent with sectoral and regional weightage based on the level of difficulty in lending. It also recommended risks and liquidity transfers through markets. ``In view of the fact that banks may choose to focus their priority sector strategies on different customer segments and asset classes,’’ the committee recommended the regulator to provide specific guidance on differential provisioning norms at the level of each asset class.

While patent filing at the Indian patent office has seen a rise of 23.97 per cent from 2007-08 to 2012-13, assessment shows that only a meagre 22 per cent of them have been filed by Indian applicants in 2012-13. While 43,663 patents were filed in 2012-13, a majority or 78 per cent were international applications.
The trend has been consistent over the years. In 2011-12, out of the 43,197 patent applications filed, 80 per cent were foreign applications. In 2010-11, the total number of applications filed by the Indian applicants was 8,062, which accounts for only 20.46 per cent of the total number of applications filed during that fiscal.
"According to the World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPO-2012) report, while China's contribution to the rise in patent applications globally has increased from 37.2 per cent between 1995-2009 to 72.1 per cent between 2009-11, India's contribution decreased from 3.5 per cent between 1995-2009 to 2.7 per cent between 2009-2011. The report shows that while China topped the global list by filing 503,582 patent applications, India was ranked seventh with 42,291 applications.
According to figures given by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, Mumbai, for the 2013-14 financial year, 28,850 patents have been filed upto o November 2013. While 11,751 applications were examined in 2007-08, 12,186 were examined in 2012-13.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have completed the acquisition of Videocon Group's 10 per cent stake in a giant Mozambique gas field for USD 2.475 billion.
OVL, the overseas arm of state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp, and OIL agreed in June last year to jointly buy Videocon's 10 per cent interest in the Rovuma Area 1 for USD 2.475 billion.
Additionally, OVL bought US energy major Anadarko Petroleum's 10 per cent stake in the same block for USD 2.64 billion.
Payments to Videocon to close the deal were made yesterday, the companies said in separate, almost identical statements. OVL will pay Anadarko before February-end.
OVL raised about USD 1.5 billion in one-year bridge loans from foreign lenders, while OIL borrowed USD 900 million to fund their respective share of payments to Videocon.
The 10 per cent stake will be split in a 60:40 ratio between OVL and OIL. The two firms had signed definitive agreements with Videocon Mauritius Energy on June 25 to acquire the stake in the gas field.
The partners in Area 1 include Anadarko, the operator of the project, ENH (the national oil company of Mozambique), Mitsui, BPRL (a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd) and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production.

World number one Tiger Woods has cracked USD 1.3 billion in career earnings by leading the Golf Digest 50 with USD 83 million in income last year, the magazine reported on its website.
Woods, a 14-time major champion, topped the list for the 11th time in its 11-year history with $83,091,508, including an estimated $71 million off the course and more than $12 million in prize money.
The story says Woods' winnings of more than $155 million reflect less than 12 per cent of his career earnings, with $1.16 billion coming from endorsements since his pro debut in 1996, a figure that continues to increase even in the wake of an infamous sex scandal and ensuing divorce.
Second on the Golf Digest list for 2013 income was Phil Mickelson at $52,009,156, with an estimated $45 million in endorsements and other non-prize money income.
The US left-hander won last year's British Open and hopes to complete a career Grand Slam by winning this year's US Open, an event where he is a record six-time runner-up.

India's tennis doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi registered their first win of the new year after coming together again winning the first round of men's doubles competitions of the ATP Sydney International .
Bopanna and Qureshi defeated the Dutch-Roman pair of Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau in the first round of the $511,825 hardcourt event.
The Indo-Pak pair, who are seeded third, won 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 10-3 over Roger and Tecau in one hour and 41 minutes.
In their first match of the season, Bopanna and Qureshi had suffered a loss and made a first round exit from last week's Chennai Open.
Bopanna and Qureshi will next face Treat Huey from Philippines and Briton Dominic Inglot. Huey and Inglot had defeated the Spanish pair of Pablo Andujar and David Marrero 6-4, 6-3 in the first round.
Meanwhile, the second-seeded Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek will start their campaign against the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. In the Chennai Open, Vasselin had finished runners-up in the men's singles.
It was also end of the road for India's Somdev Devvarman, who failed to qualify for the main draw in the singles after he lost the second round of the qualifiers.