Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 27 January, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

27 January, 2014

Restrictions on gold imports

The restrictions on gold imports will be reviewed by March-end, according to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram .
To contain the rising gold imports, the government had increased customs duty on the yellow metal three times in 2013. The levy currently stands at 10 per cent.
Mr. Chidambaram said there has been about 1-3 tonnes of gold smuggled into the country every month following the restrictions imposed on shipment in 2013.
Gold smuggling has increased, but the restrictions on gold import were absolutely necessary because it is these restrictions, which have brought down gold import, which in April and May had crossed 300 tonnes.

Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold tournament

Top seed Saina Nehwal prevailed over compatriot and second seed PV Sindhu 21-14, 21-17 to win the $120,000 Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold tournament in Lucknow .
The home tournament provided Saina the much-needed platform to end her title drought. The Indian had not won a title in more than a year. In the last edition of the tournament — held in December 2012 — Saina had pulled out of the tournament citing a knee injury when she was leading 21-17, 20-18 — just a point away from winning the first round game against Russian Ksenia Polikarpova. In the edition before that, she had pulled out citing a bout of ‘cold and flu’ and a ‘hamstring pull’. However, this year’s tournament turned out to be far more important to her than she might have imagined.
In the men’s singles final, ninth seed Xue Song of China defeated sixth seed K Srikanth of India 16-21, 21-19, 21-13. Srikanth played well and had chances to pack up the match when he was up 19-12 in the second game after winning the first. Eventually, Song nicked the test and ran through the decider.
The finals of all the doubles events proved to be all-Chinese affair. In the mixed doubles final Yilv Wang and Huang Yaqiong defeated Kaixiang Huang and Qingchen Chen 21-18, 21-14. In the women’s doubles finals, Qingchen Chen and Yi Fan Jia registered a 22-24, 21-19, 21-11 victory against Yu Xiaohan and Huang Yaqiong. In the men’s doubles finals, Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen beat Kaixiang Huang and Si Wi Zheng 21-17, 19-21, 22-20.

New regulation for PAN card

The government has tightened security measures to issue new permanent account number (PAN) card effective from 3 February 2014. The new regulations have been issued in the wake of growing number of fake cases of the 10 digit alphanumeric identity proof.
It will be much more difficult to get a PAN card now. According to a statement issued by Finance Ministry, for PAN application, a person will have to produce original documents of date of birth and address proof to verify copy of documents submitted. The original documents will be returned to the individual post verification.
Earlier, an individual was not required to produce original documents corroborating the copies of identity proofs submitted. PAN was launched to estimate total tax generation. An individual can obtain a PAN card by paying a fee of Rs. 85 and service tax at the facilitation centre.
Lately, a consumer activist group revealed misuse of PANs for passenger reservation in Indian Railways under tatkal scheme. Also, it was brought to light that some jewelers did not furnish information about buyers who did not produce PAN card while buying bullion, thus both parties evaded tax payment.
There was a time when PAN was almost insignificant and was required only to file income tax returns. However, now PAN is necessary for almost every transaction, i.e. while buying precious metals, property, vehicles and even in stock market.

Airbus A380 superjumbos

India will allow Airbus A380 planes to land at the country's four main airports, lifting restrictions on the superjumbos flying into the country.
The four airports equipped to handle the A380s are in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The ban on A380s was mainly due to concerns that foreign carriers may further hurt state-run Air India by grabbing a larger share of international traffic.
The rule change will benefit carriers like Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Lufthansa and British Airways that operate the super-jumbo and fly to India, as well A380 customers like Etihad and Qatar Airways who have yet to take delivery of the aircraft.