Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 02 September, 2014

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

The extended railway lines built by China in Tibet — 251 km from Lhasa to Shigatse on the west and 433 km to Nyingchi (still under construction) in the east — will effectively link Tibet to India, Nepal and Bhutan
These are part of the Chinese government’s mission 2020 for infrastructure in Tibet.
The lines are also seen as a “triangular defence” for China, allowing it to rush troops and military hardware to its sensitive southern borders with India at short notice.

United Bank of India (UBI) has declared Vijay Mallya and three directors of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) as wilful defaulters. The development was confirmed by the bank’s executive director Deepak Narang.
Besides Mr. Mallya, three other directors — A.K. Ganguly, Subhash Gupte and Ravi Nedungadi — have also been declared as wilful defaulters, Mr. Narang .
The bank has an exposure of between Rs.350 crore and Rs.400 crore to KFA, which was given by the Bangalore branch of UBI.
It may be mentioned that UBI filed a caveat in the Supreme Court against KFA on August 29, 2014, after the Division Bench of the High Court dismissed a KFA appeal against UBI.
Earlier, UBI had identified Mr. Mallya as a wilful defaulter, and asked him to appear before the bank’s panel to hear him out before declaring him as a wilful defaulter.
Mr. Mallya later moved the court seeking exemption of his appearance before the panel.

e-commerce firm Flipkart has made a strategic investment in mobile payments firm ngpay. Terms of the deal are not disclosed.
ngpay was founded in 2008 by Sourabh Jain. Meanwhile, Flipkart also said it would phase out its own payment product Payzippy launched last year.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued revised and final guidelines for raising non-equity regulatory capital instruments by banks under the stringent Basel III framework under which lenders can issue Tier-2 capital with a minimum original maturity of five years as against 10 years now.
It further said banks could issue Tier-2 debt capital instruments to retail investors, subject to board approval.

A fund-raising campaign on social media helped the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), the festival organisers, overcome a crippling financial crisis after their contract with Reliance Entertainment, the sole sponsor for the past five years, expired in February. “Since then, we were searching for the new sponsor. But we were unsuccessful,” said festival director Srinivasan Narayan.
The social media campaign helped the organisers raise Rs 1.5 crore in just two days. They are now expecting Rs. 5 crore by October.
The uncertainty over the festival’s future triggered a social media campaign, #pledge4MAMI from well-wishers.
“As the word spread, the entire film fraternity came forward and now the industry itself is taking care of the festival. We are getting commitments from many individuals and we have also opened our website of the contributions from ordinary fans,” Mr. Narayan said.

The former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju, said the solution to Indo-Pakistan problems lay in the “reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh under a strong secular state, with a modern minded leadership, which does not tolerate religious extremism of any kind, and which is determined to rapidly industrialise India and provide for the welfare and raising the standard of living of our masses.”
He said huge amount of money being spent on arms purchases could also be used for the uplift of poor people and giving them decent lives.
Justice Katju was expressing his views in the backdrop of the Indian government deciding not to hold talks with Pakistan after the Pakistan High Commissioner met separatist leaders. The J&K Legislative Assembly has urged resumption of talks.

After a successful stint of over six years, the Janamaithri Suraksha Project (Community Policing) initiative of the Kerala Police is set for a professional audit on its effectiveness in bridging the gap between the police and the community.
An external agency will study the project in detail and its effect in over 250 police stations across Kerala.
The Kozhikode city and rural police officers who head the scheme in various stations will share their experience with the professional agency appointed by the government to review the progress of the scheme.