Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams 09 March 2016

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

09 March 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Banks seek travel ban on Vijay Mallya

The Supreme Court agreed to urgently hear a plea by a consortium of banks, led by SBI, for a restraint order to prevent liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who owes them over Rs. 9,000 crore, from the leaving the country.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, ordered that the case be listed for hearing on March 9 after Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi sought an urgent audience. The action followed a Karnataka HC decision refusing to grant them an ex-parte interim order against Mr. Mallya, the U.K.-based Diageo Plc and United Spirits Limited.
The banks told the Supreme Court that the threat to their financial interests were so immediate and grave that the High Court should have passed the interim order without first hearing the embattled industrialist and others, including the debtor firm Kingfisher Airlines Limited.
The banks want the Supreme Court to pass an interim order to freeze Mr. Mallya’s passport or direct him not to leave the jurisdiction of this country without the court’s permission.
The banks had moved the DRT in the backdrop of Mr. Mallya’s recent resignation from the chairmanship of United Spirits. Diageo Plc, the current owner of the liquor company, has agreed to pay Mr. Mallya $75 million (roughly Rs 515 crore) in severance package.

SC says government should take every measure to provide voting right to soldiers

The Supreme Court stood up for the constitutional right of soldiers to vote, noting that they risked their lives to protect the borders, from the icy Siachen glacier to the remote and harsh terrains of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.
The Centre should pull all stops to ensure that the soldiers’ voices are heard loud and clear during election results, the court said.
SC directed the Centre to finalise a fool-proof mechanism to ensure that their postal ballots reached authorities in time so that these soldier do not feel left out in the country’s democratic process.

IRNSS-1F navigation satellite will be put into orbit on Mar 10

The countdown for the launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C32 began at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Nellore district.
The 54-hour countdown will conclude on March 10 at 4 p.m. when the PSLV will be launched to put the 1,425-kg IRNSS-1F navigation satellite into orbit.
SHAR director P. Kunhikrishnan and other space scientists are closely monitoring the progress of the countdown.
With this, the ISRO is moving closer to the task of completing the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System with seven satellites.

Civil society and government will come together on Conference on South-South Cooperation

Almost all the major civil society organisations of India will participate in the March 10-11 “Conference on South- South Cooperation”, being organised by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) of the MEA, to showcase the expanding space for civil society organisations in the scheme of the External Affairs Ministry.
This comes after the Ministry of External Affairs displayed the achievement of the civil society organisations in the field of sustainable development and renewable energy during the Cop21 Paris climate change conference and the India Africa Summit of 2015.
New South-South cooperation is needed in view of the shrinkage of resources in the developed North and the emergence of South as a new centre of economic activity.
The conference, to be attended by at least 100 experts from the field of international affairs and development economics, will be a platform for the Government's long term plan to use development assistance as a tool for India’s diplomacy.
The Ministry of External Affairs has been showcasing civil society initiatives at the international level and also used organisations like the Barefoot College of Tilonia to highlight India's commitment to the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
In addition to the civil society connection, the conference will also launch the Network of Southern Thinktanks (NeST) which will connect think tanks across Africa, Southeast Asia, Central and South Americas.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Plan to reduce refugee crisis tentatively agreed

EU and Turkish leaders sought to turn into a lasting accord a plan on easing Europe’s refugee crisis hailed as a game-changer by Ankara and Brussels but swiftly criticised by the UN’s refugee chief.
The day after agreeing the tentative plan following late night talks in Brussels, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was to discuss how it could work in a crucial meeting with his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras.
The EU is wooing Turkey — used by over one million migrants in the last year as a springboard for reaching the bloc — as the key player in helping ease Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.
A key pillar of the mooted deal was the unexpected offer by Ankara to take back every irregular migrant that crosses from Turkey to the islands of EU member Greece.
In return, the EU would then resettle one Syrian living in Turkey on its territory for every Syrian migrant it takes back from Greece.
The hope is that the plan will eliminate incentives for migrants to come to Greece by boat, but it ran into swift opposition from the head of the UN refugee agency Filippo Grandi.
Turkey and Greece signed a protocol over the readmission of migrants in 2002 but it has rarely been activated and its use could transform the refugee crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who has been the strongest proponent of a deal with Turkey — gave cautious support. “It is a breakthrough if it becomes reality,” she told reporters.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker also called the plan a “real game changer,” insisting that it was “legally feasible.”
Turkey is the main launching point migrants making the dangerous crossing over the Aegean Sea to the Greek islands. It hosts 2.7 million refugees from the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, more than any other country.
For Turkey, perhaps the biggest gain was the European Union’s agreement to bring forward to June visa-free travel to the bloc’s Schengen passport-free area for Turkey’s 75 million people, provided that Ankara honours its promises.

China warns of action in Korean region

An assertive China warned that it would not hesitate to intervene if its fundamental interests on the Korean Peninsula were harmed, and made it plain that its deep-rooted ties with the South China Sea could not be rivalled by any foreign power.
At an annual press conference, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi set several markers to explain the broad thrust of Beijing’s evolving, and increasingly bold, foreign policy, where growing competition with the U.S. was the underlying theme.
In his detailed response to a query on spiralling tensions in the Koreas, Mr. Wang said China would not “sit by and see” the destabilisation of the peninsula.
Yet, in order to defuse tensions, Mr. Wang advocated a multi-pronged approach where denuclearisation of the peninsula would be combined with signing of a formal peace treaty.
That would replace the 1953 Armistice, which was meant to “insure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved”.
The Korean Peninsula is on edge following the start on Monday of the largest-ever U.S.-South Korea military exercise, which has been fused with North Korea’s threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
In an obvious reference to the U.S., Mr. Wang asserted: “I want to remind some people that freedom of navigation doesn’t give them the licence to do whatever they want. If someone wants to muddy the waters in the South China Sea and to destabilise Asia, China will not agree to it and I think the overwhelming majority of countries in the region will not allow that to happen.”
The Chinese foreign minister stressed that China’s emotional and historical bonds with the South China Sea could not be rivalled by any other power.

:: Business and ECONOMY ::

Banks looking to change strategy to keep talented employees

State-run lenders like Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank are planning to offer stock options to staff in a bid to retain top talent.
This assumes significance in the backdrop of the imminent entry of 21 new niche banks which have been granted licences by the RBI to begin operations, as well as the prospect of a clutch of mid-management professionals reaching retirement age soon.
The lender, which is planning to increase the employee strength to 21,500 by March 31, 2019 from the 15,500 at present, is not only working out a scheme for career progression but also mulling an employee stock option plan (ESOP) to incentivise them.
The board had already approved the ESOP. Now, the bank will write to the government for its approval.
State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, had floated the idea of ESOP for its employees some time ago. However, the proposal is still awaiting government’s approval.
Most banks plan to offer stock options to their employees in the rank of assistant general manager and above.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said recently that the government was actively discussing the proposal for Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) for public sector bank employees.
Public sector banks are facing headwinds on the human resources front as many mid-management officers are retiring over the next five years, prompting the central bank to term it a ‘retirement decade.’
In addition, the 21 new banks, which have received differentiated licences from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will try to poach employees from existing banks.
In August-September last year, RBI has granted licences to 11 payment banks and 10 small finance banks to start operations.
While these banks were given 18 months’ time to roll out services, most of these entities are expected to start operations in 2016.
At a lower level, public sector institutions pay better than their counterparts. But while progressively going up, there is a gap that really becomes unmanageable.

RBI says banking infrastructure is not good enough

Growth of card acceptance infrastructure like automated teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale (PoS) terminals is not on a par with that of card issuance.
This was observed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its concept paper on card acceptance infrastructure released on Tuesday.
Another disconcerting feature is that the rate of growth in setting up card acceptance infrastructure has also slowed down during these three years.
Debit cards vastly outnumber the volume of credit cards issued in the country. Further, a high number of debit cards have been issued in recent times under the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yogana, especially to customers in rural areas and smaller towns.
According to the concept paper, the lower growth of ATM and PoS terminals, both in terms of numbers and geographical spread, has impacted card use.
Cash continues to be the predominant mode of payment as it appears to be “costless” in comparison to the visible costs associated with card/electronic payments.
Some of the factors that have inhibited growth in the acceptance infrastructure are lack of adequate and low-cost telecom infrastructure and lack of incentive for merchants for acceptance of cards, among others.

:: Sports ::

BCCI says despite problems India-Pak match will happen

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said the India-Pakistan World Twenty20 Cricket match at Dharamsala will be held as per schedule (on March 19) and that “the State government was on board.”
After an hour-long meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) at North Block, Tournament Director M.V. Sridhar said the Himachal Pradesh government was on board for the cricket match.
The statement assumes significance as Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had opposed the match and even told a visiting Pakistani team a day ago that the State government would not provide any security to the cricket team.