Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 15 Februray 2018

::NATIONAL::

PNB scam

In what could be one of the biggest frauds in the Indian banking system, state-run lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported unauthorised transactions worth Rs. 11,500 crore in one of its branches in south Mumbai.
The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case in the matter, which involves Mumbai-based billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi.
A case has been registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against him and his business associates as well as a serving PNB official and a retired deputy manager of the bank.
In a communication to the stock exchanges on Wednesday morning, the country’s second largest lender said it had detected some unauthorised transactions in one of its branches for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent ‘connivance’.
“The quantum of such transactions is $1771.69 million. The matter is already referred to law enforcement agencies to examine and book the culprits as per law of the land,” the communication said.
The bank’s stock plunged almost 10% through the day and its market capitalisation eroded by nearly Rs. 3,900 crore by the end of trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The government also swung into action with the Finance Ministry asking all the banks to carry out a clean-up exercise.
Financial Services Secretary Rajeev Kumar said the government will not tolerate ‘unclean banks’ while adding that the case dates back to 2011, when a fraudulent Letter of Undertaking (LoU) was submitted to PNB.
“However, the PNB case is an isolated one. The CBI is looking into the case, and 10 employees of the bank have been suspended,” Mr. Kumar added.

PFI ban study by Centre

Kerala has asked for a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), a Muslim organisation that is mainly operating out of the State, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has said.
The issue was discussed at the annual DGP meet held in Madhya Pradesh’s Tekanpur in January, where Kerala police chief Lokanath Behera gave a detailed presentation on the PFI’s growth and activities in the State.
The session was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior officials in the security establishment.
Kerala has pressed for a ban on the PFI and we are examining the case.
Mr. Behera listed four cases where members of the PFI were involved in criminal activities, said a senior Home Ministry official.
The Centre will collect more facts and evidence about the activities of the outfit before declaring it an “unlawful association”, the official added.
Attempts to reach Mr. Behera for his comments were not successful.
The DGP meet is an annual affair organised by the Intelligence Bureau where issues concerning internal security are discussed.
The National Investigation Agency had last year sent a detailed report to the Home Ministry and mentioned four cases where cadres of the PFI had either been charge-sheeted or convicted.

High quality residue-free coffee by tribals

With no financial or technical support from anybody, Paliyar tribals living at Korankombu have been producing high quality, chemical and residue-free coffee using their traditional low-cost cultivation methods.
Poverty, no access to latest technologies and lack of funds to buy fertilizers and pesticides are a blessing in disguise for these people as they have been adopting their traditional practices to grow coffee in the reserve forest areas.
They raise both Arabica and Robusta variety of coffee.
While tall Robusta crops are grown near field bund, Arabica trees are planted inside the field. They neither cut forest trees nor clean land to raise coffee.
Natural coffee production does not affect the yield. They have harvested 600 kg of coffee in an acre.
“We never pay wages to labourers for plucking fruits. Family members of one tribal planter work in other’s farm. ‘Shram dhan’ is still in vogue among tribal planters for harvesting,” says G. Sankar, tribal planter.
The irony is that no coffee research station officials has visited the village so far. Forest officials and Q branch police are the only visitors to the village.
Collector T.G. Vinay was the first top-level officer who visited the village to take part in a mass contact programme, he said.
With no contact with outer world, they depend on big coffee estate owners to sell their high quality produce.
They hand over their entire produce to the estate owners and receive whatever they offer for their survival. Even today, tuber available in the reserve forests is their only food.
Impressed by their work culture, the Forest Department has come forward to legalise their rights to use forest land for agriculture purpose under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
More than 36 coffee planters’ families would benefit. Recognising their legal rights alone would not bring any fortune to them.
Direct marketing support with brand label for their produce is the need of the hour.
The State and Central governments should recognise their product and popularise them throughout the world.

Alarms to monitor wild elephants

An advanced but cost-effective alarm system would soon be installed at four places at Ennamangalam forest area in Erode Forest Division to detect the movement of wild elephants along forest boundaries.
I. Anwardeen, Chief Conservator of Forests, said that elephants raiding crops on agriculture lands was a major cause of concern for those living near forest areas.
Seven persons lost their life in man-animal conflicts near Ennamangalam forest area in 2017.
Hence, the department had proposed to install alarm system in the area.
When elephant crosses the boundary, the multiple passive infra-red sensor installed in the 500 m stretch absorbs the body temperature of the elephant and sets in motion sensor cameras.
Sensors and cameras can rotate 360 degrees, he said.
The cameras, in turn, will capture the movement of elephants and images will be sent to authorities concerned.
An alarm will be sounded from the system installed on the top of a house in the nearby village.
S. Anand, District Forest Officer, Erode Forest Division, told The Hindu that a light will flash to scare away the elephant to the forest.
He said that four spots were identified for the project and the system will be installed at a spot on a study basis.
On Saturday, Mr. Anand along with a team led by Jeyabarathi, a professor from SSN College, Chennai, that designed the system, inspected the spot where it will be installed.
The team was asked to work on providing sms alerts to villagers.
The installation will be done by the end of the month, Mr. Anand said.
The cost of the system is less than Rs. 1 lakh.

Provide more security along border: Mizoram CM

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to beef up security along the border with Myanmar to prevent Rohingya Muslims from entering the Northeastern State.
Mr. Lal Thanhawla had met Mr. Singh in Delhi and discussed wide-ranging security issues with him, it said.
The Chief Minister informed the Home Minister that the State could face serious problems if Rohingya refugees and terrorists from the Rakhine state in Myanmar enter Mizoram.
He also expressed concern over the recent clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan militants along the border on the Myanmar side, resulting in the entry of over thousands of refugees to Mizoram, the statement said.
Over 1,600 Myanmarese nationals have taken shelter in south Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district after the Myanmar Army launched a massive crackdown on the Arakan militants since November 25 last.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Iran President visit to India

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit India from February 15 to 17, exactly a month after Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran’s biggest rival, made a historic visit.
Officials say Mr. Rouhani’s visit will send out a message that India aims for balance in its ties in the neighbourhood.
Mr. Rouhani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek to iron out issues on trade, connectivity, banking and energy.
During the forthcoming visit of the President of Iran, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Since Mr. Netanyahu’s visit, Mr. Modi has visited Palestine, Jordan, the UAE and Oman.
“Clearly, the government is trying to cover all bases,” former Ambassador to Iran K.C. Singh said.
But it remains to be seen whether the Iranian establishment, including the clerics and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, are comfortable with India’s relations with all these other countries.
Iran is after all, not just important for India’s energy needs but also its only route for access to Central Asia.
Among the subjects expected to be discussed are the progress of the $500-million Beheshti port project in Chabahar, where India is expected to complete development of berths later this year.
India is already routing a consignment of 1.1 million tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan through the existing facilities at Chabahar.
On bilateral trade, the biggest stumbling block is banking channels, say diplomats in Tehran and Delhi.
The two sides are now discussing the possibility of a “rupee-rial mechanism”, in addition to the current channel through UCO Bank for rupee payments.
However, European banks have refused to support the trade, given the uncertainty over fresh sanctions from the U.S.
Another issue is the pending negotiations over the Farzad-B gas and oil fields that India has expressed its interest in.
During Mr. Modi’s visit in 2016, the two sides had hoped to see an agreement signed quickly, but according to officials dealing with the negotiations, the discussions had not made much progress because of what they called “Iran’s shifting goalposts” on the bid for Farzad-B.
Sources said even negotiations for India’s bid for Russian and UAE oilfields that started much later had been concluded by now.
Russia’s Gazprom has concluded deals for several oilfields and plans joint ventures with Iran’s National Iranian Oil Company, much to India’s chagrin.
However, officials believe that India’s oil imports from Iran, which had plummeted to new lows last year, will go up this year, because of “better terms from Iran”, which is anticipating possible new sanctions being imposed by the Trump administration.
Iran is likely to seek India’s support at the upcoming meeting of the UN’s Financial Action Task Force, where Tehran is hoping to exit a blacklist on money laundering and terror finance, even as India hopes to see Pakistan put on a “grey-list” at the meeting.
Mr. Rouhani will arrive in Delhi on February 17 after visiting Hyderabad, where he will address students and religious scholars at a series of functions and the Friday congregation at the Makkah Masjid.
He will be the first Iranian head of state to do so.
On Saturday, he will be given an official welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan before he and Mr. Modi sit down for bilateral talks.
Mr. Rouhani is expected to return to Tehran the same evening, after delivering a special address at a foreign policy think-tank.

Reconstruction of Iraq

India has called for a comprehensive political settlement and reconciliation in Iraq at the International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq in Kuwait, where major world powers are meeting to chalk out a plan of recovery for the country.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar, who is leading the Indian delegation, has announced that India will play its part in the reconstruction, and called for an end to global terrorism.
We will play our part with project-specific proposals.
We support the important role assigned to private sector investors in the rebuilding of the terrorist-affected areas in Iraq.
We are willing to play a substantive role in major projects in petrochemicals, health, education, infrastructure and other sectors.
We will also look at any specific requests for rehabilitation projects and essential supplies like medicines, equipment, etc., as required for internally displaced persons as part of our assistance programme, said Mr. Akbar indicating a collaborative approach to rebuilding the country, which has witnessed war since the early 1980s.
Mr. Akbar drew the attention of the conference towards India’s current campaign for a comprehensive global convention against terrorism.
“This is also the moment to remind the international community that an early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, a draft of which was proposed by India as early as 1996...,” he said.
During the visit of Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari last year, India assured Baghdad of support in the reconstruction of the country.
Since the outbreak of the war in 2003, India had frequently responded to the humanitarian needs in Iraq and contributed in several ways.
Including providing $10 million in aid towards the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq (IRFFI) for investments, reconstruction and development in Iraq.

::Economy::

Centre in search to save power

The Centre, through its company Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), is planning to replicate its success in the LED space in the commercial sector by creating a market for low-cost, energy-efficient motors, a senior official said.
A large chunk of energy consumption goes to industry.
About 30-34% of the total energy consumption goes to the industrial sector, which is a substantial amount.
And out of that, about 70% is electrical energy consumption.
Most of this electricity consumption is due to the use of motor-driven systems.
Using a combination of economies of scale and design efficiencies, Mr. Garnaik said EESL had so far been able to create motors in the capacity range of 1.1 KW to 22 KW that are 30% cheaper and result in an average of 15% lower electricity usage.
Apart from the price benefit, one of the other levers to create demand is the fact that the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has issued a quality assurance guidance that says that manufacturers will have to supply a minimum energy performance standard adhering to the ‘International Efficiency-2’ (IE-2) level.
The EESL motors are of the IE-3 level, which save between 7% to 23% of electricity compared with the current industry standard, depending on the application.
The present practice is of using non-IE motors. About 99% of the motors being used are IE-1 or non-IE.
Phase 1 of the nation-wide programme, to be unveiled by Power Minister R.K. Singh, would seek to replace 1.2 lakh motors of the capacity of 1.1-22 KW, which would save 175 million units of electricity.
In the second phase, two lakh motors would be replaced, including those of a capacity higher than 22 KW.
There are in total about 11 million motors that can be replaced, which works out to about 15 billion units of electricity being saved.
This can lead to 6,000 MW of capacity reduction. But 11 million cannot be done overnight.

Review on Anti-Dumping Duty

India has initiated a review of anti-dumping duty on flat base steel wheels from China to take a call on “the need for continued imposition of the duties in force.”
The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and allied Duties (DGAD) has initiated the review investigation “to examine whether the expiry of such duty (on imports of flat base steel wheels from China).
It is likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury to the domestic (Indian) industry.
The move comes in the backdrop of India’s huge trade deficit with China ($51.1 billion in FY’17).
They have sought a review and continuation of the anti-dumping duties, imposed on such imports.
The Authority (DGAD) has considered the period of October, 2016 to September, 2017 as the period of investigation.
The injury investigation period has however, been considered as the period 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and the period of investigation.
India had in 2013 imposed duty up to $613 per tonne on import of the product from China for five years.
As per the World Trade Organisation, if a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market, it is said to be “dumping” the product.
The global body has also said that the WTO agreement allows governments to act against dumping where there is genuine (“material”) injury to the competing domestic industry.