Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 15 May, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

15 May 2015

RBI relaxes norms for IDF-NBFCs

In a bid to ensure flow of funds to infrastructure projects, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), allowed Infrastructure Debt Fund-Non-Banking Financial Companies to invest in public-private partnerships (PPPs) and infrastructure projects which have completed at least one year of satisfactory commercial operation. The maximum exposure that an IDF-NBFC can take on individual projects will be at 50 per cent of its total capital funds.
An additional exposure up to 10 per cent could be taken at the discretion of the board of the IDF-NBFC. The Reserve Bank of India also said that all assets covering PPP and post-commercial operations date (COD) infrastructure projects in existence over a year of commercial operation would be assigned a risk weight of 50 per cent.

Centre Government to sell stake in IOC and NTPC

The Central Government will sell its 10 per cent stake in blue-chip Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and five per cent in power producer NTPC to mop up about Rs.13,600 crore in this fiscal’s first disinvestment approval. The approvals are part of Rs.41,000 crore disinvestment target for the current financial year. Buoyed by diesel price deregulation, the government is looking at selling stake in Indian’s largest fuel retailer IOC for the second time in 13 months.
Sale of 24.27 crore shares, or 10 per cent stake, in IOC would mop up close to Rs.8,000 crore at current market price. A total of 41.22 crore shares, or five per cent, in NTPC could fetch Rs.5,600 crore to the exchequer at current rates.

India and China sign several agreements

India and China have signed 24 agreements worth over 10 billion dollars in Beijing after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Chinese premier Li Keqiang on 15th May. These agreements are as fellow:

Protocol for establishment of consulates in Chengdu and Chennai
Cooperation in vocational education and skill development and setting up of Mahatma Gandhi institute on skill development in India
Consultative mechanism on cooperation in trade negotiations
Cooperation between Foreign Ministry and and Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CCCPC)
Action plan between national railway administration of China and Indian Railways
Memorandum of Understanding on education exchange programme
Cooperation in the fields of mining and minerals
Space cooperation outline
Safety regulations on importing Indian rapeseed meal
Broadcasting agreement between CCTV and Doordarshan
Agreement for cooperation in the field of tourism
Memorandum of Understanding on establishing India-China think tanks forum
Memorandum of Understanding between NITI Aayog and Development Research Centre
Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in earthquake science and engineering
Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in ocean sciences, climate change and cryosphere
Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in geo sciences
Memorandum of Understanding on establishment states/provincial leaders' forum
Cooperation between states and municipalities - establishment of India-China state leaders forum
Agreement on the establishment of sister states Sichuan and Karnataka
Agreement on the establishment of sister cities between Chennai and Chongqing
Agreement on the establishment of sister cities between Hyderabad and Gingdao
Agreement on the establishment of sister cities Aurangabad and Dunhuang
Memorandum of Understanding between ICCR and Fudan University for establishment of centre for Gandhian studies
Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of Yoga college in Kumning

Facebook launches Instant Articles program

Facebook, launched its much-rumoured product “Instant Articles”, a programme that directly host articles from news organizations so that users do not have to click out and wait for websites to load. The firm has tied up with nine media companies - The New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild - for Instant Articles, which would be available on iPhone to start with.
Publishers can sell ads in their articles and keep all the revenue or allow Facebook to sell ads, with the social network getting 30 per cent of the proceeds. Publishers will also have the ability to track data and traffic through comScore and other analytics tools.
According to the New York Times, Facebook clearly plays an important role as a gatekeeper to news. Nearly half of American Internet users said they got news about politics and government on Facebook during the course of a week, almost as many as got such news from local television, it said quoting a survey last year by the Pew Research Center.

Harbhajan Kaur Dheer became first Asian elected mayor in UK

Harbhajan Kaur Dheer an Indian-origin councillor woman has became the first Asian woman elected mayor of Ealing Council in London; she became the Mayor of Ealing Council after succeeding councillor Tej Ram Bagha.
Her husband councillor Ranjit Dheer is a former Mayor of Ealing. Born in Punjab in 1953, Harbhajan Kaur came to Britain in 1975. She studied Social Sciences at Kingston University and obtained a degree in 1995. She worked as an Approved Mental Health Professional in Surrey County Council until 2003. She has served the borough as a governor of a number of schools. She is a passionate advocate of rights of children and elderly including those with mental health issues.

Tejaswini Sagar wins gold in under-15 category of World School Chess Championship

Indian’s youngest chess player Tejaswini Sagar won her maiden world title bagging the gold in the under-15 category of World School Chess Championship. Needing a last round win and one favourable result, the Aurangabad-girl defeated Kavinya Miyuni Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka in the ninth and final round.
Tejaswini was aided by the result on the top board as overnight leader Irina Barbayeva of Russia lost to Alisa Kozybayeva of Kazakhstan in the final clash. For the record, Tejaswini scored seven points out of a possible nine, winning six, drawing two and losing one game.
Among other Indians in the fray, Anand Nadar bagged the silver medal in under-15 open category while Saloni Sapole also won the silver in under-17 girls' section.