Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 18 September, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

A long-awaited United Nations report has urged Sri Lanka to establish a special court to try the “horrific” abuses committed by the authorities and the rebels in the last phase of the country’s civil war.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), which released the report in Geneva on Wednesday, called upon Colombo to create the proposed court through specific legislation by integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators.
“For an accountability mechanism to succeed in Sri Lanka, it will require more than a domestic mechanism,” the OISL said.
This would be “essential to give confidence to all Sri Lankans, in particular the victims, in the independence and impartiality of the process, particularly given the politicisation and highly polarised environment in Sri Lanka.”
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a press conference in Geneva that “our investigation has laid bare the horrific level of violations and abuses that occurred in Sri Lanka”.

Nepal’s Parliament passed a new national Constitution on Wednesday, weeks after political leaders reached a historic agreement to create a federal state following an earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people.
A loud cheer went up in the House as Speaker Subash Nembang announced that the long-delayed bill had been passed after violent protests that have killed more than 40 people and shut down large swathes of the south.
In all, 507 of the young republic’s 598 lawmakers came out in favour of the bill in the marathon vote, which began on Sunday and continued late into Wednesday night.
The new charter will replace an interim constitution in place since the end of a decade-long civil war that led to the abolition of the Hindu monarchy, and is due to come into force on Sunday after a ceremony at the Constituent Assembly, or parliament.
It will divide the nation of 28 million people into seven federal provinces,

A charity fund established by Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba Group, will offer $1.57 million (Rs. 10.39 crore) to 100 Chinese rural teachers each year to support rural education.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted ‘in-principle’ approval for 10 companies to set up small finance banks.
The approval will be valid for 18 months to enable the applicants to comply with the requirements.
The central bank said that it selected the applicants after three different committees contributed to the final decision, backed by a detailed case study of each applicant.
The scrutiny involved assessment of financial soundness, proposed business plan, fit and proper status based on due diligence reports received from the regulators, investigative agencies and banks, said RBI.

Equitas Holdings Pvt. is the only Chennai-based NBFC-microfinance institution to have won the RBI’s nod to start a small finance bank. Talking to The Hindu , Equitas Managing Director, P.N. Vasudevan said: “RBI has given us 18-months time to start the banking operations.
We will start thinking now about our next step.
We are not going to stop microfinance business, but we will be adding liability side to our lending activity. We want to start it as soon as possible.”

The spate of suicides by tobacco farmers in Andhra Pradesh cost the Tobacco Board Chairman Koothati Gopal his job on Wednesday with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitaraman asking him to go on leave for being absent at his post at a time of distress to farmers.
The chairman is said to have been on tour to Italy last week when three farmers committed suicide in three days in Prakasam and Nellore districts.
This capped a run of bad news in the tobacco sector for the better part of this year, marked by slack demand on the auction platforms and cutbacks in production mandated by the Tobacco Board.
Ms Sitaraman is scheduled to tour Prakasam district on Thursday and a joint secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, who has been asked officiate in the place of Mr Gopal will be at her side.
Although Mr. Gopal’s absence is said to be the reason for his sacking, it is believed that the trigger for it was the tough stance he took against buying 30 million kg of additional tobacco production. Out of a total 172 million kg of tobacco produced in the State, 142.6 million kg was lifted by traders.
The board was asked to take steps to facilitate disposal of the remaining 30 million kg by this month-end. But Mr. Gopal insisted it would not be possible to buy the additional stocks, which reportedly upset the Union Minister.

It has been 26 years since Leander Paes made his Davis Cup debut, but he was quite the enthusiastic participant as he joined the Indian team for the training session ahead of the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie against the Czech Republic.
Under floodlights, the 42-year-old had a hit with doubles partner Rohan Bopanna after reaching the Capital on Wednesday evening from Mumbai where he had arrived from New York in the early hours.

Paes said he was happy to lend his support to the team against high-quality opposition the likes of who populate the World Group and the World Group play-off ties.
Having run Serbia close in the last World Group play-off in Bengaluru — thanks to the inspiring performances of Paes and Bopanna who turned the tide from two sets and a break down after the opening singles rubbers had been lost and followed up by Somdev Dev varman — India has shown its ability to make a fight of it against strong teams.

With an 89-32 win-loss record in 51 ties — many of which he won singlehandedly — speaking for his rich experience, Paes said matches were often decided by just one shot.