Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 24 July, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

24 July 2015

:: National ::

RBI Governor might lose veto power

In what looks like another sign of increasing differences between the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, the revised draft of Indian Financial Code (IFC), released by the finance ministry on Thursday, proposed taking away the chief's authority to veto the interest rate decision of the Central bank's monetary policy committee.
Besides, the draft proposed that the all-powerful committee would have four representatives of the government and only three from the Central bank, including the 'RBI chairperson'. The draft talks of 'RBI Chairperson' and not 'RBI Governor'.
Currently, the governor consults a technical advisory committee, but does not necessarily go by the majority opinion while deciding on the monetary policy stance.
The first draft, submitted in March 2013, too had talked about the committee and majority vote, but gave powers to the RBI chairperson to supersede the decision of the panel.
The IFC, which is conceived as an overarching legislation for the financial sector, proposes a monetary policy committee which will be entrusted with the task of deciding the key policy rate and chasing the annual retail inflation target to be decided by the government in consultation with the RBI.
"Inflation target for each financial year will be determined in terms of the consumer price index by the Central government in consultation with the Reserve Bank every three years," said the draft, on which the ministry has invited comments till August 8.
Further, the RBI "must constitute a monetary policy committee to determine by majority vote on the policy rate required to achieve the inflation target".
As per revised draft, there will be three members from the RBI side and four from the Central government thus giving full control to the government on policy rate.
The government and the RBI had always disagreed over size of the committee, its composition and whether the governor would have the final say in the form of a veto.

Pachauri remove from TERI chief

RK Pachauri, accused of sexual harassment by a woman employee, was on Thursday sacked as the chief of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
R K Pachauri, facing sexual harassment charges, was today asked to step down from the position of director general of the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), bringing an end to his uninterrupted reign at the Delhi-based organisation he has been associated with for over three decades.
TERI’s governing council, comprising prominent corporate names like Deepak Parekh, Naina Lal Kidwai, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Hemendra Kothari, met in Bangalore today and decided to replace Pachauri with Ajay Mathur, who is currently director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) that functions under the power ministry.
A press release issued on behalf of TERI sought to give the impression that the decision had nothing to do with the sexual harassment case.
It said the search for a successor began in September last year, almost six months before Pachauri was accused of sexual harassment by a junior colleague.
The governing council is certain that the 1,200 persons working for TERI in different parts of the world would welcome this development and extend all their support towards a smooth transition,” said the press release.
Pachauri went on leave from TERI after the sexual harassment charge became public in February. Last week, a Delhi court that had restrained him from attending office allowed him to visit TERI premises other than the headquarters and the office in Gurgaon where the alleged victim is currently posted..
Today’s decision comes five months after the alleged victim filed a police complaint against Pachauri. Following that, Pachauri had to resign from the chairmanship of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global body of scientists, months before his second six-year tenure was to come to an end.
Pachauri also had to resign from the membership of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. But he continued to hang on to his position as director-general of TERI and only proceeded on leave when the allegations became public.

Decision on net neutrality yet to be take

The recent report submitted by the government on net neutrality was not the final one, and the final view is still awaited, parliament was informed on Wednesday.
"The committee of officers constituted by the Department of Telecommunications on net neutrality has submitted its report. However, it is not the final report nor the government has taken any final view," communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The report, submitted by the panel headed by technocrat AK Bhargava, was made public on JulRavi Shankar Prasad y 16, and said it favoured an end to the free call regime over the internet.
Prasad also mentioned that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was engaged in a consultation process covering issues related to net neutrality, whose recommendations were awaited.

:: International ::

China begins assembling world’s largest radio telescope

China today started assembling the world's largest radio telescope, whose dish has the size of 30 football grounds, in the mountains of southwest Guizhou Province to enhance its ability to observe outer space.
China today started assembling the world’s largest radio telescope, whose dish has the size of 30 football grounds, in the mountains of southwest Guizhou Province to enhance its ability to observe outer space.
The Chinese technicians began to assemble the telescope’s reflector, which is 500 meters in diameter and made up of 4,450 panels. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 meters.
Once completed, the single-aperture spherical telescope called ‘FAST’ will be the world’s largest, overtaking Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter, state-run Xinhua news agency reported..
Wu Xiangping, director-general of Chinese Astronomical Society, said that for years Chinese scientists have worked on “second hand” data collected by others and failed to achieve breakthrough.
With a perimeter of about 1.6 km, it will take about 40 minutes to walk around the telescope. The giant dish is built upon a naturally-formed bowl-like valley in the southern part of Guizhou.
The Karst formation in the local landscape is good for draining rainwater underground and protecting the reflector, Sun said.
The construction of the telescope began in March 2011 and is set to finish next year.

:: Business ::

IDFC gets banking licence from RBI, to launch services by year-end

The Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC Ltd) on Friday declared on it's website that theReserve Bank of India (RBI) had granted banking licence to the financial company making it the second lender after Bandhan Bank to enter the banking sector after more than a decade.
IDFC and Bandhan Financial Services Pvt Ltd emerged successful out of 25 contenders for new bank licences issued by the RBI in April last year. Bandhan Financial got RBI's approval last month.
IDFC's executive chairman, Rajiv Lall after receiving the final nof for the banking licence had said that the company plans to start operation from October 1 with an initial loan book of around Rs 55,000 crore with an estimated 20 branches. Of these 15 are expected to be in tier-VI cities with rest of the branches in New Delhi and Mumbai.
YES Bank was the last bank to be set up in 2004. Bandhan said in June it would launch banking operations in August.
Millions of people in India do not have access to formal banking services. The move to grant new permits marked the start of a cautious experiment to create more competition in a sector dominated by state lenders many of which are reluctant to expand into rural areas or towns where banking penetration is low.