Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 26 May, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

Based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in its 217th meeting held on 30th April 2015, the Central Government has approved twenty one (21) proposals of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounting to Rs.280.70 crore approximately.
Details of Proposals considered in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) Meeting held on 09.04.2015 are as under:
• La Renon Healthcare’s proposal to invest Rs 100 crore in a brownfield project.
• Blue Dart Express’s proposal to acquire shares in Blue Dart Aviation Ltd and hike shareholding from 49 per cent to 74 per cent. It will infuse investment between 52.8 crore to Rs 69 crore rupees.
• Quickjet Cargo Airlines proposal to increase foreign shareholding in the company to 74 per cent from 62.34 per cent. The deal will entail FDI worth 14.40 crore rupees.
• Forever Living Imports (India) Pvt Ltd’s 18.30-crore rupees proposal to undertake single brand retailing of ‘Forever’ brand products in India.
However, FIPB has deferred 12 proposals including that of Mumbai-based Kotak Bank for increasing the aggregate foreign investment limit to 55 per cent in the bank.

ICICI Bank has launched a voice recognition service, which can identify and authenticate a customer, based on his voice. This will spare the customer the task of remembering his account and personal details and passwords.
This voice recognition technology works on voice prints that will comprise about 100 characteristics such as voice modulation, speed, accent, pronunciation, etc. These will be stored in the customer’s account and will be used to authenticate the details every time they call back. The bank said the voice recognition is secure, since these characteristics are specific to one person and, therefore, it will be difficult to emulate it.
The lender said 33 million of its bank and credit card customers would be able to use the service. It has become the first lender to launch such a service. The bank had earlier launched other innovative services that include new applications for mobile banking, fully automated and ‘touch banking’ branches, tab banking, banking on Twitter, contactless debit and credit cards, and ‘Pockets’ — a digital bank on the mobile phone.

Ahead of the monetary policy review, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has sought a 50-basis point cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR). CRR indicates the amount kept with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by banks. At present, CRR is four per cent.
IBA Chairman T M Bhasin said the repo rate window does not give any advantage as banks, which are fund surplus, are not borrowing from RBI. The central bank has already reduced the repo rate twice (each rate cut at 25 basis points) in 2015. The next monetary policy will be announced on June 2.
Banks have been reducing interest rates on deposits to reduce fund costs and pass on the benefits to customers. Now, there is no room to bring them down further. The interest rate on small savings and other government schemes remain high at nine per cent in some cases, IBA said.

Government has appointed Manoj Mishra as Chairman and Managing Director of state-run National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL). Mishra, currently posted as Director Finance at State Trading Corporation (STC), is likely to assume the charge of CMD of the fertiliser firm this week.
In September last year, government headhunters Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended Mishra's name for the top post at NFL. NFL's CMD post fell vacant after the retirement of Neeru Abrol in February 2014.
NFL has five gas-based urea plants viz Nangal & Bathinda in Punjab, Panipat in Haryana and two plants at Vijaipur in District Guna, Madhya Pradesh. The company has a total annual installed capacity of 35.68 lakh tonnes and is the second largest producer of urea in the country.

The Bangladeshi Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ratified the protocol on the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with India on 26th May. The ratification was the last of the approvals needed for the implementation of the protocol signed during the visit of the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to Dhaka four years ago for exchange of enclaves. The Indian Parliament ratified it recently.
Exchange of instruments will now take place during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh, Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuyan said.
Under the protocol, 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi ones inside India were to be exchanged.
Bangladesh will also get 2,777 acres of land, while India will get 2,267 acres.