Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 31 July, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

31 July 2015

:: Business ::

RBI plans to issue 10 rupee coin

The Reserve Bank on Thursday announced plans to put into circulation 10 rupee coins to commemorate the International Day of Yoga.
The coin bears the logo of the International Day of Yoga, with the inscription Saamanjasya evam shanthi ke liye yog “ in Devnagri script and “yoga for harmony and peace” around the logo.
At the bottom of the logo the date June 21 is inscribed, according to an official statement.
The inscription Anthar rashtriya yoga divas in Devnagri script is on the left periphery and “international day of yoga” in English on the right periphery is written on this side of the coin.
The obverse of the coin bears the Lion Capitol of Ashoka Pillar in the centre with the legend Sathyamev Jayate inscribed below, the statement said.
This is flanked on the left periphery with the word Bharat in Devnagri script and on the right periphery flanked with the word “INDIA” in English.
The coins have been minted by the Central government and are legal tender as provided in The Coinage Act 2011. They will be put into circulation shortly, according to the statement.

Govt names Addl Secretary to RBI board in place of Fin Secy

In an unusual move, the finance ministry has nominated Ajay Taygi, additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs to the RBI board in place of economic affairs secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.
As per the convention, eonomic affairs secretary besides the financial services secretary is part of Central Board Directors of RBI.
"In exercise of the power conferred by clause (d) of sub-section (1) of Section 8 of the RBI ACT 1934, the central government hereby nominates Ajay Tyagi, additional secretary (Investment) Department of Economic Affairs Ministry of Finance, to be director on the Central Board of Directors of RBI with immediate effect until further order vice Rajiv Mehrishi," a finance ministry notification said.
Mehrishi also holds finance secretary position in the ministry.
Following this notification in June 22, RBI had a board meeting which would not have been attended by the incumbent finance secretary.
As per the RBI website, there are 17 board members including RBI Governor and four Deputy Governors. Rajiv Mehrishi name is still part of the central board of directors as reflected on the website.

Even Hallmarked is not pure

Even the Hallmarked gold jewellery varies in purity in India, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday adding that urgent measures were required for quality control in the country, which is the largest gold consuming nation in the world.
The improvements to the hallmarking system in the country are not only essential to a successful gold monetisation scheme but also help to boost its gold jewellery exports from the existing $8 billion to $40 billion in the next five years, it said.
The hallmarking of gold, which is voluntary in nature at present, is a purity certification of the precious metal. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), under the Consumer Affairs Ministry, is the administrative authority of hallmarking.
"Even though, 30 per cent of jewellery is now hallmarked, there are concerns about the quality and credibility of some hallmarking centres. This means the percentage of jewellery hallmarked accurately is expected to be even lower than 30 per cent," WGC said in a report.
Even hallmarked items vary widely in purity because of weak quality control and lack of resources on the part of BIS to enforce its policies, it said.
Though under-caratage in gold has reduced to 10-15 per cent from 40 per cent since the introduction of BIS hallmarking in 2000, but challenges still remain, it added.
According to the WGC report, the BIS does not have dedicated laboratories for gold hallmarking so there is little capacity for testing jewellery. There are relatively few BIS branches too, so activity varies widely across India.
India has approximately 220 BIS recognised assaying and hallmarking centres and maximum of them are located in Tamil Nadu (57), followed by Kerala (39). The distribution of these centres is uneven as South has 153 centres, the North has 111 and the West has 65, the report said.

Uber's $1 bn India investment

If your competitors are spending, you must spend too- This seems to be the driving mantra in the start-up space these days.
Just days after news of taxi-haling app Ola raising another $500 million made headlines, US-based rival Uber has announced plans of pumping in $1 billion (Rs 6,400 crore) into India, thus signalling an escalation of the war between the two companies in a cut-throat market.
This basically implies more cash burning and chasing of market share rather than profitability by both companies.
While Ola is rumored to soon be valued at $4.5 billion, Uber's worth is $40 billion. But such cash-intensive startups are at risk of flopping as they maybe unable to survive in an adverse environment. Will these companies ever make enough money to justify the sky-high valuations?
But it appears Uber's massive expansion in over 300 cities globally is at the cost of heavy losses. Investors have given a lot of money to Uber, and Uber is burning this cash to buy market share all over the world. An Uber driver, on condition of anonymity told Firstpost that each Uber driver in India gets an additional Rs 150 per ride as well as more incentive for ferrying passengers during the day and in the evening. Ola too pays extra cash to drivers for doing more rides, but doesn’t pay drivers to keep its app open and nor do they get paid additional money on every ride they undertake.

:: Sports ::

Sahara gone Paytm on

One97 Communications, owners of Paytm, today acquired the title sponsorship rights for India's domestic and international cricket matches at home for a period of four years with a bid price of Rs 203.28 crore.
The decision to award the rights to One97 Communications till 2019 was taken at the BCCI's marketing committee meeting.website
The base price per match was Rupees 1.68 crore and the final price comes to Rs 2.42 crore per match. The amount per match is 40 lakh more than what Micromax, who were the only bidders in the 2014-15 season, gave the Board last year.
From now on, the domestic Ranji competition will be known as the 'Paytm Ranji Trophy'.
There were only two bidders for the scheduled 84 matches (Tests, ODIs and T20Is) in India during the upcoming seasons as the rights have been awarded till 2019.
The bids were opened at the BCCI marketing committee meeting that lasted for around five hours.