Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 20 March, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry is awaiting a nod from the Election Commission to go ahead with notifying a new gas price regime that will almost double the cost of natural gas to $8 to 8.5 per mmBtu from the present $4.2 per mmBtu .
Petroleum Secretary Saurabh Chandra met Chief Election Commissioner V. S. Sampath last week and submitted the necessary documents on the issue. He also sought formal approval from the EC for hiking gas prices from April 1 The Cabinet had, last December, given its nod for shifting to the new gas pricing regime under the Rangarajan Committee formula . The new pricing formula would be applicable for a period of five years from April 1, 2014.
The new rates will change every quarter based on 12-month average of global rates and LNG import price with a lag of one quarter.
The price for April to June 2014 will be calculated based on the averages for the 12 months ended 31 December 2013 and it is expected that the rate in April will be around $8 per mBtu.

Fossil India, a subsidiary of American luxury brand Fossil Inc, which recently opened its first single brand retail store after being cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board last year, is ‘bullish on manufacturing’ in India.
Among the first four companies to be allowed to set up wholly-owned ventures, after the government allowed 100 per cent FDI in 2012, Fossil India plans to ramp up its manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh to produce at least five lakh watches by the end of the year (both for exports and domestic sales).

Sea anemones are classified as animals, but a surprising new research has found that these water-dwelling predatory creatures are technically half plant and half animal.
It was discovered that sea anemones display a genomic landscape with a complexity of regulatory elements similar to that of fruit flies or other animal model systems.
This suggests, that this principle of gene regulation is already 600 million years old and dates back to the common ancestor of human, fly and sea anemone.
On the other hand, sea anemones are more similar to plants rather to vertebrates or insects in their regulation of gene expression by short regulatory RNAs called microRNAs.

Saina Nehwal is the only Indian to have been seeded at the $250,000 India Open Super Series to be held in Delhi from April 1-6.
World No.1 Li Xuerui of China is the top seed while defending champion and world No.4 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand has been seeded fourth.
Saina’s compatriot P.V. Sindhu will take on second seed Shixian Wang of China in the opener.
The other Indians in the women’s singles main draw are Tanvi Lad, Trupti Murgunde, P.C. Thulasi, Saili Rane and Arundhati Pantawane.