Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams 19 January 2017

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

19 January 2017

:: National ::

Urjit Patel told more than 9 lakh crore came back to circulation

Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that about Rs. 9.2 lakh crore had been put back in circulation since the demonetisation on November 8.
Prime Minister’s announcement that Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes would cease to be legal tender from the midnight of November 8 had sucked out 86% — amounting to Rs. 15.44 lakh crore — of currency notes in circulation till then.
Dr. Patel, however, did not offer any answer to questions on how much of the demonetised currency had been deposited back in banks, saying calculations were still on.
He maintained that counting of the notes was continuing, a panel member said, making it appear that this itself was a mammoth task.
A member said that when Dr. Patel was asked the date on which the RBI would withdraw the Rs. 24,000 cap on weekly withdrawals, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the central bank governor need not go into that.
The central bank’s argument is that “figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/possible double counts, etc,” without which estimates may not indicate actual numbers.
The figures pertaining to money deposited back are crucial as the Opposition is reading the reported return of almost all the money as a sign that black money has been converted into white.
The government, however, claims that once the money has passed through the system, it will be scrutinised in order to catch the wrongdoers.

Pro-Jallikattu protests turned into mass movement

With the pro-jallikattu (bull-taming sport) protests turning into a mass movement in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam held talks with representatives of the protesters in Chennai and flew to New Delhi.
Separately, AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala backed the demand to ban the global NGO, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), originally raised by DMK leader M.K. Stalin two days ago.
However, the representatives refused to call off their agitation, which spawned overnight at the Marina in Chennai, Alanganallur in Madurai, VOC Grounds in Coimbatore and other districts.
Initiated on social media platforms, the protests which were initially confined to the college student community and rural folk, overnight turned into a mass movement of sorts. They also sought a ban on PETA.

Tamil Nadu has maximum centrally approved houses for urban poor

Tamil Nadu leads the States for which the Centre has approved construction of over 78,000 houses for the urban poor.
HUPA has approved construction of 78,703 affordable houses for economically weaker sections (EWS) in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal with an investment of Rs. 2,956.32 crore, out of which, Central assistance would be of Rs. 1,180.54 crore.
The Ministry approved 52,336 more houses in Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs. 1,942.24 crore and central assistance of Rs. 785.04 crore, a Ministry spokesperson said.
With this, the total number of houses approved for Tamil Nadu under the Pradhan MantriAwasYojna (Urban) has gone up to 2,26,572 with an investment of Rs. 8,144 crore and Central assistance of Rs. 3,461 crore.
The Ministry has asked all the States and Union Territories to submit proposals for construction of affordable houses for urban poor at the earliest so that the Housing For All target in urban areas could be met by 2022 as envisaged.

:: India and World ::

India says CPEC passes through its territory

Asserting its territorial sovereignty, India said on Wednesday that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes through its territory.
Addressing the Raisina Dialogue, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said China was yet to respond to India’s territorial concerns on CPEC.
“China is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty.We expect they will respect other peoples sovereignty. CPEC passes through a territory that we see as ours. Surely people will understand India’s reaction,” said Mr. Jaishankar
Prime Minister Modi too had drawn attention to the territorial sovereignty of India. “Respect for sovereignty is important for regional connectivity to improve,” Mr. Modi said in his inaugural speech.
China and Pakistan have fast-tracked the construction work of the CPEC, a large part of which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Once completed, CPEC will provide an all-weather energy route for China from the Gulf.
India’s concerns have also increased in recent weeks with reports of China-Pakistan naval cooperation in Gwadar port of Balochistan, which will serve as the entry point to CPEC.
The Foreign Secretary said that China’s rise was a major “dynamic” factor in the Asian affairs and reminded the audience that differences with China had not gone away.
The Foreign Secretary’s comments about CPEC and the “political issues” are significant as both India and China have dealt with the differences over the last several months.
China’s territorial assertion over Asia, however, received a jolt in July 2016 when the Permanent Court of Arbitration gave an adverse verdict on the South China Sea issue.
Mr. Jaishankar said that India’s position on South China Sea was in sync with the international position.

Sri Lanka is in talks to offer the port of Trincomalee to India

Sri Lanka is in talks to offer the port of Trincomalee to India. Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue here, Colombo’s Minister, said that the decision on offering the port to India will be taken soon.
Sri Lanka’s experience with the Chinese, who carried out major infrastructural work at the Hambantota port in southern coast of the island nation, has put a heavy burden on the country, said Mr Fonseka.
The port of Hambantota was conceived as a major Sri Lanka-China project during the presidency of MahindaRajapakse, but the controversy around the debt burden has slowed down the project.
Mr. Fonseka, who led the Sri Lankan defence forces during the 2009 Eelam war against Tamil rebels, said that Colombo is aware of its responsibilities in the Indian Ocean region, and is committed to freedom of navigation.

:: Business and Economy ::

Cabinet gave approval for package supporting small and medium enterprises

The Union Cabinet gave ex-post facto approval for a larger package supporting small and medium enterprises — a promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his New Year’s eve address to the nation.
The Corpus of Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for Micro and Small Enterprises will increase from Rs. 2,500 crore to Rs. 7,500 crore.
The Centre has increased the coverage of loans covered under the credit guarantee scheme to Rs. 2 crore from Rs. 1 crore.
The government will put another Rs. 5,000 crore to make it Rs. 7,500 crore and the intent is to extend the credit guarantee scheme, just as the Prime Minister had announced, to allow guarantees up to Rs. 2 crore instead of the present Rs. 1 crore.

Regional connectivity plan nets proposals to revive 65 airports

Dormant airports such as Hosur, Bikaner, Bidar, Jalandhar, Jalgaon or Jaisalmer may soon start receiving flights as airlines have shown interest in flying out of these airports under the Centre’s ambitious regional connectivity scheme.
Passengers may soon be able to fly out of these airports by paying Rs. 2,500 for an hour’s flight.
The Airports Authority of India, which is implementing the regional connectivity scheme, has received 45 proposals from 11 bidders covering more than 200 routes as the deadline for submitting the proposals ended.
The operators have submitted plans covering 65 airports, out of which 52 are un-served airports which haven’t seen a single flight for more than a year and the remaining 13 are under-served airports where less than seven commercial flight departures take place in a week.
Airlines have shown interest in flying out of underserved airports including Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar in Gujarat, Jorhat in Assam, Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Diu, Puducherry, Agra in Uttar Pradesh etc.
Some of the unserved airports, proposed to be revived for regional flights, include Bilaspur and Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand etc
As per the scheme, the Centre will subsidise the losses incurred by airlines flying out of dormant airports, to allow airlines to charge Rs. 2,500 for an hour’s flight to passengers.
About 80% of the subsidy will be collected by charging a levy of up to Rs. 8,500 on each departing flight of domestic airlines and the rest 20% will come from the respective state governments.
The routes or networks would be awarded to bidders who quote the lowest requirement of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) against such routes, the ministry said in an official statement.