Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams 06 May 2017

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

06 May 2017

:: National ::

Death sentence given to Nirbhaya convicts

“The accused found an object for enjoyment in her... for their gross, sadistic and beastly pleasures... for the devilish manner in which they played with her dignity and identity is humanly inconceivable.”
These were the final words with which Justice Dipak Misra concluded the pronouncement of the Supreme Court judgment confirming the death penalty to the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case of 2012.
Justice Banumathi, the woman judge on the Bench, said “There is not even a hint of hesitation in my mind” in sending the men to their deaths.
“If at all there is a case warranting award of death sentence, it is the present case,” Justice Banumathi wrote in her separate concurring judgment.
The pronouncement concluded the marathon hearings held in the Supreme Court for about a year after the four accused — Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Kumar Singh and Vinay Sharma — appealed against their death penalty.
The three-judge Bench had subjected the evidence of the case to the minutest scrutiny. At one point, its own amicus curiae and senior advocate Sanjay Hegde had suggested that death penalty would be “extremely harsh”.
The defence lawyers had pressed for life imprisonment. They said the accused were first-time offenders, young, had young children and aged parents whose lives would be rendered “calamitous” if they were put to death.

RBI given power against bad loans

The Centre authorised the Reserve Bank of India to take tough actions to crack down on the rising bad loans on the books of public sector banks, after President signed off on an ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act of 1949.
The RBI is expected to issue issue norms within a week to banks on resolving their bad loan accounts in a specified time frame through various strategies including asset sales.
Where no breakthrough is imminent, invocation of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings against the borrowers. The total stressed assets in the banking system are estimated to be Rs. 14 lakh crore.
Explaining the ordinance route to enhance the central bank’s powers, the Minister said the existing provisions were not clear enough for the RBI to act on specific stressed assets.

Slew of directions passed by SC for child care

The Supreme Court passed a slew of directions, including setting up of a database of children living in orphanages and child care institutions to ensure their safety and welfare.
A Bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta directed the Centre, States and union territories (UTs) to complete the registration of all child care institutions by year-end.
The court said the registration process should also include a database of all children in need of care and protection and update it every month.
It asked the authorities concerned to ensure confidentiality and privacy in maintaining the database.
The Bench said it was not necessary that every child in need of care and protection must be placed either in a child care institution and alternative option like adoption and foster care could seriously be considered.
It said Centre’s schemes such as skill development and vocational training must be taken advantage of keeping in mind the need to rehabilitate such children.
The Bench also directed the States and UTs to set up ‘Inspection Committees’ before July 31 to conduct regular inspections of child care institutions and prepare reports of such inspections so that the living conditions of kids there undergo positive changes.
The first report after conducting the inspection should be filed before the government concerned by December 31.
The court also directed that all vacancies in State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) be filled by the end of this year.
The Bench said it was imperative that the process of conducting a social audit must be taken up in right earnest by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights as well as by each State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights.

space diplomacy and India’s outreach to the neighbours into a “new orbit”

Taking both space diplomacy and India’s outreach to the neighbours into a “new orbit”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a unique joint videoconference of the leaders of all SAARC countries, apart from Pakistan.
“The South Asia satellite demonstrates that our collective choices for our citizens will bring us together for cooperation, not conflict; development, not destruction; and prosperity, not poverty,” Mr. Modi told the leaders.
The leaders congratulated India for its technological success as well as Mr. Modi for turning his “vision to reality” by seeing the Rs. 450-crore launch through.
The Nepal Prime Minister particularly noted the satellite’s role in developing communications in his country’s mountainous and remote areas.
Both Ms. Hasina and Mr. Sirisena also praised the potential uses of the GSLV GSAT 9 in meeting developmental needs.Mr. Modi had proposed the plan for the shared satellite during the SAARC summit in Kathmandu in 2014.

:: International ::

Obama’s flagship program ,Obamacare, could be dismantled

Protections available to older, poorer and sicker Americans under the country’s existing healthcare system could be curtailed if a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives is approved by the Senate.
The Republicans who control the White House and both chambers of legislature celebrated the passage of the bill as they moved a step closer to dismantling the existing Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
As the Republican leadership conceded more and more demands by extreme conservative lawmakers, the bill in its current version makes health insurance costlier for older and sicker people, while restricting the scope and reach of the state-run Medicaid programme for the poor.
Republicans have a 52-48 majority in the Senate, and several Senators have said they would not support the bill in its current form. The bill had a narrow victory in the House, 217-213, even as 20 moderate Republicans voted against it.
The bill as passed by the House moves in the opposite direction, but Mr. Trump presented it differently. Flanked by Republican members of the House, the President said he was “confident” the Senate would also vote to repeal Obamacare.
Mr. Trump has earlier been a supporter of a universal health care system modelled after Australia and Canada, but has never put out any detailed plans.
As President, he has moved along with the Republican legislative leadership that is ideologically against subsidies.
If the new proposals become law, the younger and richer cohorts will gain as they would not be cross-subsidising others.
The proposals could, however, exclude 24 million people from insurance coverage over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated. Taxes on richer segments that supported part of the subsidies in Obamacare have been removed.

:: Business and Economy ::

Centre asks for reforms from PSBs before providing capital

Public sector banks (PSBs) seeking fresh capital from the Centre would have to commit to reform their own operations and take immediate steps to improve their balance sheet position.
The lenders will also have to close unprofitable branches and put in place stronger systems for credit appraisals and management of non-performing assets (NPAs).
“There are some other steps also being taken, which once decided… we will convey it to you. We are planning in the process of signing memorandums of understanding with public sector banks which seek capitalisation, specific provisions that will be incorporated,” FM said.
While the resolution of NPAs is an ongoing process, the government wants to speed it up and see resolutions of specific bad loans.
As per the new provisions incorporated in the banking regulation law allow the government to authorise the RBI to initiate insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings in relation to any stressed assets under Section 35 AA.
A separate clause 35B allows the RBI to issue specific directions, including the formation of oversight committees (OCs) to resolve bad loans.
Currently, the OC mechanism functions only in relation to the scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A) for banks.
A corollary benefit and objective of such oversight committees, Mr. Jaitley pointed out, is that bankers will have more comfort while taking tough decisions to write off or take haircuts on existing bad loans.

Debt to GDP ratio of 60% for the union and state can be achieved by 2023

The Centre is confident that the 2023 goal of a debt-to-GDP ratio of 60% for the Union and State governments combined can be achieved thus meeting a key recommendation of the N.K. Singh-headed fiscal discipline panel.
Even with the 3.2% [fiscal deficit target] spelt out in budget of current year and 3% in next two years, it should be possible for the government to achieve a debt-to-GDP of 60% for general government by 2023.
The principal anchor of the committee’s recommendations on fiscal roadmap is debt-to-GDP of 60%. So it should be possible to reach 60% in 2023.
The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Review Committee chaired by Mr. Singh has recommended that the Centre should target a fiscal deficit of 2.5% of GDP by 2023, with the Union government simultaneously narrowing its debt-to-GDP ratio to 40% from 49.4% in 2016-17.
The panel, which had allowed for a pause along the path of fiscal consolidation, recommended that the debt-to-GDP target for the government as a whole (Centre plus States) be pegged at 60% by fiscal 2023.
Govt has slammed global credit rating agencies for failing to acknowledge India’s sustained economic progress and reform trajectory in the past couple of years.
“With India remaining still a 7% plus GDP growth country, with the ease of doing business improving considerably, if the rating agencies do not give an upgrade to India, if they do not give any weightage to it, I think they are probably far detached from the ground realities. So, it is for them to really introspect.”

Banks to act within set time frame on NPAs

Following the executive order by the government to empower the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the resolution of stressed assets, the central bank is expected to announce detailed guidelines for banks.
This may include time-bound resolution to such assets.
RBI will give banks specific time-frames within which they have to either decide the borrower is bankrupt or restructure the debt while taking a haircut, bankers said.
In a statement, following the government announcement, RBI reiterated that lenders must scrupulously adhere to the timelines prescribed in the Joint Lenders’ Forum framework for finalising and implementing the corrective action plan.
The banking regulator said non-adherence to the instructions and timelines specified under the framework will attract monetary penalties.
Empowering the RBI with an explicit mandate should reorient various stakeholders for effective NPA resolution.
According to bankers, the final decision will be taken by a bank within the RBI’s guideline framework. However, the process will make it explicit that such a decision has the central bank’s and the government’s backing.
Bankers are hesitant to take a decision on haircuts while restructuring loans or going for one-time settlement for fear that such a decision could prompt investigation by agencies.