GK Updates - 12 April | Banking Quiz

GDP growth will improve to 5.5% in FY15: Fitch Ratings

1.Fitch Ratings affirmed India’s sovereign rating at ‘BBB-’ with a stable outlook even as it projected the country’s growth to improve to 5.5 per cent in 2014-15 (FY15).

2.‘BBB-’ ratings indicate that expectations of default risk are currently low. The capacity for payment of financial commitments is considered adequate but adverse business or economic conditions are more likely to impair this capacity.

3.Pointing out that the course of the Indian economy is uncertain in view of the on-going Parliamentary elections, the global rating agency forecast real GDP growth to rise from 4.7 per cent in FY14 to 5.5 per cent in FY15 and 6 per cent in FY16. “Once the next coalition starts implementing its economic policies, it will become clearer whether the economy can return to a higher sustainable growth path or whether it remains stuck at current levels.

4.A policy push that includes structural and governance reforms, fiscal consolidation and efforts to rein in inflationary pressures would likely require a coherent coalition with a strong electoral mandate,” Fitch said in a statement.

5.Fitch said the Centre seems to have met its Budget deficit target of 4.8 per cent of GDP (including privatisation receipts) for FY14, despite the looming elections.

Justice R.M.Lodha appointed as Next Chief Justice of India

1.President of India on 11 April 2014 appointed Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha as Next Chief Justice of India. Justice Lodha will take his charge from 27 April 2014. He will be the 41st Chief Justice of India. He will succeed Justice P. Sathasivam.

2.Justice Lodha will have a brief tenure of five months as the Chief Justice of India (CJI). He is scheduled to retire on 27 September 2014. He is 64.

3.Justice Lodha is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after CJI P. Sathasivam. The name of Justice Lodha was recommended as the next CJI by Justice Sathasivam.

Industrial output down 1.9% in Feb

1.The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for February fell 1.9 per cent, against a rise of 0.8 per cent in the previous month, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed on Friday. For the April-February period of 2013-14, industrial output fell 0.1 per cent, compared with 0.6 per cent growth in the corresponding period of 2012-13.

2.In February, manufacturing, which accounts for 75 per cent of the index, saw a decline of 3.7 per cent in output, against halt in production in the previous month.

3.Mining saw growth for the fourth consecutive month, with output expanded 1.4 per cent, against 1.9 per cent in January. Power generation saw robust 11.5 per cent growth, against 6.5 per cent in January.

4.Capital goods output was lacklustre, with the segment contracting 17.4 per cent in February, against a fall of 4.1 per cent decline in January.

Imports fall 2% in March, exports see 3% decline

1.The economy’s woes continued in March, with imports falling 2.11 per cent compared to a year ago and exports recording a 3.15 per cent drop. However, a bigger problem lay in non-oil imports, which contracted about 12 per cent year-on-year, indicating continued slowdown in industrial activity.

2.The slowdown story was also evident from the foreign trade data for the entire 2013-14, released here on Friday. Exports registered growth of only four per cent, while imports saw a decline of 8.11 per cent. In absolute terms, exports stood at $312.35 billion, against $300.4 billion in 2012-13. The government had set a target of $325 billion for exports. Imports stood at $450.92 billion, against $490.73 billion in 2012-13.

3.The trade deficit, as a result, fell 27 per cent to $138.6 billion in 2013-14 from $190 billion in 2012-13.

Hunt for new CEO: Infy sets the ball rolling

1.Infosys, India’s second-largest information technology services company, has set the ball rolling to find a new chief executive officer (CEO), with incumbent S D Shibulal announcing he will retire ahead of his superannuation in March 2015.

2.“Shibulal has expressed his desire to retire as CEO and MD (managing director) of the company and as member of the board of directors, either on the date of the last board meeting before his superannuation — January 9, 2015 — or when his successor is ready to assume office, whichever is earlier,” Infosys said in a release.

3.Infosys said its nominations panel would evaluate internal and external candidates for the job, with the help of corporate executive evaluation specialist Development Dimensions International (DDI) and multinational executive search firm Egon Zehnder. K V Kamath, lead independent director, is chairman of the nomination panel, while Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and R Seshasayee are two other members.

Goa records 35% polling till 11 a.m.

1.Around 35 per cent voters cast their ballot in Goa till 11 a.m. today, though the crowd at the polling booths started thinning out due to excessive heat, officials said.

2.The voters responded with enthusiasm till 10 a.m., but the number started dwindling after that.

3.According to the Election Commission officials, the voting percentage in North Goa was 36.42 per cent till 11 am, while in South Goa it was 34.11 per cent.

4.Chief Minister Manohar Parrrikar was among the early voters when he exercised his franchise at a polling booth in Panaji. He later joined BJP’s North Goa candidate Shripad Naik at Ribandar village near here. North Goa Congress Candidate Ravi Naik polled his vote at Ponda booth.

SBI launched Twitter handle account

1.State Bank of India (SBI) on 11 April 2014 launched its Twitter handle account. SBI aims to strengthen its social media presence with this launch.

2.The Twitter handle for SBI is TheOfficialSBI. The bank expects this Twitter handle to connect better with the tech-savvy young generation.

3.Earlier, SBI had also launched accounts on Facebook and Youtube.

4.Mid-sized private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank had launched twitter-linked current accounts in March 2014.

5.State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest public sector bank in India. SBI has more than 15400 branches including 191 foreign offices in 36 countries, across all time zones.

Stuart Parkin won Millennium Technology Prize 2014

1.British-American physicist Stuart Parkin won Millennium Technology Prize 2014 for discoveries leading to a thousand-fold increase in digital data storage on magnetic disks. The Prize is worth of 1 million euro and it was announced by the Technology Academy Finland in Finland on 9 April 2014.

2.His discoveries facilitated the cloud services and online distribution of social networks, music and film.

3.Former director of the IBM-Stanford spintronic science centre, Sturart Parkin, 58, helped to make our contemporary online world largely possible. Spintronics relies on the magnetic spin of electrons rather than their charge to store bits.

SEBI bans Dipti Kirit Parekh for two years

1.Dipti Kirit Parekh has been banned for two years with immediate effect from buying and selling in the securities market for cornering the retail investor portion in the IPO of Spice Communications Ltd (SCL).

2.SEBI found Parekh assisting in creating fictitious applicants, engineering applications in the retail investor category and subsequently, ensuring transfer of shares allotted to her own demat account, thereby, cornering shares meant for retail investors. SEBI also found that Parikh had made an unlawful gain of over 1.28 lakh shares.

3.The matter came to light when SEBI observed that certain entities who had applied for and were allotted shares in the retail category in the SCL IPO immediately transferred the shares upon listing, to certain operators, thereby enabling cornering of such shares.

4.The 11.31-crore share SCL IPO, which opened for subscription on June 25, 2007 and closed on June 27, 2007, was subscribed 37 times (3.83 times in the retail investor category). The scrip was listed on the BSE on July 19, 2007.

Exports dip 3.15 per cent in March

Exports recovered marginally to $312.35 billion in 2013-14, but remained below the UPA Government’s target of $325 billion. Official data released on Friday show that exports grew 3.98 per cent over the previous year while imports shrunk 8.11 per cent to $450.94 billion. In 2012-13, India’s exports were just above $300 billion.

Trade deficit

1.The trade deficit, as a result, narrowed to $138.59 billion from $190.33 billion in 2012-13.

2.The month-on-month trend continued to show weak exports momentum with shipments contracting 3.15 per cent to $29.57 billion in March 2014. Imports too fell 2.11 per cent to $40 billion as compared to March 2013.

3.The trade deficit during the month was $10.5 billion against $10.4 billion in March 2013.

PTI reports:

1.Oil imports in March increased 17.7 per cent to $15.78 billion. In 2013-14, oil imports grew 2.2 per cent to $167.62 billion.

2.A drop in gold and silver imports helped to shrink the trade gap.

3.The gap in the last financial year was the lowest since $104.4 billion in 2010-11. In March, exports contracted to $29.57 billion and imports fell 2.11 per cent to $40 billion from a year earlier.

e-forms to be available in single phase from April 28

1.In a change of tack, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has decided to follow a single phase roll-out for e-forms as against the earlier notified staggered rollout for such forms.

2.Consequently, corporates can now upload their e-forms under the new company law only from April 28.

3.The e-forms under the new company law were earlier slated to be available for upload from April 14 and that too in phases.

4.The Ministry was earlier looking at a separate roll-out plan for chapter-wise e-forms.

5.In all, there are 29 chapters under the new company law. The forms under the new company law are mandatorily numbered alpha-numeric.

6.The Corporate Affairs Ministry had in end March temporarily suspended services of e-filings under MCA-21 from April 1 to 13.

Gulzar selected for Dadasaheb Phalke award

1.Gulzar, best known for penning memorable hits like ‘Tujhse Naaraaz Nahi’ and ‘Tere Bina Zindagi Se’ besides directing critically acclaimed films like ’Aandhi’ and ‘Mausam’, was today chosen for the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award, the highest official recognition for film personalities in India.

2.The 79-year-old veteran filmmaker, who has directed films like ‘Mere Apne’, ‘Koshish’, ‘Khushboo’, ‘Angoor’, ’Libaas’ and ‘Maachis’ will be the 45th recipient of the award.

3.A seven member jury consisting of eminent artists, after due deliberations, unanimously recommended Gulzar for the prestigious award, a statement released by the I&B ministry said here.

4.Born as Sampooran Singh Kalra in 1934 in Pakistan’s Punjab in pre-independence India, Gulzar and his family were among the many victims of Partition. The family moved to Amritsar but Gulzar came to Bombay and began to work as a garage mechanic while writing poetry in his spare time.

5.Gulzar started his career in 1956 and as a lyricist got his first break in Bimal Roy’s ‘Bandini’ and the song ‘Mora Gora Ang Lai Le..’ filmed on Nutan became an instant hit.

Cashew manufacturer Mizar Sadananda Pai passes away

1.The Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers’ Association (KCMA) has condoled the death of Mizar Sadananda Pai, a cashew exporter from Dakshina Kannada district. Pai (78) died in Mangalore on April 10.

2.A press statement by KCMA said here that late Pai was primarily responsible for building a strong base for the association and also for propelling the cashew industry in the coastal region. He served as the president of the association from 1979 to 1993.

3.An honours graduate from Loyola College of Madras, Pai joined the family business of Mizar Govinda Annappa Pai & Sons, manufacturer of cashew kernels and cashew shell liquid in Mangalore. He developed the import and export business, cashew shell liquid business and was a developer of raw cashew procurement in Dakshina Kannada district and other states, it added.

Nobel prize candidates wait for over 20 years to win prize

1.Washington, Apr 12 (ANI): Candidates for a Nobel prize often have to wait more than 20 years in order to receive this highest of scientific accolades.

2.According to a Correspondence by Santo Fortunato of Aalto University in Finland and colleagues, such nail-biting delays are becoming the norm - to the point that aspiring laureates may themselves have expired by the time the medal is due to be presented.

3.Before 1940, Nobel prizes were awarded more than 20 years after the original discovery for only about 11 percent, 15 percent and 24 percent of physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine prizes, respectively. But by 1985, delays of this order were featuring in 60 percent, 52 percent and 45 percent of the awards in these respective fields.

4.Fortunato and co-authors find that average waiting times are continuing to increase exponentially.

5.As the wait lengthens, so the average age at which laureates are awarded the prize goes up.

RBI panel proposes measures to make bank loan process hassle-free for customers

1.Penalty for banks that harass customers by delaying transfer of loans from one to the other, doing away with processing fee for shifting within the same bank from one type to another and an industry benchmark base rate for borrowers are among the recommendations of a central bank panel on pricing of loans to make processes smoother for retail borrowers.

2.Indian Banks' Association should evolve a set of guidelines for easier and quicker transfer of loans, particularly mortgage/housing loans," said a report submitted by a panel headed by former deputy governor Anand Sinha. "There could also be penalties for banks which do not cooperate with borrowers in this regard.''

3.Banks will also have to give their customers the choice of prepaying and exiting a loan, if the recommendations of this committee are implemented.

4.As per the recommendations, banks will have to give customers the benefit of interest reduction on the principal in case of prepayment of loans. This benefit, the committee said, "should be given on the day the money is received by the bank without waiting for the next EMI cycle date to effect the credit.''

5.To ensure convenience of customers, the committee has also recommended that banks reset the interest rate charged on floating rate loan on dates that are fixed in the covenant, irrespective of changes made to the base rate within the reset period.

India leads global remittances with $70 billion in 2013

1.The World Bank's latest issue of the Migration and Development Brief, said international migrants from developing countries are expected to send USD 436 billion in remittances to their home countries this year (2014).

2.In 2014, remittance flows to developing countries will see an increase of 7.8 percent over the 2013 volume of USD 404 billion, rising to USD 516 billion in 2016.

3.Global remittances, including those to high-income countries, are estimated at USD 581 billion this year, from USD 542 billion in 2013, rising to USD 681 billion in 2016.

4.Remittances have become a major component of the balance of payments of nations. India led the chart of remittance flows, receiving USD 70 billion last year (2013), followed by China with USD 60 billion and the Philippines with USD 25 billion," said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank.

India successfully conducts maiden night test of Agni missile

1.India tonight successfully conducted maiden night test of its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Agni-I ballistic missile with strike range of 700 km from a test range off Odisha coast as part of a user trial by the Army.

2.The surface-to-surface, single-stage missile, powered by solid propellants, was test-fired from a mobile launcher at 2310 hours from launch pad-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from here, Defence sources said. "The trial was successful and all mission objectives were met," Ravi Kumar Gupta, spokesman of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), told PTI over phone.

3.The sophisticated missile was test-fired by the specially formed Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the Indian Army as part of a user trial, ITR Director MV KV Prasad said.

4.It was for the first time that Agni-1 missile was launched during night. The SFC of the Army decided to conduct the test during night keeping in mind its requirement and need for preparedness to meet any eventuality, DRDO spokesman said. The night trial of the missile had to be postponed twice earlier February 18 and 19 last.

Julie Walters to receive BAFTA Fellowship

1.Actress Julie Walters, who came to international prominence for playing the title role in 'Educating Rita', is set to receive the BAFTA Fellowship.

2.The 64-year-old actress will be presented with the award, the highest the Academy can bestow, at this year's Television Awards ceremony to be held on May 18, reported Digital Spy.

3."I am honoured to receive this prestigious award and extremely shocked. I've worked with some brilliant people over the years and have been very fortunate to have had the opportunities to work on such a variety of projects," said Walters, who played the role of Molly Weasly in the 'Harry Potter' series.

4.Amanda Berry, chief executive of BAFTA, said, "Julie Walters is one of the most talented individuals to grace our screens.

Sandhu wins gold at Shotgun World Cup

1.Indian shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu bagged the gold in the trap event by overcoming Australia's two-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Diamond at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup here.

2.Sandhu started Friday with a score of 72 which he shot Thursday. With his consistent performance, he shot 25 and 24 in the remaining two rounds and was ranked third in the qualifying round. His series scores were 24, 25, 23, 25 and 24 in the qualifier.

3.In the final round, he beat five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Diamond by shooting 13 whereas his rival could only shoot 9.

4.The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee also won the 2006 World Championships apart from winnings the gold at the 2010 World Cup in Mexico. The Indian has also won golds at the 2012 Asian Championships and finished second at the Asian Shotgun Championships in Patiala.