CURRENT AFFAIRS 22-23rd August, 2014

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 23rd August, 2014

1. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked the PACL Ltd, a Delhi based company, to refund Rs 50,000 crore to investors and wind up its operations. The money was mobilised through collective investment scheme. PACL collected money from depositors and invested in agricultural land across the country. Sebi said the total number of PACL investors would be around 5.85 crore. Total amount mobilised comes to a whooping Rs 49,100 crore.

2. The government has set up a four-member committee of secretaries (CoS) to review the gas-pricing formula. The CoS will have secretaries of the power ministry, fertiliser ministry and expenditure department as members. The panel will submit its report in three weeks.

3. MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra asked states to contribute Rs 100 crore to Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme under which Rs 1,000 crore collateral free loan could be provided to such units in the respective states. The Ministry is also working on the simplification of process for setting up an enterprise and online registration of MSME units.

4. Kannada writer and one of the most acclaimed public intellectuals in the country, U.R. Ananthamurthy passed away. Dr. Ananthamurthy was a Jnanpith award winner.

5. Arvind Subramanian is likely to be appointed as new government's Chief Economic Advisor (CEA). The CEA’s post has been vacant since last September after Dr. Raghuram Rajan took over as Reserve Bank Governor.

6. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the draft of a charter comprising five basic customer rights. These cover a right to fair treatment, transparency, suitability, privacy, grievance redress and compensation. The Charter spells out the rights of the customer and also the responsibilities of the financial service provider (FSP).

CURRENT AFFAIRS 22nd August, 2014

1. Thailand National Assembly chose coup leader General Prayut Chan-O-Cha as Prime Minister. It has entrenched the military’s hold on power.

2. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will start a new regime for liquidity management to keep overnight rates close to the repo rate which will compel banks to do more efficient liquidity management. RBI would conduct more frequent term repos and could also choose to sell part of the cash balances of the government for liquidity in the system.

3. T. M. Bhasin, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank, has been elected as the Chairman of Indian Banks’ Association(IBA). IBA is a representative body of CMDs and CEOs of public sector, private sector and foreign banks. It plays an advisory role, and presents views of banking industry to various Union Ministries for policy formulation and to RBI for regulatory matters.

4. According to Global Logistics Markets-Trend Analysis report, the global logistics industry is expected to grow up to 3 per cent per year till 2020. The report indicated new market trends will pose challenges for the industry. The report was released by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Barclays.

5. The Reserve Bank asked NBFCs to maintain a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 50 per cent in case of lending against collateral of shares. Also, they can accept only 'Group 1' securities as collateral for loans of value more than Rs 5 lakh. All NBFCs with asset size of Rs 100 crore and above shall report online to stock exchanges, information on the shares pledged in their favour, by borrowers for availing loans. This will help to curb volatility in stock market.

6. The new entity to replace Planning Commission may have eight members including economists, representatives from the social sector, government, industry and academics. It will advise the government on the approach to reforms and act as a dispute resolution forum for states.