CURRENT AFFAIRS 2nd August, 2014

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1. RBI had inked agreement with the government on March 20 for transfer of the government's SDR holdings in its SDR account with the IMF to RBI in a phased manner. According to its recent report, SDRs equivalent of $820 million was transferred to RBI on March 24, 2014.

2. The electronic manufacturing policy has proposed a Rs 10,000-crore Electronics Development Fund to boost the domestic electronic systems design and manufacturing (ESDM) capacity. This fund will be become operational in two months and will be used to promote innovation, intellectual property, research and development, nano electronics.

3. Odisha government has extended the time limit for the banks to open bank branches in 4,597 unbanked gram panchayats in the state from three years to five years. The government had earlier directed the banks to open branches in the unbanked gram panchayats by March 2017.

4. Microsoft Corp has sued Samsung Electronics Co Ltd claiming that Samsung company refused to make a royalty payment on patent licenses after Microsoft's announcement to acquire Nokia’s handset business.

5. The finance ministry has asked SBI Capital Markets to prepare a feasibility report on merger and recapitalisation of public sector banks. As of now, no proposal on merger is sent to finance ministry and it is estimated that the Indian banking system needs about Rs.2.4 lakh crore by 2018 to meet Basel-III norms.