CURRENT AFFAIRS 5-6th Septemebr, 2014

DOWNLOAD PDF

CURRENT AFFAIRS 6th Septemebr, 2014

1. State Bank of India has launched two new savings bank accounts for children - Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan. Pehla Kadam is a savings bank account for minors of any age operated jointly with his/her parent/guardian and Pehli Udaan savings bank account can be operated independently by a minor aged 10 years and above. Customers will be given a cheque book, a passbook and an ATM Card.

2. In addition to the signing of civil nuclear cooperation agreement, India and Australia has agreed to have cooperation in the areas of preventive healthcare, trauma care, geriatric medicine, diabetes research and mental illnesses. Australia has announced the extension of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) for a further four years and also pledged Australian dollars (AUD) 20 million for the initiative.

3. Ravindra Nath assumed the charge of Chairman and Managing director (CMD) of National Small Industries Corporation Limited(NSIC). He succeeds H P Kumar. National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC) is a PSU established by the Government of India in 1955 with the objective to provide help to small scale industries (SSI).

4. Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered an investigation against public sector general insurers for alleged anti-competitive practices relating to third-party administrators (TPAs) in health insurance. The allegation is that these public general insurers are not allowing TPAs to function independently and have created their own TPAs to settle insurance claims.

5. Indo-Nepal joint military exercise Surya Kiran-VII concluded at Pithoragarh, Uttarkhand. The exercise aims at developing expertise in counter insurgency, jungle warfare and disaster management under the aegis of the Indian Army. It has also boosted bilateral ties between the two countries.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 5th September, 2014

1. Rating agency ICRA estimates public sector banks’ gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to be at 4.7 per cent at the end of this financial year as against 4.4 per cent last year. The gross NPA for the entire banking sector will be at 4-4.2 per cent this year. This is attributed to the increased rate of generation of fresh NPAs this year and may further increase due to decreased sale of NPAs to asset reconstruction companies and decreasing corporate restructuring of loans.

2. Union cabinet cleared a seven per cent rise in dearness allowance (DA) for all the government employees (three million government employees and five million pensioners)with effect from July 1, taking it to 107 per cent of their basic pay. The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula given by 6th Central Pay Commission.

3. Government formed a panel of four ministers on setting up a national environment regulator. The panel will consist of Prakash Javadekar (environment and forests), Nitin Gadkari (road transport), Ananth Kumar (chemicals and fertilisers) and Piyush Goel (power, coal and renewable energy). Earlier, Centre had set up a committee to review various key environment protection laws.

4. Government plans to introduce Farm Income Insurance (FII) scheme to give insurance cover on earnings expected from crop yield. The agriculture ministry would provide soil health cards to all farmers in the country to inform them about strengths and weakness of their farm soil.

5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott expected to sign an India-Australia civil nuclear cooperation agreement today. The agreement will bolster India’s plans to increase nuclear energy production and has the potential to double Australia’s uranium exports by 2018.

6. The finance ministry has set up a committee to examine unclaimed deposits lying in the Public Provident Fund and savings schemes of post office and banks. The commitee is chaired by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor HR Khanand will submit its report by December 2014. Finance minister in the Budget speech, had announced an increase in the maximum annual investment limit in PPF by Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh.