CURRENT AFFAIRS 7-8th Dec., 2014

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 8th Dec., 2014

1. Lok Sabha passed a bill to repeal 90 Amendment Acts which have become redundant. The move is in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of removing unnecessary rules and Acts which hinder governance.

2. Reserve Bank will release the single authentication payment norms for low value e-commerce online transactions without compromising security. Currently, two-step authentication is generally prevalent in the country by feeding PIN and One time password for online transactions.

3. US Senate confirmed the nomination of Indian-American Richard Rahul Verma as the next US Ambassador to India. He is the first Indian-American to be the US Ambassador to India replacing Nancy Powell who resigned from the post in March 2014.

4. Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Saraswat Co-operative Bank and YES Bank have come together to allow inter-bank fund transfers through debit cards. Initially, the amount allowed to be transferred is a maximum of Rs 5,000 a day and Rs 25,000 a month. This will reduce the number of customer visits to bank branches thereby reducing the cost.

5. United Nations General Assembly declared 2015 as the International Year of Soils (IYS) and celebrated the first official UN World Soil Day 2014 on 5 December 2014.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 7th Dec., 2014

1. Reserve Bank of India has allowed operators of white label Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to accept international credit, debit and prepaid cards. A while label ATM (WLA)operators will now have the freedom to tie-up with other commercial banks for cash supply at their ATMs. WLA is operated by a non-bank entity.

2. Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to reveal the details of assets and liabilities of its chairman, UK Sinha, within four weeks. The regulator may appeal against the CIC order.

3. Government has instructed public sector banks (PSBs) to install those ATM machines which can produce receipts in both Hindi and English languages. PSBs have been advised to ensure that all ATM machines have facility of doing transactions/printing in Hindi as well as in English.

4. Finance Ministry is examining the idea of making PAN mandatory for charitable trusts and institutions while getting registered.It would keep a check on funds flowing through charitable trusts after CAG raised various issues during its audit on charitable trusts.

5. India's latest communication satellite GSAT-16 was successfully launched on Arianespace rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana. The satellite with 48 transponders built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was injected into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.