CURRENT AFFAIRS 17-18th Jan., 2015

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 17th Jan., 2015

1. Government approved raising the quarterly buffer stock and strategic reserve limits of Food Corporation of India (FCI) for both wheat and rice, for the first time since 2005. FCI must compulsorily now hold 29 per cent more foodgrain in the central pool than the current requirement as on each July 1, and around 45 per cent more as on October 1 every year.

2. Reserve Bank of India has said multiple revisions in date of commencement of commercial operations (DCCO) and repayments within prescribed time limits will be treated as a single event of restructuring. This will give more flexibility to finance companies in recast of loans. Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are free to extend DCCO beyond the prescribed time limits.

3. SEBI plans to create panel of valuation experts who would provide independent feedback on offer price in takeovers, mergers, etc. The company would pay the valuer and not the regulator, which could create conflict of interest issues.

4. The Red Sari book written by Spanish author Javier Moro is an unauthorized biography of Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi. The book was released by Roli Books in India on 16 January 2015.

5. Sania Mirza and her partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US won the women’s doubles title of the Sydney International Tennis Tournament. They defeated top-seeded Americans Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones in Sydney.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 18th Jan., 2015

1. Only Two Indian banks, HDFC Bank and State Bank of India are in a list of the top 50 global banks in terms of market capitalisation. HDFC Bank ranks 45th with a market capitalisation of $39 billion and SBI is ranked 46th with a market capitalisation of $38 billion. ICICI Bank is ranked 53rd in the list of the 100 most valued global banks.

2. The expenditure management commission, headed by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Bimal Jalan submitted its first interim report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The commission has suggested that the Centre shouldn't carry forward pending expenditure from a particular year to subsequent ones to show better expenditure or fiscal deficit numbers.

3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proposed to the chiefs of public sector banks to collectively undertake a single project under a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative instead of each bank supporting different projects across the country. Corporates are mandated to set aside 2% of their net profit towards CSR under the revised Companies Act.

4. The first indigenously-built Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was handed over by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to the IAF. The entire LCA project by the The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd is estimated to cost over Rs 30,000 crore.

5. Japan committed to provide an Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) loan of 2620 crore rupees (50 billion Yen) to India. The loan will be provided by Japan International Commerce Agency to the India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFC) to support infrastructure projects built on public-private partnership mode.