Current Affairs 14-15th Mar, 2015

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1. Government is planning to float three special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to evacuate coal locked across the three mineral-rich, Naxal-hit states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. 54 projects worth Rs 75,000 crore have also been identified for facilitating evacuation.

2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the Sri Lankan Parliament was a message to Colombo on the need for greater devolution of powers to northern srilanka. He laid the foundation stone for the Jaffna Cultural Centre and handing over houses completed under an Indian programme for constructing 50,000 houses for the war displaced.

3. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to let the rupee depreciate against major currencies to give a competitive advantage for Indian exports. Recently, Rupee has come under pressure due to stronger than expected U.S. economic data.

4. UTI Mutual Fund is set to launch a second offshore equity fund to raise $300 million in Dublin next month, shortly after mopping up $300 million through a similar fund last year which tapped vast European investments.

5. Facebook has acquired shopping search engine TheFind.com and had waded further into e-commerce. Facebook has been playing catch-up regarding searching for information at the social network and becoming a middle-man of sorts for online commerce.

6. Gujarat Chapter of Code For India, a U.S.-based non-profit organisation of techies from India, launched ‘Skill Up India’ – India’s open source, free, online education portal. It offers entire courses on wide ranging subjects on open domains similar to that of a virtual university.

Current Affairs 14th Mar, 2015

1. Income Tax Department has slapped Rs 20,495 crore tax demand from Cairn UK Holdings Ltd (CUHL), a subsidiary of Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy Plc for failing to deduct withholding tax on alleged capital gains.

2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured Sri Lanka that India would address the concerns arising out of the two-way merchandise trade between the neighbours while he pitched for having a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

3. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has relaxed the know-your-customer norms for proprietary firms. RBI said banks have the discretion to accept only one of the documents as sufficient activity proof.

4. Britain has sought to become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). It makes it the first Western nation to embrace the China-backed institution and the United States reacted frostily to the development.

5. Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) quashed a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) order against realty firm DLF and lifted capital markets ban on the company’s promoters and related entities for 3 years. The case relates to alleged non-disclosure of information by the company during its initial public offering (IPO) in 2007, which had garnered about Rs 9,000 crore.