Current Affairs 18-19th Mar, 2015

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1.Centre has made its proposed credit-based system for allowing new airlines to fly abroad more stringent. Earlier, Union civil aviation ministry had proposed a ‘Domestic Flying Credits’ (DFC) system replace the current ‘5/20’ rule to help new airlines such as Vistara and AirAsia India start international operations.

2. Central government will “name and shame” states which do not ease their procedures for doing business. The government will do a detailed evaluation through the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, in June and July, of all the states.

3. Lok Sabha approved a Bill to repeal as many as 35 pieces of legislations to weed out archaic and dead laws. Out of the 36 acts proposed to be repealed, four were principal acts and others were amendments to the various acts.

4. Facebook announced that American users of its Messenger app would be able to link their debit cards to the service and use it to message money to one another just as easily as they send a snapshot or text.

5. Centre launched a scheme with a corpus of Rs. 200 crore to promote start-ups in the agro industry sector. The scheme was formulated to set up a network of technology and incubation centres to accelerate entrepreneurship and promote start-ups for innovation and entrepreneurship in agro-industry.

Current Affairs 18th Mar, 2015

1. Union Cabinet approved a Bill that seeks harsh penalties and rigorous imprisonment for those having unaccounted money abroad. Announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech for 2015-16, it imposes a penalty of 300 per cent of wealth hidden abroad on offenders and up to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for them.

2. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has issued final guidelines on appointment of insurance agents. Insurers to pay up to Rs 1 crore penalty for violation by agents, including violations of the code of conduct specified under these guidelines.

3. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private lender, launched Chillr, a mobile application that allows users to transfer money instantly to any contact on their phonebook who have the app. Receivers don’t necessarily need to have accounts with HDFC Bank.

4. The Supreme Court quashed the reservation for Jats, introduced through a notification in March last year, in nine states, terming it unconstitutional.

5. Insurance regulator IRDAI will launch electronic transaction administration and settlement system which is set to lend greater momentum to reinsurance and co-insurance transactions and usher in more efficiency in the industry.