Current Affairs Aug 23, 2015

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01. Monday mega crash: The BSE Sensex ended at 25,741.56, down by 1,624.51 points and the overall investors’ wealth eroded by nearly Rs. 7 lakh crore. The loss suffered by the 10 biggest companies in terms of market capitalisation was itself close to Rs. 2 lakh crore.

02. Markets to settle down soon: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought to allay the fears in the economy over the mega plunge in the stock markets and the fall in the rupee by saying that these are simply reactions to external events, and that there was no internal cause for these shocks.

03. Trying times for banking sector: The Indian banking system was passing through very trying times, according to H.R. Khan, the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He said that while the banking sector has to meet the needs of the Indian economy, the last few years have been trying ones for the banks, with impairment of asset quality and drooping profitability.

04. Bandhan bank born : Bandhan Bank began operations as a full-fledged bank with 501 branches and 1.43 crore accounts across the country. The bank will have 19,500 employees. To begin with, it plans to get 501 branches, 2022 service centres and 50 ATMs across 24 states.

05. Syrian journalist wins award: Syrian woman Journalist Zaina Erhaim has won the prestigious Peter Mackler Award for the year 2015 for Courageous and Ethical Journalism.

06. Yet another title for Fed: World number two, Roger Federer from Switzerland has won the Cincinnati Masters title for record seventh time in men’s singles title category by defeating Novak Djokovic in the finals.

07. Committee recommends for upgradation of UCBs: R Gandhi committee of RBI has recommended conversion of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) with business size of Rs.20,000 crore or more into regular Banks.

08. More trouble for Greece: Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has announced his resignation in a televised address to the debt ridden nation. This resignation is seen as a mandate to defend the country’s massive new 86 billion euro bailout programme.

09. Small finance banks to be set up: After granting approval to 11 entities for payment banks, RBI said it will announce small finance bank licenses’ next month . It allayed concerns that these new entities can pose any threat to the existing banks.

10. Gujarat to become 1st state to launch ‘Agro-Solar Policy’: Gujarat is set to become the first state in India to launch ‘Agro-Solar Policy’ to encourage the farmers to tap the solar energy. The new policy seeks to encourage the farmers in the state to tap free solar energy from sun, which will in turn help them to earn additional income from power generation companies.