Current Affairs Sep 26, 2015

DOWNLOAD PDF

01. Modi woos US investment: During the course of his US visit, PM Modi wooed US investment, as he promised to remove bottlenecks. This is his second visit to US within a year and he outlined the agenda of the government in bringing about the reforms, particularly focusing on the infrastructure area. Modi highlighted the 7.3% growth in GDP last year and on the 40% jump in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

02. NTPC tax-free bonds oversubscribed: State run NTPC Ltd. had to pre-close its public issue of tax-free bonds of Rs.700 crores as it was oversubscribed by 11.04 times on the opening day itself. NTPC was among seven state-run entities which were given permission to raise Rs.40,000 crores through tax-free bonds.

03. MOM does India pride: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has completed one year of the mission life around Mars. It has obtained data showing clouds, dust in atmosphere and surface albedo variations, from Mars. MOM carried five science instruments collecting data on surface geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature and atmospheric escape process.

04. Sustainable Development Agenda till 2030 adopted by United Nations (UN): The agreement on sustainable development goals was adopted by United Nations till the year 2030. The agreement outlines 17 non-binding goals termed as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 specific targets that comprise of different socio-economic issues.

05. El Nino may trigger cyclones after monsoon: The current El Nino is likely to trigger moving westwards towards Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the post monsoon periods. This was announced by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

06. Lanco Infratech signs power purchase agreements with AP and Telengana: Lanco Infratech has entered into power purchase agreements with electricity distribution companies of Telengana and Andhra Pradesh for 1108 Megawatt of power, which means that it would operatedat 50% Plant Load Factor.

07. Government plans to reduce holdings in IDBI to 49%: The Government has planned to bring down its holdings in IDBI to 49%. Unlike other Public Sector Banks (PSB), where the holdings of the Government will not fall below 52%, there is no such restriction in the case of IDBI and the Government can reduce its holdings to 49% without having to approach the Parliament.

08. SBI decides not to sell insurance products of other companies: Even though, IRDA has permitted banks to tie-up with other insurance companies to sell their products, India’s largest Bank State Bank of India (SBI) has decided that it would market schemes of its subsidiaries only Viz., SBI Life and SBI General. However, it is to be noted that SBI has tied up with Insurance Australia Group (IAG) for its general insurance venture and with Cardif for life insurance business.

09. Public Sector Undertaking Banks to give thrust for Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana: PSU banks will run mega credit campaigns across the country to give thrust to the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) which will aim at generating higher credit to micro enterprise and also create a sound eco-system for aspiring entrepreneurs under small and micro sectors seeking bank credit.

10. Vodafone to tie-up with ICICI Bank under payment bank business: Telecom giant Vodafone and private sector leading Bank ICICI are to come together in payment banking for the M-Pesa mobile money transfer service. The network will have 90,000 business correspondents and will give a head start in the payment banking industry. Vodafone is among the first 11 entities to get RBI nod to start payment banks.