News highlights : 4th July 2016

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B Sai Praneeth

1. RBI appoints Sudarshan Sen as Executive Director

2. Haryana to develop new Industrial Township at an expense of $5 billion

3. Ministry of Tourism releases data on domestic and foreign tourist visits to states and UTs

4. Indigenously built LCA Tejas inducted in IAF

5. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu becomes first Indian to play in Europa League

6. National Doctors’ Day 2016 observed across India

7. OYO signs MoU with Uttarakhand Tourism

8. BRICS Youth Summit, 2016 held with theme Youth as bridge for Intra-BRICS Exchanges

9. BRICS Working Group Meeting on Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency begins in Visakhapatnam

10. Railways Ministry launches NIVARAN portal for employees' grievances redressal

11. Linda Burney becomes first Indigenous woman elected to Australia's lower house

12. Exercise RIMPAC 2016 begins

13. International Solar Alliance Cell and World Bank sign Declaration for promoting Solar Energy

14. B Sai Praneeth wins 2016 Canada Open Grand Prix Badminton Men’s Singles title

15. Government asks LIC to fund road expansion projects: The Indian government will be leaning on the state owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Indias largest insurer, to fund its ambitious road expansion plans and the insurer is set to open its purse strings for highways development, boosting the governments aim to step up road construction to 40 kms a day. The road transport and highways ministry hopes to sign an agreement with LIC for the purchase of annual bonds issued by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). In the current financial year, LIC is likely to subscribe NHAI bonds worth at least Rs 10,000 crore, a senior road transport and highways ministry official said and an agreement to the effect is expected to be signed soon. The ministry will use the money raised through LIC for four-laning of highway projects.

16. IOC-owned refinery to supply BS-IV compliant diesel from Jan: Indian Oil-owned Gujarat refinery will supply Bharat Stage(BS)-IV compliant diesel from January 2017, a senior official has said. "For producing BS-IV complaint fuel, IOC is spending Rs 1,800 crore towards revamping its three diesel treating and hydro-treating units at Gujarat Refinery. "The investment is part of quality upgradation exercise undertaken to meet emission standards set under the Central Governments auto fuel policy," IOC Executive Director S K Dhar Gupta told PTI. The upgradation will make the refinery, located at Koyali village on the citys outskirts, adequately equipped to supply 100% BS-IV compliant diesel and petrol, he said.

17. High-speed OPV INS Tarasa launched: The last ship in the series of four Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts (WJFAC) being built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd(GRSE) for the Indian Navy was launched on Thursday, 30th June 2016. Christened INS Tarasa, after an island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, the ship was launched by Aruna Korde, wife of Vice Admiral Jaywant Korde, the navys Controller of Logistics. An improved variant of the Car Nicobar-class high-speed offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), INS Tarasa will be fitted out at the GRSEs Raja Bagan Dockyard and handed over to the navy after sea trials. With a 315 tonne displacement, the ship is designed for a maximum speed of 35 knots, with an endurance of nearly 2,000 nautical miles at 12-14 knots.

18. Made-in-India Tejas: Historic landmark for aerospace industry: On July 1, 2016, No.45 Squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF) became the proud recipient of Indias first indigenous 4th generation fighter; the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) dubbed Tejas. This marks, not just an historic landmark for our aerospace industry, but a significant step forward in Indias quest for self-reliance in weapon systems and fits neatly into Prime Minister Narendra Modis Make in India campaign. Not more than a handful of countries can claim the competence to bring a project of such complexity to fruition. It would therefore be appropriate to acknowledge the achievement of our aircraft designers, scientists, production engineers and the flight-test team for having delivered a state-of-the art combat aircraft to the IAF – although belatedly.

19. 90% of constructions in Goa unauthorised: Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar: In a shocking revelation, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said 90 per cent of total constructions in the coastal state are “illegal” and people staying in them live under constant fear of demolition. Blaming the “complicated” laws and “tedious” process related to securing requisite permission for construction activity for mushrooming of unauthorised structures, he said his government will bring a legislation in the upcoming session of the Assembly for regularising such structures in certain cases. “The laws related to construction in the state are complicated (in nature) because of which several Goans have constructed their houses illegally,” Parsekar told PTI in an interview on the eve of his 60th birthday. He said, “Those houses which are in the own or tenanted lands or (were) constructed with the consent of legal owner will be regularised.”

20. With IWTTP in place, Tripura to get food, fuel via Bangladesh: With formal inauguration of the revised Inland Water Transit and Trade Protocol (IWTTP) having provision of third-country access with Bangladesh, steps have been taken to ship essential commodities including foodgrains and fuel to Tripura via the neighbouring country, a minister said. "Initiatives have been taken to bring the essential commodities, including fuel and foodgrains, by using the waterways of Bangladesh through Ashuganj port on the river Meghna," Tripura Revenue and PWD Minister Badal Chowdhury told reporters here. Chowdhury said the Assam-Agartala National Highway (NH-8) is almost closed due to damage along a 20-km stretch at Lowepoia in Karimganj district of bordering Assam due to rainfall and water-logging. Hundreds of trucks have been stranded for almost a month, making it difficult to transport supplies to Tripura. The consignments will be shipped from Kolkata port to Bangladeshs Ashuganj port, which is just 50 kms from here.

21. Normal monsoon key to Indias continuing recovery: StanChart: A normal monsoon is critical to Indias continuing recovery, as a rise in agricultural growth could add 30-45 bps to GDP growth, says a Standard Chartered report. According to the global financial services major, domestic factors are likely to shape Indias economic growth prospects amid global economic and political uncertainty and hence, performance of monsoon has gained importance in this fiscal year. “A normal monsoon, after a gap of two years, will likely boost agricultural production and thus rural demand,” Standard Chartered said in a research note adding that “a rise in agricultural growth to 3-4 per cent from 1.1 per cent in 2015-16 could add 30-45 bps to GDP growth.” “Pulses are highly sensitive to rains, as only around 16 per cent of pulse-growing areas have access to irrigation facilities. With pulse inflation sticky at around 34 per cent in the past 12 months, a better monsoon would reduce price pressure in pulses and in turn food inflation,” it said.

22. Black money: India slips to 75th place on money in Swiss banks; UK on top: India has slipped to 75th place in terms of money held by its citizens with banks in Switzerland, while the UK remains on top. India was placed at 61st place last year, while it used to among top-50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007. The country was ranked highest at 37th place in the year 2004. As per the latest annual update on Swiss banks, released by Switzerlands central bank SNB (Swiss National Bank), the total money held there by foreign clients from across the world fell by nearly 4 per cent to Swiss franc (CHF) 1.42 trillion (about Rs 98 lakh crore) at the end of 2015. In terms of individual countries, the UK accounted for the largest chunk at about CHF 350 billion or almost 25 per cent of the total foreign money with Swiss banks. The US came second with nearly CHF 196 billion or about 14 per cent. No other country accounted for a double-digit percentage share, while others in the top-ten included West Indies, Germany, Bahamas, France, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Panama.

23. ICICI Bank to add 400 branches, 1,000 ATMs this fiscal: Countrys second-largest lender ICICI Bank will add 400 more branches and expand its ATM network by another 1,000 in the current fiscal to boost business from retail operations. Kochhar said research done by the bank has shown customers value a wide branch network, and the proximity to ones home or office plays an important role when customers evaluate a bank with which they want to start a relationship. “It also helps deepen the relationship with the customer as it forms a focal point for a range of products and services like mortgages, other loans and investments,” she said.ICICI Bank is of the view that branch expansion will continue, although their nature of branches are yet to evolve. “The branches will become digital and more advisory in nature. In fact, our branches, in their advisory role, source over half of our home loan and new cards customers. Our ATMs are like mini-branches today wherein we provide many banking services in addition to dispensing cash,” said banks head.

24. Homebuyers get relief with 11% fine on delayed projects, developers to benefit too: The draft rules published recently by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) for Union territories without legislative bodies propose that developers pay an interest of two percentage points more than State Bank of Indias prime lending rate in case of project delays. The same extent of penalty applies to defaulting buyers as well. “The rate of interest payable by the promoter to the allottee or by the allottee to the promoter, as the case may be, shall be State Bank of Indias Prime Lending Rate plus two per cent,” said the draft rules. Since SBIs prime lending rate for retail loans at present stands at 9.15 per cent, the proposed penalty for now comes to approximately 11 per cent. The draft rules assume importance as they will become guidelines for notification of rules for Delhi and other states by the Union urban development ministry, with which HUPA will share its draft.