Current Affairs 18th August, 2015

Modi surprises with Rs. 1.25-lakh cr. largesse

Ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a package of Rs. 1.25 lakh crore for the State at a function in Ara on Tuesday.

The package would change the “face and fate” of the State, he said.

Inaugurating several national highway and skill development projects, the Prime Minister took a swipe at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not utilising Central funds but always demanding a “special package or more funds” for the State.

Pranab Mukherjee's wife passes away

President Pranab Mukherjee's wife, Suvra Mukherjee, passed away at 10.51 a.m. on Tuesday. She had been ill for sometime and had complained of respiratory problems recently.

Ms Mukherjee was born on September 17, 1940 in Jessore (now in Bangladesh) and married Mr. Mukherjee on July 13, 1957. A graduate, Ms Mukherjee was an ardent fan of India’s national poet, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

She was a vocalist of Rabindra Sangeet and performed in the poet’s dance-dramas for long years not only in different parts of India, but also in Europe, Asia and Africa. Ms Mukherjee founded the Geetanjali Troupe, whose mission is to propagate Rabindranath Tagore’s philosophy as expressed through his songs and dance-dramas. She was the guiding force behind all productions of the Troupe.

The late first lady was also a highly talented painter who had many group and solo exhibitions to her credit. She considered her mother who was herself a painter as the source of her creative inspiration and her works won critical acclaim.

Ms Mukherjee has written two books: Chokher Aloey which is a personal account of her close interaction with Smt. Indira Gandhi and Chena Achenai Chin - a travelogue recounting her visit to China.

She is survived by her husband, the President of India and three children - Abhijit Mukherjee, Indrajit Mukherjee and Sharmistha Mukherjee.

Digitization of ration cards in 26 states to plug PDS leakage

In significant progress made by states to check leakage of foodgrains under the public distribution system (PDS), 26 states and Union Territories have completed 100% digitization of ration cards in the past one year. Six states have digitized the supply chain for better monitoring of grain moving from godowns to the doorstep of consumers.

According to food ministry sources, the overall digitization of ration cards across the country is about 92% and they expect the process to be completed in the next 6-7 months. The states that have achieved 100% progress include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.

They added Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have recorded 98% progress in linking Aadhar while Delhi has completed 100%. The achievement is more than 80% in the case of Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Kerala.

FM radio e-auction signals bounty for govt.

The ongoing e-auction of 135 FM radio channels in 69 cities has left the government the winner even as the bidders are helplessly shrugging at the skyrocketing reserve prices and still making frenzied bids for frequencies going under the hammer.

There is no denying that the government, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech, has received bids for more than Rs.1,000 crore so far, and as the process proceeds, the figure may touch Rs. 1,500 crore.

But the real question is, has FM, in its third phase now, accounted for a geographical spread? Has it really spread to all corners of the country? The answer is, it is inching there slowly, but not at the pace it was expected to.

The auction is in its fourth week and there are still no takers for smaller cities. Thirteen small cities have seen some activity, but no exceptional bidding as in the case of the metros.

If the objective, as a media analyst puts it, is to mop up money, rather than have radio channels in every city, then the government is a winner.

Most players argue that the reserve pricesare way too high. The reserve price of the FM channels has been fixed using last time’s highest bids for FM-III auctions in some cities. Prashant Panday, COO, Radio Mirchi, says at these prices, the winners are going to find it tough to keep their businesses viable.

ICICI Bank launches digital locker

ICICI Bank on Tuesday launched the first of its kind fully automated digital locker, which would be available to customers even on weekends and post banking hours.

Named ‘Smart Vault’, the locker is equipped with multi-layer security system, including biometric and PIN authentication and debit cards, among others. Customers can access it without any intervention by the branch staff, ICICI Bank said in a statement.

“Through the Smart Vault, we bring a very different, much more convenient, state of art branch experience to the customers,” ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar said after its launch here.

The ‘Smart Vault’ is an example of ‘Make In India’ programme as it has been designed and manufactured by Indian partners, she said.

“The vault uses robotic technology to access the lockers from the safe vault and enables customers to access their lockers at any time of their preference,” the statement issued by ICICI Bank, country’s largest private sector lender, said.

Asked about charges of the digital locker, Ms. Kochhar said: “The lockers are of two-three different sizes and charges would depend on that. Also, the locker charges in a city would vary depending on the real estate cost.”

Launched in Delhi, Ms. Kochhar said the bank would replicate this digital locker facility to a much larger scale in the days to come.

SBI launches mobile wallet app ‘Buddy’

Country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Tuesday launched a mobile wallet app, SBI Buddy, in collaboration with Accenture and Mastercard.

The service will be available to existing as well as non-SBI customers.

The app was launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance and Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services.

“This is one more step in our ambition of becoming the provider-of-choice for customers’ everyday needs, both financial and non-financial. Mobile is going to be at the centre of this transformation and this application will help us strengthen our proposition through this medium,” said SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya.

The mobile wallet app can be used to send money to new and registered customers, book for movies, flights, hotels as well as for shopping.

It also has features like reminders to settle dues, recharge and pay bills instantly.

The app is available on Google Play Store, at present, and soon will be launched on Apple App Store.

DSP BlackRock launches new initiative for paperless deals

DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd., an asset management company, has announced the launch of ‘IFAXpress’, a business platform for independent financial advisors (IFAs), one of the distribution channels for mutual fund products.

This online platform can be accessed through desktop, tablets and smartphones. Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Sudip Kumar Mandal, Assistant Vice- President (marketing), DSP BlackRock, said IFAXpress was the first of its kind offering in the market, facilitating paperless transactions for KYC (know-your-customer)-verified individuals.

After Fitch, Moody's lowers India's growth forecast

Global rating agency Moody’s on Tuesday lowered India’s growth forecast for 2015 to 7 per cent from earlier projected 7.5 per cent over monsoon concerns. It retained the forecast for 2016 at 7.5 per cent but cautioned that the slow pace of reforms of the Modi Government pose further risks to growth.

 

Arun Jaitley launches funds for start-ups, small firms

 

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday launched two funds by Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi), one for funding start-ups in India and another to aid small enterprises.

The India Aspiration Fund is intended to “catalyse tens of thousands of crores of equity investment into start-ups and MSMEs (micro and small enterprises), creating employment for lakhs of persons, mostly educated youth, over the next four to five years,” Sidbi said in a statement.

The India Aspiration Fund is a fund of funds that would invest in venture capital funds for meeting the equity requirement of MSME start-ups.

Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC) will be a partner and co-investor in the fund.

The second fund is a debt fund called SIDBI Make in India Loan for Enterprises (SMILE), which was announced in the Union budget in February. The fund will provide soft term loans and loans in the nature of quasi-equity to MSMEs to meet debt-to-equity norms and pursue growth opportunities in existing MSMEs.

Cochin becomes world’s first solar-run airport

Kerala’s Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) has become the first airport in the world that would be running fully on solar power. The airport officially commissioned a 12 MW solar project on Tuesday.

The state’s chief minister Oomman Chandy commissioned the project constructed on 45 acres near the cargo complex of the airport. The project was executed by Bosch Ltd at a cost of Rs.62 crore in about six months.

 

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