DAILY GK UPDATE - 1st April

1. RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 8 per cent

i. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on
Tuesday kept the key policy rate (repo) unchanged since retail
inflation still remains sticky but introduced steps to increase
liquidity and contain volatility in the money market.
ii. The RBI, in its first bimonthly monetary policy statement, left the
short-term lending rate or repo rate unchanged at 8 per cent and
the cash reserve ratio static at 4 per cent. It halved the overnight
call money rate to 0.25 per cent and increased the 7-day and 14-
day repo limits to 0.75 per cent from 0.50 per cent.
iii. At the current juncture, it is appropriate to hold the policy rate,
while allowing the rate increases undertaken during September
2013-January 2014 to work their way through the economy, said
Mr. Rajan, who had in previous policy announcements surprised
the markets with policy rate changes.
iv. The term repo has evolved as a useful indicator of underlying
liquidity conditions. It also allows market participants to hold
liquidity for a longer period...evolving market-based benchmarks
for pricing various financial products, he said.
v. Liquidity conditions have tightened in March, partly on account
of year-end window dressing by banks, though an extraordinary
infusion of liquidity by the Reserve Bank has mitigated the
tightness, he said.
vi. Liquidity conditions have tightened in March, partly on account
of year-end window dressing by banks, though an extraordinary
infusion of liquidity by the Reserve Bank has mitigated the
tightness, he said.
Following are the highlights of RBI monetary policy review:
1. Repo rate unchanged at 8 pc.
2. Cash reserve ratio (CRR) too unchanged at 4 pc.
3. No rate hike if inflation continues to trend lower.
4. Economic growth for 2014-15 expected at 5.5 pc.
5. CAD expected to come down to 2 pc of GDP in 2014-15.
6. Retail inflation expected to be under 6 pc in 2014.

2. Manuel Valls Named New Prime Minister Of France
i. France's president has named 51-year-old Socialist Manuel Valls
as the country's new prime minister.
ii. In a prerecorded televised speech, Francois Hollande said Valls,
the former interior minister, would lead a "combative government."
iii. Hollande admitted "it's time to start a new stage," just 24 hours
after his Socialists suffered heavy losses in nationwide municipal
elections.
iv. Valls, who is consistently voted France's most popular Socialist
in opinion polls, is considered to be part of the right-wing side of
the party and is also relatively popular with French conservatives.

3. ADB pegs GDP growth rate for 2014-15 at 5.5 pc
i. India's GDP is poised to accelerate to 5.5 percent in 2014-15 on
the back of improved performance in industry and services but it
may take some time for the country to reach its potential growth
rate, says an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report.
ii. "The recent deceleration of economic growth in India appears to
have bottomed out, but the economy will not reach its potential
until remaining structural bottlenecks are overcome", said the ADB
Outlook 2014 released on Tuesday.
iii. Indian economy, according to Central Statistical Office (CSO),
is estimated to record a growth rate of 4.9 percent in 2013-14, up
from decade's low of 4.5 percent posted in the previous financial
year.
iv. The economy has been growing at 9 percent before the growth
rate was pulled down by 2008 global financial meltdown.

4. RBI allows foreign investors to hedge currency risks
i. To improve risk mitigating environment in the country, the
Reserve Bank on Tuesday allowed overseas investors to hedge
their currency exposure.
ii. In its first bi-monthly policy, the RBI, in order to enhance
hedging facilities for foreign investors in debt instruments,
proposed to allow them to hedge the coupon receipts falling due
during the next 12 months.
iii. The central bank also said it is in final discussion with market
regulator, SEBI, to finalise the modalities for allowing FIIs to hedge
their currency risk by using exchange traded currency futures in
the domestic exchanges.
iv. The RBI also proposed to allow all resident individuals, firms
and companies with actual foreign exchange exposures to book
foreign exchange derivative contracts up to $ 2,50,000 on
declaration, subject to certain conditions.

5. SEBI disclosure norms for mutual funds effective from today
i. Mutual fund houses now require to make monthly disclosures
about assets managed by them as well as explain the rationale
behind exercising their voting rights in firms, as part of stronger
SEBI norms effective from Tuesday.
ii. Mutual funds will have to disclose details with respect to Asset
Under Management from different categories of schemes, AUM
from places beyond top-15 cities, contribution of sponsor and its
associates in AUM, contribution from different types of investors
(retail, corporate etc), state-wise contribution and AUM from
sponsor/non-sponsor group distributors.
iii. Besides, the mutual fund players would now have to disclose
the specific rationale behind supporting their voting decision.
iv. The MFs are required to make the disclosures on their websites
and share the same with Association of Mutual Funds of India
(AMFI) within 7 working days from end of the month.
v. As per the new norms, Asset Management Companies (AMCs)
would have to obtain auditors certification on the voting reports
being disclosed by them.

6. ITI signs MoU with Department of Telecom
i. Public sector ITI Ltd has signed an MoU with the Department of
Telecommunications for 2014-15.
ii. The MoU envisages ITIs role in the field of telecommunications
to pursue opportunities of indigenous telecom equiptment
manufacturing arising out of Governments National Telecom
Policy and preferential market access and also to play an
important role in the Government of India funded projects of
national importance like National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN)
and Network for Spectrum (NFS).

7. Nancy Powell resigned as the US Ambassador to India
i. Nancy Powell, the US Ambassador to India on 31 March 2014
announced her resignation in the US Mission Town Hall meeting.
The resignation was submitted to Barack Obama, the President of
US. She would now get back to her home in Delaware before the
end of May 2014.
ii. This action of resignation has ended a thirty-seven year career
of Powell. During her long career, her other postings as the US
Ambassador includes Uganda, Ghana, Pakistan, Nepal and India
as well as service in Canada, Togo, Bangladesh, and Washington,
where she was most recently Director General of the Foreign
Service.
iii. The bilateral ties between the two countries were shocked after
the Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was handcuffed and
strip-searched in New York in December 2013 on charges of Visa
fraud and keeping her made underpaid.

DAILY GK UPDATE - 2nd April
1. Election Commission allows RBI to issue new
bank licences
i. With the Election Commission giving the green signal, the
central board of directors of the RBI is expected to clear the list
of companies eligible to get a bank licence at its meeting on
Wednesday.
ii. The decks for the crucial meeting were cleared after the
Election Commission Tuesday allowed the central bank to
proceed with granting the licences, the first such exercise in
more than a decade.
iii. The Bimal Jalan committee has already completed the
process of selecting applicants for issues of new banking
licenses expected to be announced by March 31.
iv. The Reserve bank of India (RBI) aims to boost these
industry statistics via issuance of new banking licenses,
especially financial inclusion statistics. While this step would
improve the assets to GDP and credit to GDP ratio, whether
financial inclusion would be achieved is debatable.
v. Permission to set up new banks in the sector dominated by
PSU banks is considered one of the most significant reforms in
the sector.
vi. Allowing corporate houses to set up banks for the first time
after a bulk of the sector was nationalised in 1969 has been
quite a controversial step. The plan for new bank licences was
announced in the budget for FY2011 but took time to flesh out.

DAILY GK UPDATE - 3rd April
1. IDFC, Bandhan get bank licences, coprorate houses left
out
i. Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday granted banking
licences to infrastructure financing firm IDFC and microfinance
institution Bandhan from among 25 applicants that included
corporate heavyweights ADAG Group, Aditya Birla Group and
Bajaj Group.
ii. The RBI agreed to consider the application of India Post in
consultation with the government and advised other applicants
to apply afresh after the central bank comes out with new
guidelines on granting licences 'on tap'.
iii. "The in-principle approval granted (to the two entities) will
be valid for a period of 18 months during which the applicants
have to comply with the requirements under the guidelines and
fulfil the other conditions as may be stipulated by the RBI," the
central bank said in a statement.
iv. The bank licences were awarded a day after the Election
Commission granted approval to the RBI to go ahead with the
process.
v. The RBI said IDFC and Bandhan were recommended as
suitable for grant of "in-principle" approval by the High-Level
Advisory Committee (HLAC) headed by former Governor Bimal
Jalan.
vi. Other members of the committee were former RBI Deputy
Governor Usha Thorat, former Securities and Exchange Board
of India Chairman C B Bhave and Nachiket M Mor, Director of
the Central Board of Directors of the RBI.
vii. At Bandhan, we work to bring the forsaken hope in the
lives of the unprivileged section of the community. You are
welcome to explore our website and find out how we make a
difference to more than 50 lakh families.

About Bandhan Financial Services Private Ltd,
Bandhan was set up to address the dual objective of poverty
alleviation and women empowerment.The microfinance
activities are carried on by Bandhan Financial Services Pvt.
Ltd. (BFSPL), incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956
and also registered as a Non Banking Financial Company
(NBFC) with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
That apart, Bandhan is also engaged in development work
through it's not for profit entity.
About IDFC Limited:
IDFC Limited is India's leading integrated infrastructure finance
player providing end to end infrastructure financing and project
implementation services. It is integral part of the country's
development story since 1997, when our company was formed
with the specific mandate to build the nation.

2. Pune-Bilaspur superfast premium train
i. The railway administration will run a superfast premium
express train between Pune and Bilaspur (and vice-versa) via
Nagpur to clear the extra rush of summer, a press release
said.
ii. Train number 8296 will depart from Pune on April 8
(Tuesday) and April 12 (Saturday) at 7.30 p.m. and reach
Bilaspur at 3 p.m. It will pass via Nagpur at 8.20 a.m. next day
(Wednesday and Sunday), a press release from Nagpur
division of Central Railway said.
iii. Similarly, train number 8295 will leave Bilaspur at 9.15 p.m.
on April 7 and 11 (Monday and Friday) and will arrive at Pune
the next day at 4.45 p.m. It will pass via Nagpur at 3.45 p.m.
(Tuesday and Saturday).
iv. The train will stop at Kopargaon, Manmad, Bhusaval,
Nagpur, Gondia, Durg and Raipur in both directions. It will
have 20 coaches, including three 2AC, five 3AC and 10
sleeper coaches.
3. ISRO set to launch IRNSS 1B tomorrow
i. ISRO is set to send its second satellite from Sriharikota
tomorrow, which would help put in place the Indian Regional
Navigational Satellite System.
ii. The second of the seven planned satellites for the system,
IRNSS 1B would be launched at 5.14 PM from the First
Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota,
where the countdown for the launch was presently proceeding
smoothly, ISRO officials said.
iii. IRNSS 1B has a mission life of 10 years from the date of
launch. ISRO needs to launch at least four of the seven
satellites to start the operations of the IRNSS.
iv. This is the sixth time, ISRO is using the XL version of the
44.4 metre-tall PSLV.
v. The national space agency already launched IRNSS 1A, its
first satellite on 1st July last year and it is presently in orbit.
vi. IRNSS is similar to US' Global Positioning System, Russia's
Glonass and Europe's Galileo.
vii. China and Japan too have similar systems named Beidou
and Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System respectively,
ISRO officials said.
4. New President for Computer Society
i. HR Mohan has taken over as the President of Computer
Society of India from April 1.
ii. Mohan, Associate Vice-President (Systems), The Hindu, has
been with the Society for over four decades.
iii. The Computer Society is the largest association of IT
professionals in India with over 90,000 members and 73
chapters.


DAILY GK UPDATE - 4th April

1. R Gandhi appointed Deputy Governor of RBI !
i. The government has appointed R Gandhi as deputy
governor of the Reserve Bank of India for three years, effective
April 3, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday.
ii. Mr Gandhi was the executive director at the RBI before
being promoted to this post.

iii. He will look after the department including banking
operations and development, non-banking supervision, risk
monitoring, urban banks and expenditure and budgetary
control.
iv. Gandhis appointment follows Anand Sinha relinquishing his
charge as Deputy Governor in mid-January.
v. RBI now has 3 Deputy Governors HR Khan and Urjit
Patel. R Gandhi.
vi. As KC Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of
India, has quit three months ahead of completion of his term on
20 March 2014.
2. Qatar based Doha Bank announced its First branch in
Mumbai
i. Qatar based Doha Bank announced on 3 April 2014 that it
will be opening its first branch at Nariman Point in Mumbai in
India. The branch in Mumbai will be opened as a full-fledged
bank in May 2014.
ii. Initially, branch will offer retail and corporate banking
solutions with emphasis on off-branch banking. The Doha
Bank has set a target of 5 billion dollars balance sheet by the
third year of operations.
iii. Doha Bank got permission from the Reserve Bank of India
to open the branch in December 2013.
iv. Already Doha Bank runs a brokerage (Doha Brokerage)
with 41 percent stake and the rest of the stake is held by local
brokers of Kochi in India.
Note: Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, Abu Dhabi Bank are the two
other banks from Arab countries to have operations in India
before Doha bank.
About Doha Bank
Doha Bank is the largest private commercial bank in the state
of Qatar. It was incorporated in 1978 and commenced its
domestic and international banking services in Doha, Qatar in
1979.
Qatari government holds 16 percent stake in the bank and the
bank has a market capitalisation of 5 billion dollars and an
asset of 18.4 billion dollars in December 2013.
3. USFDA banned imports from Indian plant of Apotex
Pharma Co
i. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) on 2 April
2014 banned imports from Apotex Incs manufacturing plant in
India because of not meeting the quality standards.
ii. The FDA banned the imports from the plant situated in
Bangalore without physical examination because the plant did
not meet the FDA manufacturing practices. However, FDA
allowed the imports of Riluzole, drug which is used to treat
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis commonly called Lou Gehrigs
disease.
iii. Recently, FDA sanctioned a series of ban on top Indian
drug makers such as Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd Wockhardt Ltd
and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to export to the United
States on quality concerns.
About Apotex Inc
Apotex Inc. is the largest Canadian owned pharmaceutical
company. It was founded in 1974. Apotex Research Private
Limited (ARPL), the Indian Research & Development wing of
Apotex Inc. was established in the year 2004 in Bangalore.

4. D K Pathak appointed as the new Director General of BSF
i. Union Government on 2 April 2014 appointed senior IPS
officer D K Pathak as the new Director General of the Border
Security Force (BSF).
ii. BSF is country's largest border guarding force. His name for
the post of DG was approved by the Appointments Committee
of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Mamohan
Singh. He is expected to continue till February, 2016.
iii. Pathak is a 1979-batch officer of the Assam-Meghalaya
cadre. Prior to the appointment of DG, he was posted as the
Special DG and was also officiating as the DG since 1 March
2014.

5. HAL received the Most Efficient Navratna Award 2013
i. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on 3 April 2014 recieved
the Most Efficient Navratna Award for the year 2013.
ii. It received the award at the 5th Dalal Street Investment
Journal Awards ceremony held in New Delhi. The award was
collected by the Chairman of HAL, Dr. R K Tyagi.
iii. The award was given to the company for the measure it has
taken on various fronts such as R&D, modernization, customer
initiatives, quality and thrust given on indigenization.
iv. In the financial year 2013-14, HAL achieved its highest ever
turnover. In 2013-14 it achieved a turnover of 15180 crore
rupees surpassing the figure of 14324 crore rupees in 2012-13.
About Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) came into existence on
1st October 1964. The Company was formed by the merger of
Hindustan Aircraft Limited with Aeronautics India Limited and
Aircraft Manufacturing Depot, Kanpur.
6. PSLV launches India's second navigation satellite
i. An Indian rocket carrying the countrys second navigation
satellite, IRNSS-1B, on Friday blasted off from the Satish
Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
ii. Exactly at 5.14 pm, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C24
(PSLV-C24) standing around 44.4 metres tall and weighing
around 320 tonnes tore into the evening sky with orange
flames fiercely burning at its tail.
iii. The space centre is around 80 km north of Chennai.
iv. Space scientists and other invitees at Indian Space
Research Organisations (ISRO) rocket mission control room
intently watched the rockets progress as it escaped the earths
gravitational pull.
v. The rocket is expected to sling its only luggage, the 1,432 kg
IRNSS-1B (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System), into
the space around 20 minutes after the blast-off.
vi. According to Mr. Radhakrishnan, though the IRNSS is a
seven-satellite system, it could be made operational with four
satellites.
vii. The two more navigation satellites will be launched during
the second half of 2014. The first one IRNSS1A was
launched July 2013.

DAILY GK UPDATE - 5th April
1. Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca sworn-in as President of Malta
i. Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca was sworn-in as the President of
Malta. She was named as President after being suggested by
the Prime Minister,Joseph Muscat and approved by
Parliament.
ii. She replaced George Abela from Labour Party whose term
completed on 4 April 2014.
iii. With her appointment, the total number of female heads of
a country in the world now stands at 21.

About Malta
i. Malta is a southern European country in the Mediterranean
Sea with smallest capital Valletta in EU.
ii. Malta got its independence in 1964 from the United
Kingdom. Malta is a republic with parliamentary system and
public administration is closely modeled on the Westminster
system.
iii. Malta's president who have no executive powers and acts
as figureheads or nominal head, serve for five years and
cannot be re-appointed.
iv. In 2014, Malta will celebrate its 40th anniversary of
becoming a republic.
2. RBI decides to compute and release Real Effective
Exchange Rate from this financial year
i. The RBI has decided to compute and release the Real
Effective Exchange Rate on the basis of the Consumer Price
Index from this financial year.
ii. The Bank said in a release that the step would give a higher
degree of comparability to India's international competitiveness
in relation to its trading partner countries.
iii. Since October last year, the RBI had started giving
projections of inflation in terms of the broader CPI-Combined.
iv. The RBI had so far been providing the Real Effective
Exchange Rate index using the Wholesale Price Index for India
and CPI for partner countries.



3. Indias forex reserves soar to $303.67 billion
i. Indias foreign exchange (forex) reserves soared by $5.03
billion to $303.67 billion for the week ended March 28, Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) data showed.
ii. The forex reserves have soared past $300 billion mark for
the first time since December 2011.
iii. This is the fifth consecutive week of increase in the
countrys forex reserves as overseas investors poured in
money in local bonds and stock markets. The forex reserves
had risen by $1.34 billion and $1.83 billion in the previous two
weeks.
iv. According to the RBIs weekly statistical supplement,
foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex
reserves, rose by $5.01 billion to $276.40 billion.
v. Indias reserve position with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) rose by $30 million to $1.83 billion.
vi. However, the value of special drawing rights (SDRs) fell by
$3.6 million to $4.45 billion, while the value of gold reserves
remained unchanged at $20.97 billion.
4. SBI launches twitter handle
i. After launching accounts on Facebook and Youtube, the
countrys largest lender SBI yesterday took one more step on
the social media front by launching a twitter handle.
ii. Mid-sized private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank had
last month launched twitter-linked current accounts.
iii. The Twitter handle for SBI is
https://twitter.com/TheOfficialSBI.\
iv. Targeting huge customer base as well as potential
customers, there will be round-the-clock tweets on the banks
products and services, as also continuous education of the
customers, the bank said in a statement.The bank expects
this Twitter handle to connect better with the tech-savvy young
generation.
5. FIFA imposed transfer ban on Barcelona
i. International Federation of Association Football (FIFA)
imposed a transfer ban at both national and international level
on 2 April 2014 on Spanish club FC Barcelona.
ii. The ban prohibited FC Barcelona from buying and/or selling
players for the next two transfer windows (June 2014 and
January 2015).
iii. This ban will last for one year. Apart from this ban, FIFA
also imposed financial penalty on FC Barcelona and Real
Madrid.
iv. Real was accused of violating Article 19 of regulations of
FIFA and has been given one year to regularize their
regulatory framework and existing system concerning the
international transfer of underage players.
v. According to Article 19, international transfers of players are
only permitted if the player is over the age of 18. The
Disciplinary Committee underlined that FIFA takes the
protection of minors in football very seriously. The protection of
minors is one of the key principles included in the agreement
concluded between FIFA, UEFA and the European
Commission in 2001.
6. Iran and Japan signed a MoU to cooperate in
environmental issues
i. Iran and Japan signed on 2 April 2014 a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) for bilateral cooperation on
environmental issues in Tokyo.
ii. Vice-President and Head of Department of Environment of
Iran Masoumeh Ebtekar and Head of International Cooperation
Agency of Japan Nobuteru Ishihara signed the MoU.
iii. Under the MoU, the two countries agreed to broaden
cooperation in reducing air pollution, dealing with climate
change consequences and protecting ponds.
iv. And also both the countries exchanged views and
discussed various issues pertaining to environment protection.
Both the countries called for collective cooperation among
world countries in fighting air pollution.

DAILY GK UPDATE - 6th April
1. First phase of Lok Sabha elections begins tomorrow
i. The battle lines have been drawn for the first phase of Lok
Sabha polls in five seats in Assam on Monday.
ii. Five constituencies in Assam Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat,
Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur and Tripura (West) in Tripura will
go to the polls on Monday.
iii. Campaigning has already ended in these constituencies
and the candidates have mounted door-to-door contact with
the electorate, seeking their votes.
iv. The Congress, BJP, Trinamool Congress, AIUDF, AGP,
AAP, SUCI, CPI (M), AIFB and SP are contesting five seats in
Tezpur, Koliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur in the
Congress-ruled State.
v. Among the 51 candidates are Union Ministers Ranee Narah
and Paban Singh Ghatowar, former Union Minister and sitting
MLA Bijoy Krishna Handique, Chief Minister Tarun Gogois son
Gourav Gogoi and Bhupen Kumar Bora for the Congress.

Timings for Lok Sabha voting - 7 am to 6 pm
i. In order to ensure maximum voting in the Lok Sabha election
beginning Monday, polling will be held for the first time from 7
a.m. to 6 p.m.
ii. The only exception will be the north-eastern region where
polling will start at 7 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. However, Manipur
and Nagaland will vote from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. due to security
reasons.
iii. The Election Commission has also decided to hold voting in
four Maoist affected constituencies in Jharkhand (Rajmahal,
Dumka, Godda and Dhanbad) from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
iv. The nine-phase Lok Sabha election begins Monday and will
end May 12. The vote count will take place May 16.


2. Australian eves complete hat-trick of World T20 titles
i. Australian eves once again proved their supremacy in
womens cricket as they completed a hat-trick of ICC World
T20 titles with a comprehensive six-wicket win over England in
the final in Mirpur on Sunday.
ii. Australian captain Meg Lanning smashed her way to 44 off
30 balls, helping her team surpass a paltry target of 106 with
as many as 29 balls to spare.
iii. Lannings innings had four boundaries and two sixes. The
first six -- a lofted shot over long-off ropes off seamer Anya
Shrubsole -- was a treat to watch. It was a copybook backlift
and one cant take away anything from that shot although the
boundary ropes have been brought in by at least 10 yards for
the womens final.