Cureen Affairs May 8-9

Current Affairs 8-9 may 2014

1. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has put on hold its decision to make Aadhaar-based biometric authentication for transactions mandatory. The Supreme Court had earlier asked the government not to link Aadhaar with any social benefit schemes and subsidies. What was the main reason for this decision of the RBI? – Huge time taken for Aadhaar’s biometric authentication and high set up costs (In the testing phase, biometric authentication took up to 30 seconds even on 3G connections, as opposed to 5 seconds otherwise. Banks were also worried about huge set-up costs needed to enable the required infrastructure for biometric authentication) …………………………………………….

2) Thailand went into a new phase of uncertainty on 7 May 2014 as country’s Constitutional Court ordered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and several cabinet ministers to step down. What was the reason given by the court for this harsh order? – Yingluck Shinawatra acted illegally while transferring her national security head (Yingluck had been accused of abuse of power in improperly transferring Thawil Pliensri, her national security chief appointed by the opposition-led administration, in 2011. The court felt that this transfer benefitted a close relative of Shinawatra) …………………………………………….

3) What major relief was announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 7 May 2014 for takers of housing, auto and personal loans? – It directed all the commercial banks not to levy any penalty on pre-payment of loans under floating rate scheme that cover housing, auto as well as personal loans (The RBI advised that banks will not be permitted to charge foreclosure charges/ pre-payment penalties on all floating rate term loans sanctioned to individual borrowers, with immediate effect. Floating loan products include housing, corporate, vehicle and personal loans. Two years ago, RBI had barred banks from levying foreclosure charges or pre-payment penalties on home loans on floating interest rate basis) …………………………………………….

4) Indian Naval Chief Admiral RK Dhowan on 7 May 2014 announced that India’s largest warship – aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya is now operationally deployed. The 44,500-tonne aircraft carrier procured from Russia at a cost of $2.33 billion had arrived in India in January this year. Where is the home-base of this aircraft carrier situated? – Karwar, Karnataka (The aircraft carrier, which does not have air defence guns, is expected to get its weaponry for protection against aerial attacks at its scheduled first refit) …………………………………………….

5) What is the name of the founder and former director of the scam-ridden National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), who was arrested by the Mumbai police on 7 May 2014? – Jignesh Shah (Shah was arrested for his connection with the nearly Rs. 5,600 crore payment crisis. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police also arrested the Chief Financial Officer of Financial Technologies India Ltd. (FTIL), Srikant Javlekar. NSEL is owned by FTIL) …………………………………………….

6) Which airline became the newest to have won an operating permit for airline services in India? – AirAsia India (The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued the air operator permit, the last approval required to launch an airline, to AirAsia India on 7 May 2014. AirAsia India is a three-way venture between the Malaysia-based low-cost airline, the Tata Group and investment firm Telestra Tradeplace. Earlier plans to start the airline in the last quarter of 2013 were delayed, pending DGCA’s air operator permit. India presently has five operational national carriers and one regional airline. Competition had eased after the grounding of cash-and-debt-strapped Kingfisher Airlines in October 2012)