RAIL BUDGET - 2013

RAIL BUDGET - 2013

Union Railway Minister Pawan Bansal presented the Union Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Parliament today. The first Congress minister to present a Railway Budget in 17 years.
The Railway Budget for 2013-14 on Tuesday spared passengers from any further hike in fares but raised various other charges on tickets along with freight tariff of less than 5 per cent.

Highlights of Budget:

1. No hike in passenger fares; 67 new express and 26 passenger trains to be launched.

2. Indian Railways to join 1 billion tonne select club with China.

3. Educational tourist train"Azadi Express" proposed

4. Train Collision Avoidance System to be put to rigorous trials

5. Passenger earning target Rs 32500 crore this year.

6. Freedom fighters to renew their passes only once in 3 yrs.

7. Complementary passes for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Olympic awardees.

ECONOMIC SURVEY : 2012-13

ECONOMIC SURVEY : 2012-13

Economic Survey of India 2012-13:

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today presented the Economic Survey 2012-13 in the Lok Sabha of the Parliament.

India's Economic Survey for 2012-13 pegs the country's growth at 6.1-6.7%and inflation at 6.2-6.6% for the next fiscal 2013-14 and made a strong call for cutting subsidies.

Survey said: i."With the global economy also likely to recover somewhat in 2013, these measures should help in improving the Indian economy's outlook for 2013-14",

ii. There was across the board slowdown in all sectors during 2012-13 leading to problems in other areas of economy, especially revenue collection.

State Bank of India has raised the interest rates

State Bank of India has raised the interest rates on fixed deposits by 0.25 per cent on select maturities with effect from March 1.

Of the total nine maturity periods, the rates have been revised upwards in four categories with a maturity period of over one year, SBI said in a statement today.

With the revision, the interest rate on 1-2 years term deposits would go up to 8.75 per cent from 8.50 per cent.

Similarly, term deposits for 2-3 years, 3-5 years and 5-10 years would earn a higher interest rate of 8.75 per cent. However, the bank has left the interest rate unchanged for deposits less than one year.

Earlier this month, the bank had cut the lending rate by 0.05 per cent, soon after the Reserve Bank cut its key policy rates.

Extended the tenure of Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Anand Sinha

The Government of India has extended the tenure of Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Anand Sinha till January 18, 2014, the RBI said in a statement.

Sinha was due to retire on February 28 this year.

”According to the notification issued by the Government of India dated February 25, 2013, Sinha will continue as the Deputy Governor Reserve Bank until January 18, 2014, when he completes his tenure of three years from the date on which he assumed office, that is, January 19, 2011, the RBI said.

Sinha will continue to look after the Department of Banking Operations and Development, the

The 85th Academy Awards ceremony

The 85th Academy Awards ceremony ("The Oscars"), honoring the best films of 2012 in the United States, took place February 24, 2013. The ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Seth MacFarlane hosted the Academy Awards for the first time.

Best Picture: Argo – Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney
Best Director: Ang Lee – Life of Pi
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln as Abraham Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook as Tiffany Maxwell
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained as Dr. King Schultz
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables as Fantine
Best Screenplay: Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino

IDBI Bank ties up with EXIM Bank for loans to export units

 

IDBI Bank has tied up with Export Import Bank of India to facilitate loans to export-oriented small and medium scale enterprises.

“The two banks would co-finance, co-arrange, syndicate rupee and foreign currency loans, provide refinance facility in Indian rupees and foreign currency for extending short term export credit and long term capex loans to eligible export-oriented companies, particularly in the SME sector,” IDBI Bank said in a release.

UCO Bank launches current account scheme

Kolkata-based UCO Bank on Saturday launched UCO Care Current Account, across all its branches . The current account scheme will cater to the needs of business class clients and include a host of other freebies, according to a press release issued by the bank . Some of the benefits include reduced minimum balance, and value-added facilities such as national electronic fund transfer (NEFT) remittance facilities at reduced rates. It also provides overdraft facility to meet emergency needs . According to Arun Kaul,

New Banking Licence - Final Guidelines

Final Guidelines New Banking Licence

Eligibility:
1. Corporates, NBFCs and public sector entities can set up banks. Broking and real estate companies can also apply.
2. Promoters need to be financially sound with track record of 10 years.
3. Positive feedback from other regulators and investigative agencies critical.

Structure:
1. Promoters must set up banks through wholly-owned non-operative financial holding companies.
2. Holding company and bank not permitted to lend or invest in any entity belonging to the promoter group.
3. Shares of holding companies cannot be transferred to entities outside the promoter group.

Today GA

1.                    India and United Kingdom signed two MOU to promote development of community colleges and implementation of School Leadership Programme.

2.                    Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the 12th Five Year Plan lays emphasis not merely on economic development but on inclusive growth to bring more poor and marginal people under its ambit.

3.                    Top private sector lender ICICI Bank has decided to discontinue its co-branded credit card with Kingfisher Airlines In the wake of continued grounding of the debt­laden air carrier.

4.                    Falling for the second straight month, India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined nearly 19 per cent to USD 1.10 billion in December 2012 due to global economic uncertainties.

Mobile banking will see explosive growth in emerging markets

 

Mobile banking will be the front runner among various trends and technologies in the emerging markets banking landscape.

Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India, expressed this view while delivering the Karnataka Bank Founders’ Day lecture here on Monday.

Stating that the country has around 675 million active mobile telephone connections, he said mobile banking will witness explosive growth and change the entire banking scenario.

Because of their reach, ease and capabilities, mobile devices have recorded penetration of more than 50 per cent in countries with per capita GDP as low as $500. A majority of mobile subscribers around the globe are located in emerging markets, he said.

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Daily Gk

1.    British PM Cameron announces same-day visa service for Indian businessmen

i. British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday announced that his country is going to introduce same-day visa service for Indian businessmen in a bid to accelerate the bilateral trade between the two sides.

ii. "In terms of business, I think we are on track to meet our committed to double our bilateral trade by 2015.

iii. Cameron also said that“We are looking to open British trade offices here to create a pan-India network of British business centres by 2017. We want to make very rapid progress on the EU (European Union)-India Free Trade Agreement and going to bring same-day visa service for the Indian businessmen,"

iv. Cameron further said there would be no limit on the number of Indian students willing to study in British Universities.

NOTE: Cameron, who is visiting India for the second time as British Prime Minister, arrived in Mumbai yesterday on a three-day visit with the objective to expand bilateral relations in various field including trade, defence, technology, education, sports and culture.

2.    Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa Re-elected for a Third Term

i. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa was re-elected for a third term with more than 50 percent of the vote according to the election results declared in the third week of February 2013.

ii. As per the results, Rafael Correa got 56.7 percent while his closest competitor Guillermo could secure only 23.3 percent.

About Rafael Correa

i. Correa is a socialist leader who was first elected in 2007. He is credited with bringing political stability to a nation that experienced several protests and coups.

ii. He is known for his citizen revolution which made him popular among people of Ecuador. He is 49 years old.

56000 vacancy in psu banks in next 6 months

Public sector banks, from State Bank of India to Allahabad Bank, will hire as many as 56,500 people in the next six months in the highest ever recruitment drive by the industry in more than a decade as business grows and the threat of new banks looms as the Reserve Bank of India plans to issue new licences soon. The recruitments by more than a dozen banks will be 30% higher than last year's numbers as hopes of business cycle turning for the better grow, bankers said. 

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection said 20 public sector banks, excluding SBI, will hire 22,415 officers and 32,453 clerks for branch expansion and fill the gap created by retirement and attrition. sbi  is independently hiring candidates to fill up 1,500 officer positions. "Public sector banks are in the forefront of accommodating fresh graduates with a clear focus on rural expansion of branches," said NS Rajan, partner and global leader at Ernst & Young. 

Corporation Bank conducts roadshow

Corporation Bank on Friday organised a roadshow to market its new savings account variants — ‘Corp Super’ and ‘Corp Signature’ — in Mangalore.

A press release said here that the bank launched a door-to-door campaign for the newly launched savings account variants.

Through this drive, the staff members reach out to customers in residential areas, business establishments, government organisations, corporates, etc.

Daily Gk 15 /02/2013

1.             The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the fourth GRIHA National Conference on Green Design at a function at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on February 14, 2013.

2.              Rem Vyakhirev, the man who helped create Russia's state-run Gazprom natural gas giant and led it for nearly a decade, has died at 78.

3.              Declining for the fourth straight month, WPI inflation fell to 6.62 per cent in January despite rise in prices of food items like vegetables, onions and rice.

4.              The board of Italian defence and aerospace company Finmeccanica has named Chief Operating Officer Alessandro Pansa as interim Chief Executive following the arrest of Giuseppe Orsi on suspicion of corruption.

5.              The MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) India index is being reconstituted and will see the deletion of Maruti Suzuki with effect from February 28.

6.              The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Sri Lanka's growth rate at around 6.25 per cent this year, observing that the country has achieved notable progress on a number of economic fronts over the past few years.

Syndicate Bank to open specialised branches in AP

 

Syndicate Bank is planning to expand its branch network in Andhra Pradesh by 150-200, and it would focus on opening specialised branches in the north-coastal Andhra region, including for agriculture, MSME and personal banking, according to Executive Director Anjaneya Prasad. At present, the bank has 411 branches in the State.

He said in an interview that the bank had a limited presence in the region. The number of branches in the port city would go up to 10 by the end of this fiscal. “The four districts together have 28 branches and the plan is to take it to 30. Given the high potential in this area, the bank had appointed an Assistant General Manager for business development here,” he said.

RBI to discuss new accounting standards for banks soon

Accounting regulator ICAI will soon hold discussions with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on implementation of IFRS standards by banking companies.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has also submitted a tentative roadmap for IFRS implementation to the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Going forward, the Indian accounting standard would be converged with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

NASA launched a New Communication Satellite called TDRS

NASA on 31 January 2013 launched a new communication satellite to stay in touch with its space station astronauts and relay more Hubble telescope images. An unmanned Atlas V rocket blasted into the starry night sky carrying the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) from Cape Canaveral. This is the 11th TDRS satellite to be launched by NASA. The space agency uses the orbiting network to communicate with astronauts living on the International Space Station. The first TDRS spacecraft flew in 1983.

India and World Bank signed a Deal for Karnataka Watershed Development Project ii

The Government of India and the World Bank on 11 February 2013 signed a 60 million US dollars credit agreement for the Karnataka Watershed Development Project II (KWDP II) to further improve watershed planning and management in project areas. The Project will improve government watershed operations in 930 micro-watersheds covering 465000 ha across 7 districts of Karnataka.

This project builds on the successful experience of earlier Bank-supported Karnataka Watershed Development Project I, also known as Sujala, which helped improve the lives of 230000 farmers by increasing crop yields by about 25 percent, and raising household incomes of small and marginal farmers by 40 percent.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS 2012

BOOKS & AUTHORS 2012

1.    Speaking for My Life — Cherry Blair

2.    The Things About Thugs — Tabish Nair

3.    The Heritage of Sikhs — Harbans Singh

4.    Secular Perception in Sikh Faith — K.M. Duggal

5.    Basanti — Bhishma Sahani

6.    Rich Like Us — Nayantara Sehgal

7.    Reflection on our Time — P.N. Haksar

8.    True Colours — Adam Gilchrist

RBi will come out final guideline on new banks

The Reserve Bank of India might soon come out with its final guidelines on new bank licences, said Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director K. R. Kamath.

The entry of new banks into the system would encourage healthy competition, thereby benefiting customers, he said.

In August 2011 the central bank had issued draft guidelines, according to whichfirms with an exposure of 10 per cent or more to real estate and brokerage businesses by revenue or assets might not be eligible for applying for bank licences. The RBI had also fixed the minimum capital requirement for new banks at around Rs 500 crore.

Books for SSC Graduate Level

RBI for change in laws to deal with fake currency menace

The Reserve Bank said it is in talks with the Government to amend the relevant laws to ensure that persons generating fake currency are punished and not those who possess such notes innocently.

“We are in negotiations with the Government of India on how this law can be reviewed and changed so that the responsibility for the fake currency is actually on the people who are responsible for generating the fake currency,” RBI Governor D Subbarao told newspersons after the board meeting here.

Banks will pip software sector as top job creator

 

A decade ago, Ananth, a commerce graduate, took a diploma in computer science from NIIT to enter the IT industry. He then moved to the US to work for an American company.

Today, it’s a different scenario. Mahesh, an engineering graduate, is working hard to get through a banking recruitment examination for the post of “specialist officer.” Mahesh feels his job will be more secure in a bank than in a software company.

This reversal in trend of an engineering graduate looking at a bank, and not a software company, for a job is an indication of what lies ahead. The banking sector will create more jobs than the IT industry.

Nationalised banks will add 5-7 lakh people in the next five years, which means the sector needs to add about 1.25 lakh people every year, Going by the current trend, the IT sector will struggle to add one lakh, said Santanu Paul, CEO and Managing Director, TalentSprint, a skill development training company.

PAN must for high value gold buys: RBI panel

Seeking to check demand for gold, an RBI committee today proposed a slew of measures like mandatory quoting of PAN numbers for high-value purchases, restriction on gold loans and check on NBFC branches dealing with gold loans.

The Reserve Bank committee also suggested cheque payment for gold purchase beyond a threshold, introduction of other savings products to discourage investment in physical gold, prohibition of bank finance for buying gold and revival of the two-decade-old proposal to set up a Bullion Corporation.

“There is a need to moderate the demand for gold imports considering its impact on the current account deficit,” it said, adding that the RBI may impose limits on volume and value of gold import by banks under “extreme situation“.

Aircel, ICICI Bank launch mobile banking service

Aircel and ICICI Bank have jointly launched a mobile banking service. Called Mobile Money, the service will be run on Visa’s mobile managed service.

Mobile Money has been launched with a range of financial services on a mobile phone such as cash deposits, cash withdrawals and money transfer to third parties.

AP grameen bank opens 125 ultra-small branches

Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB) opened 125 ultra-small branches across the State on Tuesday.

With this the total number of ultra-small branches (USBs) of the State Bank of India-sponsored regional rural bank now stands at 230.

“We are proposing to open another 170 USBs to take the total tally to 400 by March 2013,” K Lakshmana Rao, Chairman, APGVB, said in a release.

Bank employees' strike on Feb 20 & 21

As many as a million bank employees and officers are to strike work on February 20 and 21.

The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions, a representative body of the nine bank unions of the country.

RBI draft norms for loan restructuring may hit banks’ earnings

RBI’s new draft guidelines for restructured loans are likely to hit earnings of banks by at least 3-8 per cent over the next two years, while some public sector banks are expected to get most impacted, a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch has said.

Reserve Bank last week issued revised draft policy norms for restructured loans, post the working group (WG) guidelines issued in July, 2012. According to the draft norms, banks would need to step up provisioning on restructured loans by 1 per cent from FY’14 to 3.75 per cent and to 5 per cent by FY’15 on the existing stock of restructured loans.

The norms, if implemented, would be applicable to new restructured accounts with effect from April 1, 2013 and in a phased manner for existing accounts.

RBI asks banks to beef up wage hike, pension provisioning

The decision on increase in wages and pensions in public sector banks is more than a year away, but the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) has already asked banks to start making adequate provisioning. That’s because banks will have to pay arrears from November 2012, even though the Indian Banks Associationhas informed banks that an agreement with unions on wage revision will be reached by March 2014.

The banking regulator told bankers at the post-monetary policy meeting that it would take a “very serious view” if banks are found making lower provisioning during the annual financial inspection report. RBI’s next round of annual inspection report will start from April 2013, in which the wage and pension provision figures will be examined. The last wage