Need to know about the Model Code of Conduct

Dear readers, recently Election Commission of India announced the election schedule for the Lok Sabha polls and announced the model code of conduct to stay in force till the end of the electoral process. So here we are providing you a post on Model code of conduct which will aware you about it.

 Model code of conduct: It is a set of guidelines laid down by the Election Commission to govern the conduct of political parties and candidates in the run-up to an election. 

The Model Code of Conduct comes into force the moment an election is announced and remains in force till the results are declared.

It applies to all political parties, their candidates and polling agents, the government in power, and all government employees.

Need for such a code of conduct: It is planned to provide a level playing field for all political parties:
1. to keep the campaign fair and healthy, 
2. to avoid clashes and conflicts between parties, and 
3. to ensure peace and order. 

Its main aim is to ensure that the ruling party, either at the Centre or in the states, does not misuse its official position to gain an unfair advantage in an election.

Some Points needs to know about the model code of conduct

1.Under the code, governments cannot do anything which may have the effect of influencing voters in favour of the party in power, and political parties and candidates are forbidden from indulging in any corrupt practices

2. Before using loud speakers during their poll campaigning, candidates and political parties must take permission or license from the local authorites. The candidates should inform the local police for conducting election rallies to enable the police authorities to make required security arrangements.

3.The contesting candidates and their campaigners must respect the home life of their rivals and should not disturb them by holding road shows or demonstrations in front of their houses. 

4.The election campaign rallies and road shows must not hinder road traffic. 

5.The code asks the candidates to refrain from distributing liquor to voters. 

6.The code instructs that public spaces like meeting grounds, helipads, government guest houses and bungalows should be equally shared among the contesting candidates. These public spaces should not be monopolised by a few candidates.

7.On the polling day, the code asks all party candidates to cooperate with the poll-duty officials at the voting booths for an orderly voting process. Candidate should not display their election symbols near and around the poll booths on the polling day. No one should enter the booths without valid pass from the Election Commission. 

8.The code says that there will be poll observers to whom any complaints can be reported or submitted. 

9.The ruling party should not use its seat of power for campaign purposes. 

10.The ruling party ministers should not make any ad-hoc appointment of officials, which may influence the voters in favour of the party in power. 

05:04 - By Unknown 0

Some Important Points You Need To Know About Bitcoins

In this post, we attempt to identify some Important Points  about Bitcoins to give you a clearer understanding of what it is, what it does and how you can use it to buy products or services online.

This article was written in an attempt to create awareness to readers about this technology.

1. What Are Bitcoins?

The Bitcoin is a form of currency without notes and coins, it is a digital currency.

In this era of Internet and digitization, we’ve moved from phone to VoIP calls, face-to-face meeting to video conferencing, fax to email, cable television to IP TV, and the list goes on.

2. Who Developed The Idea Of Bitcoins?

The concept of Bitcoins was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto, who resides in total anonymity. He is said to be from Japan but his mail ID was from Germany, plus the bitcoin software was not available in Japanese.

He developed the system and the Bitcoin software (that is used to run the system) in 2009 but disappeared into thin air in 2010. The other developers of the system stopped hearing from him in 2010, and plenty of speculation turned up about his real identity.

Some even suggested that his name was just a mash up of popular Japanese companies — Samsung, Toshiba, Motorola. But what he created was definitely the fantasy of every tech guy in the world.

3. What Is So Special About The Bitcoin System?

The Bitcoin is a system which allows you to do anonymous currency transactions and no one will come to know about the payment or about all other info related to the payment, including who sent it, who received it, etc.

Satoshi did it by making the system – a peer-to-peer network – controlled by no central authority but run by a network of contributors and freedom enthusiasts, who donated their time and energy to this innovation. Essentially, people can do money transactions and no authority or organization will come to know about it.

4. What Is Double Spending?

We can make many copies of digital data, e.g. people copy software and sell it as counterfeit or pirated copies. We may face the same problem with digital currency – one can copy the digital currency (let’s suppose USD10) and use it as many time as he/she like (as many notes of USD10).

Satoshi solved this problem by showing all transactions in a public list. Whenever a new transaction is made, its validity is checked by confirming from the list that the digital currency was not used before. This way, no one can copy the currency and use it for more than one time. It’s a simple but effective idea to stop double spending of the same bitcoin.

5. How Does A Public Listing Make Things Anonymous?

The public listing only shows the transaction ID and the amount of currency transferred. You will be anonymous in the system because you don’t need to provide any of your personal details like your name, address, email, phone number, etc. In comparison, when you use payment gateways like Paypal you have to give up all these personal details.

6. How Do You Use Bitcoins Then?

Bitcoins are kept in a digital wallet which you can keep in your computer, or on a website online,which will manage and secure your wallet for you. You can have as many wallets and bitcoin addresses (where you receive money from others) as you like.

What’s more, you can use Bitcoin software on top of Tor to prevent anyone from tracking your IP address – total anonymity guaranteed!

7. How Many People Are Using This?

At this very moment, 10.71 million Bitcoins are in existence, which is like 207.929 million USD worth! In fact, the Canadian government is working on their own crypto-currency, named MintChip. (a glance:)

In one day, more than 45,000 transactions of a total of BTC 2.5 million (worth of USD48.5 million) is handled by the bitcoin network.

8. How Do I Acquire Bitcoins?

Using and getting Bitcoins is really easy. There are various ways to get Bitcoins:

i. ‘Mining’

ii. Currency exchange (bitcoin in return for Dollars or Euros) via bitcoin provider services likeMt.Gox

iii. Providing services to others in return of Bitcoins

9. What’s Mining?

Mining is a process of extracting Bitcoins currency. Bitcoin mining is a business – most people mint Bitcoins to gain profit. Bitcoins are minted using a special software (known as Bitcoin Miner) which tries to find a new block in the chain of Bitcoin network.

Whenever a new block is found, its owner is gifted with 50 Bitcoins. Technically, a computer has to perform long and tough hash calculations to find a new block.

10. How Do You Spend A Bitcoin?

Spending Bitcoins is a bit easier. You can send Bitcoins to a person, buy goods, or donate to non-profit foundations who accept it, such as Wikileaks, P2P Foundation, Operation Anonymous,Free Software Foundation, Archive.org.

You can send Bitcoins to anyone once you know their bitcoin address.

Wrap Up

The Bitcoin system is being quickly adopted. BTC1 having a worth of USD6 a year ago is now worth of USD19+. Security experts and digital freedom enthusiasts praise Bitcoin system for being a one-of-the-kind system that opens doors to possibilities. 

Because of its guaranteed anonymity feature, it’s used by people who are concerned of their privacy. As no authority can trace the transactions, this also lead to misuse of the system for example, in illegal work.

04:36 - By Unknown 0

About Lokpal Bill, Why it's Important

The Lokpal Bill, 2011, also referred to as The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011, is an anti-corruption law in India which "seeks to provide for the establishment of the institution of Lokpal to inquire into allegations of corruption against certain public functionaries and for matters connecting them".

The bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha on 22 December 2011 and was passed by the house on 27 December 2011 as The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011. The bill was subsequently tabled in the Rajya Sabha on 29 December 2011.

 After a marathon debate that stretched until midnight of the following day, the vote failed to take place for lack of time. On 21 May 2012, the bill was referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha for consideration. The bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 17 December 2013 after making certain amendments to the earlier Bill and in the Lok Sabha on 18 December 2013.

The Lokpal will be a three-member body with a chairperson who is or was a chief justice or Supreme Court judge, and two members who are or have been high courts judges or chief justices. Implementation of the Lokpal bill will hopefully reduce corruption in India.


A look at the salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill:

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month's time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won't the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won't be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

10. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.


Back ground. 

The word was derived from the Sanskrit words "Lok" (people) and "Pala"(protector/caretaker), meaning 'Caretaker of People'.

The term Lokpal was coined in 1963 by Laxmi Mall Singhvi, a Member of Parliament during a parliamentary debate about grievance mechanisms.

The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) headed by Morarji Desai submitted an interim report on "Problems of Redressal of Citizen's Grievances" in 1966. In this report, ARC recommended the creation of two special authorities designated as 'Lokpal' and 'Lokayukta' for redress of citizens' grievances.

Note: Maharashtra was the first state to introduce Lokayukta through The Maharashtra Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act in 1971.

Presently, there are no Lokayuktas in the states of Andra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya,Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal.


Why it's Important?

Corruption is an emotional issue in India, where at least 12 whistle-blowers were killed and 40 assaulted after seeking information under a new Right to Information Act aimed at exposing local graft, according to data compiled by Bloomberg L.P. from January 2010 through mid-October 2011.

The legislation became the most powerful tool for fighting wrongdoing in politics and business, with 529,000 requests filed in the year through March.

This year, India ranked 94th in the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International.

A recent survey estimated that corruption in India had cost billions of dollars and threatened to derail growth. India lost a staggering $462 billion in illicit financial flows due to tax evasion, crime and corruption post-Independence, according to a report released by Washington-based Global Financial Integrity.

23:37 - By Unknown 0

Banking Buzzwords Expected Questions for 14 and 15/Dec/2013 IBPS Clerk III exam

1. What is a Government Security?

Ans: A Government security is a tradable instrument issued by the Central Government or the State Governments. It acknowledges the Government’s debt obligation.
Such securities are short term (usually called treasury bills, with original maturities of less than one year) or long term (usually called Government bonds or dated securities with original maturity of one year or more).

2. Treasury Bills (T-bills)?

Ans: Treasury bills or T-bills, which are money market instruments, are short term debt instruments issued by the Government of India and are presently issued in three tenors, namely, 91 day, 182 day and 364 day. Treasury bills are zero coupon securities and pay no interest.

3. What are the Open Market Operations (OMOs)?

Ans: OMOs are the market operations conducted by the Reserve Bank of India by way of sale/ purchase of Government securities to/ from the market with an objective to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis.

For Ex: When the RBI feels there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity. Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, the RBI will buy securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market.

4. What are the various types of financial markets?

 The financial markets can broadly be divided into money and capital market.

A. Money Market: The money market provides investment avenues of short term tenor. Money market transactions are generally used for funding the transactions in other markets including Government securities market and meeting short term liquidity mismatches.

By definition, money market is for a maximum tenor of up to one year. Within the one year, depending upon the tenors, money market is classified into:

i. Overnight market or Call money - The tenor of transactions is one working day.

ii. Notice money market – The tenor of the transactions is from 2 days to 14 days.

Iii. Term money market – The tenor of the transactions is from 15 days to one year.

B. Capital Market: Capital market is a market for long-term debt and equity shares.

In this market, the capital funds comprising of both equity and debt are issued and traded. This also includes private placement sources of debt and equity as well as organized markets like stock exchanges.

5. Commercial Paper (CP)?

Ans: Commercial Paper (CP) is an unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of a promissory note.

Corporate, primary dealers (PDs) and the all-India financial institutions (FIs) that have been permitted to raise short-term resources under the umbrella limit fixed by the Reserve Bank of India are eligible to issue CP.

Period: CP can be issued for maturities between a minimum of 7 days and a maximum up to one year from the date of issue.

6. Certificate of Deposit (CD)

Ans: Certificate of Deposit (CD) is a negotiable money market instrument and issued in dematerialized form or as a Usance Promissory Note, for funds deposited at a bank or other eligible financial institution for a specified time period.

Period: Banks can issue CDs for maturities from 7 days to one a year whereas eligible FIs can issue for maturities 1 year to 3 years.

7. What is EMV based card payments?

Ans: EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, a global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards (IC cards or "chip cards") and IC card capable point of sale (POS) terminals and automated teller machines (ATMs), for authenticating credit and debit card transactions.

It is a joint effort initially conceived between Europay, MasterCard and Visa to ensure the security and global interoperability of chip-based payment cards

8. About BMB: Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) is an Indian financial services banking company based in New Delhi, India.India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the system on 19 November 2013 on the occasion of the 94th birth anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Headquarter – New Delhi. Bank will get an initial capital of Rs 1,000 crore.

Usha Ananthasubramanian – The First CEO/Chairperson of Bhartiya Mahila Bank

9. Financial inclusion: Financial inclusion means providing sound and affordable financial services to the "unbanked”, those who do not have access to the formal financial system.

Financial inclusion is more than an economic issue - it is a legal and regulatory reform process.

10. The last 6 characters represent what in IFSC code?

Ans – Bank branch code.

The IFSC code contains 11 alphanumeric code and it facilitates - uniquely identifies a bank-branch participating in the NEFT system

11. About KYC norms?

Ans: The full form of KYC is – Know Your Customer

KYC guidelines was introduced by – RBI for all banks in the year - 2002

The components of KYC – Identity proof , address proof , photographs

The objective of KYC guidelines is – to prevent banks from criminal money laundering activities

KYC day is celebrated on – First working day of august every year

12. About BASE RATE – The minimum interest rate of a bank below which it cannot lend to public

The BPLR (Benchmark prime lending rate)was introduced in the year - 2003

The BPLR was converted into base rate on – july 2010

RBI made mandatory for all banks to introduced w.e.f. – 1July 2010

The minimum base rate is fixed by – RBI

13. About EDC : The full form of EDC – Electric Data Capture

EDS is a computerized system designed for - collection of clinical data in electronic format

14. About Bharat Nirman?

Ans: Bharat Nirman is Rural infrastructure plan which was implemented by the Government of India in order to provide some basic amenities to the rural India. launched in 2005.

Bharat Nirman have been sub-divided into six sections which includes;

Waters

Roads

Housing

Telephone

Electricity

Irrigation

15. What is the maximum deposit amount insured by DICGC?

Ans: Rs. 1 lakh  per depositor across all banks

16. The price at which the government purchases crops from the farmers is called ________.

Ans–MSP

17. Expand ASHA. – Accredited Social Health Activities

18. RBI set up the committee to look into financial inclusion under the chairmanship of ?

Ans- Dr. C. Rangarajan

19. The Good Road' is related to which of the following state of India?

Ans: Gujarat

20. Cheque Truncation System has legal sanction under which of the act?

Ans: Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

21. According to this survey, Which of the state is the most financially developed?

Ans: Himachal Pradesh

22. The banks with a view to achieving greater financial inclusion to make which account?

Ans: "no-frills" banking account.

23. Cobrapost is founded by whom?

Ans; Aniruddha Bahal

24.Who is the co-founder of Tehelka?

Ans: Tarun Tejpal

25. Against which team Sachin Tendulkar played his last test?

Ans: Team West Indies, played in Mumbai (Wankhade Stadium) India.

26. How many tests Sachin Tendulkar has played in his career?

Ans: 200

27. How many years did Sachin Tendulkar gave to his cricket career?

Ans: 24

28. Sachin Tendulkar represented which team in IPL?

Ans: Mumbai Indians

Note: Indian Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar appointed as UNICEF's first brand ambassador for South Asia

29. Banccasurance is also known as ___?

Ans: Bank Insurance Model(BIM)

30.What is Banccasurance?

Ans: An arrangement in which a bank and an insurance company form a partnership so that the insurance company can sell its products to the bank's client base

31.Banccasurance is a partnership between whom?

Ans: The bank and the insurance company.

32. In which Banccasurance started in India?

Ans: year 2000.

33.Who is the new chief of Pakistan army?

Ans: Raheel Sharif

34.Which cyclone hit Andhra Pradesh?

Ans: Helen

35. Chairman of MCX’s board (Multi Commodity Exchange of India)?

Ans: Satyananda Mishra former (Chief Information Commissioner).

Note: Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX)  is an independent commodity exchange based in India. It was established in 2003 and is based in Mumbai.

36. Which personality selected for Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2013?

Ans: Dr. Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

Note: for 2012: President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

37. IMPS is a term related to Banking system. In IMPS , letter M denotes ____?

Ans: Mobile

Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is an instant, interbank (similar to NEFT) electronic fund transfer service that can be initiated only through mobile phones and service introduced by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Note: About MMID? Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) is a random seven digit number issued by banks to their customers.

If you wish to send money using IMPS, you should have the mobile number and MMID of the beneficiary (person whom you wish to send money to).

If you wish to receive funds using IMPS, you should generate  an MMID for your account and share this with the remitter (person whom you wish to receive money from). You can generate only one MMID per account

38.Recently Megan Young was crowned Miss World 2013. The Miss World grand final was held in ___?

Ans: Bali

39. Which scheme is launched by the Govt. of India allows lakhs of poor people to open a Bank account?

Ans: Swabhiman

40. Which of the following will host “NATO” 2014 nearly after 20 years of hosting summit?

Ans: Britain

04:49 - By Unknown 0

Gk Questions Asked in IBPS CLERK III: Morning Shift: 30/Nov/2013

Dear Candidate, 

 Here we are providing some of the General Awareness questions which was asked in today's  IBPS Clerk III morning shift exam. 

1.    Full form of NEFT – National Electronic Fund Transfer

2.    Current Bank Rate: 8.75%

3.    Tesi thomas is associated with – Missile

4.    Sachin Tendulkar played last one day at – Dhaka

5.    New name of a/c launch by RBI – BSBDA

6.    PLR is replaced - Base rate

7.    Martha Dodrey Work for – Polio

8.    Bankasurance - by banking Chanel

9.    Swarn Jayanti Rojgar Yojna is for - Gramin vikas mantralay

10.  What is the name of card for farmer - kisan credit card

11.  Name the wife of the PM of India: Gursharan Kaur

12.  RBI Provide loans to bank is called? – Repo Rate

13.  Loan can’t be provided below which rate: Base Rate

14.  India won how many medals in London Olympic Games 2012 – 6 (4 Bronze & 2 Silver)

15.  If RBI reduces CRR, what happens: Credit Supply increases, loans get cheaper.

16.  Banks Calculate interest on basis of what time and capital?

17.  Largest Tea exporter in World? – Sri Lanka

18.  Which organization deals with complaints of Consumers? -

19.  Author of Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

20.  Which of the following contains 11 digit alphanumeric codes? – IFSC code

21.  Name the scheme to include every people under banking system – Financial Inclusion

22.  IIFA 2013 Award – best film - Barfi

23.  Venue of Olympic 2020 - Tokyo

24.  Yerevon is the capital of – Armenian

25.  One question related to Banking Ombudsman?

26.  Full form of EDC – Electronic Data Capture Machine

27.  Name of the leader , whose statue was inaugurated by Manmohan Singh in Gujarat? Sardar Vallabbhai Patel

28.  What is CTS: Cheque Truncation System

29.  Which of the following software used in Banking System? - Core banking software

30.  One question related to:

i. Bharat Nirman

ii. DICGC/ MICR

iii. KYC

iv. Credit Pulling

v. MSME

vi. Saving Account.

31.  KYC norms issued by – RBI ( to stop money laundering activities).

32.  9 digit code written on Cheque is known as – MICR code

33.  Who controls Cobra Post and Tehelka? –

34.  Current Base Rate? 9.80 – 10.25%

35.  Full form of: BSBDA – Basic Saving Bank Deposit Account.

36.  Insurance when Bank failure/canceled license---100000/ a/c

37.  Swarozgar Yojana comes under which department - Ministry of Rural Development

05:25 - By Unknown 0