1. India, China ink border pact; 8 other agreements
i. India and China on Wednesday
reached a comprehensive agreement to avoid border tensions and army face-offs
along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) by deciding that neither side will use
military capability to attack the other side nor tail patrols along the border.
ii. The Border Defence
Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) was on Wednesday signed after extensive talks
between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall
of the People.
iii. The
deal comes against the backdrop of strain in ties following a series of Chinese
intrusions including the prolonged one by People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops
in the Depsang valley in Ladakh in April this year.
iv. In
all 9 agreements, including the BDCA and one on strengthening cooperation on
trans-border rivers, were signed after restricted and delegation-level talks
that lasted over two hours as Dr. Singh and Premier Li met for the second time
this year for talks which the Indian leader described as "fruitful and
productive".
v. India
and China also agreed that if their border defence forces come to a
"face-to-face" situation in areas where there is no common
understanding of the LAC, both sides shall exercise maximum self-restraint,
refrain from any provocative actions, not use force or threaten to use force
against the other side, treat each other with courtesy and prevent exchange of
fire or armed conflict.
vi. Li
hailed Dr. Singh's visit to China as a "landmark" event in bilateral
relations, which will inject new impetus to ties between the two countries.
2.
RBI: Received USD 10.1 billion under
forex swap window
i. Reserve Bank on Wednesday said it has received USD 10.1 billion under two
schemes which were announced last month to attract foreign funds.
ii. "The Reserve
Bank has received till date USD 10.1 billion under the special concessional
window for swapping Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Banks) Deposits and Overseas
Foreign Currency Borrowings," the central bank said in a statement.
iii. RBI
had come out with the special measures to arrest declining value of rupee,
which was triggered by widening CAD, that touched a historic high of 4.8 per
cent of GDP in 2012-13.
iv. Soon after taking
over as RBI Governor on September 4, Raghuram Rajan announced the opening of a
swap window facility to encourage banks to lure NRI funds. Under the facility,
banks are permitted to swap fresh FCNR(B) dollar funds, mobilised for a minimum
tenor of three years, at a fixed rate of 3.5 per cent per annum for the tenor
of the deposit.
v. Also,
RBI relaxed norms for banks and allowed them to raise capital abroad to the
tune of 100 per cent of their Tier I (equity) capital. The rupee had plunged to
life-time low of 68.85 against the dollar on August 28 but has recovered
substantially. It was trading around 61.58 to a dollar.
vi. As
regards the CAD, it is likely to be better than the initial estimate of 3.7 per
cent of GDP or USD 70 billion in the current fiscal due to slump in gold
imports and improvement in merchandise exports.
3. Moscow
hosted the 14th India-Russia Annual Summit
i. Moscow, the Capital of
Russia hosted the 14th India-Russia Annual Summit on 21 October 2013. Prime
Minister of India Manmohan Singh and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin
co-chaired the summit.
ii. During the summit
both nations discussed priority areas of bilateral cooperation on current
international and regional issues. Both nations emphasised their continued
commitment to promote and strengthen their special and privileged strategic
partnership.
iii.
India
and Russia signed many bilateral Documents including transfer of Sentenced
Persons, in the Field of Energy Efficiency, in the field of Standardization and
Conformity Assessment between Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Federal
Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology, in the Fields of Science and in
the area of Biotechnology during the summit.
4. GAIL
inks pact for city gas network in Bihar
i. GAIL India Ltd on
Wednesday signed an agreement for development of natural gas infrastructure and
city gas network in Bihar.
ii. GAIL signed a Gas
Cooperation Agreement (GCA) with the Department of Industries, Government of
Bihar, the company said in a statement here.
iii.
The
agreement was signed in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and
GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B.C. Tripathi in Patna.
iv.
GAIL
is laying a 2,050 kilometre gas pipeline from Haldia in West Bengal to
Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh, of which about 621 km will pass through 14
districts of Bihar.
v. The mainline will
cover four districts of Kaimur, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Gaya while another 10
districts will be covered by spur lines
vi.
The
company had in the past signed similar agreements with States, such as West
Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
vii.
GAIL
will explore the possibility of selling CNG to automobile and piped natural gas
to households in major towns of Bihar along this pipeline route. It will
undertake an assessment of gas demand in the State and study techno-economic
feasibility for use of gas in industrial, commercial, transport and residential
sectors.
5. Canara
Bank signs MoU with CII for credit access to MSMEs
i.Canara Bank today said it has signed a
MoU with industry body CII to facilitate cheaper credit access to micro, small
and medium enterprises.
ii. Under the MoU, Canara Bank shall extend
a concessional credit of 50 basis points on the applicable card rate of
interest to MSME units which are members of CII.
iii. Besides, rebate of 50
per cent in the processing or upfront fee will also be given to the unit
owners, Canara Bank Executive Director P S Rawat told reporters here.
iv. The MoU was signed by R Madhusudan
General Manager (MSME wing) on behalf of Canara Bank and Raman Saluja, Chairman
Regional Committee on MSMEs, CII (Northern region).
v. Stating that the bank would focus on
lending to MSME sector, Rawat said Canara bank is targeting over 24 per cent
growth in advances to micro, small and medium enterprises with lending of Rs
50,000 crore in 2013-14 as against financing of Rs 37,000 crore in last fiscal.
vi. MSMEs have a very high demand for finance, a large
part of which is not met, particularly to finance their growth.
vii. There is a total financial requirement of Rs 32.50
lakh crore in MSME sector comprising Rs 26 lakh crore of debt demand,” said the
report.
6. HDFC
Bank launches overseas bond sale
i. The country’s second
largest private sector lender HDFC Bank today hit the foreign bond market with
benchmark US dollar issue as part of the bank’s $2-billion medium-term bond
sale programme.
ii. Accessing of the
overseas bond market by domestic companies and financial institutions had
almost dried up completely since May and the HDFC Bank’s programme indicates
revival of this cheap source of funds.
iii. Confirming the
development, HDFC Bank’s treasurer Ashish Parthasarathy told PTI that the bank
has not set a quantum of the money it is planning to raise.
iv. The shares of HDFC
Bank, which missed for the first time over 30 per cent rise in net profit in
the September quarter with a 27 per cent jump in net income, command the
highest premium amongst the global banking stocks.
7. Bank
Internasional Indonesia re-enters India after 5 years
i. Bank Internasional
Indonesia (BII) marked its re-entry into India after five years by opening a
branch in Mumbai. The bank was operational in India from 1996 to 2008.
ii. In 2008, BII was
bought over by Malaysia-based Maybank, which holds 88 per cent in BII. The
foreign bank’s India operations became inactive after 2008.
iii. Rahardja Alimhamzah,
Managing Director, BII, said: “India is too big a market to miss…growing
presence of investment and trade opportunities between Asean countries will be
a sound long-term investment for us.”
iv. Starting with a
capital base of $28 billion and 18 employees, the foreign bank’s single Mumbai
branch will focus on the corporate and commercial banking segment and will
actively participate in buyers credit (BC) and external commercial borrowing
(ECB) arrangements for Indian customers.
8. India
Post Released Postage Stamp on the Golden Jubilee of Bhakra Dam
i. India Post on 22 October
2013 released a commemorative postage stamp on the Golden Jubilee of Bhakra Dam.
ii. A two-inch stamp
marking the 50th anniversary of Bhakra Dam was released in Nangal by
Union minister of water resources Harish Rawat. The dam was dedicated to the
nation by the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru on 22nd October in 1963.
iii.
India
Post earlier issued a commemorative postage stamp on Bhakra Dam on 15th Dec
1988 on its silver jubilee. Bhakra dam is the first structure in India which
will have two commemorative postal stamps in its name.
9.
SBI to get Rs 2000 cr as part of Rs 14K cr banks fund
infusion
i. The Finance Ministry on Wednesday decided to pump in Rs 2,000 crore in
State Bank of India and Rs 1,800 crore each in IDBI Bank and Central Bank of
India as part of the Rs 14,000 crore capital infusion plan for the current
fiscal.
ii. "SBI is
getting Rs 2,000 crore. Bigger banks are getting more," Financial Services
Secretary Rajiv Takru said.
iii. Besides
the capital support from the government, public sector banks have the headroom
to raise Rs 10,000 crore from the market though rights issue, Qualified
Institutional Placement (QIP) or follow-on public offer without diluting
existing government stake.
iv. "Other
than this, banks board could take decisions on how they want to raise
additional equity. They have there options, they have rights issue, they have
QIP option they have FPO option.
v. The
second round of capital infusion may come in the fourth quarter of the current
fiscal depending upon banks' requirements.
vi. It
could be Rs 1,500 crore, Rs 1,600 crore and Rs 1,700 crore." The SBI board
would take a call on the QIP route. SBI board is meeting on October 30, he
added.
10. India's FY'14 GDP
growth to be 4.9 pc: Report
i. India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) expects India's GDP growth to
remain sluggish at 4.9 per cent in the current financial year, due to a mix of
domestic and external factors.
ii. According to India Ratings, the country's agricultural
growth came to the rescue as without it, growth rate for this financial year
would have been much lower.
iii. Indian economy, which has been witnessing a growth
slowdown since FY'12, is expected to grow at 4.9 per cent in the current
financial year, well below its potential and last 10 years trend growth rate of
7.9 per cent, India Ratings said.
iv. the GDP growth during FY'14 would have been even
lower," it said and added that it expects the agricultural sector to grow
at 4.5 per cent in this fiscal as against 1.8 per cent in 2012-13.
v. However, industry remains a drag for the economic
growth. According to India Ratings, industrial growth in FY'14 is likely to be
2.2 per cent, lower than 3.1 per cent recorded in FY'13.
vi. India Ratings expects the sector's growth to slow
down to 6.3 per cent y-o-y in FY'14 from 6.6 per cent y-o-y in FY'13.
vii. As the largest sector of the economy, it has been
quite resilient in the past. Even during the year of global financial crisis
(FY'09), when the overall GDP growth of India fell down to 6.7 per cent, it
grew at 10 per cent," it said.
11. Lawrence R Klein, Nobel Prize Winning Economist Died
i. Lawrence R Klein, Nobel Prize winning economist died
on 20 October 2013 in Gladwyne, near Philadelphia.
ii. He was 93 years
old. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 14 September 1920.
iii. He studied at the
University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
iv. Then he joined the
Penn faculty in 1958. He developed the statistical models there known as the
Wharton Models which got him his Nobel Prize in 1980 in Economics.
v. In 1946, Klein correctly predicted that restricted
demand for consumer goods coupled with the purchasing power of returning
soldiers would protect against a depression. Klein also predicted correctly
that the end of the Korean War would result in a mild recession.
vi. Klein is survived by his wife Sonia, son Jonathan Klein and
daughters Hannah, Rebecca, and Rachel.
12. Aung
Suu Kyi Received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought
i. Aung Suu Kyi on 23
October 2013 received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought at Strasbourg,
France. She was chosen by the European Parliament in 1990.
ii. The Sakharov Prize
for Freedom of Thought announced by the European Parliament in 1990 when she
was under house arrest.
13. Spacecraft PSLV-C 25 scheduled for
launch on Nov 5
i. The India’s first spacecraft PSLV-C 25
is scheduled for launch on November 5th from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
ii. The take off is scheduled at 14.36 HRS. The ISRO
Director for Publicity D P Karnik has said that the integration of the
spacecraft with the launcher has been completed and the fuelling of the launch
vehicle will begin soon.
iii. The main objective of the Mars mission is to demonstrate
interplanetary launch capabilities of ISRO.
iv. The five scientific instruments on the spacecraft will
also look for presence of methane, giving indication to the presence of life
and take pictures of the red planet and study Martian environment. This will be
for the first time that ISRO will send a spacecraft out of the sphere of
influence of the earth.
14. Singer
Noel Harrison died, Aged 79
i. Singer Noel Harrison has
died at his home in Devon, aged 79 on 22 October 2013.
ii. He was best known
for recording the hit song The Windmills Of Your Mind on The Thomas Crown
Affair soundtrack.
iii. He was the son of
the actor Rex Harrison. It won best song at the 1968 Oscars and was later
covered by artists including Dusty Springfield. Harrison was born in London on
29 January 1934. His father’s name was Rex Harrison and his mother was Collette
Thomas.
iv. Noel Harrison spent
most of his life in America, as an actor and performer.
v. However he moved
back to the UK in the last decade to live in South Devon. He starred in the TV
series The Girl from UNCLE and
had chart hits with A Young Girl and Suzanne, by Leonard Cohen while he was living
in US.
