National Affairs
India signs $10-billion worth deals with U.S.
Taking India-U.S. trade relations to new territory, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that deals worth $10 billion (nearly Rs.44,000 crore) have been reached between India and the U.S. for creating more than 50,000 jobs back in the U.S.
The Obama administration is confident that the unfolding Indian growth story means huge business for American firms and jobs for the unemployed.
The Obama administration’s target to double exports to India in the next five years is projected to create more than 10 million jobs.Given the fact that nearly 15 million Americans remained jobless in October, according to US Department of Labour.
India is the second fastest growing investor in US after UAE.
Among the deals, SpiceJet has purchased 30 737-800 aircraft with a total cost of $2.8 billion from Boeing and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group purchased power equipment for 2,400 MW plants from GE for $2 billion.
Ivanov to head India-Russia panel
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has been appointed to head the Russian part of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) for trade, economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation.
As Russia's Defence Minister in 2001-2007, he co-chaired the IRIGC for military-technical cooperation and helped formulate Russia's arms export strategy, which calls for the supply of the most cutting-edge defence technologies to India, while exercising extreme discretion in selling weapons to China.
India elected to key U.N. panel
India has been elected to a key committee that controls the purse strings of the United Nations, which has an annual budget of nearly $22 billion.
Namgya Khampa, serving in the Indian mission to the U.N., was elected to the 16-member Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for a three-year term.
ACABQ performs several functions including the examination of the budget submitted by the U.N. Secretary-General to the General Assembly and advising the Assembly on administrative and budgetary matters referred to it.
New scheme to protect child rights in Naxal-affected areas
In an effort to protect the rights of children in areas of civil unrest -- including those affected by Maoists, the central government has approved a special scheme which will be implemented in five states on a pilot project basis
The scheme, called the Bal Bandhu scheme, will be implemented in ten districts in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has come up with the Bal Bandhu scheme aims to protect the rights of children in areas of civil unrest.
NCPCR is expected to implement the scheme simultaneously in all 10 districts (one block in each district) in the first year with the objective to intervene in 10 districts in five states in areas of civil unrest with the mandate to protect children’s rights, focussing attention on mobilisation of communities through trained local youth volunteers or ‘bal bandhu’ who will act as child defenders.
The Commission will establish an advisory committee with representation from the ministries of women and child development, home affairs, PMO and NCPCR to review and monitor the programme.
India’s first South Pole expedition on climate
India’s first national expedition to the South Pole to study climate change patterns over the past few hundred years will be beginning on November 1.
*First man reached the South Pole in 1911.
Being led by Dr Rasik Ravindra, 62, this is the first time that India is leading a 40-day expedition to the South Pole. The team will leave for Maitri, India’s second permanent research station in Antarctica, and will be back in mid-December.
The eight-member expedition team will bring samples, which will give vital information about climate change that has taken place in the last thousands of years.
Panel to study PPP model in power distribution
Planning Commission announced constitution of an expert group headed by B. K. Chaturvedi, who looks after the power sector, on facilitation of public private partnership (PPP) in power distribution. This has been formed to give a push for new reforms in the power sector. The committee, which would include chief secretaries and power secretaries of States, will also have representation from two financial institutions.
After working out the various modalities on how PPP can be promoted in the distribution segment, the group would submit a report to the Central Government.
8 Indian States have 421 million multidimensionally poor people
Eight Indian States are home to 421 million multidimensionally poor people, more than the figure of 410 million in 26 poorest African countries.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index — which identifies serious simultaneous deprivations in health, education and income at the household level in 104 countries — brought out in the latest United Nations Human Development Report has calculated that South Asia is home to half of the world's multi-dimensionally poor population, or 844 million people.
In Delhi, the rate is close to Iraq and Vietnam's (about 14 per cent), while that of Bihar is similar to Sierra Leon and Guinea's (about 81 per cent).
*The Indian States include Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, often referred to as the BIMARU States.
Barack Obama will be the first person to sign a new Golden Book
United States President Barack Obama will be the first person to sign a new Golden Book kept for distinguished guests visiting Parliament.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has introduced this book, bound in khadi silk with a golden emblem of Parliament.
Sonia, Tata in Forbes' list of 68 people “who matter”
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata are among the five Indians named among the most powerful people in the world in Forbes' list this year of 68 people “who matter.”
India's business tycoons Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and steel giant ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal also make this year's list.
Ms. Gandhi debuts at the 9th spot in this year's list of the world's most powerful people. Mr. Ambani, who has a net worth of $29 billion, comes in at the 34th spot. Mr. Tata, having dropped two notches from last year, comes in at the 61st position in the list of the world's most powerful people.
Occupying the 44th spot is Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of the world's largest steel company ArcelorMittal. London's wealthiest resident, Mr. Mittal is sponsoring London's 2012 Olympic games, paying for most of a 400-foot twisting steel tower to be named ArcelorMittal Orbit at the city's Olympic Park.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has topped the 2010 Forbes list of the “World's Most Powerful People.”
For the top spot, Mr. Hu pipped United States President Barack Obama, who comes in at second place. Forbes' list picks 68 who matter, out of the 6.8 billion people on the planet.
India ranks 119 on human development index
Rapid economic growth of the past decade has ensured India a place among the top 10 movers on GDP growth, but the country ranks a low 119 among 169 countries on the 2010 Human Development Index .
China has been ranked much higher at 89 on the index published annually by the United Nations Development Programme.
India compares very poorly with countries with high level of human development on all indicators such as life expectancy, education and per capita income. For instance, life expectancy at birth is 64.4 years in India.
In comparison, people living in countries such as Norway, Australia, New Zealand and many countries across Europe are expected to live beyond 80 years. The world average is 69.3 years. The Chinese are expected to live about 73.5 years. Similarly, the number of years a person has spent in school is a dismal 4.4 years for India as compared to global average of 7.4 and 4.6 for South Asia.
Over 30 years beginning 1980, India’s HDI values has increased from 0.320 to 0.519, an increase of 62%. In the same period, life expectancy at birth increased almost 9%, mean years of schooling by close to three years, and expected years of schooling by four years and per capita Gross National Income (GNI) by 254%.
The report also includes three new measures: the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index that was released earlier this year, the Gender Inequality Index and the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index.
As per the inequality-adjusted index, India loses 30% of its HDI value when inequality is factored in
per Gender Inequality Index of 2010 Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme, India fares worse than Pakistan. In fact, the country ranks lower than all other countries in South Asia, save Afghanistan.
Maternal mortality in India is 450 deaths per 100,000 live births; the figure for Pakistan is 320
Cabinet approves Bill for women's protection at workplace
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, that ensures a safe environment for women at work place, both in the public and private sectors, in the organised and unorganised sectors.
Sexual harassment defined as ‘‘such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication)” as Physical contact & advances, Demand or request for sexual favours, Sexually coloured remarks
Showing pornography, Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature
1,500-horsepower FMBT to replace T-72 tanks beyond 2020
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is working on India's future main battle tank (FMBT) with a 1,500-horsepower (HP) indigenous engine. This tank will replace beyond 2020 the imported T-72 tanks, renamed Ajeya, with the Army.
The first prototype of the indigenous engine would be ready in four to five years.
Indigenous AWACS to be flight-tested by 2011
Even as the Indian Air Force (IAF) is likely to acquire the third Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) from Israel by December, India is in the process of developing nine home-grown, state-of-the-art versions and the first of them is expected to be flight-tested by the end of 2011
The delivery of these AWACS to the IAF would begin from 2015. They would be used for air defence, surveillance and network-centric operations.
.
International Affairs
U.K., France sign historic nuclear deal
Britain and France signed an unprecedented 50-year nuclear deal that would see them share nuclear facilities and jointly develop technology.
They also agreed to create a joint rapid reaction force of up to 5,000 troops deployable at short notice and to cooperate in a range of other defence-related areas.
This deal was aimed at making the citizens of the two countries safer and save money.
Dilma Rousseff - A former Marxist guerrilla is Brazil’s first woman president
A former Marxist guerrilla, Dilma Rousseff, who was tortured and imprisoned during Brazil’s long dictatorship was elected as president of Latin America’s biggest nation, a country in the midst of an economic and political rise.
she is the Brazil’s first female leader.
She will lead a nation on the rise, a country that will host the 2014 World Cup and that is expected to be the globe’s fifth-largest economy by the time it hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. It has also recently discovered huge oil reserves off its coast.
Medvedev's Kuril islands visit angers Japan
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made history on Monday becoming the first Russian leader to visit the Kuril archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and reassert Russia's sovereignty over the islands claimed by Japan.
Mr. Medvedev flew to Kunashir, one of four islands that Japan calls its Northern Territories, on the way back from Vietnam. He toured the island, telling its residents that Russia would invest heavily to develop the islands.
Japan demands the return of four sparsely populated islands in the Kuril archipelago, which Russia took under its control during World War II. In 1956 Russia agreed to hand back two of the islands but Japan rejected the compromise. Russia's new leadership has ruled out the return of any Kuril islands to Japan.
Nikki Haley elected Governor of U.S State
Daughter of Punjabi Sikh immigrants from Amritsar, Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley (38) has become the first Indian-origin woman, and second Indian-American after Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, to become the Governor of South Carolina .
Indian-American Kamala Harris won the election for Attorney-General of California. Ms. Harris will be the first woman to hold the office.
Fed to buy $600-b govt securities to bolster growth
USA Unveiled another stimulus to rejuvenate the sagging American economy as Federal Reserve will purchase U.S. government bonds worth $600 billion by June next year.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policy making body, plans to “purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion a month.
Economy, Banking and Finance
Reserve Bank tightens norms for home loans
The Reserve Bank of India hiked key policy rates — repo and reverse repo— by a modest 25 basis points (100 basis points=1%). Now it has made clear anyone applying for a housing loan from a bank will have to pay margin money of at least 20% of the value of the property.
This in effect means that you will have to shell out more from your own savings to buy that house you have been eyeing for a while. Earlier, this margin money varied between 10% and 15 %.
The central bank also increased the risk weightage of loans above Rs 75 lakh taken for buying property, which could increase the interest rates on loans for high-cost properties. This is being seen as a pre-emptive measure to rein in the possibility of the creation of an asset bubble and a sign that there could be overheating in the property market.
The RBI also increased the standard asset provisioning by commercial banks for all housing loans with teaser rates to two per cent “in view of the higher risk associated with such loans.”
Some banks are sanctioning housing loans at ‘teaser rates,' wherein the loans are offered at a comparatively lower rate of interest in the first few years, after which the rates are reset at higher levels
Coal India makes spectacular debut
Shares of state-run Coal India Limited made India's largest public offering of Rs. 15,200 crore and zoomed nearly 40 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Exports up 23 % in September
Exports posted an impressive 23.2 per cent growth in September recording a two-year high of $18.02 billion and imports grew even faster by 26.1 per cent to $27.14 billion in September. Merchandise exports stood at $14.6 billion in September.
The present rate of growth would ensure that India is able to achieve the export target of $200-billion for the current fiscal.
Direct tax collections exceed Rs. 2 lakh crore
With the economy showing robust growth, the Centre's net direct tax collections exceeded the Rs.2-lakh crore mark during the first seven months (April-October) this fiscal, marking a jump of about 18 per cent over the mop-up in the same period of 2009-10.
Net direct tax collections in the first seven months of the current fiscal stood at Rs.2.04 lakh crore as on October 31 (April-October, 2010) and Net direct tax collections during the April-October period last year stood at Rs.1.73 lakh crore.
BSNL offers free SIM for landline customers
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. announced a unique offer where its landline customers can now take a free SIM card and make unlimited free local calls to their landline numbers, besides being able to make calls at reduced call rates.
In the promotional ‘Pyari Jodi' offer, customers can also call two local BSNL numbers at a reduced rate of 20 paise a minute and one BSNL number anywhere in India at a reduced rate of 30 paise a minute, without paying any additional monthly charges. On activation, customers will also get Rs.15 talk value, 1,000 local and national SMS each, and 1GB data free.
Deaths
Former Russian PM Viktor Chernomyrdin dead
The former Prime Minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, who steered the Russian economy through its stormy transition from Communism to capitalism in the 1990s, died
President Boris Yeltsin appointed Mr. Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister at the end of 1992 and he stayed in the post till 1998, becoming the longest serving head of government in post-Soviet Russia. He took charge of the economy when it was in a nosedive triggered by incompetent “shock therapy” at the hands of radical reformers led by Yegor Gaidar. State finances were in disarray as oil plunged to $9 per barrel, annual inflation measured in thousands of percentage points and whole industries were grinding to a halt.
Mr. Chernomyrdin made his career in the gas industry, rising from a machine operator to the Oil and Gas Minister under Mikhail Gorbachev. As Prime Minister, Mr. Chernomyrdin resisted pressure from liberal radicals to split Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, turning it into Russia's most powerful weapon in relations with the West.
After Vladimir Putin became President, he appointed Mr. Chernomyrdin as Ambassador to Ukraine in 2001 and he remained in this post until last year.
Siddhartha Shankar Ray passes away
Former West Bengal Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray passed away. Mr. Ray was Governor of Punjab during the State's turbulent period in the 1990s. He also served as a Union Minister and as India's Ambassador to the U.S.
The world's oldest person, named Eugenie Blanchard, died aged 114 in the French West Indies.
Ms. Blanchard became the world's oldest person on May 4 after the death of Kama Chinen of Japan who passed away days before her 115th birthday.
Awards
Manu Joseph bags The Hindu Best Fiction Award 2010
Manu Joseph has bagged TheHindu Best Fiction Award 2010 for his debut novel ‘Serious Men’. The prize carries a cash prize of Rs.5 lakh and a plaque.
The award was instituted by TheHindu Literary Review as a prelude to celebrating its 20th year in 2011.
Sports
Mike Russell regains World crown
Mike Russell won his 10th World professional billiards title with a 1731-1204 victory over India's Dhruv Sitwala.
The Englishman who lives in Qatar has an additional three IBSF World titles taking his total World titles to 13.
More Current Affairs
Giant Hanuman statue at an altitude of 8,500 feet on the Jakhu Hills was unveiled in Shimla
India signs $10-billion worth deals with U.S.
Taking India-U.S. trade relations to new territory, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that deals worth $10 billion (nearly Rs.44,000 crore) have been reached between India and the U.S. for creating more than 50,000 jobs back in the U.S.
The Obama administration is confident that the unfolding Indian growth story means huge business for American firms and jobs for the unemployed.
The Obama administration’s target to double exports to India in the next five years is projected to create more than 10 million jobs.Given the fact that nearly 15 million Americans remained jobless in October, according to US Department of Labour.
India is the second fastest growing investor in US after UAE.
Among the deals, SpiceJet has purchased 30 737-800 aircraft with a total cost of $2.8 billion from Boeing and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group purchased power equipment for 2,400 MW plants from GE for $2 billion.
Ivanov to head India-Russia panel
As Russia's Defence Minister in 2001-2007, he co-chaired the IRIGC for military-technical cooperation and helped formulate Russia's arms export strategy, which calls for the supply of the most cutting-edge defence technologies to India, while exercising extreme discretion in selling weapons to China.
India elected to key U.N. panel
India has been elected to a key committee that controls the purse strings of the United Nations, which has an annual budget of nearly $22 billion.
Namgya Khampa, serving in the Indian mission to the U.N., was elected to the 16-member Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for a three-year term.
ACABQ performs several functions including the examination of the budget submitted by the U.N. Secretary-General to the General Assembly and advising the Assembly on administrative and budgetary matters referred to it.
New scheme to protect child rights in Naxal-affected areas
In an effort to protect the rights of children in areas of civil unrest -- including those affected by Maoists, the central government has approved a special scheme which will be implemented in five states on a pilot project basis
The scheme, called the Bal Bandhu scheme, will be implemented in ten districts in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has come up with the Bal Bandhu scheme aims to protect the rights of children in areas of civil unrest.
NCPCR is expected to implement the scheme simultaneously in all 10 districts (one block in each district) in the first year with the objective to intervene in 10 districts in five states in areas of civil unrest with the mandate to protect children’s rights, focussing attention on mobilisation of communities through trained local youth volunteers or ‘bal bandhu’ who will act as child defenders.
The Commission will establish an advisory committee with representation from the ministries of women and child development, home affairs, PMO and NCPCR to review and monitor the programme.
India’s first South Pole expedition on climate
India’s first national expedition to the South Pole to study climate change patterns over the past few hundred years will be beginning on November 1.
*First man reached the South Pole in 1911.
Being led by Dr Rasik Ravindra, 62, this is the first time that India is leading a 40-day expedition to the South Pole. The team will leave for Maitri, India’s second permanent research station in Antarctica, and will be back in mid-December.
The eight-member expedition team will bring samples, which will give vital information about climate change that has taken place in the last thousands of years.
Panel to study PPP model in power distribution
Planning Commission announced constitution of an expert group headed by B. K. Chaturvedi, who looks after the power sector, on facilitation of public private partnership (PPP) in power distribution. This has been formed to give a push for new reforms in the power sector. The committee, which would include chief secretaries and power secretaries of States, will also have representation from two financial institutions.
After working out the various modalities on how PPP can be promoted in the distribution segment, the group would submit a report to the Central Government.
8 Indian States have 421 million multidimensionally poor people
The Multidimensional Poverty Index — which identifies serious simultaneous deprivations in health, education and income at the household level in 104 countries — brought out in the latest United Nations Human Development Report has calculated that South Asia is home to half of the world's multi-dimensionally poor population, or 844 million people.
In Delhi, the rate is close to Iraq and Vietnam's (about 14 per cent), while that of Bihar is similar to Sierra Leon and Guinea's (about 81 per cent).
*The Indian States include Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, often referred to as the BIMARU States.
Barack Obama will be the first person to sign a new Golden Book
United States President Barack Obama will be the first person to sign a new Golden Book kept for distinguished guests visiting Parliament.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has introduced this book, bound in khadi silk with a golden emblem of Parliament.
Sonia, Tata in Forbes' list of 68 people “who matter”
India's business tycoons Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and steel giant ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal also make this year's list.
Ms. Gandhi debuts at the 9th spot in this year's list of the world's most powerful people. Mr. Ambani, who has a net worth of $29 billion, comes in at the 34th spot. Mr. Tata, having dropped two notches from last year, comes in at the 61st position in the list of the world's most powerful people.
Occupying the 44th spot is Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of the world's largest steel company ArcelorMittal. London's wealthiest resident, Mr. Mittal is sponsoring London's 2012 Olympic games, paying for most of a 400-foot twisting steel tower to be named ArcelorMittal Orbit at the city's Olympic Park.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has topped the 2010 Forbes list of the “World's Most Powerful People.”
For the top spot, Mr. Hu pipped United States President Barack Obama, who comes in at second place. Forbes' list picks 68 who matter, out of the 6.8 billion people on the planet.
India ranks 119 on human development index
China has been ranked much higher at 89 on the index published annually by the United Nations Development Programme.
India compares very poorly with countries with high level of human development on all indicators such as life expectancy, education and per capita income. For instance, life expectancy at birth is 64.4 years in India.
In comparison, people living in countries such as Norway, Australia, New Zealand and many countries across Europe are expected to live beyond 80 years. The world average is 69.3 years. The Chinese are expected to live about 73.5 years. Similarly, the number of years a person has spent in school is a dismal 4.4 years for India as compared to global average of 7.4 and 4.6 for South Asia.
Over 30 years beginning 1980, India’s HDI values has increased from 0.320 to 0.519, an increase of 62%. In the same period, life expectancy at birth increased almost 9%, mean years of schooling by close to three years, and expected years of schooling by four years and per capita Gross National Income (GNI) by 254%.
The report also includes three new measures: the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index that was released earlier this year, the Gender Inequality Index and the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index.
As per the inequality-adjusted index, India loses 30% of its HDI value when inequality is factored in
per Gender Inequality Index of 2010 Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme, India fares worse than Pakistan. In fact, the country ranks lower than all other countries in South Asia, save Afghanistan.
Maternal mortality in India is 450 deaths per 100,000 live births; the figure for Pakistan is 320
Cabinet approves Bill for women's protection at workplace
Sexual harassment defined as ‘‘such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication)” as Physical contact & advances, Demand or request for sexual favours, Sexually coloured remarks
Showing pornography, Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature
1,500-horsepower FMBT to replace T-72 tanks beyond 2020
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is working on India's future main battle tank (FMBT) with a 1,500-horsepower (HP) indigenous engine. This tank will replace beyond 2020 the imported T-72 tanks, renamed Ajeya, with the Army.
The first prototype of the indigenous engine would be ready in four to five years.
Indigenous AWACS to be flight-tested by 2011
Even as the Indian Air Force (IAF) is likely to acquire the third Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) from Israel by December, India is in the process of developing nine home-grown, state-of-the-art versions and the first of them is expected to be flight-tested by the end of 2011
The delivery of these AWACS to the IAF would begin from 2015. They would be used for air defence, surveillance and network-centric operations.
.
International Affairs
U.K., France sign historic nuclear deal
They also agreed to create a joint rapid reaction force of up to 5,000 troops deployable at short notice and to cooperate in a range of other defence-related areas.
This deal was aimed at making the citizens of the two countries safer and save money.
Dilma Rousseff - A former Marxist guerrilla is Brazil’s first woman president
she is the Brazil’s first female leader.
She will lead a nation on the rise, a country that will host the 2014 World Cup and that is expected to be the globe’s fifth-largest economy by the time it hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. It has also recently discovered huge oil reserves off its coast.
Medvedev's Kuril islands visit angers Japan
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made history on Monday becoming the first Russian leader to visit the Kuril archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and reassert Russia's sovereignty over the islands claimed by Japan.
Mr. Medvedev flew to Kunashir, one of four islands that Japan calls its Northern Territories, on the way back from Vietnam. He toured the island, telling its residents that Russia would invest heavily to develop the islands.
Japan demands the return of four sparsely populated islands in the Kuril archipelago, which Russia took under its control during World War II. In 1956 Russia agreed to hand back two of the islands but Japan rejected the compromise. Russia's new leadership has ruled out the return of any Kuril islands to Japan.
Nikki Haley elected Governor of U.S State
Indian-American Kamala Harris won the election for Attorney-General of California. Ms. Harris will be the first woman to hold the office.
Fed to buy $600-b govt securities to bolster growth
USA Unveiled another stimulus to rejuvenate the sagging American economy as Federal Reserve will purchase U.S. government bonds worth $600 billion by June next year.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policy making body, plans to “purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion a month.
Economy, Banking and Finance
Reserve Bank tightens norms for home loans
The Reserve Bank of India hiked key policy rates — repo and reverse repo— by a modest 25 basis points (100 basis points=1%). Now it has made clear anyone applying for a housing loan from a bank will have to pay margin money of at least 20% of the value of the property.
This in effect means that you will have to shell out more from your own savings to buy that house you have been eyeing for a while. Earlier, this margin money varied between 10% and 15 %.
The central bank also increased the risk weightage of loans above Rs 75 lakh taken for buying property, which could increase the interest rates on loans for high-cost properties. This is being seen as a pre-emptive measure to rein in the possibility of the creation of an asset bubble and a sign that there could be overheating in the property market.
The RBI also increased the standard asset provisioning by commercial banks for all housing loans with teaser rates to two per cent “in view of the higher risk associated with such loans.”
Some banks are sanctioning housing loans at ‘teaser rates,' wherein the loans are offered at a comparatively lower rate of interest in the first few years, after which the rates are reset at higher levels
Coal India makes spectacular debut
Shares of state-run Coal India Limited made India's largest public offering of Rs. 15,200 crore and zoomed nearly 40 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Exports up 23 % in September
Exports posted an impressive 23.2 per cent growth in September recording a two-year high of $18.02 billion and imports grew even faster by 26.1 per cent to $27.14 billion in September. Merchandise exports stood at $14.6 billion in September.
The present rate of growth would ensure that India is able to achieve the export target of $200-billion for the current fiscal.
Direct tax collections exceed Rs. 2 lakh crore
With the economy showing robust growth, the Centre's net direct tax collections exceeded the Rs.2-lakh crore mark during the first seven months (April-October) this fiscal, marking a jump of about 18 per cent over the mop-up in the same period of 2009-10.
Net direct tax collections in the first seven months of the current fiscal stood at Rs.2.04 lakh crore as on October 31 (April-October, 2010) and Net direct tax collections during the April-October period last year stood at Rs.1.73 lakh crore.
BSNL offers free SIM for landline customers
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. announced a unique offer where its landline customers can now take a free SIM card and make unlimited free local calls to their landline numbers, besides being able to make calls at reduced call rates.
In the promotional ‘Pyari Jodi' offer, customers can also call two local BSNL numbers at a reduced rate of 20 paise a minute and one BSNL number anywhere in India at a reduced rate of 30 paise a minute, without paying any additional monthly charges. On activation, customers will also get Rs.15 talk value, 1,000 local and national SMS each, and 1GB data free.
Deaths
Former Russian PM Viktor Chernomyrdin dead
President Boris Yeltsin appointed Mr. Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister at the end of 1992 and he stayed in the post till 1998, becoming the longest serving head of government in post-Soviet Russia. He took charge of the economy when it was in a nosedive triggered by incompetent “shock therapy” at the hands of radical reformers led by Yegor Gaidar. State finances were in disarray as oil plunged to $9 per barrel, annual inflation measured in thousands of percentage points and whole industries were grinding to a halt.
Mr. Chernomyrdin made his career in the gas industry, rising from a machine operator to the Oil and Gas Minister under Mikhail Gorbachev. As Prime Minister, Mr. Chernomyrdin resisted pressure from liberal radicals to split Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, turning it into Russia's most powerful weapon in relations with the West.
After Vladimir Putin became President, he appointed Mr. Chernomyrdin as Ambassador to Ukraine in 2001 and he remained in this post until last year.
Siddhartha Shankar Ray passes away
The world's oldest person, named Eugenie Blanchard, died aged 114 in the French West Indies.
Ms. Blanchard became the world's oldest person on May 4 after the death of Kama Chinen of Japan who passed away days before her 115th birthday.
Awards
Manu Joseph bags The Hindu Best Fiction Award 2010
The award was instituted by TheHindu Literary Review as a prelude to celebrating its 20th year in 2011.
Sports
Mike Russell regains World crown
Mike Russell won his 10th World professional billiards title with a 1731-1204 victory over India's Dhruv Sitwala.
The Englishman who lives in Qatar has an additional three IBSF World titles taking his total World titles to 13.
More Current Affairs
Giant Hanuman statue at an altitude of 8,500 feet on the Jakhu Hills was unveiled in Shimla
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Allahabd bank Specialist officer...........PNB MT.....and UNited PO results are out.
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