Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 20 August 2015

:: National ::

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave approval in principle for 11 entities on Wednesday to set up payments banks.
They are India Post, Reliance Industries Ltd., Aditya Birla Nuvo, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, National Securities Depository Ltd., Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd., Vodafone m-pesa Ltd., Cholamandalam Distribution Services Ltd., Fino PayTech Ltd. and Paytm.
Payments banks will take deposits and remittances, but will not advance loans. In its previous bi-monthly monetary policy, the RBI said the names of the entities would be announced in August. An external advisory committee, which submitted its report on July 6, selected them.
However, as this is the first time, the central bank said, “It would be difficult at this stage to forecast the most successful likely model in the emerging business of payments.”

Country's largest lender State Bank of India on Thursday expressed concerns about giving fresh loans to accounts which have become non performing assets(NPA) and said the banks do not have any incentive by doing so.
Listing reasons, Bhattacharya said, "One, you will be actually bloating up your NPA numbers further by giving it more money. Second, if you look at the PSBs and the kind of questioning they have to go through — If it is NPA, why did you give it more money? What is the reason you have given money?"
While speaking on bad loans at the same event, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that NPAs are largely an accounting issue.

The global e-commerce industry generates over $1.2 million (around Rs 8 crore) every 30 seconds, with a major chunk of the sector’s revenue being cornered through social media, says a joint study by Assocham-Deloitte.
Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter contribute $5,483 (Rs 3.57 lakh) $4,504 (Rs 2.94 lakh) and $4,308 (Rs 2.81 lakh) respectively every half-a-minute to the figure.
The study report added that the maturity of social media and its reach across masses and classes makes it a suitable platform for online sales.
Social media pages provide information regarding new products in the market, user reviews and ratings of the product, recommendations and IT products, it said.

Engineer-turned-bureaucrat Ashwani Lohani has been appointed as the chairman and managing director of national carrier Air India. Mr Lohani will have a fixed tenure of three years as Air India boss.
Mr Lohani replaces Rohit Nandan, whose extended tenure ends on Friday.
A 1980 batch Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) officer, Mr Lohani is currently posted as managing director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation.
Air India, which controls close to a fifth of India's domestic air travel market, has been losing money for years and has long been criticized for its high costs.
Last month, the finance ministry said it will provide an additional funding of Rs. 800 crore for the ailing airline. Air India was allocated Rs. 2,500 crore in this year's Budget.

Anirban Lahiri created history for Indian golf on Sunday, finishing tied 5th at the PGA Championship. The Bangalore golfer's 5th place finish is the best performance by an Indian golfer at a Major, eclipsing Jeev Milkha Singh's Tied 9th finish at the PGA Championship in 2008.
Anirban in fact played all four Majors this year and his stint at the PGA capped a dream year that saw him win 2 European Tour events. We spoke to Gaurav Ghei, a three-time winner on the Asian Tour and the 1st Indian to participate in a Major in 1997 about the magnitude of Anirban's achievement and what this means for Indian golf