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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 20 August 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 20 August 2015

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.”

Greece received the first 13 billion euro ($14.5 billion) payment of its new bailout onThursday, with 12 billion euros earmarked for repaying debts and the remainder for settling arrears to public sector suppliers.
Athens was using the funds to repay a 3.2 billion euro ($3.5 billion) debt installment due on Thursday to the European Central Bank, an amount it could not have afforded to repay without the bailout from 18 other European nations that share the euro currency with Greece.
European bailout fund supervisors approved the release Wednesday evening.
Without the rescue loans Greece’s third bailout in little more than five years, the country would have defaulted on its debts and faced being forced out of the Eurozone.
The new three-year bailout is worth 86 billion euros ($95.6 billion), and the disbursement of funds is dependent on the Greek government implementing a series of reforms, including steep tax hikes and spending cuts.
Tsipras has been contemplating his options after a parliament vote to approve the bailout conditions led to dozens of his own party lawmakers voting against him. Among the options being discussed are for him to call a vote of confidence in his government or to call an early election, potentially in September.
The government has said its main priority was to secure the bailout funding and the repayment of the ECB loan on Thursday, after which it would announce any further action.

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.

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