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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 23 October 2015

:: National ::

Andhra Pradesh’s new capital Amaravati

The foundation stone laying ceremony for the new Amaravati city, the greenfield capital of Andhra Pradesh, was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and other dignitaries.
Uddandararayunipalem of Thullur mandal in Guntur district is the home of Navyandhrapradesh, built across a green belt which is claimed to be the largest fertile land in the country.
Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Nirmala Sitaraman, AP and Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao were among those present on the occasion.
The Singapore government has prepared the master plans for the three-layered capital – seed capital, capital city and capital region.
Modi also promised support for the development of new state as promised in the AP Reorganisation Act which includes special assistance.
The city boasts a 17-km-long waterfront and is strategically placed between Guntur and Vijayawada.
The village is located about 40 kms from Vijayawada which is the commercial hub of the state.
Amidst mixed feelings of ownership and wailings by farmers who gave up their land for the capital formation, Amaravati is expected to have over 3.5 million jobs for 11 million people by 2035.
The greenfield capital region is expected to cater to population of about 14 million by 2050. In the next one decade, the new capital is expected to host over four million population and 1.8 million jobs.
It is expected to become a smart, green city on about 54,000 acres of 217.23 sqkm of land assembled, which is also a first time in the country such a large extent of land is pooled in a span of 60 days.
Post bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh has signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with industries for over Rs 1.2 lakh crore investments with 1.2 lakh jobs.
These include 18 MoUs for investing Rs 79034 crore in all sectors such as oil refinery, electronic, automobile, cements, textile, among other industrial hub.

:: India & world ::

Japan offers soft loan for bullet trains

In a bid to surpass competition from China and other countries keen to be part of the first bullet train project, Japan has offered financial support besides technology for India's ambitious rail project.
Japan has offered to finance Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor estimated to cost about Rs 90,000 crore at an interest rate of less than one per cent, sources in Railway Ministry said.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in its report submitted to the Railway Ministry has envisaged a reduction in the travel time on the 505-km long corridor between the two western cities to two hours from the existing period of over seven hours.
The bullet train is expected to run at speeds of around 300-350 km/hour.
Though there are many countries offering the high-speed technology for the bullet train project, it is Japan which is offering both technology and funding together, they said.

:: Business ::

RBI issues gold deposit norms

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday issued guidelines for the Gold Monetisation Scheme that allow banks to fix their own interest rates on gold deposits.
The RBI notification in this regard comes ahead of the formal launch of the scheme by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 November.
The gold deposit scheme is aimed at mobilising part of an estimated 20,000 tonnes of idle precious metal with households and institutions.
As per the guidelines, banks will be free to set interest rate on such deposit, and principal and interest of the deposit will be denominated in gold.
The interest will be credited in the deposit accounts on the respective due dates and will be withdrawable periodically or at maturity as per the terms of the deposit, it said.
"The designated banks will accept gold deposits under the Short Term (1-3 years) Bank Deposit (STBD) as well as Medium (5-7 years) and Long (12-15 years) Term Government Deposit Schemes.
While the former will be accepted by banks on their own account, the latter will be on behalf of Government of India," it said.
The short term bank deposits will attract applicable cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), it said.
However, it said, the stock of gold mobilised under the scheme by banks will count towards the general SLR requirement, a move that will provide additional capital to banks for lending towards productive sectors.
The CRR is the portion of the total deposits, which has to be kept with RBI in cash, while SLR is the portion of deposit compulsorily parked in government securities.

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:: Sports ::

Kohli’s 23rd: A century very different

A bitter run out and a 50 in a lost cause, Virat Kohli was not in great ODI space against South Africa with the calendar year 2015 proving to be his leanest year ever.
His last century had come eight months back and the criticism that his bat was falling silent was quietly growing on him.
On Thursday afternoon, Virat played an uncharacteristic knock, deliberately and decidedly different from many of his specials.
His 138 on a sultry afternoon was a knock full of conscious calls, super safe approach and a runner’s delight.
Virat exhibited two shades of his batsmanship: one part dealt in playing smart cricket without really being boundary-hungry, the other part in the style he generally exhibits.