Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 August 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 24 August 2015

:: National ::

Make in India: shining

  • Government has received investment proposals totalling Rs 90,000 crore in the last two months for electronicsmanufacturing in the country, with significant interest in making mobile phones by local and foreign firms.

  • India is already the fastest-growing smart phone market and it is now also becoming the fastest growing manufacturing destination of phones in the world,

  • Proposals worth about Rs 1.10 lakh crore have been received in the last 12 months from various companies for electronics manufacturing in the country under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS). Out of this, over 80% have materialised in the last two months itself.

:: International ::

Isis destroys ancient Palmyra temple

  • Islamic State militants are believed to have blown up the temple of Baal Shamin, one of the central jewels of the ancient desert city of Palmyra, days after they executed its elderly chief archaeologist.

  • Reports of the temple’s destruction, which emerged last night, fulfilled the worst fears of archaeologists and historians since the ancient site was overrun by Isis extremists in May.

:: Business ::

Chandrashekhar Ghosh's Bandhan in its commercial bank avtaar

  • Kolkata-based microfinance institution (MFI), Bandhan Financial Services formally converted itself into a full service commercial bank, thus becoming the latest private sector bank in the country.

  • Bandhan is one of the two entities, which were given full-service banking licences by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April, 2014, from a list of 25 aspirants that included big business houses. The other is IDFC.

  • The brand new Bandhan bank is hitting the ground running with an initial loan book of Rs 10,500 crore, 501 branches, over 10 million customers and a net worth of Rs 2,570 crore.

  • Going by the size of the loan book, on the first day of its operations itself, Bandhan bank will overtake some of the existing private sector banks such as DCB, Catholic Syrian and Dhanlaxmi.

  • RBI couldn’t have chosen a better candidate than Bandhan while awarding licences to the third set of private banks in India with the primary objective of promotion of financial inclusion.

  • In the previous two rounds, when the RBI gave permits the major aim was to introduce competition in the banking sector, dominated by public-sector banks (PSBs).

  • There aren’t too many like Bandhan’s founder Chandrashekhar Ghosh, who understands the true sense of financial inclusion in a country, where half of the adult population is still unbanked.

  • Ghosh, who have started as a filed worker in the microfinance business, has tremendous experience in finding a business model in the low-income customer segment.

  • For most existing private sector banks, financial inclusion has remained an activity forced by regulation than commitment or a viable business proposition.

Investors lose over 7 lakh cr. (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Usain Bolt retains World Championship title

  • Usain Bolt once again produced his best when it mattered most to retain his 100 metres world title and reassert his status as the number one sprinter on the planet at a rocking Bird's Nest Stadium on Sunday night.

  • The Jamaican had struggled for form and fitness all season, stumbled his way through the semi-finals and got nowhere close to the times that his rival Justin Gatlin had been posting.

  • Back at the arena where he first exploded onto the world stage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, however, Bolt surged past the in-form American over the last 30 metres and crossed the line in 9.79 seconds, his fastest run of the year.

England lost final Ashes test

  • Alastair Cook made a call to arms prior to the fifth Ashes Test but the skipper admits England phoned it in during the dead rubber.

  • Cook contacted teammates from his family farm between the fourth and fifth Tests, the squad having dispersed after taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-Test series.

  • He implored the side to be ruthless in the series finale, highlighting the way Australia never took their foot off the throat in winning the previous series 5-0.

  • They failed to bowl well after Cook sent Australia in at The Oval then lost seven wickets in a session and were asked to follow-on.

U Mumba win pro kabaddi league (Register and Login to read Full News..) 

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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