1) Which public-sector bank declared Kingfisher Airlines, its promoter Vijay Mallya and three directors as “wilful defaulters” on 1 September 2014, with which it became the first bank to make such a declaration against Mallya? – United Bank of India (UBI)
Explanation : Kolkata-based United Bank of India (UBI) is a part of the State Bank of India-led consortium to have financed Kingfisher and has an exposure of around Rs. 400 crore to it. A “wilful defaulter” tag means Mallya cannot be on the board of any company nor can he raise money from the public. He can also be subjected to criminal proceedings under Sections 403 and 425 of the IPC, dealing with misappropriation and fraud.
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2) The Law Ministry of India has opined that the Government of India has all the powers to print currency notes of Re. 1 denomination. Why the opinion of Law Ministry on this issue was taken? – The RBI was of the view that with the repeal of Section 2 of the Currency Ordinance, the Government of India is not empowered to issue note of denominational value of one rupee
Explanation: Section 4 of the Coinage Act of 2011 provides that the central government may authorise minting of coin of denomination not higher than Rs. 1,000. The definition of coin in the Act makes it clear that Government of India one rupee note is included in the definition of coin. The Law Ministry in its opinion stated that the Act, which consolidates the laws relating to coinage and the mints, does not bar the Government of India from printing one rupee notes. The printing of notes in the denominations of Re. 1 and Rs. 2 has been discontinued as these denominations have been coinised. However, such notes issued earlier are still in circulation.
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3) NIFTY, the 50-scrip benchmark index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) crossed which milestone mark for the first time on 1 September 2014? – 8,000 mark
Explanation : Nifty hit 8,000 level for the first time while Sensex hit a new high of 26,900 on 1 September mainly due to positive GDP growth figures released recently. The CSO had estimated 5.7% GDP growth rate during the first quarter of 2014-15, which is the best quarter performance since March 2012.
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4) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cancelled licences of five non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) on 2 September 2014. These NBFCs include Unichem Finance & Enterprises Pvt., Shimansu Vyaparik Kendra Ltd., Shree Bhagwati Marketing Private Ltd. and Sureka Teknik Private Limited. All these NBFCs are based in same city. Which city is this? – Kolkata
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5) The Competition Commission of India (CCI) during September 2014 initiated an investigation against public sector general insurers and their association. The PSU insurance companies against whom this investigation has been initiated include New India Insurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance and National Insurance, as well as their combine, the General Insurers’ (Public Sector) Association of India (GIPSA). What is the reason for this investigation? – Alleged anti-competitive practices relating to third-party administrators (TPAs) in health insurance committed by these companies
Explanation : The charges against these public general insurers are that they are not allowing TPAs to function independently and have created in-house TPAs to settle any claims. It is also alleged that GIPSA, an ad hoc and unregistered body, was providing a platform to the companies to share sensitive information with each other. This affects competition in the market and also provides space to them for exchanging information regarding claims ratios, marketing efforts and terms and condition of TPAs, among others.
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6) The Union Government during September 2014 asked Expenditure Management Commission (EMC) to suggest an effective strategy for meeting reasonable proportion of expenditure on services through user charges. The newly set up EMC will have to review the major areas of Central Government expenditure and suggest ways for creating fiscal space required to meet developmental expenditure needs. Who is heading EMC? – Bimal Jalan (former RBI Governor)
Explanation: Bimal Jalan, who has been conferred with the status of a Union Cabinet Minister, has been asked to design a framework to improve the operational efficiency of expenditures through focus on utilisation, targets and outcomes. Union govt. has asked the EMC to review the fiscal responsibility and budget management (FRBM) rules to suggest improvements for enforcing better fiscal discipline. The EMC, which will be headquartered in New Delhi, will have to submit an interim report before Budget 2015-16.
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7) India has been ranked third in a list of countries most affected by online banking malware during the April-June quarter of 2014 as announced by security solutions provider Trend Micro on 6 September 2014. Which country has been ranked first in this list? – Japan
Explanation: Japan topped the list with the highest number of online banking malware infections during the April-June quarter of 2014. In May alone, it saw 13,000 malware infections. Japan was followed by U.S. in this list which saw about 5,000 malware infections during the month, followed by India with 3,000 attacks. Growing Internet penetration and rising popularity of online banking have made India a favourite among cybercriminals, who target online financial transactions using malware. These and many such incidents show that cybercriminals will always adapt to new trends and situations whether in the use of new malware or targeted attacks techniques to continue their attacks.
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8) After being in business for seven years, Future Generali Life Insurance has reported its maiden quarterly profit during the quarter ended 30 June 2014. Future Generali Life Insurance is the part of which group? – Future Group
Explanation: Future Generali Life Insurance is life insurance venture between Kishore Biyani’s Future Group and Italian insurance company Generali.
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9) Barring a few, most of the life insurance companies have disclosed lower ‘persistency ratios’ for the first quarter of the current fiscal ended 30 June 2014 as also for the full financial year ended 31 March 2014. What is the reason for lower ‘persistency ratio’? – A new standardised disclosure regime put in place for insurance sector
Explanation: The persistency ratio broadly measures the quantum of the customer retention by the life insurance companies, while determining the percentage of policyholders paying renewal premiums at the end of one year, or more years depending on the tenure of the policy. However, persistency ratio has been one of the most abused financial metric by many insurers, who tend to disclose their best possible persistency ratios without following any standard formula or any specific time period. The insurance sector regulator IRDA earlier this year made changes in norms for such disclosures and put in place a standard formula to be followed by all companies in reporting their 13th month persistency ratios. An analysis of the disclosures made by various life insurers so far this year shows that there has been a marked decline in the high level of persistency reported earlier by many companies.
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10) What is the name of a deadly ‘Trojan’ virus which hacks and steals personal credit and debit card data and is prowling in the Indian cyberspace as announced on 3 September 2014 by Indian cyber security watchdog CERT-In? – “Backoff”
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Explanation : “Backoff” is being seen spreading through computer networks which use Windows as their operating systems. It targets Point of Sale (POS) systems and propagates by scanning for systems with remote desktop applications enabled. The virus is capable of stealing customer payment cards data like card holders name, account number, expiration data, CVV code among others from POS systems. The virus is so notorious that it is able to capture keystrokes and communicate with the command and control server for further hacking. CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team India) is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian Internet domain.
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