Monetary Policy and Current Affairs of August - 2010

First Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2010-11:

Monetary policy is the process by which the government, central bank of a country controls (i) the supply of money, (ii) availability of money, and (iii)cost of money or rate of interest, in order to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy.

As expected, RBI has raised the policy rates in the first quarter review of monetary policy on 27-07-2010. This is the fourth rate hike since March this year raising the Repo by a total of 100 bps and Reverse Repo by 125 bps.

Highlights of the policy:

·        Repo rates hiked by 25 bps to 5.75% with immediate effect.

·        Reverse Repo rates hiked by 50 bps to 4.50% with immediate effect.

·        CRR, SLR and Bank rate kept unchanged at 6%, 25% and 6%, respectively.

·        Estimated for GDP growth for 2010-11 revised to 8.5% from 8%.

·        Inflation projection for March 2010 increased to 6% from 5.5%.

The next mid-quarter review of Monetary Policy for 2010-11 will be announced through a press release on September 16, 2010.

The second quarter review of Monetary Policy 2010-11, including developmental and regulatory policies, is scheduled on November 2, 2010.

August Current Affairs:

·        China has eclipsed Japan as the world's second-biggest economy after three decades of blistering growth that put overtaking the U.S. in reach within 10 years.

·        Former Union Power Secretary Harishankar Brahma has been appointed as the Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India.

·        Britain’s Andy Murray won the 2010 Rogers Cup over Roger Federer 7–5, 7–5 on Sunday in Toronto.

·        The President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil this evening conferred the prestigious Best Parliamentarian Awards to Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Mohan Singh and Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi at an impressive function in the Central Hall of Parliament. The Awards were given for the year 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively for their outstanding contributions to parliamentary debates.

·        Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's book, "Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian", which was released by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

·        The Centre cleared for implementation the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls — known as ‘Sabla' — aimed at enhancing their nutritional and economic status. The scheme will be run along with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) project in anganwadi centres in 200 select districts, targeting girls in the age group 11-18.

·        Senior IPS officer R K Medhekar will be the new Director General of elite commando force -- National Security Guard. Medhekar, a 1975 batch officer of Kerala cadre, currently serving as Special Director General of Border Security Force. He will take over from 1972 batch IPS officer N P S Aulakh.

·        Vineet Jain, Managing Director, The Times of India (TOI) Group, has been elected as the new chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI), the leading news agency of India. Jain succeeds Vjiay Kumar Chopra, Editor, Punjab Kesari Group.

·        Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh launched the Green Action for National Dandi Heritage Initiative(GANDHI) project in the historic coastal village in south Gujarat. It was at Dandi that Mahatma Gandhi launched his salt Satyagraha 80 years ago.

·        The postal department released a stamp(of Rs.5) in Visakhapatnam to commemorate the first death anniversary of the former chief minister late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

Quiz on General Knowledge 74 - 2010

1.      Omar al-Bashir, the only world leader facing an international arrest warrant, was sworn in as _______________?

a)President of Egypt      b)Prime Minister of Sudan      c)Prime Minister of Egypt    d)President of Sudan    e)none

2.      From which country India is buying C-17 Globemaster III strategic-lift aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a deal worth $5.8 billion?

a)US      b)Israel     c)Russia     d)France     e)none

3.      Which of the following country has played the most number of One-day International (ODI) matches?

a)Australia      b)India     c)England     d)West Indies     e)none

4.      Which of the following ministry has announced a financial assistance of Rs 95 lakh for about 19,000 rubber growers in the country during the current financial year?

a)Ministry of Commerce and Industry

b)Ministry of Agriculture

c)Ministry of Finance

d)Ministry of External Affairs

e)none

5.      Who won the 2010 Abel Prize(often been described as the "mathematician's Nobel" prize) presented annually by the King of Norway for his vast and lasting impact on the theory of numbers?

a)Mikhail Gromov     b)Jacques Tits     c)John Tate     d)Jean-Pierre Serre     e)none

6.      Which Country is planning to work with Rajasthan in cooperation with the local authorities on issues like water quality and agriculture?

a)Israel      b)UK     c)Russia     d)US    e)none

7.      Who has been appointed as the next head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)?

a)Yvo de boer     b)R K Pachauri       c)Christiana Figueres     d)Kofi Annan    e)none

8.      Fiscal deficit pegged at ____ percent of GDP during 2009-10?

a)6.0%      b)6.6%      c)6.9%      d)6.3%     e)none

9.      According to the Worldwide Quality of Living survey 2010, which of the following city placed best among Indian cities in the global list at 140th rank?

a)Delhi      b)Mysore      c)Bangalore      d)Mumbai    e)none

10. Who has been sworn in as President of Germany?

a)Angela Merkel     b)Horst Kohler     c)Johannes Rau    d)Christian Wulff    e)none

11. Which of the following state has come under President’s rule recently?

a)Uttarakhand     b)Chhattisgarh     c)Meghalaya    d)Jharkhand     e)none

12. Who is the Chairman of the committee formed by RBI to review the services rendered to retail and small customers by banks and their Ombudsman scheme for addressing grievances?

a)M Damodaran        )M V Nair      c)M S Sundar Rajan     d)O P Bhatt    e)none

13. Which state will host the International Literature festival?

a)Kerala      b)Gujarat     c)Rajasthan     d)Andhra Pradesh     e)none

14. Which Country is the World’s largest consumer of oil?

a)China      b)India     c)Russia     d)Japan    e)US

15. Who is the new chairman of the Indian Banks Association (IBA)?

a)M V Nair     b)C S Reddy      c)O P Bhatt     d)Y V Reddy     e)none

16. Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India and signed seven pacts to boost bilateral cooperation across a range of areas, including security, power, railways and cultural exchange. He was the _________?

a)Prime Minister of Srilanka

b)President of Maldives

c)Prime Minister of Malyasia

d)President of Srilanka

e)none

17. Who is the author of the book ‘Grandmother’s Tale’?

a)R K Laxman     b)Salman Rushdie      c)Arundhati Roy     d)Shashi Tharoor     e)R K Narayan

18. Which state will provide free Education and books to students of classes I-VII in government schools?

a)Tamilnadu     b)Rajasthan     c)Andhra Pradesh    d)Gujarat    e)none

19. Which of the following is the World’s biggest bank in terms of market capital and brand value, compiled by brand directory?

a)Bank of America      b)Citi Bank     c)HSBC     d)J P Morgan    e)SBI

20. Which of the following term is not related to banking and finance?

a)Private Equity    b)broker     c)mortgage     d)Annuity     e)All are related 

General Awareness Quiz 2010 - 70

1.      The Union ministry of information & broadcasting has constituted a committee to review existing television rating point system (TRP) in India. Who is the head of the committee?

a)Rajiv Mehrotra    b)Neeraja Choudhary    c)D S Mathur    d)Amit Mitra    e)none

2.      With which country India has signed an agreement for Rs 10,500 crore official development assistance (ODA)?

a)US     b)France      c)Japan    d)UK     e)Germany

3.      According to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), India is the ____ most eco-friendly nation with the best pollution control measures and natural resource management?

a)88^th     b)123^rd      c)134^th     d)143^rd     e)none

4.      Who won the Saraswati Samman 2009 award?

a)Naiyer Masud     b)Lakshmi Nandan Bora     c)Jagannath Prasad Das    d)Surjit Paatar    e)none

5.      Girija Prasad Koirala has passed away. He was the former ______________?

a)President of Nepal

b)President of Bangladesh

c)Prime Minister of England

d)Prime Minister of Bangladesh

e)none(Prime Minister of Nepal)

6.      Which state in India is the largest producer of cotton?

a)Maharashtra     b)Haryana      c)Gujarat     d)Andhra Pradesh    e)none

7.      What is the slogan of Census 2011?

a)Our Country, Our Future

b)Our Census, Our Future

c)Our Country, Our Census

d)Our Country, Our Population

e)none

8.      Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has recently passed away. Who is he?

a)Former President of India

b)Former Vice President of India

c)Former Prime Minister of India

d)Both a & b

e)none

9.      The Fourteenth G-15 summit was held in _________?

a)Cuba     b)Indonesia     c)Egypt     d)Iran    e)Srilanka

10. In which party, popular South Indian actress Khushboo joined politics in may 2010?

a)Congress     b)DMK     c)MDMK    d)AIADMK     e)none

11. Government is planning to provide education loans at _____ percent interest rate to help students from weaker sections of society to pursue higher studies?

a)1%     b)2%     c)3%      d)4%    e)none

12. Deandra Dottin scored the first century in a 2010 women's Twenty20 World Cup held in West Indies. He plays for which country?

a)West Indies    b)England     c)South Africa    d)New Zealand    e)none

13. World Press Freedom day is observed on?

a)April 3^rd    b)May 3^rd     c)June 3^rd     d)July 3^rd     e)none

14. Which state in India to launch country’s first mobile lok adalat to reach specifically rural poor to settle litigations at their doorstep without any cost to them?

a)Kerala    b)Gujarat     c)Tamilnadu     d)Maharashtra    e)Andhra Pradesh

15. Which Indian state had become the first state in the entire Asian sub-continent to pay for the procurement of plastic waste?

a)Andhra Pradesh     b)Uttar Pradesh     c)Himachal Pradesh    d)Arunachal Pradesh    e)none

16. According to a list compiled by the Forbes magazine, which Indian city has been named among the world's top ten billionaire cities?

a)Delhi     b)Bangalore      c)Pune     d)Mumbai    e)none

17. Which of the following has become India's First state to be declared as "Smoke Free State" on World No Tobacco day?

a)Uttaranchal      b)Kerala     c)Gujarat     d)Assam    e)Sikkim

18. Who among the following is India’s highest individual taxpayer?

a)Asim Ghosh    b)Mukhesh Ambani     c)Analjit Singh     d)Indrani Patnaik    e)none

19. How many teams are participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup?

a)8     b)12     c)16     d)24    e)32

20. India announced a target of constructing _____km of road per day in the country in order to fill in the road infrastructure deficit.

a)20km     b)30km     c)15km     d)10km    e)none

Current Affairs May 2010 - II

·        Defending champions India and South Korea were declared joint winners of the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament as the summit clash between the two teams was called off due to rain.

·        State-owned SAIL is mulling over setting up a steel project, at an estimated cost of Rs 60,000 crore, in Jharkhand.(Go for Current Affairs - I)

·        India's top industrialist and Chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata has received the 2010 CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award for his outstanding global leadership, vision and professional excellence.

·        The UPA government has received seven points out of ten for its performance from India Inc from a majority of the 500 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), surveyed by industry chamber Assocham.

·        Dr Ratan Kumar Sinha, closely associated with the design and development of India's first thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, will be the new Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Sinha will take over from Dr S Banerjee, who had been holding the post of BARC director and Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

·        Aravane Rezai defeated Venus Williams to win Madrid title 2010.

·        Reliance Industries said it has entered into an agreement with Russia's leading petrochemical firm, SIBUR to form a joint venture in India to produce butyl rubber.

·        The government will consider a proposal for setting up the country's first financial services sector special economic zone (SEZ). Diversified corporate entity GMR Group has submitted a proposal to the Centre for setting up this international financial services-focussed SEZ in Hyderabad.

·        India and Russia will hold a joint military drill nicknamed Indra-2010 with the involvement of more than 150 Russian servicemen from the motorised mountain infantry brigade.

·        Haryana will soon have a large scale biogas plant and bottling facility for use in cooking, transport and fertilisers.

·        Chief Minister Narendra Modi claimed that Gujarat has merged as the number one state in agriculture growth in the country. According to him, two factors have helped the state in agriculture sector, irrigation through check dams and canals, and use of technology in the farm sector.

·        Australian schoolgirl sailor Jessica Watson sailed into history, becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop and without help.

·        In a bid to ward off fresh UN sanctions being pushed by the US, Iran announced it would ship 1,200 kgs of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in a nuclear fuel swap deal. Under the new deal, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, Iran will ship 1,200 kgs of uranium enriched to low levels to Turkey to trade it for fuel rods containing uranium enriched to higher levels.

·        Defence Minister A.K. Antony left for Oman on a two-day visit to reinforce India's bilateral security ties in the Gulf region where other major powers, including China, have deepened their strategic military cooperation.

·        National Dinosaur Fossil Park would be set up in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh where more than 100 dinosaur eggs, estimated to be more than 6.5 crore (65 million) years old.

·        Rima Fakih who belongs to Michigan, was crowned the new Miss USA 2010.

·        UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica to be the next head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

·        The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved immediate disbursement of USD 1.3 billion of financial assistance to Pakistan, as it noted that the country's vulnerability remains high.

·        Filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's National-award-winning film 'Antaheen' has been selected as the only Indian entry for competition in 13th Shanghai International Film Festival.

·        Underworld don and India's most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai bombings, figures third on the Forbes' Most Wanted list which has been topped by Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden. The list, carried in the latest edition of the Forbes magazine, also has Mexico's most powerful drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman in no.2.

Review of the Indian Economy 2009-10

Indian economy grew by 8.4 per cent in the last quarter(Q4) of 2009-10, pushing up the overall growth to a better-than expected 7.4 per cent. The 7.4 percent growth is also an upward revision from the earlier estimate of 7.2 percent.

The gross domestic product (GDP) was Rs 44,64,081 crore (at 2004-05 prices), bettering the earlier government estimate of 7.2 per cent growth over the previous year's Rs 41,54,973 crore.

Central Statistical Organization(CSO) has revised all the previous three quarters. The first quarter GDP was revised downwards to 6 per cent against 6.1 per cent estimated provisionally. While the second quarter saw growth at 8.6 per cent against provisional estimates of 7.9 per cent, third quarter GDP rose by 6.5 per cent against 6 per cent.

Why there is a revised growth rates in the previous quarters?

Normally there will be no change in the quarterly figures, unless the annual figure firms up. This time it was done because, the base year was changed to 2004-05 from 1999-2000 earlier. The first two quarters Q1, Q2 of GDP were released on the basis of 1999-2000 base price, while the next two quarters Q3, Q4 were released on the basis of 2004-5 base price.

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 6.7 percent during 2008-09.

India’s Economic growth rates for the year 2008-09 and 2009-10:

	Industry	2008-09	2009-10
1.	Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	1.6%	0.2%
2.	Mining and Quarrying	1.6%	10.6%
3.	Manufacturing	3.2%	10.8%
4.	Electricity, Gas and water supply	3.9%	6.5%
5.	Construction	5.9%	6.5%
6.	Trade, Transport and Telecom	7.6%	9.3%
7.	Finance, Insurance and Real Estate	10.1%	9.7%
8.	Community, social and personal services	13.9%	5.6%
9.	GDP at factor cost	6.7%	7.4%

Per Capita Income:

The per capita income at current prices during 2009-10 is estimated to attain a level of

Rs. 44,345 as compared to the Quick Estimates for the year 2008-09 of Rs. 40,141, showing a rise of 10.5 per cent.

The per capita net national income in real terms (at 2004-05 prices) during 2009-10 is

estimated to attain a level of Rs. 33,588 (as against Rs. 33,540 estimated on 8th February,2010), as compared to the Quick Estimates for the year 2008-09 of Rs. 31,821. The growth rate in per capita income is estimated at 5.6 per cent during 2009-10.

Inputs: CSO.