Current Affairs – October, 2017

Current Affairs Daily Digest: October 31, 2017

The Current Affairs Daily Digest for October 31, 2017 with important tid-bits on current affairs.

October 31: World Cities Day

The United Nations’s World Cities Day (WCD) is observed every year on October 31 to promote international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world. The theme selected for this year is “Innovative Governance, Open Cities”. It highlights important role of urbanization as a source of global development and social inclusion. The general theme of day is ‘Better City, Better Life’.

Y.C. Modi is new NIA Director-General

Senior IPS officer Yogesh Chander Modi took over as new Director-General of National Investigation Agency (NIA), country’s premier anti-terror organisation.  He succeeds Sharad Kumar. Mr Modi is a 1984-batch IPS officer  of Assam-Meghalaya cadre. Earlier he had worked with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for 10 years in two stints (2002-2010 and 2015-2017) where he handled special crime and economic offences besides anti-corruption cases. He has also worked with Cabinet Secretariat between 1991 and 2002 which included a foreign posting.

Neelamani N. Raju becomes Karnataka’s first woman police chief

Neelmani N. Raju was appointed as Karnataka’s first woman Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG and IGP). She will take over from Rupak Kumar Dutta, who is retiring from service. She is a 1983-batch IPS officer. She is second woman IPS officer to join the Karnataka cadre. She is native of Uttar Pradesh. She had served in Karnataka for 10 years before going on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau in 1993. She had served in IB for 23 years and in 2016, after reachingpost of joint director in IB, she returned to her home cadre as a DGP rank officer.

Heena Sidhu wins 10m air pistol gold medal at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships

Heena Sidhu won 10-metre air pistol gold medal at Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Brisbane, Australia. Sidhu shot combined score of 626.2 to claim the top honours. This was Sidhu’s second successive international gold after she along with Jitu Rai, had won 10-metre air pistol mixed team event in ISSF World Cup Finals in Delhi held in October 2017. Among other Indians, Deepak Kumar won a bronze medal in the 10-metre air rifle event. London Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang finished fourth, while Ravikumar ended fifth.

Government constitutes Alternative Mechanism Panel for PSBs consolidation

The Union Government has constituted Alternative Mechanism Panel headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to oversee merger proposals of public sector banks (PSBs). The other members of the panel include Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Key Facts

This alternative mechanism has been set up by the government to fast-track consolidation among public sector banks to create strong lenders. The mechanism will oversee the proposals coming from boards of PSBs for consolidation.

The decision comes after government had announced Rs. 2.11 trillion bank recapitalisation plan for public sector banks weighed down by bad loans, seeking to stimulate flow of credit to spur private investment. It was also announced that recapitalisation plan will be accompanied by series of banking reforms over next few months. The constitution of an Alternative Mechanism is move in that direction.

The Union cabinet in August 2017 had decided to set up Alternative Mechanism to fast-track PSU bank consolidation. More about alternative mechanism (fig)

Purpose of PSBs consolidation

The move to create large banks through consolidating PSBs aims at meeting credit needs of growing Indian economy and building capacity in PSB space to raise resources without dependence on the state exchequer. The banking entities formed after merging PSU banks will be able to absorb shocks.

Background

The idea of bank mergers was around since 1991, when former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor M. Narasimham had recommended the government merge banks into three-tiered structure, with three large banks with an international presence at top. In 2014, PJ Nayak Committee also had suggested that government either merge or privatize state-owned banks.

Significance of PSBs consolidation

• Reduce their dependence on government for capital.
• Open up more capital generation avenues, both internally and from market, for the merged entity.
• From a government point of view, it will increase stream of dividends which forms part of their non-tax revenue.
• Increase the role of internal and market resources and thus reduce dependence of merged bank on government for the future capital infusion
• It will lead to greater concentration of payment and settlement flows as there will be fewer parties in the financial sector.
• Operational risks could increase post-merger as size of operations grows and distance between management and operational personnel is greater as the administrative systems become more complex.
• It will help to deal better with their credit portfolio, including stressed assets. Consolidation will also prevent multiplicity of resources being spent in t same area and strengthens banks to deal with shocks,