Current Affairs - 29 October 2014

The Union Government sacked the heads of six Public Sector Unit (PSU) banks on 27 October 2014. This action was taken after submission of a report by a high-level committee in this issue that stated about irregularities being found in the selection process of the Chairman and Managing Directors (CMDs) of these banks. The CMDs who were sacked were associated with which six PSU banks?

• 

  Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank and Vijaya Bank
  The probe into appointment of CMDs in PSU banks was ordered following the arrest and termination of Syndicate Bank CMD SK Jain for alleged graft during September 2014. Following this the Finance Ministry had set up a committee comprising Expenditure Secretary, RBI Governor and Secretary School Education to examine the selections to six PSU banks. The government has now scrapped the selection process adopted during the UPA Govt. and decided to fill vacancies of 8 posts of CMDs and 14 posts of Executive Directors through a fresh process involving RBI Governor or his nominee.

Which country on 28 October 2014 became the first developed country to shut its door on Ebola-hit countries by imposing a blanket ban on visas from West African nations?

• 

  Australia
  Australia announced refusal to entry for anyone from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, a decision criticised by experts and advocates as politically motivated and shortsighted. Australia has not recorded a case of Ebola despite a number of scares. The Ebola outbreak that began in March 2014 has killed nearly 5,000 people, the vast majority in West Africa.

44-year-old Devendra Fadnavis will be the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra and will take oath on 31 October 2014. He was elected as the leader of the Maharashtra Legislature Party on 28 October 2014. Fadnavis, who will be the first BJP Chief Minister of the state, has been a Mayor of which city of Maharashtra?

• Nagpur
  Devendra Fadnavis became the Mayor of Nagpur in 1997 when he was just 27 year old. He thus became the second youngest Mayor in India. He also was the youngest municipal corporator of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) at the age of 21 in 1992. As an MLA he represents Nagpur West constituency. The BJP fought the recent Assembly elections under his helm as state BJP President.

What was India’s rank in World Economic Forum’s 2014 gender gap index that was released on 27 October 2014?

• 114th
  India’s rank of 114 was out of 142 countries that were analysed in this index. India slipped 13 spots from its last year’s ranking of 101 due to low score in parameters like economic participation, educational attainment and health and survival. India is part of the 20 worst-performing countries on the labour force participation, estimated earned income, literacy rate and sex ratio at birth indicators. On the other hand, India is among the top 20 best-performing countries on the political empowerment sub-index. The index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health criteria.

Who was appointed as the new Chairman of the Prasar Bharti Board on 28 October 2014?

• A. Surya Prakash
  A. Surya Prakash’s appointment came on the recommendation of a three-member committee headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari and comprising Press Council of India chairperson Markandey Katju and Bimal Julka, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He has been appointed for 3 years. Surya Prakash is a noted journalist and is at present the Consulting Editor, The Pioneer, and a distinguished fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation.
  
  
  

Which two Formula One (F1) teams have filed for bankruptcy protection and will not race at the United States Grand Prix to be held on 2 November 2014?

• 
  Caterham and Marussia
  Caterham and Marussia have been placed into bankruptcy protection and will not race at the United States Grand Prix. Caterham was placed in bankruptcy administration on 24 October and was given special dispensation to miss the next two GPs while a buyer is sought.  This was followed by bankruptcy protection of Marussia on 27 October. This means that it will be first time since 2005 that there will be only nine teams in a F1 Grand Prix. Escalating costs and unequal distribution of money has made F1 unviable for smaller teams like Caterham, Marussia, Sauber and Lotus. It is worth mentioning that F1 has seem more than 120 teams come and go and Italy’s Ferrari is the only one to have stayed the course since the championship started in 1950. Some 51 F1 teams have never scored a single point.

BANKING AWARENESS PRACTICE MCQs FOR ALL BANK EXAMS

• 1. Which of the following is not a debt instrument in banking parlance?
  a) a Certificate of deposit
  b) Bonds
  c) Stocks
  d) Commercial papers
  e) Debentures
• 2. Which of the following is NOT a scheduled Commercial Bank?
  a) HDFC Bank
  b) Axis Bank
  c) IDBI Bank
  d) NABARD
  e) SBI
• 3. Which of the following organizations/ agencies is not associated with banking and Finance?
  a) SEBI
  b) AMFI
  c) RBI
  d) ECGC
  e) ONGC
• 4. Who amongst the following Padma Bhushan Awardees is a famous banker?
  a) Mr. Azim H. Premji
  b) Ms. Chanda Kochhar
  c) Ms. Kapila Vatsyayan
  d) Mrs.Waheeda Rehman
  e) Mr. Brajesh Mishra
• 5. Which of the following has been renamed as "Annual Policy Statement" by the Reserve Bank of India?
  a) Busy season banking policy
  b) Slack season banking policy
  c) Monetary and credit policy
  d) Annual statistical report
  e) None of the above
• 6. Which committee has recommended introduction of smart card?
  a) Rangarajan committee
  b) Saraf committee
  c) Nayak committee
  d) Pannirselvan committee
  e) None of the above
• 7. Which committee had formulated consultative profile in connection with electronic funds transfer?
  a) A.K. Purwar committee
  b) Y V Reddy committee
  c) K S Shere committee
  d) S. A. Dave committee
  e) None of the above
• 8. The process of transformation of physical shares, commercial paper or certificate of deposit into
  electronic form is called as:
  a) Electronic clearing service
  b) Electronic securitization
  c) Share truncation
  d) Dematerialisation
  e) None of the above
• 9. Providing banking services to a customer without his entrance inside the bank's branch is called
  as:
  a) Virtual banking
  b) Relationship banking
  c) Universal banking
  d) Mobile banking
  e) None of the above
• 10. Where is the headquarters of "Society for worldwide Inter bank Financial Telecommunication
  - SWIFT" situated?
  a) New York
  b) Los Angels
  c) Brussels
  d) Hague
  e) None of the above
• 11. Where has National Financial Switch of IDRBT established?
  a) Mumbai
  b) New Delhi
  c) Hyderabad
  d) Bangalore
  e) None of the above
• 12. If the employees of the bank go on strike, it results in?
  a) Operational risk
  b) Employee risk
  c) Credit risk
  d) Market risk
  e) Systemic risk
• 13. Which of the following is not included in three pillars of BASEL capital accord?
  a) Minimum capital requirement
  b) Supervisory review
  c) Market discipline
  d) Core banking solution
  e) None of the above
• 14. When ICICI Limited merged with ICICI bank?
  a) 1st August, 2000
  b) 1st August 2001
  c) 1st August, 2002
  d) 1st August, 2003
  e) None of the above
• 15. Which bank has changed its name to AXIS bank limited?
  a) Centurion bank
  b) Times bank
  c) Bank of Punjab Limited
  d) Bank of Karad
  e) UTI bank limited
• 16. Times Bank Limited merged with:
  a) HDFC Bank
  b) Bank of India
  c) Punjab National Bank
  d) Central Bank of India
  e) None of the above
• 17. Which of the following Banks & Head Offices is not correct?
  a) State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur - Jaipur
  b) State Bank of Hyderabad - Hyderabad
  c) State Bank of Mysore - Mysore
  d) State Bank of Patiala - Patiala
  e) State Bank of Travancore - Thiruvananthapuram
• 18. CCIL stands for:
  a) Cement Corporation of India Limited
  b) Central Clearing Company Ltd.
  c) Clearing Corporation of India Limited
  d) Cash Credit facility in Installment Lending
  e) None of the above
• 19. When was Reserve Bank of India Nationalized?
  a) 1947
  b) 1948
  c) 1949
  d) 1950
  e) 1952
• 20. Which one of the following is the new sub-category of the commercial real estate sector (CRE) as per the latest RBI directive?
  a) Residential projects
  b) Commercial projects
  c) Industrial projects
  d) SEZ projects
  e) None of the above
• 21. In India, the Chit funds are governed / Regulated by ___?
  a) RBI
  b) Central Government
  c) State Governments
  d) Local Bodies
  e) State Finance Corporation
• 22. "The bank for a changing world" is the punch line of:
  a) BNP Paribas
  b) Scotia Bank
  c) Royal Bank of Scotland
  d) CITI Bank
  e) American Express Bank
• 23. The RBI is also set to introduce a fifth Deputy Governor in the top management of the central
  bank. The fifth Deputy Governor will be designated as ___
  a) COO (Chief Operating Officer)
  b) CFO
  c) CEO
  d) CAO
  e) None of these
• 24. What is the RBI's model for rating of Indian banks?
  a) CAMEL
  b) CAMELS
  c) CRISIL
  d) CARE
  e) None of these
• 25. Oriental Bank of Commerce was established in the year:
  a) 1943
  b) 1953
  c) 1963
  d) 1973
  e) 1983
• 26. What is the Punch line of "ICICI Bank"?
  a) World's Local Bank
  b) We Understand Your World
  c) Hum Haina …
  d) Serving to Empower
  e) Good people to grow with
• 27. Who is the CMD of Union Bank of India?
  a) R. M. Malla
  b) S. Raman
  c) M D. Mallya
  d) T. M. Bhasin
  e) Arun Tiwari
• 28. Which among the following is correct full form of CAS in context with banking markets in India?
  a) Cash Authorization Scheme
  b) Credit Authorization Scheme
  c) Credit Access System
  d) Credit Arrangement System
  e) Cash Accreditation Scheme
• 29. A medium term note (MTN) programme is issued to ___
  a) Provide loans
  b) Raise Funds
  c) Sell Equity
  d) Purchase shares
  e) Any of the above
• 30. Which among the following regulate the commodity markets in India?
  1) RBI
  2) SEBI
  3) Forward Market Commission
  Choose the correct option from the codes given below:
  a) Only 1 & 2
  b) Only 2 & 3
  c) Only 1 & 3
  d) Only 3
  e) None of the above
• 31. Which among the following is a major qualitative control measure used by RBI?
  a) Bank Rate Policy
  b) Open Market Operations
  c) Ways and means advances
  d) Reserve Ratio Requirements
  e) Margin Requirements
• 32. Which of the following is known as plastic money?
  a) Bearer cheques
  b) Credit cards
  c) Demand drafts
  d) Gift cheques
  e) None of these
• ANSWERS:
  1) c 2) d 3) e 4) b 5) c 6) b 7) c 8) d 9) a 10) c
  11) c 12) a 13) d 14) c 15) e 16) a 17) c 18) c 19) c 20) a
  21) c 22) a 23) a 24) b 25) a 26) c 27) e 28) b 29) b 30) d
  31) e 32) b