Indian Current Affairs Q&A: June-July-August 2011

India National General knowledge/Current affairs questions and answers occurred in the month of June-July-August 2011 . Basically these kind of questions are expected in general quiz exams or even sometime in business quiz to check the general knowledge. 

National news General Knowledge question and answers:

The place where India is setting up a Gamma Ray Telescope is

Answer: Hanie (Leh)

The winner of Mauritius Open Badminton Championship is

Answer: Chetan Anand

Free and compulsory education will be extended up to

Answer: X class

The new mother child health care scheme launched on June 1, 2011 is called

The Janani Shishu Suraksha karyakram

The Indian American who recently won U.S. Spelling Bee competition is

Sukanya Roy

The new Finance Secretary of India is

Sunil Mitra

The new armed forces medical services chief is?

Answer: H.L. Kakria

The host of global biodiversity meet in 2012 is held at?

Answer: Hyderabad

The committee on comprehensive Review of National Small savings fund has suggested 4% interest on?

Answer: Post Office Savings Deposits.

The central government recently cleared 16 FDI proposals worth?

Answer: 923 crores.

Junior National Hockey championship is won by which team?

Answer: Punjab

Recently India commissioned its 

Answer: Fast Attack Craft(FAC) INS Kabra

NATGRID stands for

Answer: The National Intelligence Grid.

Iron Age burial site has been found in?

Answer: Tiruvannamali, Tamilnadu

The century longest lunar eclipse was occurred on

Answer:  June 16, 2011

The Whole collection of Quiz Question and Answers: Click Here

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Implementation of New Technology in Indian Banking Industy

Now the Indian banking system is turning to a technology driven banking, thanks for the growing universalization and internalisation of banking operations. In the first major technology application was introduction of MICR in 1988.  

List of New Technology Changes in Indian Banking System:

Core Banking Systems: The introduction of Core Banking System (CBS).  The 5 main things which form part of Core Banking System is 

• General ledger Customer,
• Information System,
• Deposit system,
• Loan system, and 
• Management Information system.

INFINET (Indian Financial Network): This is used by large number of banks for funds and non-funds based transaction/transfers, and is developed by Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Hyderabad. Public key infrastructure(PKI) technology is used by this network. 

National Electronic Funds Transfer System: This was introduced by RBI for an electronic fund transfer for efficient secure, economical with reliable system, and this is called as NEFT stytem.

National Electronic Clearing Services(NECS): The objective of NECS is to facilitate centralised processing for repetitive and bulk payment instructions.

Centralised Funds Management(CFMS): This system is to enable the operations on current accounts maintained by banks and various offices in an secure manner. It is maintained by RBI.

Mobile Banking Services:  The increasing mobile phone usage and introduction of 3G services has initiated this system where the transactions can be carried over mobile phones. Thus the bank and its customer can do a financial transaction actions through the use of mobile phones

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Information Technology Companies Business Quiz Q&A

Click Here: INDEX PAGE: BUSINESS Quiz MATERIAL.

Business Quiz questions and answers on Information Technology/ Computers Companies.


Which was the first company in the world to manufacture computers for commercial use?
Remington Rand


Before 1924, famous company IBM was known as?

Answer: Computer Tabulating and Recording company.


In India, which was the first place where the computer was installed?
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.


The company "Intel", the largest microprocessor manufacturer. What does Intel stands for?

Answer: Integrated Electronics.


Which is the company popularly known "Big Blue?
IBM


Which IT companies has started their businesses in garage at Silicon Valley?
Sun Micro System, Televideo Systems, Hewlett-Packward are few.


The order of two surnames was decided by tossing a coin by the founders and established the company in Alto, CA. Which is the company?
Hewlett-Packward


Financial institutions are linked with a dedicated global computer network called SWIFT, what does SWIFT stands for?
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial telecommunication.


Iridium, a small communication satellites was developed by?
Motorola


Yahoo's kid section/web guide is called as?
Yahooligans


The ERP market leader SAP AG, a germany firm, what does SAP stands for?
Systems Applications Planning


Which company was once popular for its mini computers, started by a group of engineers led by Ken Olsen?
Digital Equipment Corporation.


On what day Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple computers in 1976?
Answer: April Fool's Day


Human Technology is a trademark of which mobile phone manufacturer?
Nokia


A company in 1998, approached Yahoo.com founders for a merger, but Yahoo refused saying them to come back whey they had grown up. Which dot.com company is that?
Google.com


The costliest mobile phones in the world is manufactured by?
Sony-Ericsson


The First True word processor was developed by?
IBM

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Major Retail Players In Different Segments

A radical transformation is being observed in the organised retail market. The increase number of stores is an clear indication showing the growth of retail industry as emerging and has an huge scope and will boom in the near future.


The retail companies has created a huge retail jobs and retail careers are being built. One study which is being given importance is retail management where even merchandising is also taken into account.


Here this article gives you a list of major retailers in India who are serving their customer with different strategy for each different segment.



                           
 





HYPERMARKET:  Big Bazaar, Subhiksha and Super Bazaar, Spencers are the major players in this segment
DEPARTMENTAL STORE: Big Bazaar; RPG group Reliance, Tata’s Trent, Vishal Megar Mart, Subhiksha, Metro and Bharti Wal-Mart.


Major groups which are into Retail are:
Pantaloons Retail India Limited, Landmark Group, RPG Group, K. Raheja Group(Shoppers Stop, Crossword), Tata Group(Trent- Westside, Barista Coffee Company(stake))


Other retailers which can be mentioned are ITC Lifestyle, Nilgiris, Globus, Cafe Coffee Day, Quickys, Bata, Super Sabka Bazaar, Amoretto’s, and Subhiksha

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Overview of Banking Sector - September.

Here updates will be done constantly, on recent happenings in the banking sector especially in India. In this post you can see the recent major changes/ initiative by the RBI or other banks in the month of August and September 2011.  

Its just an overview of the Banking industry/sector current affairs.

• The RBI has come up with new guidelines (eligibility criteria) for the new banking license. Here is the New Eligibility Criteria for New Bank License.

• RBI has tightened the finance companies norms by increasing the capital requirement to 15% from 12%.

• NBFC's new rules under consideration. Where only NBFC's with assets worth of Rs.1000 crore should be regulated, even if they are doing business with their own funds.  This step will ensure that only players who are serious remain. 

• Top 10 Non-Banking Financial Companies(NBFC's)

• Company Name	Assets ( In crores) apprx
  Shriram TransFi	24,786
  M&M Financial	12,165
  Sundaramfin	11,479
  Cholamandalam	9,017
  Shriram City	8,539
  Bajaj Finance	8,066
  SREI infra	7,842
  Manappuram Finance	7,577
  Magma Fincorp	5,130
  First Leasing	1,297

• RBI said to end the Pre-Payment
(paying the loan amount before the maturity) penalty charges on floating rate loans,(home or car loan).  The bank charge as high as 3% on outstanding loan amount as charges. As this will discourage the loan seeker to end up the loan debt burden, bank has taken this step. Already banks like Axis has initiated this move.

• The Major Micro Finance companies, Spandana Spoorthy Fianacial Services and Share MicroFin and Ashmitha Microfin plan to merger their businesses, thus creating a largest lender for small entrepreneurs. As of now only SKS  Microfinance is the only listed major player.

• The increasing inflation has forced the RBI Governer, Subba Rao to make another increase in the interest rates by 25basic points(0.25%) which cumulative a 12th increase in the last 18months which is about an increase of 3.25%. 

Previous Month:

BANKING SECTOR CURRENT AFFAIRS: APRIL - MAY 2011

BANKING SECTOR CURRENT AFFAIRS: JUNE - JULY 2011

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Patent Laws, Rights and System: FTC

Patent rights promote innovation; give incentives to inventors to express their ideas by giving them assurance that ideas will be protected. The reason for this is to improve patent quality and to restrict relationship between competition and intellectual property. 

Antitrust laws affect intellectual property in two restraints: Horizontal Restraint and Vertical Restraint.

Horizontal restraint contains Patent Pooling which occurs when patent rights are exchanged between two or more parties. Vertical restraint that contains Tying Arrangement i.e. a sale or lease of a product on the condition that the buyer or lessee take a second product as well.

By granting patent protection, this provides incentives for inventors to disclose their inventions. To ensure that these inventions are available for the public benefit, antitrust laws monitor the patent system, to make sure that others are not hindered from exposing their ideas. Patienter should be very careful when drafting their licensing agreements and royalty arrangements as patent is non-obvious even without a showing of obviousness by the patent examiner.

  


* Submitted by Haripriya.

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New Bank License Eligibility rules by RBI.

As the Reserve Bank of India has opened the new players to enter the banking sector, has given a hope for many private major players to enter the booming sector where the scope is very high for growth and huge potential as most of rural market is still untapped.


The draft guidelines are being issued with regular modification with cautions and conditions for the purpose of laying a strong rules and regulations. 


Few Eligibility criteria as per the new guidelines are.,

• Minimum paid up capital of Rs.500 crores,
• Should get listed within 2 years of time,
• Should setup at least 25% of their branches in rural unbanked areas (especially tier-III) 
• Be owned by a separate holding company that cannot borrow money to float the bank.
• Foreign holding in the bank has to be less than 49%,
• Operating company has to get its share in the company to 20% within 10years from start.

Finance companies has a chance to convert themselves into bank and even promoter groups with good credential(10 years record will be considered) in running their business can setup banks.


The Major companies who are in the race for new bank licenses are.,

Tatas, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group(ADAG), Power Finance Corporation(PFC), Aditya Birla Group, Bajaj Group, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), LIC Housing, Industrial Finance Corporation of India(IFCI), Religare, Srei, Mahindra and Mahindra(M&M).

BANKING SECTOR CURRENT AFFAIRS: APRIL - MAY 2011

BANKING SECTOR CURRENT AFFAIRS: JUNE - JULY 2011
BANKING SECTOR CURRENT AFFAIRS: AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2011

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Evolution of Indian Commodity Market.

Commodities Market History of India
1875	Bombay Cotton Trade Association Ltd. Set up the first organized futures market.
1893	Bombay Cotton Exchange Ltd. Was established following widespread discontent amongst leading cotton mill owners and merchants over the functioning of Bombay Cotton Trade Association.
1900	Futures trading in oilseeds, groundnut, castor seed and cotton started with establishment of Gujrati Vyapari Mandali, Futures’ trading in whear was existent as several places in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
1913	Chamber of Commerce set up at Hapur for trading wheat.
1919	Calcutta Hessian Exchange Ltd. Established for futures trading in raw jute and jute goods.
1920	Futures trading in bullion began in Bombay.
1927	Organized futures trading in raw jute began with the establishment of East Indian Jute Association Ltd.
1945	Amalgamation of the two association to form the East Indian Jute and Hessian Ltd.
1952	Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act enacted.
1953	Forwards Markets Commission (FMC) established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution.
1963	Futures trading in commodities banned.
2003	Futures trading in commodities allowed again.

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SEBI Regulation of the Indian Securities Market: Major Development

The importance, developments of SEBI on the Indian Capital market and the implication over the time on the various regulations and regimes introduced.

The increasing scams, to regulate such scams a bill was passed in the parliament in 1992, giving birth to Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act 1992, an autonomous organization for reviewing, regulating the security market by introduction of various rules and regulations for market development.

The major developments can be classified into three important things,

• The New guidelines for Book building, where a shift in fixed price regime to offer price introduced, as the former had an higher risk of failure if there is any market condition changes.
• Introduction of Dematerialization and Electronic Book building.
• Allowing participation of various Institutional Investors, Merchant Banking, registrars to issue, Share transfer agents.

Dematerialization was made compulsory in phased manner by September 2001, for quick and efficient allotment of securities and to avoid the problems of fund blocking.  The introduction of Electronic Trading mechanism has made the whole operational process simple and easier further which has also lead to reduce the manipulation of prices, correct prices for trades, and a complete shift in the fundamental operational working of major stock exchanges. 

The major advantages on introduction of Demat is, 

• lead to reduce no delivery period, 
• a greater liquidity as minimum trading lot sizes requirement are removed, 
• short period of book closure for corporate, which helped them in making further decision like 
• dividend payments, 
• bonus issue decision quick.

"SEBI's Regulation of the Indian Securities Market: A Critical Review of the Major Developments" written by "G Sabarinathan".  

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Major Indian Capital Market Reforms

The major Capital market reforms can be classified into three,

•         Change in the structure and functioning of Stock Exchanges.
•         Automation of Trading and Post trade systems.
•         Introduction of Surveillance and Monitoring systems.

Market Surveillance and Monitoring systems were introduced to detect the Insider trading or market manipulation transactional activities and a protocols were established for investigation of abnormal stock fluctuations and in case of an wrong going to curb the excessive volatility in the market, suspension of stock scrip trade for a period of time in the way of "Circuit breakers" were introduced.

Financial Institutional Investors(FII) under SEBI regulated 1995 governing the regulation of portfolio investment by FII's and allowing the FII to participate by making the investment in the Indian securities market and a proper pricing procedures were made mandatory for the purpose of transparency in the trade execution for e.g., a proper separation in levering the order and brokerage charges. Further a modification of Takeover Code, which comes under play when an acquisition takes places.

Over the years for the proper functioning of Capital market, a collaboration with ICAI and formed National Committee on Accounting standards(NACAS) and made mandatory the presentation of the company's performance report in detailed within equal intervals.  This disclosure clause has given a birth to corporate governance where policies like clear indication of director remuneration, whistle blowing, cash flow and financial statement certification by CEO/CFO has made mandatory and transparency in disclosure of reports for public offering, periodicals and other transaction related. Such move by SEBI has made the capital market function smooth and more reliable on it thus other policies created a trust among the investors.

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