Daily Current Affairs : 20th November 2013

1. US President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American Vivek Murthy for the post of Surgeon General, which a top American lawmaker described as a historic moment for the community across the country. If confirmed, Murthy would not only be the first-ever Indian-American to occupy this post but also the youngest ever Surgeon General of the country. The surgeon general serves a four-year term and is the administration's top official on public health issues.

2. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 19 November 2013 directed Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to provide loans to women self-help groups (SHGs) at 7 per cent per annum to avail the benefit of interest rate subvention scheme under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana-Aajeevika (SGSY) scheme.

Salient features of RBI Notification:

• All women SHGs will be eligible for interest subvention to avail the credit upto 3 lakh Rupees at 7 per cent per annum.
• PSBs will be subvented to the extent of difference between the Weighted Average Interest charged and 7 per cent subject to the maximum limit of 5.5 per cent, for the FY-2014. 
• This subvention will be available to all the PSBs on the condition that they make SHG credit available at 7 per cent in the 150 districts.
• The Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) will be subvented to the extent of difference between the lending rates and 7 per cent for the FY-2014 on the condition they make SHG credit available at 7 per cent.
• SHGs will be given an additional 3 per cent subvention on prompt repayment of loan.

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana-Aajeevika (SGSY) is an initiative by the government to provide sustainable income to poor people living in rural areas of the country.

Interest Rate subvention concept : Interest Rate subvention is a subsidy of interest given by Government to certain sectors like Textiles, Agriculture etc. For eg. Textile Company borrows from Bank at 10 percent and Government gives subvention of 2 percent. Hence net bank takes interest from textiles companies 8 percent. Other sectors have to pay 10 percent to the bank.

3. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on Wednesday issued a Rs 1,000 crore (approximately $160 million) global Indian rupee bond of three years maturity. The bond is IFC’s first rupee issuance, and the first bond issued under its $1 billion offshore rupee bond programme. The issuance is to strengthen India’s capital markets and attract greater foreign investment in a time of renewed economic uncertainty across the world, IFC said in a statement. The maturity date of the bond is December 3, 2016, and it carries a coupon of 7.75 per cent.

4. The 44th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) that kicks off tomorrow here will screen 15 Oscar-nominated films from across the world. Veteran actress Waheeda Rehman will be conferred the inaugural Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year at the festival. The lifetime achievement award will be given to Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel during the inauguration tomorrow. Hollywood actress Ausan Sarandon will be the chief guest at the inaugural function, which will be attended by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, veteran actors, including Kamal Haasan and Rekha, singer Asha Bhonsle and Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi.

5. Anjolie Ela Menon, a contemporary artist was awarded with Dayawati Modi Award for Art and Culture and Education by Dayawati Foundation on 19 November 2013. The award comprised of a cash price of 2.51 lakh rupees, a silver shield and a scroll of hounour. It was presented to her by the Minister of state for Prime Minister Office, Department of personnel and Training, Government of India.

6. Engineering Excellence Award 2013 was conferred on the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), a Public Sector Unit under the Ministry of Finance, and Government of India on 19 November 2013. The award was given by Engineering Watch at SCOPE Convention Centre in Delhi. The second Best Engineering Marvel for Project Innovativeness was conferred on Modernisation of Ink Factory Project at Bank Note Press, Dewas.

7. Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and the People’s Republic of China-based Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) have signed a memorandum of understanding to boost co-operation. The agreement is designed to facilitate potential collaboration in areas such as knowledge-sharing, research and price risk management.

8. India and Russia on 18 November 2013 agreed to expand the range of strategic partnership in a significant manner in Moscow. The two countries will also hold a Joint Air Force Level exercise for the first time in 2014. The decision was taken during the 13th Meeting of the India–Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRITC-MTC) and it was co chaired by AK Antony, the Defence Minister of India and His counterpart of Russia, Sergey Shoigu.

9. Indonesia has temporarily halted its military and intelligence cooperation with Australia over the latter's wiretapping of Indonesian leaders. Besides notifying people that Indonesia has submitted its official query to Australia about the wiretapping issue, President Yudhoyono ordered a stop to several forms of joint military drills with Australia in all forces that include the navy, the army and the air force, Xinhua reported.

10. The General Assembly's human rights committee passed a resolution on Tuesday urging Myanmar to give the stateless Rohingya minority equal access to citizenship and to crack down on Buddhist violence against them and other Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation. In 1982, Myanmar passed a citizenship law recognizing eight races and 130 minority groups but omitted the nation's 800,000 Rohingya, among Myanmar's 60 million people.

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