New Jharkhand CM

JMM leader Hemant Soren, son of party chief Shibu Soren, sworn in as the new chief minister of Jharkhand.

New NASSCOM President

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), has appointed R. Chandrasekhar , the former Secretary Department of Telecommunications (DoT), as its president.  Chandrashekhar will take over current Nasscom President Som Mittal, whose tenure ends in January 2014.

Wimbledon 2013

Men's Singles: Andy Murray
Women Singles: Marion Bartoli
Men's Dobles: Bryan brothers(Bob and Mike Bryan)
Women's Doubles: Su-Wei Hsieh and Peng Shuai

German Grand Prix 2013

Three-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel surged ahead in his Red Bull at the start of the German Grand Prix on Sunday and held off a strong challenge from the two Lotus cars to win his first race on home soil.

Food Security Ordinance signed

President Pranab Mukherjee today signed Food Security Ordinance, paving way for implementation of the controversial Food Security Bill. Ordinance will give nation's two-third population the right to 5 kgs of foodgrain every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg.  At Rs 125,000 crore of government support, the food security programme will be the largest in the world.
"India is producing 214 million tonnes of food grain and what we need is 62 and we procure 30%. Last season we procured 82 million tonnes and as I speak now, storage is going to be 73-74 million, so we have enough food grains with us,"  Food minister K V Thomas said.
About 2.43 crore poorest of the poor families covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) scheme under PDS (Public Distribution System) would continue to get 35 kg of foodgrains per family per month but with legal entitlement.

First-ever IORARC meeting

Countries of the Indian Ocean region came together in picturesque Mauritius for their first-ever meeting aimed at exploring possibilities for trade and economic cooperation. Minister for Commerce and Industries Anand Sharma lead the Indian delegation at the Economic and Business Conference of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC).

Mauritius is the headquarters of the association. The IORARC boasts 20 members, of which India and Australia have the largest economies.

For more details visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_Rim_Association_for_Regional_Cooperation

100% FDI in telecom

Inter-ministerial body Telecom Commission approved hiking foreign direct investment limit in the sector from 74 percent to 100 percent.

The Commission has approved raising FDI limit to 100 percent, 49 percent investment can be made through automatic route but Foreign Investment Permission Board(FIPB) approval is required to increase the level.

At present, FDI limit in the sector is 74 percent where 49 percent is done through automatic route and rest requires nod from FIPB.

The idea behind increasing FDI limit in telecom sector is to help industry get fresh funds to lower financial burden.

According to a presentation by GSM industry body The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to DoT, the debt of telecom sector stood at Rs 1,85,720 crore at end of 2011-12. This included debt of Rs 93,594 crore from domestic sources and Rs 92,126 crore from external sources.

The Commission also discussed creation of Telecom Finance Corporation (TFC) to address the sector’s funding challenges and “sought a detailed project report on it”.

The TFC is proposed to be set up on the lines of sectoral finance bodies such as Power Finance Corporation and Tourism Finance Corporation of India.

The proposed TFC is targeting financing Rs 38,000 crore in five-year period.

Guidelines for new banking licence

The new guidelines makes entities both from private and public sector eligible to set up a bank through a wholly-owned non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC).

RBI guidelines says,"The NOFHC shall be wholly owned by the promoter / promoter group. The NOFHC shall hold the bank as well as all the other financial services entities of the group. Entities / groups should have a past record of sound credentials and integrity, be financially sound with a successful track record of 10 years. For this purpose, RBI may seek feedback from other regulators and enforcement and investigative agencies".

The groups should have a minimum paid up equity capital of Rs 500 crore. At the start of banking operations, NOFHC should hold a minimum of 40 per cent of the equity capital of the bank with a lock-in period of five years. Later, it has to be brought down to 15 percent within 12 year from that onwards.

The NOFHC will be registered as a non-banking finance company with the RBI while the bank will be governed by the prudential regulations by RBI.

Another condition is that 25% of its branches should be in unbanked rural areas with population upto 9,999.

For the first five years FDI is capped at 49%.