1. Deepak Iyer appointed as MD and CEO of Bharti AXA General Insurance
Deepak Iyer was appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
Currently, he is working as the Managing Director-Indian subcontinent at Wrigley India, a subsidiary of the US-based Mars.bHe will take the charge from June 2015. He will take charge from Interim CEO and MD Milind Chalisgaonkar.
Earlier, he worked with PepsiCo for 16 years handling multiple international assignments, including those of Senior Franchise Director-Africa, General Manager-North & East India (including Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka) and Director-Sales for Modern Trade/ Food service/ Leisure/ Travel & Transport channels of the company.
5. RBI advised all Public Sector Banks to appoint Internal Ombudsman
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised all public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
The objective of this initiative is to further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.
The internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.
Besides, it also asked some private sector and foreign banks to appoint such Ombudsman. These are ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd. These banks have been selected on the basis of their asset size, business mix, etc.
Banking Ombudsman Scheme
The RBI introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) in 1995 to provide an expeditious and inexpensive forum to bank customers for resolution of their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services provided by commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and scheduled primary co-operative banks.
Under the BO Scheme a total of 27 grounds of complaints/deficiencies in bank services are covered. RBI operates the BOS, free of cost, so as to make it accessible to all.
6. Federal Bank offers free insurance on gold loans
Kerala-based Federal Bank will offer a new Gold Loan Product, Akshaya Gold, with the added feature of free insurance cover of up to Rs. 1 lakh.
“Under the scheme, customers will get an insurance cover up to Rs. 1 lakh absolutely free. The product is available at competitive rates across all branches pan India,” the old private sector lender said in a statement.
Customers can avail this loan from any branch in India irrespective of the home branch. Those not holding an account can also avail the loan after submitting the required KYC documents.
Federal Bank also offers Apna Gold 24*7, a premium gold loan product with the convenience of multichannel withdrawal facility like Debit card, Internet, Mobile Banking, POS etc, the bank said.
Babu K A, DGM & Head Retail Business, Federal Bank, “This is the first time any bank has come out with a free insurance cover for gold loans customers...Akshaya Gold is a special offer to our customers to meet their personal financial requirements, needs of their children for education or for buying any house hold items or even for going for a trip within India or abroad.”
7. Indian author Neel Mukherjee won 2014 Encore Award for The Lives of Others
Indian author Neel Mukherjee won the 2014 Encore Award for his novel The Lives of Others. The award is worth 10000 pounds.
The Lives of Others is his second novel. The novel is set in Kolkata of the 1960s when Naxalite violence was at its peak. It is the story of Supratik Ghosh and his family, after he leaves home to join the Communist party of India, Marxist and mobilise the peasants against their landlords.
The Lives of Others was also shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Neel Mukherjee's first novel, A Life Apart, was published in 2010.
Other short-listed authors are Will Wiles, Deborah Kay Davies and Amanda Coe. Encore award was founded by Lucy Astor in 1990 to celebrate second novels.
2013 Encore award won by Evie Wyld for All The Birds, Singing.
8. Facebook signed up with nine news publishers to launch Instant Articles
Facebook Inc signed up with nine publishers to launch Instant Articles. Instant Articles will publish articles directly to the social network's mobile news feeds.
The launch partners for Instant Articles are NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.
Instant Articles will let stories load more than 10 times faster than standard mobile web articles and will include content from publishers such as the New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
The news publishers can either sell and embed advertisements in the articles and keep all of the revenue, or allow Facebook to sell ads.The Internet social networking company will also let the news companies track data and traffic through comScore and other analytics tools.
Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.
9. UP Government launched Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launched the water ATM facility Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations. This facility was installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and at other 100 bus stations of the state.
Through this service, the passengers will get best potable water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.
Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh government also flagged off four luxury buses Scannia to four different destination including Delhi. It also inaugurated an IVRS number 149 enquiry facility regarding bus services of UP.
The state government also laid the foundation stone for up gradation of 25 bus stations where state of the art technology and best passenger and civic facilities will be available.
10. Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger sold for 179.3 million US dollars
Pablo Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger (Version O) was sold for 179.3 million US dollars during an auction at Christie's in New York.
With this sale, this painting became the most expensive painting to be sold at an auction. Les Femme d’Alger, a 1955 painting known in English as The Women of Algiers had a pre-auction estimate of 140 million US dollars.
The previous world record for a painting sold at an auction was 142.4 million US dollars for British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
About the painting Les Femme d’Alger
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter and sculptor, painted a series of fifteen variations of Les Femme d’Alger painting between December 1954 and February 1955. The paintings depict Algerian women in a harem smoking a hookah.
Picasso designated the series alphabetically as versions A through O. The version sold is Version O, the last of the series.
11. India Post launched Dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi
India Posts launched a dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi to cater the e-commerce business enterprises. It was launched by Union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Safdarjang, New Delhi.This project was implemented by Department of Posts through Delhi Postal Circle. This processing centre will exclusively handle all the e-commerce business. It is capable of handling 30000 parcels (articles) per day.
It will also facilitate collection of parcels from the e-commerce customers by processing and dispatching them within 24 hours to respective destination. For this purpose the centre will use quickest available transportation facility like flight or trains.
12. Indian-origin Priti Patel appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government
Indian-origin Priti Patel was appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government.
Prime Minister David Cameron promoted Priti Patel to his Cabinet after his surprise victory in general elections.
As the new minister of state for employment in the Department of Work and Pensions, the 43-year-old will attend Cabinet as the senior-most Indian-origin member of the newly-elected British government.
Priti Patel is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Witham constituency in Essex since 2010.
Priti Patel is Gujarati by origin. In January 2015, she was awarded the Jewels of Gujarat honour at a reception in Ahmedabad, where she led a British delegation to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015.
13. UP Government launches Samajwadi water ATM scheme
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said launch of affordable 'Lohia gramin bus seva', with 25 per cent lower fares, has received accolade from the people and it needs to be expanded further keeping in view the size of the state and the population.
He also laid foundation stones of 25 modern bus stations at a function organised by the state transport department at his official residence here.
The Cheif Minister said making potable water available at such reasonable price to bus passengers indicated the socialist thinking of his government and called for installing water ATMs at most of the bus stations.
Water ATMs will provide potable water at the rate of Re 1 per litre and cold water at Rs 2 per litre, he added.
He said the launch of 'Lohia gramin bus seva' has provided connectivity at affordable fare between cities and rural areas where there was no means of public transport.
Yadav today launched a host of services of the state transport department which include Samajwadi water ATM scheme at bus stations, 149 self operating inquiry service, super luxury air-conditioned bus service.
14. Pop artist Chris Burden passed away
Renowned Pop artist Chris Burden passed away following melanoma disease at his home and studio in Topanga Canyon, California. He was 69.
Trained as a Minimalist, Burden began his career by making art that employed the most minimal materials possible. His most famous early works were Shoot (1971), in which a confederate shot him in the arm with a rifle from about 15 feet away.
15. PM Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for unorganised sector workers
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in Kolkata, West Bengal.
The scheme is intended to enhance old age income security of the working poor and is focused on encouraging and enabling them to join the National Pension System (NPS). It will be operational from 1 June 2015.
Key Features of Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
Operational Framework: It is a Government of India Scheme and is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The institutional architecture of NPS would be utilised to enroll subscribers under scheme.
Eligibility: All citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the NPS administered by the PFRDA and who are not members of any statutory social security scheme are eligible to benefit under the scheme.
The minimum age of joining is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. All the existing subscribers of Swavalamban Scheme would be automatically migrated to APY, unless they opt out.
It is expected that around two crore subscribers would be enrolled during the financial year 2015-16 under the scheme.
Benefits: The subscribers would receive the fixed pension, as guaranteed by the Union Government, of 1000 rupees per month, 2000 rupees per month, 3000 rupees per month, 4000 rupees per month, 5000 rupees per month, at the age of 60 years, depending on their contributions, which itself would vary on the age of joining the scheme.
The pension would also be available to the spouse on the death of the subscriber and thereafter, the pension corpus would be returned to the nominee.
Funding: The Government would co-contribute 50 percent of the subscriber contribution or 1000 rupees per annum, whichever is lower, for a period of 5 years starting from 2015-16, who join the NPS before 31 December 2015 and who are not Income Tax payers. The government would also reimburse the promotional and development activities including incentive to the contribution collection agencies to encourage people to join the scheme.
The Government expenditure is expected to range between 2520 crore and 10000 crore rupees on account of co-contribution to subscribers of the APY over a period of five years. Further, an expenditure of 2000 crore rupees for promotional and developmental activities for enrolment and contribution collection is allocated for period of five years.
Enrolment agencies: All Points of Presence (Service Providers) and Aggregators under Swavalamban Scheme would enroll subscribers through architecture of NPS.
Deepak Iyer was appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
Currently, he is working as the Managing Director-Indian subcontinent at Wrigley India, a subsidiary of the US-based Mars.bHe will take the charge from June 2015. He will take charge from Interim CEO and MD Milind Chalisgaonkar.Earlier, he worked with PepsiCo for 16 years handling multiple international assignments, including those of Senior Franchise Director-Africa, General Manager-North & East India (including Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka) and Director-Sales for Modern Trade/ Food service/ Leisure/ Travel & Transport channels of the company.
2. Daniel Mookhey, first Indian-origin lawmaker in Australia to take oath on the Gita
Indian-origin Daniel Mookhey today became the first politician in Australia to be sworn in on the Gita when he took oath in New South Wales Parliament. Mookhey, 32, was elected by the Labor to replace Steve Whan in the New South Wales Upper House, making him the state's first politician of Indian background.
3. Nikesh Arora appointed as President of Japan’s SoftBank Corp.
Indian-born Nikesh Arora was appointed as the President of Japan’s multinational telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp. As per the announcement made at the company’s earning conference, he will also be the Representative Director of SoftBank Corp.
Before the present elevation, he had been the Vice Chairman of the company and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SB Group US, Inc. (former SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc.) since September 2014.
4. Hyderabad to host Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 in July
Hyderabad will host the four-day Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 that is scheduled to be held on 24 July 2015. The announcement was made by P V Appaji, Director-General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) on 11 May 2015.
The theme of Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 will be Innovation and Advances. The event will deliberate on a range of issues, from pharmaceutical technology to education, indigenous drugs and drug regulatory affairs, besides serving as a platform for joint ventures and project collaboration.
Renowned pharmaceutical experts will be addressing the Summit. The summit will be organised by Indus Foundation in association with FTAPCCI and OMICS group.
3. Nikesh Arora appointed as President of Japan’s SoftBank Corp.
Indian-born Nikesh Arora was appointed as the President of Japan’s multinational telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp. As per the announcement made at the company’s earning conference, he will also be the Representative Director of SoftBank Corp.
Before the present elevation, he had been the Vice Chairman of the company and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SB Group US, Inc. (former SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc.) since September 2014.
4. Hyderabad to host Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 in July
Hyderabad will host the four-day Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 that is scheduled to be held on 24 July 2015. The announcement was made by P V Appaji, Director-General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) on 11 May 2015.
The theme of Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 will be Innovation and Advances. The event will deliberate on a range of issues, from pharmaceutical technology to education, indigenous drugs and drug regulatory affairs, besides serving as a platform for joint ventures and project collaboration.
Renowned pharmaceutical experts will be addressing the Summit. The summit will be organised by Indus Foundation in association with FTAPCCI and OMICS group.
5. RBI advised all Public Sector Banks to appoint Internal Ombudsman
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised all public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
The objective of this initiative is to further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.
The internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.
Besides, it also asked some private sector and foreign banks to appoint such Ombudsman. These are ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd. These banks have been selected on the basis of their asset size, business mix, etc.
Banking Ombudsman Scheme
The RBI introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) in 1995 to provide an expeditious and inexpensive forum to bank customers for resolution of their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services provided by commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and scheduled primary co-operative banks.
Under the BO Scheme a total of 27 grounds of complaints/deficiencies in bank services are covered. RBI operates the BOS, free of cost, so as to make it accessible to all.
6. Federal Bank offers free insurance on gold loans
Kerala-based Federal Bank will offer a new Gold Loan Product, Akshaya Gold, with the added feature of free insurance cover of up to Rs. 1 lakh.
“Under the scheme, customers will get an insurance cover up to Rs. 1 lakh absolutely free. The product is available at competitive rates across all branches pan India,” the old private sector lender said in a statement.
Customers can avail this loan from any branch in India irrespective of the home branch. Those not holding an account can also avail the loan after submitting the required KYC documents.
Federal Bank also offers Apna Gold 24*7, a premium gold loan product with the convenience of multichannel withdrawal facility like Debit card, Internet, Mobile Banking, POS etc, the bank said.
Babu K A, DGM & Head Retail Business, Federal Bank, “This is the first time any bank has come out with a free insurance cover for gold loans customers...Akshaya Gold is a special offer to our customers to meet their personal financial requirements, needs of their children for education or for buying any house hold items or even for going for a trip within India or abroad.”
7. Indian author Neel Mukherjee won 2014 Encore Award for The Lives of Others
Indian author Neel Mukherjee won the 2014 Encore Award for his novel The Lives of Others. The award is worth 10000 pounds.
The Lives of Others is his second novel. The novel is set in Kolkata of the 1960s when Naxalite violence was at its peak. It is the story of Supratik Ghosh and his family, after he leaves home to join the Communist party of India, Marxist and mobilise the peasants against their landlords.
The Lives of Others was also shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Neel Mukherjee's first novel, A Life Apart, was published in 2010.
Other short-listed authors are Will Wiles, Deborah Kay Davies and Amanda Coe. Encore award was founded by Lucy Astor in 1990 to celebrate second novels.
2013 Encore award won by Evie Wyld for All The Birds, Singing.
8. Facebook signed up with nine news publishers to launch Instant Articles
Facebook Inc signed up with nine publishers to launch Instant Articles. Instant Articles will publish articles directly to the social network's mobile news feeds.
The launch partners for Instant Articles are NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.
Instant Articles will let stories load more than 10 times faster than standard mobile web articles and will include content from publishers such as the New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
The news publishers can either sell and embed advertisements in the articles and keep all of the revenue, or allow Facebook to sell ads.The Internet social networking company will also let the news companies track data and traffic through comScore and other analytics tools.
Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.
9. UP Government launched Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launched the water ATM facility Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations. This facility was installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and at other 100 bus stations of the state.
Through this service, the passengers will get best potable water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.
Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh government also flagged off four luxury buses Scannia to four different destination including Delhi. It also inaugurated an IVRS number 149 enquiry facility regarding bus services of UP.
The state government also laid the foundation stone for up gradation of 25 bus stations where state of the art technology and best passenger and civic facilities will be available.
10. Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger sold for 179.3 million US dollars
Pablo Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger (Version O) was sold for 179.3 million US dollars during an auction at Christie's in New York.
With this sale, this painting became the most expensive painting to be sold at an auction. Les Femme d’Alger, a 1955 painting known in English as The Women of Algiers had a pre-auction estimate of 140 million US dollars.
The previous world record for a painting sold at an auction was 142.4 million US dollars for British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
About the painting Les Femme d’Alger
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter and sculptor, painted a series of fifteen variations of Les Femme d’Alger painting between December 1954 and February 1955. The paintings depict Algerian women in a harem smoking a hookah.
Picasso designated the series alphabetically as versions A through O. The version sold is Version O, the last of the series.
11. India Post launched Dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi
India Posts launched a dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi to cater the e-commerce business enterprises. It was launched by Union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Safdarjang, New Delhi.This project was implemented by Department of Posts through Delhi Postal Circle. This processing centre will exclusively handle all the e-commerce business. It is capable of handling 30000 parcels (articles) per day.
It will also facilitate collection of parcels from the e-commerce customers by processing and dispatching them within 24 hours to respective destination. For this purpose the centre will use quickest available transportation facility like flight or trains.
12. Indian-origin Priti Patel appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government
Indian-origin Priti Patel was appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government.
Prime Minister David Cameron promoted Priti Patel to his Cabinet after his surprise victory in general elections.
As the new minister of state for employment in the Department of Work and Pensions, the 43-year-old will attend Cabinet as the senior-most Indian-origin member of the newly-elected British government.
Priti Patel is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Witham constituency in Essex since 2010.
Priti Patel is Gujarati by origin. In January 2015, she was awarded the Jewels of Gujarat honour at a reception in Ahmedabad, where she led a British delegation to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015.
13. UP Government launches Samajwadi water ATM scheme
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said launch of affordable 'Lohia gramin bus seva', with 25 per cent lower fares, has received accolade from the people and it needs to be expanded further keeping in view the size of the state and the population.
He also laid foundation stones of 25 modern bus stations at a function organised by the state transport department at his official residence here.
The Cheif Minister said making potable water available at such reasonable price to bus passengers indicated the socialist thinking of his government and called for installing water ATMs at most of the bus stations.
Water ATMs will provide potable water at the rate of Re 1 per litre and cold water at Rs 2 per litre, he added.
He said the launch of 'Lohia gramin bus seva' has provided connectivity at affordable fare between cities and rural areas where there was no means of public transport.
Yadav today launched a host of services of the state transport department which include Samajwadi water ATM scheme at bus stations, 149 self operating inquiry service, super luxury air-conditioned bus service.
14. Pop artist Chris Burden passed away
Renowned Pop artist Chris Burden passed away following melanoma disease at his home and studio in Topanga Canyon, California. He was 69.
Trained as a Minimalist, Burden began his career by making art that employed the most minimal materials possible. His most famous early works were Shoot (1971), in which a confederate shot him in the arm with a rifle from about 15 feet away.
15. PM Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for unorganised sector workers
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in Kolkata, West Bengal.
The scheme is intended to enhance old age income security of the working poor and is focused on encouraging and enabling them to join the National Pension System (NPS). It will be operational from 1 June 2015.
Key Features of Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
Operational Framework: It is a Government of India Scheme and is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The institutional architecture of NPS would be utilised to enroll subscribers under scheme.
Eligibility: All citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the NPS administered by the PFRDA and who are not members of any statutory social security scheme are eligible to benefit under the scheme.
The minimum age of joining is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. All the existing subscribers of Swavalamban Scheme would be automatically migrated to APY, unless they opt out.
It is expected that around two crore subscribers would be enrolled during the financial year 2015-16 under the scheme.
Benefits: The subscribers would receive the fixed pension, as guaranteed by the Union Government, of 1000 rupees per month, 2000 rupees per month, 3000 rupees per month, 4000 rupees per month, 5000 rupees per month, at the age of 60 years, depending on their contributions, which itself would vary on the age of joining the scheme.
The pension would also be available to the spouse on the death of the subscriber and thereafter, the pension corpus would be returned to the nominee.
Funding: The Government would co-contribute 50 percent of the subscriber contribution or 1000 rupees per annum, whichever is lower, for a period of 5 years starting from 2015-16, who join the NPS before 31 December 2015 and who are not Income Tax payers. The government would also reimburse the promotional and development activities including incentive to the contribution collection agencies to encourage people to join the scheme.
The Government expenditure is expected to range between 2520 crore and 10000 crore rupees on account of co-contribution to subscribers of the APY over a period of five years. Further, an expenditure of 2000 crore rupees for promotional and developmental activities for enrolment and contribution collection is allocated for period of five years.
Enrolment agencies: All Points of Presence (Service Providers) and Aggregators under Swavalamban Scheme would enroll subscribers through architecture of NPS.
1. Deepak Iyer appointed as MD and CEO of Bharti AXA General Insurance
Deepak Iyer was appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
Currently, he is working as the Managing Director-Indian subcontinent at Wrigley India, a subsidiary of the US-based Mars.bHe will take the charge from June 2015. He will take charge from Interim CEO and MD Milind Chalisgaonkar.
Earlier, he worked with PepsiCo for 16 years handling multiple international assignments, including those of Senior Franchise Director-Africa, General Manager-North & East India (including Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka) and Director-Sales for Modern Trade/ Food service/ Leisure/ Travel & Transport channels of the company.
5. RBI advised all Public Sector Banks to appoint Internal Ombudsman
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised all public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
The objective of this initiative is to further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.
The internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.
Besides, it also asked some private sector and foreign banks to appoint such Ombudsman. These are ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd. These banks have been selected on the basis of their asset size, business mix, etc.
Banking Ombudsman Scheme
The RBI introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) in 1995 to provide an expeditious and inexpensive forum to bank customers for resolution of their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services provided by commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and scheduled primary co-operative banks.
Under the BO Scheme a total of 27 grounds of complaints/deficiencies in bank services are covered. RBI operates the BOS, free of cost, so as to make it accessible to all.
6. Federal Bank offers free insurance on gold loans
Kerala-based Federal Bank will offer a new Gold Loan Product, Akshaya Gold, with the added feature of free insurance cover of up to Rs. 1 lakh.
“Under the scheme, customers will get an insurance cover up to Rs. 1 lakh absolutely free. The product is available at competitive rates across all branches pan India,” the old private sector lender said in a statement.
Customers can avail this loan from any branch in India irrespective of the home branch. Those not holding an account can also avail the loan after submitting the required KYC documents.
Federal Bank also offers Apna Gold 24*7, a premium gold loan product with the convenience of multichannel withdrawal facility like Debit card, Internet, Mobile Banking, POS etc, the bank said.
Babu K A, DGM & Head Retail Business, Federal Bank, “This is the first time any bank has come out with a free insurance cover for gold loans customers...Akshaya Gold is a special offer to our customers to meet their personal financial requirements, needs of their children for education or for buying any house hold items or even for going for a trip within India or abroad.”
7. Indian author Neel Mukherjee won 2014 Encore Award for The Lives of Others
Indian author Neel Mukherjee won the 2014 Encore Award for his novel The Lives of Others. The award is worth 10000 pounds.
The Lives of Others is his second novel. The novel is set in Kolkata of the 1960s when Naxalite violence was at its peak. It is the story of Supratik Ghosh and his family, after he leaves home to join the Communist party of India, Marxist and mobilise the peasants against their landlords.
The Lives of Others was also shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Neel Mukherjee's first novel, A Life Apart, was published in 2010.
Other short-listed authors are Will Wiles, Deborah Kay Davies and Amanda Coe. Encore award was founded by Lucy Astor in 1990 to celebrate second novels.
2013 Encore award won by Evie Wyld for All The Birds, Singing.
8. Facebook signed up with nine news publishers to launch Instant Articles
Facebook Inc signed up with nine publishers to launch Instant Articles. Instant Articles will publish articles directly to the social network's mobile news feeds.
The launch partners for Instant Articles are NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.
Instant Articles will let stories load more than 10 times faster than standard mobile web articles and will include content from publishers such as the New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
The news publishers can either sell and embed advertisements in the articles and keep all of the revenue, or allow Facebook to sell ads.The Internet social networking company will also let the news companies track data and traffic through comScore and other analytics tools.
Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.
9. UP Government launched Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launched the water ATM facility Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations. This facility was installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and at other 100 bus stations of the state.
Through this service, the passengers will get best potable water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.
Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh government also flagged off four luxury buses Scannia to four different destination including Delhi. It also inaugurated an IVRS number 149 enquiry facility regarding bus services of UP.
The state government also laid the foundation stone for up gradation of 25 bus stations where state of the art technology and best passenger and civic facilities will be available.
10. Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger sold for 179.3 million US dollars
Pablo Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger (Version O) was sold for 179.3 million US dollars during an auction at Christie's in New York.
With this sale, this painting became the most expensive painting to be sold at an auction. Les Femme d’Alger, a 1955 painting known in English as The Women of Algiers had a pre-auction estimate of 140 million US dollars.
The previous world record for a painting sold at an auction was 142.4 million US dollars for British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
About the painting Les Femme d’Alger
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter and sculptor, painted a series of fifteen variations of Les Femme d’Alger painting between December 1954 and February 1955. The paintings depict Algerian women in a harem smoking a hookah.
Picasso designated the series alphabetically as versions A through O. The version sold is Version O, the last of the series.
11. India Post launched Dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi
India Posts launched a dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi to cater the e-commerce business enterprises. It was launched by Union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Safdarjang, New Delhi.This project was implemented by Department of Posts through Delhi Postal Circle. This processing centre will exclusively handle all the e-commerce business. It is capable of handling 30000 parcels (articles) per day.
It will also facilitate collection of parcels from the e-commerce customers by processing and dispatching them within 24 hours to respective destination. For this purpose the centre will use quickest available transportation facility like flight or trains.
12. Indian-origin Priti Patel appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government
Indian-origin Priti Patel was appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government.
Prime Minister David Cameron promoted Priti Patel to his Cabinet after his surprise victory in general elections.
As the new minister of state for employment in the Department of Work and Pensions, the 43-year-old will attend Cabinet as the senior-most Indian-origin member of the newly-elected British government.
Priti Patel is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Witham constituency in Essex since 2010.
Priti Patel is Gujarati by origin. In January 2015, she was awarded the Jewels of Gujarat honour at a reception in Ahmedabad, where she led a British delegation to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015.
13. UP Government launches Samajwadi water ATM scheme
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said launch of affordable 'Lohia gramin bus seva', with 25 per cent lower fares, has received accolade from the people and it needs to be expanded further keeping in view the size of the state and the population.
He also laid foundation stones of 25 modern bus stations at a function organised by the state transport department at his official residence here.
The Cheif Minister said making potable water available at such reasonable price to bus passengers indicated the socialist thinking of his government and called for installing water ATMs at most of the bus stations.
Water ATMs will provide potable water at the rate of Re 1 per litre and cold water at Rs 2 per litre, he added.
He said the launch of 'Lohia gramin bus seva' has provided connectivity at affordable fare between cities and rural areas where there was no means of public transport.
Yadav today launched a host of services of the state transport department which include Samajwadi water ATM scheme at bus stations, 149 self operating inquiry service, super luxury air-conditioned bus service.
14. Pop artist Chris Burden passed away
Renowned Pop artist Chris Burden passed away following melanoma disease at his home and studio in Topanga Canyon, California. He was 69.
Trained as a Minimalist, Burden began his career by making art that employed the most minimal materials possible. His most famous early works were Shoot (1971), in which a confederate shot him in the arm with a rifle from about 15 feet away.
15. PM Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for unorganised sector workers
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in Kolkata, West Bengal.
The scheme is intended to enhance old age income security of the working poor and is focused on encouraging and enabling them to join the National Pension System (NPS). It will be operational from 1 June 2015.
Key Features of Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
Operational Framework: It is a Government of India Scheme and is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The institutional architecture of NPS would be utilised to enroll subscribers under scheme.
Eligibility: All citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the NPS administered by the PFRDA and who are not members of any statutory social security scheme are eligible to benefit under the scheme.
The minimum age of joining is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. All the existing subscribers of Swavalamban Scheme would be automatically migrated to APY, unless they opt out.
It is expected that around two crore subscribers would be enrolled during the financial year 2015-16 under the scheme.
Benefits: The subscribers would receive the fixed pension, as guaranteed by the Union Government, of 1000 rupees per month, 2000 rupees per month, 3000 rupees per month, 4000 rupees per month, 5000 rupees per month, at the age of 60 years, depending on their contributions, which itself would vary on the age of joining the scheme.
The pension would also be available to the spouse on the death of the subscriber and thereafter, the pension corpus would be returned to the nominee.
Funding: The Government would co-contribute 50 percent of the subscriber contribution or 1000 rupees per annum, whichever is lower, for a period of 5 years starting from 2015-16, who join the NPS before 31 December 2015 and who are not Income Tax payers. The government would also reimburse the promotional and development activities including incentive to the contribution collection agencies to encourage people to join the scheme.
The Government expenditure is expected to range between 2520 crore and 10000 crore rupees on account of co-contribution to subscribers of the APY over a period of five years. Further, an expenditure of 2000 crore rupees for promotional and developmental activities for enrolment and contribution collection is allocated for period of five years.
Enrolment agencies: All Points of Presence (Service Providers) and Aggregators under Swavalamban Scheme would enroll subscribers through architecture of NPS.
Deepak Iyer was appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
Currently, he is working as the Managing Director-Indian subcontinent at Wrigley India, a subsidiary of the US-based Mars.bHe will take the charge from June 2015. He will take charge from Interim CEO and MD Milind Chalisgaonkar.Earlier, he worked with PepsiCo for 16 years handling multiple international assignments, including those of Senior Franchise Director-Africa, General Manager-North & East India (including Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka) and Director-Sales for Modern Trade/ Food service/ Leisure/ Travel & Transport channels of the company.
2. Daniel Mookhey, first Indian-origin lawmaker in Australia to take oath on the Gita
Indian-origin Daniel Mookhey today became the first politician in Australia to be sworn in on the Gita when he took oath in New South Wales Parliament. Mookhey, 32, was elected by the Labor to replace Steve Whan in the New South Wales Upper House, making him the state's first politician of Indian background.
3. Nikesh Arora appointed as President of Japan’s SoftBank Corp.
Indian-born Nikesh Arora was appointed as the President of Japan’s multinational telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp. As per the announcement made at the company’s earning conference, he will also be the Representative Director of SoftBank Corp.
Before the present elevation, he had been the Vice Chairman of the company and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SB Group US, Inc. (former SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc.) since September 2014.
4. Hyderabad to host Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 in July
Hyderabad will host the four-day Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 that is scheduled to be held on 24 July 2015. The announcement was made by P V Appaji, Director-General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) on 11 May 2015.
The theme of Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 will be Innovation and Advances. The event will deliberate on a range of issues, from pharmaceutical technology to education, indigenous drugs and drug regulatory affairs, besides serving as a platform for joint ventures and project collaboration.
Renowned pharmaceutical experts will be addressing the Summit. The summit will be organised by Indus Foundation in association with FTAPCCI and OMICS group.
3. Nikesh Arora appointed as President of Japan’s SoftBank Corp.
Indian-born Nikesh Arora was appointed as the President of Japan’s multinational telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp. As per the announcement made at the company’s earning conference, he will also be the Representative Director of SoftBank Corp.
Before the present elevation, he had been the Vice Chairman of the company and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SB Group US, Inc. (former SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc.) since September 2014.
4. Hyderabad to host Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 in July
Hyderabad will host the four-day Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 that is scheduled to be held on 24 July 2015. The announcement was made by P V Appaji, Director-General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) on 11 May 2015.
The theme of Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 will be Innovation and Advances. The event will deliberate on a range of issues, from pharmaceutical technology to education, indigenous drugs and drug regulatory affairs, besides serving as a platform for joint ventures and project collaboration.
Renowned pharmaceutical experts will be addressing the Summit. The summit will be organised by Indus Foundation in association with FTAPCCI and OMICS group.
5. RBI advised all Public Sector Banks to appoint Internal Ombudsman
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised all public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
The objective of this initiative is to further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.
The internal ombudsman will be a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.
Besides, it also asked some private sector and foreign banks to appoint such Ombudsman. These are ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank N.A. and HSBC Ltd. These banks have been selected on the basis of their asset size, business mix, etc.
Banking Ombudsman Scheme
The RBI introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) in 1995 to provide an expeditious and inexpensive forum to bank customers for resolution of their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services provided by commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and scheduled primary co-operative banks.
Under the BO Scheme a total of 27 grounds of complaints/deficiencies in bank services are covered. RBI operates the BOS, free of cost, so as to make it accessible to all.
6. Federal Bank offers free insurance on gold loans
Kerala-based Federal Bank will offer a new Gold Loan Product, Akshaya Gold, with the added feature of free insurance cover of up to Rs. 1 lakh.
“Under the scheme, customers will get an insurance cover up to Rs. 1 lakh absolutely free. The product is available at competitive rates across all branches pan India,” the old private sector lender said in a statement.
Customers can avail this loan from any branch in India irrespective of the home branch. Those not holding an account can also avail the loan after submitting the required KYC documents.
Federal Bank also offers Apna Gold 24*7, a premium gold loan product with the convenience of multichannel withdrawal facility like Debit card, Internet, Mobile Banking, POS etc, the bank said.
Babu K A, DGM & Head Retail Business, Federal Bank, “This is the first time any bank has come out with a free insurance cover for gold loans customers...Akshaya Gold is a special offer to our customers to meet their personal financial requirements, needs of their children for education or for buying any house hold items or even for going for a trip within India or abroad.”
7. Indian author Neel Mukherjee won 2014 Encore Award for The Lives of Others
Indian author Neel Mukherjee won the 2014 Encore Award for his novel The Lives of Others. The award is worth 10000 pounds.
The Lives of Others is his second novel. The novel is set in Kolkata of the 1960s when Naxalite violence was at its peak. It is the story of Supratik Ghosh and his family, after he leaves home to join the Communist party of India, Marxist and mobilise the peasants against their landlords.
The Lives of Others was also shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. Neel Mukherjee's first novel, A Life Apart, was published in 2010.
Other short-listed authors are Will Wiles, Deborah Kay Davies and Amanda Coe. Encore award was founded by Lucy Astor in 1990 to celebrate second novels.
2013 Encore award won by Evie Wyld for All The Birds, Singing.
8. Facebook signed up with nine news publishers to launch Instant Articles
Facebook Inc signed up with nine publishers to launch Instant Articles. Instant Articles will publish articles directly to the social network's mobile news feeds.
The launch partners for Instant Articles are NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.
Instant Articles will let stories load more than 10 times faster than standard mobile web articles and will include content from publishers such as the New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
The news publishers can either sell and embed advertisements in the articles and keep all of the revenue, or allow Facebook to sell ads.The Internet social networking company will also let the news companies track data and traffic through comScore and other analytics tools.
Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.
9. UP Government launched Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launched the water ATM facility Samajwadi Shudha Payjal Yojna for UP Roadways bus stations. This facility was installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and at other 100 bus stations of the state.
Through this service, the passengers will get best potable water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.
Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh government also flagged off four luxury buses Scannia to four different destination including Delhi. It also inaugurated an IVRS number 149 enquiry facility regarding bus services of UP.
The state government also laid the foundation stone for up gradation of 25 bus stations where state of the art technology and best passenger and civic facilities will be available.
10. Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger sold for 179.3 million US dollars
Pablo Picasso's painting Les Femme d’Alger (Version O) was sold for 179.3 million US dollars during an auction at Christie's in New York.
With this sale, this painting became the most expensive painting to be sold at an auction. Les Femme d’Alger, a 1955 painting known in English as The Women of Algiers had a pre-auction estimate of 140 million US dollars.
The previous world record for a painting sold at an auction was 142.4 million US dollars for British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
About the painting Les Femme d’Alger
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter and sculptor, painted a series of fifteen variations of Les Femme d’Alger painting between December 1954 and February 1955. The paintings depict Algerian women in a harem smoking a hookah.
Picasso designated the series alphabetically as versions A through O. The version sold is Version O, the last of the series.
11. India Post launched Dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi
India Posts launched a dedicated E-Commerce Centre in New Delhi to cater the e-commerce business enterprises. It was launched by Union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Safdarjang, New Delhi.This project was implemented by Department of Posts through Delhi Postal Circle. This processing centre will exclusively handle all the e-commerce business. It is capable of handling 30000 parcels (articles) per day.
It will also facilitate collection of parcels from the e-commerce customers by processing and dispatching them within 24 hours to respective destination. For this purpose the centre will use quickest available transportation facility like flight or trains.
12. Indian-origin Priti Patel appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government
Indian-origin Priti Patel was appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government.
Prime Minister David Cameron promoted Priti Patel to his Cabinet after his surprise victory in general elections.
As the new minister of state for employment in the Department of Work and Pensions, the 43-year-old will attend Cabinet as the senior-most Indian-origin member of the newly-elected British government.
Priti Patel is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Witham constituency in Essex since 2010.
Priti Patel is Gujarati by origin. In January 2015, she was awarded the Jewels of Gujarat honour at a reception in Ahmedabad, where she led a British delegation to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015.
13. UP Government launches Samajwadi water ATM scheme
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said launch of affordable 'Lohia gramin bus seva', with 25 per cent lower fares, has received accolade from the people and it needs to be expanded further keeping in view the size of the state and the population.
He also laid foundation stones of 25 modern bus stations at a function organised by the state transport department at his official residence here.
The Cheif Minister said making potable water available at such reasonable price to bus passengers indicated the socialist thinking of his government and called for installing water ATMs at most of the bus stations.
Water ATMs will provide potable water at the rate of Re 1 per litre and cold water at Rs 2 per litre, he added.
He said the launch of 'Lohia gramin bus seva' has provided connectivity at affordable fare between cities and rural areas where there was no means of public transport.
Yadav today launched a host of services of the state transport department which include Samajwadi water ATM scheme at bus stations, 149 self operating inquiry service, super luxury air-conditioned bus service.
14. Pop artist Chris Burden passed away
Renowned Pop artist Chris Burden passed away following melanoma disease at his home and studio in Topanga Canyon, California. He was 69.
Trained as a Minimalist, Burden began his career by making art that employed the most minimal materials possible. His most famous early works were Shoot (1971), in which a confederate shot him in the arm with a rifle from about 15 feet away.
15. PM Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for unorganised sector workers
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in Kolkata, West Bengal.
The scheme is intended to enhance old age income security of the working poor and is focused on encouraging and enabling them to join the National Pension System (NPS). It will be operational from 1 June 2015.
Key Features of Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
Operational Framework: It is a Government of India Scheme and is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The institutional architecture of NPS would be utilised to enroll subscribers under scheme.
Eligibility: All citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the NPS administered by the PFRDA and who are not members of any statutory social security scheme are eligible to benefit under the scheme.
The minimum age of joining is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. All the existing subscribers of Swavalamban Scheme would be automatically migrated to APY, unless they opt out.
It is expected that around two crore subscribers would be enrolled during the financial year 2015-16 under the scheme.
Benefits: The subscribers would receive the fixed pension, as guaranteed by the Union Government, of 1000 rupees per month, 2000 rupees per month, 3000 rupees per month, 4000 rupees per month, 5000 rupees per month, at the age of 60 years, depending on their contributions, which itself would vary on the age of joining the scheme.
The pension would also be available to the spouse on the death of the subscriber and thereafter, the pension corpus would be returned to the nominee.
Funding: The Government would co-contribute 50 percent of the subscriber contribution or 1000 rupees per annum, whichever is lower, for a period of 5 years starting from 2015-16, who join the NPS before 31 December 2015 and who are not Income Tax payers. The government would also reimburse the promotional and development activities including incentive to the contribution collection agencies to encourage people to join the scheme.
The Government expenditure is expected to range between 2520 crore and 10000 crore rupees on account of co-contribution to subscribers of the APY over a period of five years. Further, an expenditure of 2000 crore rupees for promotional and developmental activities for enrolment and contribution collection is allocated for period of five years.
Enrolment agencies: All Points of Presence (Service Providers) and Aggregators under Swavalamban Scheme would enroll subscribers through architecture of NPS.
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