Daily Current Affairs- 2nd November 2016

Dear Readers, we are presenting Daily Current Affairs for All Exams- 2nd November 2016.

1. RCEP members worry over market access to China

1. The 15 Asia-Pacific nations including India of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are concern to give greater market access to Chinese goods without gaining in return. 2. All these countries in the RCEP grouping are also worried about agreeing to eliminate tariffs altogether, a move that will mainly help China.

3. RCEP is the proposed mega-regional Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 16 Asia-Pacific countries. It includes India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10-member ASEAN bloc.

2. Kerala becomes third open defecation-free state of India

1. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan declared Kerala as Open Defecation Free” (ODF) state. With this, Kerala became third state to achieve this status.

2. Over 1 lakh villages across the country have become ODF. The Kerala government had constructed about 175000 toilets in the last four months to make Kerala the first among the big states to claim ODF status. 

3. About 800000 people benefitted from the Edamalakkudy initiative to free Kerala of open defecation, including those in tribal hamlets in inaccessible hilly areas like Edamalakkudy in Idukki district. Everyone from local politicians to college students pitched in their support to construct toilets.

3. World Cup top-scorer Klose retires at 38

1. Miroslav Klose, the all-time World Cup top-scorer, announced his retirement from football . Klose, 38, the leading scorer of Germany with 71 goals in 137 internationals, was without a club after his Lazio contract expired last season.

2. Now, the former world-class striker plans to join Germany's coaching staff after an invitation from head coach Joachim Loew.

3. For the purpose, he will have to attend a set coaching programme for the national team as well as the required qualifications for an A-license.

4. His first match of the coaching team for national side will be on 11 November 2016 for the World Cup qualifier against San Marino.

4. CVC asked banks to report frauds of Rs one crore and above

1. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in October 2016 asked the public sector banks to share their reports relating to all loan frauds involving funds over one crore rupees. Till date, such reports were shared with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) only.

2. With this, the banks will have to report the modus operandi of all the alleged frauds to the CVC, which will share these details with other banks to prevent such cases being repeated.

3. Besides, the commission also decided to call regular monthly meetings of senior officials of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), CBI and banks to monitor probe in suspected bank frauds of 50 crore rupees and above.

5. Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 comes into force

1. The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, designed to curb black money and passed by parliament in August 2016, came into effect. 

2. The new law amended the Benami Transactions Act, 1988 and renamed as the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions (PBPT) Act, 1988. The amendment act also to strengthen the parent Act in terms of legal and administrative procedure.

6. LinkedIn inks MoU with govt to create jobs for students

1. Leading global professional network LinkedIn today said it has signed an agreement with the human resource development ministry to create more job opportunities for Indian students.

2. As part of the MoU, LinkedIn’s ‘Placements’ product will be adopted by all Indian colleges affiliated with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

3. ‘Placements’ was piloted in November 2015 and then LinkedIn opened the product in September 2016 to students at all colleges and universities in India.

4. In less than eight weeks from the launch, over two lakh students registered for the product and there were over 1.2 million job applications

7. ICICI Bank rolls out overdraft facility against property

1. ICICI Bank has launched a credit facility against home loans for salaried customers.

2. The Home Overdraft facility will enable a salaried customer to seek loans up to Rs. 1 crore for personal needs against his/her property.

3. The minimum and maximum loan over the Home Overdraft facility is Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 1 crore, respectively.

4. Customers can avail themselves of minimum 10 per cent of the total amount as term loan and maximum 90 per cent as overdraft.

5. The new product will offer the flexibility of sweep in and reverse sweep facility.

6. The overdraft account will be linked to the customers’ savings account. In the sweep-in facility, money will be seamlessly made available in the savings account from the overdraft account, as and when the customer requires it. Similarly, in the reverse-sweep facility, excess funds available in the savings account will be swept back into the overdraft account, thus reducing the interest cost of the customer.

7. Salaried individuals, who have a home loan and a salary account with ICICI Bank, are eligible to apply for the ‘Home Overdraft’ facility. Also, salaried borrowers of preferred corporates who do not have home loans with ICICI Bank can transfer their home loans to the bank to avail themselves of this service.