Indonesian Government announced to build new sanctuary to save World’s rarest Javan Rhinos

Indonesian Government announced to build a new sanctuary to save World’s rarest Javan rhinos. The new sanctuary will be carved out of the Ujung Kulon National Park.

Ujung Kulon National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is situated on the western tip of Indonesia's main island of Java. 

8TH Financial Stability Report released by RBI

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its 8th Financial Stability Report (FSR) on 30 December 2013. The FSR was released against the backdrop of a mild positive market reaction to the announcement of tapering in the US Federal Reserve bond purchase plan from January 2014.

Major Highlights of the report are:
India's external sector has improved with reduction in Current Account Deficit (CAD). CAD is expected to be less than 3 per cent of the GDP during the current financial year 2013-14. 

Report revealed that the banking system is facing rising tide of bad loans. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in the system will rise to 4.6 per cent by September 2014 from 4.2 per cent in September 2013. 

The amount of recast loans touched an all-time high of 10.2 per cent of the overall advances as of September 2013.

The state-run banks will be the worst-affected, the report said, pegging the gross NPAs for public sector banks at 4.9 per cent by March 2015. It projected the gross NPAs for private banks at 2.7 per cent in the same period. 

Asset quality continues to be a major concern for Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs). The Gross Non-performing Assets ratio of SCBs as well as their restructured standard advances ratio has increased. 

Five sectors — infrastructure, iron & steel, textiles, aviation and mining — have a high level of stressed advances. At system level, these five sectors together account for around 24 per cent of total advances of commercial banks and around 51 per cent of their total stressed advances.

Due to the interconnectedness with banks, liquidity pressure is felt by the money market mutual funds (MMMFs) whenever redemption requirements of banks are large and simultaneous. Regulatory measures are taken to reduce the degree of interconnectedness seem to have been successful in reducing the liquidity risk in the system. 

However, macro-economic adjustment is far from complete, with persistence of high inflation amidst growth slowdown. Fall in domestic savings and high fiscal deficit are other major concerns for India. 

Macro stress tests on credit risk suggest that if the adverse macroeconomic conditions persist, the credit quality of commercial banks could deteriorate further. However, under improved conditions, the present trend in credit quality may reverse during the second half of 2014.

China banned officials from smoking in public places

According to the China’s official Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Government on 30 December 2013 banned its officials from smoking in public places. Public places include schools, offices, and hospitals, sports venues, on Public transport or any other places where smoking is banned or to smoke or offer cigarettes hen performing official duties.

Ashraf Jehan, first female judge in Pak’s National Sharia Court

Ashraf Jehan a female judge on 30 December 2013 sworn-in at Pakistan’s national sharia court which hears cases under the Islamic legislation.

Devendra Kumar Pathak appointed as Special DG, BSF

Devendra Kumar Pathak has been appointed as the Special DG, Border Security Force (BSF) on 30 December 2013. At the time of his appointment in BSF, he was serving as the Special DG, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

His appointment as the Special DG, BSF started with immediate effect and will continue till the date of superannuation in March 2016 or until any further orders. 

Pathak is an (Indian Police Service) IPS of 1989-batch of Assam-Meghalaya cadres. He has been serving Central Reserve Police Force since 11 November 2011. -

Nobel Memorial Wall inaugurated at Kolkata by the Swedish Ambassador

Harald Sandberg, the Swedish Ambassador on 25 October 2013 inaugurated the Nobel Memorial Wall in Kolkata. The Nobel Memorial Wall has been set up at the Esplanade Metro Station in Kolkata. Seven of the Nobel Laureates from India are portrayed in the metro station along with the Rabindranath Tagore.  

The Memorial Wall was inaugurated of centenary when Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The portraits on the Memorial Wall also carry the information related to the life and achievements in the respective field of the Nobel Laureates with the year when they were awarded the Nobel in three languages, namely English, Hindi and Bangla. 

Two more memorial walls would be established at metro stations of Gitanjali and Jorasanko. The work on the Nobel Memorial Wall was done as the part of the seventh edition of the Sweden-India Nobel Memorial wee.

India's Foreign Exchange Reserves jumped to 281.12 Billion US Dollars

India's foreign exchange reserves increased for the third week in a row, adding 1.9 billion dollars to touch 281.12 billion dollars in the week ended on 25 October 2013. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by 1.51 billion to 279.24 billion dollars.

The Reserve Bank stated that Foreign Currency Assets, which form the largest chunk of the reserves, jumped to 252.7 billion dollars in the week under review.

As per the RBI data, the gold reserves remained unchanged at 21.765 billion US dollars in the week under review, whereas the special drawing rights jumped by 25.6 million US dollars to 4.46 billion US dollars.

India bagged 37 Medals at the Tehran Air Gun Shooting Championship

Indian shooters bagged 37 medals at 6th Air Gun Shooting Championship which concluded in Tehran, Iran on 26 October 2013. This includes nine golds. They also won 12 silver and 16 bronze medals. Eight of the gold medals were clinched in the junior and youth categories.

Kapil Kumar (10m Air Pistol Jr. Men), Samarjit Singh ((10M Air Pistol Youth Men), Malaika Goel (10M Air Pistol Youth Women) and Sanjeev Rajput (50M Rifle Prone Men) won individual Gold Medals.

India had sent a big contingent of 65 shooters in senior, junior and youth category. This competition was the most successful in terms of good exposure specially to juniors and youth category shooters. It is important to note that three out of four individual gold medals were won by juniors and youth category shooters.

BCCI terminated Pune Warriors from the IPL

The BCCI on 26 October 2013 terminated Pune Warriors from the IPL after the Sahara-owned franchise failed to pay its payments and refused to furnish the bank guarantee for the next season. The decision was taken at the Cricket Board's all-powerful working committee meeting.  BCCI wanted the team to furnish a bank guarantee of 170.2 crore rupees to remain a part of the league next year.

Sahara has been demanding the completion of the arbitration proceedings on the issue of franchise fee, which, it feels, should be lowered since the BCCI did not deliver on its promised number of IPL matches for the team.

Pune Warriors were purchased by Sahara for 370 million US dollars (1702 crore rupees) in 2010 and it was the most expensive franchise on the IPL roster.

World Bank approved 250 Million Assistance US Dollars for Uttarakhand

The World Bank on 25 October 2013 approved 250 million US dollars assistance for Uttarakhand, in the wake of rains and landslides that killed several hundred people in the state in June 2013. The World Bank approved the assistance to help the state undertake rehabilitation work and improve its capacity for disaster management.

India had asked for help from multi-lateral agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for undertaking rehabilitation work in Uttarakhand. 
Prior to this, a joint World Bank and ADB team conducted a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (JRDNA) to rebuild Uttarakahnd's infrastructure damaged in the June disaster.

According to the JRDNA estimate, the total reconstruction work to repair physical damages and infrastructure loss was calculated at about 661 million US dollars. The infrastructure covered sectors such as housing and public infrastructure, water supply, roads and bridges and sanitation, tourism, energy and environment.