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Thursday 9 January 2014

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. -