Current Affairs of 8 october 1. Coal India divestment after Diwali: FinMin official Coal India Ltds divestment process should begin immediately after the Diwali festival on October 23, Manoj Joshi, joint secretary of financial markets in the Finance Ministry, said on Wednesday. The government plans to sell a 10 per cent stake in the state-owned company this fiscal year ending March 31 as part of many divestments aimed at bolstering its stressed finances. 2. Sitharaman: Will look into complaints on Flipkart discount sale After receiving “many complaints” from traders on Flipkart’s massive discount sale, the Government today said it will look into the concerns and take a call on whether more clarity is required on e- commerce retail business. Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Day’ sale on Monday, that offered steep discounts on various products, has raised concerns among small and big traders that such campaigns would badly affect players in the traditional retail market. “We have received many inputs. Lot of concerns have been expressed. We will look into it,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here. Flipkart has said that its ‘Big Bilion Day’ sale saw 1.5 million people shopping at its portal. It also claimed that products worth over ₹600 crore were sold in just 10 hours under the scheme. 3. India plans to raise nearly $800 m through ETF by March India plans to raise around Rs. 5,000 crore ($813.4 million) this fiscal year by selling stakes in companies including ITC, Larsen & Toubro and Axis Bank, a senior official with knowledge of policymakers discussions said on Wednesday. The sales could be made through an exchange traded fund that could be launched before the end of March, the official told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media. The ETF would be made up of the governments stakeholdings in up to ten companies, including stakes in companies held through an offshoot of the Unit Trust of India known as SUUTI. The government holds 11.27 per cent in ITC, 8.18 per cent in L&T and 11.66 per cent in Axis Bank through SUUTI. SUUTI, which stands for Specified Undertaking of The Unit Trust of India, said in a statement that it has invited bids from asset management companies to help it set up the ETF. The size of the ETF could be about Rs. 5,000 crore though the final decision would be taken in consultation with the asset management company, the official said. 4. People’s Choice Award: Bhuvneshwar nominated Promising India medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has emerged as one of the five players nominated for the LG People’s Choice Award ahead of the ICC annual awards. The 24-year-old bowler from Meerut has had a good run in international cricket in recent times. This year’s fifth LG People’s Choice Award sees five players from five different countries nominated to win the only award voted for by the public. The quintet of players nominated for the award are England women’s captain Charlotte Edwards, Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn and of course Bhuvneshwar. Fans will have the opportunity to decide the winner by voting for their favourite player. The winner, as well as the ICC Test and ODI Teams of the Year and the short-list for the remaining LG ICC Awards 2014 will be announced on November 5 at a press conference at the ICC Headquarters here. 5. Georgetown University appoints first Hindu priest The Georgetown University has appointed its first Hindu priest —a woman — to serve the religious needs of its Hindu students, whose number has increased in recent years. Pratima Dharm, who recently retired as the first Hindu chaplain in the U.S. Army, has been appointed as the first Hindu chaplain at the Georgetown University, a move welcomed by the Hindu students of this top private research university. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Jesuit and Catholic university in the U.S. Ms. Dharm began her new assignment at Georgetown on October 1, 2014, the university said in a media statement. 6. SEBI to bring out new de-listing regulations next month: Sinha Capital market regulator SEBI is set to bring out new de-listing regulations next month to enable smooth exit of companies from the bourses. Inaugurating FICCI’s annual capital market conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, U K Sinha, Chairman – SEBI, felt that things of the past which have outlived their utility should have an exit opportunity. Referring to companies that were hardly traded on the bourses, Sinha said “they should be de-listed in an honourable and fair manner keeping in mind the interest of the investors.” 7. Two Americans, One German Win Chemistry Nobel Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner and German scientist Stefan Hell have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says the work of the three scientists has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension. 8. RBI to monitor trades by companies in debt markets Worried that a surge in trading in debt markets by companies could pose risks to financial market stability, Indias central bank has ordered its supervision team to monitor their trades, sources with direct knowledge of the situation said. The move is the strongest expression of concern yet from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about companies that are building large trading positions in debt and currency markets. Such trading can be a lucrative additional source of profits for corporate treasurers, besides revenue from more traditional businesses. But it exposes the companies and broader markets to price volatility and there is a regulatory grey area about who supervises trades by companies in those markets. There is a surveillance team which is looking into the deals between banks and corporates. It is easier to get data from the banking side since the Reserve Bank controls them. The team is on the job, said a policymaker directly aware of the developments. The official declined to say what specific risks the team was probing. All the sources declined to be identified because the information has not been made public. The RBI was not immediately available to comment.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 04:08:59 +0000
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