1. NCR gets bigger; Jind, Karnal and Muzaffarnagar
districts added
i. The sprawl of
the National Capital Region (NCR) just got bigger as the nod has been given for
the inclusion of Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh and the Jind and
Karnal districts of Haryana as part of the conurbation.
ii. Urban
Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced the decision for including the
three districts in NCR after chairing a meeting today of the National Capital
Region Planning Board (NCRPB) here.
iii. Naidu said
that a committee has been appointed to look into the demands for the inclusion
of more areas in NCR.
iv. The Union
minister said that before including any area, the view of the particular state
government will also have to be taken.
v. Haryana Chief
Minister Khattar said that with the inclusion of Jind and Karnal in NCR, 57 per
cent of the state's area had become part of the entity.
2. India’s first State-of-the-Art Tier-I Oil Spill
Response Centre inagurated by Gadkari
i. Tackling
pollution and oil spills in and around Mumbai will now become much easier, as
Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari
inaugurated the India’s first of its kind State-of-the-Art Tier-I Oil Spill
Response Centre for Mumbai & JNPT Harbour
ii. The OSRC which
is equipped with State-of-the-Art equipment in operational readiness for
combating Tier-I oil spill upto 700 tones, ensures adequate protection to the
public health and welfare and to the marine environment.
iii. The facility
which is funded by Participating Oil Companies (POCs) and MbPT has taken the
responsibility of tendering and monitoring of Tier -I OSR facility.
iv. The area of
operation includes the water limits of the Mumbai Port Trust MbPT, JNPT and
ONGC’s facilities at Nhava and Uran.
v. The OSRC will be
monitored on 24/7 basis and is also equipped with skilled and trained personnel
and wireless communication facilities for immediately responding to any oil
spill.
3. 7th International junior shotgun: Anantjeet wins
skeet gold
i. Anantjeet Singh
Naruka beat Lari Pesonen of Finland 12-11 in the skeet match for gold in the
7th International junior shotgun cup that concluded in Orimattila, Finland
ii. After having
qualified at the bottom with a modest score of 110, following rounds of 21, 22,
21, 25 and 21, Anantjeet kept getting better, as he wriggled his way through to
the gold medal match by winning a three-way tie in the shoot-off to challenge
the Finn.
iii. Compatriot
Angadvir Singh Bajwa, who had topped the qualification with 119 following a
series of 23, 24, 24, 24 and 24, won the shoot-off for the bronze medal 6-5
against Matteo Chiti of Italy.
iv. Angadvir and
the Italian had shot three each in losing the shoot-off for the gold medal
match with Anantjeet who shot 4, after the three were tied on 13 in the
semifinals.
4. Government extends Bank of Baroda interim chief
Ranjan Dhawan's term for 3 months
i. The government
has further extended the term of Bank of Baroda's (BoB) interim MD & CEO
Ranjan Dhawan for three months while Bank of India will be headed by its
Executive Director B P Sharma for the same duration.
ii. Dhawan, the
senior-most Executive Director of BoB, was given this additional charge in February.
iii. The post of a
full-time MD & CEO at BoB has been lying vacant since July 2014 when the
then Chairman and Managing Director S S Mundra was appointed RBI Deputy
Governor.
iv. Sharma's
appointment comes into force from June 8, 2015, and will be till the
appointment of a regular MD & CEO or further orders, whichever is earlier,
it added.
5. R C Tayal appointed as new Director General of
National Security Guard
i. Senior IPS
officer R C Tayal has been appointed as the new chief of the elite counter-terror
force National Security Guard (NSG).
ii. The 1980-batch
Assam-Meghalaya cadre officer is at present serving as the Special Director
General in paramilitary CRPF and is heading its formation in Jammu and
Kashmir.
iii. He is expected
to serve as NSG DG till August next year when he is scheduled for
superannuation.
iv. NSG was raised
in 1984 as a federal contingency force with a specific aim to undertake
counter-terror and counter-hijack operations and it was later tasked to protect
high-risk VVIPs.
6. EPFO to invest 5% of funds in equity market
i. In a major
policy shift, the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund
Organisation has decided to park 5 per cent of its funds in the equity market.
ii. Union Labour
Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the decision was in line with the suggestions
made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely that the EPFO invest up to 15 per cent of
its funds in the equity market.
iii. In another
major announcement, the Minister said the Central Board of Trustees of the
Employees State Insurance Corporation, at its latest meeting, decided to invest
funds available with it from the contribution of employees through portfolio
managers on the lines of the EPFO.
iv. Employees’
interests would be the priority of the EPFO and care would be taken in the
equity investments, the Labour Minister added.
7. Isro Bags Space Pioneer Award for Mangalyaan Mars
Orbiter Mission
i. The country's
low-cost Mangalyaan Mars orbiter mission which is in rendezvous with the Red
Planet for an extended period has been presented with the Space Pioneer award
for the year 2015 by the US' National Space Society.
ii. Space Pioneer
award for the year 2015 was presented to Indian Space Research Organisation
(Isro) in the Science and Engineering category during the 34th Annual
International Space Development Conference held at Toronto in Canada during May
20-24, 2015, Bengaluru-headquartered Isro said on its website.
iii. The Isro
spacecraft was launched on its nine-month-long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV
rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 and had escaped
the earth's gravitational field on December 1.
iv. The spacecraft
is under 'solar conjunction' at Mars, which means the spacecraft, which is
orbiting Mars, is behind the sun as viewed from the Earth.
8. RBI debt recast norms: Banks will be left holding
the bag if no buyers for firms turn up
i. The Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) has permitted banks to take control of 51 percent of stake in a
company that has failed to recover financial health even after a period of
financial restructuring, typically due to management inefficiency or other
factors.
ii. This provision,
part of the strategic debt restructuring exercise (SDR), is aimed at ensuring
promoters of defaulted companies have more ‘skin in the game’.
iii. The RBI’s move
is part of a coordinated action plan with markets regulator, Securities and
exchange board of India (Sebi), which in March had allowed banks to convert
part or full debt of listed defaulter companies into equity.
iv. Both the RBI
and Sebi have made the process easier for banks and become aggressive in taking
control of defaulter companies.
v. For companies
too, this will offer relief since they will be free from interest payments once
the debt is converted into equity. However, such a relief might come at the
cost of losing management control.
9. ICICI Bank Appoints MK Sharma As Non-Executive
Chairman
i. ICICI Bank on
Tuesday said that its board has approved the appointment of MK Sharma as
non-executive chairman for a period of five years.
ii. Mr Sharma will
replace KV Kamath who would shortly step down from the board consequent to his
nomination as the first president of the BRICS New Development Bank.
iii. Mr Sharma was
formerly the vice chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL).
iv. e is an
independent director of several companies and has been a member of government
committees relating to corporate law and corporate governance, ICICI Bank said
in a statement.
v. He is currently
an independent director of two subsidiaries of the Bank, ICICI Lombard General
Insurance Company and ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company.