Union Government reconstitutes Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Union Government has reconstituted Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). In this regard, government has appointed 1 chairperson and 9 board members. Chairperson: Filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani was appointed chairperson. He will be office in for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. 9 Members are: BJP leader Vani Tripathi Tikoo, filmmakers Ashoke Pandit and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, film writer Mihir Bhuta, Syed Abdul Bari, Ramesh Patange, actor George Baker, actor-filmmaker Jeevitha and actor- playwright S Ve Shekhar. Background Earlier, then Chairperson of CBFC Leela Samson had resigned after Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) cleared the controversial film Messenger of God featuring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in lead role. As the Chairperson of Censor Board she had denied the clearance certificate to the film saying that the movie depicts Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh as a God. Following her resignation, 9 board members also had resigned creating vacancies in the booard. 2. India’s growth to reach 6.3 per cent in 2016: UN WESP report According to the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2015 report, India’s growth in terms of GDP is expected to reach 5.9 per cent in 2015 and 6.3 per cent in 2016. 3. Twitter buys Indian mobile marketing start-up ZipDial Twitter Inc on Tuesday said it will buy Indian mobile phone marketing start-up ZipDial, reportedly for $30 million to $40 million, as the US microblogging service looks to expand in the worlds second-biggest mobile market. Bengaluru-based ZipDial gives clients phone numbers for use in marketing campaigns. Consumers call the numbers and hang up before connecting and incurring charges, and then receive promotion-related text messages. The start-ups clients include International Business Machines Corp, Yum! Brands Incs KFC and Procter & Gamble Co s Gillette. The service capitalises on a local tradition of communicating through so-called missed calls. A person may give a friend a missed call to signal arrival at an agreed destination, for instance, without having to pay the cost of a phone call. Twitter did not disclose terms of the purchase. Techcrunch, citing unidentified sources, reported the deal at $30 million to $40 million. Last year, Facebook Inc bought Little Eye Labs, a start-up that builds performance analysis and monitoring tools for mobile apps. Yahoo! Inc bought Bookpad, whose service allows developers to add document viewing and editing to their own applications. 4. Haiti president announced formation of new government under Prime Minister Evans Paul Haitian President Michel Martelly on 18 January 2015 announced the formation of new government that will be led by newly elected Prime Minister Evans Paul. Martelly appointed 18 ministers and 16 secretaries of state to the new cabinet of Haiti. Carel Alexandre was appointed as the head of public security. The new planning minister is Yves Germain Joseph. Despite promising a new government, Martelly kept several current cabinet members in their posts including the Ministers of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Health, Tourism, Education and Public Works and appointed his allies to the key positions of Planning Minister and Secretary of State for Public Security. 5. Twitter appointed Taranjeet Singh as Head of Sales for its India operation Microblogging site Twitter on 19 January 2015 appointed Taranjeet Singh as Head of Sales for its operation in India. As Head of Sales, his responsibilities would include increasing commercial opportunities for Twitter in India and to work closely with brands and agencies to maximise value of real-time marketing. Earlier, Taranjeet served as the Sales Director (South Asia) for BBC Advertising and was responsible for revenue and business strategy of BBC World News. Prior to joining the BBC, he held various positions at Outlook Publishing Pvt Ltd, including heading its advertising sales and business development in Northern India. 6. Karur Vysya Bank wins award The Best Tech Savvy Bank – Runner Up award in MSME Banking Excellence Awards 2014 has gone to Karur Vysya Bank. The Chamber of Indian Micro Small and Medium Enterprises has constituted this award. Jarard Thomas, Deputy General Manager, New Delhi Division, received the award on behalf of the bank from the Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra 7. RBI issues additional guidelines on Base Rate for banks The RBI on Monday said the spread (or the mark up over the base rate) charged to an existing borrower by banks should not be increased except on account of deterioration in the credit risk profile of the customer or change in the tenor premium. What this means is that if the credit rating of an existing borrowing unit deteriorates then at the time of the annual renewal of loan limit , the spread charged over the base rate will be increased. Otherwise the interest rate remains unchanged. In its additional guidelines on ‘Interest Rates on Advances’, the RBI also allowed banks to review the Base Rate methodology after three years from the date of its finalization instead of the current periodicity of five years. This is to provide banks greater operational flexibility to them. Base rate is the minimum interest rate below which a bank will not lend. The Base Rate system was introduced with effect from July 1, 2010 to enhance transparency in lending rates of banks and enable better assessment of transmission of monetary policy. Any decision regarding change in spread on account of change in credit risk profile should be supported by a full-fledged risk profile review of the customer, the RBI said. The change in tenor premium should not be borrower specific or loan class specific. In other words, the change in tenor premium will be uniform for all types of loans for a given residual tenor. Banks, according to the RBI, should have a Board approved policy delineating the components of spread (mark up over the base rate) charged to a customer. Further, it should be ensured that any price differentiation is consistent with bank’s credit pricing policy. 8. IFC, Singapore’s GIC to invest ₹1,600 cr in Bandhan World Bank arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC will invest about ₹1,600 crore in Bandhan Financial Services Ltd. While IFC is raising its equity stake in Bandhan, GIC is a new investor. The Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the other investor in Bandhan. According to Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman and Managing Director of Bandhan, the investment will be made over the next one month. Bandhan, along with IDFC, was granted in-principle banking licence by the Reserve Bank of India in April last year. Post the ₹1,600-crore investment, Bandhan will have a capital base of about ₹3,200 crore. The microfinance institution currently has a capital base of around ₹1,500 crore with a 21 per cent capital adequacy ratio. Bandhan is expected to start banking operations by September with some 600 branches across the country. 9. PayUMoney partners with RBL Bank to offer virtual wallet PayUMoney, PayU India’s online payment solution brand, has entered into an alliance with Ratnakar Bank (RBL Bank) to launch a semi-closed co-branded virtual wallet. The wallet will be issued by RBL Bank and distributed and marketed by PayUMoney. The wallet – ‘PayUMoney Wallet issued by RBL Bank’ - will be available only to PayUMoney consumers in India. “This semi-closed wallet will add to the ease and convenience of consumers while paying through PayUMoney,” said Shailaz Nag, Chief Operating Officer of PayU Payments. Users can load this wallet to a maximum of Rs. 10,000 and use it at more than 62,000 merchants where PayUMoney is accepted as a payment option. 10. RBL Bank launches digital wallet for e-commerce Old private sector lender RBL Bank (earlier known as Ratnakar Bank) has tied up with payments company TranServ to introduce bank-sponsored digital wallet called Shmart for online retailers in India. “Developed specifically to address the unique needs of online retailers in India, the digital payment product suite -- Shmart has been deployed by over 150 merchants,” RBL Bank said in a statement. Online merchants can offer their customers faster checkout, instant refunds, secure storage of bank cards, vouchers and coupons, and an RBL Bank sponsored semi-closed loop pre-paid account to store funds. They can also process transactions across multiple channels – mobile, Web or point-of-sale (PoS). Shmart integrates with the interface of e-commerce Web sites and mobile apps, allowing retailers to control their brand and their customers’ experience.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 04:40:57 +0000
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