IBPS2020

1. Satnam Singh Bhamara scripted history by becoming the first Indian basketball player to be drafted in America's prestigious National Basketball Association (NBA) after being picked by Dallas Mavericks. Earlier teams like Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics had chosen him for practice. The 19-year-old, who hails from Punjab and stands 7 feet 2 inches tall, was the 52nd pick in the NBA Draft. 2. India and the United States of America (USA) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) on cooperation on Cancer Research, prevention, control and management in Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury Prevention and Control, and a Letter of Intent (LoI) on Antimicrobial Resistance Research. 3. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry,...

1. Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has been appointed President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for one year term at the annual conference of the sport's world governing body in Barbados. Zaheer, 67, filled the vacancy for the post left by Mustafa Kamal, who resigned in April. Abbas played 78 tests and 62 one day internationals from 1969 to 1985 in which he has made 5,062 and 2,572 runs, respectively. 2. According to the UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2015, after 2008, for the first time, India again broke in to the top 10 recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) during 2014. India jumped to the ninth rank in 2014 with a 22 percent rise in FDI inflows to $34 billion. China became the largest recipient of FDI in 2014 with $129 billion inflows, followed by Hong Kong (China) that received $103 billion and the U.S. with $92 billion. 3. India has emerged as the third largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for United Kingdom (UK) afte...

The Reserve Bank of India has issued 100 denomination banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi Series – 2005 with a new numbering pattern. Now the numerals in both the number panels of these banknotes will be in ascending size from left to right, while the first three alphanumeric characters (prefix) will remain constant in size.  Printing the numerals in ascending size is a visible security feature in the banknotes so that the general public can easily distinguish a counterfeit note from a genuine one. The Reserve Bank, in consultation with Government of India, has been improving security features of Indian banknotes so as to make their counterfeiting difficult and make it easy for members of public to identify genuine banknotes. The design of banknotes with numerals in ascending size is similar in all other respects to the current design of 100 banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi Series – 2005 except for the new numbering pattern. The banknotes will continue to have " " symbol on t...

The Reserve Bank of India has extended the date for the public to exchange their pre-2005 banknotes till December 31, 2015. It had, in December 2014, set the last date for public to exchange these notes as June 30, 2015. Soliciting cooperation from members of public in withdrawing these banknotes from circulation, the Reserve Bank of India has urged them to deposit the old design notes in their bank accounts or exchange them at a bank branch convenient to them. The Reserve Bank has stated that the notes can be exchanged for their full value. It has also clarified that all such notes continue to remain legal tender. Explaining the move, the Reserve Bank said that the banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi series have now been in circulation for a decade. A majority of the old banknotes have been withdrawn through bank branches. It has, therefore, decided to withdraw the remaining old design notes from circulation. Not having currency notes in multiple series in circulation at the same time i...

The online examination (Preliminary and Main) for Probationary Officer/ Management Trainee posts in the Participating Organisations is tentatively scheduled in October 2015. The tentative schedule of events is as follows:  On-line registration including Edit/Modification of Application by candidates:  10.07.2015 to 01.08.2015 Payment of Application Fees/Intimation Charges (Online):  10.07.2015 to 01.08.2015  Download of call letters for Pre - Exam Training:  09.09.2015 to 19.09.2015  Conduct of Pre-Exam Training:  18.09.2015 to 23.09.2015  Download of call letters for online examination - Preliminary:  23.09.2015 onwards  Online Examination Preliminary:  03.10.2015, 04.10.2015 10.10.2015, 11.10.2015 Result of Online exam – Preliminary:  October 2015  Download of Call letter for Online exam - Main:  October 2015  Online Examination – Main:  31.10.2015  Declar...

1. Tennis legend Steffi Graf was appointed the Ayurveda brand ambassador of Kerala. The Kerala tourism department was given sanction to sign an agreement with Graf to become Ayurveda brand ambassador as part of the department's 'Visit Kerala' Scheme. Germany's former world number one tennis player, Graf bagged 22 Grand slam single titles and retired in 1999. 2. In the 20th USIC- Tennis (World Railways) Championship held at Nuremberg, Germany, Indian Railway Team defeated France by a margin of 3-1 in the finals and won USIC Tennis Championship 2015. In another event, in 20th USIC –Volleyball (World Railways) Championship held at Gomel, Belarus, Indian Railway Team defeated Russian team in the finals and won USIC Volleyball Championship 2015. 3. Noted DRDO scientist Narayana Murthy has been conferred with the Astronautical Society of India's Rocket and Related Technologies Award in recognition of his research, innovations, sustained contributions and leadersh...

1. Retirement fund body EPFO has made Universal Account Number (UAN) mandatory for all employers covered under the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952. The UAN facility was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October last year. The UAN remains portable throughout the lifetime of an employee and they don't have to apply for PF transfer claims at changing jobs. 2. ICICI Bank has partnered with Alibaba.com, the leading platform for global wholesale trade, to launch a ‘trade facilitation centre’, a single window facility to provide easier trade finance to the small and medium enterprises in India. The collaboration for the centre will enable the Indian entrepreneurs who are members of Alibaba.com to get quick access to an array of integrated business services from ICICI Bank including business loans, cash management solutions, foreign exchange transactions, bank guarantees and cross-border remittances.  3. Renowned carnatic ...

In a move aimed at simplifying the income tax refund process and reducing errors, the Income Tax Department has decided to begin a process to transfer directly all I-T refunds to a bank account of the individual’s choice as soon as the sum is processed. The department is also looking to adopt banking services as an alternative to the current one where refunds of over Rs. 50,000 are sent via cheques through post.

Australia, on Wednesday, announced that it would join the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding member, contributing about $930 million to the financial institution of which India will be the second largest shareholder. “We look forward to working with other members to lay the foundations for an effective new multilateral institution, which is expected to be operational by the end of the year,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. “Australia will contribute around A$930 million as paid-in capital to the AIIB over five years and will be the sixth largest shareholder,” she said. AIIB will have paid-in capital of $20 billion (A$25.2 billion) with total authorised capital of $100 billion (A$126.2 billion). Treasurer Joe Hockey will attend the Articles of Agreement signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, on June 29, according to an official statement. Australian government’s decision has come after extensive discuss...

The Finance Ministry’s proposal to incentivise the use of electronic payments by providing tax breaks to establishments that facilitate electronic card payments, as well as income tax breaks to those who use them, is the first serious effort to tackle the predominance of cash in the Indian economy. One hopes that the proposals, contained in a draft paper put up for discussion and comment by the ministry, will become policy. Finance Minister   Arun Jaitley   deserves to be congratulated for actually following through on his   Budget   promise to crack down on black money by promoting the use of an alternative payment system that leaves an electronic trail. The draft proposals, however, concentrate on tackling two key areas of resistance to the adoption of card payments by both merchants and consumers. The first is the higher cost of electronic transactions, where the fees charged by the payment gateway provider adds to the transaction costs. This can be a maj...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Tuesday relaxed the norms for technological start-ups to raise funds from the capital market, while easing the norms for issuance of Initial Public Offering (IPO) by companies. The capital market regulator reduced the post-listing lock-in period for tech start-up promoters to six months, instead of three years for other IPOs. “Exchanges will have a separate platform, Institutional Trading Platform (ITP), and would facilitate capital raising as well for start-ups,” said SEBI Chairman U.K. Sinha while addressing press conference here after its board meeting. 1 Exchanges will have a separate platform for start-ups 2 Reduces post-listing lock-in period for tech start-up promoters to six months 3 Rationalises the framework for reclassification of promoters as public It also said that this platform is accessible to companies, which are intensive in their use of technology, information technology, intellectual pro...

1. Union Cabinet gives nod to introduction of Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 i. Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved introduction of Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 in coming session of Parliament. ii. The Bureau will perform its functions through a Governing Council consisting of President and other members. iii. Mandatory certification regime: Empower government to bring mandatory certification regime for articles, processes or services which it considers necessary. iv. Simplified conformity assessment schemes: In order to allow ease of doing business, the bill allows multiple types of simplified assessment schemes. It includes Self Declaration of Conformity (SDOC) against any standard which will give multiple simplified options to manufacturers. v. Mandatory hallmarking: provisions related to compulsory hallmarking of precious metal articles. Strengthening penal provisions: It will help for better and effective com...

WHAT IS SYLLOGISM? A  syllogism  is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two or more others (the premises). example: Premise 1:  All women are mothers. Premise 2:  All mothers are caring. Conclusion:  All women are caring. All of us, who have given or are preparing for any kind of entrance exam like CAT, SSC, MAT, XAT, SCAT and others, have come across syllogisms. Venn diagrams are used to solve syllogisms and are considered the standard way. But Alas! our exams’ time limit does not provide us with the time enough to draw the diagram, label and shade it and draw the conclusion out of it! Then!! What to do? Well there is not much to worry. Here are some basic tips, tricks and step by step method which will help you to solve a syllogism or at least make it somewhat easier. 1.        Shortcut rules  (if Venn Diagrams are confusing you) between St...