Today's GK

In yet another step to contain the current account deficit, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday imposed restrictions on gold imports by banks and other authorised agencies. As per the new norms, all banks and authorised agencies will have to ensure that at least 20 per cent of the imported gold is made available for exports and a similar amount is retained with the customs. "It shall be incumbent on all nominated banks/nominated agencies to ensure that at least one fifth of every lot of import of gold (in any form/purity including import of gold coins/dore) is exclusively made available for the purpose of export," the RBI said in a notification

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Three years after Darshan Patel and his brothers sold Paras Pharmaceuticals, built with private equity funds, he is back in the market to raise money for his personal care company Vini Cosmetics. Vini Cosmetics, which owns brands like Fogg, 18+ deodorants and White Tone Talc, is in advanced talks with PE fund Sequoia Capital to raise around 100 crore to expand its products in the hair and skin care range and widen its distribution network, three people with direct knowledge of the development

The nation's largest lender State Bank of India BSE 1.84 % needs Rs 2,30,000 crore in additional capital to meet the stringent Basel III requirements till 2018"We need about Rs 2,30,000 crore of additional capital for Basel III up to 2018. Out of this, Rs 1,50,000 crore is of tier I and the rest Rs 80,000 in tier II capital," SBI managing director and chief financial officer Diwakar Gupta told PTI here in an interaction. According to the Reserve Bank, the banking system will collectively require Rs 5,00,000 crore to implement the Basel-III capital needs. Basel-III is the newer international standard of capital allocation devised and adopted following the 2008 financial crisis.

The Reserve Bank of India has allowed loans to new ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) to be regarded as secured debt even though the site and the plant will be owned by distribution utilities, not the winning bidder, official sources said, setting the stage for a wave of new giant power stations. Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had approached RBI on the issue as lenders said debts to the proposed projects would be risky in the absence of ownership by the borrower. The new round of UMPPs, followings the previous projects such as the Mundra plant of the Tata group and Reliance Power's Sasan unit may also allow tariff revision, bar non-core sector firms from bidding and restrict offloading of equity by the company that is awarded the project. The norms, known as standard bidding documents, will be taken to the cabinet committee on economic affairs for approval and a note has been circulated for consultation. Once approved, the norms will pave way for auction of two ultra mega power projects in Bedhabahal and Surguja in Chhattisgarh that have been put on hold. The government has so far awarded three ultra mega power projects to Reliance PowerBSE 1.97 % and one to Tata Power. Sites for 10 more such projects have been identified in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started scrutiny of nearly 3,000 companies which could be carrying out non-banking finance operations without requisite registration, in the wake of concerns about their actual business activities. RBI Governor D Subbarao earlier said that illegal money pooling activities can only be checked by stronger surveillance and better enforcement of laws. "The problem is not with regulated schemes, the problem is with unlawful schemes, and unlawful schemes are by definition not regulated.

India and Nigeria on 22 July 2013 signed an agreement in Abuja to locate sites for solar power plants in Niger state. The agreement will provide additional energy for Nigeria's national grid. It would be the first of a series of power plant deals. The agreement was signed between the secretary to the Government of India, Sutanu Behuria and Nigeria's permanent secretary in the Ministry of Power Godknows Igali. With this agreement in place, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BSE) will begin preliminary studies for setting up independent solar-powered plants in selected locations in Niger.

The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby boy on 22 July 2013 at the London hospital. This is the first child of the royal couple- Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. The birth of the baby boy was announced through a formal press release which was issued by the Kensington Palace.

C.P. Srivastava, who was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan in 1972, died on 22 July 2013 in Genoa, Italy.

The country's first cashless treatment of road accident victims, which ensures free treatment in the first 48 hours, will be launched next Monday with the 200-km stretch from Gurgaon's 32-lane toll plaza to Jaipur bypass of NH-8 to be the pilot corridor. A trial run has been conducted on this stretch for the past three weeks involving over 70 volunteers trained by AIIMS as first responders. The programme, to be launched by the road transport and highways ministry, aims to shift crash victims within 20 minutes to a nearby hospital. Sources said more than 50 hospitals have been networked to admit injured people immediately and provide treatment. Ten advance life-support ambulances have been deployed on the pilot stretch. "These would be stationed at an approximate distance of 20 km from each other, thus serving 10 km on either side. The average response time will not be more than 20 minutes," said Birendra Mohanty, vice-president of Financial Inclusion Solution Group (FISG) at ICICI Lombard. Officials said a toll free number (1033) to call an ambulance or report an accident had been activated and a call centre was engaged to take care of all such emergency calls. "We have already asked NHAI to activate this number for all accidents reported on national highways," said a ministry official.

The Supreme Court on Monday banned surrogate advertisement of tobacco products by lifting a seven-year-old interim order of the Bombay high court. The Bombay HC in 2006 had admitted petitions by manufacturers challenging certain provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution (Amendment) Rules, 2005 and had stayed Rule 2(e) which banned indirect advertisement of tobacco products. Tobacco companies were extensively promoting their products through various medium specifically targeting children, in violation of Section 5 of the Tobacco Control Act, 2003 read with Rule 2(e) of the 2005 Rules, the petition said. Surrogate advertisements and targeting of children violated Article 13 of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the petitioner said. Article 13(1) of FCTC states that "parties recognize that a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship would reduce the consumption of tobacco products".

Even as Bangladesh on Monday denied a 'deal' in its decision to hand over ULFA leader Anup Chetia to India, the deportation will indeed be part of a 'swap' in which New Delhi will match the neighbouring country's gesture by transferring two Bangladeshi criminals — Subrata Bain and Sajjad Hossain — who are in Indian jails. Besides, New Delhi also assured Dhaka of coordination with the latter's agencies to track, arrest and hand over the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.