THE HEADLINES:
- RBI keeps repo rate unchanged; Cuts SLR by half a per cent; Reliance and Aditya Birla group among applicants for setting up small savings bank and payment bank.
- Aam Aadmi Party appeals to Supreme Court for an SIT probe into accounts of all major political parties; Finance minister Arun Jaitley says courts should be kept away from politics
- Srinagar-Jammu national highway remains closed due to heavy snowfall.
- Swine-flu claims 52 lives in Rajasthan.
- UN Security Council asks Islamic state militants to immediately release all hostages.
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The Reserve Bank of India today kept the key rates unchanged. Thus the repo rate stands at 7.75 percent. This stance follows rate cut by RBI on 15th of last month to tackle disinflationary pressure. Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) has been slashed by 50 basis points to 21.5 per cent . The cash reserve ratio stands at 4 percent. The apex bank which issued its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement in Mumbai today, has estimated the Current Account Deficit (CAD) for 2014-15 at 1.3 percent of the GDP, a figure much lesser then the earlier projection.
The apex bank has fore-cast inflation to be around the target level of 6 per cent by January 2016. Growth outlook for the real GDP in 2015-16 has been retained to be 6.5 per cent .
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that given that there have been no substantial new developments on the disinflationary process or on the fiscal outlook since 15 January, it was appropriate for the Reserve Bank to await them and maintain the current interest rate stance. Despite fiscal deficit touching 99 per cent by November, the Governor said he was confident that the government will not miss the budgeted 4.1 per cent target. We spoke to economist Saugat Bhattacharya on the RBI's policy review.
" The RBI itself was a little wary because given the data uncertainty that now prevails and waiting for the budget, the next set of inflation data particularly the new FI-15 growth numbers. Given this, the move to cut SLR was designed to increase to credit flows to productive sector as they are called and they have also taken lot of measures to clean up bank balanced sheets. And together it will provide conditions for banks to start cutting rates within the next few months."
As regards the agricultural growth, the RBI Governor said that it is likely to pick in the fourth quarter with late improvement in the northeast monsoon and Rabi sowing.
The RBI noted that there is improvement in business confidence as visible from pick up in new investment intentions, especially in transportation power and manufacturing.
The first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for fiscal year 2015-16 is scheduled on 7th April, 2015.
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Reserve Bank of India today said it has received 72 applications for small finance banks and 41 applications for payment banks. Top corporate houses such as Reliance Industries Limited, Aditya Birla Group, Airtel, Vodafone and Future Group have approached the RBI to seek licences to set up small finance banks.
Speaking in Mumbai at the bi-monthly monetary policy review, RBI Governor Dr. Raghuram Rajan today said that the RBI has formed two external committees to evaluate the applications received to set up these banks.
Payment banks would be allowed payments and remittance services through various channels. However, such lenders cannot issue credit cards, or undertake lending activities. Small Finance Banks will mainly undertake basic banking activities like acceptance of deposits and lending to unserved and under-served sections. These sections will include small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and unorganised sector entities.
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After a positive opening, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange gave up all its gains soon after the Reserve Bank of India left interest rates unchanged in its monetary policy review. Later, the Sensex turned volatile, and had dropped 16 points, to 29,107 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. But ahead of the RBI's policy review, this morning, the Sensex had climbed 131 points. Similarly, the Nifty at the National Stock Exchange had declined 23 points, to 8,775 a short while ago. Interest-rate sensitive banking and realty stocks were the biggest losers.
Other Asian markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore were trading mixed, today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average had ended 1.1 per cent higher in yesterday's trade.
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Madhya Pradesh has been awarded the 10th national award for excellent work in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act-MGNREGA. Union Rural Development Minister Virendra Singh presented the award to state’s Panchayats and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava at the MNREGA summit held in New Delhi yesterday. Our Bhopal correspondent reports that there are a total of 1 crore 2 lakh MNREGA job-card holder families in the state.
"This award has been given to Madhya Pradesh for convergence of MNREGA and other schemes for construction of permanent assets and for excellent work in providing opportunities for earning permanent income. Madhya Pradesh is at the top in construction of permanent assets through MNREGA convergence in the country. 74 percent construction of permanent assets has been done through MNREGA in the state. As many as 179 crore 11 lakh mandays of employment have been created. Out of these, 77 crore 36 lakh mandays of employment have been provided to female labourers. Electronic Fund Management System has been introduced in the state from April last year to ensure transparency in accountancy and immediate payment of wages to labourers. SHARIQ NOOR/AIR NEWS/BHOPAL.
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Aam Aadmi Party today appealed to Supreme Court for an SIT probe into accounts of all major political parties, including BJP, Congress and AAP. The party said it is open to any probe and any party found guilty of any wrong doing should be de-recognized and the guilty should be punished. Briefing reporters in New Delhi, party leader Ashish Khaitan alleged that there is a political conspiracy behind the allegations of dubious funding . He also claimed that AVAM, the NGO which has levelled allegations against AAP, is hand in glove with BJP.
Earlier in the day, the NGO had reiterated its allegations against AAP.
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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today claimed that Aam Aadmi Party has been caught red-handed, over allegations of using black money as funds. Talking to media, the Finance Minister said facts relating to the funding of AAP are self-evident and disillusioned members of the party have brought out these facts. An NGO run by former AAP members, had alleged yesterday that four non-existent companies routed two crore rupees into AAP's accounts.
The Finance Minister said it is obvious that these companies have been used as a medium for converting black money into white.
On AAP's statement that it will approach Supreme Court to seek a Special Investigation Team to probe funding of political parties, Mr Jaitley said the courts should be kept away from politics.
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Congress has demanded probe into allegations of using black money as funds by the Aam Aadmi Party. Party spokesman Anand Sharma said that AAP's claim regarding the transparency in funding has been exposed after allegations. The spokesman also alleged that both BJP and AAP are using black money for elections to induce voters.
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Aam Aadmi Party Arvind Kejriwal today alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines, EVMs to favour the BJP. In a tweet, Mr Kejriwal said four EVMs were found doctored during an inspection in the Delhi Cantonment area yesterday. He said the EVMs were tampered in such a way that the result always showed in favour of BJP, no matter what party the voters chose.
Refuting the allegation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said AAP is trapped in the funding issue and therefore it is levelling baseless allegations.
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In Jammu and Kashmir the 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway is closed for the third day today due to heavy snowfall though all stranded vehicles were cleared after the road was put through for several hours yesterday in the afternoon. Dozens of villages, including those near the Line of Control (LoC), remained closed due to heavy snowfall during the past three days. Our correspondent reports
"There is one to two feet of snowfall on the Highway mainly on both sides of Jawahar Tunnel. Dozens of villages, including those near the LoC, remained cut off due to heavy snowfall. The border towns of Keran, Karnah, Machil, Tangdhar, Gurez, Neeru and Teetwal also remained cut off from their respective district headquarters. The Mughal road, connecting South Kashmir with Jammu region also remained closed due to heavy snowfall at several places. R.K.Raina, AIR NEWS, Srinagar.
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In Rajasthan, with the death of 3 more Swine flu patients death toll has reached 52. According to health department 931 samples were taken, out of which 259 were found positive this year. State Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria tested positive for swine flu. He is undergoing treatment in Udaipur. Health Minister has directed officials to provide swine flu reports within 12 hours of diagnosis. Jaipur district collector directed all government and private schools not to hold prayer meet till further orders.
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In the 35th National Games being held in Kerala, various competitions are progressing at different venues. Haryana is leading the medals tally with 11 gold medals, three silver and one bronze. Services is in the second position with nine gold medals, followed by Maharashtra with seven gold medals. Hosts Kerala,with 16 medals including four gold medals is in the fourth position. In the squash event, men's singles' semi-finals will be held today evening. In the men's singles Tennis semi-final,Tamil Nadu's N Jeevan defeated Kerala's Reinold Timothi. Finals of six events will be held today.
Meanwhile,the body of netball player Mayuresh Pawar of Maharashtra was flown to his native place this morning. He died in a tragic mishap, while posing for photographs with his friends at the Shanghumugham beach in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday. Games officials from Maharashtra, also accompanied the body.
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Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Parsad today said the Digital India programme is a platform which will create enormous business opportunities in the country. Addressing a gathering on Digital India summit in New Delhi, Mr Parsad said once this platform is created it will help in fast and timely delivery of government services. He said Digital India is a politically neutral program and will benefit poor people.
The minister said the government is working on to create an enabling atmosphere to attract more private players in this sector to improve e-governance.
"Government wants to create that enabling atmosphere, so that entrepreneurship. innovation, enterprise, services become available."
Mr Parsad said center is planning to take BPOs to small towns and rural area to create employment for young people. Expressing concern over the electronic manufacturing the minister said India's output in this sector is very poor.
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Major political parties like, BJP, RJD and JD(U) in Jharkhand, have condemned the hate speech on non- residents of Jharkhand by JMM leader and ex-Chief Minister Hemant Soren. State Urban Development Minister C P Singh has said that the statement of Mr. Soren will cause social tension, and state government will not allow it to develop. RJD leader Rajendra Yadav and local JD(U) leaders have also criticized Mr. Hemant Soren for making inflammatory speeches. Our Ranchi Correspondent reports that yesterday Mr. Hemant Soren had used objectionable words against the people not living in Jharkhand, while speaking at a function to mark the 36th foundation year of JMM at Dumka. However, no police complaint has been made so far.
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The Bengaluru City police Commissioner M N Reddi has issued orders banning Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia from entering Bengaluru city. The order bans Togadia from participating in any public meetings or functions in the city for seven days till February 11th. The order points out that Togadia is known to make provocative and inflammatory speeches, which hurts religious sentiments and there is possibility of disturbing communal peace in the state.
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President and Prime Minister has greeted the nation on the occasion of Guru Ravidas Jayanti. In a message, President Pranab Mukherjee said, Guru Ravi Das ji’s noble teachings propagating universal brotherhood are of great relevance in today’s world. He called on people to derive inspiration from the struggle of Guru Ravi Dasji for equality in society. The President also urged people to rededicate themselves to the building of a casteless society for which Guru Ravi Dasji fought ceaselessly.
Paying his tributes Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, Guru Ravidas ji's teachings of equality and brotherhood in society are a great inspiration for people. Guru Ravidas Jayanti is celebrated on Magh Purnima, the full moon day in the Magh month.
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The United Nations Security Council has asked for immediate release of all hostages held by the Islamic State group militants. It has called for immediate, safe and unconditional release of all those who are kept hostage by ISIS and other Al-Qaeda affiliates. The 15-member council condemned as heinous and cowardly, the murder of a Japanese journalist Kenji Goto after militants claimed that he had been beheaded. The Council said those responsible for the killing of Kenji Goto shall be held accountable.
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