Today News~17/10/2014

1.    International Day for the Eradication of Poverty observed today
i. International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was observed across the world on 17 October 2014.
ii. The theme for the day was Leave no one behind: think, decide and act together against extreme poverty.
iii. The 2014 theme recognises and underscores the demanding challenge of identifying and securing the participation of those experiencing extreme poverty and social exclusion in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals.
iv. The day was observed to promote people’s awareness on the need to eradicate poverty and destitution worldwide.

Note: On the other hand, Argentina, Luxembourg, South Korea, Australia and Rwanda will step down from their seats on 31 December 2014 to make way for the newly-elected members.

2.    RBI inks MoU with Kenya's central bank for info exchange
i. The Reserve Bank has signed a pact with Central Bank of Kenya for exchange of information and supervisory cooperation.
ii. "The Reserve Bank of India signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information with the Central Bank of Kenya on October 16, 2014," RBI said in a release.
iii. With this, RBI has signed 22 such MoUs and one Letter for Supervisory Co-operation, it added.
iv. The MoU was signed by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and Central Bank of Kenya Governor Njuguna Ndung'u.

3.    Nabard sets up Rs 2,000 crore fund for mega food parks
i. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will commence direct lending to food processing industries in mega food parks and designated food parks by end of October. The Bank has set up a fund with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore for this purpose, a top bank official said.
ii. "The government announced in this year's budget setting up of a Fund and gave the responsibility to Nabard to promote food processing sector through mega food parks. Nabard has been allocated Rs 2,000 crore fund, which will be utilized to lend to state government entities and private sector," Nabard Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala told Business Standard.
iii. He said the guidelines have been approved and will be released at the stakeholders? meeting in Mumbai on October 29, 2014. "Once guidelines are released, we will start accepting proposals from the state governments and the private companies and issue sanctions thereafter," he said.
iv. Under the new Fund, Nabard would provide loans for a period of seven years at an attractive interest rate of 7.8 per cent to 8 per cent. Nabard would provide loans for large food chains and food processing units in a food park and also for creation of infrastructure at food parks, he said.

4.    Cap of 3 free ATM transactions may apply in cities near metros
i. If you are staying in a city abutting one of the six metros then you may not get to enjoy the convenience of five free transactions a month at other bank ATMs in the city of your residence.
ii. Reason: banks are planning to consider cities lying on the outskirts of the six metros as part of the metros and rationalise the number of free transactions (from five to three per month) with effect from November 1.
iii. In August, the RBI had identified six metros — Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad — for the purpose of rationalisation of the number of free transactions for savings bank account customers at other banks’ ATMs.
iv. The central bank also said that at other locations — other than the six metro centres mentioned above — the present facility of five free transactions for savings bank account customers will remain unchanged.
v. With the RBI asking banks to determine the jurisdiction of the six metros, bankers are of the view that since cities on the periphery of the metros have also seen proliferation of ATMs such areas too should be included within the jurisdiction of metros.