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1)
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) on 30 January 2014
raised the subsidised LPG cylinder quota from 9 to 12 per year per
household. It also decided to put on hold the direct benefit transfer
scheme for LPG which linked payment of subsidy directly into the bank
accounts of the consumers under the Aadhaar platform. After increase in
the cap on subsidized LPG cylinders what percentage of LPG cylinders are
now covered by subsidisd cylinders? – Around 97%
(Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily disclosed that 89.2%
of the 15 crore LPG consumers use up to nine cylinders in a year and
only 10% have to buy the additional requirement at the market price.
After the quota is raised to 12, about 97% of the LPG consumers would be
covered by subsidised LPG)
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2)
With Union government’s decision of increasing the cap on subsidised
domestic LPG cylinders from 9 to 12, the subsidy burden on petroleum
companies increased substantially (by around Rs. 5,000 crore annually).
This decision also affected government’s target of reducing fiscal
deficit. When the cap on subsidised domestic LPG cylinders was brought
down to just 6, which was later increased to 9? – In September 2012
(Govt. had reduced the cap on subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to just
6 with an objective to reduce its subsidy load and reduce fiscal
deficit. However due to severe criticism from several quarters this cap
was increased to 9 during January 2013. Now the cap has been increased
further to 12)
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3)
India Post (Indian postal department) recently announced an ambitious
plan to install as many as 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh micro-ATMs at its
post offices across the country for savings account holders. This plan
would be rolled-out by installing three ATMs in New Delhi, Chennai and
Bangalore on 5 February 2014
and then ramp it up gradually. What is the tentative deadline given by
India Post for installing these 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh micro-ATMs? - September 2015
(Under this plan, 1,000 ATMs with the India Post branding will be put
in within the first year, which will be ramped up massively to 3,000 in
the next 18 months. To start with, the ATMs can be used only by 26 crore
savings account-holders who save with the postal department but India
Post hopes that within six months of the launch, it will get the
interoperability permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Postal
savings are worth around Rs 6.05 trillion, which is half the savings in
the largest lender SBI and more than double that of the largest private
sector lender ICICI Bank)
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4)
International creditors on 29 January 2014 started the third bailout
review of Cyprus to gauge whether the country is living up to the terms
of its financial rescue program. The start of country’s third bailout
review comes after earlier assessments concluded that the country was on
track, but warned that there was no room to slacken efforts. What was
the amount of bailout package approved by the European Union (EU) and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Cyprus during March 2013? – 10 billion Euro or $13.6 billion
(Cyprus’ banking sector is the hardest hit with this bail-out package.
The deal saw authorities seize large portions of uninsured savings in
the two largest banks and impose capital controls while the
second-largest lender was shut down)
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5)
Google Inc. on 29 January 2014 announced selling Motorola’s smartphone
business (Motorola Mobility) to Chinese company Lenovo for $2.9 billion.
The price of the sale makes Google’s biggest acquisition of Motorola
look like its most expensive mistake. For what price Google acquired
Motorola Mobility in 2012? - $12.4 billion
(Motorola has lost nearly $2 billion since Google took over, while
trimming its workforce from 20,000 to 3,800. Google had previously
recovered some of the money that it spent on Motorola by selling the
company’s set-top operations last year to Arris Group Inc. for $2.35
billion. On the other hand Lenovo now appears determined to become a
bigger player in smartphones as more people rely on them instead of
laptop and desktop computers to go online)
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