1.RBI issued final guidelines
for 6-year and 13-year Interest Rate Futures
i. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the final guidelines for
the 6-year and 13-year cash settled Interest Rate Futures (IRF) on government
securities with residual maturity of 4-8 years and 11-15 years respectively
under the Interest Rate Futures (Reserve Bank) (Amendment) Directions, 2015.
For this purpose, RBI amended the Interest Rate Futures (Reserve Bank)
Directions, 2013 dated 5 December 2013.
ii. For the 6-year cash settled IRF contracts, the underlying shall be a coupon bearing
government security of face value of 100 rupees and the residual maturity of
6-year IRF is between 4 and 8 years on the expiry of futures contract.
iii. For the 13-year
cash settled IRF contracts, the underlying can be a coupon
bearing government security of face value of 100 rupees and residual maturity
will be between 11 and 15 years on the expiry of futures contract.
iv. Moreover, the RBI also expanded the residual maturity for
the existing 10-year cash settled IRF from 9-11 years to 8-11 years to provide
market participants a greater choice and flexibility to hedge their interest
rate risk across different tenors.
2.US becomes world's largest oil producer, says BP Report
i. As per recently released report by British Petroleum (BP) Energy
Company, United States (US) became the world’s largest oil producer in 2014
surpassing Saudi Arabia.
ii. Production: US had produced 11.6 million barrels
of oil per day (bpd) i.e. 15.9% more oil in 2014. While, Saudi Arabia was
placed second position as it had produced 11.5 million bpd in 2014.
Russia was placed at third position with 10.8 million bpd oil
production.
iii. Natural Gas Production: US also has
surpassed Russia as the world’s largest producer of natural gas.
iv. Consumption: China had remained the world’s largest growth market for
energy in 2014
v. Facts related to
India: India’s oil production gad declined by 1.3% at 895,000 bpd,
while the consumption had increased by 3% to 3.8 million bpd. India has shown
7.1% rise in energy consumption.
3.Government sacks Dr. Bimal Roy, Director of Indian
Statistical Institute
i. Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
(MOSPI) has sacked Dr Bimal K Roy as the Director of Indian Statistical
Institute (ISI). He was removed from the office on charges of indiscipline
one-and-a-half months before the end of his term.
ii. Professor Sanghmitra Bandyopadhayay now will replace Dr Bimal K
Roy as the Director of ISI. With this appointment she has become the first
woman to lead the institute.
iii. Roy who is a renowned cryptologist was appointed Director of ISI
in August 2010. In April 2015, he was conferred with India’s fourth highest
civilian honour Padma Shri for his contribution in the discipline of literature
and education.
4.VK Singh
inaugurates first India-China Yoga College at Yunnan Minzu University, China
i. Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V K Singh inaugurated first India-China Yoga College at Yunnan Minzu University in Kunming, China.
i. Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V K Singh inaugurated first India-China Yoga College at Yunnan Minzu University in Kunming, China.
ii. This is first Indian government institution related Indian spiritual art form i.e. Yoga in China inaugurated ahead of the first UN Yoga Day to be observed on June 21.
iii. The Yoga College was established in lines with the MoU for establishing the Yoga College signed during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China in May 2015.
iv. This college seeks to provide certification courses in the Indian spiritual art with them Indian teachers who are going to help in curriculum development and training.
5.Government launches Migrant Resource Centre in
Chennai
i. Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) was set up in Chennai by the Union
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and Tamil Nadu state government.
ii. The MRC will provide migrants and overseas Indian workers with
information, advice, counseling and guidance on all aspects of overseas
employment.
iii. Following are support functions of MRCs
·
Dissemination of information on safe and legal migration.
·
Dissemination of information regarding status of recruiting
agents along with other service providers.
·
Registration and response to complaints and grievances within
the redressal forum of MOIA.
·
To offer counseling support in form of walk in or telephone and
email support.
iv. Note: It is the fourth such MRC in India set up by MOIA. The
first MRC was established in 2008 in Kochi, Kerala by MOIA. Later, fully
functional MRCs in Hyderabad (Telengana & Andhra Pradesh), Gurgaon
(Haryana) were established.
6.14th June: World Blood Donor Day
i. World Blood Donor Day is being observed across the world on 14
June to raise the public awareness about the need for safe blood
donation.
ii. The theme of this year’s campaign is Thank you for saving my
life. This year’s campaign encourages donors all over the world to donate blood
voluntarily and regularly with the slogan Give freely, give often. Blood
donation matters.
iii. Objective
To spread awareness
about the need for safe and secure blood supplies.
Provide an
opportunity to draw public attention to the importance of blood donation for
saving lives.
7.Recommendations of Bibek Debroy Committee on
restructuring of Indian Railways
i. The committee has suggested measures for restructuring the
Railway Board and its departments so that policy making is separated from
day-to-day operations.
ii. Recommendations of Bibek Debroy committee
·
Establishment of an independent regulator Railway Regulatory
Authority of India (RRAI) with a separate budget and to be independent of the
Ministry.
·
RRAI will decide on tariffs to revamp the cash-strapped
railways.
·
Railway Budget should be phased out with gross budgetary support
to Indian Railways.
·
No privatisation of Indian Railway but allowed participation of
private sector in the railway projects.
·
State governments should be asked to entirely fund the
Government Railway Police (GRP).
·
The recommended changes should be implemented only by Union
Railways ministry in the first five years including the resolution of the
social cost issue.
iii. Background: Union government had constituted the high-level
committee in September 2014 to restructure the Railways and suggest ways for
resource mobilisation. It was seven-member panel headed by eminent economist
and NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy. The other 6 members are former cabinet
secretary K M Chandrasekhar, Gusharan Das, Ravi Narain, Partha Mukhopadhyay,
Rajendra Kashyap, Ajay Tyagi and Ajay Narayan Jha.