Daily Current Affairs: 28 January 2014

1) RBI increased repo rate by 25 bps to 8%: Belying expectations of another pause in the rate hiking cycle, the RBI on Tuesday decided to increase the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility by 25 basis points from 7.75 per cent to 8.0 per cent . Consequently, reverse repo rate will now be at 7 per cent. There is no change in CRR at 4 per cent. The RBI has also decided to have a policy review once in 2 months ( 6 reviews in a year), instead of once in 45 days.

Current Policy Rates

Bank Rate   :  9.0%

Repo Rate  :  8.0%

Reverse Repo Rate :  7.0%

Marginal Standing Facility Rate : 9.0%

CRR   :  4%

SLR:  23.0%

2) Supreme Court refused to review verdict criminalising gay sex : The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to relook into its verdict criminalising gay sex in the country. A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.J. Mukhopadhaya, in inchamber proceedings, dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by the Centre and gay rights activists against its December 2013 verdict declaring gay sex an offence punishable up to life imprisonment.

3) Congress nominated Selja, Sanjay Singh for Rajya Sabha: Union Minister Kumari Selja was on Tuesday named Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha elections, putting an end to speculation that former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit could be brought to the Upper House from Haryana. Congress also nominated Sultanpur MP Sanjay Singh from Assam besides re-nominating Assam PCC Chief Bhubaneswar Kalita from the state.

4) US musician Pete Seeger passed away at 94:  US musician Pete Seeger died at the age of 94, after a long career collecting and championing the folk songs of the United States as well as writing his own, a report said on Tuesday. He died of natural causes in a New York hospital on Monday, his grandson was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

5) FakeOff app to detect bogus Facebook accounts :  As instances of cyber impersonation on social networking sites rise, an Israel-based start-up has developed an application, FakeOff, which helps to identify fake accounts on Facebook. The app on the world’s largest social networking platform claims to protect users from scams devised by fake Facebook users, who are mistaken for genuine ‘new friends’.

6) General election date will be announced on March 3: The announcement for the forthcoming general elections could be made on March 3 with the Model Code of Conduct, which prohibits the Government from making any major policy decisions, coming into play within two weeks of the announcement. .

7) New Zealand won ODI series against India:  India slumped to their second consecutive series defeat overseas as New Zealand rode on Ross Taylor’s unbeaten century to thrash the visitors by seven wickets in the fourth one-dayer and take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.

8) Kerala Cricket Association tied up with CricHQ.com: The Kerala Cricket Association has tied up with CricHQ.com to develop the school grade cricket in the State. Live scoring and updates have helped administrators to manage school cricket through the year. With CricHQ.com, the administrators can easily generate player profiles and statistics and evaluate player performances.

9) Jai Ho grossed 101 cr worldwide: Salman Khan-starrer Jai Ho has grossed Rs.101.26 crore worldwide in the first three days, said Eros International. The movie earned Rs.78.90 crore as gross box office collection, while net collections stood at Rs.60.68 crore in India. It earned about Rs.2.36 crore in overseas territories.

10) Kumari Selja resigned from Union council of Minsiters: Kumari Selja, who has been nominated as a candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections, has quit the Union Council of Ministers to work for Congress.