Daily Current Affairs: 10 September 2014

1) Subhash Chandra Garg appointed as World Bank Executive Director: Senior IAS officer Subhash Chandra Garg was appointed as Executive Director in World Bank. Garg, a 1983-batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, will have a tenure of three years from the date of assuming charge of the post, said an order issued by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). The Executive Directors are responsible for the conduct of the general operations of the World Bank and exercise all the powers delegated to them by the Boards of Governors.

2) HMT loses race against time, to be shut soon: HMT Watches, the iconic brand that evokes nostalgia in most Indians, will be shutting shop soon. The government has decided to wind up the company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HMT Ltd, which has been incurring losses since 2000 and has been unable to generate adequate resources to pay salaries to its employees. Set up in 1961 in collaboration with Japan’s Citizen Watch, the company’s net loss rose to Rs 242.47 crore in 2012-13 from Rs 224.04 crore in 2011-12. At the end of March 2012, it also had government loan, including budgetary support for salary and statutory dues, amounting to Rs 694.52 crore.

3) Union Cabinet approve sale of shares in ONGC, Coal India, NHPC: The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has approved stake sales in state-run ONGC,  Coal India  and NHPC. The share sales are part of the government’s divestment program outlined in the Union Budget through which it hopes to raise about Rs 56,000 crore in fiscal year 2014-15. The Cabinet cleared a 5 percent stake sale in ONGC, 10 percent in Coal India and 11.36 percent in NHPC. The divestment will be taken up through the offers-for-sale (OFS) route.

4) Government asks UIDAI to generate 100 crore Aadhaar numbers by 2015: Government on 10 September 2014 approved Phase -V of Unique Identification project which entails generation of 100 crore Aadhaar numbers by 2015 including enrolments done under the National Population Register. The government has also given go-ahead to the Unique Identification Authority of India, which is implementing the Aadhaar project, to undertake enrolments in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. UIDAI was established in 2009 with a mandate to generate and assign UID numbers to residents of India.

5) ICICI Bank offers Cardless Cash Withdrawal at ATMs: Customers of ICICI Bank can now transfer money from their account to anyone in India with a mobile number. The recipient — even if he/she does not have an account with any bank — can withdraw money round-the-clock from ICICI Bank ATMs across the country. The money can be withdrawn without having a debit card also. The private bank has just launched a new service called Cardless Cash Withdrawal. The facility can be initiated by any ICICI Bank savings account customer (sender) by logging into internet banking at www.icicibank.com. The sender first needs to register the recipient’s name, mobile number and address. The sender will get a four-digit verification code, while the recipient a six-digit reference code over SMS. The recipient can withdraw cash from almost all ICICI Bank ATMs by entering mobile number, cash amount along with the verification and reference code, within two days of the transaction.