President Robert Mugabe was awarded with the 2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China for supposedly injecting fresh energy into the global quest for harmony. The Prize is dubbed as Chinese equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Former Water Resources Secretary Alok Rawat was appointed as the first male member of the National Commission for Women (NCW). His appointment filled the fourth seat in the five-member body.
The World Indigenous Games are a multi-sport event involving indigenous athletes that will be first staged in 2015. The Games are governed by the Inter Tribal Council, a Brazilian indigenous peoples NGO that has staged Brazil’s national Indigenous Games since 1996. The first edition of the Games will be held in Palmas, Brazil, in 2015.
The Games are expected to be held intermittently thereafter, and will feature competitive sports and non-competitive demonstration events.
First World Indigenous Games started in Brazil on 23 October 2015 in the northern Brazilian city of Palmas. The game will end on 31 October 2015.The games are a multi-sport event involving indigenous athletes has around 2000 athletes participating from many indigenous ethnic groups and 30 countries like Ethiopia, Mongolia, Brazil, Australia, Russia, the Philippines, Ethiopia and New Zealand.
The participants on 22 October 2015 took part in a traditional fire lighting ceremony in Palmas’s central square and danced at the ceremony in traditional outfits.
Sports included in the games are archery, spear tossing, canoeing and a race through the forest. Besides, there will be non-competitive events showcasing the many different traditions of indigenous ethnic groups involved, such as a football-style game called xikunahity in which the ball is controlled only with the head. It is played in the Matto Gross region of Brazil.
IDFC Bank Limited, which started its operations on 1 October 2015, is an Indian Banking company with headquarters in Mumbai that forms a part of IDFC, an integrated infrastructure finance company. IDFC Bank was granted a universal banking license in July 2015 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). IDFC was incorporated on 30 January 1997. It founded a non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC) in 2014 to manage its five subsidiaries IDFC Bank, IDFC MF, IDFC Alternatives, IDFC IDF & IDFC Securities to conform with RBI guidelines.
Banking Channels, all banking services were offered from the bank branches.
Automated Teller Machines:(ATMs) made it possible for customers to handle their transactions at multiple ATM locations across the country.
Tele-banking: supported by call centers and automated messaging made 37 it convenient for customers to handle many services from their home.
E-banking: (through the internet) Banking online or by phone allows you to make banking transactions such as transferring money, paying a bill, checking your balance or setting up a regular payment on your bank or building society’s secure website.
M-banking: (through mobile phones) have added another chapter of banking convenience.
Thus, with the aid of technology, the service offering of banks and convenience of customers.
Society for Worldwide Inter bank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) is solely a carrier of messages. It does not hold funds nor does it manage accounts on behalf of customers, nor does it store financial information on an on-going basis.
As a data carrier, SWIFT transports messages between two financial institutions. This activity involves the secure exchange of proprietary data while ensuring its confidentiality and integrity.
SWIFT, which has its headquarters in Belgium, has developed an 8-alphabet Bank Identifier Code (BIC). For instance HDFCINBB stands for:
• HDFC = HDFC Bank
• IN = India
• BB = Mumbai
Thus, the BIC helps identify the bank.
Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transfers are instantaneous – unlike National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) where the transfers are batched together and effected at hourly intervals. As with NEFT, the transferor needs to know the IFSC Code and the beneficiary’s bank account no.
RBI allows the RTGS facility for transfers above Rs2 lakhs. The RBI window is open on weekdays from 9 am to 4.30 pm; on Saturdays from 9 am to 12.30 pm.
National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) is a nation-wide system that facilitates individuals, firms and corporate to electronically transfer funds from any bank branch to any individual, firm or corporate having an account with any other bank branch in the country.
In order to issue the instruction, the transfer or should know not only the beneficiary’s bank account no. but also the the IFSC (Indian Financial System Code) of the concerned bank. IFSC is an alpha-numeric code that uniquely identifies a bank-branch participating in the NEFT system. This is a 11 digit code with the first 4 alpha characters representing the bank, and the last 6 numeric characters representing the branch. The 5th character is 0 (zero). IFSC is used by the NEFT system to route the messages to the destination banks / branches.
Once the NEFT instruction has been issued, it will be effected between the concerned banks in the next settlement. During weekdays, between 9am and 7 pm, there are 11 settlements i.e. every hour. On Saturdays, there are 5 hourly settlements between 9am and 1 pm. The beneficiary can expect to get credit on the same day, for the first nine batches on week days (i.e., transactions from 9 am to 5 pm) and the first four batches on Saturdays (i.e., transactions from 9 am to 12 noon). For transactions settled in the last two batches on week days (i.e., transactions settled in the 6 and 7 pm batches) and the last batch on Saturdays(i.e., transactions handled in the 1 pm batch) beneficiaries can expect to get credit either on
the same day or on the next working day morning (depending on the type of facility enjoyed by the beneficiary with his bank).
Deposit Insurance: Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) was set up by RBI with the intention of insuring the deposits of individuals. The deposit insurance scheme covers:
• All commercial banks, including branches of foreign banks operating in India, and Regional Rural Banks
• Eligible co-operative banks. The insurance scheme covers savings account, current account, term deposits and 30 recurring accounts. However, the following deposits are not covered by the scheme:
• Deposit of Central / State Government
• Deposit of foreign governments
• Inter-bank deposits
• Deposits received outside India
In order for depositers in a bank to benefit from the insurance scheme, the bank should have paid DICGC the specified insurance premium (10 paise per annum per Rs. 100 of deposit).
Under the Scheme, in the event of liquidation, reconstruction or amalgamation of an insured bank, every depositor of that bank is entitled to repayment of the deposits held by him in the same right and same capacity in all branches of that bank upto an aggregate monetary ceiling of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh). Both principal and interest are covered, upto the prescribed ceiling.
Scheduled Commercial Banks are required to maintain with RBI, an average cash balance, the amount of which shall not be less than 6% of the total of the Net Demand and Time Liabilities(NDTL) in India.
Demand Liabilities include all liabilities which are payable on demand and they include current deposits, demand liabilities portion of savings bank deposits, margins held against letters of credit/ guarantees, balances in overdue fixed deposits, cash certificates and cumulative/ recurring deposits, outstanding Telegraphic Transfers (TTs), Mail Transfer (MTs), Demand Drafts (DDs), unclaimed deposits, credit balances in the Cash Credit account and deposits held as security for advances which are payable on demand.
Time Liabilities are those which are payable otherwise than on demand and they include fixed deposits, cash certificates, cumulative and recurring deposits, time liabilities portion of savings bank deposits, staff security deposits, margin held against letters of credit if not payable on demand, deposits held as securities for advances which are not payable on demand, India Millennium Deposits and Gold Deposits.
The CRR is calculated on the basis of average of the daily balance maintained with RBI during the reporting fortnight. Scheduled Commercial Banks are required to maintain minimum CRR balances up to 70 per cent of the total CRR requirement on all days of the fortnight.
