Current Affairs March 2014
“Iwao Hakamada”- World’s longest-serving death row-inmate freed by Japan
The Japanese court release of the World’s longest serving death row inmate, Mr. Iwao Hakamada (78), as the evidences used against him were probably made up.
About Mr. Iwao Hakamada
- Nationality: Japanese.
- Japanese former professional boxer.
- Sentenced to death on September 11, 1968 for a mass murder (known as the Hakamada Incident).
- Convicted of killing a company manager and his family and setting fire to their central Japan home, where he was a live-in employee.
- Known for: World’s longest death-row inmate (48 years) certified by Guinness World Records.
Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialized democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has led to repeated protests from European governments and human rights groups. (Japan carries out a handful of executions every year).
Note: The only crimes that can lead to a death sentence in Japan are murder and treason.
President Pranab Mukherjee re-promulgated SEBI ordinance
President Pranab Mukherjee cleared the re-promulgation of the SEBI Ordinance that provides powers for SEBI Chairman to authorize Investigating Authority or any other officer of the regulator to conduct search and seizure under the SEBI Act and crack down on Ponzi schemes.
SEBI ordinance – Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill 2013
- Purpose: To arm the regulator with more stringent powers comes in wake of thousands of duped investors reportedly taking to the streets in Siliguri (West Bengal) protesting the proliferation of chit fund companies there and the Rs 2,000-crore Sardhaa chit fund scam.
- SEBI can regulate any money pooling scheme worth Rs 100 crore or more and attach assets in cases of non-compliance and its Chairman can order “search and seizure operations”.
- Empowers the market watchdog to seek information, such as telephone call data records, from any persons or entities in respect to any securities transaction being investigated by it.
Note: The SEBI ordinance lapsed on January 15, has been re-promulgated for the third time as the Parliament could not pass the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013, in the winter session.
India’s forex reserves near $300 billion mark
India’s foreign exchange reserves continued their rally for the fourth straight week, increased by $1.35 billion to 298.64 billion dollar on a surge in currency assets even though the reserve position with the IMF slid heavily.
As per the data released by Reserve Bank of India( RBI)
- Gold reserves remained unchanged at $ 20.978 billion.
- Foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major part of the overall reserves, rose $1.58 billion to $ 271.40 billion.
- FCAs expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of the non-US currencies viz. the euro, pound and yen held in its reserves.
- The special drawing rights were down by $ 16.9 million to % 4.462 billion, while the country’s reserve position with the IMF was down by a whopping $ 214.7 million to $1.801 billion.
MoF: India’s external debt at $426 billion in December, 2013
As per the quarterly report of Ministry of Finance (MoF), India’s external debt was at $ 426 billion – including the government’s debt of $ 76.4 billion in December 2013. The total external debt of $ 426 billion showed an increase of $ 21.1 billion over the March-end level.
Reasons for increase of India’s external debt during the period were
- Due to long-term debt particularly NRI deposits.
- A sharp increase in NRI deposits reflected the impact of fresh FCNR(B) deposits mobilised under the swap scheme during September-November 2013.
Excerpts of the quarterly report of Ministry of Finance (MoF) on December 2013 figures
- Long term debt: $333.3 billion showed an increase of 8.1 % over March, 2013 level.
- Short-term debt: Declined by 4.1 % to $92.7 billion.
- Government (Sovereign) external debt: $76.4 billion, (17.9 % of total external debt)
- The share of US dollar denominated debt was the highest in external debt stock and stood at 63.6%, followed by debt denominated in Indian rupee (19.4 %), SDR (7.1 %), Japanese yen (5.0 %) and Euro (3.1 %).
- The debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by the external debt to GDP ratio of 23.3 %, vis-a-vis 21.8 % at end-March 2013 and debt service ratio of 5.9 % in 2012-13.
- India’s foreign exchange reserves provided 69 % cover to the total external debt as of December end, against 72.1 % as of March-end 2013.
- India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits due to prudent external debt management policy of the Government of India.
Note: The external debt management policy continues to focus on monitoring long and short-term debt, raising sovereign loans on concessional terms with longer maturities, regulating external commercial borrowings through end-use, all-in-cost and maturity restrictions, and rationalizing interest rates on Non-Resident Indian deposits.
The veteran Indian painter Mr. Prokash Karmakar (81) passed away in Kolkata due to age related illness. The painter was best known for his landscapes and nudes. 
