GK UPDATE 5th April

1.    Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca sworn-in as President of Malta

i. Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca was sworn-in as the President of Malta. She was named as President after being suggested by the Prime Minister,Joseph Muscat and approved by Parliament.

ii. She replaced George Abela from Labour Party whose term completed on 4 April 2014.

iii. With her appointment, the total number of female heads of a country in the world now stands at  21.

About Malta

i. Malta is a southern European country in the Mediterranean Sea with smallest capital Valletta in EU.
ii. Malta got its independence in 1964 from the United Kingdom. Malta is a republic with parliamentary system and public administration is closely modeled on the Westminster system.

iii. Malta's president who have no executive powers and acts as figureheads or nominal head, serve for five years and cannot be re-appointed.
iv. In 2014, Malta will celebrate it’s 40th anniversary of becoming a republic.

2.    RBI decides to compute and release Real Effective Exchange Rate from this financial year

i. The RBI has decided to compute and release the Real Effective Exchange Rate on the basis of the Consumer Price Index from this financial year.

ii. The Bank said in a release that the step would give a higher degree of comparability to India's international competitiveness in relation to its trading partner countries.

iii. Since October last year, the RBI had started giving projections of inflation in terms of the broader CPI-Combined.

iv. The RBI had so far been providing the Real Effective Exchange Rate index using the Wholesale Price Index for India and CPI for partner countries.

3.    India’s forex reserves soar to $303.67 billion

i. India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves soared by $5.03 billion to $303.67 billion for the week ended March 28, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

ii. The forex reserves have soared past $300 billion mark for the first time since December 2011.

iii. This is the fifth consecutive week of increase in the country’s forex reserves as overseas investors poured in money in local bonds and stock markets. The forex reserves had risen by $1.34 billion and $1.83 billion in the previous two weeks.

iv. According to the RBI’s weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, rose by $5.01 billion to $276.40 billion.

v. India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $30 million to $1.83 billion.

vi. However, the value of special drawing rights (SDRs) fell by $3.6 million to $4.45 billion, while the value of gold reserves remained unchanged at $20.97 billion.