Vice Admiral Robin K Dhowan likely to take over as next Navy Chief

1.    Vice Admiral Robin K Dhowan likely to take over as next Navy Chief 

i. Vice Admiral Robin K Dhowan is most likely to be the next chief of the Indian Navy with reports on Wednesday suggesting that the Defence Ministry has recommended his name to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the coveted post. 

ii. The post of Navy chief has been lying vacant for nearly two months since DK Joshi suddenly quit in the wake of a series of mishaps that hit the naval forces recently. 



iii. Vice Admiral Dhowan, who has been the acting Navy chief since Joshi's exit, was in contention for the top job along with Western Navy Commander Shekhar Sinha and Eastern Commander Anil Chopra.

iv. Vice Admiral Sinha is the senior-most among the three but he has been edged out of the race, apparently because majority of the 14 mishaps, including two major submarine accidents, took place under his command during the last 10 months.

v. "The Defence Ministry has recommended the name of acting chief Vice Admiral Robin Dhowan for the appointment and the Prime Minister's Office will go through the file before taking a final decision on the matter," top government sources said

2.    5^th phase of Lok Sabha elections tomorrow; 12 states go to polls 

i. The fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls will witness 121 constituencies spread over 12 states going to polls on April 17. 

ii. Top leaders of political parties made their last ditch effort to woo the voters as the deadline to wind up the campaign ended at 5 PM. 

iii. Campaigning for 77 Odisha Assembly seats also ended Tuesday evening and voting will be held on 17th April along with the Lok Sabha polls. 

iv. This phase of polling will witness votes being cast for the maximum number of seats in the ongoing general elections. 

v. While, seven seats of Bihar is going to polls on Thursday, 3 constituencies of Chhattisgarh will exercise their franchise. 

vi. Whole Karnataka state will cast their votes on this day. 20 seats of Rajasthan, 19 of Maharashtra, 11 each of Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, 10 of Madhya Pradesh, six of Jharkhand, four of West Bengal will also witness polling on this day. 

vii. Udhampur constituency of Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur's lone parliamentary constituency will also exercise their franchise on 17th April. 

3.    PC Parakh authored book Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths released

i. Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths: authored by PC Parekh 

ii. A memoir entitled "Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths" authored by former Coal Secretary PC Parakh was released on 14 April 2014 in New Delhi. In the book the author has claimed that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was running a government in which he had little political authority.

iii. The writer has said that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was unable to prevent his junior ministers from blocking a move towards a transparent system during the bidding for the coal blocks.

iv. He also said that the coal scam would have been avoided if the Prime Minister pushed for certain reforms like e-marketing and open auction of coal blocks.  

v. PC Parekh claimed that he drew inspiration for writing a book from Premchand’s literary work Namak Ka Daroga. The book has been published by Manas Publication.

4.    Basel Committee issued Final standards to curb exposures of banks to customers

i. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on 15 April 2014 issued Final standards for measuring and controlling large exposures of banks to customers. These standards will take effect from 1 January 2019

ii. The committee consisted of banking supervisors from nearly 30 countries. The committee framed a new rule limiting how much business a bank can undertake with a single customer.

Highlights of the guidelines

• Guidelines were aimed to minimise the risk of fallout from a counterparty going default without imposing excessive burdens on financial firms.

•   The framework was designed so that the maximum possible loss a bank could incur if such a default were to occur would not endanger the bank's survival as a going concern. 

•   In cases where the bank's counterparty is another bank, large exposure limits will directly contribute towards the reduction of system-wide contagion risk. 

•  The framework will also contribute to strengthening the oversight and regulation of the shadow banking system by extending the scope of coverage to exposures to funds, securitisation structures and collective investment undertakings.

•  The existing rule leaves it to supervisors to impose a 25 percent cap on exposures, meaning each exposure cannot be more than a quarter of the bank's total regulatory capital holdings.