Current Affairs 23rd August 2015

Current Affairs 23rd August 2015 - Important Points

• Name of the committee of RBI which recommends conversion of UCBs into regular banks - R Gandhi committee

• Name of the committee which recommends MAT relief to FIIs - A P Shah Committee

• Name of the first Indian golfer to win Ladies British amateur stroke-play Championship - Aditi Ashok

• Name of the former Australian Cricketer who passed away - Arthur Morris

Current Affairs 23rd August 2015 - Details

Name of the committee of RBI which recommends conversion of UCBs into regular banks - R Gandhi committee

Among the Important Financial Current Affairs, R Gandhi committee which was headed by RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi in its report recommended conversion of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) with business size of 20,000 crore rupees or more into regular banks. 

• It is also recommended that this conversion will not be compulsory for large UCBs and they can continue their operations in same way in terms of asset size and balance sheet.
• In order to minimise the systemic risk large UCBs can convert themselves into commercial banks.
• For conversion, smaller UCBs with business size of less than 20,000 crore rupees who are willing to convert to Small Finance Banks can apply to the RBI. 

Name of the committee which recommends MAT relief to FIIs - A P Shah Committee

Among Important Financial Current Affairs, A P Shah committee has recommended that Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) should not be imposed on FIIs retrospectively for the period preceding 1st April 2015. It will be certainly a big relief to FIIs as government had exempted them from MAT starting April 1, 2015 in the Union Budget for 2015-16 but had not made the clarification retrospective imposition.

As per committee report there is no legal basis for levying 20 per cent MAT on past capital gains of FIIs. This committee was constituted after the tax department had sent legal notices to 68 FIIs demanding around six hundred crore rupees as MAT dues of previous years so FIIs moved to court challenging this tax imposition.

Do You Know :

A P Shah committee was appointed by Union Finance Ministry which was headed by retired SC judge A P Shah and other two members were Dr. Girish Ahuja and Dr. Ashok Lahiri. 

Name of the first Indian golfer to win Ladies British amateur stroke-play Championship - Aditi Ashok

Among Important Sports Current Affairs, Ace Indian golfer Aditi Ashok won the prestigious Ladies British amateur stroke-play Championship 2015 at Leeds, United Kingdom.  She became first ever Indian woman to won this Championship. She is just 17 years old Bengaluru based golfer and also had prestigious St. Rule Trophy in her name in July 2015.

She also had claimed the overall title called "The Nicholls Trophy" and "Dinwiddy Trophy" which are given for the under-18 golfer with lowest score.

Name of the former Australian Cricketer who passed away - Arthur Morris

Former Australian Cricketer Arthur Morris passed away at the age of 93. He was an opener batsman of Australia and was regarded as as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He was retired from International Cricket at the age of 33.

He was te first Australian batsman to score centuries in both innings of his first-class debut at the age of 18 years.