WORD MEANING = Heralded = शु रुआत

ONLY SPECIAL IMPORTANT BANK AFFAIRS

1. In an attempt to bring Indian researchers and scientists abroad together for conducting joint
researches in India, Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched VAJRA “Visiting
Advanced Joint Research Faculty (VAJRA)” web portal
------------ launched by Harsh Vadhan, Minister of Science and Technology.
------------- Under this scheme, scientists or senior researchers abroad—of Indian origin or
otherwise—can collaborate with faculties here.

2. POWER PROJECT IN ANDHRA PRADESH

World Bank said it has signed an agreement with the government of India and Andhra
Pradesh government to extend $240 million of loan.
AIIB has also signed a $140 million loan, which is considered the first such project in India to
be co- financed by it.
The World Bank and AIIB will provide loans in a 60:40 ratio for all the components of the
project that is aimed at providing 24X7 power for all.

3. 50 years since it heralded a transformation in the way people obtained and used cash, the
world’s first ATM was turned into gold for celebrations of its fiftieth anniversary.
--------- The brainchild of Scottish inventor Shepherd-Barron, the first ATM (automated teller
machine) was opened on June 27, 1967, at a branch of Barclays bank in Enfield, north
London
------------Actor Reg Varney, was the first to withdraw cash from the machine.
----------- HSBC – 1st ATM in India 1987

4. Svatantra Microfinance has launched an app, an end-to-end cashless solution called Saathi,
for an entire spectrum of operations in areas such as loan originating system, loan
management system and collections.
• Founder – Ananya Birla

5. Vijaya Bank set to develop 100 digital villages

HQ – Bengaluru
CEO – Kishore Kumar Sansi
Vijaya Bank bagged nine Skoch Awards
VPAYQWIK APP

6. The reconstituted OC will work with an expanded mandate to review, in addition to cases
being restructured under the Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A),
resolution of other cases where the aggregate exposure of the banking sector to the
borrowing entity is greater than Rs. 500 crore
 -------------- Overseeing committee Chairman – Pradeep Kumar

7. To finance its 24x7 water supply project, the Pune Municipal Corporation launched India’s
biggest municipal bonds programme.
--------------- The project looks to raise Rs 2,264 crore in five years

8. India signed an agreement with Sri Lanka to provide USD 318 million as line of credit to
develop the island nation’s railway sector
--------------- China has been investing heavily in Sri Lanka, developing mainly ports that could
potentially be used as a base for its navy, though Beijing says the investments are part of its
Belt and Road Initiative that aims to link it with Europe and Africa via the Indian Ocean.

9. Axis Bank Ltd announced biodegradable prepaid gift cards on the occasion of World
Environment Day.
------------The card made of biodegradable plastic will help spread awareness about the
benefits of such products. The cards will be acceptable at all domestic merchant outlets and
online portals.
------------ Biodegradable plastics can break down safely into their raw materials and do not
release harmful substances. They can also be recycled.
-------------According to a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India on 1 July 2014, the
maximum validity of pre-paid gift instruments is three years.

10. The government said post the abolition of the FIPB, ministries will have to decide on FDI
proposals within 60 days of the application and any rejection will need concurrence of the
DIPP.
-------------- India scrapped the 25-year old foreign investment advisory body FIPB as it looks
to attract more FDI by providing quick approvals under a single-window clearance system.
------------- Currently, about 91-95 per cent of FDI is coming through the automatic route and
only 11 sectors, including defence and retail trading, require the government approval for
FDI.
------------ Inflow of foreign direct investment into India increased by 9 per cent to USD 43.48
billion in 2016-17.
-------------- Foreign investment proposals above Rs 5,000 crore would continue to be cleared
by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
-------------- The US, China and India are considered to be the most prospective destinations
for foreign direct investment (FDI), predicted the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) in its annual report on investment.
----------------- The US remained the largest recipient of FDI, followed by Britain and then
China

11. Canara Bank and the New India Assurance Company have entered into a corporate agency
arrangement for distribution of insurance products.
HQ – Bengaluru
CEO - Rakesh Sharma
12. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), announced the launch of BaNCS App Development Kit (ADK)
that enables Banks to design and build their own Apps faster and seamlessly deploy across
devices and desktops.
CEO and MD = Rajesh Gopinathan
Chairman = Natrajan Chandrasekaran

13. Government launches Digiyatra for ‘seamless passage’ through airports

The goal of Digiyatra is to digitally link the unique IDs such as Aadhaar, passport or PAN card
to the booking PNR of airlines. This will ensure a ‘seamless experience’ of passing through
the airports for the travel passengers and will also relieve queues and congestion. The
unique IDs will be digitally linked to the airline PNR at the time of the booking by the system.
--------- MoS = Jayant Sinha

14. India, France and the European Union have joined hands as part of a global sustainable
development project, which will seek to transform three major Indian cities by improving
urban mobility and cutting down carbon footprint.
------------ The three cities that will benefit from the project are — Nagpur, Kochi and
Ahmedabad (NAK)
------------ India’s Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and French Development Agency
(AFD signed a Grant Facility Agreement of 3.5 million euros, to be financed by the European
Union under its Asia Investment Facility (AIF), for implementing the ‘MobiliseYourCity’
initiative.
--------------- MobiliseYourCity (MYC) is part of an international initiative supported by the
French and the German governments. It was launched at Paris’ 21st Conference of Parties
(COP21) in December 2015. The project seeks to back 100 cities worldwide by 2020, which
are engaged in sustainable urban mobility planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
------------- Commerce Secretary ======= Rita Teaotia
(Essay = add to Environment Safety)

15. The Reserve Banks of India (RBI) announced introduction of new Rs 500 currency notes.
The new version will have few different aspects.
----------- The one noticeable aspect of the new currency notes is the inclusion of an inset
letter "A".
------------Besides, in the new notes the signature of the RBI Governor will be on the reverse
side.
INSET in detail === The volume of banknotes printed in India are huge which necessitated
the use of inset which in the case of Indian Banknotes are Alphabets. This inset is a capital
letter and appears on the number panel. There are four different currency press that print
notes for the Reserve Bank of India . Each of the four currency printers are allotted a
separate set of inset letters for their internal identification purposes. For security reasons,
the Reserve Bank of India does not reveal which inset letters are assigned for which printing
press from where it originates. As in the case of the prefix, only twenty alphabets are used
as insets. The alphabets that are excluded are I, J, O, X, Y, Z.
1. MYSORE
 2. DEWAS
3. SALBONI
4. NASIK

16. CSO to change GDP base year to 2017-18 from 2011-12: D V Sadananda Gowda
----------- The statistics ministry is set to change the base year of national accounts to 2017-
18 from 2011-12 after completion of the household consumer expenditure survey and
labour force data by the end of 2018.
------------ Chief Statistician T C A Anant
------------ Earlier in 2015, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) under the Statistics Ministry had
changed the base year for tabulating the Gross Domestic Product or size of economy to
2011- 12 from 2004-05.
Last month, the CSO has changed the base of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which
measures factory output, to 2011-12 from 2004-05.
Besides, the base year of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) has also been changed to 2011-12
from 2004- 05.

17. Only one fourth of the 51 banks in the country are rated 'high' for complying with Banking
Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) codes, which focuses on fair treatment of
customers.
-------------- BCSBI is an independent body set up by the RBI.
------------- It's objectives are to promote good banking practises, setting minimum
standards, increasing transparency, achieving higher operating standards and promoting a
cordial banker-customer relationship.
---------------- Of the 12 banks rated 'high', only one public sector lender, IDBI Bank featured in
the list and the rest were private and foreign banks, according to the annual code
compliance rating released by BCSBI today.

18. TerraPay has partnered with Yes Bank in a Rupee Drawing Arrangement which enables
TerraPay’s network partners to make instant cross-border money transfer to bank accounts
in India.
-------------- This means that Indian migrants worldwide can walk into TerraPay’s partner
outlet anytime and send money to their family and friends back home, instantly in their bank
account.
-------------- India is the world’s largest recipient of remittances. According to World Bank
reports, Indian migrants sent $62.7 billion in FY 2016-17

19. AIIB grants $150 million loan for India Infrastructure Fund
--------------- China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has approved $150 million
equity investment loan to the India Infrastructure Fund, the bank's first such loan to fund
private projects
-------------- ABOUT AIIB == AIIB was officially established in 2016 with 57 founding members.
With authorised capital of $100 billion, China is the largest shareholder with 26.06 per cent
voting shares. India is the second largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia
5.93 per cent and Germany with 4.5 per cent.
 ------------- -Board of AIIB 3rd meeting – Mumbai, June 2018

20. State-owned oil firms IOC, BPCL and HPCL today signed an agreement to jointly set up India's
biggest refinery at Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra at a cost of USD 30 billion or Rs. 2 lakh
crore.
------------ Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will be the lead partner with 50 per cent stake while
Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will take 25 per
cent stake each.
IOC Chairman ======= Sanjiv Singh
HPCL Chairman and Managing Director ============ Mukesh Kumar Surana
BPCL Chairman and Managing Director ============ D Rajkumar

21. DCB Bank launches first iris-based ATM

------------ In a first, DCB Bank launched an ATM that dispenses cash without a debit card.as
the machine verifies the customer from the Adhaar details like the iris and fingerprint.
HQ – Maharashtra
CEO – Murali Natrajan
RBL Bank (Kohlapur)

22. A GST facilitation cell has been set up in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion to
answer queries regarding GST.
------------- The GST facilitation cell is headed by Shri Sudhansu Sekhar Das, Economic Adviser

23. The iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the city has acquired an `image trademark’, making it
the first building in the country to get intellectual property rights protection for its
architectural design.
-------------- It will ensure that commercial use of the image of its dome and grand exterior
can be made only with the consent of Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris.

24. Amazon bought Whole Foods

----------- the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion

25. YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, has partnered with Hike to power UPI
based payment solutions.
---------- Rana Kapoor - MD
-----------This partnership will instantly provide UPI access to over 100 million Hike users and
provide a significant fillip to India’s digital payments ecosystem.
------------This is the first time in India that a large mobile chat platform has embedded a
payments solution in its app

26. Axis Bank, India's third largest private sector BANK in association with Kochi Metro Rail
Corporation (KMRL) has launched KMRL Axis Bank 'Kochi1' Card,
------------ India's first open loop EMV contactless metro card that would make travel a
convenient and hassle free experience for commuters in Kochi.
 ------------Axis Bank has partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in
developing this transit EMV contactless specification on interoperable open standards.
------------- EMV ==== which stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa -- is a global
standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology used to
authenticate chip-card transactions

27. India has emerged as the seventh largest exporter of agri-products globally

28. Meghalaya government signed two MoUs with the SBI as a part of an initiative towards
migrating government transactions to digital mode.
--------------- two MoUs with the State Bank of India for their SBI ePay and SBI CMP facilities
29. State Bank of India has entered into a tie-up with Tirumala Milk Products, a South- based
company which was acquired by Groupe Lactalis in 2014,
------------ to provide loans to dairy farmers who supply milk to the latter.
------------- France-based Groupe Lactalis

30. India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed during last fiscal due to a contraction in the
country’s trade deficit
According to data furnished by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the CAD for last fiscal
narrowed to 0.7 per cent of the GDP from 1.1 per cent in 2015-16 on the back of the
contraction in trade deficit.
------------- The current account is the net difference between inflows and outflows of foreign
currencies.