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Banking & Economy Awareness PDF 2018 (April To June) June Updated by AffairsCloud PDF
Banking & Economy Awareness PDF 2018 (April To June) June Updated by AffairsCloud PDF
Awareness 2018
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Banking & Economy Awareness 2018
Contents
Banking & Economy Awareness April 2018..................................................................................................... 3
Banking & Economy Awareness May 2018.................................................................................................... 41
Banking & Economy Awareness June 2018.................................................................................................... 65
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iii. Payment Bank are special category banks, which have been approved by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to
promote financial inclusion. It undertakes restricted banking activities. Currently it is permitted to accept
deposits up to Rs. 1 lakh and is not permitted to offer loans.
iv. In November 2016, Airtel Payment Bank became the first entity to commence operations as
Payments Bank.
v. Paytm Payments Bank and Fino Payments Bank commenced operations in 2017.
vi. India Post Payments Bank, which also got a license for a payment bank is yet to start its full-fledged
operations in a formal way.
RBI announces its first bi-monthly monetary policy for the new fiscal year
On April 5, 2018, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced First Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement for
financial year 2018-19. This time too, the Policy Repo Rate has been kept unchanged.
Post the First Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement announcement, the policy rates and reserve ratios
are as follows:
Marginal Standing Facility Rate 6.25% Unchanged – since 2nd August 2017
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) 4.00% Unchanged – since 9th February 2013
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Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) 19.50% With Effect from 14th October 2017
Indian Bank launches PFMS & also launched ‘Bharat QR’, a mobile payment collection
Indian Bank has introduced Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and has launched ‘Bharat QR’ facility.
Indian Bank launches PFMS & ‘Bharat QR’:
i. Indian Bank, Managing Director and CEO, Kishor Kharat launched these initiatives in Chennai.
ii. Indian Bank has introduced public financial management system aimed to benefit government agencies for
utilising payment service.
iii. PFMS will help government agencies for processing payments, tracking, monitoring, accounting,
reconciliation.
iv. The facility was being used for NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) transactions in Tamil
Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, at present.
v. ‘Bharat QR’ is a mobile payment collection scheme to accept digital payments. Using this scheme, a
merchant will receive Bharat QR sticker. This will enable customers to make payments through the QR facility.
vi.Merchants should place the stickers at the shop. Customers can scan that and pay through any digital
transaction mode.
About Indian Bank:
♦ MD and CEO – Kishor Kharat
♦ Headquarters – Chennai
India, World Bank sign US$ 420 million project agreement to benefit farmers in Maharashtra
On 6th April 2018, Government of India, Government of Maharashtra and the World Bank signed a US$
420 million project to benefit Small and Marginal farmers in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of
Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture:
i. This project will help to increase climate resilient practices in agriculture and to make farming a profitable
activity.
ii. This project will benefit more than 7 million people over an area of 3.0 million ha. It will cover 5,142 villages
in the 15 most climate vulnerable districts of the region.
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iii. The $420 million loan provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD) has a grace period of 6 years. Its maturity period is 24 years.
iv. The Agreements for the Maharashtra Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture were signed by Sameer Kumar
Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Indian
government.
v. Bijay Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Department signed on behalf of Maharashtra
government. Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank, India, signed on behalf of the World Bank.
vi. This project will be implemented in rural areas that are mainly dependent on rain-fed agriculture.
Some National Parks in Maharashtra:
♦ Sanjay Gandhi National Park
♦ Gugamal National Park
RBI switches back to GDP model from GVA model to measure economy
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to use Gross Domestic Product (GDP) instead of Gross
Value Added (GVA) to measure economic activity in India.
RBI switches back to GDP model from GVA model to measure economy:
i.Viral Acharya, deputy governor of RBI said that, this change has been done to confirm with international
practice and for ease of comparison.
ii. Worldwide, the performance of economies is measured in terms of GDP. Multilateral institutions,
international analysts and investors also follow this approach.
iii. GVA gives the picture of the state of economic activity from the producers’ side or the supply side.
GDP provides the picture from the consumers’ side or the demand side.
iv. The Central Statistical Office has been employing GDP as the main tool to measure economic activity since
January 2015.
Tag lines of some banks:
♦ Allahabad Bank – A tradition of trust
♦ Bank of Baroda – India’s International Bank
♦ Bank of India – Relationship beyond Banking
Asian Development Bank Noted that Indian economy will grow by 7.3% in FY’18, 7.6% in FY’19
On 11th April 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated that the Indian economy would expand
by 7.3 % in fiscal year (FY) 2018 and 7.6 % in the next fiscal year.
Indian economy will grow by 7.3% in FY’18, 7.6% in FY’19:
i. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that, this growth will be facilitated by various growth-oriented
policy measures.
ii.In ADB’s Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2018 report, it stated that the reduction in growth to 6.6 % in
FY2017 was partially due to demonetization.
iii. Also, issues related to Goods and Services Tax (GST) disturbed operations of small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) and exporters.
iv. ADO stated that, in the upcoming months, growth will improve with the support of various measures like
improving farmers’ purchasing power, higher procurement prices, agriculture market reforms, and
investments in irrigation and logistics.
v. It said that investment revival would continue, but at a modest rate. Also, ADB projected inflation to increase
up to 4.6 % in FY2018 and 5 % percent in FY2019 supported by further strengthening of global commodity
prices and domestic demand.
vi. It said that improved growth in advanced economies will help exports to improve in a healthy rate.
vii. Also, imports are expected to increase due to higher commodity prices and increase in domestic demand.
viii. The current account deficit would widen to 2.2 percent of GDP in FY2018 and 2.4 percent of GDP in
FY2019. It also said that, current account deficit is expected to be financed by capital flows.
About Asian Development Bank (ADB):
♦ President – Takehiko Nakao
♦ Headquarters – Metro Manila, Philippines
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Former RBI deputy governor Harun Rasid Khan joins Bandhan Bank board
Former deputy governor at Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Harun Rasid Khan, has joined Bandhan Bank
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board.
Harun Rasid Khan joins Bandhan Bank board:
i. Harun Rasid Khan joined the board of Bandhan Bank two weeks ago. He has replaced PK Saha in Bandhan
Bank board.
ii. He had headed RBI’s vision on payment system. He had handled financial market, foreign exchange, financial
inclusion, etc. in RBI. He served as deputy governor of RBI from 2011 to 2016.
Tag lines of few banks:
♦ Bank of India – Relationship beyond banking
♦ Bank of Maharashtra – Ek Parivar Ek Bank
♦ Canara Bank – Together we can
1 Hong Kong
2 Singapore
3 New Zealand
4 Switzerland
5 Australia
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PNB launched new products such as pre-approved credit card and UPI solution to mark its
124th foundation day
On 13th April 2018, Punjab National Bank (PNB) launched new products like pre-approved credit card and UPI
solution to mark its 124th foundation day.
PNB launches new schemes to mark 124th foundation day:
i. PNB also announced its UPI partnership with WALNUT, an expense management app, that has features
like bill reminders, bill-split and instant paperless loans.
ii. PNB conducted blood donation camps in 200 blood donation centres in 76 circle offices covering more than
6,500 branches in all states and union territories.
iii. The camp was inaugurated at PNB head office in New Delhi by Sunil Mehta, MD and CEO of PNB
About Punjab National Bank (PNB):
♦ MD & CEO – Sunil Mehta
♦ Headquarters – New Delhi
Government raises NABARD’s authorised capital to Rs 300 billion to aid rural economy
The government has raised the authorised capital of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development) by 6 times to Rs 300 billion, aimed to increase its lending to the rural economy, as a part of
the initiative to double farmers’ income by 2022.
Government raises NABARD’s authorised capital to Rs 300 billion to aid rural economy:
i. A notification regarding this was released by the Finance Ministry on 10th April 2018. A bill in this regard was
approved by Parliament at the start of this year.
ii. The increased authorised capital will enable NABARD to perform the commitments it has undertaken,
especially with respect to Long Term Irrigation Fund and on-lending to cooperative banks.
iii. Also, it will help NABARD to expand its business and activities, resulting in promotion of integrated rural
development, prosperity of rural areas and generation of more employment.
About NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development):
♦ Set up – 1982
♦ Chairman – Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala
Indian economy has recovered from impact of demonetisation, GST: World Bank Report
As per World Bank’s bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report released on April 15, 2018, Indian
economy has recovered from the adverse impacts of demonetisation (in November 2016) and roll out of Goods
and Services Tax (in July 2017).
World Bank’s outlook on Indian Economy:
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i. Owing to recovery from above stated events, Indian economy is projected to grow by 7.3% in 2018 and
7.5% in 2019.
ii. Indian recovery will again make South Asia region, the world’s fastest growing region.
iii. South Asian region as a whole is projected to grow at 6.9% in 2018 and 7.1% in 2019.
iv. However, the report cautioned that despite growth, India was not creating enough jobs. As per the
report, India must create 8.1 million jobs a year to maintain its employment rate.
Quick Facts about World Bank:
♦ Formed in – 1945
♦ Headquarters – Washington D.C., US
♦ Current President – Jim Yong Kim
Kotak Bank goes past SBI to become India’s 2nd most valuable lender
On April 16, 2018, market capitalisation of Kotak Mahindra Bank, for the first time surpassed that of State Bank
of India.
Market Valuation of Kotak Mahindra Bank:
i. Market value of a company’s outstanding shares is referred to as market capitalisation (m-cap). It is
calculated by multiplying the current market value of company’s share with total outstanding shares.
ii. At the end of the trading day on April 16, 2018, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s market capitalisation rose to Rs
2.23 lakh crore compared with SBI’s market cap of Rs 2.22 lakh crore.
iii.On account of this surge, Kotak Mahindra Bank has become the second-most valuable bank in India after
HDFC Bank.
iv. Among all Indian banks, HDFC Bank has the highest market capitalisation of Rs 5.03 lakh crore.
Quick Facts about Kotak Mahindra Bank:
♦ Granted Banking Licence in – 2003
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
♦ Founder, Executive Vice Chairman and MD – Uday Kotak
♦ Tagline – ‘Let’s make money simple’
ix. He also launched Darpan-PLI app that enables renewal of pension including premium collection and
indexing of maturity of claim.
About India Post Payments Bank (IPPB):
♦ MD & CEO – Suresh Sethi
♦ Headquarters of India Post – New Delhi
India claims top spot for 2018 growth among major economies: Reuters Poll
According to a Reuters poll of economists, India will reach the top position among the world’s fastest-
growing major economies in 2018, but increasing trade tensions between the United States and China
might hinder that growth.
India claims top spot for 2018 growth among major economies:
i. The recent tit-for-tat import tariffs introduced by the US and China have created concerns about a global
trade war. Otherwise a strong world economy could be developed.
ii. The recent poll was taken on 11th to 18th April 2018. It has predicted that India’s economy will expand
7.4 % in the fiscal year that began in April 2018.
iii. This is in line with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projection. For the next fiscal year, growth is
expected to average 7.5 %, which is lower than the IMF’s forecast of 7.8 %.
iv. The slowdown has been attributed to demonetization introduced in November 2016 and introduction of
goods and services tax (GST) in July 2017. But the impact of these have reduced now.
iv. Increased government spending prior to national elections next year is expected to be inflationary.
v. Inflation is forecast to average 4.7 % in the fiscal year ending in March 2019, and 4.9 % the following
year, according to the poll.
vi. The Reserve Bank of India has been forecast to keep rates on hold until the second half of next year,
according to the poll.
vii. But economists expect a repo rate increase to the quarter ending September next year from a move in the
first three months of 2019.
Some important stadiums in India:
♦ Trivandrum International Stadium – Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
♦ Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium – Kochi, Kerala
♦ Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium – Kollam, Kerala
SBI India’s most trusted bank, ICICI tops in private sector: Report
As per Trust Research Advisory’s Brand Trust Report 2018, State Bank of India (SBI) is the most-trusted
bank (among both public and private sector banks) in India.
Brand perception of Major Indian Banks:
i. Among private sector banks, the list was topped by ICICI Bank. However, Brand Trust Report 2018 is
based on a survey that was carried out during November 2017 – January 2018 period and did not take into
account the recent reports of irregularities involving the ICICI Bank.
ii. Although SBI has topped the Banking and Financial Services Institutions (BFSI) super-category , its overall
brand trust index ranking has dropped from 13th in 2017 to 21st this year.
iii. Interestingly, out of the 1000 most trusted brands of India that have featured in Brand Trust Report
2018, 51 brands are from the BFSI as compared to 23 brands in 2017.
Quick Facts about State Bank of India (SBI):
♦ Renamed in – 1955
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
♦ Current Chairman – Rajnish Kumar
which, its customers will not be allowed to withdraw more than Rs. 1000 per deposit account.
Restrictions on City Co-operative Bank:
i. In addition to withdrawal restrictions, City Co-operative Bank would not be able to accept fresh deposits,
disburse loans, make any investment, or borrow funds without RBI approval.
ii. In context of this news, it is important to note that City Co-operative Bank’s net non-performing assets stood
at 8.84 per cent of advances.
iii. However, RBI has clarified that issue of the directions should not be construed as cancellation of banking
licence of City Co-operative Bank and it will continue to undertake banking business with restrictions till its
financial position improves.
Bhuj Mercantile Coop Bank bags Banco Award for best performing cooperative bank
Bhuj Mercantile Cooperative Bank has won the Banco Award for best performing cooperative bank.
Bhuj Mercantile Cooperative Bank – Banco Award for best performing cooperative bank:
i. Bhuj Mercantile Cooperative Bank received the Banco Award from Telangana Chief Minister K
Chandrashekhar Rao at an award ceremony held recently in Hyderabad.
ii. Bhuj Mercantile Cooperative Bank was selected as the best performing cooperative bank from 1500
cooperative banks in India.
iii. Also, Bhuj Mercantile Cooperative Bank ranked in the top in Gujarat for hi-tech technology
upgradation. It ranks third in the category at National level.
iv. Banco Award is presented every year to the top performing cooperative banks to recognise and encourage
best practices in the cooperative banking sector.
v. The banks for Banco Award were selected based on the bank’s audited accounts for past 3 years, deposit
growth, non-performing assets (NPA), net profit, customer service standards, ratings provided by RBI, staff
training, Core Banking Solution (CBS), use of latest technology, e-com and ATM facilities.
About Bhuj Mercantile Cooperative Bank:
♦ Chairman – Nilaben S Choksi
♦ Established – 1994
The first meeting of the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
On 19th April 2018, the first meeting of the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was
held in the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., United States.
The first meeting of the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors:
i. Subhash Chandra Garg , Secretary , Department of Economic Affairs (EA) represented Ministry of
Finance, India, in the meeting.
ii. Major issues discussed in the meeting were related to:
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improving the project pipelines of New Development Bank (NDB) evenly across member countries
expansion of NDB’s membership
proposal of South African Presidency for setting up a working group on illicit financial flows
BRICS Task Force on Public Private Partnership
issues related to BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)
BRICS Bond Fund
About New Development Bank (NDB):
♦ President – K V Kamath
♦ Headquarters – Shanghai, China
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Yes Bank got RBI’s nod to open two global representative offices
Mid-size private sector bank YES Bank has got approval from the Reserve Bank of India to open two
international representative offices – in London and Singapore.
Yes Bank’s global representative offices:
i. The two global representative offices in London and Singapore will primarily cater to the NRI (non resident
Indian) population and will also provide networking coverage for Yes Bank’s large investor community in these
regions.
ii. Offerings at these offices would include ‘Yes First’ and ‘Yes Private Wealth Management’ programme along
with Non-Resident External/ Non-Resident Ordinary (NRE/NRO) savings accounts and deposits and similar
services.
iii. Yes Bank started creating international presence in 2015, with opening of its first overseas office in
Abu Dhabi, UAE followed by IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
Quick Facts about Yes Bank:
♦ Founded in – 2004
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
♦ Current MD & CEO – Rana Kapoor
♦ Tagline – ‘Experience our Expertise’
PM Modi award for Manipur’s Karang – India’s first cashless island of the country
On April 22,2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured officials for making Manipur’s Karang the first
cashless island of the country, and implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other priority
initiatives of the Centre.
Karang – first cashless island of the country
i. Karang island, a remote and backward region. It was separated from the Bishnupur district. Incentives
were provided for training towards digital payments and five POS machines were installed on the island.
ii. Self-help groups and youth clubs were roped in for community mobilization and parallel activities were
conducted on the island for Aadhaar enrolment and opening of bank accounts.
iii. An online channel was launched to make people aware about digital payments. Due to this effort, 92 per
cent of the bank accounts were linked with mobile and 70 per cent of them were linked with Aadhaar.
Other honours/awards
i. Modi awarded civil servants for smooth implementation of four priority programmes — Pradhan Mantri
Fasal Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban and Rural), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen
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India’s growth expected to expand at 7.4 % in 2017-18: RBI Governor Urjit Patel
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel has stated that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is
expected to grow at 7.4% in 2018-19.
RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s Outlook on Indian Economy:
i. Mr. Patel gave this statement while addressing the International Monetary Finance Committee in Washington
D.C, US on April 21, 2018.
ii. He stated that global demand has been improving, which should encourage exports and boost fresh
investments in 2018-19.
iii. According to Mr. Urjit Patel, Gross fiscal deficit (GFD) of the Central Government is budgeted at 3.3 per
cent in 2018-19.
iv. He outlined that although GDP growth in 2017-18 moderated to 6.6 percent as compared to 7.1 percent in
2016-17, there was a strong rebound in the second half of 2017-18 on the back of a turnaround in investment
demand.
BoI inks pact with NeSL to share data under insolvency rules
On April 23, 2018, Bank of India (BoI) entered into an agreement with National e-Governance Services
Limited (NeSL) for utilizing its Information Utility Services envisaged under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy
Code, 2016.
More Details about BoI-NeSL tie-up:
i. State-owned NeSL is the first Information Utility entity registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy
Board of India (IBBI) under the aegis of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
ii. Information utility is an information network which procures and stores financial data like borrowings,
default and security interests of various entities. It enables lenders in making decisions on credit transactions.
iii. BoI will now avail NeSL service to expedite corporate insolvency resolution process.
World Bank group approves massive USD 13 billion increase in paid-in capital
On 21st April 2018, the World Bank Group approved USD 13 billion increase in paid-in capital, as part of a
series of internal reforms.
World Bank group approves massive USD 13 billion increase in paid-in capital:
i. The package approved by the Development Committee of the Board of Governors consists of USD 7.5 billion
paid-in capital for International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and USD 5.5 billion
paid-in capital for International Finance Commission (IFC), through both general and selective capital
increases.
ii. It also includes a USD 52.6 billion callable capital increase for the IBRD. The boost in capital will be
supported by various internal measures like operational changes and effectiveness reforms, loan pricing
measures, and other policy steps.
iii. Following this decision, the combined financing arms of the World Bank Group are expected to reach an
average annual capacity of nearly USD 100 billion between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2030.
About World Bank:
♦ President – Jim Yong Kim
♦ Headquarters – Washington, D.C., U.S
ADB has agreed in principle to give an aid of 1700 crore rupees to Uttarakhand
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed in principle to give an aid of Rs 1700 crore to Uttarakhand for
infrastructure development in its urban areas.
ADB aid to Uttarakhand:
i. Decision in this regard was conveyed to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat by the country
director of ADB’s India Regiment Mission Kenichi Yokoyama at a meeting between the two in Dehradun on
April 28, 2018.
ii. Rs 1700 crore procured through ADB aid will be utilised for creation of infrastructural facilities,
sewer treatment plants and water supply facilities in urban areas of Uttarakhand.
iii. Besides, ADB can also initiate a reform programme to economically strengthen municipal corporations of
Uttarakhand which would enable them to efficiently manage the resources at their disposal.
Quick Facts about Asian Development Bank (ADB):
♦ Formation Year – 1966
♦ Headquarters – Manila, Philippines
♦ Current President – Takehiko Nakaho
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Government of India and World Bank Signs Agreement to Improve Rural Road Network in Madhya
Pradesh
On 24th April 2018, Government of India, Government of Madhya Pradesh and World Bank signed a
$210 million loan agreement for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project.
$210 million loan agreement for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project:
i. The Project would enhance the durability, resilience and safety of the gravel surfaced rural roads and
improve the capacity of Madhya Pradesh to manage its rural roads network.
ii. The Project will cover 10,510 km distance of rural roads in Madhya Pradesh that come under the Chief
Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY) program.
iii. Out of this 10,000 km will be upgraded from existing gravel to bituminous surface roads. 510 km of new
roads will be built to the bituminous surface standard.
iv. This project will carry out surface sealing of roads, embankment pitching, and balancing culverts to prevent
damages caused by extreme flood events.
v. Alternate sealing options for road construction like polymer modified asphalt, asphalt blended with plastic
waste, and multiple surface treatment will be piloted in 20 percent of the length. It will be cost-effective and
also reduce the carbon footprint of the transport sector.
vi. This project will involve women self-help groups (SHG) in the post construction maintenance activity. They
will carry out routine maintenance of off-carriage way parts of the road.
vii. Main carriageway maintenance will be done by the original contractor. A direct maintenance contract will
be formed between the SHG group and MPRRDA (Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority) for 3-5
years.
viii. The project will implement Road Accident Database Management System (RADMS). Madhya Pradesh
will pilot a comprehensive Road Safety Program (PCRSP) in districts with the most fatal and serious injuries
observed in the past.
About Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project (MPRCP):
♦ Chief General Manager – Pankaj Jhawar
♦ Project Implementing Agency of MPRCP – Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority (MPRRDA)
Electoral Bond Scheme 2018: Sale of Electoral Bonds at Authorised Branches of State Bank of India
(SBI)
In the 3rd phase of sale, State Bank of India (SBI) has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral
Bonds through its 11 Authorised Branches with effect from 01.05.2018 to 10.05.2018.
Sale of Electoral Bonds at Authorised Branches of SBI:
i. Government of India notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 as on Gazette Notification No. 20 dated
2nd January 2018.
ii. Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 states that, Electoral Bonds can be purchased by a person, who is a citizen
of India or incorporated or established in India.
iii. A person can buy Electoral Bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.
iv. Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951
(43 of 1951) and those that have secured not less than 1 % of the votes polled in the last General Election to
the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State are eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.
iv. The Electoral Bonds can be encashed by eligible Political Parties only through a Bank account with the
Authorized Bank.
v. Electoral Bonds are valid for fifteen days from the date of issue. If the Electoral Bond is deposited after
expiry, payment will not be made to any payee Political Party.
v. Electoral Bond deposited by an eligible Political Party in its account will be credited on the same day.
About State Bank of India (SBI):
♦ Chairman – Rajnish Kumar
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai
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India – World Bank sign $125 million agreement for “Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project”
On April 24, 2018, India signed a loan agreement with World Bank for IBRD credit of $125million for the
“Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project”. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is
a member institution of World Bank Group.
More information about “Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project”:
i. Objective of “Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project” is to encourage indigenous innovation,
facilitate local product development and accelerate commercialization process in the sphere of
affordable and innovative healthcare products.
ii. The project would support public, private and the academic institutions to overcome the key market failures
by bridging critical skill and infrastructure gaps and thereby nurture an innovative biopharmaceutical and
medical devices industry in India.
iii. Term of IBRD $125 million credit will be 19 years with a grace period of 5 years.
Quick Facts about World Bank:
♦ Formed in – 1945
♦ Headquarters – Washington D.C., US
♦ Current President – Jim Yong Kim
NSE launches e – Gsec platform for bringing retail participation in Govt. Securities
On April 24, 2018, The National Stock Exchange (NSE) announced the launch of its e-Gsec platform which will
allow retail investors to invest in government securities.
Salient features of NSE’s e-Gsec platform:
i. Government issues securities in order to borrow money from the market.
ii. Government Securities are offered to investors through competitive and non-competitive auctions.
iii. Auction is held by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on weekly basis, wherein large investors viz. banks,
primary dealers, financial institutions, mutual funds, insurance companies participate in the competitive
auctions by placing bids directly with Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
iv. In the weekly auctions, 5 per cent of the notified amount is allotted for eligible investors under the
scheme for non-competitive bidding facility.
v. Through NSE’s e-Gsec platform, the retail investors will now be able to participate in the next weekly auction
which is scheduled on April 26, 2018.
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vi. Allowing retail participation in G-Sec auctions through stock exchanges was first announced in Union budget
2016-17.
Quick Facts about NSE:
♦ Began Operations in – 1994
♦ Located in – Mumbai, Maharashtra
♦ Current Managing Director and CEO – Vikram Limaye
India’s average GDP growth to rise to 7.8 pc in first half of this year: Report
According to the Japanese financial services major Nomura, India’s average Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
growth is expected to rise to 7.8 per cent in the first half of 2018.
Outlook of Indian Economy – Nomura:
i. As per Nomura, GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in first half of 2018 will come on back of increase in
investments as well as consumption demand.
ii. However, rising oil prices, tighter financial conditions and a likely slowdown in investment activity ahead of
the elections have been identified as factors that may lead to moderation in growth for the second half.
iii. On account of these factors, growth for Q4-2018 is forecasted at 6.9 per cent.
iv. Further, Nomura has cautioned that rising oil prices may have a direct bearing on Consumer Price Index
(CPI) inflation, wherein every USD 10/bbl rise in oil prices will spike the CPI inflation by 30-40 bps and
would worsen the current account balance by 0.4 percentage points.
Quick Facts about Nomura Group:
♦ Founded in – 1925
♦ Headquarters – Tokyo, Japan
Govt. of India and World Bank sign legal agreement on National Biopharma Mission
On April 24, 2018, Government of India signed a Legal Agreement with World Bank for flexible financing
arrangements for National Biopharma Mission (NBM).
About NBM and Legal Agreement with World Bank:
i. National Biopharmaceutical Mission is the first ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate
biopharmaceutical development in India. This programme has been named Innovate in India (i3).
ii. It is a $250 million dollar initiative that includes a $125 million loan from the World Bank.
iii. Objective of this programme is to make India a hub for design and development of novel, affordable and
effective biopharmaceutical products.
iv. The thrust areas for the mission are vaccine development, biotherapeutics, diagnostics and development of
medical devices.
v. The mission will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a
Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science & Technology.
vi. On April 24, 2018, a Legal Agreement for flexible financing arrangements for this NBM was signed between
BIRAC, Department of Economic Affairs under Union Ministry of Finance and International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (a member institution of World Bank Group).
Quick Facts about World Bank:
♦ Formed in – 1945
♦ Headquarters – Washington D.C., US
♦ Current President – Jim Yong Kim
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French bank Societe Generale is exiting Central and Eastern Europe and has announced it will close
offices in Bulgaria
Societe Generale is withdrawing its business from Central and Eastern Europe and has announced that it will
close offices in Bulgaria.
Societe Generale is exiting Central and Eastern Europe:
i. Societe Generale has decided to focus on other parts of their business and quit from their business in Central
and Eastern Europe.
ii. The bank in Bulgaria is sold in a package with five other divisions in Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia
and Moldova.
About Societe Generale:
♦ CEO - Frederic Oudea
♦ Founded – 1864
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has deferred adoption of Indian Accounting Standards
On 5th April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deferred the implementation of the Indian
Accounting Standards (Ind AS) by one year since many banks are not yet prepared to adopt the new
accounting system.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has deferred adoption of Indian Accounting Standards:
i. Earlier, the deadline for banks to move to the Ind AS was declared as April 1 2018. The announcement
was made by RBI deputy governor NS Vishwanathan.
ii. He said that the format of the financial statements stated in the Third Schedule of the Banking Regulation Act
is not amenable for reporting financial statements under Ind AS.
iii. He said that, they have requested the government to amend the Schedule and it is under consideration.
iv. He said that, RBI will continue to have the proforma of financial statements from banks to overview the
progress made towards adopting Ind-AS.
Some important museums in Bihar:
♦ Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh Museum – Darbhanga
♦ Chandra Shekhar Singh Museum – Jamui
♦ Rajendra Smriti Sangrahalaya (Rajendra Memorial Museum) - Patna
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Post office savings account customers can soon avail full digital banking service
Post office savings account holders will be able to avail a full-fledged digital banking service from May
2018 since the government has approved linking such accounts with that of India Post Payments Bank
(IPPB).
Post office savings account holders to avail digital banking service from May 2018:
i. The finance ministry has approved linking of savings bank accounts at post offices with IPPB accounts. Hence,
post office account holders can transfer money from their account to any bank account.
ii. Nearly 34 crore post office savings account holders will be able to avail the full-fledged digital banking
service from May 2018.
iii. Out of the 34 crore savings accounts 17 crore are post office savings bank accounts and remaining are those
subscribed monthly income scheme, recurring deposits etc.
iv. This move also leads to creation of India's largest banking network as India Post has planned to link all 1.55
lakh post office branches with the IPPB.
v. India Post has started core banking service. But it provides money transfer service within post office
savings bank (POSB) accounts.
vi. IPPB customers can utilise NEFT, RTGS and other money transfer services. After POSB accounts are linked
with IPPB, customers can use all money transfer service like other banks.
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vii. By May 2018, POSB account customers will be given an option by India Post to avail this facility.
About IPPB (India Post Payments Bank):
♦ Governed by - Reserve Bank of India
♦ MD & CEO - Suresh Sethi
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i. SEBI has said in its order that, Jagdish T Jain, a former whole time director of Refex Industries, was associated
with the company during the six-month period before trading in the scrip that is on July 1, 2, 8 and 9, 2015.
ii. As Jagdish T Jain was an insider of the company, SEBI said that he was in possession of UPSI (unpublished
price sensitive information) while performing trade in the scrip of the company and has violated PIT
(Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations.
iii. SEBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 15 lakh on Jagdish T Jain for this violation. SEBI had conducted an
investigation in the scrip of Refex Industries during the period from July 1 to July 23, 2015.
About SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India):
♦ Chairman - Ajay Tyagi
♦ Headquarters - Mumbai
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more than two months after TS Vijayan’s tenure came to an end on February 21, 2018.
Quick Facts about IRDAI:
♦ Founded in – 1999
♦ Headquarters – Hyderabad
Cabinet approves new terminal buildings at Guwahati, Chennai and Lucknow airports
On 2nd May 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved upgradation and expansion of
airport infrastructure at Lucknow, Chennai and Guwahati airports with a total cost of over Rs 5,000 crore.
New terminal buildings at Guwahati, Chennai and Lucknow airports:
i. Union commerce and industry minister, Suresh Prabhu, said that, Chennai Airport’s new terminal building
will have a capacity of 35 million passengers per year. It will be constructed at a cost of Rs 2467 crore.
ii. The new terminal building of Guwahati Airport will have a capacity of 9 million passengers per year. It will be
built at a cost of Rs 1383 Crore.
iii. The new terminal building of Lucknow Airport will have a capacity of 13.6 million passengers per year. It will
be constructed at a cost of Rs 1232 Crore.
Some important International airports in India:
♦ Hyderabad – Rajiv Gandhi International Airport
♦ Lucknow – Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport
♦ Varanasi – Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport
In a bid to help sugar mills to clear cane dues of farmers, CCEA has given its approval to provide financial
assistance @ of Rs. 5.50 per quintal of cane crushed in sugar season 2017-18 to sugar mills to offset the cost
of cane.
• Financial assistance shall be paid directly to the farmers on behalf of the mills.
• This benefit will be given only to those mills which fulfil the eligibility conditions as decided by the
Government.
• On account of high sugar production vis-à-vis consumption, sugar prices have remained depressed
since the beginning of current sugar season 2017-18.
• Surplus holdings have negatively affected the liquidity position of sugar mills which has in turn
lead to accumulation of cane price dues of farmers.
• Sugar mill dues to farmers currently stands at a staggering Rs.19000 crore.
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• Financial assistance along with other measures will thereby provide relief to farmers.
CCEA has approved the proposal for renaming and restructuring of Multi-sectoral Development Programme
(MsDP) as Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK).
• PMJVK, which has more flexibility as compared to MsDP would provide better socio economic
infrastructure facilities to the minority communities particularly in the field of education, health & skill
development as compared to the present situation.
• Under PMJVK, criteria for identification of Minority Concentration Towns and Clusters of Villages
have been rationalized.
• In addition to restructuring and renaming MsDP, CCEA has also approved its continuation during the
remaining period of 14thFinance Commission at the cost of Rs. 3972 crore.
CCEA has given its approval for the Umbrella Scheme, “Green Revolution – Krishonnati Yojana” in agriculture
sector beyond 12th Five Year Plan for the period from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
• “Green Revolution – Krishonnati Yojana” is geared towards developing the agriculture and allied sector in a
holistic and scientific manner to increase the income of farmers by enhancing production, productivity and
helping them to get better returns on produce.
• CCEA has approved its continuation for three financial years, i.e., 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 at
expenditure of Rs.33269.976 crore.
• 11 schemes that are the constituents of Umbrella Scheme are: Mission for Integrated Development of
Horticulture (MIDH), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
(NMSA), Submission on Agriculture Extension (SMAE), Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material
(SMSP), Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM), Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plan
Quarantine (SMPPQ), Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics and Statistics (ISACES),
Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation (ISAC), Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing
(ISAM), National e-Governance Plan (NeGP-A).
27th GST council meeting discusses change in GST rate for digital transactions
27th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was held on May 4,
2018.
Issues discusses at 27th GST council meeting:
i. With a view to incentivise promotion of digital payments, a proposal of a concession of 2% in GST rate on
B2C supplies (for which payment is made through cheque or digital mode, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 100
per transaction) was discussed.
ii. A Group of Ministers from State Governments will be setup to look into this proposal and make
recommendations, before the next GST Council meeting.
iii. It was discussed to impose a sugar cess of maximum Rs 3 on each kg sold by sugar companies, over and
above the 5% GST charged on sugar. This move is expected to raise Rs 1540 crore which can be paid to cane
farmers on behalf of mills.
iv. A Group of Ministers from State Governments will be setup to look into this proposal as well and make
recommendations within two weeks.
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1 United States
2 Canada
3 Germany
4 United Kingdom
5 China
Signing of Legal Agreements between Govt. of India and World Bank on National Biopharma Mission
To develop an innovative biopharmaceutical and medical devices industry in India, Government of India and
the World Bank signed an agreement. The aim is to make India a hub for design and development of novel,
affordable and effective biopharmaceutical products.
i. The agreement has signed at a cost of USD 250 million for five years with 50 per cent funding through the
World Bank Loan.
ii. The agreement for the Project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic
Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; Mohd. Aslam, Managing Director, Biotechnology
Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC); and Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India, on
behalf of the World Bank.
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iii. It will also encourage to develop promote industry-academia interface and enable start-ups and small and
medium enterprises to build innovation research capacities for developing affordable healthcare products.
India tops list of fastest growing economies for coming decade: Harvard study
The Centre for International Development at Harvard University Predicted the Fastest growing economies in the
world for the Upcoming Decade.The Growth projections are based on some of the economic Complexity.India
Topped the list with the Projection of 7.9 Per cent which is far high than China (4.9 Per cent),U.S.(3 Per
cent),France (3.5 Per cent).Uganda is in Second Position with predicted growth of 7.5 percent.
Top Fastest Growing Countries are:
1.India(1st Place)
2.Uganda(2nd Place)
3.Tanzania(4th Place)
4.Kenya(10th Place)
Reason Behind India’s Growth:
India Topped the list because it made tremendous growth in Various Sectors Namely,Chemicals,Vehicles & Certain
Electronics Sectors.And the Report also Stated that India ranks the best in Complexity Opportunity
Index(COI),which measures the redeployment of the related products that depends on the Capabilities.
The Countries which has Low growth Prospects:
1.Bangladesh,
2.Venezuela,
3.Angola
The Countries which has fast growth Prospects are:
1.Philippines
2.Vietnam
3.Indonesia
4.Thailand
ADB projects India’s growth at 7.3% in 2018 at the 51st ADB Annual Meeting
51st Asian Development Bank( ADB) Annual Meeting was Presided by ADB President Takehiko Nakao.While
Adressing the Ceremony of the 51st Meeting,Nakao Said that India’s growth is Projected to be 7.3 Percent in Fiscal
Year 2018 & 7.6 Per cent in the next Fiscal,which is far higher than its 6.6 Percent in FiscalYear 2017.
Reason Behind India’s Growth:
ADB’s Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada said that the India’s Growth in 2017 is low because the Introduction of
Demonetisation.And he Further Continues that the growth Projection of India is high from the Previous year is
because of the Implementation of GST,Foreign Direct Investment also helps in India’s growth & the Most Important
Factor which boost the growth is the Governments Initiative of Ease of Doing Business.
Growth of Other Countries:
1.China-6.6 Percent
2.Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)-5.2 Percent
Secretary, DEA meets president of ADB, Mr. Takehiko Nakao; attends 12th informal meeting of SAARC
finance Ministers
On May 5, 2018 Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance
met President of Asian Development Bank (ADB), Mr. Takehiko Nakao during a tour to Manila to attend the
51st Annual Meeting of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
i. He requested him to support India’s endeavor and to expand ADB’s sovereign and non-sovereign operations in
India by providing financial assistance worth $ 4 billion a year.
ii. Government of India had approved the proposal of ADB to acquire additional resources through INR bonds in
the offshore markets.
iii. He also attended the 12th informal meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers and highlighted the ongoing reforms in
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India .He has highlighted the need for increased private sector operations by ADB in India.
About South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization
and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia. Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,
Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
♦ Establishment: 8 December 1985
♦ Headquarters: Kathmandu
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India signs 200 million US Dollar Loan Deal with World Bank for National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN
Abhiyaan) for 315 districts across all states/UTs
On 7th May 2018, Government of India signed a loan deal worth $ 200 million with the World Bank for the
National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyaan).
India signs 200 million US Dollar Loan Deal with World Bank for National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN
Abhiyaan):
i. This loan will help India to reach its goal of reducing stunting in children of the age 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25%
by 2022.
ii. The POSHAN (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyaan was launched by Prime
Minister on 8th March 2018 at Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
iii. POSHAN Abhiyaan’s main objective is gradual increase of the interventions supported by the World Bank
assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project
(ISSNIP) to all districts in India for a 3-year period.
iv. This loan will support the first phase scale up to 315 districts and union territories (UTs) in India.
v. The coverage and quality of ICDS nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women and children under 3
years of age will be improved.
vi. The project will comprise investments in improving the skills and capacities of ICDS staff and community
nutrition workers, developing mechanisms of community mobilization and behavior change communication,
improving systems of citizen engagement and grievance redress and setting up mobile technology based tools for
better monitoring and management of services for enhanced reach to beneficiaries during the critical 1,000 day
window for nutrition impact.
vii. The project will also ensure convergence of all nutrition related schemes and offer performance based
incentives to states and community nutrition and health workers, with focus on results.
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Finance and Policy (NIPFP), Sajjid Chinoy – Chief India Economist at JP Morgan and Neelkanth Mishra – Managing
Director and the Credit Suisse India Economist and Strategist.
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iii. The programme will be launched during the current year in Haryana and Rajasthan.
iv. Initially it will be launched in 15 districts (eight districts in Haryana and seven in Rajasthan).
v. It will benefit 10,900 farmers. Digital methodology will be used to train farmers.
About YES Bank:
♦ MD & CEO – Rana Kapoor
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai
Par panel to look into black money and performance of public sector banks
i. On 10th May 2018, a parliamentary panel of 30 membersestimate Committeealso known as Continuous
Economy committee has been constituted by the speaker of parliament . Veteran BJP leader Mr.MuraliManohar
Joshi has been appointed as the chairman of this committee.
ii. This committee will focus on the black money and the unaccounted money that was legaitimised during the
demonetization period as per RBI’s report. Also it will look into the performance of public sector bank, import
of uranium ,preparedness of Indian armed forces, environment and mining activities, among other things
related to various ministries in the year 2018-2019.
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Key points:
♦ Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee: Mr. MallikarjunKharge.
♦ 24 th Governor of RBI :Mr. Urjit Patel
♦ Speaker of Parliament : Mrs. SumitraMahajan.
RBI restricts Dena Bank from taking fresh credit exposure and Hiring
Dena Bank has announced that Reserve Bank of India has restricted it from taking fresh credit exposure and
recruiting new staff.
Restrictions on Dena Bank:
i. It is to be noted that RBI initiated prompt corrective action against Dena Bank and imposed certain
restrictions in May 2017 owing to high net non performing assets (NPA) and negative Return on Assets.
ii. The fresh restriction has been imposed in wake of deteriorated financial performancefor the 4th quarter
of 2017-18. For fourth quarter ended March 31, 2018, Dena Bank reported a net loss of Rs 1225 crore, which is
much wider than the net loss of Rs 575 crore recorded in the same quarter last year.
iii. In addition to this, for the financial year 2017-18, Dena Bank recorded a net loss of Rs 1924 crore marking a
third consecutive year of net loss.
Quick Facts about Dena Bank:
♦ Founded in – 1938
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
♦ Current Executive Director – Ramesh Singh
♦ Tagline – Trusted Family Bank
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♦ Founded in – 1984
♦ Headquarters – Beijing, China
YES Bank launches Agenda 25×25 for budding women entrepreneurs in India
Private sector bank, Yes Bank and its think tank YES Global Institute have launched ‘Agenda 25×25’, aimed at
creating a synergetic startup environment for budding women entrepreneurs in India.
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BSE becomes first Indian stock exchange to get US SEC’s DOSM recognition
Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has become the first Indian exchange to be recognised as a designated offshore
securities market (DOSM) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
i. The DOSM status eases the trades by U.S. investors in India as it allows sale of securities to U.S. investors
through the trading venue of BSE without registration of such securities with the U.S. SEC.
ii. In addition this, DOSM recognition also enhances the attractiveness of Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs)
amongst US investors.
iii. Few exchanges across the world that have the DOSM recognition are London Stock Exchange, Bourse de
Luxembourg, Tokyo Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange.
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• Global Wealth Migration Review provides insights on worldwide wealth and wealth migration trends over
the past 10 years (up to the end of 2017), with projections for the next 10 years.
• India emerged as the “Best Performing Wealth Markets” registering 25% growth in total wealth for
the year 2017.
• The report has projected that India will overtake Germany and the UK to become the 4th largest wealth
market worldwide by 2027, mainly on account of large number of entrepreneurs, robust outlook for
Information Technology, business process outsourcing, good educational system, real estate, healthcare
and media sectors.
• With a total wealth of $62,584 billion, United States of America is the richest nation globally.
• Global wealth rose to USD 215 trillion at the end of 2017, marking a 12% growth as compared to USD
192 trillion at the end of 2016.
• Globally, there are around 15.2 million High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), each with net assets of $1
million or more.
• As per the report, global wealth will reach $321 trillion by 2027 and Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, China,
Mauritius are expected to be the fastest growing wealth markets for the next decade.
1 US $62,584 billion
ii. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) will release the GDP estimate for the fourth quarter (Q4) of fiscal 2017-18
and provisional annual estimates for the year 2017-18 on 31st May 2018.
i. This agreement is for pledge financeunder the repository ecosystem for registered / accredited warehouses.
ii. The new ecosystem will boost confidence among bankers and other stakeholders like depositors and warehouse
service providers.
iii. This will also provide various features to its stakeholders such as seamless transfer of ownership of
commodity by the depositors, splitting of warehouse receipt by the depositors, real time and ease of access
of information by the banks that will help them reduce their TAT in processing the loans and marking the pledge
on the commodity.
iv. BOB becomes the firstpublic sector bank to become the repository participant.
Central Depository Services (CDSL) :
♦ Headquarters – Mumbai, India.
ii. These appointments have been done on recommendations for the Banks Board Bureau (BBB).
iii. The appointments are : Charan Singh as chairperson of Punjab and Sindh Bank, Anjali Bansal as
Chairperson of Dena Bank and Tapan Ray as chairperson of Central Bank of India.
iv. Charan Singh has served at IMF as senior economist and at Reserve Bank of India as director.
v. Anjali Bansal is founder of Spencer Stuart’s India and had worked with McKinsey and Company
vi. Tapan Ray has served as Secretaryin the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
♦ Dena Bank :
Tagline : Trusted Family Bank .
♦ Punjab & Sindh Bank:
Tagline: Where Service is a way of Life .
♦ Central Bank of India:
Tagline: Central to you since 1911.
ICICI Bank to start an innovation lab for better digital banking experience.
On May 26,2018, the Mumbai Headquartered ICICI bank launched its innovation lab for digital business. This
team is headed by former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mr. Rohan Angrish at small business lender Fintech
Capital Float.
Objective of the initiative:
To create technology from scratch and help better digital business.
Salient Features of the Initiative:
i. The innovation fund for this project with partnered concerns is : Rs. 100 crore.
ii. Innovation in areas like : digital small ticket personal loans, ‘one cycle’credit loans (allowing the user to
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Boards of Max Financial Services and Max Life Insurance announced Sachil Vachani as the new Director
On May 26,2018, The boards of Max Financial Services and Max Life Insurance appointed Mr. Sachil Vachani
as the Director.
Key points
i. He started his career as a banker with Citigroup in London . In 2004 he joined Dixon Technologies as business
head.
ii. He has joined as the representative of owner group to create a powerful real estate brand –Max Estates.
iii. He has successfully worked on sale of 22.5% stake of Max Ventures to New York Life Insurance Company in
2017 and a joint venture of Max ventures with Japans’ Toppan printing company ltd.
15th Finance Commission to visit to Kerela from 28th to 31st May 2018
From May 28- 31st , the 15th Finance Commission wiil be visiting Kerela .
Kerala is the first state in Southern India to be visited by the Commission.
Objective:
To assess the state of finance of Kerela and progress of the state in the socio-economic sector.
Key points:
i. The commission was led by Chairman N.k. Singh.
ii. Kerela is the 10thlargest state that contributes to 4.2% of GDP of the nation. It has the highest per capita
income. The state has a booming service sector.
iii. Emigratioon and Immigration remittances is huge in kerela.
iv. In terms of development indicators like per capita income , poverty ratio, health and education kerela has
better points than national average.
v. social sector spending for the senior age group (>60 years) is of some concern as the life expectancy is
increased.
vi. Kerela’s literacy level is 94%that is highest among all the states.
vii. More discussions are to be made on the developments with the CM , finance department, various political
parties and the rural and urban local self governments and Panchayati Raj institutions .
Kerela :
♦ Capital – Thiruvananthapuram
♦ Chief Minister – Pinarayi Vijayan.
vi. It has a surplus of Rs.200 billion with an interest income of Rs.16 billion per annum.
vii. The cut in charges won’t effect the EPFO as their subscriber base increases a lot.
viii. Presently it has 500 million subscribers and a corpus of Rs. 10 trillion .
About EPFO:
♦ It is under the Ministry of Labour . Constituted in 1952.
RBI allows Rupee Co-op Bank to continue banking services under restriction till August 31,2018
On May 28,2018, the Central Bank of India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has instructed the Rupee Co-op
Bank of Pune to continue its banking services keeping the limitations in mind.
Key points:
i. Restriction were first imposed on February 22 ,2103 to August 2013 and that was extended 8 times till May
2018.
ii. RBI has further extended the restrictions for further 3 months till August 31 2018.
About Rupee Co-op Bank:
It is headquartered in Pune Maharashtra. It has 40 offices / branches across the state.
India signs Loan Agreement with the World Bank for USD 21.7 Million for Strengthening the Public
Financial Management in Rajasthan Project
On 29th May 2018, an agreement for IBRD Credit of USD 21.7 Million from World Bank for the Strengthening of
Public Financial Management in Rajasthan Project was signed in New Delhi.
India signs Loan Agreement with the World Bank:
i. The agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (FB and ADB), Department of Economic
Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of Indian Government and Mr. Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World
Bank (India) on behalf of the World Bank.
ii. The Implementing Entity Agreement was signed by the Secretary, Finance (Budget) on behalf of Rajasthan
Government, and the Acting Country Director (India) on behalf of the World Bank.
iii. Project size: is nearly USD 31 million. Out of this USD 21.7 million will be funded by the World Bank. Rest of
the amount will be funded-out of the State Budget.
iv. Duration of this project: is 5 years. The objective of this project is to contribute to enhanced Budget
execution, better accountability and improved efficiency in Revenue Administration in Rajasthan.
v. This Project also involves Strengthening of the Public Financial Management Framework, Strengthening of
Expenditure and Revenue Systems, and Project Management and Capacity Building etc.
About World Bank:
♦ President – Jim Yong Kim
♦ Headquarters – Washington, D.C., U.S.
iv. Term deposits with 2-3 years with fetch 6.65% from 6.60% form earlier.
v. For Senior citizens the term deposits of 1-2 years will be fetching 7.15%from 6.9%.
vi. FDs of 2-3 years will be getting interest rate of 7.15%.
vii. These rates are for the amount less than 1 crore.
viii. For bulk amounts of between 1 crore and 10 crore , 1-2 year deposits will get 7 % and for senior citizens it
is 7.5% . The rates are same for amount greater than 10 crore.
About Interest Rates:
An increase in deposit rates results in higher lending rates as well as the marginal cost lending rate (MCLR) is
linked to the cost of funds.
ICICI Bank has appointed M D Mallya, former Bank of Baroda boss as an additional independent director of
the bank
On 29th May 2018, the ICICI Bank board appointed former Bank of Baroda (BoB) chief M D Mallya as
an additional (independent) directorfor a period of 5 years.
M D Mallya – additional independent director of ICICI Bank:
i. M D Mallya’s appointment is subject to the approval of shareholders. His appointment comes a month before the
ICICI bank’s chairman M K Sharma completes his term.
ii. Before joining BoB, M D Mallya was the chairman of Bank of Maharashtra. He is 65 years old.
iii. He joined Corporation Bank in August 1976. He also served as executive director of Oriental Bank of Commerce
(OBC). He was also the chairman of the Indian Banks Association.
About Bank of Baroda:
♦ MD & CEO – P. S. Jayakumar
♦ Headquarters – Vadodara, Gujarat.
USD 500 Mn additional financing assistance given to the Indian govt by World Bank for PMGSY Rural Roads
Project
On May 31,2018, Indian Government has signed a loan agreement with the International Bank of
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) an arm of World Bank , of $500 million.
Key points:
i. This loan has a grace period of 3 years and a maturity period of 10 years.
ii. The loan agreement for the project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, joint secretary, Department of
Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the government of India and Junaid Ahmad, country
director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank in the presence of Alka Upadhyaya, joint secretary
(RC), Ministry of Rural Development.
iii. The financing would help in bringing new construction technology like green and low carbon design and
climate resilient techniques.
iv. For adequate maintenance of existing 4.6 million km of road networks.
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ADB granted financial assistance of $375 mn project for irrigation boost in Madhya Pradesh
On May 31,2018, Asian Development Bank approved $375 million loan in Madhya Pradesh.
Objective:
For a project to improve irrigation in Madhya Pradesh and help increase farmer’s income.
Salient Features:
i. The project will expand irrigation networks and system efficiency.
ii. The total cost of the project is $535.1 million and $160.71 million will be given by the government.
iii. The estimated time of completion of the project is September 2025.
iv. In the first stage , the Kundalia irrigation project will develop 125000 hectare of new , efficient, Climate
resilient irrigation networks.
v. with this project the state will double the irrigated to 2 million hectares land by 2025.
vi. It will help farmers adopt micro-irrigation strategies and overall will help 838,000 people of 419 villages.
Madhya Pradesh:
♦ Capital – Bhopal
♦ Chief Minister – Shivraj Singh Chouhan
♦ UNESCO World Heritage Site – Sanchi , Bhimbekta Rock Shelters, Khajuraho Group of Monuments.
India’s GDP grows at robust 7.7% in Q4 of FY18, full year growth at 6.7%
On May 31,2018, The ministry of Statistics reported that India’s GDP grew at robust 7.7% in Q4 of financial year
2017-18.
Key points:
i. The full year growth is at 6.7%.
ii. It surpassed China’s trajectory of 8%.
iii. The ministry revised the October-December growth from earlier 7.2% to 7.0%.
iv. It can be forcasted that the growth is towards a 7.3% for annual growth.
v. This improvement can be due to improved manufacturing sector and GST.
vi. Manufacturing sector grew a9.1% from a 6.1% earlier .
vii. Inflation is projected to be 4.58 % in april above the RBI’s target of 4%.
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New Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme, 2018 launched by the Income Tax Department
A new reward scheme named “Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme, 2018” has been introduced by
the Income Tax Department.
Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme, 2018:
i. This reward scheme aims to encourage people to provide information about benami transactions and
properties and also income earned on such properties by hidden investors and beneficial owners.
ii. Under the Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme, 2018, a person can receive reward up to Rs. 1
crore for offering specific information in prescribed manner to the Joint or Additional Commissioners of
Benami Prohibition Units (BPUs) in Investigation Directorates of Income Tax Department.
iii. The information should be related to benami transactions and properties and proceeds from properties that
are actionable under Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, as amended by Benami Transactions
(Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016.
iv. Foreigners are also eligible to receive reward. Identity of persons providing information will not be revealed
and confidentiality will be maintained.
Some important international boundary lines:
♦ Blue Line : Isreal & Lebanon
♦ Purple Line : Israel and Syria
♦ Green Line : Israel and its neighbours (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria)
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M-app Cube Wealth launched to transfer money from bank a/cs to MFs
On June 1, 2018, a co-founder of Citrus Mr. Satyen Kothari has launched his new venture of an app that can
sweep funds between bank a/cs and Mutual Funds.
Objective:
So that money doesn’t remain idle in the bank a/cs.
Key Points:
i. The app is called ‘Cube Wealth’.
ii. Cube with Zerodhaand other asset management companies has come up with the solution of fund transfer
services.
iii. Customers can retrieve money to their bank a/cs during emergencies however, this feature is only available
to those whose initial amount of transaction is Rs. 50000.
iv. The platform will provide wealth advisors and will be available from June 5,2018.
v. The app would allow small investors in international investment options which is currently limited
to US and China only.
About Citrus:
♦ Citrus was acquired by PayU in a Rs. 850 crore deal in September 2016.
Government introduces new scheme ‘Seva Bhoj Yojna’ for charitable institutions
On June 1, 2018, The Ministry of Culture launched a new scheme called ‘Seva Bhoj Yojana’.
Obejctive:
To reimburse the central government of CGST and IGST to reduce the financial burden of the religious
institutions who serve neccessities to the public / devotee free of cost without discrimination.
Salient Features:
i. The services include food, Prasad, langar (Community Kitchen).
ii. The charitable institutions include Temples, Gurudwara, Mosque, Church, Dharmik Ashram, Dargah,
Matth, Monasteries who have been existing for at least 5 years before the grant.
iii. They should serve at least 5000 people in a month and is under Societies Registration Act and under
Income Tax Act (under section 10 (23BBA)).
iv. The institutions will be given renewed registration by the Ministry as per evaluation of their performance.
v. the details will be available online for public view and would be permitted to submit their reimbursement
claim during the validation of the registration.
vi. The eligible institutions must be registered with the Darpan Portal.
vii. a committee will be constituted and would examine the applicants within 4 weeks for their viable
registration.
iii. The MCLR for overnight and one month tenors is for 7.9% and for the three years tenor is 8.45%.
iv. PNB has raised tenors for 3 and 5 years to 8.55% and 8.7%
v. PNB has also raised the base rate of 9.15% to 9.25%.
vi. ICICI has raised MCLR for 5 year tenors to 8.70% and also changed tenors for three and one year.
vii. Lending rates for three month tenors of ICICI remains unchanged .
viii. HDFC has raised the Retail Prime lending rate (RPLR) by 10 basis points.
ix. Karnataka Bank has raised interest rates on Deposits. Interest on domestic and NRE rupee term deposits for
a period of one year to two years stands revised to 7.25 per cent from 7.10 (for deposits up to Rs 10 crore)
representing a hike of 15 basis points.
x. Home and Auto loans fall under the MCLR.
Financial Literacy Week to begins from June 4 to June 8, RBI sets consumer protection as this years’
theme
On June 3, 2018, The Financial Literacy week begins from June 4 to June 8 2018.
The theme for this years Financial Literacy week has been declared by RBI as : Consumer Protection.
Key points:
i. This event would create awareness among customer of banks about the various financial products and
services available to them and would encourage them to go digital.
ii. It would consist of 4 consumer protection messages like ‘Good Practices for safe digital
banking’ and ‘Know your liability’ focusing on the liability of the customer for safe digital banking where if
the bank is informed within 3 days of unauthorized digital transaction the customer won’t be liable.
iii. Resolution of the complaints would be received within 90 days from the date of receipt of complaint .
iv. Awareness regarding Banking Ombudsman scheme would be emphasized.
v. Bankers, Financial Literacy Counsellors (FLCs) and other stakeholders will participate to create awareness.
Commerce Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu attends informal gathering of WTO in Paris
On June 4, 2018, Minister of Commerce and Industry , Mr. Suresh Prabhu attended an informal meeting of
the commerce ministries in World Trade Organisation in Paris.
Key points:
i. There were commerce ministers from 28 member states and Director General of WTO were present.
ii. He stressed the need of political engagement for the trade.
iii. There is a Work Programme in Ecommerce in which India is an active member.
iv. He stressed that working multilaterally with the developing and Least developed countries would help in
boosting trader and addressing the challenges faced by WTO.
v. The Commerce Minister also had meetings with the Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and
Investment and the EU Trade Commissioner.
World Trade Organisation (WTO):
♦ Headquarters – Gneva, Switzerland.
Rs 5400 crore dispersed for Telangana government’s scheme ‘Rythu Bandhu’: RBI
On June 4, 2018, RBI supplied Rs.5400 crore for the implementation of Telengana Governement’s investment
program ‘Rythu Bandhu’ launched in May 2018.
Key points:
i. Under the scheme the state govt. will give 4000 per hectare for two seasons by cheques .
ii. The Govt. has allotted 12000 crore as the budget in the scheme.
iii. The amount of total Rs.5400 crore was given to the banks and the State Financial Department.
v. A total of 59 lakh cheques has been dispatched by the banks headed by SBI.
vi. For the current season total requirement for the scheme is Rs.5700 crore.
Government appoints experienced banker Mahesh Kumar Jain, MD & CEO of IDBI Bank as Deputy
Governor
On June 4,2018, the MD&CEO of IDBI Bank Mr. Mukesh Kumar Jain has been appointed as fourth RBI Deputy
Governor for a 3 year term.
Key points:
i. He was MD&CEO of IDBI since March 2017 and previously he was CEO of Chennai based Indian Bank.
ii. He will be replacing SS Mundra whose tenure ended in July 2017.
iii. As per RBI Act , there are 4 deputy governors : 2 from within the bank , a commercial banker and an
economist.
iv. The other current Deputy governors are : i. Shri B. P. Kanungo , ii. Dr. Viral V. Acharya , iii. Shri N.S.
Vishwanathan.
RBI:
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♦ Headquarters : Mumbai.
♦ 24th Governor : Dr. Urjit Patel.
Citi Bank first bank to enroll as Payment Initiation Service Provider Under UK’s Open Banking regime.
On June 3, 2018, Citi Bank becomes the first corporate bank to make use of UK’sOpen Banking regime .
Key points:
i. According to the open banking regime the European Banks are required to share customer data with third
party banks upon the customers’ approval.
ii. Citi Bank is the first to enroll as “Payment Initiation Service Provider”.
iii. This would enable it to receive small payments directly from UK’s customer bank accounts without debit or
credit cards.
iv. This initiative will be less time consuming and cheaper compared to other alternatives like PayPal etc.
Citi Bank:
♦ Headquarters: New York, US.
Bharat Financial gets nod for merger with IndusInd Bank from multiple stock exchanges
On June 5, 2018, Micro lender Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd. gets a no–objection nod for its merger
with IndusInd Bank.
Key points:
i. Bharat Financial (earlier known as SKS Microfinance ) has got the nod from multiple stock exchanges like
NSE and BSE after SEBI’s approval.
ii. This merger was proposed and drafted by the board of directors of both the companies on October 2017.
iii. IndusInd Bank would acquire BFIL through all stock deal.
iv. BFIL caters to the weaker section of society and has is present across 16 states covering 1 lakh villages.
RBI to announce second bi-monthly Monetary Policy of 2018-19 on June 6 2018 in a first ever 3 day
meeting
On June 6, 2018, a 6 member committee headed by RBI governor Urijit Patel will announce second bi-monthly
Monetory Policy of 2018-19 . It is the first time this will be a three day meeting .
Key points:
i. The Monetary Policy Committee would be setting the benchmark interest rate.
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ii. In April, the repo and reverse repo rate was unchanged at 6% and 5.75%.
iii. RBI predicted the GDP to grow by 7.4% for FY19.
Bank of Baroda increases MCLR by 5 basis points , effective from June 7,2018
On June 6, 2018, Bank of Baroda increased its Marginal Cost-Based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 5 basis points.
Key points :
i. This would come into effect from June 7,2018.
ii. The chart shows the effect on the terms loans:
iii. Other banks that have recently raised their MCLR rates are : SBI by 10 basis points, Punjab National Bank by
5-10 basis points, Union Bank , ICICI Bank , Kotak Mahindra Bank .
IDFC Bank, Capital First shares gain on RBI nod for merger
On 6th June 2018, IDFC Bank received RBI’s approval for merger of Capital First, Capital First Home
Finance and Capital First Securities with the company.
IDFC Bank, Capital First shares gain on RBI nod for merger:
i. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its no objection for the voluntary merger of Capital First Ltd,
Capital First Home Finance Ltd and Capital First Securities Ltd with IDFC Bank.
ii. In January 2018, the company said that, its board of directors has approved merger of the three entities with
IDFC Bank.
About IDFC Bank:
♦ MD & CEO – Rajiv B.Lall
♦ Headquarters- Mumbai
World Bank approves Rs. 6,000 crore Atal Bhujal Yojana for ground water conservation in 7 states.
On June 6, 2018, World Bank approved an amount of Rs. 6000 crore for the implementation of Atal Bhujal
Yojana.
Key points:
i. The Atal Bhujal Yojana is under the Ministry of Water Resources , River Development and Ganga
Rejuvination .
ii. This scheme would be implemented from 2018-19 to 2022-23 for a period of 5 years.
iii. This scheme has been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee.
About Atal Bhujal Yojana :
i. This scheme aims to improve ground water management through community participation.
ii. Under this scheme , priority is given to areas with critically low ground water level .
iii. The priority areas are : Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh .
iv. They cover 25% over exploited and critical ground water level and have two major types of ground water
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World Bank forecasts 7.3 per cent growth in FY19 for India, making it fastest growing economy
On June 6, 2018, World Bank predicts India’s GDP growth to be 7.3% for FY19.
Key points :
i. India is expected to grow by 7.3% in FY19 and 7.5% in FY20.
ii. This was released in World Bank’s ‘Global Economic Prospect’ report.
iii. China is expected to slow down slightly from 6.9 per cent in 2017 to 6.5 per cent in 2018, 6.3 per cent in
2019 and 6.2 per cent in 2020.
iv. South Asia is predicted to grow by 6.9% in 2018 and 7.1% in 2019.
v. Recovery in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is expected to be accompanied by moderating activity in
Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives.
vi. This would make India the ‘Fastest growing country ‘.
RBI eases GST registered MSME repayment norms for 180 days till December 31st 2018
On June 7, 2018 ,RBI announced a relaxation of 180 days for MSMEs who are not classified as ‘Non-
Performing’.
Key points:
i. MSMEs which were standard as on August 31, 2017, shall continue to be classified as standard by banks and
NBFCs if the payments due as on September 1, 2017, and falling due thereafter up to December 31, 2018,
were paid not later than 180 days from their original due date .
ii. Banks and NBFCs have to typically classify a loan as a non-performing asset if the repayment has been
delayed beyond 90 days.
iii. This has been done as a result of the effect of GST on the small and medium enterprises.
iv. After January 2019 the rules will fall back to the normal 90 day regime for the GST registered MSMEs.
RBI amends Gold Monetisation Scheme to make it more attractive for short, medium and long tenures
On June 8, 2018, the central bank RBI amended Gold Monetisation Scheme.
Objective :
To enable people to open a hassle free gold deposit account.
Key Points:
i. The scheme was first launched by the government in 2015 to mobilise the idle gold of the household or
institutions to the banks as deposits for a fixed period of time . The interest rate varied from 2.25% to 2.5%.
ii. In the latest amendment , RBI allowed the customers to deposit the gold in a broken time period where
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the short term period of 1-3 years can be broken to 1 year 3 months , 2 years 3 months 15 days etc.
iii.Similarly for Medium Term Period is for 5-7 years and Long Term Period for 12-15 years and can be
broken as well.
iv.The interest rate is calculated as per the number of years and the remaining days .
v.For pre-mature retrieval of Medium and Long term the amount would be in INR while 0.2% in INR would be
deducted as administrative charges upon redemption in the gold form.
vi.Interest for Medium and Long term can be calculated as per the amount of gold in terms of rupees during at
the time of deposit.
Bank of India ups MCLR by 0.10% from Jun 10 for various tenors
On June 8, 2018, After RBI’s decision to raise the repo Rate by 25 basis points and increase of MCLRs by other
public sector banks, Bank Of India has raised its marginal cost lending rate (MCLR) by 10 basis points or
0.10%.
Key points:
i. The following shows the effect for different term loans:
Overnight 10 7.90
ii. This changes would come into effect from June 10, 2018.
iii. The price of stock of Bank of India is Rs.100.15 in BSE up by 1.68%.
EFC approves revised cost estimate of DRIP for Rs. 3466 crore and extends time period for conclusion
till June, 2020
The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has approved revised cost estimate of Dam Rehabilitation &
Improvement Project (DRIP) for Rs. 3466 Crore and has extended time duration for ending this
project till June 2020.
Revised cost estimate of DRIP:
i. A meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) under the Chairpersonship of Secretary, Department
of Expenditure, was conducted recently.
ii. The meeting heard the proposal of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
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ii. These changes would come into effect from June 11,2018.
SYNDICATE BANK:
i. The bank has raised its MCLR by 5 basis points or by 0.05%
ii. The Bank has kept MCLR unchanged for other tenors.
iii. This would come into effect from June 10, 2018.
BANK OF INDIA:
i. The bank has raised its MCLRs by 10 basis points.
Overnight 10 7.90
Yes Bank launches deposit scheme with an eye to raise Rs 1,000 crore
On June 5, 2018, Yes Bank has launched a first of a kind new deposit scheme to fetch Rs. 1000crore from the
scheme. It is the first of many green retail products to be launched by the bank
i. This scheme is called ‘Green Future : Deposit”.It is launched to support the ‘Green Good Deeds’ campaign
that was recently launched by the Government of India.
ii. This would provide a peak interest of 7.5% and has a tenure of 18 months 8 days to 18 months 18 days.
iii. For senior citizens it would provide 8% interest .
iv. It has also launched a pilot project for recycled dry waste generated at facilities and has recycled close to 9.5
tonne of dry waste, resulting in 27.35 MT of carbon footprint reduction every quarter.
Yes Bank:
♦ MD & CEO: Mr. Rana Kapoor.
♦ Tagline: Experience our Expertise.
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UIDAI excludes Airtel Payments Bank from using full e-KYC via Aadhaar
On June 09, 2018, Airtel Payments Bank has been denied permission to use the UIDAI’s e-KYC facility due to
wrong doing from the bank’s part.
i.As per RBI’s report the Bank has used the e-KYC facility to provide LPG subsidies to its customers without
permission.
ii.UIDAI revoked a suspension on the use of e-KYC facility
iii.This would hamper bank’s competition and in achieving new customers and to provide facilities to its
existing 10 million customers.
iv.They can carry out limited KYCs based on virtual IDs rolled out by the UIDAI.
Airtel:
CEO: Gopal Vittal.
UIDAI:
♦ Under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
♦ Chairman: J. Satyanarayana.
♦ CEO: Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey.
Industry expects close to 8% GDP growth over next two years: CII
On June 10, 2018, According to a report by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) a growth close
to 8% GDP in next 2 years is expected.
i. Rs 50,000 crore worth of investments have been made.
ii. Fiscal prudence, able macroeconomic management, and strong reforms would be the reasons for the growth.
iii. Good performance across sectors such as automotives, white goods, steel, cement, and capital goods.
iv. Manufacturing of smartphone components is set to go up, indicating upward local value-addition.
v. In the manufacturing sector, although input costs are rising , the overall demand is healthy.
CII:
♦ President: Shobana Kamineni.
♦ Headquarters: New Delhi.
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Chairman of CBIC.
ii. He has been a member of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). He will replace Mrs Vanaja N.
Sarna, who will be retiring in the end of June 2018.
About Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC):
♦ Part of – Department of Revenue
♦ Functions under – Ministry of Finance
♦ Purpose – formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs & Central Excise duties and Service
Tax, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax and
Narcotics to the extent under CBEC’s purview
Mobile banking rank by SBI’s Annual Report: Paytm tops by Volume and Axis Bank tops by value
On June 12, 2018, According to SBI’s annual report for 2017-18, Axis bank has the highest value share of
mobile banking transactions by 17.2%.
i. Paytm tops the chart by volumes with 22% and by value it is 0.25%.
ii. ICICI has 17.1% share by value and 9.7% by volume.
iii. SBI has 19.5% by volume in January 2018 compared to 25% at the end of March 2019.
iv. By value share SBI has 16.8% from 44.4% in 2017.
v. Mobile-banking usage itself has seen a steep jump, with volumes soaring a steep 91 per cent to 1,871 million
in FY18 from 977 million in FY17.
Paytm:
♦ Founded: 2010.
♦ Founder :Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Axis Bank:
♦ CEO: Shikha Sharma.
♦ Headquarters: Mumbai.
India to bring together a group of 8-10 countries in WTO to create a conducive atmosphere in WTO
India is working to bring together a group of 8-10 member countries of the WTO to develop an agenda to create
a conducive atmosphere in Geneva for smooth functioning of WTO (World Trade Organisation).
Group of 8-10 member countries of the WTO:
i. This will be an informal group within the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It might include countries like
Brazil, China, South Africa, China, Indonesia and Columbia.
ii. The main focus is to develop a proper structured agenda that will be acceptable to all countries to reduce the
tension prevailing among the WTO member countries.
iii.The commerce ministry will discuss the issue internally and will work on the structure.
iv. This move will be beneficial since trade tensions have heightened after the US levied high customs duties on
some steel and aluminum products.
v. If trade wars begin, countries will restrict imports through tariff and non-tax related barriers. Increase in
customs duties on a product will make that product less competitive in the importing country.
vi. Talks held in Argentina in December 2017 collapsed. Following this, India organised a mini-ministerial
meeting of 45 WTO members in New Delhi on March 19-20, 2018.
vii. The talks at the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference collapsed after the US went back on its commitment to
develop a permanent solution to the public food stockholding issue.
OPIC gives $5 mn loan to Grameen Impact via IndusInd Bank to support MSMEs
On June 13,2018, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) under the US government gives $5
million or Rs.33.5 crore to Grameen Impact Investments to support domestic small and medium
enterprises.
Key points:
i. This loan comes via IndusInd Bank through an agreement.
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ii. Grameen Impact is supported by Gramin Capital India including many leading impact investors like Acumen.
iii. India has rapidly become a global leader in impact investing, with over USD 5 billion of investments in this
space.
About Grameen Impact:
Grameen Impact Investing is to finance social enterprises and innovative microfinance to improve livelihoods
of the people of rural areas.
About Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC):
♦ The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is the United States government’s development
finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and, in doing so,
advances the foreign policy of the United States and national security objectives.
♦ Headquarters: Washington D.C.
NSE launches ‘Tri-Party Repo Market platform’ to facilitate repo in corporate debt securities
On June 13, 2018, National Stock Exchange (NSE) has launched a ‘Tri-party Repo Market Platform’ for
repurchase of corporate debt security.
Key points:
i. It is a repo contract where a third entity, apart from the borrower and lender, called tri-party agent acts as an
intermediary to facilitate services like collateral selection, payment and settlement, custody and management
during the life of the transaction.
ii. Itprovides opportunity to borrow against the securities and provides short-term liquidity to participants.
iii.This wouldincrease demand for corporate bonds and may provide a boost to much needed liquidity in the
corporate bond market
iv. Under corporate bond repo a firm or a bank pledges corporate bonds with another company or lender to
garner funds. The entity, who makes pledges, agrees to repurchase the bonds at a specified price.
v. Axis Bank Ltd and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership are the first few members who have participated
on the platform.
vi. National Stock Exchange (NSE) will offer basket repo for 1 day to 7 days.
vii. It would facilitate borrowing and lending of funds against various baskets of corporate debt securities and
the baskets would include corporate bonds, certificate of deposits and commercial papers.
viii. NSE would act as tri-party agent and offer an online web based, anonymous, order matching and
multilateral trading platform
ix. Settlement of repo transactions shall be guaranteed by NSCCL .
x. The tri-party repo market platform is available to entities permitted by the RBI and who are members of
NSE’s debt segment.
About corporate debt securities:
Debt security refers to a debt instrument, such as a government bond, corporate bond, certificate of deposit
(CD), municipal bond or preferred stock, that can be bought or sold between two parties and has basic terms
defined, such as notional amount (amount borrowed), interest rate, and maturity and renewal date.
SEBI constitutes Expert panel for rules to attract direct listing of Indian firms abroad
On June 13, 2018, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has set up a panel to make listings of startups
attractive.
Key Points:
i. The listings currently exist in Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) Framework.
ii. The expert Panel would submit the report to SEBI within a period of one month.
iii. The ITP has facilitated listing of new age companies in sectors like e-commerce, data analytics, bio-
technology and other startups.
iv. Members of the group include representatives from the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table
(iSPIRT), The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA), law
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Former financial services secretary DK Mittal joins Arohan Financial Services as chairman
On 13th June 2018, former financial services secretary DK Mittal assumed office as the chairman of Arohan
Financial Services.
DK Mittal – chairman of Arohan Financial Services:
i. Arohan Financial Services is a microfinance company. It is planning to publicly list its shares in 2018.
ii. DK Mittal is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 1977 batch of Uttar Pradesh cadre. He will be
the independent chairman to Arohan’s board.
iii. Arohan Financial Services is a part of the Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group. It is the seventh largest MFI
(microfinance institutions) in terms of outstanding loans at the end of 2017.
About Arohan Financial Services:
♦ Headquarters – Kolkata
♦ Chief Financial Officer – Milind Nare
HDFC ranked 5th in ‘consumer financial services category’ ; Reliance Industries the only company from
India to rank under top-100: Forbes
On June 14,2018, HDFC has been ranked as the 5th biggest public company globally in the ‘consumer financial
services category’ compiled by Forbes in its 16thannual Forbes Global 2000 list.
Data from FactSet Research systems has been taken to screen for the biggest public companies in four
metric: sales, profits, assets and market value.
Key points:
Ranking as per ‘Consumer Financial Category’:
i.HDFC has ranked 5thin the category. It previously ranked 7thin 2017 compilation.
ii.American Express tops the chart on this category.
iii. Indiabulls Housing Finance is the only other Indian company (at 13th place) on the same category.
Ranking as per Overall List:
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i.A total of 58 Indian companies on the overall list of 2,000 firms from across the world.
ii.In the overall list China’s ICBC topped and HDFC (parent company of HDFC Bank)
ranked 321st from 404th from previous year where as HDFC bank ranked 202nd .
iii.Reliance Industries at 83rd place is the only from India in the top-100 .
iv.Ranking of other Indian companies are :Tata Motors at 385 , TCS at 404, L&T at 471st , SBI at 489th.
v.Other non-Indian companies and their ranks are : Capital One Financial at the 159 place, followed by Visa
(164), Orix (254), PayPal (337), Synchrony Financial (340), Discover Financial Services (356) and Mastercard
(367) .
Collectively, the companies on this list account for USD 39.1 trillion in sales, USD 3.2 trillion in profit, USD 189
trillion in assets and USD 56.8 trillion in market value.
Ranking of Indian Companies as per the Forbes list :
HDFC 321st
TCS 404th
L&T 471st
SBI 489th
Fitch predicts India’s growth forecast to 7.4% for FY’19 and 7.5% for FY20
On June 14, 2018, The Indian GDP has been predicted to grow by 7.4% in FY19 by Fitch.
Key points:
i. The Rupee has been among the worst performers in Asian currency.
ii. The higher oil prices as reason for financial risk.
iii. It has earlier predicted GDP growth by 7.3% for FY 2018-19 and For FY20 it is 7.5%.
iv. It forecasted that oil prices will remain at $70 / barre l up from $54.9 a barrel with an expected drop
to $65/ barrel for 2019.
v. It projected retail inflation to be five per cent by the end of 2018.
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vi. Predicted the global growth forecast at 3.3 per cent in 2018 and 3.2 per cent for 2019.
expansion will be on-track or slightly better in the world’s two largest economies the US and China.
About India’s GDP :
The Indian economy grew at 6.7 per cent in 2017-18. In the fourth quarter (January-March) the GDP grew at
7.7 per cent.
Fitch:
Headquarters: New York City, US.
CEO: Paul Taylor.
Andhra Bank raises MCLR by 0.05% for various tenors after RBI’s Monetary Policy
On June 15, 2018, Andhra Bank increased its MCLR by 5 basis points or 0.05% for various tenors.
i.The changes are in the following table:
Overnight 8
ii. This is after RBI’s bimonthly monetary Policy was released and it increased the repo rate by 0.25%.
iii. SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Syndicate Bank,
KarurVysya Bank and Indian Bank are few of the other banks who have raised their MCLR as well.
Andhra Bank:
♦ Headquarters: Hyderabad.
♦ Tagline: Much more to do with You in focus
HDFC Bank gets nod to raise up to Rs 15.5k cr via QIP additional Rs. 8500 crore infused by Parent
company HDFC
On June 15, 2018, The government of India approved HDFC Bank to raise additional share capital of up to a
maximum of Rs 24,000 crore through Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP).
Key points:
i. The approval includes an Rs 8,500-crore infusion from parent Housing Development Finance Corp
(HDFC)
ii. Thiswill allow it to maintain its 25.6% current shareholding, potentially leaving about Rs 15,500 crore to be
raised from the market.
iii. It is the country’s largest sell of share.
iv. The QIP record is Rs 15,000 crore raised by State Bank of India (SBI) in June 2017.
v. This would raise additional share capital of up to a maximum of Rs 24,000 crore, including premium, over
and above the previous approved limit of Rs 10,000 crore so that the foreign share holding doesn’t exceed 74%.
vi. Foreign banks including Bank ofAmerica-Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, UBS Securities,
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Nomura Holdings are participating in the QIP .
vii. This share sale will be the first since HDFC Bank raised Rs 10,000 crore through a combination of QIP and
American Depository Receipts (ADRs) in February 2015.
About Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP):
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Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) is a way for listed companies to raise capital, without having to submit
legal paperwork to market regulators. It is mostly used in India and other southeast Asian countries.
Japan’s SoftBank to invest $60 bn to $100 bn in India’s solar power generation goal of 2022
On June 15, 2018, Japan’s Softbank Group Corp has decided to invest $60 bn – $100 bn in India’s solar power
generation.
Key Points:
i. The investment would be made through a fund backed by Saudi Arabia’s government .
ii. Saudi Arabia is the largest investor in SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which raised over $93 billionlast year.
iii. In 2015 SoftBank decided to invest $20 billion in Indian solar projects in a joint venture with India’s
Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan’s Foxconn. It had a goal of generating 20 gigawatts(GW) of energy.
iv. In April,2018 SoftBank teamed up with China’s GCLSystem Integration Technology Co Ltd on
a $930 million Indian solar energy venture.
About India’s renewable energy goal:
In 2015, India announced an ambitious goal of to increasing renewable power capacity
to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, with 100 GW of solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of bio energy and 5 GW of
small hydro.
SoftBank Group:
Headquarters : Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
PhonePe partners with Ola to enable riders to book rides using PhonePe’s payment platform
On 15th June 2018, PhonePe announced that, it has partnered with cab aggregator Ola, to enable riders to book
rides using PhonePe’s payment platform.
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Karnataka Bank has unveiled a novel card variant ‘KBL Deposit Only Card’ for hassle free cash deposit.
On June 16, 2018, Karnataka Bank introduced a novel card variant called ‘KBL Deposit Only Card’.
i. This card is meant for Bank’s Current/Overdraft customers.
ii. This would ensure hassle free cash deposit transactions at Bank’s 24×7 e-Lobby Services.
iii. By using this card customers can perform cash deposit transactions even with higher deposit limit at Bank’s
Bunch Note Acceptor (BNA) / Cash Recycler kiosks.
Karnataka Bank :
♦ Headquarters: Mangalore
♦ Tagline : Your Family bank across India.
ICICI Bank & Marg ERP’s maiden tie up to provide integrated payments platform to MSMEs
On June 16, 2018, Marg ERP limited, a leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) company for the first time
has partnered with ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank to offer an integrated payments platform
to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) customers, using Marg’s accounting software.
Objective:
To promote ‘Connected Banking’.
Key points:
i. MSMEs are no longer required to toggle between a banking platform and an ERP software to undertake their
business transactions.
ii. It would allow them to seamlessly connect their banking and accounting, which was once available only for
large companies with large IT and infrastructure budgets.
iii. This would also enable ICICI Bank’s current account holders to securely connect their bank account with the
Marg ERP software and make digital transactions.
iv. It will also help businesses to initiate vendor & salary payments via RTGS, NEFT or IMPS directly from this
platform, apply for working capital loans as well as schedule future dated payments.
ICICI Bank:
♦ Headquarters: Mumbai.
♦ CEO: Chanda Kochhar.
♦ Tagline: Hum hain na!
World Bank,Pakistan ink agreements of $565 mn in power, water sectors for NTDC project and Sindh
irrigation project
On June 16, 2018, Pakistan and the World Bank inked agreements worth $565 million to help build and
support the projects in power and water sectors.
Out of the total grant of $565 million, $425 million is meant for the NTDC and $140 million is for the Sindh
government.
Key points:
Grant of $425 mn for NTDC:
i. The total cost of NTDC’s project would be $536.33 mn out of which the NTDC would provide $111.33 mn.
ii. Rest of the $425 mn will be provided by World Bank for the National Transmission Modernisation
(Phase-I) project which is designed to increase the capacity and reliability of selected segments of the national
transmission system and for NTDC.
Grant of $140 mn for Sindh Barrages:
i. The total cost of the project is $152.2 million for Sindh Barrages Improvement Project which is aimed at
improving the reliability and safety of Guddu Barrage and strengthening the Sindh Irrigation Department‘s
capacity .
ii. The World Bank will provide $140mn and the rest amount of $12.2 mn is given by Sindh Government.
World Bank :
♦ Headquarters: Washington DC, US.
♦ Presidetnt: Jim Yong Kim.
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ICICI Venture sells 30% in KIMS to General Atlantic for Rs 850 crore
ICICI Venture has sold its 30% stake in hospital chain Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) to
General Atlantic for Rs 850 crore.
ICICI Venture sells 30% in KIMS to General Atlantic for Rs 850 crore:
i. ICICI Venture is India’s largest private equity fund. Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences is based in
Hyderabad.
ii. The stake sale to General Atlantic values KIMS at around Rs 2,700 crore. It valued at Rs 850 crore in 2014.
iii. ICICI Venture had invested about Rs 220 crore in 2014 in KIMS. It was expecting to exit through a public
offer in 2018. KIMS received the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) approval for a public offer.
About ICICI Venture:
♦ Chairman – Mr. Sridar Iyengar
♦ Type – a specialist alternative assets manager
US surpasses India as top greenfield FDI investment destination globally ; China tops in the Asia-Pacific
Region : FDI Report 2018
On June 17, 2018, According to the FDI Report 2018 compiled by FDI Intelligence, a division of The
Financial Times Ltd. , US has surpassed India as the top destination to attract Greenfield FDI investment.
Key points:
i. In 2017, the US reclaimed the spot from India, recording USD 87.4 billion of announced Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI). The number of projects for the US was 1,627.
ii. India has been the top destination for 2015 and 2016 but the number of investments has fallen by 21% for
2017.
Rankings for other countries:
i. In the Asia and Pacific region, China was on top in terms of FDI in total number of new projects and capital
investment, followed by India, as per the FDI report.
ii. China received foreign capital investment of USD 50.8 billion in 2017 in greenfield projects, compared to
India’s USD 25.1 billion.
iii. The number of projects received by China was 681 projects as against 637 in case of India.
Globally in 2017, greenfield FDI weakened with the number of FDI projects declining by 1.1 per cent to 13,200.
Capital investment decreased 15.2 per cent to USD 662.6 billion alongside a 9.4 per cent decline in job creation
to 1.83 million
About green projects in India
National Mission for a Green India or the commonly called Green India Mission (GIM), is one of the eight
Missions outlined under India’s action plan for addressing the challenge of climate change -the National
Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). GIM, launched in February 2014, is aimed at protecting, restoring and
enhancing India’s diminishing forest cover and responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation
and mitigation measures.
India has trade deficit with 10 out of 16 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership members
On June 17, 2018, According to the data of Commerce Ministry , India had trade deficit with as many
as 10 member countries out of 16 of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)nations.
Key points:
i. These RCEP bloc nations include : China, South Korea and Australia.
ii. The trade gap with China, Korea, Indonesia and Australia has increased to USD 63.12 billion; USD 11.96
billion; USD 12.47 billion and USD 10.16 billion in 2017-18. It was USD 51.11 billion, USD 8.34 billion, USD 9.94
billion and USD 8.19 billion respectively in the previous financial year, 2016-17 .
iii. It’s same with regard to Japan, Thailand and New Zealand.
iv. However, the trade gap has dipped with the remaining three nations – Lao, Brunei, Malaysia — in 2017-18.
v. India would get market access in services and investment opportunities.
About Trade Deficit:
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♦ It is the difference between imports and exports. With free trade agreements this would increase
♦ India’s foothold but also impact the domestic manufacturers. But as the strength of the domestic
manufacturing is weak, India would not be able to take advantage of such free trade agreements.
About RCEP Nations:
i. It consists of 10 Asean group members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore,
Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners – India, China, Japan, South
Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
ii. India already has a free trade pact with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan and South
Korea. It is also negotiating a similar agreement with Australia and New Zealand but has no such plans for
China.
Insurance regulator IRDAI has formed a 10 member committee to review regulations governing the
Insurance Marketing Firms (IMF).
On June 17, 2018, The Insurance Regulating body IRDAI has formed a 10 member committee to review
regulations of the Insurance marketing Firms (IMF).
Key points:
i. It will be a 10 member panel that would be revising the IRDAI( Registration of Insurance Marketing Firms)
regulations 2015.
ii. The Committee consists of: K.G.P.L. Ramadevi, GM (IMF) of IRDAI; Sourabh Bhanot, senior VP of Aviva Life
Insurance; Siddharth Pradhan, GM of New India Assurance; Amit Rathi, Senior VP of Max Life Insurance; Deepti
Rastogi, senior VP of Apollo Munich Health Insurance; Rakesh Kumar, ED of LIC; Girish Joshi, ED and ISP of
iKuber Financial Services IMF Pvt Ltd.; and Rajinder Singh, MD of JK Insurance Marketing Pvt. Ltd. IRDAI’s AM-
IMF Priya Kumari would be the member secretary.
iii. It would recommend measures to strengthen the distributing channel by including products under the
jurisdiction of other financial sector regulators.
iv. The committee is expected to deliver their recommendations by July 31,2018.
v. This would be applicable to the firms that serve as distribution channels for insurers and had been approved
of area wise registration in the 2015 amendment.
vi. This would help the distribution channels to spread to every strata of society to provide insurance coverage.
About IRDAI:
♦ Headquarters: Hyderabad.
♦ Chairman : Subhash Chandra Khuntia
RBI eases norms for FPIs to invest in debt securities and corporate bonds
On June 18, 2018, The Reserve Bank has eased investment norms for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in debt,
especially into individual large corporates .
Objective:
It can help attract more overseas flows and thereby help elevate the recent fall in the rupee and also lift the
recent fall in demand for corporate bonds.
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World Bank approves $700 mn to Bangladesh government’s 4th primary education programme
On June 19, 2018, The World Bank has approved $700 million loan to Bangladesh achieve its education for
all vision by improving the primary education sector.
About the education for all programme of Bangladesh:
i. It is the government’s Fourth Primary Education Development Program (PEDP4).
ii. It is the : The Quality Learning for All Program (QLEAP) will cover more than 18 million children
studying in pre-primary level to grade 5.
iii. The project will build about 95,000 classrooms, teachers’ rooms, and multipurpose rooms.
iv. It will also build 80,000 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) blocks and 15,000 safe water sources.
v. This will provide recruitment to about 100,000 teachers.
vi. As a result of the implementation, almost every child steps into a classroom and eight out of 10 children
completes primary education.
Bangladesh:
♦ Capital: Dhaka.
♦ Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina.
Yes Bank gets Sebi nod for custodian of securities business enhancing its market offerings
On June 19, 2018,Yes Bank has received approval from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of
India (Sebi) for acting as custodian of securities.
Key points:
i. This would enable the bank to play a larger role in channelising domestic and foreign investments into
Indian financial market and would enhance bank’s current capital market offerings.
ii. The bank has taken advantage of its global reach through its international banking team, IFSC banking
unit in GIFT City and its representative office in Abu Dhabi as a part of its strategy.
iii. It would be opening representative offices in London and Singapore as per recent approval from the
Reserve Bank of India.
About Custodian of Securities:
Custodian of securities is a licence granted by Sebi to eligible entities allowing them to offer custodial services
to financial market participants including foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and foreign portfolio investors
(FPIs).
Government panel selects 22 out of 43 general managers for ED post at PSU Banks, four from PNB
On June 19, 2018, in the first set of selection of senior bank officials, the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has
recommended 22 candidates out of 43 from 11 different banks for the executive director positions for state-
run banks.
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Key points:
i.Panel is headed by : Mr. Bhanu Pratap Sharma.
ii. The other member of the new BBB panel includes Vedika Bhandarkar, former managing director
(investment banking) at Credit Suisse India; P Pradeep Kumar, former managing director at State Bank of
India; and Pradip P Shah, founder managing director at Crisil.
The appointments are as follows:
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director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank will be on leave, till the enquiry ends.
ii. The changes have been made following the allegations in transactions between Videocon Industries, Chanda
Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar’s company NuPower Renewables.
iii. All executive directors on the board of ICICI Bank and the executive management will report to Sandeep
Bakhshi. Sandeep Bakhshi will report to Chanda Kochhar, who will continue as MD & CEO.
ii. These changes are valid till the overall cost doesn’t exceed Rs. 45 lakh for metropolitan and Rs. 30 lakh for
other centres.
iii. The Existing limit of family income of Rs. 2 lakh per annum has been changed to to Rs 3 lakh per annum for
economically weaker group and Rs . 6 lakh for low income groups.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana :
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is an initiative by Government of India in which affordable housing will
be provided to the urban poor with a target of building 20 million affordable houses by 31 March 2022.It has
two components: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) (PMAY-U) for the urban poor and Pradhan Mantri
Awaas Yojana (Gramin)(PMAY-G and also PMAY-R) for the rural poor.The slogan is “Housing for All’.
AU Small Finance Bank to raise Rs1,000 crore from Temasek to fuel growth
On June 20, 2018, AU Small Finance Bank announced that it has received shareholders approval to raise Rs
1,000 crore from Singapore-based investment firm Temasek.
Key points:
i. AU Bank’s shareholders include IFC, Warburg Pincus, Chrys Capital and Kedaara Capital.
ii.This would be its first largest primary capital infusion in the bank since its last raise in 2011-12.
Growth of AU :
AU Bank had expanded its branch network to over 500 touch points including 306 bank branches, 97 asset
centers, 89 BC outlets, 23 offices and 292 ATMs.
10,000 bank branches & 8000 post offices have enrolled to Aadhaar facility : UIDAI
On June 20, 2018, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that 18,000 centres have come up for enrolment and
updation of the biometric ID.
i. They are called the ‘Bank Aadhaar Kendras’.
ii. It was after the private as well as public sector banks had to set up Aadhaar facility in at least one out
of 10 branches a year ago.
iii. 10,000 branches of private and public sector banks have set up Aadhaar enrolment and updation
centres and 8,000 such centres have come up in post offices out of 13,000.
iv. Overall, about 26,000 centres are slated to come up at banks and post offices.
UIDAI:
Headquarters: New Delhi.
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Lentils 30%
ii. The other products on which duties have been hiked include certain kind of nuts, iron and steel products,
apples, pears, flat rolled products of stainless steel, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittings, and screws, bolts
and rivets.
iii. India has excluded motorbikes above 800 cc. now additional customs duties have been imposed
on 29 items.
iv. The import duty hike would be effective from August 4 2018.
About BrandZ:
♦ BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking is carried out by WPP’s marketing and brand
consultancy Kantar Millward Brown since last 13 years.
♦ This ranking, list the countries, which have potential to add more brands in the ‘Top 100’ in coming years.
i. He graduates in Economics and a Master of Arts in History, Basu started his career with State Bank of India in
1983 as a probationary officer.
ii. He has held several key positions in various circles of SBI including the bank’s office at Tokyo.
P S Jayakumar, chief executive of Bank of Baroda (BoB), could become the successor of Axis Bank
On June 23, 2018, the appointments committee of the Axis bank had hired a committee headed by Egon
Zhender to identify a new CEO afterShikha Sharma and that is considered to be PS Jayakumar, the Chief
Executive of Bank of Baroda (BoB).
i. He is a former Citibanker and the first lateral recruit into the top position at a public-sector bank.
ii. He joined BoB on October 2015 and was heading VBHC Value Homes prior to taking charge of the lender.
iii. The other candidates considered are deputy MD V Srinivasan and executive director Rajiv Anand .
iv.The decision would be finalized by September 2018.
Other appointees by the governement:
Rakesh Sharma, former CEO of private lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank, was appointed to head Bengaluru-based
Canara Bank.
Mahesh Kumar Jain takes charge as the fourth RBI Deputy Governor
On 22nd June 2018, Mahesh Kumar Jain took charge as the fourth Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI).
India is the largest borrower from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with borrowed grants worth
$4.4billion
On June 25, 2018, In the 3rd annual meeting of AIIB Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs Shri Subhash
Chndra Garg announced that India is the largest borrower from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
i. India has a total project portfolios of US$4.4 Billion.
About 3rd annual meeting of AIIB:
i. It is being held in Mumbai on June 25-26 2018.
ii. The third Annual Meeting of the bank focuses on infrastructure, with the theme of innovation and
collaboration.
iii. The Annual Meeting will see participation from 86 members and member states .
iv. AIIB has intended to invest in projects outside Asia . So far it has invested in solar projects in Egypt.
v. While 75% of the capital is from Asia, several non-Asian regions like Europe, North America, some East
African and Latin American countries have also joined the bank as members.
vi. Among other dicsussions the proposal to have an independent credit rating agency for the BRICS nations is
on track and will be discussed at a meeting in Johannesburg in July 2018.
About AIIB:
♦ The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to
improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond.
♦ Headquarter: Beijing
♦ Commenced its operation: January 2016
♦ Total Members : 86
AIIB to invest $200 million into an NIIF fund of funds for infrastructure projects
On June 25, 2018, The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is likely to invest USD 200 million in a
fund of funds set up by India to take interest in infra projects.
Key Points:
i. Out of the $200 million, $100 million would be given now and the rest $100 million later.
ii. This investment is for the NIIF ( National Investments & Infrastructure Fund).
iii. There will be a leverage of 10-12 times on the original investment, which can result in up to USD 2.4
billion flowing into infrastructure projects.
About the NIIF:
i.National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) is a fund created by the Government of India for
enhancing infrastructure financing in the country.
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Credit Rating Model: Government testing big data system to aid banks assess credit risks
On June 25, 2018, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced that it is
testing a new credit rating model for assisting the banks especially rural and cooperative banks to tackle the
issue of NPAs.
Key Points:
i. The MeitY sponsored project includes Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bangalore-based IT firm Processware
System and two cooperative banks as partners.
ii. This project will help in assessing credit risk and probability of fraud using big data analysis.
iii. It will help banks quantify risks associated with retail loans such as personal loans, gold loans and vehicle
loans.
iv. This is beign done with the help of a statistical and machine learning algorithm model to calculate the
probability of default.
Minister of Meity: Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Minister of State for Meity: Mr.Alphons Kannanthanam.
Establishment of independent Board of Management for urban co-operative banks for daily up keeping
of business: RBI
On June 26, 2018, RBI has proposed to set up a board of management for the urban co-operative banks. The
guidelines have been recommended by committee headed by former deputy governor of RBI R Gandhi.
Objective:
The objective of the board is to oversee daily business operations
Key Points:
i. The board should have well qualified members who do not have any business relation with the bank.
ii. Regulatory approvals such as expansion of area of operation and opening of new branches may be allowed
only for UCBs that have made such a provision in their law.
iii. The board of management may be appointed by the board of directors whose term end at the same time as
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HDFC 319,655 2
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Exim Bank of India extends $10 mn loan facility to Seychelles for healthcare
On June 27, 2018, The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) announced that it has extended $10
million worth of line of credit (LOC) toSeychelles.
Objective:
This is for healthcare and procurement of goods and projects.
Key Points:
i. It is the first tranche of the $50 million sanctioned by the Exim Bank to the country.
ii. With this agreement for $10 million, Exim Bank, till date, has extended two LOCs to Seychelles, taking the
total value to $28 million.
Other LOCs of EXIM Bank:
i. Exim bank earlier had extended two LOCs aggregating $31 million to the Republic of Suriname for
upgradation of transmission line network and maintenance of Chetak helicopters there (during the President’s
visit in Suriname on June 21,2018)
ii. Exim Bank has 233 LOCs in place at present, covering 62 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the CIS,
with credit commitments of around $22.86 billion, available for financing exports from India.
About EXIM Bank:
♦ Headquarters: Mumbai .
♦ Founded : 1982.
♦ CEO: Shri Yaduvendra Mathur.
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Madhav Kalyan, CEO and MD, JPMorgan Chase Bank in India, to become the head of corporate banking
in South and South East Asia
JPMorgan has promoted Madhav Kalyan, CEO and MD, JPMorgan Chase Bank in India, as the head of
corporate banking in South and South East Asia.
Madhav Kalyan – head of corporate banking in South and South East Asia:
i. Madhav Kalyan will hold this position in addition to his existing responsibilities as head of corporate banking
in India.
ii. JPMorgan’s corporate banking heads in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka will report to Madhav Kalyan.
iii. JP Morgan has promoted P D Singh as the head of the team, which serves local corporate clients.
iv. Rohit Khatri will head the MNC (Multinational) clients’ division. Guhaprasath Rajagopal will head treasury
services.
v. Brijen Puri, the managing director and head of currency and emerging markets, India, has been moved to
Singapore with additional responsibilities of other markets of South East Asian countries.
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i. RBL has purchased 35.94 per cent from Accion International and 3.58 per cent from promoters and
others.
ii. After the acquirement , RBL Bank’s share was up 0.17 per cent to Rs 545.60 on BSE.
About Swadhaar Finserve:
i. It started operations as a non-banking finance company in 2008 and subsequently converted into a NBFC-
MFI
ii. It became a business correspondent for RBL Bank in 2014 and transferred its micro credit portfolio to the
bank.
iii. It then surrendered the NBFC license in 2015.
iv. It holds responsibility for sourcing clients, evaluating credit worthiness and monitoring repayments for RBL,
leveraging the bank’s balance sheet and infrastructure.
Ratnakar Bank Limiter (RBL Bank):
♦ Headquarters: Mumbai
♦ MD & CEO: Vishwavir Ahuja.
♦ Founded : August 1943
Global Restructuring Review’s award for “most improved jurisdiction” goes to India for improved
insolvency and restructuring regime
On June 29, 2018, The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) announced that India has
won Global Restructuring Review’s “most improved jurisdiction” award.
i. This award is to honour the jurisdiction which improved its restructuring and insolvency regime the most
over the last year.
ii. In 2017, India lost the title to Singapore.
About the award:
“Most improved jurisdiction” is one of the nine categories in which GRR presents the award, which were
introduced in 2017.
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• Emphasis on irrigation along with end to end solution on creation of resources for ‘More crop per drop’
• ‘Provision of quality seeds and nutrients according to the soil quality of each farm.
• Large investments in warehouses and cold chains to prevent Post-harvest losses.
• Promotion of value addition through food processing.
• Implementation of National Agricultural Markets and e-platforms (e-NAM) to eliminate shortcomings of
all the 585 centers.
• To mitigate the risk, introduction of crop insurance scheme at a lower cost.
• Promotion of allied activities such as Dairy-Animal husbandry, Poultry, Bee-keeping, Medh Per Ped,
Horticulture, and Fisheries.
RBI to set up Public Credit Registry to curb bad loans and maintain database of defaulters
On June 7, 2018, RBI has announced the formation of Public Credit Registry based on the recommendation of
a committee headed by Y. M. Deosthalee submitted in April 2018.
Objective:
To maintain database of defaulters and to curb bad loans.
Key points:
i. It would be an information repository containing all the details of the loans by the individual and corporate
borrowers.
ii. It would help banks differentiate between good and bad loans thereby providing attractive interest rates to
the borrowers of good loans and highest interest to the bad loans.
iii. For addressing the challenges of the bad loans, the corporate borrowers of bad loans would be prohibited to
take further loans from different banking institutions.
iv. The registry should also have data regarding the External commercial borrowings, market borrowings and
any liabilities to assess the debt of the borrower.
v. It would also have a database of willful defaulters and have links with the data from the Export Credit
Guarantee Corp. of India, GST network etc.
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vi. The privacy of the data would be protected and would only be available to the concerned banks on a demand
basis.
vii. It would be set up as a separate non-profit entity.
Banks hike lending rates after RBI’s bi-monthly Monetary Policy release
On June 7, 2018, RBI on its bimonthly monetary policy has raised the interest rate by 25 basis points or 0.25%.
Thus the Repo rate (the rate at which the Central Bank lends to other Banks) has been raised to 6.25%.
Key points:
i. This in turn increased the lending rate of several banks in EMIs and loans for auto, home and business loans.
ii. Earlier banks like SBI, ICICI, Kotak Mahindra , HDFC , PNB have raised their interest rates by an average
of 10 basis points before the RBI bi monthly policy.
iii. After the announcement of the RBI, other banks have also increased their MCLR. They are:
Indian Bank and Karur Vyasa Bank by 10 basis points, Bank of Maharashtra will increase as well.
iv.The retail inflation has been predicted to be 4.8-4.9% in the first half and 4.7% for the second half.
v. GDP prediction has been made for 7.4% in FY2019.
vi. This has been done in lieu of the retail inflation especially food inflation and to steady it to the targeted
4% for financial stability.
Canara Bank fined in UK for anti-money laundering breaches
On June 6, 2018, Market Regulator of UK, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined The UK arm of
Indian public sector bank Canara Bank896,000 pounds or $1.2million for systematic Anti-Money
Laundering failures.
i. The FCA has blocked it from accepting new deposits for around five months.
ii. This was done after warnings were imposed since 2012 .
Canara Bank :
Headquarters: Bengaluru
CEO: Rakesh Sharma
Tagline: Together we can.
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Public sector banks post Rs 870 bn net loss in FY 18, PNB tops the list
On June 10, 2018, 19 public sector banks suffered a cumulative loss of Rs. 873.57 billion. Punjab National
Bank (PNB) ranks at the top of the list with a net loss of Rs. 122.83 bn.
Key points:
i. Out of the 21 PSBs only Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank gained profits of Rs.7.27
bn and Rs.12.58bn respectively .
ii. In 2016-17 , all of the 21 banks gained a profit of Rs.4.73 bn.
iii. PNB was followed by IDBI Bank, whose net loss widened to Rs 82.37 bn in March 2018 from Rs 51.58 bn in
2017.
iv. SBI's net loss in 2017-18 stood at Rs 65.47 bn as against a net profit of Rs 104.84 bn in 2016-17.
v. The NPA & scams and frauds are considered the main factor for the losses in the banking sector which stood
at Rs 8.31 trillion as of December 2017.
vi. This pushed 11 banks, out of 21 state-owned banks, under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework
of the Reserve Bank.
vii. Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has announced setting up of a committee to give recommendations
in two weeks on formation of an Asset Reconstruction Company for faster resolution of stressed accounts.
Taglines of Banks :
State Bank of India: The Nation Banks on Us.
Punjab National Bank : The bank you can bank upon.
IDBI Bank: Banking for All
Vijaya Bank: A Friend you can bank on.
Indian Bank:Your Tech Friendly Bank.
DenaBank:
♦ Headquarters : Mumbai.
♦ CEO: Shri Ashwani Kumar.
♦ Tagline : Trusted Family Bank.
Reserve Bank of India to tighten norms for working capital limits for borrowers worth Rs. 150 crore
and above
On June 12, 2018, RBI has tightened the norms to improve monetary transmission by proposing a minimum
of 40% loan amount for the working capital of large lending borrowers having funding of Rs.150 crore and
above.
i. The loan component would come into effect from October 2018 and would be increased to 60% from April
2019.
ii. The tenure of the loan would be a minimum of 7 days.
iii.The loan component will have a repayment schedule.
iv. The capital is paid mostly in cash credit / overdraft etc.
National Parks:
Jim Corbett National Park (Uttarakhand)
Kaziranga National Park (Assam)
Ranthambore National Park (Rajasthan)
Bandhavgarh National Park (Madhya Pradesh)
PNB board to consider ESOP scheme of up to 100 million equity shares after Allahabad and United Bank
of India
On June 13, 2018, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has announced that it is considering Employee Stock
Purchase (ESOP) scheme.
Key points:
i. This would retaining its talent and incentivizing staff by issuing up to 100 million equity shares.
ii. Allahabad Bank and United Bank earlier in December had announced to offer their employee stock option
scheme.
iii. Both the banks will offer 50 million ordinary shares to their staff.
iv. The proceeds from share sale will be used to raise the badly needed core capital of the bank .
v. United Bank has also initiated process to make employees stakeholders by way of issuing employee stock
option (ESOP).
J&K Bank to raise Rs 1,000 cr via bonds under Basel III to boost capital by March 31,2019
On June 15, 2018, Jammu & Kashmir Bank will raise up to Rs 1,000 crore by issuing bonds in one or more
tranches.
Key points:
i.They are Basel III compliant tier II bondsface value of Rs 10 lakh each aggregating up to Rs1,000 crore in
one or multiple tranches .
ii.These capital regulations would be fully implemented by March 31, 2019.
iii.The Basel III capital regulations were implemented in India with effect from April 1, 2013. Banks have to
comply with the regulatory limits and minima as prescribed under Basel III capital regulations, on an ongoing
basis.
About Basel III Norms:
Basel III (or the Third Basel Accord or Basel Standards) is a global, voluntary regulatory framework on bank
capital adequacy, stress testing, and market liquidity risk.
KVB, Max Bupa tie up for providing easy two step health insurance solutions
On June 16, 2018, Karur Vysya Bank tied up with Max Bupa for easy two step health insurance solution.
Key points:
i. This MOU would give the customers of the bank access to health related insurance products with the help of
KVB’s simplified technology like Max Bupa AnyTimeHealth (ATH) and SARAL.
ii. Max Bupa’s unique Any Time Health Machine, an intelligent kiosk that will screen the health status of the
clients and give an automated health assessment and issue customized health insurance options
instantaneously.
iii . And with the help of Core banking facility it would be possible to do so within a few minutes.
Karur Vyasa Bank
♦ Headquarters: Karur, Tamil Nadu.
♦ Tagline: Smart Way to Bank .
South Indian Bank plans raising Rs 520 cr via capital equity and securities
On June 16, 2018, Private sector South Indian Bank plans to raise up to Rs 520 crore through a mix of equity
and debt instruments to meet its business needs.
Key points:
i.Out of Rs.520 crore , Rs 20 crore will be raised through equity capital and Rs 500 crore will be mopped up
through bonds.
ii.This would include borrowing/raising funds in Indian/foreign currency.
iii.Earlier the bank had raised Rs 490 crore by way of issuance of bonds till March 31, 2018 after approval
from shareholders.
A banking company requires adequate capital not only to meet the needs of growing business, but also to meet
the applicable regulatory requirements. As business grows, capital requires to be strengthened.
South Indian Bank:
♦ Headquarters: Thrissur.
♦ Tagline : Experience Next Generation Banking.
ii. CYBG investors will hold a majority 62 per cent stake with Virgin Money shareholders the rest.
iii. The new group, offering retail services like home loans, savings accounts and credit cards, brings together
two so-called "challenger" or smaller banks with a combined customer base of 6.1 million people.
India the 69th member to join European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
On June 19, 2018, India has been welcomed as the newest member of the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (EBRD). India would be its 69th member .
i. The EBRD would be holding an inaugural conference in India’s honour.
ii. This conference would have a theme of : ‘Mobilising private sector finance in the EBRD region and how
Indian companies can benefit'scheduled to be held in Mumbai.
iii. It would be organized by The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI) partnered event is backed by the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM).
iv. The advantage of membership is that Indian companies and the Indian government immediately get free
access to all of EBRD's knowledge - political, commercial, market and economic knowledge.
v. It would also highlight the opportunities of the Indian private sector.
About EBRD:
London-headquartered EBRD is a multilateral development bank set up in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin
Wall to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in emerging Europe. It aims to make its countries more
competitive, better governed, greener, more inclusive, more resilient and more integrated.
Draft on cross-border insolvency: Banks to get access to overseas assets of firms undergoing resolution
On June 22, 2018, to strengthen the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the government released a draft on cross-
border insolvency that would help banks access overseas assets of a company undergoing resolution.
Key points:
i. It will be according to the UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Laws) model
on dealing with cross-border insolvency.
ii. According to the law , the central government after entering into agreement with other countries and bring
overseas asset of a domestic corporate debtor into consideration.
iii. Due to the inadequacy of two Sections –234 and 235 of IBC , of having only the government the access to the
information now due to the law it can be accessed by banks as well.
iv. Initially the cross border insolvency framework will apply only to corporate debtors, it can be extended to
cases of personal insolvency resolution as well.
About UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Laws) model:
The UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, 1997 (“Model Law”) has emerged as the most widely
accepted legal framework to deal with cross-border insolvency issues while ensuring the least intrusion into
the country’s domestic insolvency law.
The Model Law has been adopted by 44 States till date, including Singapore, UK, and US.
Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank have raised their cumulative microloan cap
On June 22, 2018, Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) & Microfinance lenders including private banks
such as Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank have raised their cumulative microloan cap per borrower
by 33 percent to Rs.80000 up from Rs 60000 under the joint liability group model.
Objective:
This would help borrowers grow their businesses and cover inflation of recent years.
Key points:
i. The microfinance industry’s total loan portfolio grew 27% in FY18 to Rs 1.37 lakh crore while industrial
credit rose just about 1%.
ii. The lenders are expecting growth to further rise to about 50%.
iii. This change has been prompted by strong demand in rural India and rise in self-employment amid poor
industrial demand.
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About MFIN:
♦ MFIN has 48 members from NBFC-MFIs segment while banks like Axis, IndusInd, IDFC, RBL and YES are
listed as associates.
♦ Small finance banks also follow the Mutually Agreed Code of Conduct (MACC) which is designed for all
lenders in the microfinance industry. Out of 10 small finance banks, six including AU Small Finance Bank, ESAF
and Ujjivan are associates.
Capital infusion of Rs 7,000 crore has been sought by Allahabad Bank from government
On June 27, 2018, Allahabad Bank has sought Rs 7,000 crore from the government, which is 78% of its annual
capital requirement for infusion.
Key Points:
i. The Bank neds a capital infusion of Rs 9000 crore of which Rs. 7000 crore has been sought out from
the government and the remaining Rs. 2000 crore will be raised through qualified institutional
placement and other instruments.
ii. Currently the government holds a share of 65% in the bank.
Background:
i. The lender has been under RBI’s PCA (Prompt Corrective Action ) Framework from January and has high NPA
ratio and negative return on assets (ROA).
ii. Its gross non-performing assets ratio was 15.96% at the end of March, while net NPA ratio was 8.04%. ROA
was a negative 5.77%.
iii. It has as many as 94 NPA accounts involving Rs 12,000 crore to National Company Law Tribunal under
Bankruptcy Code. These accounts accounted for nearly 45% bank's gross non-performing assets.
iv. Therefore, in order to recover close to Rs 5,500 crore from its stressed assets it aims to raise Rs 3,000 crore
from resolution of cases under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, close to Rs 500 crore from sale to asset
reconstruction companies and another Rs 2,000 crore through other recovery options.
v. It has already recovered close to Rs 1,300 crore in the first quarter from Bhushan Steel and Electrosteel.
Allahabad Bank:
♦ It is the oldest joint stock bank in India.
♦ Headquarters: Kolkata
♦ Founded: 1865
♦ Tagline: A tradition of Trust.
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ii.Customers will now be able to avail digital services including debit cards, net banking, IMPS, NEFT/RTGS,
mobile app and UPI.
Shamrao Vithal Co-op.(SVC) bank:
Headquarters: Mumbai.
Founded: 1906.
Managing Director: Ajit E. Venugopalan.
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