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0d06c65a Yearly Review of Business and Economy 2018 - Current Affairs Capsule
0d06c65a Yearly Review of Business and Economy 2018 - Current Affairs Capsule
January 2018
Govt signs $250m Loan Agreement With ADB
o Asian Development Bank and the India has signed a 250 million dollar
loan to finance the construction of over 6200 kms all-weather rural roads
in 5 states.
o These states are Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West
Bengal under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
o The survey estimated that due to "meta-preference" for sons, India could
have about 21 million "unwanted girls," or girls whose parents wanted to
have sons instead.
o It pointed out that most parents continued to have children until they got
sons.
o The Economic Survey 2017-18 has revealed that five states– Tamil Nadu,
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Telangana, accounted for 70% of
India's exports for the first time.
o The survey found that states' export performance and their standard of
living were strongly interrelated.
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o It also noted that India's internal trade in goods and services accounted for
an estimated 60% of GDP.
o The number of people defecating in the open in rural India had reduced to
less than half of what it was in 2014, according to the Economic Survey.
o So far, 296 districts and 3,07,349 villages have been declared as Open
Defecation Free.
o The Economic Survey said the average retail inflation has declined to a six-
year low of 3.3% in 2017-18.
o “Controlling inflation has been a priority area for the central government,”
the survey said.
o CPI based headline inflation, factored in by RBI while arriving at its bi-
monthly monetary policy, averaged 3.3% during the period which “is the
lowest” in the last six financial years.
o There were 9.8 million unique GST registrants, an increase by 3.4 million
compared to the previous tax regime is seen.
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o Indian digital payment startup Paytm has crossed $10 billion valuation for
the first time after 200 current and former employees sold their shares
worth $47.2 million.
o Paytm's last valuation stood at $7 billion when it raised $1.4 billion from
SoftBank last year.
o E-commerce major Amazon has invested about ₹1,950 crore into its
Indian subsidiary Amazon Seller Services, according to filings.
o The investment comes two months after the Indian unit received over
₹2,900 crore, its single largest infusion into the country's operations till
date.
o Amazon Seller Services also nearly doubled its authorised share capital to
₹31,000 crore, as per filings.
o The economic outlook of the Indian public sector banks was revised from
'negative' to 'outlook' by credit rating body CRISIL.
o Medtech startup Axio Biosolutions has raised USD 7.4 million funding in
Series B round from Ratan Tata's RNT Capital.
o The funds will be used for expansion to new markets, and development of
high-impact medical products.
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o The company has built a strong R&D structure, with multiple patents to its
credit in the wound healing, mucoadhesive drug delivery, and hemostats
space.
o According to the Central govt "Payments Banks & Small Finance Banks"
will offer social security scheme Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to their
subscribers.
o As on Jan 23, 2018, there are more than 84 lakh subscribers registered
under APY scheme.
o State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has borrowed Rs 4,000
crore from ICICI Bank.
o ONGC has already borrowed over Rs 18,000 crore from three other banks
to part finance its Rs 36,915 crore acquisition of HPCL.
o ICICI Bank has extended one-year loan to ONGC to fund the acquisition of
government's 51.11 percent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd
(HPCL).
o The goal at Prodigee is to provide SMEs loans that they likely otherwise
would not have had available.
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Min. of Road Transport signs MoU
o This would be India’s longest road tunnel and the longest bi-directional
tunnel in Asia.
o For the offer, customers have to a recharge least Rs150 per month for 36
months.
o IDBI Bank will get the most- Rs10,610 crore followed by State Bank of
India 8,800 crore rupees.
o The 20 banks that will receive the capital infusion during this phase
include Bank of India, UCO Bank and PNB.
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o ICICI Lombard General Insurance, one of the leading general insurance
companies in the country has launched a health insurance app ‘IL
TakeCare’.
o Indian Overseas Bank has signed an MoU with NHB for the Rural Housing
Interest Subsidy Scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development.
o Aim of the RHISS is to provide subsidy for housing loans taken by those
living in rural areas for construction and modifications of their dwelling
units.
o The interest subsidy under the scheme is 3% for a loan amount of Rs2 lakh
for 20-year tenure.
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o The venture will invest in opportunities in the ports sector as well as river
ports.
o The Uttarakhand Water Supply Program for Peri-Urban Areas will help
the State increase water supply coverage as well as ensure sustainable
water supply service.
o A direct mutual fund doesn’t involve any type of commission and provides
higher returns to the consumers.
o Buddha Fellows are a cohort of IIM grads working in rural areas with
farmer producer companies, govt departments to scale up projects in
livelihood, health & education sectors.
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ONGC To Buy Government Stake In HPCL
o Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has agreed to buy the government's
majority stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp for Rs. 36,900 crore.
o The deal is part of the govt's objective to combine various public sector
enterprises to give them the capacity to bear higher risks & create more
value for shareholders.
o The proceeds from the HPCL stake sale will help the government pay for
welfare programmes.
o Allahabad Bank has became the 1st public sector lender to offer an
employee stock option scheme, under which it will offer 5 crore ordinary
shares to its staff.
o Proceeds from share sale will be used to raise core capital of the bank
which has long ago been placed under prompt corrective action by RBI.
o Bank may issue shares in 1 tranche & will complete the transactions in this
financial year.
o Telangana has signed a MoU with the Clean Authority of Tokyo for solid
waste management.
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o The two sides will exchange expertise and build technical cooperation in
waste management.
o ISE Foods will set up a pilot project for egg production using advanced
technologies.
o The firm will also set up a solar park to support the egg production facility,
including the development of storage devices.
o Under the MoU, LIC will give a life cover of Rs2 lakh in case of death to the
customer at a nominal premium of Rs330 per annum.
o The company will also offer loans under government’s affordable housing
and subsidy schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
o GST Council has reduced the tax rate on 29 goods and 53 categories of
services by bringing them in lower category.
o The GST rate on tailoring service has been reduced from 18 to 5%.
9|P ag e
o The new rates will be effective from 25th Jan 2018.
o Tata Steel has raised $1.3 billion by issuance of unsecured bonds in the
international markets.
o The issue comprises $300 million 4.45% Unsecured Bonds due on July 24,
2023 & $1 billion 5.45% Unsecured Bonds due on January 24, 2028.
o The bonds are rated BB- by S&P and will be listed on Singapore Exchange.
o Amplus Energy Solutions has entered into a pact with Yes Bank for
strategic tie-up to co-finance projects in the solar energy space in India.
o Yes Bank will look for bankable projects to invest in & Amplus will develop
them.
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Axis Securities takes membership on MCX
o MCX has announced that Axis Securities - A subsidiary of Axis Bank has
become the 1st bank-sponsored broking entity to take membership on its
platform.
o Last year, RBI had opened the way for banks to enter commodity broking
services, through subsidiaries.
o YES Bank will mobilise $1 billion till 2023 & $5 billion till 2030 towards
financing solar energy projects in India.
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o iKaaz' technology spans across areas like NFC, QR-code, audio-based
payments as well as bill payments, online payments & peer-to-peer.
o Buyers & sellers registered on the marketplace will now be able to access
funding from BoB.
o BoB has stepped up its focus on supply chain financing, whereby it will
provide loans to MSMEs associated with large corporates.
o India’s most-valued bank HDFC Bank has crossed Rs5 trillion market
capitalisation for the first time, making it the 1st Indian bank to achieve
this milestone.
o TCS & RIL are the other two companies which have crossed market
capitalisation of Rs5 trillion.
o The government has lowered the additional borrowing requirement for the
current fiscal to Rs 20,000 crore from Rs 50,000 crore estimated earlier.
o The reduced borrowing would help contain fiscal deficit within the target.
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SBI to raise Rs 20,000 cr
o The board of State Bank of India has given nod to raise Rs 20,000 crore
for financing affordable housing and infrastructure projects through long-
term bonds.
o Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), under the department
of industrial policy and promotion, has launched a competition for college
and university students.
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o India’s largest IT services firm TCS has signed an over GBP 500 million
deal with M&G Prudential, the UK and European savings and investments
business of Prudential plc.
o The value of this agreement exceeds GBP 500 million over 10 years.
o The Bombay Stock Exchange's India International Exchange listed the first
bond on its Global Securities Market.
o The bonds issued by Indian Railways Finance Corporation are one of the
highest credit rated bonds issued by an Indian corporate and has been
IRFC's first foray into the Green Bond market.
o IRFC had last year raised $500 million from the 10-year green bond from
investors in Asia.
o BOI has postponed its plan to raise ₹3000 crores through qualified
institutional placement.
o Decision has been taken after govt’s approval to infuse ₹2257 crores in the
bank as part of the major liquidation of the banks.
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o Infusion by govt will address the immediate need of funds & bank will be
able to address the immediate issues.
o Through this tie-up, the bank aims to facilitate NRI clients to invest in
shares of Indian companies.
o The BSE's India International Exchange, India INX, has listed the IRFC's
green bonds on its debt listing platform – the global securities market.
o With this, the Indian Railway Finance Corporation's green bonds have
become the first debt security to be listed on an exchange at International
Financial Services Centre in Gujarat's GIFT city.
o The report said that the growth recovery and normalising food prices are
expected to drive a pick-up in inflation.
o The Reserve Bank in its fifth bi-monthly review of this fiscal kept the repo
rate unchanged at 6 per cent and reverse repo at 5.75 per cent
o West Bengal currently tops the list of the Department of Industrial Policy
and Promotion's Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) 2017.
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o It is followed by Gujarat.
o BRAP 2017 also includes two new sectors -- healthcare and hospitality.
o India’s retail inflation has reached a 17-month high with a little respite to
be seen in the coming months amid a surge in oil prices.
o Consumer prices rose 5.21 per cent in December from a year earlier, the
Statistics Ministry said in a statement.
o IDFC Bank will merge with Warburg Pincus-backed Capital First in an all-
share deal.
o Post-merger, the combined entity of IDFC Bank and Capital First will have
assets under management of Rs 880 billion and will serve more than five
million customers.
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India: Growing mobile payment market
o The departures will take effect in March at Disney's annual meeting, when
shareholders will be asked to re-elect 10 other board members.
o TCS has signed the ‘largest contract to date’ to become a third party
administrator (TPA) for Transamerica.
o From February, transporters will not need separate transit passes for
moving goods from one state to another, thanks to e-way bill.
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o The e-way bill rules provide for random verification which can be done by
a tax officer.
o The reserves had crossed the $400-billion mark for the first time on
September 8, 2017 but had since been fluctuating.
o Expressed in the US dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the
effect of change due to the non-US currencies.
o Paytm, run by One97 Communications Ltd, has set up a new entity called
Paytm Money Ltd.
o It will offer investment and wealth management products and will invest
close to $10 million upfront in the new entity.
o Paytm Money is the fourth product after Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments
Bank and Paytm wallet.
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o MoU will foster scientific cooperation between Research and Development
and academic institutions of India and Canada.
o PhonePe has now enabled its over 45 million users to link their existing
FreeCharge wallets to the PhonePe app.
o Under this tie-up, PNB would act as a channelising agent for the loan
schemes of NSFDC.
o ICICI Securities plans to launch an IPO worth at least Rs. 3,200 crore
($500 million) in February.
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SBI to raise $2 bn via overseas bonds
o The lender may raise the funds in more than one tranches. The funds
could be used to boost credit demand.
o The bond is a debt security, under which the issuer owes the holders a debt
and is obliged to pay them interest on the maturity date.
o World Bank has projected India’s growth rate at 7.3 percent in 2018 and
7.5 for the next two years.
o As many as 1,463 entities account for bad loans of Rs100 crore or more in
21 public sector banks (PSBs), finance ministry data has shown.
o In State Bank of India (SBI) alone, 265 accounts had bad loans of more
than Rs100 crore each, totalling Rs77,538 crore.
o Punjab National Bank topped the chart with 143 non-performing asset
(NPA) accounts carrying over Rs100 crore each.
o The Income Tax Department has relaxed norms for levy of Minimum
Alternate Tax (MAT) on companies facing corporate insolvency
proceedings.
o As per Section 115JB of the Income Tax Act, MAT is levied on book profit
after deducting the amount of loss brought forward or unabsorbed
depreciation, whichever is less.
o This has been done to minimise the genuine hardships faced by such
companies.
o The Indian economy is forecast to grow at its slowest in four years in FY18
but is expected to pick up pace in the second half of the year.
o GDP is seen growing 6.5% in FY18, down from 7.1% last year, according to
the first advance estimates released by the statistics office.
o Gross value added (GVA) growth is forecast at 6.1% against 6.6% last year.
o The Reserve Bank of India has initiated 'prompt corrective action' (PCA)
against Allahabad Bank over its high bad loans.
o High net non-performing assets and a negative return on assets for two
years in a row have prompted the action.
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o The Union Cabinet has approved the revised model concession agreement
for public-private partnership projects in major ports.
o According to reports, the Reserve Bank of India is all set to issue new Rs
10 notes under the Mahatma Gandhi series with chocolate brown colour as
the base.
o According to News18, around 1 billion pieces of the new 10 rupee note has
already been printed by the apex bank.
o SBI and NABARD have signed an agreement with five NGOs in Bengal for
the promotion of 2,500 joint liability groups in select districts of the State.
o Under the agreement, IICA has been entrusted with the key responsibility
of capacity building of IPPB.
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o Employees will be provided research support by instituting Research
Chairs in the emerging area of payment banking.
o Crisil FPI index would serve as benchmark for the performance of FPI
investments in government securities.
o The index holds significance owing to the current tilt of FPIs towards
fixed-income securities and recent enhancement of investment limits by
RBI.
o Bitcoins or such crypto-currencies are not legal tender and those indulging
in such transactions are doing it at their own risk, Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley said.
o The model will be scaled up to 100 in the near future, said Narasi Reddy,
Chairman.
o They can dispense small denominations and cater to small cash needs of
rural customers.
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RBI bonds scheme not closed: FinMin
o The Finance Ministry said RBI Bonds Scheme has not been closed but the
interest rate on such papers lowered to 7.75 percent.
o These taxable bonds are meant for individual other than Non-Resident
Indians with no maximum limit for investment.
o In 2003, the government came out with bonds offering 8 percent interest
to encourage retail investors to invest.
o Customers will not have to pay any transaction charges for payments
through debit card, BHIM app and other payment made for up to Rs
2,000.
o It is done to bring new year cheer to customers whose loans are still linked
to these benchmarks.
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o With effect from January 1, 2018, the revised base rate is 8.65 percent
(8.95% earlier) for existing customers and Benchmark Prime Lending Rate
is 13.40 percent (13.70%).
o It is a move which will help broaden the top leadership at the regulatory
authority to faster discharge of duties.
o Currently, Sebi has two whole-time members -- Madhabi Puri Buch and G
Mahalingam -- while Sanjeev Kaushik was appointed a whole-time
member last month.
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o GAIL India has placed orders for another 400-km of pipeline of the
ambitious PM Urja Ganga natural gas pipeline project that will take the
fuel to eastern India.
o With these awards, pipe supply orders for 2,100 km of the Jagdishpur-
Haldia & Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline project have been placed.
February 2018
Amazon buys video doorbell startup Ring
o According to reports, the deal could be worth more than $1 billion, making
it one of the most expensive acquisitions in Amazon's history.
o Founded in 2012, the startup makes video doorbells and security cameras
that connect to users' phones or computers.
o Tennis legend Roger Federer became the most decorated winner in the
history of Laureus World Sports Awards after he won twin honours at the
18th edition of the awards ceremony in Monaco.
o American tennis great Serena Williams won the Sportswoman of the Year
Award. She is now the most decorated female Laureus Award winner with
five Laureus statuettes.
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o These NBFCs have been categorised as high risk prone as they had not
complied with a stipulated provision of the anti-money laundering law.
o The list of 9,491 “high risk financial institutions” has been published by
Financial Intelligence Unit that functions under Finance Ministry.
o The partnership aims to reform education sector, build tech capacity &
enhance digital literacy across all levels.
o The funds would be used for investment in India’s energy, roads and
urban development projects.
o Shipping ministry has set up a centre in a joint initiative with IIT Madras
to accelerate indigenous development of technology & patents.
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o Tech Mahindra has set up a lab in Bengaluru in association with US
chipmaker Intel to prepare for 5G services, according to a top executive of
the IT firm.
o The company's CEO CP Gurnani said that about 30,000 of its employees
have already been re-skilled to handle the emerging technologies.
o It means that all retail branches of SBI in UK will fall under a new UK-
incorporated banking entity instead of their previous status as overseas
branches of the Indian entity.
o RBI has directed banks to link SWIFT (Society for World Interbank
Financial Telecommunication System platform) with core banking
solutions of banks by April 30, 2018.
o NICMAR, IIFT, ICSI and ICAI are the four institutes that have been roped
in for the exercise.
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o As per the latest World bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, India’s
position improved by 30 places to 100th.
o Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has launched India's first locally developed
4G/LTE telecom system.
o The system has been designed and developed by VNL Ltd., keeping in
mind requirement for high speed connectivity, particularly in rural areas.
o These systems offer compact and versatile radio applications and can
operate flawlessly even in harsh environment.
o In November 2016, Airtel Payments Bank Ltd became the first entity to
start operations as Payments Bank. Paytm and Fino Payments Bank are
the other two entities that have already launched their operations.
o India Post Payments Bank is expected to start operations from April 2018.
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o Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CFO Madhur Deora, and Shankar
Prasad Nath are the three signatory stakeholders in both the companies.
o In January this year, Paytm announced that it has set up Paytm Money
Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of One97 Communications.
o Any SWIFT message will now have to be created, verified and authorised
by three different officers, while previously only two officers were needed.
o PNB officials had issued unauthorised LoUs via SWIFT for firms linked to
jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
o Last year, Reliance had purchased 25% stake in media company Balaji
Telefilms for ₹413 crore.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that KYC (Know Your Customer)
verification of payments bank customers done by telecom companies is
not permissible.
o This comes after Airtel was penalised by UIDAI for allegedly opening
payments bank accounts without 'informed consent' of the users.
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Capital First Gets NHB Nod For Merger
o Capital First announced that the regulator National Housing Bank has
approved the merger of the company along with Capital Home Finance
and Capital First Securities Limited with IDFC Bank.
o The share swap ratio for the merger is fixed at 139:10, meaning IDFC Bank
will issue 139 shares for every 10 shares of Capital First.
o Uttar Pradesh's Khadi and Village Industries Board has signed a pact with
Amazon India.
o As part of an MoU, Amazon India will educate, train and enable rural
khadi artisans to directly sell their products to Amazon.in customers
across the country under the brand of UP Khadi.
o PMO had asked the think- tank to look into the viability of sick state-run
companies.
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o The Aayog has already recommended strategic divestment of 40 sick
public sector units.
o The adoption of blockchain by India’s banks could help avert frauds such
as the one at PNB.
o The move will affect around 6 crore subscribers and leave EPFO with a
surplus of Rs 586 crore against Rs 695 crore in the previous financial year.
o Cut comes at a time when returns on debt funds have decreased to 6.75%
from 7.5-8% last year.
o Google has combined its two payment services, Google Wallet and Android
Pay, into a new app called Google Pay.
o Google Pay combines features from both, including the ability to pay at
checkout counters with a smartphone, and even the option to scan into
transit systems.
o With Google Pay, one can digitally store their credit and debit cards, as
well as gift cards and rewards cards.
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India-Morocco Cooperation agreement approved
o Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval to the Cooperation Agreement
b/w India & Moroccan National Railways Office.
o BSNL & Japan’s NTT AT along with their Indian partner Virgo Corps, have
signed an agreement to collaborate in developing futuristic technologies.
o The Virgin Group has signed an ‘intent agreement’ with the Maharashtra
State govt to build a hyperloop transportation system between Mumbai
and Pune.
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o The first hyperloop route will link central Pune with Mumbai and the
proposed Navi Mumbai international airport.
o The cabinet has approved a plan to allow private companies to bid for coal
mines for commercial production.
o It is the most awaited reform in the coal sector that will bring updated
foreign mining technologies, investments into the country while rising
output and saving forex.
o Coal accounts for 70% of India’s power generation, and the country has a
target to produce 1 billion tonnes by 2022.
o Amid the ongoing million dollar fraud, credit rating body Fitch has placed
Punjab National Bank's viability rating in the negative watch category.
o PNB's viability rating of 'bb' was placed in the Rating Watch Negative,
following the fraud reported recently.
o Fitch would resolve the rating watch once more clarity emerges on the
extent of control failures & impact on PNB's financial position.
o Star India has won the audio-visual production rights for not just IPL but
also for BCCI's domestic circuit for the 2018-19 season.
o The service agreement and the contract term will cover one season of the
IPL (2018) and one season of Domestic Cricket (2018-2019).
o The Star India also holds the media rights of the Indian Premier League.
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o Axis Bank has announced opening of off-shore banking unit at the
International Financial Services Centre at Gujarat International Finance
Tec-City.
o Amazon has rolled out its own food retailing business in India called
Amazon Retail with a pilot in Pune.
o With this Amazon becomes the 1st foreign e-commerce firm to stock & sell
food items directly to consumers.
o Axis Bank has hiked its benchmark marginal cost of funds based lending
rate by 10 basis points in the three month to three year buckets.
o The bank’s 3 month MCLR is now 8.15% and 6 months at 8.30% while the
1 year rate is 8.40%.
o This is the second time that the bank has hiked its lending rates in two
months.
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o Once built, it will be the first integrated digital industrial area in the
country.
o More than 20 global companies including Cisco, HP, Dell, Nokia & Nvidia
among others have already agreed to invest in it.
o PhonePe has partnered with Indian Oil Corporation Limited for adoption
of its indigenously-designed Point of Sale device at IOCL retail outlets.
o Customers can now pay using UPI, credit & debit cards, PhonePe wallet &
other wallets for their fuel purchases, through PoS device at IOCL retail
outlets in Bengaluru.
o PhonePe received its RBI licensing in Aug 2014 & was later acquired by
Flipkart.
o 4 banks will join United Payments Interface which powers the payments
service for WhatsApp. At present ICICI Bank processes the fund transfers
on WhatsApp.
o State’s new textile policy allows them to change land use, which means
they can use it for reasons other than industrial purpose.
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IOC to expand refining capacity
o Indian Oil Corp will invest Rs 70,000 crore to raise its oil refining capacity
by about a quarter by 2030.
o IOC will expand its refining capacity to 116.55 MTPA by 2030 from the
current 80.7 MTPA.
o Botanical Survey of India & Natural History Museum have signed a MoU
for cooperation in the field of genetic studies, research, training &
conservation in India.
o NHM will help in capacity building in areas of systematic botany & long-
term conservation of plant genetic resources.
o Canadian investor Prem Watsa’s owned Fairfax Holdings will buy a 51%
stake in Kerala-based Catholic Syrian Bank.
o Founded in 1921, CSB has a strong base in Kerala & a significant presence
in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka & Maharashtra.
o Days after the fraud at PNB shook the country, Union Bank has suffered
three fraudulent remittances of nearly $2 million.
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o Just like the fraud at PNB, no entries of remittances were made in the
ledgers of City Union Bank & transfers were pushed through the SWIFT
financial platform.
o The transfers were made through correspondent banks even though it had
not requested the transfers.
o The move comes as a big boost to Prime Minister Modi’s housing for all
scheme by 2022.
o State Bank of India has launched its Global NRI Centre (GNC) in Kochi, a
one-stop customer service point for all NRI banking-related activities.
o Through its GNC, SBI aims to centralise operations which are currently
spread across 16 circles, 92 NRI branches in 66 different locations and
several NRI-intensive branches.
o SBI has a strong NRI customer base of over 33 lakh as on January 31.
o India has signed 2nd loan agreement for $100 million with New
Development Bank for efficient use of water in desert areas of Rajasthan.
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HomeShop18, Shop CJ Network merge businesses
o The resultant benefits of scale shall better the growth prospects for the
combined entity, allowing it to improve its standing in the TV home-
shopping landscape.
o Yes Bank has announced the listing of it's debut US $600 million bond
issue under its maiden US $1 billion medium-term note bond on country’s
1st international exchange BSE’s IndiaINX.
o With this, Yes Bank’s MTN programme became country’s first capital
raising platform for international investors in any currency.
o Medium Term note is a debt note that matures or has a payback period of
5 yrs.
o Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has bagged an order worth Rs 560 crore
from NTPC for setting up a system for emission control.
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o BHEL has secured the order for "supply and installation of the flue gas
desulphurisation system from NTPC for 2x490 MW National Capital
Power Station at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.
o Earlier, BHEL has executed the FGD system at Tata Power Trombay Unit
8 in 2008.
o Tata Steel and Wipro are the two Indian companies that have been named
by US-based Ethisphere Institute in the list of World's Most Ethical
Companies for 2018.
o The think tank has honoured 135 companies from 23 countries and 57
industries.
o Notably, Tata Steel and Wipro are receiving the award for the sixth and
seventh time respectively.
o The bank is currently valued at ₹35,365 crore after its shares fell nearly
10%.
o The CBI is investigating billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his firms in
relation to the fraud transactions.
o Citibank India has banned the use of its credit and debit cards towards
purchase or trading of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
o The govt had said it will take all measures to eliminate use of
cryptocurrencies in illegitimate activities but did not declare them illegal.
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Bajaj Allianz Insurance partners with Quikr
o Under this key agreement, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance will offer
personal lines of insurance products.
o In order to remove existing ambiguities due to multiple Acts and rules for
small saving schemes, the government has proposed merger.
o RBI’s new norms could result in a jump in bad loans, according to Moody’s
unit ICRA.
o The RBI said that for accounts where a bank’s exposure exceeds ₹2,000
crore, a resolution plan must be implemented within 180 days from the
date of first default.
o Bank of Baroda will reportedly exit the South African market amid
allegations that politically connected Gupta family used its network for
illicit transactions.
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o Authorities alleged that the Gupta family used the bank to transfer large
sums of illegal money and influence President Jacob Zuma.
o Bank of Baroda was the last lender in South Africa that offered services to
Guptas' companies.
o State-run power giant NTPC may borrow about Rs 16,000 crore next
financial year for adding 6,900 MW of fresh electricity generation capacity
by March 2019.
o "The corporation may hit the bonds or debt market to borrow about Rs
16,000 crore during the next financial year for financing the ongoing
projects," a source said.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Union government has saved
₹56,000 crore through Aadhaar-enabled Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of
about 400 government schemes.
o Direct tax collections grew by nearly 20% between April and January this
year with strong growth in both corporate and personal income tax
receipts.
o While net corporate income tax grew by 19.2%, personal income tax
receipts rose by 18.6 per cent in January this year.
43 | P a g e
SBI has over Rs 20,000 Crore bad loans
o SBI wrote off bad loans worth Rs 20,339 crore in 2016-17, the highest
among all the public sector banks, which had a collective write off of Rs
81,683 crore for the fiscal.
o The data pertains to the period when the associate banks of SBI were not
merged with it.
o India has signed the first concessional agreement with the United Arab
Emirates in the oil sector.
o This first concessional agreement will be for 40 years from 2018 to 2057.
44 | P a g e
o It will enable storing of financial information that will help substantiate
defaults & verify claims expeditiously.
o India Post Payments Bank will enable Digital Payments in Post Offices by
April this year.
o IPPB will be the 3rd payments bank to have full fledged operations after
Airtel Payments Bank & Paytm.
o It will provide digital payment services at the doorstep with the help of
Postmen & Gramin Dak Sewaks
o India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday reported a loss of
₹2,416.4 crore for the December quarter, marking its first quarterly loss in
at least 17 years.
o The bank's net interest income during the quarter rose to ₹18,688 crore.
o The government has directed the banks to only accept online applications
for education loans in a bid to make the loan disbursement process
transparent and efficient.
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o The banks have also been asked to not consider any application received in
physical form.
o The move also aims to tackle the delay in sanctioning of the education
loans.
o The feature will allow users to instantly transfer money via the Unified
Payments Interface (UPI).
o Earlier reports said that WhatsApp was working with banks including
HDFC and ICICI to integrate its UPI-based payments platform.
o Goldman Sachs' head of investment research Steve Strongin has said most
cryptocurrencies will lose all their value as they are replaced by a small set
of future competitors.
o Adding that cryptocurrencies don't have any "intrinsic value", he said most
will never see their recent peaks again.
o It's worrying that all cryptocurrencies move together as a single asset class,
he added.
o The rules will be laid out by the end of February 2018. RBI will start with
deposit-taking NBFCs and widen the scope to cover NBFCs with asset size
of Rs 100 crore.
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RBI To Link Base Rate With MCLR
o The Reserve Bank of India will link the base rate with the MCLR from 1st
of April 2018 to ensure expeditious transmission of its policy rate to
borrowers.
o The RBI had introduced the MCLR system with effect from 1st April 2016,
the Central bank observed that a large proportion of bank loans continue
to be linked to Base Rate.
o The curriculum is spread into four themes - being smart, being safe, being
a digital citizen and being future ready.
o The RBI has kept the repo rate, the rate at which banks borrow from RBI,
steady at 6% for the third time in a row during its sixth bi-monthly
monetary policy review.
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o This comes after retail inflation in December rose to a 17-month high of
5.21%.
o The RBI last cut the rate by 25 basis points in August last year.
o The government has discovered Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion
amounting to ₹5.7 crore in 16 cases in first five months of the ongoing
fiscal.
o Evasion of central excise amounting to ₹7,242 crore in 614 cases was found
during the same period.
o Further, the government has now cleared a proposal allowing 100% FDI in
single-brand retail via automatic route.
o It'll benefit about 300 startups that received funding from the Angel
Investors Network.
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o Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi announced that the state government would
set up a corporation to disburse loans for Student's Credit Card scheme.
o Banks will continue to disburse education loans as it has been doing along
with the SCC scheme.
o The river taxis will be machine-operated boats and users will be able to
book the rides through Ola's app.
o It'll bring commute time down to 2-5 minutes from 45 minutes by road.
This MoU was signed during the Global Investors Summit: Advantage
Assam.
o With the investment, Singtel's total stake in the firm will increase to 48.9%
from 47.17% while Bharti Enterprises will continue to hold over 50% in
Bharti Telecom.
o Airtel said the fresh round of investment from Singtel highlights its
confidence in the Indian telecom sector
o The budgeted fiscal deficit is in line with expectations but there are some
risks of slippage in financial year 2018-19.
o Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has said there will be
regulations for cryptocurrencies by the end of this fiscal.
o The exchanges which are operating currently are not regulated and there
are no legal requirements for conducting KYC, he added.
o The government in the Budget said it will take all measures to eliminate
the use of cryptocurrencies in illegal activities.
o Allahabad Bank is the first among the public sector banks to offer share to
its employees.
o The bank is giving a 25% discount on pricing at Rs 53.94 per share to the
employees.
o So far in the current fiscal, the bank had raised Rs 700 cr as capital and
also raised some bonds.
o The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley
launched CriSidEx, India's first sentiment index for micro and small
enterprises.
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o Indian Overseas Bank has received Rs173.06 crore capital infusion from
the government in the current fiscal.
o Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget for the
year 2018-19 announced that no change has been made in the personal
income tax rates.
o Around 1.89 crore salaried individuals have filed their tax returns, he
added.
o Central Statistics Office revised the GDP growth rate for 2015-16 to 8.2%
from the earlier estimates of 8% and kept the 2016-17 growth unchanged
at 7.1%.
o The real GDP for years 2016-17 and 2015-16 stand at Rs121.96 trillion and
Rs113.86 trillion respectively.
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o Under the third revision the GDP growth in 2014-15 is at 7.4% from earlier
estimates of 7.5%.
March 2018
OLX launched webwise to promote online safety
o OLX will be promoting online safety through its initiatives which include,
Product updates, user safety guidelines, awareness programs with law
enforcement authorities.
o Rivigo is tying up with YES Bank, IDFC and 10 other financial institutions
to make cheaper funds available to truck owners and operators on its
platform.
o The funds will be available at an interest rate of 1-2% per month, lower
than the usual industry standard of 2-3%.
o The government will retain 24% stake in Air India and its subsidiary Air
India Express.
o It also proposed divesting 50% of its stake in Air India Sats Airport
Services.
o Air India is the country's flag air carrier with a significant market position
in international and domestic operations.
o The report titled "Mobile Internet in India 2017”, has been jointly
published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and
KANTAR-IMRB.
o RBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 58.9 crore on ICICI Bank for failure to
adhere to held-to-maturity (HTM) guidelines.
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o This is the highest penalty imposed by RBI on a bank for a single incident.
o The guarantee fee for the aforesaid amount has also been waived by
Ministry of Finance.
o The decision will ease the flow of borrowed funds for Ministry of Railways
to undertake projects.
o Department of Posts has launched the "Cool EMS Service" which will come
into force from 29th March.
o Cool EMS service is one-way service from Japan to India which allows
customers in India to import Japanese food items for personal use which
is allowed under Indian regulations.
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o India’s automobile sales, including passenger and commercial vehicles,
grew 9.5 percent and more than 4 million units in 2017 were sold, making
the country world’s fourth-largest automobile market.
o Jet Airways has announced plans to expand its operations in the northeast
and make Guwahati its regional gateway of the region.
o Jet Airways has increased the number of weekly flights between the
northeast and the rest of the country to 184.
o MCX Brass futures is the first non-ferrous contract with the compulsory
delivery option.
o Brass is an alloy, which primarily contains around 55-60% copper and the
rest is zinc.
o The ban on LoUs has affected the business of foreign branches & the bank
says one branch is enough to cater for customers’ needs.
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o With almost zero capital needed for opening a branch in Hong Kong, the
country has the 2nd highest number of foreign branches by Indian banks
after the UK.
o Equitas Small Finance Bank has launched a new ‘Yellow Army Savings
Account’ to increase its customer base through its association with
Chennai Super Kings.
o The yellow army savings account will offer an interest rate of 6% per
annum for balance below ₹10 lakh and 6.5% per annum for balance above
₹10 lakh.
o Equitas will be the principal sponsor of CSK and the banking partner of
CSK for 3 years.
o The total amount involved in bank fraud cases this year has reached nearly
₹19,194 crore, which is 63% more than the total loss on all frauds in 2017.
o The CBI has registered 12 major cases of suspected bank fraud this year.
o Reliance Jio Director Akash Ambani, has signed an agreement for merging
the digital music service Saavn with JioMusic to create a digital media
platform with global reach.
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o Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group have appointed Balesh Sharma as
Chief Executive Officer of an entity created by the merger of their local
telecom units.
o This TCA will help in establishing the capability for in-house design,
manufacture and testing of very large size gates and dampers.
o The representative office is the 3rd Axis Bank office in the UAE after Dubai
and Abu Dhabi.
o The new office will service the NRI community in the emirate and will also
provide service in the other emirates.
o The Ola cab facility will provide all the services directly on the IRCTC Rail
Connect App.
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o The tie-up, a six-month pilot project, will give customers access to Ola
booking services when they visit the IRCTC Rail Connect App.
o Capital markets regulator SEBI raised the exposure limit under exchange-
traded currency derivatives trading for residents and FPIs to USD 100
million across all currency pairs involving the Indian rupee.
o The move will help entities engaged in forex transactions to maintain their
currency risks in a better manner.
o Earlier, there were two different sets of limits based on currency pairs.
o Future Group has been signed as an associate sponsor with Star India for
the upcoming Vivo-IPL 2018.
o Vivo IPL 2018 will be presented in 5 regional languages along with English
to a never-before 700 million viewers through multiple screens
& languages.
o Online grocery firm Grofers has raised ₹.400 crore in a fresh funding
round led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group.
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o With the new round of funding, Grofers said it would continue to invest in
building private labels and supply chain improvements.
o The funding round also saw other investors, including Tiger Global and
Apoletto Asia.
o It aims to bring over 1 lakh trade transactions going entirely digital, across
major geographies including China, US.
o The product uses robotics process automation & helps in eliminating the
requirement of documents submission for import & export payments.
o The move was shelved because of the seller's inability to get requisite
clearances within the required timeline.
o Karnataka Bank opened its first all-woman branch at Bull Temple Road in
Bengaluru.
o This is the 36th branch opened by the Bank during the current financial
year 2017-18 and the 800th branch of the bank.
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o Bharat Heavy Electricals has secured a significant order worth Rs.736
Crore for supply of Steam Generators from Nuclear Power Corporation of
India (NPCIL).
o The Steam Generators will be used for a 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy
Water Reactor to be installed at Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna
in Fatehabad district of Haryana.
o ICICI Bank has launched instant overdraft ‘InstaOD’ facility for MSME
(Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) customers in a completely online
and paperless manner.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has scrapped the issuance of Letters of
Undertaking (LOUs) and Letters of Comfort (LOCs) for trade credit for
imports with immediate effect.
o Banks will continue to issue guarantees and letter of credit for trade
purposes which are the international norm.
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o A letter of credit is secure because it has the details of the expiry date and
the material purchase.
o The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India signed MoU with the
Reserve Bank of India for enhancing cooperation between the two
regulators to ensure better implementation of the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code.
o RBI and IBBI will share data and resources with each other.
o State Bank of India, SBI has cut down the charges for non-maintenance of
average minimum balance in its savings accounts by up to 75 percent.
o The new charges, which will benefit about 25 crore bank customers, comes
into effect from 1st of next month.
o Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, basic savings bank deposit account, and
accounts of pensioners and minors are exempted from these charges.
o Employment in eight key sectors, rose by 1.36 lakh on the net basis in
July-September this fiscal compared to the previous quarter.
o Retail inflation for the month of February cooled off to a four-month low
of 4.4% as compared to 5.07% in January 2018.
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o Inflation in vegetables was 17.57% in February, down from 26.97% in
January, and for fruits, it was 4.80% (as against 6.24%).
o Fuel and light inflation stood at 6.8%, compared with 7.58% in January,
while housing inflation stood at 8.28%
o India’s factory production grew in January to 7.5% over the same month
last year, and marginally over the 7.1% recorded in December 2017.
o The sharp improvement in IIP is a positive trigger for the March quarter
GDP which will be announced on 31 May.
o Goods and Services Tax Council has mandated the use of electronic way
(e-way) bills from April to track inter-state movement of goods.
o For intra-State movement, the e-way bill will be rolled out in a phased
manner beginning April 15, and will cover all the States by June 1.
o According to the report, TCS has a total brand value of USD 10.391 billion.
o Over past 2 years, TCS has strengthened its portfolio of global brand
sponsorships by forging new partnerships in UK, Sweden, India, Japan &
Australia.
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o Asian Development Bank & International Solar Alliance have signed a
cooperation arrangement to promote solar energy deployment in Asia &
Pacific.
o Know your customer is the process of the banks identifying and verifying
the identity of its account holders.
o Direct tax collections have risen 19.5% to Rs. 7.44 lakh crore in the April-
February period of the current fiscal.
o The net direct tax collection represents 74.3% of the Rs. 10.05 lakh crore
target as per the revised estimates given in Union Budget 2018-19.
o The growth rate for net corporate tax collections stood at 19.7% while for
personal income tax is 18.6%.
o The nod from the SEBI will allow the company to roll out investment and
wealth management products to consumers across the country.
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o The platform has planned to start with direct plan mutual funds
investments with zero commission.
o Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are emerging as a new way of raising funds for
startups. An ICO is based on cryptocurrencies and is a mix of an initial
public offer (IPO) and crowdfunding.
o Instead of granting shares in the company, the issuer will create crypto-
tokens to give out to investors.
o The RBI had imposed a fine on Axis Bank and Indian Overseas Bank for
not complying with the "known your customer" regulations
o The Reserve Bank of India imposed a penalty of ₹3 crore on Axis Bank for
non-compliance of Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC)
norms.
o RBI came to the conclusion that the charges of non-compliance with RBI
directions and guidelines were substantiated.
o Iraq has overtaken Saudi Arabia by a wide margin to become India’s top
crude oil supplier.
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o Iran was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia till
2010-11 but western sanctions relegated it to the 7th spot in the
subsequent years.
o Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has become the first person to amass a fortune
surpassing $100 billion and richest man on earth.
o The world now holds more than 2,200 billionaires with a combined
fortune of $9.1 trillion.
o RBI has tightened priority sector lending norms for foreign banks by
directing them to create sub-targets so that they lend a portion of their
loans to small & marginal farmers as well as MSMEs.
o Move is directed at foreign banks with over 20 branches & will come into
force from next financial year.
o PSL norms mandate foreign banks to lend 40% of their total loan book to
the priority sector.
o IDBI Bank has cut its stake In Punjab Alkalies & Chemicals (PAC).
o In 2018 so far, IDBI Bank has sold 18.11 lakh shares of PAC.
o Recently on February 28, IDBI sold 9.65 lakh shares at an average price of
₹25.35 and the shares were bought by Dayawati Dahiya.
o At the end of December 2017, IDBI Bank was holding 47.10 lakh shares, or
17.35%n stake in PAC.
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RBI lifts per-borrower loan cap for MSMEs
o RBI has decided to do away with the per borrower loan limits to Micro/
Small and Medium Enterprises for classification under priority sector
lending.
o The Punjab National Bank (PNB) and ICICI Bank hiked the MCLR rates
for loan borrowers.
o The PNB, which is at the centre of Nirav Modi fraud also increased one-
year MCLR to 8.3% from 8.15%.
o The State Bank raised its lending rates by 20 basis points to 8.15%, with
immediate effect, setting the tone for the industry to follow suit.
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o This is the first lending revision by the bank since April 2016 and comes a
day after it massively raised the retail and bulk deposit rates.
o In 2017, India saw a total of $65 billion move into the country.
o The agency has booked Ramnandi Estate and its directors along with the
bank's valuer, Sanjay Kumar.
o The fiscal deficit stood at ₹6.77 trillion and net tax receipts in the first ten
months were ₹9.7 trillion, government data showed.
o Earlier, the fiscal deficit target for the current year was raised to 3.5% of
GDP from 3.2%.
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o This comes after the Ananda Krishnan-owned Malaysian parent Maxis
Communications refused to infuse more funds into Aircel.
o SBI steeply raised the retail and bulk deposits rates for various maturities
by up to 0.75% with immediate effect.
o This is the third pricing revision in past four months by the bank.
o EPFO has made it mandatory to file online claims for provident fund
withdrawals above Rs 10 lakh, taking another step towards becoming a
paperless organisation.
o The EPFO has also made it mandatory to file online claims for withdrawals
of above Rs 5 lakh under the Employees Pension Scheme 1995.
o The EPFO has over six crore subscribers and manages a corpus of Rs 10
lakh crore.
o The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd (CSB) has tied up with Celebrus Capital Ltd
(Celebrus), to offer CSB’s customers online trading and demat services.
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April 2018
RBI raised foreign participation in G-Secs
o The cap on FPI investments in any Central Government security has been
revised to 30 percent of the outstanding stock of that security.
o The report noted that higher global oil prices, risk of an earlier than
anticipated rate hike cycle from RBI are some of the factors that pose
downside risk to its baseline GDP estimate.
o According to the report, a $10 increase in oil prices can shave off growth
by about 10 bps
o Paytm has announced the launch of its offline payments solution - the
Paytm Tap Card.
o The card uses Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to enable safe
and convenient digital payments, completely offline at Paytm-issued, NFC
PoS terminals.
o Tap Card has been launched to to provide seamless payments solutions for
non-internet customers.
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o RBI has further liberalised norms for external commercial borrowing that
will allow Indian companies to access cheaper funds from overseas
markets.
o According to new norms, RBI has stipulated an uniform all in cost ceiling
of 450 bps over benchmark rate.
o RBI also decided to increase the ECB Liability to Equity Ratio for ECB
raised from direct foreign equity holder under automatic route to 7:1
o Global credit rating agency Fitch has affirmed India’s sovereign rating at
‘BBB-’ with ‘stable’ outlook.
o The rating was assigned to the country 11 years ago. Fitch had last
upgraded the rating from ‘BB+’ to ‘BBB-’ with stable outlook on August 1,
2006.
o Fitch has projected India’s growth at 7.3 per cent in current the fiscal.
o Axis Bank has reported a net loss of Rs 21.88 billion for the quarter ended
March 2018.
o This is the first time the bank has posted quarterly loss since its listing in
1998.
o The loss has been attributed to higher provisioning for bad loans.
o The lender substantially raised its provisioning to cover for bad loans and
contingencies during the quarter to Rs 71.79 billion.
o Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar expects India's economy to grow
by at least 7.5 per cent in 2018-19.
o The government is all set to acquire the stake of Reserve Bank of India in
housing finance regulator National Housing Bank (NHB),
o The Finance Bill 2018 has amended the National Housing Bank Act, 1987,
for transferring RBI’s stake in the NHB to the government.
o Govt. has collected Rs 7.41 trillion in taxes in the first year of the Goods
and Services Tax (GST) between August 2017 and March 2018
o The revenues for four months have not being accounted for because of the
mid-year rollout and an accounting lag.
o RBI has removed the restriction that limited foreign investors to only
investing in government and corporate bonds with tenures of three years
or more.
o The move comes after weak investor interest in two recent auctions that
led to a spike in sovereign debt yields.
o The National Stock Exchange announced the launch of its e-Gsec platform.
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o The government issues securities to borrow money from the market.
o The Union budget 2016-17 had announced that RBI will facilitate retail
participation in the primary markets through stock exchanges.
o The Centre stated that the e-way bill system for intra-state movement of
goods will be rolled out in four more states and one Union Territory on
25th April.
o The Asian Development Bank has agreed to give an aid of Rs 1,700 crore to
Uttarakhand.
o The aid will be given for the creation of infrastructural facilities, sewer
treatment plants and water supply facilities in urban areas of Uttarakhand.
o As per the agreement, BoI will avail NeSL service to expedite corporate
insolvency resolution process.
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o Paytm Payments Bank claims that it now has over 100 million KYC -
registered wallets which includes both complete & minimum KYC.
o Paytm Payments Bank is owned 51% by Paytm founder Vijay Sharma &
49% by One97 Communications.
o India and Finland have reached an accord on the tax dispute with Nokia
under the Mutual Agreement Procedure.
o This paves the way for sale of Nokia’s Chennai plant, which has been
shuttered since November 2014.
o World Bank Group has endorsed a package of measures that include a $13
billion increase in paid-in capital.
o ICICI Bank has introduced a 'digital form' which will help open current
accounts in a few hours in comparison to an industry average of a few
days.
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o Bank officials would now be able to capture information about customer &
business digitally & verify KYC documents in real-time.
o Digital forms are expected to help bank secure more clients & help
increase bank's market share.
o This is the first such revelation made by any bank, following govt's
instructions to banks on seeking passport copies of all those who have
borrowed more than Rs 50 crore.
o PNB has already declared 1,084 wilful defaulters & has published photos
of 260 such defaulters in newspapers.
o Reserve Bank of India has amended its ‘Know Your Customer’ guidelines,
making Aadhaar compulsory by banks & finance companies.
o RBI has also done away with sections relating to use of other “officially
valid documents” by lenders for address and identity proof.
o The norms have been revised because the government had amended laws
on prevention of money laundering.
o Tata Consultancy Services has moved closer to the $100 billion mark in
market capitalisation as its share price surged nearly 7%, adding about
$6.2 billion to its valuation.
o The IT major is set to be the first listed Indian company to achieve this
milestone.
o TCS is the leading the chart as the most valued firm followed by Reliance
Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC and HUL.
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o First meeting of BRICS Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors was
held on the sidelines of IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington
D.C.
o With this agreement, the IOB branches will be able to provide high-
quality, authenticated information about debts and defaults.
o The NeSL became India's first information utility for bankruptcy cases
under the 'Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code 2016' in October 2017.
o Yes Bank has received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to open two
representative offices in London and Singapore.
o The opening of these new offices will help in further diversification and
expansion of financial services to the NRI diaspora.
o Yes Bank opened its first representative office in Abu Dhabi in April 2015.
o Bank’s business account holders can now pay their suppliers & automate
reconciliation right from Zoho Books.
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o The collaboration with Zoho offers clients a revolutionary experience,
enabling them to interact seamlessly, resulting in simpler reconciliation &
faster payments.
o SBI has over 6 lakh PoS machines of which nearly 5 lakh machines are
enabled to dispense cash to its customers.
o Maruti Suzuki India's entry-level hatchback Alto has retained its status as
the best selling passenger vehicle in India in 2017-18
o The Alto retained its number one position by selling 258,539 units in
2017-18 as against 241,635 units in the previous financial year.
o Maruti continued its dominance with seven of its models featuring in the
top ten list.
o India’s adult population with a bank account has more than doubled to
80% since 2011.
o China has world’s largest unbanked population, followed by India & Pak.
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o According to the database of the IMF's World Economic Outlook for April
2018, India's GDP clocked in at $2.6 trillion for 2017.
o The five economies ahead of India are the United States, China, Japan,
Germany and United Kingdom.
o As Taiwan & India do not have diplomatic relationship, the trade office is
expected to provide services to Indian & Taiwanese firms to expand
business.
o The New Delhi office is TAITRA's 4th such office in India, following
establishment of 3 other offices in Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata
o Amazon has launched an Android web browser app called 'Internet' for
emerging markets.
o The browser doesn’t occupy much storage space on a user’s device & does
not collect private data like other browsers.
o The app is only available to users in India for the time being & is
supported on devices running Android 5.0 or higher
o Customers of the bank will not be allowed to withdraw more than Rs 1000
of the total balance held in their accounts.
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o Bank will have to take prior approval from RBI before it can disburse loan,
make any investment, borrow funds or accept new deposit.
o Facebook would begin rolling out changes to how it handles private data
this week to comply with forthcoming EU rules.
o Under the new policy, FB users will be asked to review & make choices
about ads they receive, including whether they want Facebook to use data
from third parties.
o The initiative will begin with 6 districts, including Sindhudurg & Ratnagiri
in Maharashtra, Varanasi in UP, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Vishakapatnam in
Andhra Pradesh & Solan in HP.
o The international shopping feature will display pricing, shipping costs and
import duty estimates.
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o Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu launched FIEO GlobalLinker- A digital
platform for MSME exporters to digitise their businesses & join a global
community of growing businesses.
o It will help in expanding India's multi-focused export strategy & also aid in
connecting art & artisans to market.
o India joins Sri Lanka, Mauritius & Malta to inject capital into the new
scheme, which has Standard Chartered & BoB as its the facility managers.
o Yes Bank recently announced the launch of ‘YES GST’, an OD (over draft)
facility for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
o Following the jump in its m-cap, M&M has joined the ranks of Ultra Tech
Cement, Power Grid Corporation, and IndusInd Bank.
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o The company's market capitalisation (m-cap) jumped to Rs 1,01,829.91
crore.
o Ola aims to bring one million electric vehicles on the road by 2021.
o Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd beat India’s largest lender State Bank of India
(SBI) for the first time to become the second most valued bank in the
country.
o HDFC Bank Ltd remained country’s most valuable bank with a market
capitalization of Rs5.04 trillion.
o The establishment of a Gas Trading Hub / Exchange will further boost the
consumption of natural gas in the country.
o The world's biggest natural gas hub is the Henry Hub in the US state of
Louisiana.
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o On the basis of Wholesale Price Index (WPI), inflation was 2.48% in
February and 5.11% in March last year.
o Retail inflation, as per data released last week, slipped to a five-month low
of 4.28% in March on account of decline in food prices.
o India's economic growth will rise to 7.3% this fiscal and further to 7.6% in
the next financial year, retaining the fastest-growing Asian economy tag,
on back of GST and banking reforms.
o Indian economy grew 6.6% in the last fiscal as it battled the lingering
effects of demonetisation in 2016.
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Startups with up to ₹10 cr to get concession
o Several startups and investors had raised concerns over the 'angel tax'
saying it could discourage investments.
o The tax was levied on capital raised by startups in excess of the fair market
value of their shares.
o India's retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased to a
5-month low of 4.28% in March, government data showed.
o Further, the food inflation for the month stood at 2.81%, compared to
3.26% in February.
o Notably, this is the third straight month where inflation softened after
hitting a 17-month high in December.
o The digital branches aim to help SBI expand its reach with increasing
profitability.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a Rs 3 crore penalty on IDBI
Bank for not following the central bank’s rules on classification of loans.
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o IDBI bank did not adhere to RBI’s norms on Income Recognition and
Asset Classification.
o The SBI has announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited,
with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent
entity.
o SBI became the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division
from its wholesale business.
o E-way bill system for all inter-state movement of goods was rolled out
from April 1.
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o The government has made the use of e-Invoices, e-Payments and e-
Delivery orders mandatory across the maritime trade as it seeks to push
digitisation of trade processes.
o The government has also directed stakeholders to use the Port Community
System (PCS).
o The PCA will be invoked if RRBs fail to meet the 'capital to risk-weighted
assets ratio', assets (NPAs), and profitability (Return on assets).
o The Government of India has approved the linking of Post Office savings
accounts with that of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).
o This will enable Post Office account holders to transfer money from their
savings account to any bank accounts.
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Trouble in Flipkart-Amazon merger
o The combined market share of the two parties, which is around 80 percent
is most likely to pose challenges to the deal.
o Previously, the reserves had touched a record high of 421.914 billion dollar
on February 9, 2018.
o ICICI Bank has become first Indian bank to go live on SWIFT's Global
Payment Innovation, an improved cross-border payments service.
o The Samsung Pay allows customers to simply tap and 'pay on the go' using
their registered IndusInd Bank credit cards.
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o The platform works with patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST)
technology as well as Near Field Communication (NFC).
o The earlier deadline for banks to switch to the Ind AS was from 1 April
2018.
o This initiative benefited around 3 crore taxpayers, who filed their return in
this simplified Form.
o RBI directed all regulated entities including banks not to provide services
to businesses dealing in virtual currencies like bitcoins, so as to protect
consumers and check money laundering.
o The RBI asked entities, which are already into such services to stop
providing this kind of services within three months.
o The RBI has directed all payment system operators to store all data within
India.
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o The RBI switched back to the gross domestic product (GDP)-based
measure to offer its growth estimates from the gross value added (GVA)
methodology.
o The GDP model gives the picture from the consumers’ side or demand
perspective.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 5th April kept the repo rate and
reverse repo rate unchanged at 6 percent and 5.75 percent respectively.
o The real Gross Domestic Product growth in FY19 is seen at 7.4 percent as
against 6.6 percent in FY18.
o The RBI revised CPI inflation projection for 2018-19 to 4.7-5.1% in the
first half of the financial year and 4.4% in the second half.
o Reserve Bank of India has decided to set up Data Sciences Lab to improve
its forecasting, surveillance and early warning detection abilities which
will aid policy formulation.
o RBI said the lab will comprise experts and budding analysts, who are
trained in Computer Science, Data Analytics, Statistics, Economics,
Econometrics and Finance.
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o MakeMyTrip's multiple brands, including MMT, Goibibo and redBus, will
leverage the large customer base of Flipkart platform to drive online
bookings in travel services.
o The new partnership will start with domestic flight, hotels, bus and
holidays bookings.
o Private sector lender IndusInd Bank has received RBI’s approval to buy
the securities services arm of IL&FS.
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India became second largest crude steel-maker
o Golden Concord Group Ltd. will invest in a 40% stake in the joint venture,
with Japan’s SoftBank taking the rest.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that Jio Payments Bank has
commenced its banking services.
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o Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was one of the 11 applicants which were
issued the in-principle approval for setting up a payments bank in August
2015.
o Telecom major Bharti Airtel was the first to begin payment bank services
in November 2016.
o The first MoU between HDFC Bank and the Indian Army was signed in
2011 and was renewed on 13 Mar 2015.
o Indian Army has MoUs on Defence Salary Package with 11 public and
private sector banks.
o The initial test phase will allow the bank to communicate important
transaction alerts to the customers on WhatsApp.
o The Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to spread out the provisioning to
cover losses on their government bond portfolio across four quarters.
o Banks using such option will have to make the disclosure in their notes to
accounts of the quarterly results.
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o Cab aggregator Ola announced the acquisition of end-to-end public
transport ticketing and commuting app, Ridlr.
o Ridlr enables users to search and book public transport options on their
mobile phones.
o Also, 6.84 crore income tax returns filed in the year against 5.43 crore in
the previous year signalling a rise of 26%.
o The collections from corporate tax went up 17.1% while that from personal
income tax rose 18.9%.
o A net of 99.5 lakh new assesses were added to the tax net.
o A reading above 50 on the index shows growth, while one less than that
denotes contraction.
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Axis Bank removed from bullion importers list
o The Reserve Bank of India dropped Axis Bank from a list of banks it has
cleared to import gold and silver in the current financial year that began
April 1.
o Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia were among the 16
banks allowed to import bullion.
o Two other small banks Karur Vyasa and South Indian Bank were also
dropped from the RBI list.
o The eight infrastructure sectors, coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery
products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had grown by just 0.6%
in February last year.
o The regulator would raise the maximum period of accepting funds from an
angel investor to five years, from three years.
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o SIDBI launched 'Samridhhi-the virtual assistant' on banks revamped
universal loan portal 'www.udyamimitra.in'. It will answer standard
queries of aspirants 24*7.
o The methodology as to how the bonds are valued is crucial for mark-to-
market purposes.
o Allahabad Bank has reduced the base rate and benchmark prime lending
rate (BPLR) by 45 basis points each.
o The Bank has slashed base rate to 9.15% from 9.60%. BPLR has been
brought down to 13.40% from 13.85%.
o The reduction in the rates will lower EMIs for its borrowers.
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E-way bill system comes into force
o The Uniform System of e-way Bill for inter-State movement of goods has
come into force from April 1, 2018.
o Under the new system, every transporter will have to carry a system-
generated bill to move goods from one place to another.
May 2018
India's most profitable PSU
o Indian Oil Corporation has for the second year in a row beaten ONGC to
become India's most profitable state-owned company.
o IOC which has for decades been India's biggest company by turnover
posted a record net profit of Rs 21,346 crore in the fiscal year ended March
31, 2018.
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o CRAs will have to disclose on their website all ratings that are not accepted
by an issuer for at least 12 months.
o SEBI has proposed these measures as part of its attempts to strengthen the
governance, accountability and functioning of CRAs.
o The Accounting Standards for Local Bodies are aimed at ensuring that the
financial reporting by local bodies reflects how efficiently and effectively
local bodies have discharged their responsibilities.
o Microsoft has surpassed Alphabet, in the market capitalisation for the first
time in 3 years, becoming the 3rd most valuable firm after Apple & Amazon
globally.
o On May 29, 2018, Microsoft reportedly had a market cap of $753 billion at
the close of trading, almost $14 billion ahead of Alphabet.
o Apple leads with a market cap of $924 billion & Amazon is at second spot
with nearly $783 billion.
o Moody’s Investors Service has cut India’s 2018 growth forecast to 7.3%
from the previous estimate of 7.5%.
o Moody’s said that the economy is in cyclical recovery but higher oil prices
& tighter financial conditions will weigh on the pace of acceleration.
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Approval for petrol, diesel futures
o The oil ministry has given its in-principle approval for futures trading in
petrol as well as diesel.
o The Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) had approached SEBI seeking its
nod to launch petrol and diesel futures contracts.
o The contracts are expected to help hedge against volatility in oil prices.
o With this, the number of States, where the system is being implemented
will go up to 27.
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o E-Way Bill is an electronically generated document which is required to be
generated for the movement of goods of more Rs. 50,000 from one place
to another
o The government has notified 8.55% interest rate on EPF for 2017-18,
lowest in 5 years since the 2012-13 fiscal.
o The Bank is already an empanelled Clearing Bank for BSE, NCDEX &
MCX.
o TCS recently became the first Indian company to close the trading session
with over USD 100 billion market valuation.
o The MoU aims to bring more citizens under the ambit of financial
inclusion.
o Users can simply scan and generate UPI QR functionality to send and
receive money using VPA and phone number from the contact list.
o MobiKwik is the first in the industry to offer UPI access to a huge base of
three million merchants on its app.
o European Union's new data protection laws have come into effect.
o The General Data Protection Regulation gives EU citizens more rights over
how their information is used.
o It also establishes the key principle that individuals must explicitly grant
permission for their data to be used.
o Urja Ganga Natural Gas Pipeline has been extended till Guwahati by the
Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), the city will get gas pipeline by
2021.
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o The 721-km pipeline project will connect Dhamra, Barauni, Paradip and
Hadia and will extend to Guwahati.
o Customs duty on wheat has been raised by the government from 20% to
30% in order to protect domestic growers and curb cheaper imports.
o This has been done to restrict overseas purchase so that the farmers get
their MSP (Minimum Support Price) and also to avoid pressure coming
under domestic prices of wheat.
o Walnut shell has also seen an increase in the import duty from 30% to
100%.
o HDFC Bank has launched its Digital Loans against Mutual Funds in
partnership with transfer agent CAM.
o The ticket size of the loans will range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore at an
interest rate of 10.5 -11%.
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MCX launches India’s first silver options
o India’s Multi Commodity Exchange has launched the country’s first silver
options contracts.
o India is the world’s biggest consumer of silver, which is mainly used for
jewellery making in the county.
o The exchange had recently launched crude oil and copper options.
o ABB India & Niti Aayog have inked a pact to help India reap benefits of
new technologies including robotics & artificial intelligence.
o Bombay stock exchange has received approval from RBI and Sebi to
launch repo in corporate debt securities.
o The corporate repo debt will be launched in 2 models - Basket repo with
settlement guarantee and Special repo without settlement guarantee.
o It will help in creating new job opportunities in small towns & cities of
India.
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o In the first phase, the bank has partnered with United Nations
Development Program under its Disha project to mobilize self-help groups
and organize workshops.
o Under the scheme, passengers from all classes & trains can select 5 trains,
however, the scheme does not guarantee a confirmed berth.
o In order to extend loans under the Mudra scheme, Finance Ministry has
tied up with 40 entities including Amul & Flipkart.
o These companies will identify people who need loans under Mudra Yojana,
underwrite them and we will extend loans under the scheme.
o Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana was launched in 2015, for providing loans
of up to Rs 10 lakh to non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
o Donald Trump had recently signed two proclamations that levied a 25% on
steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum imported from all countries except
Canada & Mexico.
o India’s exports of steel and aluminum products to U.S. is about $1.5 billion
every year.
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NDB plans to launch Americas regional office
o The government's Bank Note Paper Mill India (BNPM) has received green
signal to increase the production of bank note paper at its Mysuru unit in
Karnataka.
o The production of bank note paper has been increased from 12,000 tonnes
per annum to 16,000 tonnes per annum.
o Copper ranks as the 3rd most-consumed industrial metal in the world, after
iron & aluminum.
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o At present, foreigners generally cannot own more than 49 percent of any
UAE firm unless it is incorporated in a special “free zone”.
o The decision is part of a wider change to the system that would grant
residency visas of up to 10 years to investors and specialists.
o Bank of Baroda has launched its first integrated SME Loan Factory in
Gurgaon to cater the needs of MSME segment in NCR.
o It will function as a One Stop Shop' for MSME customers and will provide
end to end solutions viz. acquisition, processing, disbursement &
relationship management.
o National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned LED
Solar Street Lighting system for Arunachal Pradesh under its Rural
Infrastructure Development Fund with a grant of Rs 87.83 lakh.
o The e-Visa scheme has been implemented by the foreigners' division of the
Home Ministry.
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o The facility is available for nationals of 163 countries for entry into India
through 25 international airports & 5 seaports.
o The revenue department has made Aadhaar and PAN mandatory for
persons seeking a customs broker licence.
o The Symposiums aims to support the Start-up India programme that was
launched by PM Modi in 2015.
o The Reserve Bank of India has advanced the Monetary Policy Committee
(MPC) meeting by a day to June 4 and also increased the duration to three
days.
o It is for the first time that the MPC will meet for three days.
o The six-member MPC, headed by the RBI Governor, sets the benchmark
interest rate.
o MPC was set up by amending the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, through
the Finance Act 2016.
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o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has slapped a penalty of ₹ 50 million on
South Indian Bank Limited for non-compliance with the directions issued
by it.
o This is a substantial recovery from the 6.7% growth India registered in the
year 2017.
o The report also said that the recovery in private investment remains a
crucial challenge in India.
o The RBI issued detailed Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) guidelines to
ensure that banks maintain a stable funding profile in relation to the
composition of their assets and off-balance sheet activities.
o The guidelines on NSFR are in line with global norms prescribed by the
Basel Committee.
o The NSFR would be applicable for Indian banks at the solo as well as
consolidated level.
105 | P a g e
o In April 2015, the Reserve Bank had formulated a scheme for setting up of
International Financial Services Centres (IFSC) Banking Units (IBUs) by
banks in IFSCs.
o To enable IBUs to start their operations, the parent bank will be required
to provide a minimum capital of USD 20 million.
106 | P a g e
o Lenders currently testing its trade finance network are ICICI, Axis and Yes
Bank among others.
o This will help in the sale of securities to US investors through the BSE
platform without registration of such securities with the US SEC.
o BSNL has signed a MoU with SAP to jointly offer innovative GST solutions
to enterprises across India.
o The MoU aims to ensure that every business in the nation successfully
adopts GST through BSNL’s country-wide reach & SAP’s expertise in
providing robust technology offerings.
107 | P a g e
o Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s centre for innovation,
incubation, and entrepreneurship has launched a $25 mn Bharat Inclusion
Initiative.
o It aims to mentor & invest in start-ups in early stage & seed segment over
the next 3 to 4 yrs.
o The initiative received an initial pledge of $12.5 mn from Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation & Omidyar Network.
o The report further noted that India is expected to witness cyclical recovery
led by both investment and consumption.
o The E-way bill system for intra-State transport of goods in Assam and
Rajasthan will roll out on May 16 and May 20 respectively.
o This would take the total number of States under the system to 21.
o E-Way Bill system for inter-State movement of goods has been rolled out
from 01st April 2018.
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o The regulator has sought public comments till June 11 on the proposals.
o RBI has also asked the bank to reduce exposure to unrated and high-risk
advances.
o The RBI directive comes in the wake of the bank’s common equity tier-1
breaching the minimum regulatory requirement of 7.37% in March 2018.
o China's largest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China has launched
country's 1st India-dedicated publicly offered investment fund.
o The bank said that the Indian market offers the best opportunity for
Chinese investors due to the prospects of double-digit growth
109 | P a g e
o Similar to standing instructions for bank accounts, the ‘My Payments’
feature can be used for high-value payments for a variety of cases.
o Barclays has filed two patent applications relating to the transfer of digital
currency and data storage with the Indian Patent Office.
o The bank has filed a patent application titled ‘secure digital data
operations' & it is a method and system for transferring digital currency
from a payer to the recipient.
o The other patent filed is ‘data validation and storage’ & is about
cryptography.
o The commerce and industry ministry has started the exercise to revise
base year to 2017-18 for computation of wholesale inflation with a view to
present a more realistic picture of the price situation.
o In May 2017, the government revised the base year for WPI-based
inflation to 2011-12.
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o According to the report ‘RemitSCOPE - Remittance markets &
opportunities - Asia & the Pacific', India was the largest remittance-
receiving country in the world in 2017.
o India with $69 bn, China with $64 bn & Philippines with $33 bn were the
3 largest remittance-receiving countries in the world in 2017.
o Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has sent the 1st cargo vessel with 2
million barrels of crude oil for India's strategic petroleum reserve.
o ADNOC will use part of the crude oil to supply its customers, while the rest
will remain as strategic storage for Govt of India to be released in event of
an emergency.
o This will be the 1st such investment by any foreign company in an Indian
SPR facility.
o Achieving a historic feat, the Indian tea industry has recorded the highest
ever production of 1,325.05 million kg as well as the export of 256.57
million kg during 2017-18.
o SEBI has asked listed companies to split the post of Chairman and
Managing Director by April 2020.
o SEBI has also made it compulsory for them to have six independent
directors on board, including a women director.
111 | P a g e
o The changes, which were first recommended by Kotak Bank chief Uday
Kotak-led committee on corporate governance in 2017, have now been
accepted and notified by SEBI.
o RBI has initiated prompt corrective action against Dena Bank in view of
high non-performing assets, restricting the bank from giving new loans
& new hiring.
o Prompt Corrective Action comes after Dena Bank posted a loss for the
third year in a row with net NPA's close to 12%.
o Though several banks are under the PCA framework currently, Dena Bank
is the first lender to have fresh lending curbed.
o Walmart had agreed to pay $16 billion for about 77% stake in Flipkart.
o The Walmart entered India in a joint venture with the Bharti Group in
2007 & started cash-and-carry stores named 'BestPrice Modern
Wholesale' in 2009.
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o International Monetary Fund has reaffirmed that India will be the fastest-
growing major economy in 2018, with a growth rate of 7.4% that would
further rise to 7.8% in 2019.
o IMF's Asia & Pacific Regional Economic Outlook said that India was
recovering from the effects of demonetisation and GST.
o India's Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) will launch the country's first
crude oil options contract on May 15.
o India is the world's third-biggest consumer of crude oil. Crude oil futures
contracts were most traded on the exchange platform in 2017/18 fiscal
year ended on March 31.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved the
options contract.
o CriSidEx is India's first sentiment index for MSEs which was launched in
February.
o The government will come out with a Producers’ Price Index next month
for 10 services, including telecom & railways on an experimental basis.
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o The move will help track inflation in these services, which will also include
ports, insurance, banking, transportation & air travel.
o The most common types of derivatives are futures, options, forwards and
swaps.
o In this facility, space will be provided to vendors along with provision for
receiving market data.
o 'HP Fuel Connect' will deliver diesel to select customers having fixed
equipment, heavy machinery in their premises.
114 | P a g e
o India has requested Asian Development Bank to expand its sovereign and
non-sovereign operations in the country by providing financial assistance
worth $4 billion a year.
o As per TRA's Brand Trust Report 2018, Patanjali has left behind brands
like HUL & ITC to emerge as the most trusted brand in the FMCG sector.
o The GST Council in its 27th meeting decided on a new, simplifed method
of filing GST returns, based on the recommendations of the Group of
Ministers on IT simplification.
o All taxpayers excluding a few exceptions like composition dealer shall file
one monthly return.
o Goods & Services Tax Council is a constitutional body & is chaired by the
Union Finance Minister
o California’s GDP of $2.7 trillion has overtaken the UK’s $2.6 trillion.
115 | P a g e
o California’s economic output is now surpassed only by the total GDP of the
United States, China, Japan and Germany.
o The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks authorised to deal in foreign
exchange to share data with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
o Under the new rules, in the case of inward remittances, the agency can
seek information relating to a remittee’s details like name, address etc.
o SEBI has proposed some changes in public issue norms, including shorter
time period for price band announcement & lesser disclosures about group
companies at time of IPO.
o The time period for announcing price band for Initial public offerings
(IPO) will be reduced to 2 working days from current 5 days.
o The Reserve Bank of India has announced that it would buy Rs. 10,000
crore of government bonds via Open Market Operation (OMO).
o The move could bring some relief to the bond market which is reeling
under the pressure of rising yields despite a slew of regulatory measures.
o Since the start of 2018, the yield on the 10-year benchmark bond has
gained 40 basis points to 7.73%.
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o Markets regulator SEBI allowed stock exchanges to extend trading in
equity derivatives by over 8.5 hours to bring the timings in line with
commodity markets.
o Currently, the RBI receives data on the investment made by FPIs and Non-
Resident Indians on Stock Exchanges from banks.
o Investors can do intra-day trades across cash, future and options segments
at an annual subscription of Rs. 999.
117 | P a g e
o Intra-day trading refers to trades in which investors buy and sell the
shares within the same trading session.
o The other sectors which showed slower growth rates were refinery
products, steel and electricity.
o The Index of Eight Core Industries consists- coal, steel, cement, crude oil,
natural gas, fertilizers, electricity & refinery products.
o Revenue from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for April 2018 crossed
the Rs. 1 lakh crore threshold, coming in at Rs. 1,03,458 crore.
o It Indicates that the indirect tax regime was stabilising and that economic
revival was picking up pace.
o The GST was rolled out across the country on July 1, 2017.
o The development would help India improve its ranking in trading across
borders.
o Over 35 handicraft products such as candles, paper and clay articles would
be entitled for export benefits.
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o These export benefits are provided under Merchandise Export from India
Scheme (MEIS).
o The rates vary from product to product and the export destination, as
envisaged in the foreign trade policy.
o Easing foreign investment rules, the RBI on 1st May permitted Foreign
Portfolio Investments (FPIs) to invest in treasury bills issued by the
Central Government.
o The RBI also asked the FPIs to bring down their total exposure in debt
instruments (G-secs or corporate bonds).
o Treasury Bills are short term (up to one year) borrowing instruments of
the Government & they are auctioned by RBI.
o SEBI came out with a detailed framework for Risk Based Know Your Client
(KYC) documentation of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs).
o NRIs and OCIs can only obtain an FPI licence when they limit their roles
to investment advisors.
June 2018
Fiscal deficit hits 55% due to higher capex
o The Centre’s fiscal deficit for the first two months of the fiscal year 2018-
19 stood at Rs 3.45 trillion, this is a sign of growing economy.
119 | P a g e
o The fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 is Rs 6.24 trillion, or 3.3 percent of the
gross domestic product.
o The board of Tata Steel has approved the terms to create a 50:50 joint
venture of Tata Steel's European steel businesses and Thyssenkrupp AG.
o India's external debt increased US$ 58.4 billion or 12.4% to US$ 529.7
billion end-March 2018 over its level at end-March 2017.
o The increase in the magnitude of external debt was partly due to valuation
loss resulting from the depreciation of the US dollar against major
currencies.
o The export of value-added products like curry powder/paste, spice oils and
oleoresins also increased in volume and value during the period.
120 | P a g e
o Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) has entered into definitive
agreement to acquire Nasdaq-listed Radisys Corp for $1.72 per share in
cash.
o BHEL has inked a pact with South Korean firm NANO Co Ltd for design
and manufacture emission control devices.
o In India, there is a 32% increase in SO2 levels and 34% rise in PM2.5
levels.
121 | P a g e
o The plan is to use blockchain technology to digitise and secure land
records for Telangana.
o Money parked by Indians in Swiss banks rose over 50% to Swiss Francs
(CHF) 1.01 billion (₹7,000 crore) in 2017, reversing a three-year
downward trend.
o The Indian money in Swiss banks had fallen by 45% in 2016, marking their
biggest ever yearly plunge.
o The government hiked the price of ethanol, used for doping in petrol, by
almost Rs 3 per litre to Rs 43.70.
o This move is to cut India's oil import dependence as well as give the higher
price for sugarcane to farmers.
o These are Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank Limited, Indiabulls Housing
Finance Limited, SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited, Sreemanta Sankar
Mission and the SEWA.
122 | P a g e
Govt funds ECGC, NEIA to boost exports
o The capital infusion of Rs 2000 crore in ECGC would to boost exports and
benefit MSMEs in the country.
o Public Sector Banks accounted for a staggering 85% of nearly 6,500 fraud
cases, amounting to more than Rs 30,000 Cr.
123 | P a g e
o DBS Bank of Singapore will launch its subsidiary in India in Oct 2018, the
2nd foreign bank in the country to convert its local operations.
o The bank has invested another Rs 500 Cr in March 2018 to take the total
capital in India to Rs 5000 Cr and plans to expand to 50 branches.
o State Bank of Mauritius was the 1st to open a local subsidiary after RBI
came out with the regulations in 2013.
o The Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report (FSR) has warned
that gross Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of troubled banks are likely to
rise from 11.6% in March 2018 to 12.2% by March 2019.
o Gross NPAs of banks have already crossed the Rs 10,00,000 crore mark in
the fiscal ended March 2018.
o Indian exchanges recorded the highest IPO activity as the country saw 90
IPO launches that raised $3.9 billion.
o The exchanges account for 16% of the total issues in the first half of 2018.
o Out of 90 deals that listed, 15 listed both on NSE & BSE result in 93% of
the total proceeds.
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o These provisions are done under the Employee Provident Fund Scheme
1952.
o Oil India Limited (OIL), a state-owned PSU has made its second
hydrocarbon discovery in Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin.
o Earlier, the company made a gas discovery at Dangeru-l well in the block.
o In 2017-18, OIL produced 3.39 metric million tonnes (MMT) of crude oil
and 2.93 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas.
o The year witnessed new payrolls of over 6.8 Lakhs were recorded by
Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
o The NIIF already has 2 operational funds - the NIIF master fund that
invests directly in companies & a fund of funds that invests in funds that
are managed by 3rd parties.
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o ASSOCHAM - Resurgent joint study said that online shopping is expected
to grow by 115% in 2018 from 108mn.
o The frequency of purchase was higher for categories like apparels &
accessories (54%), beauty and personal care (43%) and electronics (33%).
o China, India and South Korea, which are the three biggest Asian markets,
excluding Japan, have seen erosion in market capitalisation of $1.4 trillion
in 2018.
o The US, UK & France have fared much better, indicating global funds
could be shifting their preference away from riskier emerging markets.
o This number was over 13% higher than the record 58,223 STRs in FY17.
o It surpassed the earlier record of 765 days set by the Unit-5 of Rajasthan
Atomic Power Station (RAPS-5) in 2014.
o The unit KGS-1 has been in operation since May 13, 2016. The 220 MW
KGS-1 is an indigenous PHWR fuelled by domestic fuel.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has narrowed the definition of relatives
to check the flow of funds.
o This has brought about by defining ‘relatives’ under the Companies Act,
2013 instead of the same act of 1956.
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o SAARC Development Fund launches a social enterprise development
programme (SEDP) to fund 80 entities annually across eight-member
states.
o SDF was established in April 2010 and its council comprises finance
ministers of these eight SAARC countries.The SDF CEO is Sunil Motiwal
o SDF has already committed $73.74 million for social window projects out
of which it has disbursed $47 million.
o Bank credit grew 3.4% on a sequential basis in the December 2017 quarter.
o At the end of the December quarter, bank credit stood at ₹80.62 trillion
compared with ₹77.95 trillion in the Sept 2017 quarter as per the RBI data.
o The USA has surpassed India as top greenfield FDI destination with a total
FDI of USD 87.6 billion.
o The number of greenfield FDI projects sharply fell by 21% during this year
in case of India as compared to previous year.
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o China received a total FDI of USD 50.3 billion in the year 2017 while India
received an FDI of 25.1 billion in 2017.
o Northeast India’s first small bank, North East Small Finance bank
(NESFB) started its services.
o Tata Trust chairman Ratan Tata and Assam's finance minister Himanta
Biswa Sarma launched the first 28 branches of the bank.
o SEBI plans to revise the regulations for share buybacks wherein more
clarity would be provided on various aspects, including on the requirement
to make public announcements.
o SEBI has carried out a review of the current buyback norms in order to
simplify the language and remove inconsistencies.
o A company can undertake buyback of shares out of its free reserves and
securities premium account.
o Under the scheme, Muthoot Fincorp targets to train over 10,000 people
over the next three years and make them job ready under Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
o NSDC has approved a target of 3,000 candidates in the first year and
3,500 each in the subsequent two years.
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o Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) became the first company to close the
trading session with a market valuation of over Rs 7 trillion.
o TCS is the country's most valued firm followed by Reliance Industries Ltd,
HDFC Bank, HUL and ITC in the top 5 list.
o Fitch Ratings affirmed the long-term issuer default ratings (IDRs) and
viability ratings of ICICI Bank and Axis Bank at 'BBB-' and 'bbb-',
respectively.
o The global rating agency also revised the outlook on Axis Bank to negative
from stable but maintained ICICI Bank’s outlook as stable for now.
o India’s exports grew 20.18 percent to $28.86 billion in May, recording the
highest number in six months.
o Even though exports outpaced imports, higher oil import bill wiped away
the benefits of a contraction in gold imports.
o The Reserve Bank has eased investment norms for foreign portfolio
investors (FPIs) in debt.
o The move can help attract more overseas flows and thereby help arrest the
recent fall in the rupee on one hand and also lift the recent fall in demand
for corporate bonds.
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o FPIs are allowed to invest in various debt market instruments such as
government bonds, treasury bills.
o Vegetable prices grew by 2.51% in May, while primary articles that account
for over one-fifth of the entire WPI, grew by 3.16%.
o The feature was rolled out to select users in February, but now, besides
invite-based access, users can also access it after updating the app.
o Housing finance major HDFC has been ranked as the 5th biggest public
company globally in the ‘consumer financial services category’ on a list
compiled by Forbes magazine.
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o In raising its benchmark overnight lending rate a quarter of a percentage
point to a range of 1.75% to 2%, the Fed Reserve of US marked a milestone
in the U.S. central bank’s shift in monetary policy.
o After the rate-setting, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the US
economy is doing very well.
o The rate hike marks a shift in US policies used to battle the 2007-2009
financial crisis.
o Now, users will be able to book a cab or an auto using a micro-app built on
its payments platform.
o The company has gone live with three such micro-apps, including that of
redBus and Metro services, and plans to go live with 5 to 10 more in the
ongoing quarter.
o Karnataka Bank has unveiled a novel card variant 'KBL Deposit Only
Card'.
o The card aims to enable hassle free cash deposit transaction at Bank's 24x7
e-Lobby services.
o By using this card they can perform card based cash deposit transactions
even with higher deposit limit.
o Centre and the 'concerned state' will equally share the amount deposited
by erring businesses in the consumer welfare fund.
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o In case the customer is not identifiable, the money has to be deposited in
the consumer welfare fund.
o Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for grant of permission to M/s.
HDFC Bank Ltd. to raise additional share capital of up to a maximum of
Rs. 24,000 crore.
o The composite foreign shareholding in the Bank shall not exceed 74% of
the enhanced paid-up equity share capital of the bank.
o Public sector banks saw a ₹1,50,960 crore reduction in their NPA levels
from the start of financial year 2017-18 till December 31, 2017.
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o NSE launched 'Tri-Party Repo Market' platform in its debt segment to
facilitate repurchase of corporate debt securities.
o The platform is a kind of repo contract where a third entity, apart from the
borrower & lender, called tri-party agent acts as an intermediary.
o The acceleration in price gains in May, a second straight month when the
headline reading has risen, followed April’s 4.58% pace.
o Currently, Indian companies can only use the depository receipts route to
list on the overseas exchanges.
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o The 40 percent loan component will be revised to 60 percent from April 1,
2019.
o The combined losses posted by public sector banks (PSBs) in financial year
2017-18 were over Rs. 87,357 crore.
o Scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) topped the list with a hit of nearly
Rs. 12,283 crore followed by IDBI Bank.
o Out of 21 state-run banks, only two -- Indian Bank and Vijaya Bank --
posted profits during the year under review.
o On June 6, RBI raised the repo rate for the first time since 2014, by 25
basis points to 6.25%, as recent data showed significant increases for both
inflation and growth.
o RBI had said that at present “only certain” payment system operators store
the payment system data either partly or completely in the country.
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o The Finance Ministry is planning to transfer shares of five sick Central
Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to the SNIF fund to meet Sebi's
minimum 25 per cent public shareholding.
o These companies have time till August 21 to meet the 25% public share
holding norm.
o NSE IFSC, a subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange, has put in place a
framework for 'omnibus' trade.
o The move will also help in smooth transition of liquidity from Singapore
Exchange (SGX) to Indian offshore exchange at Gujarat International
Finance Tech (GIFT) City.
o This comes on the top of the removal of 2,26,166 companies from the
register during the previous financial year.
o Task Force on Shell Companies, which had, so far, met eight times, was set
up in February 2017 by the Prime Minister’s Office
o FDI inflows stood at $60 billion in the previous fiscal. The figure includes
equity inflows, reinvested earnings and other capital.
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o In the last four years, the government has liberalised FDI norms in sectors
such as defence, medical devices, construction development, retail and
aviation.
o L&T Group firm Nabha Power Ltd. (NPL) said it had been forced to shut a
700 MW unit of Rajpura thermal power station due to shortage of coal.
o The present crisis was triggered by disruption in the supply of coal rakes to
the plant.
o NPL has been facing coal crisis since last year, forcing it to operate the
plant at critical levels of coal stocks i.e. less than seven days.
o HDFC Bank , the second largest private sector lender of the country,
increased its marginal cost of fund-based lending rate (MCLR) by 10 basis
points (bps) across various loan tenures.
o The move comes after all major banks, including State Bank of India (SBI)
and ICICI Bank, increased MCLR by an equal amount.
o The RBI said that the interest subsidy scheme on short-term crop loans of
up to Rs 3 lakh will be implemented through the DBT mode.
o The Centre has earmarked 15,000 crore rupees for 2018-19 towards
interest subvention for short-term crop loans.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made changes in the Gold
Monetisation Scheme (GMS) to make it more attractive.
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o The revamping of the scheme is aimed at enabling people to open a hassle-
free gold deposit account.
o In a bid to check loan defaults, RBI said that a Public Credit Registry
(PCR) will be set up containing information on all borrowers to ensure
financial stability.
o The central bank had also asked banks to build an Investment Fluctuation
Reserve (IFR) of 2% of their holdings.
o In April, RBI had given banks an option to spread provisioning for MTM
losses recorded on their investment portfolio
o This is the first rate hike in four-and-a-half years; the last was in January
2014.
o The MPC arrived at the unanimous decision as the outlook for inflation
had become ‘uncertain’ following a surge in international crude oil prices.
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o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the eligibility limit for a
loan to classify as priority sector lending in a bid to boost affordable
housing.
o For metropolitan areas, loan limits have been raised from Rs. 28 lakh to
Rs. 35 lakh.
o The Reserve Bank of India has decided to allow urban co-operative banks
(UCB) to convert into small finance banks (SFB),
o UCBs currently face regulation by both the RBI and the respective State
governments.
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o Fitch said the deterioration in its core capitalisation was caused by a sharp
increase in its non-performing loans (NPLs).
o It was in January 2014 that the RBI had last raised the short-term lending
rate to 8% since then it has either reduced it or maintained status quo.
o Labour Ministry said the fall is mainly due to lower prices of food items.
o All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) is issued
by Labour Bureau.
o The index is used for working out dearness allowance for central
government employees and dearness relief for central pensioners.
o The report also mentioned that the latest upturn signalled a marginal
improvement in the manufacturing sector.
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o The new system would be implemented for intra-State transport in
Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil
Nadu and in West Bengal.
o Government has met its fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 at 3.53% of the
Gross Domestic Product.
o Government in the Budget had revised the fiscal deficit target for 2017-18
to 3.5% from the earlier estimate of 3.2%.
o For the current fiscal year, government estimates to trim the deficit to
3.3% of GDP.
o Fiscal deficit is the difference between total revenue & total expenditure of
the government
o The previous high GDP growth of 8.1% was recorded in April-June quarter
of 2016-17.
o India has signed a USD 500 million loan pact with World Bank to provide
additional financing for PMGSY rural road projects.
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o Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana will build 7,000 km of climate
resilient roads, out of which 3,500 km will be constructed using green
technologies.
o World Bank has supported PMGSY since its inception in 2004 & so far it
has invested over $1.8 billion in loans & credits
July 2018
RIL reclaims its top slot
o Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) regained its status as the country’s most
valued firm by market capitalisation (m-cap) on 31st July 2018.
o It replaced Tata Group’s Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from the top
slot.
o The m-cap figure of companies changes daily with stock price movement.
o India Inc raised USD 2.71 billion through External Commercial Borrowing
(ECB) and rupee-denominated bonds (RDBs) in June 2018, the RBI data
said.
o Indian companies had raised USD 1.63 billion from overseas sources in
June 2017.
o It has resulted in a drop in the area under cultivation for crops like rice,
pulses & oilseeds.
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o With 1/3rd of agriculture activities in India still depending on groundwater
for irrigation, the country’s cultivated land is shrinking due to depleting
ground water levels.
o Under this model, the consumers be able to place orders and get instant
deliveries.
o OYO has inked an MoU with SBI and Bank of Baroda for extending
support to budget hotels and create jobs across levels.
o The MoU will enable financial support for OYO’s existing & potential hotel
partners for fuelling transformation and standardisation at their
properties.
o These loans will help individuals hailing from Tier II and III cities to be
self-employed and run their own budget assets.
o TCS and Infosys are the two larger Indian IT services firms with revenues
of $5.05 billion and $2.83 billion, respectively in the June 2018 quarter.
o This is the first time that the bank has reported losses from its India
operations.
o The bank had taken a mark-to-market hit of ₹218 crore on its investments
in government securities during the quarter.
o ITC has went past Hindustan Unilever to become the country's fourth
most valued firm in terms of market valuation.
o Led by the sharp rally in the stock, the company’s market valuation rose to
₹3,69,259.15 crore.
o With this, ITC also became the most valued FMCG company.
o TCS is the country’s most valued firm with a market cap of ₹7,43,930.44
crore followed by RIL and HDFC Bank.
o SoftBank Group Corp will launch a digital payments service in Japan, and
has partnered Paytm for the service.
o The next process is to notify the Registrar of Companies and get the
company registered.
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Bharti Infra, Indus tower deal gets clearance
o Bharti Infratel has received clearance from stock exchanges for its merger
with Indus Towers.
o It will now approach the National Company Law Tribunal for its approval.
o In April 2018, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Group had
announced an agreement for the merger of Indus Towers and Bharti
Infratel to create the largest mobile tower operator in the world outside
China.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed allowing
investors to use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) while bidding for
shares in an initial public offer (IPO).
o This will reduce the public issue timeline from the current T+6 to T+3.
o T+3 refers to a system wherein the equity shares would be listed on the
bourses on the third day from the day the IPO closes.
145 | P a g e
o The mutual fund firm's Rs 2,800-crore public offer received bids for
64,90,705 shares against the total issue size of 1,88,04,290 shares.
o While Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh all saw a drop in FDI
inflows, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) presented in
Parliament show.
o While Karnataka received $8.58 billion in 2017/18 and Tamil Nadu netted
$3.47 billion.
o Banks and financial institutions, including SBI, PNB and LIC entered into
an overarching inter-creditor agreement (ICA) to fast track resolution of
stressed assets of Rs 50 crore or more.
o Under the pact, which is part of project 'Sashakt', each resolution plan will
be submitted by the lead lender to an Overseeing Committee.
o Federal Bank has received the regulatory nod to open offices in Bahrain,
Kuwait and Singapore, but is awaiting local clearances before it starts
operations.
o Federal bank already has representative offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
o The bank will be focusing more on the unsecured lending segment, where
its book stands at Rs 380 crore at present.
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o Defence public sector company Midhani has set up a 4 MW solar power
plant at an investment of ₹20.36 crore.
o According to DBS the Asia, the 10 economies are - China, Hong Kong,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea,
Taiwan, and Thailand.
o The rooftop solar project at BFW will generate approx. 15 lacs of units
annually thus reducing its dependency on fossil fuels.
o Enerparc India had also Installed World’s 1st Solar Power Plant on Ship to
Shore cranes in Mumbai.
o First Lady Usha Vohra inaugurated the 1st All-Women Branch of Jammu
& Kashmir Bank at the Sher-i-Kashmir centre.
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o J&K Bank started on Oct 1 1983, was the 1st bank in India to emerge as a
state-owned bank.
o The 28th meeting of GST council was held in New Delhi on 21st July 2018
under the Chairmanship of Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways,
Coal, Finance & Corporate Affairs.
o Sanitary Napkins, Coir pith compost, Rakhi were exempted from tax slab
from previous 12% tax slab.
o Consumers will be able to return the plastic bottles after consumption and
will be paid back according to the value printed on the bottles.
o These MoUs with will help enhance the bank's footprint in the MSME eco-
system.
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o CPPIB manages Canada’s national pension fund, has invested nearly C$7
billion ($5.30 billion) in India.
o CPPIB currently owns shares in some leading fast moving consumer goods
companies like ITC Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd. & Britannia Industries
Ltd.
o Jana Small Finance Bank announced the commercial launch of its banking
operations to convert itself into a small finance bank (SFB), 3 years after
the RBI gave its in-principle approval.
o The bank was earlier called Janalakshmi Financial Services and weathered
huge losses on account of demonetization.
o Ajay Kanwal is managing director and chief executive officer of Jana Small
Finance Bank.
o Amazon.com's stock market value reached $900 billion for the first time
in its 20 year history.
o It has now become only the second company after Apple to achieve this
milestone.
o Apple is currently the world's most valuable company with a market cap of
$935 billion.
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o The five banks are Punjab National Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra
Bank, Corporation Bank & Allahabad Bank.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would soon issue new Rs 100 notes, with
a base color of Lavender.
o The new Rs 100 note will be slightly bigger than the Rs 10 note and weigh
less than the old note & will be printed by Dewas-based Bank Note Press.
o The steel ministry has agreed to introduce a pension scheme for its CPSEs
(Central Public Sector Enterprises) like SAIL and RINL.
o The award is given service to self-help group in Tamil Nadu for the fiscal
year 2017-18.
o The NBFC has disbursed loans amounting to ₹2,500 crore to over 10 lakh
beneficiaries.
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o NABARD Financial Services Limited is a subsidiary of NABARD to provide
financial services in areas of agriculture & microfinance.
o The data for the month of April has been revised to 3.62% from 3.18%.
o This was informed by Economic Affairs secretary S C Garg. Now, the state-
owned LIC will approach market regulator SEBI on the matter.
o The LIC stake buy will help the IDBI get a capital support of 10,000 to
13,000 crore rupees.
o The centre aims to strengthen the bank's internal systems and processes.
151 | P a g e
o The latest growth rate projection for India is slightly less 0.1% in 2018 and
0.3% in 2019 than its April projections.
o According to IMF, India will remain the fastest growing major economy in
2019.
o YES Bank, through partnerships with tech giants such as Microsoft, Cisco,
IBM and Adobe has unveiled the 7th edition of 'Transformation Series
Challenge'.
o Amitabh will lead the Investment Banking and Equity Capital Markets
business.
o Prior to HSBC, Amitabh worked at Rothschild India, where he was the co-
head and managing director of the Global Investment Bank, based in
Mumbai.
o This makes the company the first broker in the Asia Pacific region for
initiating a social media platform for trading mutual funds.
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o This particular feature facilitates a quick overview of total portfolio
holdings.
o The Ministry of Mines organized the 4th National Conclave on Mines &
Minerals on 13th July 2018 at Indore.
o CM of MP, Shri Shivraj Singh was the chief guest of the conclave.
o For the first time, the conclave had an exhibition in which States put up
stalls to showcase their more than 100 mineral blocks which were in the
auction.
o Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has bagged a construction project to build govt
office building at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.
o The project has to its credit of being the 1st Steel Diagrid project with
Automatic Climbing Formwork System.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) made it mandatory for
stock brokers to accept client funds only by way of bank or electronic
transfers such as cheques and mobile banking.
o The move is in line with SEBI’s plans to encourage paperless and cashless
stock market trading.
o RBI has pointed to the fiscal stress that States are facing due to several
factors.
o The retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index, stood at 4.87% in
May. It was 1.46% in June 2017.
o As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office, the inflation in the
food basket was 2.91%, compared to 3.1% in May.
o The mining sector output recorded an impressive growth of 5.7% while the
FMCG sector was the worst performer as its output declined by 2.6%.
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Demand draft to bear name of purchaser
o RBI has made required changes in this regard in the KYC norms, which
will come into effect from September 15.
o The step is being taken to address concerns arising out of the anonymity
provided by payments through demand drafts & its possible misuse for
money laundering
o Airtel Payments Bank has received requisite approvals from the RBI to
begin taking in new customers.
o The development comes nearly 7 months after Airtel along with Airtel
Payments Bank came under fire for allegedly opening payments bank
accounts of its mobile subscribers without their consent.
o UIDAI has allowed them to use the 12-digit unique identification number-
based e-KYC.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will soon come out
with a consultation paper on making it mandatory for large corporates to
meet one-fourth of their financing needs through bond market.
o SEBI will discuss with stakeholders before finalising the framework for
corporates.
o SEBI is the regulator for the securities market in India and its chairman
is Ajay Tyagi.
o The ranking was topped by Hong Kong at the 1st position followed by
London.
o The survey highlighted that prime office occupancy cost growth was
consistent across all regions in the past 12 months.
o India has only taken a shareholding in EBRD but it will not be a recipient
of EBRD financing.
o India’s first private sector unit for manufacturing unmanned air vehicles
(UAV) and light bullet proof vehicles (LBPV) will be set up by DCM
Shriram Industries Group in Kota.
o These UAVs and LBPVs are likely to be used by defence and para-military
forces in the country.
o The new defence unit in Kota is being set up under ‘Make in India’
initiative of the union government.
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o Google has announced ‘Launchpad Accelerator India,’ a mentorship
program that would aim to support Indian start-ups that deploy artificial
intelligence and machine learning to build solutions for local needs.
o HDFC group is the 2nd Indian business house after the Tata group to
achieve this feat.
o HDFC Bank is India's 3rd most valued firm in terms of market cap.
o Companies posted sales of Rs. 9.25 lakh crore in the last quarter of 2017-
18.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in
visited Noida and inaugurated the New Mobile Manufacturing Plant of
Samsung at Noida.
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o With the beginning of this New Plant, India's Make In India and Skill
India Will get a major Push in the country.
o The English Patient’ was voted as the best-ever Man Booker Prize winner,
celebrating five decades of this prestigious literary award.
o Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The English Patient’ won the Booker Prize in the year
1992 and was made in a movie in 1996 that won nine academy awards.
o The novel beat 4 other novels in an online poll that received a total of
9,000 votes.
o Samsung has set up what is the world's largest mobile factory at Sector 81
in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
o Not just mobiles, the expansion of current facility will double Samsung's
production capacity of consumer electronics like refrigerators.
o Public sector banks are planning to tap the markets to raise more than Rs
50,000 crore this fiscal.
o Out of 21 public sector banks, 13 have already taken the approval of their
boards or shareholders for raising capital through the equity market.
o Capital is very much required for these banks as they are saddled with
non-performing assets (NPAs) of about Rs 10 lakh crore.
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o Although all emerging market currencies have lost value to the dollar,
rupee’s slide is relatively controlled compared with peers.
o In the 4 year period, the dollar index gained 17% compared with 14.2% loss
in the rupee’s value.
o Union Bank of India will raise equity capital of Rs. 1500 crore.
o The proposal was approved at its annual general meeting by the bank’s
shareholders.
o The bank said that this capital raise will be in addition to the capital
support which has been granted by the government.
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o HDFC Bank has gone past Russia's Sberbank to become the most valuable
bank in the emerging market outside China.
o HDFC Bank was one of the top performing major banks globally in 2017.
The Bank’s current market capitalization is $78.4 billion.
o ICICI Bank has announced that its mortgage loan portfolio crossed the Rs
1.5-trillion milestone.
o This made it the largest private player in the segment, and the lender is
targeting to grow it to Rs 2 trillion by FY20.
o At Rs 1.5 trillion, the mortgage loan-book is half of the bank's overall retail
loan portfolio of around Rs 3 trillion.
o Private lender YES Bank announced that it has received final regulatory
approval from the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to start
mutual fund business.
o RBI had already barred all its regulated entities in order to curb money
laundering and other financial irregularities and protect consumers.
o All the regulated entities have been given 3 months to exit their
relationship with businesses and individuals.
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Small loans rising faster than total credit
o These issues were raised at MOODY’s 4th annual India credit conference
held at Mumbai and Singapore in June 2018.
o Banks have not been able to raise capital from equity market as planned
under government’s recapitalization mesurer.
o The Reserve Bank of India has issued the license to Bank of China to
launch operations in India.
o With this, Bank of China becomes the second Chinese bank after the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to have a branch in India.
o Bank of China opened its first branch in South Asia in Pakistan's Karachi
in 2017.
o World Bank Group members IFC has invested $100 million in Mahindra &
Mahindra Financial Services Ltd.
161 | P a g e
o This would enable the Mahindra group company to augment its growth by
extending loans to individuals along with financing small and medium
enterprises.
o The government has kept the interest rates on small savings schemes,
including NSC and PPF, unchanged for the July-September quarter.
o PPF and NSC will fetch annual interest rate of 7.6% while KVP will yield
7.3% and mature in 11 months.
o The move is aimed at matching the hardening interest rates in the banking
sector.
o With this, the overall operating renewable energy capacity of the company
stands at 2,215 Mw in India.
o The project is under the second phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar
Mission through Viability Gap Funding.
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o The Bharti Infratel has got the approval of competition watchdog
Competition Commission of India for merging its operations with Indus
Towers.
o The Sunil Mehta panel presented project 'Sashakt' and has recommended
a five-pronged strategy.
o The plan will result in creating additional jobs by reviving businesses and
will bring in credible long term external capital to limit the burden on the
domestic banking sector.
o The data collected in the 2021 Census will be stored electronically, the first
time since the first decennial exercise in 1951 after independence.
o The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items
included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
o The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stands at 131.4 in May, 2018,
which was 3.6 per cent higher as compared to the index of May 2017.
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o Core industry can be defined as the main industry of the economy.
o The CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) extended the deadline for the
PAN-Aadhaar linking to March 31, 2019.
o The CBDT order has come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court's
extension of the March 31, 2018 deadline for linking Aadhaar card.
o Overseas investors have pulled out nearly Rs 48,000 crore from Indian
capital markets in the first 6 months of 2018, making it the steepest
outflow in a decade.
o They withdrew Rs 41,433 crore from the debt markets & Rs 6,430 crore
from equities during Jan-June period.
o This is only the second time, when FPIs had taken bearish stance on the
capital markets in the first 6 months of the year.
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o Foreign inflows in the country grew by 8.67% in 2016-17, 29% in 2015-16
and 27% in 2014-15.
o Mauritius has emerged as the largest source of FDI in India with USD
15.94 billion in 2017-18 followed by Singapore, Netherlands, US & Japan.
o Through this MoU, BSE & BME will work jointly on initiatives to deepen
the understanding of commodity market among stakeholders.
o India has moved up to 73rd place in terms of money parked by its citizens
& companies with Swiss banks.
o India had slipped to 88th place with a 44% plunge in such funds in 2016,
but the latest data shows an increase of over 50% during 2017 to CHF 1.01
billion (about Rs 7,000 cr).
o UK continued to account for the largest chunk at about CHF 403 billion of
the total foreign money with Swiss banks
o It will save government from having to infuse more funds into IDBI Bank,
which had received Rs 10,610 crore last fiscal, the most by any public-
sector bank.
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o The acquisition will be seen only as an investment & LIC will gradually
lower its stake
August 2018
Revised cost estimate for IPPB
o The Union Cabinet approved the revision of project outlay for setting up of
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) from Rs. 800 crore to Rs. 1,435 crore.
o The additional sum of Rs. 635 crore accounts of Rs 400 crore for
Technology Costs and Rs 235 crore for Human Resource Costs.
o IPPB services shall be available at 650 IPPB branches and 3250 Access
Points from 1st September 2018.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its annual report said that 99.3% of the
₹ 500 and ₹ 1000 that were withdrawn from circulation in November 2016
were returned.
o RBI also said that it spent ₹7,965 crore in 2016-17 on printing new ₹500
and ₹2,000 and other denomination notes.
o Also, the share of newly introduced ₹200 banknotes in the total value of
banknotes was 2.1% as at end-March 2018.
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o RBI on the release of its annual report said that real GDP growth for 2018-
19 is expected to increase at 7.4% against 6.7% in the previous year.
o RBI also said that its monetary policy will work to achieve the medium-
term target for retail inflation of 4 %.
o DBS Bank has been named the world's best bank by Global Finance
magazine.
o DBS is the first Asian bank to receive the accolade from the New York-
based publication, which last year gave the title to ING Bank.
o The bank is also rated as the sixth overall amongst all banks in India for
digital performance.
o The State Bank of India (SBI), has changed the names and IFSC codes of
1,300 of its branches.
o The idea behind the move is to rationalize SBI’s merger with 5 associate
banks and the Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) which came into effect from
April 1, 2017.
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o SBI has updated the list of branches with old and new names and IFSC
codes on its website.
o Google's UPI payments platform ‘Tez’ has been renamed as ‘Google Pay’. It
was announced at ‘Google for India 2018’ event in New Delhi.
o Google Pay users will also be able to get pre-approved instant loans
through the service.
o Even after the change of name Tez users will be able to see the same home
screen, bill payment links, contacts etc.
o The bonds titled ‘Amaravati Bond 2018’ have been listed on the Bombay
Stock Exchange.
o The bonds has been issued by A.P. Capital Region Development Authority
(APCRDA).
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o Based on the report of Department of Financial Services, Punjab National
Bank (PNB) has been ranked as the best Public Sector bank in the overall
digital transactions category in India.
o It has been rated as the sixth-best in the overall category amongst all
banks in India for digital performance.
o Named bond-i, or Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument, the bond will
be created and managed with distributed ledger technology.
o India's GDP grew by 7.7% in the first quarter of 2018-19 financial year.
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o The Market capitalization figure of companies changes daily with stock
price movement.
o 2GUD will remain a distinct and separate platform aimed at value buyers.
o Ujjivan Small Finance Bank announced the launch of its overdraft facility
for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE).
o The facility is an add-on product to the existing MSE term loans offered by
the bank.
o The bank will offer this facility to all MSEs with a turnover of Rs 50 lakh or
more.
o Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (Ujjivan SFB) started its banking operations
in February 2017.
o SBI has based its assessment on its Composite Leading Indicator, which
takes into account 18 major macro-economic indicators.
o The report also said that GVA (Gross Value Added) growth would be 7.6%.
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o The government has imposed the restriction on import of bio-fuels
including ethyl alcohol and other denatured spirits, bio-diesel, petroleum
oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals other than crude.
o The import of these items, which was free earlier, will now only be allowed
for non-fuel purpose on actual user basis.
o The Mou with KICTPL aims to promote seamless connectivity and faster
clearance of EXIM containers from Kandla Port.
o CONCOR was incorporated in March 1988 under the Companies Act and
is under the Ministry of Railways.
o The company said Paytm AI Cloud processes and stores all their consumer
data locally in servers located only in India.
o The partnership will enable over 100 million PhonePe users to use their
bank accounts to pay for their travel booking directly via UPI, credit and
debit cards, and PhonePe digital wallets.
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o PhonePe is owned by Flipkart.
o Indian economy clocked 10.23% and 10.78% growth in 2007-08 and 2010-
11 respectively.
o As per new calculation, India’s GDP growth was consistently over 8%,
which slowed down during the financial crisis in 2008-09.
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o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed investors to
place multiple bids in a private placement issue on debt basis and
permitted depositories to act as facilitators.
o SEBI has also allowed closed bidding on electronic book platform (EBP)
along with open bidding.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) drastically cut the
timeline for listing of debt securities to 6 days from 12 days at present.
o This will make the existing process of issuance of such securities simpler
and cost-effective.
o The new rule would be applicable for all public issues of debt securities
from October 1, 2018.
o RIL had on 14th August 2018 dethroned TCS to clinch the title of the most
valued Indian company by market valuation.
o The m-cap figure of companies changes daily with stock price movement.
o The new version of UPI, in addition to current and savings accounts, will
let customers link overdraft accounts to UPI.
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o India's crude oil import bill is likely to jump by about $26 billion in 2018-
19 as rupee dropping to a record low has made buying of oil from overseas
costlier.
o India imports more than 80% of its oil needs, spent $87.7 billion on
importing 220.43 million tonnes (MT) of crude oil in 2017-18.
o India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised its FY19 economic
growth forecast down to 7.2% from 7.4% earlier.
o It cited the headwinds emanating from elevated global crude oil prices and
the government’s decision to fix the minimum support prices of all kharif
crops at 1.5 times the production cost.
o Bharti Axa Life Insurance and Airtel Payments Bank entered into an
alliance to offer the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ (PMJJBY).
o Airtel Payments Bank also becomes the first payments bank in India to
offer the PMJJBY.
o Under the tie-up, PMJJBY will be initially available at one lakh Airtel
Payments Bank banking points across the country.
o Under the liquidity enhancement scheme (LES), brokers and other market
intermediaries are given incentives for a specified period of time to bring
in liquidity.
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o LES will generate investor interest in securities which have limited trading
activity.
o NTPC will soon set up a subsidiary to handle its coal mining operations.
o NTPC also has a plan to list the coal subsidiary subsequently on stock
exchanges.
o It would cover operations of its all coal mines and will be run like a coal
company.
o The company has already started extracting coal from the Pakri Barwadih
mine.
o A sharp rise in the crude oil bill led to India’s trade deficit widening to a
62-month high in July 2018, despite exports growing by 14.32%.
o The trade deficit increased to $18.02 billion in July 2018, up from $16.61
billion in June 2018.
o Inflation at the wholesale level slowed to 5.09% in July 2018 largely due to
a cooling down of food price inflation.
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o The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation was lower than June’s
5.77%.
o The new series of WPI with base 2011-12 is effective from April 2017.
o The company had filed draft papers with the SEBI in April, 2018 and
obtained its "observations" on August 10, 2018.
o Inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) slowed from the 4.92%
pace set in June 2018.
o Among all the Indian states and Union Territories, West Bengal recorded
the highest annual inflation rate of 7.37%.
o RBI continued to remain a net seller of the U.S. dollar in June 2018, after
it sold $6.184 billion of the U.S. dollar in the spot market, RBI data
showed.
o In June 2018, the RBI bought $4.020 billion of U.S. dollar, while it sold
$10.204 billion in the spot market.
o In May 2018 and April 2018, RBI had net sold Rs. 5.767 billion and $2.483
billion of the U.S. currency, respectively.
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Axis Bank introduces iris authentication
o Axis Bank has become the first bank in the country to introduce Iris Scan
Authentication feature for Aadhaar-based transactions through its micro
ATM tablets.
o As per the IBA data, the percentage of NPA to outstanding education loan
rose from 7.3 percent in March 2016 to 7.67 percent in the following year
and then jumped to 8.97 percent in March 2018.
o The cumulative growth for the period April-June 2018 stands at 5.2% over
the corresponding period of the previous year.
o Ikea, the Swedish retail giant opened its first Indian store in Hyderabad on
9th August 2018.
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o Ikea's next store is planned to open in Mumbai in the summer of 2019,
followed by another in Bangalore in 2020.
o The Swedish furniture retailer has already invested 4.5 billion euros ($5.2
billion) into India.
o The partnership will result in a safer, faster and more convenient payment
experience for HDFC Bank cardholders and help drive incremental digital
spend.
o Deals beyond a certain threshold are required to get clearance from the
CCI.
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650 branches of IPPB to be launched on Aug 21
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 650 branches of India Post
Payments Bank (IPPB) on the 21st August, 2018.
o The IPPB has been setup under the Department of Post, Ministry of
Communication with 100% equity owned by the Indian government.
o The IPPB will leverage the vast network of the Department of Posts with
1.55 lakh access points, three lakh postmen and Grameen Dak Sewaks.
o Debit and credit card transactions too hit a new record of ₹3.62 trillion in
June 2018.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will transfer ₹50,000 crore of its surplus
money to the government, the highest since 2015-16.
o The Reserve Bank, which follows July-June financial year, has paid about
63% higher dividend than the previous year (2016-17).
o Under the RBI Act, 1934, the Reserve Bank of India is required to pay the
government its surplus fund.
o State Bank of India (SBI) launched one more digital initiative called
MOPAD (Multi Option Payment Acceptance Device) on 8th August,2018.
o It will enable customers to make payments through cards, Bharat QR, UPI
and SBI Buddy (e-wallet) on a point of sale (PoS) terminal.
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o It will also provide digital convenience to customers and ease of
o JP Morgan will provide up to $7 million over the next four years towards
this initiative.
o The lab will host accelerator programmes to identify solutions for specific
financial challenges.
o Nikhil has been a key member of the company’s board since 1997.
o The Finance Ministry has extended by one year the validity of existing
anti-dumping duty on 'methylene chloride' imports from the US and the
European Union.
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o Methylene Chloride is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and
phenolic resins, rayon yarn, pharmaceuticals, agro and fragrance
chemicals.
o It is also used as an extractant for edible fats, cocoa butter and essences.
o 21 public sector banks and three major private sector lenders collected Rs
5,000 crore from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance in
their accounts in 2017-18.
o SBI was charging the penalty till 2012, reintroduced it from April
1,2017. SBI reduced charges from October 1, 2017
o Accounts under BSBD scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna are not
required to maintain any minimum balance.
o PM Modi on August 21 will launch India Post Payments Bank that will
have at least one branch in every district and focus on financial services in
rural areas.
o Two branches of the bank are already operational in Ranchi and Raipur.
o IPPB will go live with 650 branches,3,250 access points co-located at post
offices and 11,000 postmen both in rural and urban area for doorstep
banking services.
o It has crossed the $400-billion mark for the first time in the week to
September 8, 2017.
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o The forex kitty is an indicator of the health of the economy.
o NABARD has sanctioned Rs 772 crore for eight water projects in the rural
areas of Haryana, state Minister for Public Health Engineering Banwari
Lal.
o Works on these projects will supply water to 256 villages and 72 hamlets,
are in progress
o The state government was getting financial assistance from the National
Capital Region Planning Board to modernize the sewerage system in urban
areas.
o Gujarat is the first State in the country to have an UO for the UCB sector.
o The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index rose
from 52.6 in June 2018 to 54.2 in July 2018.
o The Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index maps both the
manufacturing and services sectors.
o The Chinese market was worth $6.09 trillion next to Japan's $6.17 trillion.
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o Both markets are ranked after the US which is the world's largest at just
over $31 trillion.
o China lost to Japan after Chinese stocks and currency fell this year amid a
trade spat with the US.
o Fino Payments Bank has been barred by the Reserve Bank of India from
adding new customers since the end of May 2018.
o The central bank in its auditing of payments banks in May found Fino
Payments non-compliant with the operational guidelines laid down by it.
o Facebook will invest an additional $4.5 million towards helping the news
industry globally.
o NHAI will ink a pact with State Bank of India (SBI) for a long-term
unsecured loan to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore.
o This is SBI's highest long-term unsecured loan to any entity and also the
largest ever loan sanctioned to NHAI.
o NHAI is getting an unsecured loan from SBI for 10 years with 3 years of
moratorium on repayments.
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o Apple became the world’s first trillion-dollar public company, as a rise in
its share price pushed it past the landmark valuation.
o Apple was co-founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve
Wozniak.
o The RBI on 1st August 2018 raised interest rates by 25 basis points, setting
its benchmark repo rate at 6.5%.
o The increase will push up the cost of loans for all borrowers, from
consumers looking to finance their purchases of homes and cars to
businesses looking to meet their capital needs.
o The RBI retained its forecast for economic growth in the current fiscal year
at 7.4%.
o The fiscal deficit target for the current financial year is Rs 6.24 lakh crore.
o Rs 2.37 lakh crore was the net tax revenue during the April-June quarter.
o Seven Indian companies have made it to the latest Fortune 500 list of the
world's biggest corporations in terms of revenue.
o Indian Oil Corporation continued to be the highest ranked Indian firm and
Reliance Industries (RIL) jumping 53 places.
o Indian Oil Corp (IOC) with 23% rise in revenues at USD 65.9 billion was
ranked 137th, up from the 168th position in 2017.
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India imposes safeguard duty on solar cells
o India imposed safeguard duty on solar cells imports from China and
Malaysia for two years to protect domestic players from steep rise in the
inbound shipments of the product.
o As per the notification of the finance ministry, 25% safeguard duty has
been imposed.
o SBM, which has been in India since 1994, currently operates through four
branches, in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ramachandrapuram.
o Eight core sector industries registered high growth of 6.7% in June 2018.
September 2018
Imp Business & Economy (24-29 Sept 2018)
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o Global research agency Fitch raised India’s growth forecast for the current
fiscal to 7.8% from the earlier 7.4%.
o BSE has received regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI) to launch delivery-based futures contract in gold (1
kg) and silver (30 kg).
Source Link:
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cracked the whip on Bandhan Bank
freezing the remuneration of its MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh for
violating norms.
o The action taken is for not bringing down promoters’ shareholding in the
bank to 40% within 3 years of operations as mandated by it while granting
the bank license.
o RBI had also barred the Kolkata-based lender from opening new branches.
o The Reserve Bank of India eased mandatory cash requirement rules for
banks to provide “durable liquidity” to the economy.
o RBI said that banks could 'carve out' up to 15% of holdings under the
Statutory Liquidity Reserves to meet their Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR)
requirements as compared to 13% now.
o BSE has received regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI) to launch delivery-based futures contract in gold (1
kg) and silver (30 kg).
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o The delivery centre of gold and silver futures contract will be BSE
designated vaults at Ahmedabad initially.
o The majority stake of is with SIDBI & 5 PSBs- SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB,
Vijaya and Indian Bank.
o The list would include electronics, gems, select items of steel that are also
manufactured in India, imported apples, and almonds, among others.
o Global research agency Fitch raised India’s growth forecast for the current
fiscal to 7.8% from the earlier 7.4%.
o Fitch has revised the forecast for current fiscal ‘on the back of the better-
than-expected 2018 outturn’.
o Fitch’s latest projection for the current fiscal is higher than what is
estimated by the Reserve Bank of India (7.4%) and even the Government
(7.5%).
o BSNL has inked a pact with Japan’s Softbank and NTT Communications to
roll out 5G and internet of things (IoT) technology in India.
o Under the agreement with Softbank, BSNL will look at collaborating with
the NTT Communications for its satellite constellation to provide high
speed internet services.
o BSNL has signed an agreement with Nokia and Cisco as well for
developing 5G ecosystem.
o Private sector lender Yes Bank has paid ₹38 crore in fines to
the GST department for alleged violations in domestic remittances.
o A bank official said the money has been paid "in protest" and the lender
believes that it has not violated any norms.
o However, the tax department is of the view that the bank underpaid GST.
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RBI announces norms for PSL by banks, NBFCs
o These norms are applicable on Small Finance Banks and all Scheduled
Commercial Banks except Regional Rural Banks.
o PayU India has received Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval to operate
its own Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
o The tenor of the bonds is expected to be five years and the notes are to be
issued by the bank’s London branch.
o With this issue, SBI will become compliant with the global standards as
prescribed by the Climate Bonds Initiative.
o Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) have
received the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) approval to
launch commodity derivatives segment from October 1, 2018.
o BSE will enter the segment with non-agriculture commodities like metals.
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o At present, the exchanges offer trading in equities, equity derivatives as
well as currency derivatives.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved norms for
settlement of cases and new KYC norms for Foreign Portfolio Investors.
o SEBI chairman also said that the mutual fund expenses will be brought
down considering economies of scale.
o India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and Bajaj Allianz announced a five-year
partnership to sell life insurance products on a revenue share basis.
o Under the partnership, IPPB will facilitate customers to pay for Bajaj
Allianz life insurance products through their accounts and Bajaj Allianz
Life will offer life insurance solutions.
o PayU India has received Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval to operate
its own Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
o The move will help PayU promote inclusive growth in the country by
catering to the diverse financial needs of various segments of the society.
o PayU India is the digital payments firm owned by South Africa’s Naspers
Ltd.
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o The purchase of the government securities will be done through Open
Market Operations (OMO).
o The RBI proposes to purchase G-secs having five different maturity dates.
o Cisco has signed two agreements with the NITI Aayog and Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited (BSNL) to speed up its Country Digital Acceleration
programme in India.
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o At the centre a customer will be able to enjoy VR experiences such as
the 4D sway chair, Whiplash Pulsar 4D chair that makes 360 degrees
three-dimensional movements.
o Earlier this year Samsung has also launched the world's largest mobile
phone-manufacturing factory in Noida in July 2018.
o The company also plans to shift its LPG bottling plant, storage facilities
and bitumen plant to Rasayani, 60 km away from its Mumbai plant.
o Consumer price inflation fell below 4 percent for the first time in 2018.
o The first ever awards will be given on 13th September 2018 at a function in
New Delhi.
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SC orders status quo on RBI’s 12 Feb circular
o Banks have exposure of about ₹1.74 lakh crore to stressed power assets.
o The government mandated that issue of further shares and transfer of all
shares by unlisted public companies should be only in 'demat
form' beginning October 2, 2018.
o Yes Bank has raised $400 million through syndicated loan facility,
borrowed out of its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gujarat International
Finance Tec-City (GIFT).
o The bank said this amount will be utilized to support the IBU's growing
business.
o According to Rana Kapoor (MD and CEO, Yes Bank) Yes Bank's IBU has
crossed $3 billion balance sheet within 3 years of starting operations at
GIFT City.
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o According to a new index by Nomura, seven countries are at risk of
exchange rate crises as investors re-assess their risks.
o The name of the new index is 'Damocles', that assessed the risk of
exchange rate crises for 30 emerging market economies.
o The seven countries that are at risk of exchange rate crises are Sri Lanka,
South Africa, Argentina, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine.
o SpiceXpress will begin operations on September 2018 with the first flight
scheduled from Delhi to Bengaluru.
o ICICI Bank announced a new overdraft facility for Medium, Small and
Micro Enterprises (MSME) based on their GST returns.
o The overdraft amount could range between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore and
would be up to 20% of the turnover reported in the GST return.
o India’s current account deficit (CAD) stood at $15.8 billion i.e 2.4% of GDP
in the Q1 of 2018-19 compared with $15 billion (2.5 per cent of GDP) in the
same period of last year.
o The widening of the CAD on a y-o-y basis was primarily due to a higher
trade deficit at $45.7 billion as compared with $41.9 billion in 2017
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IRDAI tests guidelines for 'Sandbox Method'
o Industry participants believe that this move will lead to further innovation
in insurance products.
o Alibaba co-founder and chairman Jack Ma plans to retire from the Chinese
e-commerce giant on Monday on his 54th birthday.
o The Reserve Bank of India has asked all commercial banks having 10 or
more banking outlets to have an independent Internal Ombudsman (IO).
o Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) became the 2nd Indian company to attain
a market valuation of over Rs 8 lakh crore.
o HDFC Bank retained its top spot in the BrandZ India Top 50 for the fifth
year in a row.
o The total brand value of HDCF bank grew by 21 percent to $21.7 billion in
2018.
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o Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) comes at the second spot due to the key
role played by its pension plan business, while Tata Consultancy
Services ranked third on the list.
o Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has bagged an order worth Rs 9,200 crore
for supply of Seven Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM) systems.
o BEL has entered into a contract with Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL)
and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) to supply LRSAM
systems.
o The LRSAM will be fitted onboard seven ships to be built by these two
shipbuilders.
o SBI Mutual Fund has appointed Ashwani Bhatia as Managing Director and
Chief Executive Officer.
o Bhatia takes over from Anuradha Rao after she returned to State Bank of
India (SBI) as Deputy Managing Director.
o SBI Mutual Fund is a joint venture between the State Bank of India and
Amundi, a European asset management company.
o Asia Index Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and
BSE Ltd, announced the launch of an index designed to measure
the performance of private banks.
o The S&P BSE Private Banks Index is drawn from the constituents of the
S&P BSE Finance Index.
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o America’s online shopping giant Amazon on September 4, 2018, became
the second US company to hit $ 1 trillion in stock market value.
o Apple was the first US company to hit $ 1 trillion in stock market value.
o Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, who among other things also owns The
Washington Post, a top American.
o Karur Vysya Bank Ltd (KVB) has rolled out KVB Next, a tab-based digital
initiative.
o This will help the retail and business customers get in-principle sanctions
for loans within 15 minutes.
o Under the initiative, KVB will offer retail loans for up to Rs. 2 crore, loan
against property for up to Rs. 3 crore and home loans for up to Rs. 1 crore.
o India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) does away with ATM cards and debit
cards for both cash and cashless transactions.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has bought 8.46 tonne of gold in the
financial year 2017-18, the first purchase of gold by the apex bank in
almost nine years.
o According to RBI's latest annual report for 2017-18, RBI held 566.23 tonne
of gold as on 30 June, 2018.
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TCS crosses Rs 8 lakh crore in valuation
o Earlier on August 23, 2018, Reliance Industries became the first Indian
company to cross the Rs 8 lakh crore market capitalisation mark.
o TCS had in April 2018 became the first Indian company to have a $100
billion market valuation.
o Paytm money targets to sell the Mutual Fund to around 25 million people
in the next three to five years.
o The Reserve Bank of India has tightened the banking ombudsman scheme
with the objective to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism for
customers.
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o The banking regulator has asked all commercial banks having 10 or more
banking outlets to have an independent Internal Ombudsman (IO).
o IO will review customer complaints that are either partly or fully rejected
by the banks.
o While FDI from Mauritius totalled $13.41 billion as against $13.38 billion
in 2017, inflows from Singapore rose to $9.27 billion from $6.52 billion.
o Wipro bagged a $1.6 billion 10-year contract, its largest to date, to provide
digital solutions to Illinois-based Alight Solutions LLC.
o This deal will result in revenues of $1.5 to $1.6 billion for Wipro over the
tenure
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Imp Business & Economy-II (27 Aug-1 Sept 2018)
o The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave its approval to the
merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
o The Indian economy grew 8.2% in the April-June quarter for 2018 driven
by robust growth in the manufacturing, construction and farm sectors.
o Punjab National Bank has been ranked as the best Public Sector bank in
the overall digital transactions category in India.
o The bonds titled ‘Amaravati Bond 2018’ have been listed on the Bombay
Stock Exchange.
o DBS Bank has been named the world's best bank by Global Finance
magazine.
o RBI said that the bank does not have adequate capital and earning
prospect and is not in a position to pay its present and future depositors.
o The cancelled licence of the bank is in effect from the close of business on
August 31, 2018.
o The Indian economy grew 8.2% in the April-June quarter for 2018 driven
by robust growth in the manufacturing, construction and farm sectors.
o The pace of growth was the highest since the 9.3% rise reported for the
January-March quarter of 2016.
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o The high growth rate is aided by a low base effect — 5.6% in April-June
2017.
October 2018
NIIF acquired IDFC Infrastructure Finance
o The government had set up the NIIF in 2015 as an investment vehicle for
funding greenfield, brownfield and stalled infrastructure projects.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will inject Rs 12,000 crore into the
system through the purchase of Government securities (g-secs) on 1
November 2018.
o RBI has decided to conduct the purchase of the following g-secs under
Open Market Operations (OMO).
o The RBI sells g-secs to take out liquidity from the system and buys back g-
secs to infuse liquidity into the system.
o State Bank of India (SBI) formed a Joint Venture (JV) with Hitachi
Payment Services Pvt Ltd to create a digital payment network
o Hitachi Payments will invest 26% in SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI.
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o The Reserve Bank said it will inject Rs 40,000 crore into the system in
November through the purchase of government securities.
o The central bank had already injected Rs 36,000 crore into the system in
October.
o The World Bank has approved $425 million to improve road connections
in Bangladesh.
o IDFC Bank proposed to change its name to 'IDFC First Bank Ltd' in the
wake of its amalgamation with the non-banking financial company Capital
First.
o The decision was taken during the meeting of the Board of Directors of
IDFC Bank.
o The proposal now needs the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
o NSE Indices Limited launched a new index, 'Nifty 500 Value 50', on 24
October 2018.
o The index will track the performance of select 'value' companies based on
price multiples and dividend yield.
o The index consists of 50 companies from its parent Nifty 500 index,
selected based on their 'value' scores.
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o NSE Indices is a group company of National Stock exchange (NSE).
o Fino Payments Bank has been allowed to open new accounts by the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
o Fino Payments Bank had been unable to enrol new customers since the
end of May 2018 after RBI found the bank to be non-compliant with the
operational guidelines laid down by it.
o National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has got approval from Securities
and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch copper large futures
contract with a trading unit of 25 tonne.
o GSM is a primary market platform for raising funds from global investors.
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o GSM is an arm of the BSE's international exchange India INX.
o MobiKwik users will be able to buy and sell 99.5% purity, 24-carat gold on
the app starting at one rupee.
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o State Bank of India (SBI) launched its wealth business services by opening
'SBI Wealth Hub' in Mangaluru, Karnataka.
o The bank has also launched Wealth Business services for NRIs.
o India has imposed anti-dumping duties of up to US$ 185.51 per tonne for
five years on certain varieties of Chinese steel.
o This will guard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports from China.
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o The RBI eased the single borrower exposure limits for NBFCs not in the
infrastructure segment.
o The IBBI conducts valuation examinations for all three asset classes - land
and building, plant and machinery, and securities or financial assets.
o BSNL has partnered with telecom gear maker Nokia to offer businesses
private 4G services.
o The first project under the partnership has been deployed at Nokia's
Chennai plant using 4G connection from BSNL's network.
o Nokia also signed a pact with BSNL to implement the next level of
industrial automation —Industry 4.0 – leveraging 4G LTE technology.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the guidelines for
interoperability between Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs).
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o This will allow users of payment wallets to transfer money from one wallet
to another.
o RBI also allowed PPIs to issue cards using authorised card networks such
as Mastercard, Visa.
o The Reserve Bank India (RBI) has announced that it will purchase
government securities (g-secs) worth ₹120 billion under Open Market
Operations (OMO).
o The RBI sells g-secs to take out liquidity from the system and buys back g-
secs to infuse liquidity into the system.
o WPI increased mainly due to the rise in the cost of petrol and diesel.
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o Food articles witnessed hardening of prices with deflation at 0.21% in
September as against 4.04% in August.
o Under the MoU, the strategic training unit of SBI will impart education,
training and development to facilitate transformation of NBI's HR
department.
o SBI signed the three-year MoU with NBI to establish a mutually beneficial
strategic alliance.
o Leading stock exchange NSE has signed a pact with the Uttarakhand
government to provide access to capital to MSMEs.
o This which will fuel the growth of such entities in the state.
o The bourse will play an active role in nurturing the SMEs and start-ups by
increasing awareness.
o NSE's SME Platform has currently 182 companies listed, which together
raised over Rs 2,850 crore.
o The items that will face customs duty hike include smartwatches, optical
transport equipment and voice over internet protocol equipment.
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o Restricting imports is a part of the government’s strategy to arrest the
rupee’s fall.
o State Bank of India (SBI) will triple its target of buying standard loans
from Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to up to ₹45,000 crore
in FY19.
o The government of India has notified a higher interest rate of 8% for the
non-government provident, superannuation, and gratuity funds, effective
from October 1 2018.
o The interest rate on these funds has been raised from 7.6%.
o This hike will help private sector employees who have enrolled for these
provident funds gains extra returns.
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o National Housing Board (NHB) has raised refinance limit for housing
finance companies to Rs 30,000 crore for the period between July 2018 to
June 2019.
o The regulator to housing finance companies (HFCs) had set an initial limit
of Rs 24,000 crore, towards refinancing eligible institutions.
o Flipkart has partnered with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance for the
scheme.
o Users can apply for loans ranging from Rs 5,000 up to Rs 60,000 through
the MobiKwik app
o MobiKwik is the first wallet company in India to disburse the loan amount
in the user’s mobile wallet.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to keep the interest rate
unchanged at 6.5% in the fourth bi-monthly policy review.
o The reverse repo rate has also been kept unchanged at 6.25%.
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o The Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) stands at 4% while the bank rate is at
6.75%.
o Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of five crore rupees on Federal Bank
for non-compliance of certain RBI direction.
o RBI said Federal Bank had failed to report large borrower exposure for
assessment under risk-based supervision.
o The bank had also failed to pay compensation to customers for the delay in
resolution of ATM related complaints.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed state-owned Oil Marketing
Companies (OMC) to borrow long-term working capital from overseas.
o The RBI has allowed them to raise External Commercial Borrowing (ECB)
of minimum maturity of 3 or 5 years.
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o Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) became the first stock exchange in India to
launch the commodity derivative contracts in gold and silver.
o Till now, commodity contracts were available only on MCX and NCDEX,
the two specialised commodity derivatives exchanges.
o BSE also waived off transaction charges for the first year in the
commodities derivatives segment.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would pump Rs 360 billion into money
markets in October to stem fears of a cascading credit crunch.
o The auctions would be conducted during the second, third and fourth
week of October.
o The government will effectively cut its market borrowing by Rs 700 billion
due to higher-than-expected earnings of Rs 750 billion through its small
savings scheme.
November 2018
LEI mandatory for market participants
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made the Legal Entity Identifier
(LEI) code mandatory for all participants undertaking transactions in the
markets regulated by the RBI.
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o The LEI is a 20-character unique identity code assigned to entities who are
parties to a financial transaction.
o The LEI code is a measure to improve the quality and accuracy of financial
data systems.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased the interest subsidy on the post
and pre-shipment export credit from 3% to 5%.
o This move will boost the exports of the Micro, Small & Medium
Enterprises (MSME) sector manufacturers.
o Exporters get the subsidy under the 'Interest Equalisation Scheme on Pre
& Post Shipment Rupee Export Credit'.
o Proceeds from the sale of AIATSL would be used to pay off Air India’s
debt.
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Non-food bank credit grows at fastest pace
o According to the RBI data, the total credit flow from banks to the
commercial sector grew at 15.6% year-on-year to Rs. 97.32 lakh crore in
the fortnight ended 9 November 2018.
o The non-food credit grew by 15.12% to Rs 90.51 lakh crores, while the total
non-statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) investments rose 22.26%.
o Bank credit was lowest during the November 2016 to March 2017 period.
o The survey will create a profile of the startups and provide dimensions
pertaining to their profitability and workforce.
o The survey would also aim at talking about the problems being faced by
the sector in the country.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will infuse Rs. 40,000 crores into the
system through Open Market Operations (OMOs) in December 2018.
o The RBI had announced to inject Rs 40,000 crore into the system in
November 2018.
o OMO refer to the buying and selling of government securities in the open
market in order to expand or contract the amount of money in the banking
system.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has announced the
guidelines for interoperability of Clearing Corporations (CCPs).
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o The new norms will help in reducing the trading costs.
o The government had announced the Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion
programme in October 2017.
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o On 26 November 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed norms for
External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs).
o It reduced the mandatory hedge coverage from 100% to 70% under 'Track
I' of the ECB framework.
o This move will help reduce costs for companies that raise foreign funds.
o The subsidy will be given under the Merchandise Exports from India
Scheme (MEIS).
o The products include husked (brown) rice, parboiled and broken rice.
o The bank has been brought under the purview of the Right to Information
(RTI) act, the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) guidelines, and the
State Legislature.
o The J&K Bank Ltd is the only state government-promoted bank in the
country.
o The lab will work on accurately assessing the risks of the insurers and will
also be able to give early warnings about the losses.
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o Remote sensing involves setting up scanning an area through the use of
satellite to get deeper information about that region.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has come out with new
rules for re-classification of a promoter as a public investor.
o The promoter will not be allowed to have any representation on the board
of directors.
o According to the RBI data, bank credit rose by 14.88% to Rs 91.11 lakh
crore in the fortnight ended 9 November 2018.
o In the previous fortnight ended October 26, 2018, credit had grown by
14.57% to Rs 90.37 lakh crore, while deposits rose by 9.01% to Rs 117.71
lakh crore.
o The Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises
(CGTMSE) has changed norms to improve credit guarantee process for
Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE).
o CGTMSE has been jointly set up by the government of India and SIDBI.
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HDFC disburses Rs 1,100 crore subsidy
o HDFC bank has disbursed over Rs 1,100 crore subsidy to over 51,000
customers under the government’s flagship scheme PMAY (Pradhan
Mantri Awas Yojana).
o SBI CAP Ventures Ltd. has launched Small and Medium Enterprises
(SME) and Affordable Housing Funds.
o SBI CAP SME Fund aims to raise Rs 400 crore and the Affordable Housing
Fund Rs 350 crore.
o BFS will examine the framework for banks under Prompt Corrective
Action (PCA).
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o The platform will allow retail investors to invest in treasury bills (T-Bills)
of 91 days, 182 days and 364 days and various government bonds from one
year to almost 40 years.
o It will also allow investors to make payments directly from their bank
accounts.
o IndusInd Bank has announced the launch of 'IndusInd Bank Nexxt Credit
Card'.
o The bank claims it to be the nation’s first interactive credit card with
buttons.
o The value of such transactions also grew more than 2.4 times at ₹2.07 lakh
crore.
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Fitch retains rating for India at ‘BBB-minus’
o The Fitch Ratings added that a recent analysis conducted by it found that
India had the highest medium-term growth potential among the largest
emerging markets.
o Sunil Mehta panel has formed an Asset Management Company (AMC) for
resolving large bad loans.
o Sunil Mehta panel is working for the faster resolution of stressed assets in
public sector banks.
o According to the Central Statistics Office data, India’s retail inflation eased
to 3.31% in October 2018 driven by cheaper food items.
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o The retail inflation number is the lowest since September 2017
o The Finance Ministry has rearranged the Central Public Sector Enterprises
(CPSE) Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
o The Ministry has removed GAIL, Engineers India Ltd. (EIL) and Container
Corporation of India in the ETF basket.
o The four ports are Vishakhapatnam Port Trust, Paradip Port Trust,
Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may set-up an ombudsman for digital
payments by March 2019 to reduce the burden on banking ombudsman.
o Raw sugar is the second product after non-basmati rice that China will
import from India.
o India is the largest producer of sugar in the world with 32 million tonnes
of production in 2018.
o The raw material for the refinery will be imported from abroad and a
considerable part of the finished products will be sent out through the sea.
o The port already has a liquid cargo terminal in addition to the 4 container
terminals.
o The Reserve Bank of India has liberalised the norms governing external
commercial borrowings (ECBs) for infrastructure creation.
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o This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under
the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
o The fluoropolymer is a key ingredient in the non-stick coating for pans and
other cookware.
o HSBC has executed India's first financial transaction using blockchain for
a deal involving an export by Reliance Industries to Tricon Energy.
o This allowed a digital transfer of the title of goods from the seller to the
buyer.
o The Reserve Bank has initiated steps to set up a wide-based digital Public
Credit Registry (PCR).
o PCR will capture details of all borrowers, including wilful defaulters and
also the pending legal suits in order to check financial delinquencies.
o PCR will also include data from entities like market regulator SEBI, the
Corporate Affairs Ministry and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of
India.
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o Kirloskar Capital has received a licence from the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) to start a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
o Prior to joining Kirloskar Capital, Vimal Bhandari was the Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Indostar Capital.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permitted banks to provide partial credit
enhancement (PCE) to NBFCs and HFCs on 2 November 2018.
o The proceeds from the bonds backed by PCE from banks will be utilised
for refinancing the existing debt of the NBFC/HFCs.
o The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has initiated the
process to reduce the timeline for public issues from the current 6 days to
3 days.
o The new guidelines would be applicable for all companies that file their
documents on or after 1 January 2019.
o Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections crossed the barrier of Rs.1 lakh
crore in October 2018, coming in at Rs. 1,00,710 crore.
o The collections in October 2018 were 20.8% higher than the Rs. 83,346
crore seen in October 2017.
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o States which achieved strong growth in total taxes collected from State
assessees include Kerala (44%), Jharkhand (20%), Rajasthan (14%) and
Uttarakhand (13%).
o Arun Thukral is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Axis
Securities.
o Previously, the lowest growth rate was in May 2018, when the core sectors
expanded at 4.1%.
December 2018
PNB launches special card for Kumbh Mela
o Punjab National Bank (PNB) has launched a special card for Kumbh Mela
2019.
o The bank has partnered with the Uttar Pradesh government to create a
model for digitization at Kumbh Mela 2019.
o For convenient and hassle-free transactions at these shops, the bank has
created the 'PNB Rupay' card which works even without the internet.
RBI shortlists Wipro, TCS, 4 others for PCR
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shortlisted six major IT companies to set
up a digital Public Credit Registry (PCR)
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o The IT companies are TCS, Wipro, IBM India, Capgemini Technology
Services India, Dun & Bradstreet Information Services India, and
Mindtree Ltd.
o PCR will be capturing details of all borrowers and wilful defaulters.
o It will strengthen the credit culture in the economy.
GST Council cuts rates on 17 items, 6 services
o The Goods and Services Tax Council has cut rates on 17 items and six types
of services during its 31st meeting on 22 December 2018.
o The GST rate on cinema tickets above ₹100 was cut from 28% to 18% and
on tickets up to ₹100 from 18% to 12%.
o The Council decided that 5% GST would be levied on renewable energy
devices and parts for their manufacture.
Govt. to infuse Rs 83,000 crore in PSBs
o The government of India will infuse Rs 83,000 crore in Public Sector
Banks (PSBs) in the next few months in the current fiscal.
o The government of India moved the proposal in Parliament for enhanced
bank recapitalisation
o The recapitalisation will enhance the lending capacity of PSBs and help
them come out of the RBI's Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework.
RBI caps outstanding ECBs at 6.5% of GDP
o On 20 December 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a cap
for outstanding stock of External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) at 6.5%
of GDP of the country.
o The outstanding stock of ECB as on 30 September 2018 was $126.29
billion.
o ECBs refer to commercial loans in the form of bank loans, securitised
instruments buyers’ credit, suppliers’ credit availed of from non-resident
lenders.
Four banks may come out of PCA
o Four public sector banks that are under the Prompt Corrective Action
(PCA) framework of RBI, may come out of the PCA restrictions following
an improved performance.
o Four public sector banks are Bank of Maharashtra, Corporation Bank,
Allahabad Bank, and Bank of India.
o This follows a review of the performance of all 11 banks that are under the
PCA framework.
Merger of IDFC Bank & Capital First completed
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oIDFC Bank completed the merger process with Non-Banking Financial
Company 'Capital First' on 18 December 2018.
o After the merger, 'Capital First' has been renamed as 'IDFC First Bank'.
o V. Vaidyanathan is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of
the merged entity.
o Rajiv Lall, who was the MD & CEO of IDFC Bank, will now become part-
time non-executive Chairman of the merged entity.
RBI scales up liquidity infusion
o The RBI will increase the amount of liquidity infusion by Rs.10,000 crore
to Rs. 50,000 crore in December 2018.
o It earlier announced that it will infuse liquidity amounting to Rs. 40,000
crore through Open Market Operations (OMO) in December 2018.
o OMO refers to the buying and selling of government securities in the open
market in order to expand or contract the amount of money in the system.
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