A Quick Look on Financial Awareness - I

Hello Readers,

Here we are providing you recent updates on  Financial Awareness. It will be very useful for SBI Clerk and other Banking Exams.  

1. RBI cancels registration of 22 NBFCs

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled registration of 22 non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) including Amazon Capital and Mascot Commerce.

2. Swavalamban subscribers can switch to APY: PFRDA

• Subscribers of micro-pension scheme ‘Swavalamban’, which closes on March 31, can switch to the ‘Atal Pension Yojana’ (APY) and retain the government’s co-contribution.
• Under the scheme, the government contributes Rs 1,000 per year to each NPS account for the first four years.

3. Boost for e-commerce as Centre permits 100 per cent FDI in online market places

• The government permitted 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route for retail trading, or B2C (business-to-consumer) transactions, in the marketplace model of e-commerce.

4. Gujarat to set up country's first organic farming university

• In 2016-17 state annual budget; state government has allocated a fund of 10 crore rupees towards the university.  It also took steps like setting up of a cell to implement its new organic farming policy. 

5. ADB, USAID to assist developing Solar parks in India

• The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Asian Development Banktoday signed a pact for providing Rs 5,681 crore (USD 848 million) to develop solar parks across India, as part of clean energy infrastructure in the country.

6. ONGC to invest $5 billion to develop KG basin deepwater block

• The ONGC board has approved a $ 5.076-billion field development plan for a portion of its deepwater oil and gas block in the Krishna-Godavari basin on the east coast.

7. Indian-American appointed as President, CEO of Bank of the West

• Indian-American Nandita Bakshi has been appointed the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bank of the West, a subsidiary unit of French banking giant BNP Paribas.

8. Jeff Bezos top Fortune’s Greatest Leaders List

9. India’s forex reserves reach all time high

• India’s forex reserves jumped by $2.5 billion to reach a record high at $355.9 billion for the week that ended on March 18, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday in its weekly statistical report.
• The previous high stood at $355.4 billion reported on June 27 of last year 

10. New BRICS-supported bank approves first loans

• A new multilateral lender set up by the BRICS nations has approved its first set of loans valued at 811 million US dollars for renewable energy projects in four of its member countries.
• According to a statement, the first group of projects approved by the bank’s board are in the area of green and renewable energy.

11. Centre to increase monthly minimum wages to 10,000 rupees for contract labourers

• Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has said that the government has decided to bring out an executive order to increase minimum wages to 10,000 rupees per month for contract labourers across the country.

12. Jharkhand Government launches Bhimrao Ambedkar Awas Yojana for widows

• It was launched by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on the occasion of 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B R Ambedkar.
• The scheme (Yojana) aims at building 11000 units (houses) for widows in 2016-17 financial year with the budgetary allocation of 80 crore rupees.
• Under it, beneficiaries would get an amount of 75000 rupees to build a house in hilly terrains districts and 70000 rupees in plains area.

13. India offers to invest $20 billion in oil and other projects in Iran

•  India has offered to invest up to $20 billion in oil, petrochemicals and fertiliser projects in joint ventures with Iran if Tehran provides land and cheap gas, even as there is no sign yet of an agreement on the long-pending rights to develop Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf discovered by staterun ONGC Videsh.

 14. India to get $250m for renewables from New Development Bank

The New Development Bank, the latest multilateral funding institution in the financial world, has sanctioned a $250 million loan for India to fund its ambitious scheme on new and renewable energy.

15. RBI gave in-principle approval to Airtel payments bank

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted the first payments bank license to Airtel M Commerce Services (AMSL) which is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.

• All companies, which received in-principle approval from RBI in August, will have to make their banks operational by March 2017.

16. India world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015: World Bank

• In its annual report Migration and Development Brief, World Bank said, India retained its top spot in 2015, attracting about 69 billion US dollars in remittances, down from 70 billion in 2014.

17. Interest rates for NSSF loan to Centre, states cut to 8.8%

• The government has slashed interest rates on loans from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) to 8.8 per cent from 9.5 per cent for FY17.
• All the funds collected from small savings such as National Small Savings Certificate,Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme (SCSS) is deposited in the NSSF.

18. Nauru becomes 189th member of IMF, World Bank

The Republic of Nauru, a tiny South Pacific island nation in Pacific Ocean became the 189th member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

19. Vijay Shekhar Sharma appointed chairman of IAMAI payments banks group

•  Industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India, has appointed Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman of its the newly formed payments banks group.
• Vodafone India business head(M-Pesa)Suresh Sethi, will be the vice-chairman of the group.

20. India may expand by 7.7% in fiscal year 2017: Fitch

• Fitch Ratings expects India to be on the top of the global growth ladder and expanding by 7.7 per cent in the current fiscal.
• Growth is expected to gradually accelerate to 7.7 per cent in FY17 and 7.9 per cent in FY18,” Fitch Ratings said in its India-Global Economic Outlook (GEO) Forecast.

21. India to notch up to 7.5 pc growth in 2016–17: IMF

• MF in its latest, World Economic Outlook report said, India’s growth is projected to notch up to 7.5 per cent in 2016-17, overtaking China’s GDP by more than 1 per cent.

22. Postal department to launch payments bank by January 

• The Department of Post will launch its payments bank by January next year and top management of the new-age venture would be in-place by July.

23. India, Germany sign pact on Ganga Rejuvenation

• The project duration is three years from 2016 to 2018 and the German contribution in the project will be to the tune of 22.5 crore rupees. 

24. Central govt employees get 6 per cent DA hike from Jan 1

• Dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees has been hiked to 125 %of basic pay, up by 6 percentage points, with effect from January 1, 2016.
• The Centre revises DA twice a year on the basis of one year average of retail inflation for industrial workers as per a pre-determined formula.

25. Nita Ambani most powerful businesswoman in Asia: Forbes

• SBI Chairman and Managing Director Arundhati Bhattacharya has been rankedsecond.

26. RBI cuts repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5%; Keeps CRR unchanged

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut down key interest rates repo rate by 25 basispoints to 6.50 per cent from 6.75 per cent in its first bi-monthly monetary policyreview for the 2016-17 fiscal.

27. DCB Bank launches India’s first Aadhaar-based ATM

• DCB Bank has launched, India’s first of its kind Aadhaar-based Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) in Mumbai. It is a card less and PIN less ATM,customers can transact using hisbiometric details instead of the PIN.

28. Modi launches ‘Stand Up India’ scheme 

• The scheme is intended to promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes,Schedule Tribes and women will involve loans ranging from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 1 crore.

29. India ranks 6th in 2015 top-10 manufacturers list: UNIDO report

• India has been ranked sixth among the world’s Top-Ten largest manufacturing countries in the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) 2015 Yearbook report.

30. Germany’s Development Bank KfW to provide loan assistance to metro system for Nagpur

• Germany’s Development Bank KfW will provide loan assistance of three thousand and 750 crore rupees for the modern and sustainable metro system for Nagpur city being executed by Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation Limited.

31. Geeta Reddy is new Chairperson of PAC 

• Congress senior MLA J Geeta Reddy has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Telangana.

Thanks 

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