1. Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved loan of USD 346 million to fund highway upgradation project in ____________, to improve 419 km of state highways by upgrading it to two and four-lane highways ?
2. Asian Development Bank approved ____________ million for developing Reliance Bangladesh Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Power Project, including loans and partial risk guarantees for power project being set up for $1 billion ?
3. ____________ started adoption of digital branch services through its offering Mosambee, to add depth to its service offerings. ?
4. Bombay Stock Exchange’s subsidiary, India International Exchange (India INX) received approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on framework for listing of debt securities. Indian and foreign issuers will now be able to issue Eurobonds, masala bonds and foreign currency bonds from India INX located at International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) at GIFT city in __________ ?
5. _____________________ has launched a video service that seeks to improve customer engagement, enabling customers to directly engage with the company for various service requests. ?
6. _____________ became India’s sixth most valued firm, crossing SBI with market capitalisation of INR 2.74 trillion, marginally ahead of SBI’s 2.71 trillion. Reliance Industries is most valued company with market value of 5.8 trillion, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, ITC and Hindustan Unilever.
7. Central Government has removed income limit for incentive under ‘Dr Ambedkar scheme for social Integration through inter caste marriage’.
- Scheme was launched in 2013 to provide monetary incentive to at least 500 inter-caste couples (where either the bride or the bridegroom is a Dalit) per year.
- Previously, couples whose total annual income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh were eligible to get a one-time incentive of Rs __________ from Government, to help them settle down in initial phase of their married life.
- Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has now removed max Income limit and now all Dalit couples are eligible for incentive under this scheme.
8. Finance Ministry extended deadline for linking Aadhaar number with PAN card till _____________. ?
9. Government tasked _________ with enabling online payments at 470 mandis integrated with national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).
- e-NAM was launched in April 2016 to revolutionise agri markets by bringing in better price discovery and transparency to enable farmers to get better remuneration for their produce.
- Bank will enable Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) on the e-NAM portal for making cashless payments.
10. Govt Owned _________ launched its RuPay Select and RuPay Platinum credit cards, offering Personal accident insurance of INR 10 lakh and 2 lakh on RuPay Select Credit Card and RuPay Platinum Credit Card respectively ?
11. __________ became first bank to enable customers to open a Public Provident Fund (PPF) account online, eliminating the need for furnishing paper documents ?
12. India Index Services and Products Ltd (IISL) launched the Nifty LargeMidcap __________ Index. It will track the performance of 100 large-cap and 150 mid-cap companies listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE). Base date for index is April 1, 2005 and base value is 1000 ?
13. Indian GDP Growth Projections -
- International Rating Agency Fitch lowererd 2017-18 growth projection to 6.7%, from 6.9%.
- Morgan Stanley predicts Indian economy to witness cyclical growth recovery, with real GDP growth likely to accelerate from 6.4% to 7.5% in 2018 & to 7.7% in 2019.
- Global investment bank Nomura predicted India’s economy to register a _________ growth rate in 2018.
14. ____________ rolled out FASTag to enable electronic toll fee collection on highways across the country, in line with the government's move to make FASTag mandatory on every new vehicle sold from December 1. It is reusable tag based on radio-frequency identification technology (RFID) that can be placed on a vehicle's windscreen. It also launched 3000 customer interaction points to act as ATMs.
15. Public Procurement Portal ‘___________’ has been launched by Giriraj Singh (Minister of State (IC) for MSMEs), aimed at monitoring implementation of Public Procurement from MSEs by Central Public Sector Entesrprises ?
16. RBI's 5th Bi-Monthly Policy Review for FY 2017-18 -
- RBI Kept Key policy rates Unchanged. However, It increased SLR (Statutory Liquidity Ratio) by 50 Basis points, to 20 % (From ______________).
- Current Monetray Policy Rates -
- Repo Rate - 6.00 %
- Reverse Repo - 5.75 %
- Bank Rate - 6.25 %
- Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate - 6.25 %
- CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) - 4 %
- SLR(Statutory Liquidity ratio) - 19.5 %
- Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Reserve Bank of India -
- It has 6 Members - RBI Governor Urijit Patel (Chairperson), Viral A Acharya, Michael Patra, Chetan Ghate, Pami Dua, Ravindra H. Dholakia.
- RBI also allowed overseas branches of Indian banks to refinance external commercial borrowings (ECB) of AAA-rated private and public sector companies.
- Currently, Indian banks are allowed to fund dollar loans but are not allowed to refinance these borrowings abroad.
- Due to this, companies sought refinance only through foreign lenders. Now, Indian banks can also participate in refinancing and can earn a higher return on their funds abroad.
- This will also benefit the borrowers as improved liquidity in refinance market will reduce cost of borrowing
?
17. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rationalised MDR (_____________) to increase the number of non-cash transactions.
- Fee charged to a merchant by a bank for providing debit and credit card payment services is referred to as MDR.
- MDR has been rationalised on basis of merchant turnover rather than existing slab rates based on the transaction value.
18. Indian GDP Growth Projections -
- International Rating Agency Fitch lowererd 2017-18 growth projection to 6.7%, from 6.9%.
- Morgan Stanley predicts Indian economy to witness cyclical growth recovery, with real GDP growth likely to accelerate from 6.4% to 7.5% in 2018 & to 7.7% in 2019.
- Global investment bank Nomura predicted India’s economy to register a 7.5 % growth rate in 2018.
- As per World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018 report by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)UN, Indian economy will grow by 7.2 % in 2017-18 and will go up to ___________ in 2019.
19. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved USD __________ loan for an Bangalore Metro Rail Project – Reach 6 (R6). ?
20. ______________ Payments Bank signed agreement with Rajasthan government’s RajCOMP as its corporate business correspondent and will offer banking services to people across state. Now, 55000 e-Mitra points of RajCOMP across Rajasthan will act as banking points of _______ Payments Bank. ?
21. India Signed World Bank loan agreement of USD __________ for Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Project. ?
22. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed INR _________ penalty on IndusInd Bank for violation of Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms.?
23. Reserve Bank of India increased limits for investment by _________________ (FPIs) for the January-March 2018 quarter by Rs 6,400 crore in Central Government Securities (G-Secs) and Rs 5,800 crore in State development loans (SDLs).
- From January 1, 2018, revised investment limit for FPIs in G-Secs will be Rs 2,56,400 crore against existing limit of Rs 2,50,000 crore.
- RBI also granted license for operating a Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) to Global mobile payments company OBOPAY.
24. _____________collaborated with advisory services firm Pantomath Advisory to develop a Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) ecosystem focused on Maharashtra and Gujarat.
- Bank also partnered with Online investment platform FundsIndia.com to enable Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based mutual fund payments.
25. ______________ Bank launched Sahafat Finance Scheme as a special financial scheme for journalists of state, to avail financing between 50000 - 3 Lakh for buying cameras, laptops, tablets and books.
26. RBI imposed certain restrictions on Corporation Bank, on carrying out banking activities as its share of bad loans rose sharply (over 10%), under prompt corrective action (PCA) n0rms. It makes Corporation Bank ___________ bank to face PCA actions within 10 months ?
27. Cab aggregator Ola signed agreement with Bajaj Allianz to offer a insurance programme for its driver partners, named __________. Under this, Ola’s driver partners can avail an insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh.
28. Information and Broadcasting Ministry approved Merger of Direct-to-home (DTH) operators Dish TV India (owned by Zee Group) and _____________. Merged entity will will serve combined subscriber base of 29 million users. ?
29. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed penalty of INR 5 crore on ____________ for non-compliance with its directions on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, Cheque Purchase or Discounting and Bill Discounting. ?
30. GST Council in its 24th Meeting decided to implement e-way bill mechanism throughout country by _________1st , 2018 after reviewing readiness of IT network. It aims at mitigating problems caused by waybill compliance ?
31. ______________ signed MoU with Sahaj e-Village for providing its banking service in remote areas of India.
- Sahaj e-Village Limited is an entity of SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited (SIFL) and works for bridging digital divide between urban and rural India under flagship of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of Central Government.
32. Cab Aggregator Ola acquired food delivery firm Foodpanda's India business from its German parent Delivery Hero AG in an all-stock deal. Ols will further Infuse ________ in Foodpanda’s India operations.
33. India's __________ and European Investment Bank (EIB) released announced co-finance programme of $400-million for renewable power generation in India (50 - 50 %).
34. Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved merger of __________ and Bharat Financial Inclusion. It now awaits approval from RBI, Stock exchanges, SEBI, and National Company Law Tribunal.
35. Government has so far infused capital of Rs. ____________ crore in public sector banks (PSBs) under Indradhanush Plan, amid liquidity issues being faced by Banks due to rise in Bad Loans. Government has also sanctioned 42 Mega Food Parks (MFPs) to be set up across India under Mega Food Park Scheme.
36. India signed Financing Agreement with world bank for USD __________ for Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement Operation (STRIVE) Project.
- World Bank also approved USD 825 million loan for Pakistan, for upgrading its energy and public finance sectors.
37. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) raised investment limit for FPI (___________) in central government securities to over 1.91 lakh crore from January 2018.
- Current investment limit for FPIs is 1.89 lakh crore rupees. It aims to push inflow from overseas investors in Indian capital markets.
38. HDFC has sold its realty brokerage business ‘HDFC Realty’ and its digital real estate business ‘HDFC Red’ to online advertisements platform ________________, for approx 350 crores.
39. India signed an agreement with _______________ that would allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from January 1, 2018. It is aimed at combating black money stashed abroad.
40. Indian IT Firm ___________ has been awarded a USD 2.25-billion outsourcing contract from UK-based Nielsen Holdings PLC
41. International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) released Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) and Financial Sector Assessment (FSA) respectively. Second comprehensive FSAP (__________________) for India too has been conducted during 2017.
- FSAP is a joint program undertaken by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to comprehensively assess and conduct in-depth analysis of a country’s financial sector. FSAP has been conducted since September 2010 in 29 countries (including India) at interval of every five years.
42. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) created NHIPC(_________) for attracting domestic and foreign investment for highways projects. It will focus on engaging with global institution investors, developers, construction companies and fund managers for building investor participation in road infrastructure projects.
43. World Bank approved a loan worth USD 40 million for a tourism project in _________.
44. As per RBI Data, Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of Indian public sector banks stood at Rs ___________ lakh crore by end of September 2017. Also, Indian Banks lost Approx 16900 Crores in Frauds last year (FY 2016-17).
45. Central Government recognised _____________ as a ‘Champion State’ for exports recording highest growth in exports during 2016-17. Exports from state during 2016-17 stood at Rs 40872 crores, marking growth of 114% from Rs 19082 crore in 2015-16.
46. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted scheduled commuter operator (SCO) permit to ______________, enabling it to operate flights under regional air connectivity scheme UDAN.
47. India Government Mint (A Unit of Security Printing and Minting Corp of India) launched India’s first home-grown high purity gold reference standard –Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya (______________).
- It is reference material for gold of ‘9999’ fineness (gold that is 99.99% pure with impurities of only 100 parts-per-million). It will be beneficial to the consumers and public at large to ensure purity of gold.
- It is developed through collaboration between IGM, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), National Physical Laboratory (New Delhi) and National Centre for Compositional Characterisation of Materials (Hyderabad).
48. ______________ is top contributor in first 5 months since rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in July 1, 2017. Uttar Pradesh is ranked 2nd in terms of total GST Collection (CGST+IGST+SGST+CESS). Govt has so far received approx 3.7 Lakh Crores as GST Collections till Nov 30, 2017.
49. Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) will roll out _____________ to provide a three-month window for defaulting companies and their director to submit their annual filings. It will be operational from January 1 to March 31, 2018.
50. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directed all NGOs, individuals and business entities receiving foreign funds to open accounts in any of ____________ designated banks (including one foreign) within a month, as per MHA powers under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) 2010.
- These accounts will be integrated with central government’s Public Financial Management System (PFMS), to provide higher level of transparency and hassle-free reporting compliance.
51. Private Bank ____________ established a Medium Term Note (MTN) programme to raise USD 1 billion by issuing debt securities in international capital markets to eligible investors.
52. According to data by Income Tax department, 2 crore Indians (1.7 % of population) paid Rs 1.88 Lakh Crore income tax in __________, with number of income-tax return filers being 4.07 crore.
- In previous year, 3.65 ITRs were filed, out of which 1.91 crore tax payers paid Rs 1.91 lakh crore income tax.
53. Agri service solutions provider Sohan Lal Commodity Management (SLCM) tied up with ______________ to provide collateral management services, to improve farmers' access to post-harvest credits at affordable interest rates and provide access to scientific storage facilities.
54. Finance Ministry will issue first tranche of recapitalization bonds to public sector banks (PSB) in January 2018. Recapitalization bonds will not be sold in open market, rather it will be issued to all banks.
- These bonds are part of government’s plan to infuse Rs __________ lakh crore capital into the public sector banks over 2 years.
55. India signed _____________ million Loan agreement with World Bank for Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project to promote climate resilient agriculture technologies, improve water management practices, and increase market opportunities for small and marginal farmers.
56. Samsung launched its 'Bill Payments' on its flagship payments service, Samsung Pay in partnership with __________ Bank.
57. ___________ Government launched ‘Prakash hai to vikas hai’ Scheme, a free household power connection scheme for the poor in the state.
58. Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh launched LDF (_______________) Mobile App developed by ICAR-National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (Bengaluru).
- NIVEDI will use this app and Monthly Bulletin system to send out early warnings related to pertaining livestock diseases.
59. Isurance regulator IRDAI issued regulations for insurance firms to carry out offshore business from ___________ - based GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), allowing foreign insurers to open IFSC Insurance Office (IIO) at GIFT IFSC for the first time.
60. ________ became India’s first payments app to cross 10 crore downloads on Google Play Store.
61. _________ State Government has set up Automatic Service ATMs, ‘E-Mitra Plus’ at 9900 Atal Seva Kendras and 2500 urban location across state, to enable people to access 380 various government services and over 100 services of private sector.
62. _________ signed MoU with POORTI (Platform for Online Ordering and Rural Transformation of India) Agri Services to help farmers buy agricultural inputs like seed, fertilizers and pesticides. POORTI is a platform for buyers and sellers of agricultural inputs.
63. ____________ has disengaged Moody’s Investors Services (Moody’s) to rate its bond programmes, terminating all contracts with Moody’s pertaining to various issues made under its MTN (medium term note) Bond Programme.
64. India signed USD _________ Loan agreement with world bank for Uttar Pradesh Pro-Poor Tourism Development Project.
65. NPA report by by CARE Ratings -
- With NPA Ratio of 9.85 %, India is ranked 5th on list of countries with highest non-performing assets (NPA) levels. Only countries with More NPAs than India are ______________ (36.67%), Italy (16.35%), Portugal (15.52%), and Ireland (11.85%).
66. _________ will raise INR 8000 crores through various sources, to meet Basel III capital norms.
- Indian Banks have to comply with global capital norms under Basel III by March 2019, 3 months later than internationally agreed time frame by January 2019.
67. Finance Ministry reduced interest rates on Small Saving Schemes for January -March 2018 quarter by __________ basis points as compared to October- December 2017 quarter. New interest rates for January -March 2018 quarter are -
-
Small Savings Scheme |
Annual Interest Rate |
Public Provident Fund (PPF) |
7.6% |
National Savings Certificate (NSC) |
7.6% |
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) |
7.3% (11 months maturity) |
Sukanya Samriddhi Account |
8.1% |
5-year Senior Citizens Savings Scheme |
8.3% (Unchanged from previous quarter) |
Savings Deposit |
4.0% (Unchanged from previous quarter) |
Term Deposits (1-5 year maturity) |
6.6% to 7.4% |
5-year Recurring Deposit |
6.9% |
68. _______________ signed agreement with National e-Governance Services Limited (NeSL) for utilizing NESL’s Information Utility Services envisaged under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.
- Government owned NeSL is first Information Utility entity registered by Insolvency and bankruptcy Board of India under IBBI (IU) Regulations 2017.
69. Bank of Baroda accquired Italian bank UniCredit SpA's 51 % stake in Baroda Pioneer Asset Management Company. Now, BoB Owns ________________ of Baroda Pioneer Asset Management Company.
70. Central Government approved Rs. 4066 crore for providing internet connectivity to people in all gram panchayats (GPs) under BharatNet project, launched by Central Government in October 2011 with an aim to deploy high-speed optical fibre cables across rural areas of India.
- BharatNet's ultimate goal is to provide broadband connectivity to all 2.5 Lakh Gram Panchayats in India.
- _______________ Government signed MoU with Central Government for 2nd phase of Bharat Net project, under which 32466 km of optical fiber cable will be laid in 5987 Gram Panchayats of state.
71. ____________ partnered with Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Exchange to leverage blockchain technology for cross-border remittances.
72. Finance Ministry approved post of 4th Whole time member in Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI’s), whose need was being felt due to increased workload post merger of Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with SEBI in 2015.
- SEBI board comprises a chairman (_________________ Currenly), 1 member each from RBI, Finance Ministry and corporate affairs Ministry.
- SEBI's Current 3 whole time members - Madhabi Puri Buch, G Mahalingam and Sanjeev Kaushik.
73. From January 1 2018, farmers in ________________ will get 24-hour free power supply, making it first state to do so. Power utilities in state have spent Rs 12610 crore in setting up new power lines, transformers and sub-stations for this purpose.
74. Government infused over Rs. 7500 crore equity capital in six stressed public sector banks (PSBs)-
Bank |
Infused Amount |
_______________ |
Rs. 2729 crore |
Bank of India |
Rs. 2257 crore |
UCO Bank |
Rs. 1375 crore |
Bank of Maharashtra |
Rs. 650 crore |
Central Bank of India |
Rs. 323 crore |
Dena Bank |
Rs. 243 crore |
75. Indian GDP Growth Projections -
- International Rating Agency Fitch lowererd 2017-18 growth projection to 6.7%, from 6.9%.
- Morgan Stanley predicts Indian economy to witness cyclical growth recovery, with real GDP growth likely to accelerate from 6.4% to 7.5% in 2018 & to 7.7% in 2019.
- Global investment bank Nomura predicted India’s economy to register a 7.5 % growth rate in 2018.
- As per World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018 report by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)UN, Indian economy will grow by ___________ % in 2017-18 and will go up to 7.4 %in 2019.
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered India’s GDP forecast for the current fiscal by 0.3% to 6.7 %. It also revised GDP outlook for next fiscal beginning from March 2018 to 7.3% from 7.4%.
76. International investment firm KKR & Co became first foreign investor to fully own an ARC (________________) in India, as it received an approval from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to start an ARC.
77. Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) classified Indian Banking sector under ‘________________’ of its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment (BICRA), along with Spain, Italy, Ireland, Panama, Poland, Bermuda, Peru, South Africa, Qatar and UAE.
- As per S&P, risk of rising economic imbalances for banks in India is ‘low’ on account of good franchise, extensive branch networks and large domestic savings base.
- However, issue of massive non-performing assets (NPAs) in Indian banking system needs to be addressed.
78. SEBI capped cross-holding in credit rating agencies (CRAs) at _________________ and also raised minimum worth requirement to INR 25 crore from current 5 crores.