1. ________________ Edition Of Agriculture Census Data For 2015-16 Released By Agriculture Ministry -
- Female operational land holders increased from 12.79% in 2010-11 to 13.87% in 2015-16.
- By the number of people tilling the land, Uttar Pradesh topped the chart followed by Bihar and Maharshtra.
- In terms of total operated area: Rajasthan comes first followed by Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
- Among the states, the highest increase in number of operational holdings is topped by Madhya Pradesh followed by Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Meghalaya, Karnataka and Nagaland.
- Goa witnessed the sharpest fall and Manipur had the lowest in number of operational holdings.
- The average size of agriculture landholding declined to 1.08 hectare in 2015-16 from 1.15 hectare in 2010-11.
- The average size of farm holding was the highest in Nagaland at 5.06 hectares and the lowest in Kerala at 0.18 hectare.
2. According to Association of Mutual Funds of India’s (AMFI) statistics, __________________ tops with maximum penetration and Assets Under Management (AUM) of 10.35 lakh crores. It is followed by Delhi having Rs 2.35 lakh crore and Karnataka having Rs 1.76 lakh crores.
3. An ATM for deposit and withdrawal of money for cryptocurrencies has been installed in ___________________’s Kemp Fort Mall by virtual currency exchange Unocoin, as India's First Such. Users can deposit money to buy currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum using an OTP received on their registered numbers.
4. _________________ Govt launched two farmer welfare schemes - Chief Minister's Sashakt Kisan Yojana (CMSKY) and the Chief Ministers Krishi Samuh Yojana (CMKSY).
- CMSKY would subsume 3 programmes - CM's Employment Generation Scheme, CM's Agri-Mechanization Programme and the CM's Flagship Programme on Tea and Rubber.
- CMKSY aims at empowering farmers through cooperative approach, by providing them timely support and marketing intervention for better price realization and income.
5. _________________'s Kempegowda International Airport chosen L&T Construction to construct its Terminal-2 (T2) at approx 3036 crores. It will augment capacity of airport by 25 million passengers per annum.
6. __________________ (BoM) closed its 51 branches across country (out of its approx 1900 branches) as part of cost-cutting measures, as first such measure initiated by any PSB.
7. _________________ acquired artificial intelligence (AI) service provider AuthMe ID Services.
8. ________________ became first Indian stock exchange to launch commodity derivative contracts, with launch of contracts in popular commodities like gold (1kg) and silver (30kg). SEBI recently allowed BSE and NSE to launch commodity derivatives trading under unified exchange regime wherein stock exchanges will be allowed to offer trading in commodities derivatives.
9. CRISIL upgraded _____________________ Small Finance Bank’s Long Term Debt Instruments Rating to CRISIL AA– with Stable Outlook from previous CRISIL A+. Now, Bank’s long-term instruments have got a rating of AA- from all four rating agencies including CARE Ratings, India Ratings and ICRA Ratings.
10. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) released Direct Taxes Data updated up to FY 2017-18 and income-distribution data for AY 2016-17 and AY 2017-18.
- Constant growth in direct tax-GDP ratio over 3 years and ratio of 5.98% in FY 2017-18 is the best DT-GDP ratio in last 10 years.
- Growth of over 80% in number of returns filed in last four financial year, from 3.79 crore in FY 2013-14 to ___________________ crore in FY 2017-18.
- For AY 2014-15, corresponding to FY 2013-14 (base year), return filers declared gross income of 26.92 lakh crores, which has increased by 67% to Rs.44.88 lakh crore for AY 2017-18.
- 88,649 taxpayers disclosed income above 1 crore in AY 2014-15, which increased to 1,40,139 for AY 2017-18 (growth of 60%).
- Individual taxpayers disclosing income above Rs. 1 crore increased during the period under reference from 48,416 to 81,344, which translates into a growth of 68%.
11. Finance Ministry increased interest rates for non-governmental provident funds, gratuity and superannuation to ________________ from existing 7.6 %, Also hiking interest rates for small savings schemes by 40 basis points. Changes are effective from October to December 2018.
12. Financial Firm ______________ launched an instant loan approval and disbursal product called ‘Boost’, which will enable disbursal of loans upto 60000 within 90 seconds.
13. Financial Firm __________________________ became leading contributor to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments with over 33% of overall market share, with over 137 million UPI transactions in September 2018.
14. ______________________ signed pact with Bajaj Allianz to provide insurance to customers buying smartphones from its platform. Customers who buy the plan will be offered either a cash payout, or a free pickup, service and drop facility if their devices get damaged or stolen. Minimum insurance price for scheme is 99 for a year.
15. Foreign Bank State Bank of _________________’ India operations was hit by cyber fraud of USD 14 million. SBM got RBI approval to operate as a subsidiary in India in August 2018.
16. Government approved a special package for employment generation in leather and footwear sector, involving implementation of Central Sector Scheme - Indian Footwear, Leather & Accessories Development Programme (IFLADP) with expenditure of _______________ Crores for 2017-20.
- To boost leather industry in Tamil Nadu under IFLADP, 4 projects with outlay of 107 crores are approved - Upgradation of Tala Trichy Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at Trichy, Pallavaram CETP at Nagalkeni Chrompet, and SIDCO Phase-I CEPT at Ranipet and Perundurai leather industries Eco Security Pvt. Ltd. at Erode.
- DIPP also approved mega leather cluster at Bantala in West Bengal.
17. Government notified sale of electoral bond by ______________________ through its 29 authorized branches from 1-11-2018 to 10-11-2018.
- Electoral Bond is just like a promissory note that will be payable to bearer on demand and free of interest, aimed at Transparent political funding.
- A party registered under the Representation of People’s act, 1951 and securing not less than one percent of the votes polled in the preceding election is entitled to receive the electoral bonds.
- Electoral Bonds are valid for fifteen calendar days from date of issue.
- Bonds are issued in multiples of 1000, 10000, 1 lakh, 10 lakh, 1 crore. Cash donation has been capped at Rs. 2000 and beyond that donations are via electoral bonds.
18. Government reduced excise duty on jet fuel to 11 % from current __________________, in order to help the aviation industry that has been affected by high fuel prices.
19. Government will issue Sovereign Gold Bonds every month from October 2018 to February 2019 as per Given schedule, through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices, NSE and BSE.
| S.No. |
Tranche |
Period of Subscription |
Date of Issuance |
| 1 |
2018-19 Series II |
October 15-19, 2018 |
October 23, 2018 |
| 2 |
2018-19 Series III |
November 05-09, 2018 |
November 13, 2018 |
| 3 |
2018-19 Series IV |
December 24-28, 2018 |
January 01, 2019 |
| 4 |
2018-19 Series V |
January 14–18, 2019 |
January 22, 2019 |
| 5 |
2018-19 Series VI |
February 04-08, 2019 |
February 12, 2019 |
- Features of Bond -
| Item |
Details |
| Eligibility |
Bonds will be restricted for sale to resident individuals, HUFs, Trusts, Universities and Charitable Institutions. |
| Denomination |
Bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of 1 gram. |
| Tenor |
Tenor will be for 8 years with exit option in 5th, 6th and 7th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates. |
| Minimum size |
Minimum permissible investment will be 1 gram of gold. |
| Maximum limit |
4 KG for individual, 4 Kg for HUF and 20 Kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March). |
| Issue / Redemption price |
Price will be fixed in INR on basis of simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity, published by India Bullion and Jewellers Association Limited for last 3 working days of week preceding subscription period (50 per gram less for online payments) |
| Payment option |
Cash payment (upto a maximum of `20,000) or demand draft or cheque or electronic banking. |
| Interest rate |
The investors will be compensated at a fixed rate of _______________________________________ per annumpayable semi-annually on the nominal value. |
| Collateral |
Can be used as collateral for loans. Loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is to be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by RBI. |
| Tax treatment |
Interest on Gold Bonds shall be taxable as per provision of Income Tax Act 1961. Capital gains tax arising on redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted. |
| SLR eligibility |
Bonds acquired by banks shall be counted towards Statutory Liquidity Ratio. |
| Commission |
Commission for distribution of bond shall be paid at rate of 1 Rupee per 100 Rupees of total subscription received. Receiving offices shall share at least paise 50 per hundred Rupees of commission so received with agents. |
20. Government’s gross direct tax collection rose 16.7% to Rs _________________________ lakh crore in first six months of Current FY 2018-19. Government issued refunds of Rs 1.03 lakh crore in the first six months, 30.4% higher than theamount returned during same period last year.
21. Govt. Owned _________________________ closed down its operations at New Jersey in Channel Islands (USA), soon after it recently closed down its operations in Yangoon, Bostwana and Dubai.
22. IDFC bank will change its name to ‘______________________’, after amalgamation with non-banking financial company Capital First.
23. IRDA approved micro-insurance policies (sum assured of _________________ or less) disbursal through point-of-sales (PoS), to promote insurance coverage among economically vulnerable sections.
24. IT Industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) launched its Centre of Excellence for the Internet of Things (CoE – IoT) at Gurugram (_________________________). It will provide platform to best minds from industry, academia, start-ups and government to drive culture of collaboration and co-creation to find solutions to accelerate India’s economic development.
- NASSCOM also stated that Indian BPM industry is largest in world, generating revenue close to $32.5 billion and an employee strength of 1.2 million. It now holds more than a 37% share in global sourcing and is witnessing a 1.7x revenue growth.
25. Loan Agreemments signed by India in October 2018 -
- $110 million loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) to finance upgrade of 2800 kilometers all-weather rural roads in State of Madhya Pradesh under Prime Minister's Rural Roads Program (PMGSY). It is part of $500 million Second Rural Connectivity investment Program for India approved by ADB in December 2017.
- $ 100 Million Loan Agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) to expand Sewerage and Drainage Coverage in Kolkata (West Bengal).
- $150 Million Loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for continued improvements to road connectivity and efficiency of International Trade Corridor in West Bengal and North-Eastern Region of lndia.
- $240 million loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for providing safe and sustainable drinking water to about 1.65 million people in three districts of state of __________________________________.
26. Indian Fertiliser major IFFCO ranked as _______________________ cooperative in world by ‘World Cooperative Monitor’ report 2018, by International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse).
- IFFCO has nearly 36000 member co-operatives and a turnover of nearly USD 3 billion (FY 2017-18). It has retained this position from 2016.
27. Indian GDP Growth Forecasts (October 2018) -
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) predicted GDP growth of India for 2018 to be at ______________________________.
- International Monetary Fund (IMF) retained its India growth forecast for current year at 7.3% in FY19 and 7.4% in FY20, in IMF's World Economic Outlook (WTO) Report. With this, India will retain tag of fastest growing Major Economy.
- In 2017, India had clocked a 6.7 per cent growth rate. China was the fastest growing economy in 2017 as it was ahead of India by 0.2 percentage points.
- In China, growth is projected to moderate from 6.9 % in 2017 to 6.6 % in 2018 and 6.2 % in 2019.
- International growth projections for both this year and next are downgraded to 3.7 %.
- Growth rate of US for 2018 is 2.9 % and that of 2019 has been powered to 2.5 %.
28. _____________ Infrastructure Investment Fund Board will issue masala bonds worth Rs. 5,000 crore to mobilise funds for various development works, with appointment of Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings for rating its masala bonds issue. The bonds will be listed in London and Singapore stock exchanges.
- Masala bonds are rupee-denominated bonds through which Indian entities can raise money from foreign markets in rupee and not in foreign currency. It is debt instruments used by corporates to raise money from foreign investors in local currency.
29. Life insurer ___________________ launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered customer service app ‘Khushi’.
30. Ministry of Corporate Affairs launched facility for completely online incorporation of Limited Liability Partnership (LLP). LLP Rules have been amended and came into effect from 02nd October 2018 -
- Introduction of a Web Service titled ‘RUN-LLP (_________________________________________)’ replacing the erstwhile Form 1 (Application for reservation or change of name).
- Introduction of a new integrated Form christened FiLLiP (Form for incorporation of Limited Liability Partnership) replacing the erstwhile Form 2 (Incorporation document and subscriber’s statement) combining therein 3 services i.e.,
- Name reservation.
- Allotment of Designated Partner Identification Number (DPIN/DIN).
- Note -
- In January 2016, Central Registry Centre (CRC) was established for online incorporation of companies and reserving unique names. Simplified Proforma for Incorporating Company Electronically (SPICe) and Reserve Unique Name (RUN) were launched.
- Now, PAN and TAN are issued on near real time basis by integrating online process with department of Income Tax. DIN is also allotted to the individuals at time of their appointment as Director in Company.
- Every week, over 2700 are incorporated through online company incorporation system.
31. Mahindra Mutual Fund launched new open ended equity scheme called ‘_______________________’, to provide investors an opportunity to participate in India growth story predominantly in Rural India.
32. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship launched Closing the Skills Gap Task Force in India, in collaboration with World Economic Forum (WEF). It will be chaired by Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan along with Salil Parekh (__________________ MD & CEO). It aims to develop action plan to address skills gaps in India and make Indian workforce ready for jobs of future.
33. Moody’s Investors Service stated that profitability of Indian banks is “distinctively weak” compared to other BRICS nations.
- In India, asset quality is weak due to stressed public sector banks, which dominate the sector. Indian banks have a tangible common equity ratio of _______________________ % at the end of 2017. Although profitability will improve from the next fiscal year as asset quality stabilizes.
- Comparing to BRICS, Indian lenders had 2nd highest NPA stats at 2017-end, followed by banks in Brazil (3.5 %), South Africa (2.9 %) and China (1.5 %). Russian banks had the highest NPA ratio of 11.8 %.
34. NABARD signed MoU with Delhi-based Ayurvet Research Foundation (ARF) to facilitate several collaborative initiatives for integrated agricultural and rural development of ______________________.
35. NSDL Payments Bank started operations as ____________________ payments bank, since RBI gave approval to 11 applicants in August 2015. Vodafone m-Pesa Ltd is the only applicant left to set up its payments bank, while 3 entities have surrendered their licenses.
36. NSE Indices launched 2 dynamic asset allocation indices designed to combine equity and debt. These are - Nifty 50 & short duration debt –Dynamic P/E index AND Nifty 50 & short duration debt – Dynamic P/B index.
- These compare current price-earnings ratio (P/E) or price-book ratio (P/B) with historical P/E or P/B ratio of Nifty 50 in previous seven years. Maximum allocation to equity is 80 % and minimum allocation is ____________________.
37. National Housing Bank (NHB increased Refinance limit of Housing Finance Companies in current year (July 2018-June 2019) to ________________ crores up from 24000 crores. Its a credit flow to Housing Finance Companies & other Institutions.
- NHB is Principal Agency to promote Housing Finance Institutions (currently 97), and to provide financial support to eligible institutions.
38. _____________________________ (NIIF) will make an investment of 660 crores in HDFC real estate investment platform HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate – 2 (H-CARE 2). H-CARE 2 has a wider platform targeting affordable and mid-income residential projects in India and will play a significant role in progressing towards government’s flagship programme, Housing for All by 2022.
39. Prime Minister’s ___________________________________ (PM-STIAC) made it mandatory for medium and large enterprises in key sectors to set aside funds for research and development.
- It said that R&D investment in India has been stagnant for 20 years at 0.6-0.7% of GDP, with that by private sector at 0.35%
- An Advanced Mission Mode Innovation and Research (ADMIRE) is proposed to be launched by line ministries to provide direct R&D grants to industry on a 50-50 model through competitive bidding.
- Ministries have been mandated to allocate at least 2% of their budgets as research and innovation grants related to priority concerns.
40. ___________________ Updates -
- Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) issued its fourth bi-monthly statement.It decided to keep policy repo rate under liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.5 %. GDP growth projection for 2018-19 is retained at 7.4 %. Current Monetary Policy Rates are -
- Repo Rate - 6.50 %
- Reverse Repo - 6.25 %
- Bank Rate - 6.75 %
- CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) - 4 %
- SLR(Statutory Liquidity ratio) - 19.5 %
- Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate - 6.75 %
- Allowed Fino Payments Bank to open new accounts, After 5 months of staying barred.
- Allowed state-owned oil companies to borrow long-term working capital from overseas (relaxing policy on borrowing up to 10 billion USD). RBI has allowed state-owned oil companies to raise ECB (External Commercial Borrowings) of minimum maturity of 3 or 5 years.
- Announced more measures to increase liquidity flows to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). RBI permitted banks to use government securities equal to their incremental outstanding credit to NBFCs, over and above their outstanding credit, to be used to meet liquidity coverage ratio requirements. Also,
- Allowed banks to avail up to 15% of holdings under statutory liquidity reserves to meet liquidity coverage ratio norms.
- Cancelled Certificate of Registration of 31 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
- Approved license for Germany based Kreditech, to operate as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) for digital lending business and app-based financing.
- Approved proposal of Kerala government for the formation of Kerala Bank, decided by special task force headed by M S Sriram. Bank will be formed by consolidating State Cooperative Bank and 14 district cooperatives, with net deposit amount of INR 65000 Crores. Unification will be completed by March 2019.
- injected INR 12000 crores into system through purchase of government bonds, under Open Market Operations. Purchase of government securities maturing will bear interest rate of - 8.27 % in 2020, 8.15 % in 2022, 7.35 % in 2024, 8.15 % in 2026 and 7.61 % in 2030.
- Issued guidelines for operating Electronic Trading Platforms (ETPs) to transact in eligible instruments. Trading on electronic platforms is being encouraged across the world as it enhances pricing transparency, processing efficiency and risk control.
- As per norms,ETPs will mean any electronic system, other than a recognised stock exchange, on which transactions in eligible instruments. ETP Operator’ shall mean an entity authorised by RBI to operate an ETP under these Directions.
- An entity seeking authorisation as an ETP operator should possess and maintain a minimum net-worth of Rs 5 crore at all times.
- Proposed a flexible route for FPIs to invest in debt markets, called: voluntary retention route (VRR). Under this, a FPI will be required to invest a minimum of 67% of committed portfolio size (CPS) within 1 month.
- Under VRR-Govt, foreign portfolio investors will be eligible to invest in any government security, including treasury bills.
- Under VRR-Corp, FPIs may invest in corporate debt instruments, including commercial papers.
- FPIs under VVR would be eligible for participating in repo for liquidity only if their amount doesn’t exceed 10% of their investment under VRR.
- Will inject 40000 crores into system in November 2018, through open market operation (OMO), amid festive season demand for funds.
- Released operational guidelines to facilitate payments among prepaid instruments (PPI) (mobile wallets), to Further promote digital transactions. It elaborate on requirements for achieving interoperability for mobile wallets and cards, and norms for customer protection and grievance redressal.
- Interoperability will be achieved in phased manner i.e. initially inter-operability of PPIs issued in form of wallets through UPI, and later between wallets and bank accounts through UPI, and interoperability for PPIs issued in form of cards through card networks.
- It will be facilitated to all KYC-compliant PPI accounts and entire acceptance infrastructure. In case where PPIs are issued in form of cards, then cards will be affiliated to authorised card networks.
- Card networks are also allowed to onboard PPI issuers to join their network. Non-bank PPI issuers are permitted to participate as members/associate members of authorised card networks.
41. Recently released ___________________ Ecowrap report stated that Rupee depreciation did not help trade benefit, with incremental trade deficit of $4 billion in the first half of current fiscal year. Industries like petroleum, NBFCs, power, telecommunication and automobile were heavily borrowing through automatic route and contributing to over 71% of total borrowing.
42. ___________________ Health Insurance received final approval from IRDAI for its new health insurance business. Ravi Viswanath has been appointed as CEO of new health insurance company.
43. _______________________ signed strategic investment partnership with Den Networks and Hathway Cable and Datacom, to accelerate Jio GigaFiber rollout to 50 million homes across 1,100 cities. It will invest 2045 crores for 66% stake in Den and 2940 crores for a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited (Hathway).
44. ____________ Updates -
- Halved ATM withdrawal limit from 40000 to 20000 per day, for debit cards of ‘Classic’ and ‘ Maestro’ platforms. It aims to reduce number of fraudulent transactions and promote cashless transactions.
- Launched its wealth business services by opening “Wealth Hub” at Lalbagh branch in Mangalore (Karnataka), becoming first PSU bank to introduce comprehensive wealth business services for its clients.
- Signed agreement with Hitachi Payment Services India, to form a joint venture for establishing a card acceptance and digital payment platform.
45. ________________ allowed foreign entities to participate in commodity derivatives market of stock exchanges for hedging their exposures.
- Earlier, foreign entities were not permitted to directly participate in Indian commodity derivatives market, even if they imported or exported various commodities from and to India.
- Foreign entities participating in Indian commodity markets shall be known as eligible foreign entities (EFEs). They will be eligible for all commodity derivatives (except contracts defined as sensitive commodity).
- All eligible EFEs are mandated to have actual exposure to Indian physical commodity markets with minimum net worth requirement of $500,000.
- It will increase liquidity, especially in commodities like guar gum, guar seed, mustard seeds and cardamom that are not traded in other international exchanges. It will also expand participation of foreign entities in metals commodities.
46. ____________________ displaced Accenture as world’s largest IT firm servicing banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. It got $2.07 billion in business from sector in July-September period as compared to Accenture’s $2.01 billion in June-August period.
47. To check Rising Fuel prices, Government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs __________________. Government and oil companies will absorb the price cut by INR 1.50 and 1 respectively. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also urged state governments to reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel by another INR 2.50.
48. ______________ partnered with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to train small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs on using the app to connect with customers and growing their businesses.
49. World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) approved investment of _____________________ million in India Resurgence Fund (IRF), a joint venture of Piramal Enterprise Limited and Bain Capital.
