1. RBI released new guidelines for all notes which were introduced post note ban imposed in November 2016, ending lack of clarity over exchange of the New 2000 / 200 currency notes, introduced post demonetisation.
- Rs 2000 and Rs 200 (issued in November 2016 and September 2017 respectively) could not be governed by old rules due to their difference in size.
- As per new Rules, the undivided area of the single largest piece of the note for a damaged Rs 2000 note must be _____________________ square cm for a full refund, and 44 square cm for half refund. Rs 2000 note is 109.56 square cm in dimension.
- For a damaged Rs 200 note, the criteria is 78 square cm for a full refund, and 39 square cm for half refund.
2. SBI increased its benchmark lending rates or MCLR by ___________________ across all tenors upto 3 years.
3. 1st Advance Estimates of production of major Kharif crops for 2018-19 released by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare. As per 1st Advance Estimates, the estimated production of major crops during Kharif 2018-19 is -
- Foodgrains – ___________________________ million tonnes.
- Rice – 99.24 million tonnes.
- Nutri / Coarse Cereals – 33.13 million tonnes.
- Maize – 21.47 million tonnes.
- Pulses – 9.22 million tonnes.
- Tur – 4.08 million tonnes.
- Urad – 2.65 million tonnes.
- Oilseeds – 22.19 million tonnes.
- Soyabean – 13.46 million tonnes
- Groundnut – 6.33 million tonnes
- Castorseed – 1.52 million tonnes
- Cotton – 32.48 million bales (of 170 kg each)
- Jute & Mesta -10.17 million bales (of 180 kg each)
- Sugarcane – 383.89 million tonnes
4. 2 Loan Agreements signed between India and JICA (_____________________) for -
- Construction of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (I) of Yen 89.457 billion (Rs.5591 crore approx).
- Kolkata East-West Metro Project (III) of Yen 25.903 billion (Rs.1619 crore approx).
5. A ____________________ report named A Glass Half Full: The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia, India’s trade in goods with South Asia could be at $62 billion and that with Pakistan could be at $37 billion without trade barriers, up from $19 billion with South Asia and $2 billion with Pakistan currently.
6. According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, _____________________ was top source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India in 2017-18 followed by Singapore. Total FDI in FY18 stood at $37.36 billion in financial year which was marginal rise over $36.31 billion recorded in the previous fiscal 2016-17.
7. Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) sold its supermarket chain More to Witzig Advisory Services, owned by Samara Alternative Investment Fund, for approx ________________ Crores. Amazon, in a deal with Samara, will be eventually picking up a 49% stake.
8. After recent launch of world's largest mobile phone-manufacturing factory in Noida, _______________ has now opened its biggest experience centre in Bengaluru (Karnataka).
9. Agreement signed between Heavy Water Board (HWB) and Greenstar Fertilizers Limited for routing of phosphoric acid through Solvent Extraction Plant at Tuticorin (___________________). It enable recovery and extraction of rare material from phosphoric acid using solvent extraction process developed by HWB based on the in-house solvents produced by HWB.
10. Airline SpiceJet will start a dedicated air cargo service under the __________________ brand from September 18.
11. ___________________ Payment Bank launched card-less cash withdrawals at over 100,000 ATMs across India. The technology can be used for self-withdrawal or for sending money to an intended recipient for ATM cash withdrawal.
12. All contributions to home ministry’s ‘Bharat Ke Veer’ fund have been exempted from income tax under 80(G), formalising it nto a registered trust. Bharat Ke Veer initiative is a trust fund where people can aids families of paramilitary personnel who died fighting extremists. It has been formed with seven trustees headed by the __________________ Rajiv Gauba.
13. __________________ government launched a mobile platform, e-Rythu (e-farmer in Telugu) which will enable small-scale farmers to market their produce at reasonable prices. It has been developed by Mastercard Labs for Financial Inclusion in Nairobi, Kenya, and has been customized for India use.
14. ___________________ became first State in North East India to introduce Smart e-Public Distribution System (e-PDS), developed by Madras Security Printers. It provides centralized online real-time electronic PDS to improve efficiency in supplying commodities to the beneficiaries.
15. As per a RBI Report, India’s current account deficit (CAD) widened to a four-quarter-high at _____________________ of gross domestic product (GDP) in April-June period, from 1.9% of GDP in the January-March quarter of 2017-18.
16. As per recent report, FDI in ________________________ sector has jumped nearly five times in last three years – from USD 1.3 Billion in 2015-16 to USD 6.2 Billion in 2017-18. Draft National Digital Communications Policy 2018 aims to attract investment of USD 100 billion in Digital Communications Sector.
17. Loan Agreements in September 2018 -
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved financing of up to $500 million for a multi tranche financing facility (MFF) infrastructure project in various cities of Tamil Nadu.
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide US $150 million loan for establishing first multi-skills park of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal. It will create more skilled workforce that meets labour market needs of the state.
- India signed Loan Agreement of US$74 million with World Bank Group's IBRD, for _____________________________ Workforce Development Project. The Project has a 5-year grace period, and a maturity of 17 years. Closing date for Project is 30th June, 2023.
- BRICS' Bank (New Development Bank) approved a $525-million loan for infrastructure projects in Madhya Pradesh, for rehabilitating major district roads with a total length of about 2,000 km. NDB Headquarters is in Shanghai (China), with K.V. Kamath as President.
18. BSNL signed pact with ____________________’s Softbank and NTT Communications to roll out 5G and internet of things (IoT) technology in India. As per BSNL, 5G will be launched in India in 2020 as soon standards are freezed by ITU.
19. Cabinet extended Atal Pension Scheme, which had lapsed in August 2018.
- To further incentivize people’s participation, age criterion for participation has been revised. Earlier, people of age 18 to 60 years were entitled to enroll in this scheme. But now it has been relaxed further to _________________ years.
- All accounts opened after August 2018 will have accident insurance limit of Rs 2 lakh, double than earlier Rs 1 lakh limit.
- The overdraft facility of the scheme was also increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
- Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is a social security scheme that aims to provide affordable universal access to essential social security protection to unorganized work force of country, which constitute more than 85% of workforce.
- It had replaced earlier government-backed pension Swavalamban scheme targeted at the unorganised sector. It was launched in June 2015. It is available to all citizens of India in age group of 18-40 years.
20. _______________ opened a portal to claim education loan interest subsidy for FY 2017-18, under Central sector interest subsidy (CSIS) scheme of HRD Ministry.
- According to this, Full interest subsidy is provided to eligible students for course period plus one year for loans up to Rs.7.5 lakh. Tamil Nadu is the top state availing this loan.
21. Capital markets regulator ________________________ (SEBI) allowed Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, to launch commodity derivatives trading from 1 October, 2018. It is done as part of SEBI’s December 2017 announcement of having unified exchange regime wherein stock exchanges will be allowed to offer trading in commodities derivatives.
- Universal exchanges will help in achieving integration of trading in commodity derivatives market with other segments of securities market at exchange level. It will help in providing efficient price discovery, reduction in timelines, cost effective, user-friendly, robust risk management system and wider market penetration.
- In long term, Indian exchanges will find it easier to compete with their global counterparts and they are present in multiple segments.
- SEBI also approved several proposals, including a revised framework for settlement of cases and new KYC norms for foreign portfolio investors. It allowed foreign investors to trade in commodity derivatives market, except for sensitive commodities, as well as common application form for registration of FPIs in domestic market.
22. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) released its annual report on additional tax from MNCs through 219 APAs (199 unilateral and 20 bilateral). As per report, In FY18, MNCs have acquired an extra income of Rs 10,000 crore, translating into a tax of Rs 3,000 crore.
- APAs (________________________) are primarily aimed at avoiding transfer pricing disputes arising from cross-border transactions undertaken by MNCs. It is an ahead-of-time agreement between a taxpayer and a tax authority.
23. Central Government enhanced its contribution in State Disaster Response fund (SDRF) from 75% to _________________________, from April 2018. Additional contribution thus rising for Central Government in SDRF will be 1690 crores for 2018-19 and 1774 crores for 2019-20.
- Under Disaster Management Act 2005, SDRF has been constituted in each State in which Centre, so far, had been contributing 75% for General Category States and 90% for Special Category States of hilly regions every year.
- On recommendations of 14th Finance Commission (Headed by Y V Reddy and opeational between 2015-20), Government significantly enhanced allocation to SDRF by 82.30% (from 33580 crores during 2010-11 to 2014-15 to 61,220 crore 2015-16 to 2019-20.
24. Department of Financial Services (DFS) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) jointly developed a mobile app called _______________, as a part of financial inclusion (FI) initiatives. It will guide common people in locating a financial service touch point at a given location.
- With over 5 lakh FI touch points (Bank branches, ATMs, Post Offices) mapped on App, approx. 1.35 lakh Bank Mitras would be on-boarded by December 2018.
25. Economic Affairs Secretary SC Garghas announced a reduction in gross borrowing estimate for current fiscal by _____________________ crore rupees, stating that government will contain fiscal deficit target at 3.3 %.
26. Employee’s State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) rolled out ______________________________ for providing unemployment allowance to workers rendered jobless due to changing employment pattern, during 175th ESI Corporation meeting in New Delhi.
- Amid changing scenario of employment in India, from long to fixed short term engagement, there is need to provide assistance to employees in case they get unemployed for sometime and search new job.
- Its beneficiaries will be insured persons covered under ESI Act 1948 for 2 years continuously. Financial assistance will be given to insured persons even while they search for new engagement.
- Beneficiaries will be paid money, from their own contribution towards ESI scheme, in cash through bank account transfer.
- Under this scheme, workers will be able to draw 47% of their total contributions towards ESIC after remaining unemployed for at least 3v months.
27. End-to-end IoT service provider Unlimit partnered with ____________________ to offer comprehensive Internet of Things (IoT) services to enterprise customers across India.
28. ______________________ signed MOU with Infopark Kakkanad for leasing space in their campus, after obtaining RBI approval for creation of a subsidiary company.
29. Finance Ministry increased pecuniary limit to INR ___________________ lakh from 10 lakh for filing loan recovery application in Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRT) by banks and financial institutions. It means that banks or financial institutions cannot approach DRTs if pecuniary limit amount due is less than Rs 20 lakh. This move is aimed at helping reduce pendency of cases in DRTs.
30. First-ever ___________________ International Short Film Festival (MISFF) held at Aijal Club in Aizawl.
31. Government announced several measures to check rising Current Account Deficit (CAD) and fall in Indian Rupee. CAD had widened to ___________________________ of GDP in the first quarter of 2018-19, compared to 1.9 % a quarter before. Indian Rupee is touching new Lows everyday, staying over 70 / USD. Several steps to be taken by government to curb these issues -
- To permit manufacturing sector entities to avail of External Commercial Borrowing (ECBs) up to $50 million with minimum maturity of one year, instead of the earlier limit of three years.
- Removing restrictions with respect to FPI exposure limit of 20 % in corporate bond portfolio to a single corporate group or company or entity and 50 % of any issue of corporate bond.
- Removal of withholding tax on rupee-denominated bonds known as Masala bonds issued till March 2019.
32. Government approved complete electrification of Indian Railways by 2021-22, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuel and saving revenue. It will cost approx _______________________ crores.
- CCEA’s decision covers only electrifying remaining 13,675 kilometers (16,540 track kilometers). Currently, around 48% of 61,680 km broad gauge railway network is electrified. This approval does not cover 3,479 km of metre gauge and 2,209 of broad gauge network.
- After complete electrification, India will be having second largest electrified railway networks in the world after China, which has 87,000 km electrified network (around 68% of its network) and only large railway with 100 % electrification.
33. Government made Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) an open-ended scheme and added more incentives to encourage people to open bank accounts. It was launched in August 2014 for a period of four years
- Overdraft limit for account holders has now been doubled to Rs ________________________.
- Free accident insurance cover for those opening Jan Dhan accounts after August 28 too has been doubled to Rs 2 lakh
- There will be no conditions attached for over-draft of up to Rs 2,000.
- Upper age limit for availing the facility has also been hiked to 65 from the earlier 60 years.
34. Government modifies operational guidelines for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) -
- Provision of Penalties for States, ICs and Banks - _______________________ interest rate to be paid by Insurance Company to farmers for delay in settlement claims beyond 2 months of prescribed cut off date. State Govt. will pay __________________ interest rate for delay in release of State share of Subsidy beyond three months of prescribed cut off date/submission of requisition by Insurance Companies.
- Detailed Standard Operating Procedure for Performance evaluation of ICs and their de-empanelment.
- Inclusion of Perennial horticultural crops (on pilot basis) under PMFBY.
- Inclusion of cloud burst and natural fire in localized calamities in addition to hailstorm, landslide, and inundation. Add on coverage for crop loss due to attack of wild animals on pilot basis.
- Mandatory capturing of Adhaar number, to avoid duplication.
- Rationalization of methodology for calculation of TY - Moving average of best 5 out of 7 years for calculation of claim amount.
- More time to insured farmer to intimate individual claims – 72 hours (instead of 48 hours).
- To ensure that more non-loanee farmers are insured under scheme, insurance companies are given a target of enrolling 10% more non-loanee farmers than previous corresponding season.
- Insurance companies will mandatorily spend 0.5% of gross premium per company per season for publicity and awareness of scheme.
- Release of upfront premium subsidy will be made at beginning of the season based on 50% of 80% of total share of subsidy of corresponding season of previous year as GOI/State subsidy.
35. Government of India approved changes in interest rates for Small Savings Schemes for Third Quarter of the Current Financial Year 2018-19 (October - December 2018). Updated interest rates are -
-
Name |
Rate of interest in Current Quarter (July - September 2018) |
Rate of interest in Current Quarter (October - December 2018) |
Compounding frequency |
Savings Deposit |
4.0 |
4.0 |
Annually |
1 Year Time Deposit |
6.6 |
6.9 |
Quarterly |
2 Year Time Deposit |
6.7 |
7.0 |
Quarterly |
3 Year Time Deposit |
6.9 |
7.2 |
Quarterly |
5 Year Time Deposit |
7.4 |
7.8 |
Quarterly |
5 Year Recurring Deposit |
6.9 |
7.3 |
Quarterly |
5 Year Senior Citizen Savings Scheme |
8.3 |
8.7 |
Quarterly and paid |
5 Year Monthly Income Account |
7.3 |
7.7 |
Monthly and paid |
5 Year National Savings Certificate |
7.6 |
8.0 |
Annually |
Public Provident Fund Scheme |
7.6 |
8.0 |
Annually |
Kisan Vikas Patra |
7.3 (will mature in 118 months) |
7.7 (will mature in 112 months) |
Annually |
Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme |
8.1 |
______________________ |
Annually |
36. Government proposed merger of state-owned Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and _________________________ in order to create India’s third-largest bank. It aims to make banks stronger and sustainable as well as increase their lending ability.
- After this merger announcement, Fitch Ratings ranked BOB’s viability ration to ‘rating watch negative’. It currently stands at ‘bb’. It reflects potential negative effects of the merger in the long term, as merged entity would have larger bad loans.
37. _________________ government formed a committee to look into complaints of farmers who have not received timely compensation for crop loss.
- State government also increased insurance cover compensation for farmers in event of accidental death or disability. Compensation doubled for Accidental death from 1 lakh to 2 lakh, and Partial disability from 50000 to 1 lakh.
38. _______________________ retained its top spot in the Brand India Top 50 for the fifth year in a row. Its brand value grew by 21 % to $21.7 billion in 2018. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) comes at the second spot, while Tata Consultancy Services ranked third on the list.
39. ICICI Prudential Life inked pact with _____________________ to offer insurance products to its customers.
40. IRDA raised minimum insurance cover for owner-driver to Rs. ___________________________ lakh for a premium of Rs. 750 per annum, a move to provide some succour to road accident victims. Currently, capital sum insured (CSI) under this section for motorised two-wheelers and private cars/commercial vehicles is 1 lakh and 2 lakh, respectively.
41. India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and Life Insurer _______________________ partnered to provide life insurance solutions, especially at doorstep of every household in country. It will leverage IPPB last mile reach for building awareness about life insurance.
42. India will overtake ______________________ as world’s third-largest economy by 2030, according to a report by UK’s HSBC Holdings. India's GDP will stand at $5.9 trillion in 2030, compared to $2.59 trillion at end of 2017. Notably, India recently surpassed France to become 6th largest economy.
43. Indian GDP Growth Forecasts (September 2018) -
- Fitch Ratings upgraded India’s growth forecast for current fiscal to _________________________ from 7.4% earlier.
- Asian Development Bank’s (ADB)'s Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2018 stated that India’s economy is in an upward trajectory and GDP forecast remains unchanged at 7.3 % for 2018, and 7.6 % for 2019.
44.
- Indian IT Firm ______________ acquired Finnish company Fluido, a top consulting partner of Salesforce, for 65 million euros (about Rs 545 crore).
- Indian IT Firm ______________ signed a 3-year partnership with Tennis Grand Slam Tournament Australian Open as its official digital innovation partner.
45. Indian ride-hailing company Ola launched its operations in _____________________________, beginning in Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington. Ola earlier launched its services in Australia in February and U.K. in August.
46. Insurance Firm _______________________ launched 'E@Secure', a Cyber Insurance Policy for individuals, to provide protection against any cyber-attacks, cyber frauds or digital threats that could lead to a financial loss and or reputational loss.
47. International Labour Organisation (ILO) predicted that India’s unemployment rate in 2018 will stay at ___________________________. China’s unemployment rate will rise from 4.7 to 4.8 %. However, 77 % of employment in India would remain “vulnerable”, against just 33 % in China.
48. ___________________ has replaced Saudi Arabia as India’s largest oil supplier in August, according to Reuters. Despite the lower purchases amid US sanctions on Iranian oil, Iran remained third biggest oil supplier to India during August 2018.
49. _________________ cabinet approved final draft of state's first Education Policy, to address issues related to education sector. In March 2017, a 24-member Task Force was constituted to finalise State Education Policy.
50. Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh launched Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) in New Delhi, with outlay of ____________________________ crores.
- Additional milk processing capacity of 126 lakh litre per day, milk drying capacity of 210 MT per day, milk chilling capacity of 140 lakh litre per day shall be created.
- Under this scheme, milk cooperatives will be provided financial assistance of Rs 8004 crore in the form of a loan at 6.5% interest, which will be reimbursed over 10 years.
- Other schemes for Dairy Development -
- World Bank-funded National Dairy Plan Phase-I scheme is being done by NDDB through state government’s cooperative milk organizations/milk federations.
- Implementation of the National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) is being done by state's cooperative/milk federations, for development of cooperative milk committees, incentives to increase the number of milk producers and increase processing and refrigeration capacity.
- Rashtriya Gokul Mission, which Aims to Conserve and Develop Indigenous Breeds.
51. Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley launched a transformative initiative in MSME credit space, with URL portal www.psbloansin59minutes.com, which will enable in principle approval for MSME loans up to INR 1 crore within ________________ minutes from SIDBI and 5 Public Sector Banks (SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Vijaya and Indian Bank).
- It sets a new benchmark in loan processing and reduces the turnaround time from 20-25 days to 59 minutes. Subsequent to this in principle approval, loan will be disbursed in 7-8 working days.
- The loans are undertaken without human intervention till sanction / disbursement stage. A User Friendly Platform has been built where MSME borrower is not required to submit any physical document for in-principle approval.
52. Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley reviewed performance of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) with their Chief Executives and other Whole-time Directors in _________________________________.
- Review took note of continued improvement in banking in terms of highest ever recovery in the last quarter, pick-up in credit growth to 13.5%, growth in MSME lending to 10.5%, highest Provision Coverage Ratio in over five years, and higher operating profits.
- Highlights of Review include -
- Targeting recovery of 180000 crores, up from Rs. 74,562 crore in last FY.
- Mobilising over 18500 crore through monetisation of banks’ Non-core assets in current FY for strengthening capital base of PSBs.
- Complete rationalisation of foreign operations of PSBs by March 2019, with closure/consolidation of 57 branches/office
- PCA banks would pursue their Quarterly Performance Milestones, including improvement in their lending risk profiles through a 6% reduction in Credit RWA to Advances Ratio and 8% reduction in Cost to Income Ratio.
- Banks would complete action by December 2018 on fraud detection and initiation of action in respect of NPAs with outstanding of above INR 50 crore.
- End-to-end OTS platform for all online & offline OTS proposals by March 2019
- EASE and financial inclusion efforts are to be intensified. For EASE, banks were advised to modernise more branches to enable self-service for customers in digital mode.
- Mr. Jaitley also launched Financial Inclusion Index, to be annually released by Department of Financial Services (DFS). It will have three measurement dimensions; (i) Access to financial services (ii) Usage of financial services and (3) Quality. It will be released in January 2019.
53. Ministry of Commerce & Industry launched National Mission on ______________________ (GeM) for increasing awareness and accelerating use of GeM by major central Ministries, State Governments and their agencies.
- GeM provides online, end to end solution for procurement of commonly used goods and services for all Central Government Departments and State Governments.
54. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched a new web portal ‘__________________’, with information on budget, expenditure and Bill Payment position. It will consist of Details of Budget and expenditure, Flagship schemes, Central sector expenditure, North East, SC/ST, Centrally Sponsored Schemes, etc.
55. Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs approved construction of 6,26,488 more affordable houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), with total 11 states involved. _______________________ has been sanctioned most (2,34,879) houses.
- Uttar Pradesh scored first position in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), providing houses to 11 lakh poor families. In urban areas, it has benefited over 4 lakh families.
56. Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) approved proposal by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to increase wages of artisans by over _____________________________. Now, Wages will be increased from Rs 5.50 per hank previously to Rs 7.50 per hank. On an average, an artisan makes over 20 hanks per day.
57. Ministry of Steel recently for first time gave away Secondary Steel sector awards to 26 mini steel companies in recognition of their contribution. 12 companies were awarded Gold Certificates and 14 Silver Certificates for their performance during 2016-17.
- Secondary steel sector plays important role along with integrated steel players in order to achieve steel production capacity of 300 million tonne by year 2030-31. At present India has _____________________ MT capacity.
58. NTPC approved investment of INR 9785 crores for 1320 MW Stage-III expansion of its Talcher plant in Angul district of _______________________. Presently, plant has four units of 60 MW and two units of 110 MW and expansion will include 2×660 MW. It is part of NTPC’s vision of being 130 GW company by 2032.
59. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has approved Rs 65,634.93 crore loan so far to 93 prioritised irrigation projects under government's flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY).
- NABARD is mandated to provide Rs ______________________ crore loan to 99 prioritised irrigation projects under PMKSY through long term irrigation fund (LTIF), to be completed by 2019.
- National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) sanctioned INR 335 crores under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) to West Bengal, in August 2018.
60. National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and _____________ Stock Exchange signed MoU to collaborate on creating dual listing route for masala bonds and foreign currency bonds of Indian issuers.
- Through approval of single listing document, issuer can obtain dual listing on LSE’s International Securities Market and NSE’s Gujarat International Finance Tech City (GIFT City).
- 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. It transfers risk associated with currency fluctuations to investors and not to issuers.
- From issuer’s perspective, masala bonds provides cheaper borrowings compared to raising funds in India besides helps in diversifying its sources of fund-raising.
- Its issuance in long term can help to check slide of rupee and also reduce current account deficit over time.
61. Over 27 Crore people in India moved out of poverty in since 2005-06, according to 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index released by United Nations. It stated that India’s poverty rate came down to _____________________ from 54.7% during the period.
62. PM Narendra Modi launched flagship scheme 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana' (PMJAY), also known as Ayushman Bharat or the National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM). In terms of beneficiaries,it is world’s largest health insurance scheme. It was launched from Ranchi (______________________________).
- PM also launched a toll free number 14555 for people to get more information about Ayushma Bharat scheme. A website was also launched with URl mera.pmjay.gov.in
- Government announced that treatment of childhood cancer will be covered under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
- It will provide free coverage of up to INR 5 lakh per family per year in any government or empanelled private hospitals all over India. Around 13000 hospitals in country have been coordinated for the implementation of the scheme. It will be available for 10.74 crore beneficiary families and about 50 crore Indian citizens.
- It will be funded with 60 % contribution from Centre and remaining from states.
- So far, 30 states / UTs have signed MoUs with Union Government to implement the programme. However, Telangana, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala and Punjab have still not signed MoUs, so the scheme will not be implemented in these states till they come on board.
- States will be required to form a State Health Agency (SHA) to implement the scheme and at district level also, a structure for implementation of the scheme will be set up.
- Scheme will become operational from September 25, 2018 i.e. on birth anniversary of Deendayal Upadhyay.
- Transactions will be cashless and paperless. It will also provide reimbursement for bed charges and drugs and diagnostics two days before, during and 15 days after hospitalisation. Beneficiary will be also paid transport allowance for hospitalisation.
- First part of Ayushman Bharat - the health and wellness centres, was launched on Babasaheb Ambedkar's birth anniversary (April 14), and second part - the health assurance scheme, is being launched two days before Deendayal Upadhyay's birth anniversary. Aim is to have 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres in India by 2022.
- Beneficiaries will be decided on the basis of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) database.
- Ayushman Bharat call centre was formally inaugurated in Bengaluru by CEO of Ayushman Bharat Dr. Indu Bhushan. This national call centre is operational since August 25.
- Jharkhand government signed MoU with National Insurance Company to provide medical facilities to the people of the state under the Centre’s flagship health scheme”Ayushman Bharat Yojana”.
63. PayU India received RBI approval to operate its own _____________________________ (NBFC), to help PayU promote inclusive growth by catering to the diverse financial needs of various segments of society.
64. ___________________ has launched its app for mutual fund investments, in partnership with 25 asset management companies. It is subsidiary of One97 Communications Ltd targets to sell mutual fund to around 25 million people in 3 - 5 years.
65. Prime Miniser Narendra Modi Launched India Post Payments Bank, as _____________________________ Payments Bank in India.
- India Post Payments bank is being projected as a major steps towards Financial Inclusion, keeping in view its large reach and huge customer base (17 crore postal savings bank (PSB) accounts).
- On this occasion, 648 branches of IPPB were inaugurated (1 in each district). 2 IPPB branches were already operational, taking number of IPPB branches to 650.
- Government will link all 1.55 lakh post office branches with IPPB services, to create country’s largest banking network.
- IPPB will have 3,250 access points co-located at post offices. 11,000 gramin dak sevaks (in rural area) and postmen (in urban area) will provide doorstep banking services.
- IPPB will enable general banking services including Funds transfer, mobile banking access etc.
- India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) does away with ATM cards and debit cards for both cash and cashless transactions. IPPB will issue new QR (Quick-Response) cards which work on biometric authentication and not on passwords or PINs. QR card transactions can be done through postmen, post offices or Grameen Dak Sevaks (GDS).
- Several Differences between IPPB and Post Office Savings Accounts (POSA) are -
- Types of Account -
- IPPB offers regular, digital and basic Accounts.
- POSA offers standard banking and remittance services.
- Deposits -
- IPPB supports zero balance savings accounts and can hold max 1 Lakh. Any balance in excess of Rs 1 lakh will be transferred to related post office account, which is a regular savings bank account.
- POSA Accounts can be opened with minimum deposit of 20 (and INR 50 as minimum to balance). The accounts with cheque facility require a minimum deposit of Rs 500.
- Interest Rate -
- Both, IPPB and POSA accounts attract an interest rate of 4% per annum, paid quarterly.
- Doorstep Banking -
- IPPB aims at financial inclusion, with focus on doorstep banking services.
- POSA does not have provisions of doorstep banking services.
- Money Transfer -
- IPPB, being a geenral Bank account, will allow funds transfer to any bank account (UPI / IMPS / NEFT).
- In case of POSA, Money transfer allowed within post office savings bank (POSB) accounts. After POSA accounts are linked with IPPB, customers will be able to enjoy all money transfer service like other banks.
- Governing Authority -
- Being a Bank, IPPB will be governed by Reserve Bank of India
- POSA are under supervsion of finance ministry.
- To create a payments acceptance network for unorganized retail including small merchants and Kirana stores where consumers can make payments, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) partnered with Financial Software and Systems (FSS). FSS ensures that micro-merchants are able to accept payments over any channel – online, unified payments interface (UPI), quick-response (QR) codes, Aadhaar and IPPB accounts.
- About Payments Banks -
- Earlier Active Payments Banks are Airtel, Paytm, Aditya Birla, Fino and jio.
- RBI, in 2015, gave in-principle approval to 11 entities to set up Payments Banks in India.
66. ___________________ approved raising INR 5431 crores capital support from central government through preferential issue of equity shares.
67. ________________ Updates -
- Cancelled licence of Rajasthan-based Bhilwara Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank, due to inadequate capital and earning prospects.
- Barred Bandhan Bank from opening new branches and also ordered freezing of bank's CEO salary over failure to stick to shareholding rules.
- Bandhan Bank was not able to bring down shareholding of Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) to 40% as required under licensing condition.
- Bought 8.46 tonne of gold in financial year 2017-18, as first purchase in almost nine years. It now has 566.23 tonne of gold.
- Eased liquidity squeeze afflicting nation’s money markets, allowing banks to carve out up to 15% of holdings under the statutory liquidity reserves to meet their liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requirements, compared to 13% currently.
- Fined Karur Vysya Bank a total of Rs. 5 crore for non-compliance of its directives.
- Stated that India’s external debt for quarter ended June 2018 declined by 2.8 % cent to $514.4 billion. Also, external debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.4 % at June-end.
- Imposed penalty of inr 1 crores each on Union Bank of India (UBI), Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra, due to delay in detecting and reporting frauds.
- Shortlisted 5 IT firms for implementation of Centralised Information and Management System (CIMS) - Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Capgemini Technology Services India, IBM India and Larsen & Toubro Infotech.
- It had proposed CIMS comprising of DW and Data Lake (DL) to harness power of big data analytics. CMIS will include seamless data collection from regulated entities by creating system-to-system interface, system driven data validation and data review, flexible and scalable data repository and providing data dissemination platform.
- In April 2018, it announced to harness power of big data analytics by setting up data sciences lab that will comprise experts and budding analysts. In pursuance of this, it had issued EOI in July 2018 for implementation of CIMS.
- Will purchase government securities (G-secs) worth Rs 10,000 crore through Open Market Operations (OMO), on September 19, to induce liquidity in system.
- Asked all scheduled commercial banks with more than 10 branches to appoint an internal ombudsman (IO). RBI, The however, excluded regional rural banks (RRBs) from appointing IOs.
68. _______________________ Govt. announced 4% reduction in value-added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel and Andhra Pradesh has announced Rs 2 reduction in VAT on petrol and diesel. VAT on petrol is reduced from 30% to 26% and on diesel from 22% to 18%.
69.___________________ -based investment firm Temasek will invest up to Rs 2,750 crore ($400 million) in National Investment and Infrastructure Fund’s (NIIF) Master Fund.
- NIIF now has agreements totalling almost Rs. 10,000 crore, with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) having committed to invest up to $1 billion (about Rs 6,500 crore) and domestic financial institutions, about Rs. 500 crore.
- NIIF was set up in December 2015 to catalyse funding into the country’s infrastructure sector by serving as quasi sovereign wealth fund (SWF). It aims to maximize economic growth of country mainly through infrastructure development in commercially viable projects.
- It has targeted corpus of Rs 40,000 crore to be raised over the years — 49% of it will be funded by government and remaining 51% will be raised from domestic and global investors.
70. ________________ Based Networking Firm Cisco signed agreements with NITI Aayog and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to speed up its Country Digital Acceleration programme in India.
71. Union Bank of India will close its branch in the global diamond hub of Antwerp (______________________) within a year, after it wasn't able to generate expected amount of business.
72. _____________________ will invest INR 180 crores in India over the next five years to improve farmers’ livelihood, by supporting farmer organisations to develop knowledge of sustainable farming practices.
73. World Bank approved ambitious five-year __________________________________ (CPF) for India. CPF was preceded by systematic country diagnostic (SCD) that offered narrative about India’s progress.
- India is well-positioned to become a high middle-income country by 2030, with its fast-growing economy, global stature and unique experience of lifting highest number of poor out of poverty in past decades.
- CPF for India will be mainly based on Government’s development priorities, World Bank’s Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for India and World Bank’s comparative advantage and value proposition to support India.
- CPF also incorporates lessons learned from last five years of implementation of Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) FY13-17.
- It recognizes that India has gone from low-income country status to low-middle income and now is entering transformation from low-middle to high-middle income country.
- It is expected to bring financial support worth US $25-30 billion from World Bank’s sister agencies such International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
74. World Bank approved assistance of INR 929 crores for ___________________ water supply and sewerage project. Activities to take place -
- Augmentation of Gummawater source from Sutlej river
- Construction of storage dams on Giri river
- Installation of filter units in 13”bouries” or natural water bodies.
75.____________ Bank Updates -
- Partnered with RupeeBoss.com, to enable integration of YES mPower BOT, Bank’s chat bot based platform. It would be used to support instant loan eligibilities for its several loan products.
- Has been fined with INR 38 crores, as fines to GST department for alleged violations in domestic remittances.
- Raised $400 million through a syndicated loan facility for its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT).
