Current Affairs · ICICI Bank closes its banking business in Sri Lanka..... 8 committee on QR code..... 8 World Economic Outlook October 2020 report..... 9 India’s GDP is expected

Current Affairs Last 6 months Economy

Updated till December 2020 www.helloscholar.in

©helloscholar

Last 6 months economy current affairs – updated till December 2020 1

Contents

India signed one billion dollar loan

agreement with NDB for Aatma Nirbhar

Bharat Abhiyan .......................................... 4

World Bank signed 400 million dollar

project to protect India’s poor from

COVID- ....................................................... 4

Centre Launches QRMP scheme for GST

payers with turnover up to Rs 5 crore ... 4

Kotak Mutual Fund launches India’s First

International REIT Fund Of Funds........... 5

PNB launches loan management

solution ‘LenS-The Lending Solution’ .... 5

Lucknow Municipal Bonds Listed on BSE..................................................................... 5

Indian multinational prefer Singapore

for investment ........................................... 6

RTGS new timings ..................................... 6

India GDP contracts to -7.5% .................. 6

World Bank approves 120 million dollar

project to improve transport sector of

Meghalaya ................................................. 7

RBI has placed Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB)

under moratorium .................................... 7

SBI raises $1 billion from JBIC and other

Japanese banks ......................................... 7

ICICI Bank closes its banking business in

Sri Lanka ..................................................... 8

committee on QR code ............................ 8

World Economic Outlook October 2020

report.......................................................... 9

India’s GDP is expected to contract by

9.6 per cent this fiscal as per World Bank..................................................................... 9

BRICS Bank approved funds for Delhi-

Meerut rapid rail and Mumbai metro .... 9

BSE has signed a pact with private sector

lender Yes Bank to empower the small

and medium enterprises (SMEs) listed on

the platform............................................... 9

Indian Renewable Energy Development

Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has opened its third

branch office in Mumbai ....................... 10

The Reserve Bank of India launched a

Technology Vision for Cyber Security for

Urban Co-operative Banks for 2020- ... 10

The Trade and Development Report ... 11

Sebi has set-up a technical committee

on the social stock exchange ................ 11

Direct cargo ferry service has been

started between India and Maldives .... 11

Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands ... 12

OECD predicts Indian economy to fall

10.2% ........................................................ 12

CRISIL predicted India’s GDP to contract

9 per cent in the FY ................................ 12

Mastercard has launched a digital

currency testing platform for central

banks ........................................................ 13

ADB provided 50 million dollar loan to

Bangladesh for PPP infrastructure

projects..................................................... 13

Doorstep banking - Public Sector Banks................................................................... 13

Fitch Ratings projected a contraction of

10.5 per cent for India's economy in the

current financial year .............................. 14

©helloscholar


Indian IT company HCL Technologies

has set up its first development centre in

Sri Lanka ................................................... 14

Telecom company Vodafone Idea has

been rebranded in India as Vi ............... 14

US federal budget deficit projected to

reach approximately USD 3.3 trillion ... 14

SC asks Banks not to declare any loan

account as NPA ....................................... 15

India received development assistance

loan worth Rs 3,500 Cr from Japan to

fight COVID- ............................................ 15

Rs 2,000 currency notes were not

printed in 2019- ...................................... 16

RBI has projected India's growth rate at

(-) 4.5 percent for 2020- ........................ 16

Businesses with an annual turnover of

up to Rs 40 lakh are GST exempt ......... 16

NPCI announced the launch of NIPL ... 17

Flipkart signed MoU with IIT Patna ...... 17

Banks sanctioned loans worth over one

lakh 50 thousand crore rupees under

Emergency Credit Line Guarantee

Scheme ..................................................... 17

4 government banks may be privatised

by this financial year ............................... 18

Government Banks may be given 'ratna'

title ............................................................ 18

RBI launched positive pay system for

cheque transactions ............................... 19

Flipkart signed MoU with Uttar Pradesh................................................................... 19

NPCI has launched its own business

intelligence and analytics enabled omni-

channel multi-branded loyalty platform -

‘nth Rewards’ ........................................... 19

RBI has introduced online dispute

resolution (ODR) system ........................ 20

India has contributed USD 15.46 million

to the India-UN Development

Partnership Fund..................................... 20

IFSCA set up an expert committee for

development of international retail

business.................................................... 21

Govt has extended Emergency Credit

Line Guarantee Scheme to individuals 21

Gaursons chairman’s son held for

cheating Bank of Baroda, Syndicate Bank

of Rs 80 Cr ............................................... 22

India Post will be turned into a full

fledged bank ........................................... 22

NITI Aayog recommended privatisation

of Punjab & Sind Bank, UCO Bank and

Bank of Maharashtra .............................. 22

RBI recommended that the government

should reduce its stake in government

banks to 26 per cent .............................. 23

ADB signed Dollar 200 million financing

deal with Reliance for power plant in

Bangladesh .............................................. 23

ADB has approved a three million US

dollar grant to India ............................... 24

Non-resident Indian nationals can own

100 per cent stake of Air India now ..... 24

Govt will divestment in 23 PSUs ........... 24

India announces 400 million dollar

currency swap for Sri Lanka................... 25

©helloscholar


RBI board member Satish Marathe said

Public sector banks should not be

privatised ................................................. 25

Airtel Payments Bank partners NSDC to

train rural youth for financial services

jobs ........................................................... 26

Rs 190.76 crore fraud in Bank of Baroda................................................................... 26

salary of bank employees increased .... 27

WFDSA report - India ranked 15th....... 27

Yes Bank fraud: PMLA court rejects Rana

Kapoor’s bail plea ................................... 28

India to privatise 6 gov banks ............... 29

HDFC Bank forced customers to

purchase a vehicle tracking device....... 29

AIBEA released the list of wilful

defaulters ................................................. 30

Google will buy a 7.7% stake for $4.5

billion in Jio Platforms ............................ 30

PSBs to purchase NBFC Bonds/CPs

worth Rs 14,667 cr under extended

PCGS ......................................................... 31

HSBC to set up IFSC Banking Unit at

GIFT city in Gandhinagar ....................... 31

Google to invest Rs. 75,000 crore in

India over next 5 to 7 years ................... 32

Foxconn to invest $1 billion in India .... 32

Three people were running duplicate

branch of SBI in Tamil Nadu ................. 32

Punjab National Bank Reports Rs 3,689-

Crore DHFL Loans As Fraud................... 33

AIIB has released $50 million in the first

tranche of assistance to L&T

Infrastructure Finance Ltd for funding

Renewable Energy projects ................... 34

Merger of government insurances

companies stopped ................................ 34

Hero Cycles cancels 900 crore trade deal

with china................................................. 35

Intel Corp invests Rs.18.95 billion rupees

in Reliance Jio .......................................... 35

Rs.350.84 crore bank fraud by Punjab

Basmati Rice Limited .............................. 36

Govt launches Special Liquidity Scheme

of 30 thousand crore rupees to improve

liquidity for NBFCs and HFCs ................ 36

70.32 lakh Kisan Credit Cards sanctioned

with credit limit of Rs 62,870 cr under

Aatmanirbhar package ........................... 37

Carlyle to buy a 25% stake in Bharti

Airtel ......................................................... 37

Public & Private Sector Banks sanction

loans worth over Rs. 1 lakh crore as of

June 26 under ECLGS ............................. 37

Four gunmen attack Stock Exchange

building in Karachi .................................. 38

India-Bangladesh form 50:50 Joint

Venture Company for LPG business in

Bangladesh .............................................. 38

Government announces launch of

seven-year floating rate savings bonds38

World Bank approves $500 million for

STARS project in India ............................ 39

The Global Forum named India among

the top-three jurisdictions to which

Switzerland provided information on

request ..................................................... 39

IMF approves an emergency financial

assistance worth 356.5 million dollars for

Myanmar .................................................. 40

©helloscholar


Reserve Bank of India extends enhanced

borrowing limit to banks under MSF till

Sept........................................................... 41

Police constable who attacked female

staff at Canara Bank suspended ........... 41

Rs.700 crore fraud in PNB...................... 42

Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance ratings cut to

junk ........................................................... 43

Facebook buys stake in Jio .................... 44

Urban Cooperative and Multi State

Cooperative banks brought under RBI 44

India signed one billion dollar

loan agreement with NDB for

Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

The Government of India and New

Development Bank signed a loan

agreement for one thousand million

dollar to provide support to Aatma

Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan through

MGNREG Scheme.

The programme will support

Government in mitigating the adverse

economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic

and enable economic recovery in the

rural areas through Natural Resource

Management (NRM) works.

This will facilitate economic activity and

employment generation to stimulate

rural demand, to combat the decline in

economic activity due to outbreak of

COVID-19.

The programme proposes creation of

durable rural infrastructure assets

relating to NRM and generation of

employment opportunities for rural poor,

especially migrant workers who have

returned from urban areas and have lost

their livelihoods due to the COVID-19

pandemic.

World Bank signed 400 million

dollar project to protect

India’s poor from COVID-

The Government of India and World Bank

have signed 400 million dollar project to

protect India’s poor and vulnerable from

the impact of COVID-19. This is the

second operation in a programmatic

series of two.

The first operation of 750 million dollar

was approved in May 2020. The

programme will strengthen the capability

of state and central governments to

provide coordinated and adequate social

protection to the poor and vulnerable

from the shocks triggered by the COVID-

19 pandemic.

Centre Launches QRMP

scheme for GST payers with

turnover up to Rs 5 crore

Centre has rolled out ‘Quarterly Return

filing & Monthly Payment of Taxes

©helloscholar


(QRMP)’ scheme for small taxpayers

under GST system.Taxpayers with Rs 5

crore annual turnover in the preceding

financial year and who have filed their

October GSTR-3B (sales) return by Nov

30, 2020.

Under the scheme, the eligible taxpayer

will be allowed to furnish their GSTR-1

and GSTR-3B returns on quarterly basis

(January-March quarter of 2020-21)

Kotak Mutual Fund launches

India’s First International REIT

Fund Of Funds

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management

Company (Kotak Mutual Fund) has rolled

out Kotak International REIT Fund of

Funds, India’s first diversified REIT (Real

Estate Investment Trust) Mutual Fund.

New MF scheme: It is an open-ended

mutual fund scheme that will have

diversified investment portfolio

comprising listed REITs to invest in realty

projects

Kotak International REIT Fund of Funds

will invest in units of Japan-based SMAM

Asia REIT Sub Trust Fund.

PNB launches loan

management solution ‘LenS-

The Lending Solution’

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has launched

a tech-based loan management solution

‘LenS-The Lending Solution’, to speed up

and maintain accuracy in online loan

processing and sanctioning of credit

proposals.Under the Mudra scheme, the

processing and sanction of credit

proposals up to Rs 10 lakh including

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (

MSME) loans (fresh, renewal,

enhancement and review) will be done by

LenS.

Lucknow Municipal Bonds

Listed on BSE

The 200-crore Lucknow Municipal

Corporation (LMC) bonds were listed on

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Lucknow

has become the first city in north India

and ninth city in India to have raised

funds by issuing municipal bonds. Last

month, LMC had raised Rs 200 crore by

issuing municipal bonds on a private

placement basis using the BSE Bond

platform. Earlier, November this year,

LMC received 21 bids on BSE Bond

platform for Rs 450 crore, which is 4.5

times of the total issue size of Rs 100

crore.

The municipal bonds offer 8.5 per cent

interest per annum and have tenure of 10

years. The proceeds of the issue are

proposed to be invested in a water

supply project being implemented under

AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation

and Urban Transformation) scheme of

©helloscholar


the government and a housing project.

This bond issue from Lucknow Municipal

Corporation is rated ‘AA’ by India Ratings

and ‘AA (CE)’ by Brickwork Ratings.

Indian multinational prefer

Singapore for investment

A new study published by the Asian

Development Bank shows that Indian

multinationals prefer Singapore as their

preferred investment destination within

the Asia-Pacific region and that more

than 50 per cent of Indian affiliates

abroad are in the services sector.

According to the study titled `Factory

Asia: The Determinants of Multinational

Activity in the Context of Global Value

Chains’ by Natalia Ramondo in a book

‘Future of Regional Cooperation in Asia

and Pacific’ published by ADB, the main

foreign direct investment destination for

Japan and the US is China.

Less developed Asian countries such as

Vietnam and Indonesia are also popular

destinations in Asia for Japanese

multinationals, while the second most

popular destination in the region for US

multinationals is Australia.

Indian multinationals choose Singapore,

an economy specialized in the services

sector, as their most popular destination.

RTGS new timings

To boost digital payments, the Reserve

Bank of India (RBI) allowed the transfer of

funds through Real-Time Gross

Settlement (RTGS) round-the-clock from

December 1. Now you can do RTGS

throughout the day. Currently, RTGS is

available for customers from 7.00 am to

6.00 pm.

It will help in global integration of Indian

financial markets, facilitate India’s efforts

to develop international financial centres

and provide wider payment flexibility to

domestic corporate and institutions.

From July 2019, RBI stopped levying

charges on transactions through NEFT

and RTGS, with an aim to promote digital

transactions in the country.

NEFT and Immediate Payment Service

(IMPS) are already available 24×7.

India GDP contracts to -7.5%

India’s gross domestic product or GDP

contracted 7.5% in the quarter ending

September.

Future Prospects –

However, annual growth of 3.4 per

cent in the farm sector and 0.6 per

cent in manufacturing raised

hopes of an early recovery.

There has been a drop in the

country’s daily coronavirus cases.

©helloscholar


If vaccine is ready soon, the

recovery would be fast.

World Bank approves 120

million dollar project to

improve transport sector of

Meghalaya

The Government of India, Meghalaya

government and the World Bank signed

a 120 million dollar project to improve

and modernise the transport sector of

Meghalaya.

This will help the state to harness its vast

growth potential for high-value

agriculture and tourism. The project will

improve about 300 kilometres of

strategic road segments and stand-alone

bridges by using innovative, climate

resilient, and nature-based solutions. It

will also support innovative solutions

such as precast bridges to reduce both

time and cost of construction.

RBI has placed Lakshmi Vilas

Bank (LVB) under moratorium

RBI has placed Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB)

under moratorium and capped deposit

withdrawals. The RBI has also proposed

the amalgamation of the bank with DBS

Bank India.

Why did the RBI cap withdrawal on

deposits of LVB?

The financial position of LVB has been

deteriorating sharply over the past two to

three years. The bank has been making

losses over the last three years, owing to

a sharp rise in bad loans and provisions.

This has led to decrease in profit and

capital. Since March quarter this year, the

bank’s Tier I capital has slipped into

negative.

While the bank has been trying to raise

capital over the past year, first by

merging with Indiabulls Housing Finance

and then through an investment deal

from Clix Group, the efforts did not work

out.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank

Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited was founded

in 1926 by a group of seven businessmen

of Karur under the leadership of Shri

V.S.N. Ramalinga Chettiar. It is

headquartered in Chennai.

DBS Bank

DBS Bank Ltd is a Singaporean

multinational banking and financial

services corporation headquartered in

Marina Bay, Singapore.

SBI raises $1 billion from JBIC

and other Japanese banks

©helloscholar


State Bank of India, signed a pact to

raise a $1-billion loan from Japan Bank

for International Cooperation (JBIC) and

other Japanese lenders like SMBC, MUFG

Bank, and Mizuho Bank.

The loan will be used to provide funds

to manufacturers, suppliers and

dealers of Japanese automobiles in

India.

These are untied loans, meaning SBI has

freedom to use this money to lend. They

also do not come with any conditions

attached for lending to specific projects

or programmes.

Out of $1 billion, $600 million will be

financed by JBIC and $400 million by

other participating banks. JBIC will

provide a guarantee for the portion co-

financed by participating banks. This is a

five-year bilateral loan.

JBIC is a policy-based financial

institution, wholly-owned by the

Japanese government. Masayuki

Tanimoto, managing executive officer of

JBIC, said: “As per one of the surveys,

India is the most favoured nation for

Japanese investment and this is one more

step towards strong relationship

between Japan and India.”

ICICI Bank closes its banking

business in Sri Lanka

ICICI Bank closes its banking business in

Sri Lanka.

About ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian

multinational banking and financial

services company with its registered

office in Vadodara, Gujarat and corporate

office in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was

established in June 1994.

committee on QR code

Reserve Bank of India has constituted a

Committee to review the current system

of Quick Response (QR) Codes in India

and suggest measures for moving

towards interoperable QR Codes. The

Chairperson of this committee is Prof

Deepak Phatak.

Key decisions

1. The two interoperable QR codes in

existence – UPI QR and Bharat

QR – shall continue as at present.

2. Payment System Operators (PSOs)

that use proprietary QR codes

shall shift to one or more

interoperable QR codes; the

process of migration shall be

completed by March 31, 2022.

3. No new proprietary QR codes shall

henceforth be launched by any

PSO for any payment transaction.

4. RBI shall continue a consultative

process to standardise and

improve interoperable QR codes,

to enable beneficial features

©helloscholar


identified by the Phatak

Committee.

5. PSOs may take initiative to

increase awareness about

interoperable QR codes.

World Economic Outlook

October 2020 report

IMF released World Economic Outlook

October 2020 report titled – “A Long and

Difficult Ascent”.

The Indian economy is expected to grow

at -10.3 % in 2020 as per the International

Monetary Fund (IMF). Global growth is

projected to be -4.4% ( i.e., a contraction

in output of 4.4%) for this year.

India’s GDP is expected to

contract by 9.6 per cent this

fiscal as per World Bank

The World Bank said that India’s GDP is

expected to contract by 9.6 per cent this

fiscal due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The regional growth is expected to

contract by 7.7 per cent in 2020.

About World Bank

World Bank was established in July

1944 and is headquartered at

Washington, D.C., United States. Its

motto is – Working for a World Free of

Poverty.

BRICS Bank approved funds

for Delhi-Meerut rapid rail and

Mumbai metro

New Development Bank, also known

as BRICS Bank has approved a loan of

USD 500 million for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-

Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System

(RRTS) Project and a loan of USD 241

million for Mumbai Metro Rail II (Line 6)

Project.

About NDB

The NDB was established by Brazil,

Russia, India, China and South Africa

on 15 July 2014 and is headquartered at

Shanghai, China. The present president

of NDB (08.10.2010) is Marcos Prado

Troyjo and first president was

K.V.Kamath.

BSE has signed a pact with

private sector lender Yes Bank

to empower the small and

medium enterprises (SMEs)

listed on the platform

The pact aims at empowering the SME

segment through awareness and

knowledge-sharing programmes.

The BSE, formerly known as the Bombay

Stock Exchange Ltd., is an Indian stock

exchange located at Dalal Street,

©helloscholar


Mumbai. Established in 1875, it is Asia’s

oldest stock exchange. The BSE is the

world’s 10th largest stock exchange with

an overall market capitalization of more

than US$2.2 trillion on as of April 2018.

Indian Renewable Energy

Development Agency Ltd.

(IREDA) has opened its third

branch office in Mumbai


Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has opened its third

branch office in Mumbai. It already has

two branch offices in Chennai and

Hyderabad.


Agency Limited (IREDA) is a Mini Ratna

(Category – I) Government of India

Enterprise under the administrative

control of Ministry of New and

Renewable Energy (MNRE). IREDA is a

Public Limited Government Company

established as a Non-Banking Financial

Institution in 1987. It is engaged in

promoting, developing and extending

financial assistance for setting up

projects relating to new and renewable

sources of energy and energy

efficiency/conservation. Its motto is –

“ENERGY FOR EVER”

The Reserve Bank of India

launched a Technology Vision

for Cyber Security for Urban

Co-operative Banks for 2020-

The Reserve Bank of India launched a

Technology Vision for Cyber Security for

Urban Co-operative Banks for 2020-23.

The number, frequency and impact of

cyber incidents and attacks have

increased manifold in the recent past in

the case of financial sector including

Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs). It has,

therefore, become essential to enhance

the security posture of UCBs so as to

prevent, detect, respond to and recover

from cyber-attacks.

GUARD approach

The vision document aims to achieve the

objective through a five-pillared strategic

approach call GUARD – including

governance oversight, utile technology

investment, appropriate regulation and

supervision, robust collaboration and

developing necessary IT, cyber security

skills set.

Business continuity plan

UCBs would be expected to prepare a

Business Continuity Plan for all processes

and ensure that it is well-communicated,

well-rehearsed and reviewed periodically.

Cloud services

The vision document also called for

adopting cloud services and imparting

technical skills for managing IT and cyber

security issues at these lenders.

©helloscholar


The Trade and Development

Report

The Trade and Development Report 2020

by UN Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD) said that the

world economy will contract by an

estimated 4.3% this year. India economy

will contract by 5.9% as per the report.

The United Nations Conference on Trade

and Development was established on 30

December 1964 as a permanent

intergovernmental body. UNCTAD is the

part of the United Nations Secretariat

dealing with trade, investment, and

development issues. It is headquartered

in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sebi has set-up a technical

committee on the social stock

exchange

Sebi has set-up a technical committee on

the social stock exchange, which will

develop a framework for onboarding

profit and non-profit organisations on

such bourses and prescribe disclosure

requirements relating to financials and

governance.

The committee would be chaired by

Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, former chairman

of NABARD.

The Securities and Exchange Board of

India is the regulator of the securities and

commodity market in India owned by the

Government of India. It was established

on 12 April 1988 and given Statutory

Powers on 30 January 1992 through the

SEBI Act, 1992. It is headquartered in

Mumbai.

Direct cargo ferry service has

been started between India

and Maldives

The ferry service was announced by PM

Narendra Modi in June 2019 during his

visit to Maldives. Direct ferry will reduce

transportation cost, provide a timely,

short and cost effective means of

transportation for goods from India to

Maldives and thereby incentivize more

trade between the two countries.

In March-April this year, FICCI’s Kerala

State Council conducted a study on the

viability of a ferry service between India

and Maldives. The study found that for 27

principal import items of Maldives,

India’s share of imports is well below their

potential.

Since Maldives is a 100 per cent import-

dependent country, improved

connectivity between India and Maldives

will help boost bilateral trade and help

economic activity in Maldives during the

covid-19 crisis.

©helloscholar


In May-June this year, while Maldivian

imports had fallen by 50 per cent, India

became the second largest exporter to

Maldives. “India has, therefore, proven

that it can provide supply side security to

the Maldives during such uncertain

times.

Top 75 Most Valuable Indian

Brands

HDFC Bank is India’s top brand worth

$20.3 billion followed by LIC.

BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Indian

Brands 2020

Ran

k

202

0

Brand Category

1 HDFC Bank Banks

2 LIC Insurance

3 Tata Consultancy

Services

Technolog

y

4 Airtel Telecom

providers

5 Asian Paints Paints

6 Kotak Mahindra Bank Banks

7 Jio Telecom

providers

8 Flipkart Retail

9 Paytm Payments

10 State Bank of India Banks

OECD predicts Indian economy

to fall 10.2%

The Organization for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) said

it expects India’s economy to shrink 10.2

per cent in the current financial year

(FY21) due to covid-19 crisis. World

economy is expected to shrink 4.5%.

The Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development is an

intergovernmental economic

organisation with 37 member countries.

It was founded on 30 September 1961 to

stimulate economic progress and world

trade. It is headquartered in Paris, France.

CRISIL predicted India’s GDP

to contract 9 per cent in the FY

©helloscholar


CRISIL predicted India’s gross domestic

production (GDP) to contract 9 per cent

in the financial year 2020-21 (FY21). It

revised its forecast down from 5 per cent

owing to uncertainty over the spread of

Covid-19 and lack of adequate fiscal

support from the government.

Mastercard has launched a

digital currency testing

platform for central banks

Mastercard has launched a digital

currency testing platform aimed at

helping central banks test their digital

currencies. The system will also

demonstrate how consumers can use

central bank digital currencies to pay

for goods and services wherever

Mastercard is accepted worldwide.

As per Bank of International Settlement

(BIS) report, about 80% of central banks

are researching CBDCs and about 40%

have already progressed to the

experimental stage.

ADB provided 50 million dollar

loan to Bangladesh for PPP

infrastructure projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and

government of Bangladesh signed a 50

million dollar loan agreement to

promote, fund and implement public-

private partnership (PPP) infrastructure

projects in the country.

The project will help Bangladesh to

mobilise private investment, develop

infrastructure projects and create jobs

which will help accelerate the economic

recovery process in the aftermath of the

Corona pandemic.

Doorstep banking - Public

Sector Banks

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

launched doorstep banking services for

public sector banks to facilitate

convenient banking.

The services shall be rendered by the

Doorstep Banking Agents deployed by

the selected Service Providers at 100

centres across the country.

The services can be availed by customers

of Public Sector Banks at nominal

charges. The services shall benefit all

customers, particularly Senior Citizens

and Divyangs.

Highlights

As part of the EASE Reforms,

Doorstep Banking Services is

envisaged to provide convenience

of banking services to the

customers at their door step

through Call Centre, Web Portal or

Mobile App. Customers can also

©helloscholar


track their service request through

these channels.

At present only non-financial

services such as pick up of

negotiable instruments (cheque /

demand draft / pay order, etc.),

pick up of new cheque book

requisition slip, request for

account statement, delivery of

non-personalised cheque book,

delivery of pre-paid instrument /

gift card and others are available

to customers. Financial services

shall be made available from

October 2020.

Fitch Ratings projected a

contraction of 10.5 per cent for

India's economy in the current

financial year

Fitch Ratings projected a contraction of

10.5 per cent for India’s economy in the

current financial year.

Last month, official data showed that

India’s gross domestic product (GDP)

shrank 23.9 per cent in the April-June

period due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Indian IT company HCL

Technologies has set up its

first development centre in Sri

Lanka

Indian IT company HCL Technologies has

set up its first development centre in Sri

Lanka.

HCL Technologies Limited, is an Indian

multinational information technology

services and consulting company

headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh,

India. It was established on 11 August

1976.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is the Prime Minister

of Sri Lanka.

Telecom company Vodafone

Idea has been rebranded in

India as Vi

Telecom company Vodafone Idea has

been rebranded in India as Vi. Vodafone

Idea was merged two years ago.

US federal budget deficit

projected to reach

approximately USD 3.3 trillion

The United State’s federal budget deficit

is projected to hit a record USD 3.3

trillion.The government has spent a lot of

credit on fighting COVID19 and reviving

the economy.

The spike in the deficit means that federal

debt will exceed annual gross domestic

product next year. The USD 3.3 trillion

figure is more than triple the 2019

©helloscholar


shortfall and more than double the levels

experienced after the market meltdown

and Great Recession of 2008-09.

SC asks Banks not to declare

any loan account as NPA

In a major relief to individual and

commercial borrowers, the Supreme

Court on September 3 asked banks not to

declare any loan account as a non-

performing asset (NPA) till further orders.

Six-month moratorium period was given

to businesses during which all stressed

loans were not to be classified as NPA.

Banks were supposed to get back to their

regular cycle from September 1.

Accounts which were not declared NPA

till August 31, 2020 shall not be declared

NPA till further orders.

Why?

The court is examining the question

whether compound interest (interest on

interest) should be charged on loans

deferred during the moratorium period.

The Bench is also examining the powers

of the Centre and the National Disaster

Management Authority to provide relief

to borrowers reeling under the financial

effects of the pandemic.

What Borrowers want?

Borrowers are seeking a full waiver of

interest chargeable during the

moratorium.

What’s next?

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that

the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

was varied for each sector. Some like

pharma have fared well during the

lockdown.

The idea of moratorium was to defer

repayment to ease the burden caused by

COVID-19 and lockdown so that

businesses can manage working capital.

The idea was not to waive interest.

Moratorium was to help those in distress

and not meant as an opportunity for

those already defaulting in their loan

payments. Instead of loan waiver, steps

were being taken to revive the various

sectors.

India received development

assistance loan worth Rs 3,500

Cr from Japan to fight COVID-

Japan has committed an official

Development Assistance loan of 3

thousand 500 crore rupees for the

COVID-19 Crisis Emergency Response

Support.

This programme loan aims to support

India’s efforts in fighting COVID-19 and

to prepare the health system to manage

©helloscholar


future epidemics and also to improve the

resilience of India’s health systems

against infectious diseases.

India and Japan have had a long and

fruitful history of bilateral development

cooperation since 1958. In the last few

years, the economic cooperation

between India and Japan has

strengthened and grown into strategic

partnership.

Rs 2,000 currency notes were

not printed in 2019-

Reserve Bank of India has said that it did

not print currency notes of 2,000 rupee

denomination in 2019-20. In its annual

report, RBI said the circulation of these

high denomination currency notes has

been on a decline. On the other hand, the

circulation of currency notes of 500 and

200 rupee denomination has gone up

substantially, both in terms of volume

and value, over the three years beginning

2018.

The report also said, a total of 2.96 lakh

of counterfeit currency notes was

detected by the banking sector in the last

fiscal year.

RBI has projected India's

growth rate at (-) 4.5 percent

for 2020-

The Reserve Bank has projected India’s

growth rate at (-) 4.5 percent for 2020-21.

RBI projected global growth rate

between (-) 6.0 per cent and (-) 7.6 per

cent. Expected headline inflation will

remain elevated in the current quarter,

but likely to ease in the second half of the

fiscal.

Decline in economic activity reaches its

trough in April-June quarter of 2020-21

and recovers thereafter, albeit at a

gradual pace. It adds that the growth is

likely to turn positive from January-

March quarter 2020-21.

Businesses with an annual

turnover of up to Rs 40 lakh

are GST exempt

The Ministry of Finance yesterday said

that businesses with an annual turnover

of up to Rs 40 lakh are GST exempt.

Initially, this limit was Rs 20 lakh. In a

tweet, the Finance Ministry said,

additionally those with a turnover up to

Rs 1.5 crore can opt for the Composition

Scheme and pay only 1 per cent tax.

The taxpayer base has almost doubled

since the rollout of GST. The numbers of

assessee covered by the GST at the time

of its inception were about 65 lakh and

now the assessee base exceeds 1.24

crore.

The Finance Ministry said, all processes in

GST have been fully automated and till

©helloscholar


now 50 crore returns have been filed

online. 131 crore e-way bills have been

generated since the launch of the system,

of which about 40 per cent are for the

inter-state transport of goods. The

number of e-waybills generated has been

growing steadily, with the highest single-

day generation of more than 25 lakhs bill

taking place on 29th February this year.

NPCI announced the launch of

NIPL

National Payments Corporation of India

(NPCI) announced the launch of NPCI

International Payments Limited (NIPL).

NIPL is the wholly owned subsidiary of

NPCI. NIPL has the responsibility of

exporting NPCI’s indigenously developed

offerings and technological acumen to

foreign markets. It will help in

revolutionizing the global payments

landscape. The primary focus of NIPL

would be internationalization of RuPay

and UPI.

National Payments Corporation of India

(NPCI) was incorporated in 2008 as an

umbrella organization for operating retail

payments and settlement systems in

India. It launched various products such

as RuPay card, Immediate Payment

Service (IMPS), Unified Payments

Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for

Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National

Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) and

Bharat BillPay.

Flipkart signed MoU with IIT

Patna

Flipkart has entered into Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) with Indian

Institute of Technology Patna (IIT Patna)

to jointly create industry focused applied

research in the areas of Artificial

Intelligence (AI), Natural Language

Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning

(ML).

Banks sanctioned loans worth

over one lakh 50 thousand

crore rupees under Emergency

Credit Line Guarantee Scheme

Public and Private sectors banks have

sanctioned loans worth over one lakh 50

thousand crore rupees under the

Emergency Credit Line Guarantee

Scheme. More than one lakh crore rupees

has already been disbursed. The scheme

was announced by the government as a

part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package, to

mitigate the distress caused by lockdown

due to COVID-19 by providing credit to

different sectors, especially MSMEs.

Under the scheme, Public Sector Banks

have sanctioned loans of over 76

thousand crore rupees and out of which

more than 56 thousand crore rupees has

already been disbursed. Private Sector

Banks have sanctioned loans of over 74

©helloscholar


thousand 715 crore rupees and out of

which more than 45 thousand crore

rupees has already been disbursed. The

top lenders under the Scheme are State

Bank of India, Canara Bank, Punjab

National Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank

of India and HDFC Bank Limited.

4 government banks may be

privatised by this financial year

The government may privatise four PSU

banks by the end of this fiscal year. These

four banks are – Punjab & Sind Bank,

Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, and IDBI

Bank.

Recently, the PMO had also written a

letter to the Ministry of Finance to

accelerate the process of privatisation.

The government is planning privatisation

to raise funds and improve the financial

health of the public sector banks.

Government Banks may be

given 'ratna' title

The Government is planning to honor

Public Sector Banks by granting them

‘ratna’ title. Banks may be given

Maharatna, Navratna, Mini Ratna status.

At present, the PSU companies are

classified into three categories –

6. Maharatna

7. Navratna

8. Miniratna – Category-1 and

Category-2

Miniratna Category-1 – To get this

status, any public sector company has to

show profit for three consecutive years,

or to show a profit of Rs 30 crore or more

in any one of the last three years.

Miniratna Category-2- To get this

status, any public sector company has to

show steady profit for the last three years

and should have a positive net worth.

Navratna- To get this status, any public

sector company has to get a score of 60

out of 100, which is measured on 6 scales.

These 6 scales are Net Profit, Net Worth,

Total Manpower Cost, Total Production

Cost, Cost of Services, PBDIT (Profit

Before Depreciation, Interest and Taxes)

and capital invested in the business.

Maharatna – To get this status, any

public sector company has to get

Net profit of more than 5000

crores for three years

Average net worth of Rs 15000

crores for three years

The average turnover for three

years should be 25000 crores

What will be the benefit?

After getting ‘ratna’ status, Banks will get

more financial autonomy. Banks will not

need approval from the government to

take big decisions. Maharatna companies

©helloscholar


can invest in the market through equity.

They can enter into partnership with

other financial companies and can also

merge or acquire them in India and

abroad. But maximum investment can be

only five thousand crore rupees in a

project. Companies can also take

decisions such as transfer of their assets,

fresh investment and reducing stake in

subsidiaries.

RBI launched positive pay

system for cheque transactions

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that

the banking system will move to a

positive pay practice in cheque

transactions to curb frauds.

Under the ‘positive pay’ system, a

customer who issues the cheque of

value Rs 50,000 and above clicks a

picture of the cheque before handing it

over to the beneficiary and uploads the

picture on the bank’s mobile application.

The limit of Rs 50,000 will cover

approximately 20 per cent of transactions

by volume and 80 per cent by value.

Since 2016, ICICI Bank has such facility for

all cheques irrespective of the amount.

By following such a system, a bank

knows of a cheque being drawn by the

customer even before it is deposited

by the beneficiary into his account.

Before clearing transfer of funds, the

bank’s executive can cross-check the

details of the cheque which has come for

clearance with the details shared by the

customer in advance.

With the help of this technique, any

cheque where any sort of fraud has

happened cannot be cleared at all and

hence a depositor’s money can be

protected.

Flipkart signed MoU with Uttar

Pradesh

Flipkart has signed a memorandum of

understanding (MoU) with Uttar Pradesh

government to bring artisans, weavers

and craftsmen into mainstream business.

Under One District, One Product (ODOP)

scheme, Flipkart has launched Flipkart

Samarth campaign. This campaign will

help them sell their products digitally to

customers across India.

The ODOP scheme was introduced to

give a boost to the MSME sector while

preserving and promoting the exquisite,

indigenous legacy of art in Uttar Pradesh.

NPCI has launched its own

business intelligence and

analytics enabled omni-

channel multi-branded loyalty

platform - ‘nth Rewards’

©helloscholar


National Payment Corporation of India

(NPCI) has launched its own business

intelligence and analytics enabled omni-

channel multi-branded loyalty platform –

‘nth Rewards’. This unique loyalty

rewards platform allows users to earn

‘nth’ (denoting infinite possibilities)

points through various bank transactions

and redeem them faster on various

exciting products, E-Vouchers, donations,

hotel and flight bookings.

RBI has introduced online

dispute resolution (ODR)

system

The Reserve Bank of India introduced

online dispute resolution (ODR) system. It

is aimed at resolving customer disputes

and grievances related to digital

payments using zero or minimal manual

intervention.

RBI has authorised Payment System

Operators (PSOs) – banks and non-bank

to implement an ODR system for

disputes and grievances related to failed

transactions in their respective payment

systems by January 1, 2021. Customers

an access for lodging the disputes and

grievances relating to failed transactions.

n

India has contributed USD

15.46 million to the India-UN

Development Partnership

Fund

India has contributed USD 15.46 million

to the India-UN Development

Partnership Fund. The tranche of USD

15.46 million includes USD 6 million to

the overall fund, in which all the

developing countries are eligible for

partnership, and USD 9.46 million

dedicated to the Commonwealth

countries.

The India-UN Development Partnership

Fund is managed by the UNOSSC and

implemented under the leadership of

partner developing countries leveraging

the strengths of United Nations

Agencies, Funds and Programmes.


Fund is a dedicated facility within the

United Nations Fund for South-South

Cooperation established in 2017. It is

supported and led by the Government of

the Republic of India, managed by the

United Nations Office for South-South

Cooperation, and implemented in

collaboration with the United Nations

system.

[su_box title=”India-UN Development

Partnership Fund” box_color=”#8a4957″

radius=”12″]


Fund supports Southern-owned and led,

demand-driven, and transformational

sustainable development projects across

the developing world, with a focus on

©helloscholar


least developed countries and small

island developing states. United Nations

agencies implement the Funds projects in

close collaboration with partnering

governments. The Fund project portfolio

aims to contribute to the efforts of

developing countries towards the

realization of the 2030 Agenda for

Sustainable Development.

[/su_box]

IFSCA set up an expert

committee for development of

international retail business

International Financial Services Centres

Authority (IFSCA) set up an expert

committee to suggest ways for the

development of international retail

business.

The committee will be headed by Pradip

Shah (Chairman, Indasia Fund Advisors

Pvt Ltd.). Other members include G.

Srinivasan (Ex-CMD, New India Assurance

Ltd.), Siddhartha Sengupta (Ex-DMD,

State Bank of India), Shyamal Mukherjee

(Chairman, PWC), Prakash Subramanian

(Head – Strategy, Standard Chartered

Bank), Dipesh Shah (Head – IFSC Dept.,

GIFT IFSC) and Nitin Jaiswal, (Head – Govt

Affairs & Strategic relations, Bloomberg,

Singapore).

IFSCA has been mandated to develop

and regulate the financial services market

in the International Financial Services

Centre (IFSC) in India. Further, it needs to

provide an efficient and facilitative

regulatory system comparable with the

best jurisdictions in the world. Its

objective is to develop financial services

on the lines of London, Hong Kong,

Singapore and Dubai.

The Committee of Experts will suggest

how to develop international retail

business in IFSC along with potential

strategies for making IFSC attractive for

global financial services. The Committee

will submit its report along with

recommendations within three months.

Govt has extended Emergency

Credit Line Guarantee Scheme

to individuals

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

allowed loans for larger MSMEs and

professionals for business purposes

under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee

Scheme (ECLGS).

The finance ministry has increased the

annual turnover ceiling of companies

that could avail loans under the scheme

to ₹250 crore from ₹100 crore at present.

The maximum amount of loans that can

be availed under the scheme has also

been increased to ₹10 crore from ₹5

crore.

Individuals can now avail themselves of

ECLGS if they already had loans for

business purposes.

©helloscholar


The expansion of the scheme is likely to

boost credit offtake by ₹1 trillion within

the overall ceiling of ₹3 trillion for the

scheme. As of 29 July, ₹1.4 trillion had

been sanctioned under the scheme while

₹87,227 crore worth of loans were

disbursed.

ECLGS was announced as a part of the

government’s ₹20 trillion financial

package to help the poor and small

businesses amid COVID19 crisis.

Gaursons chairman’s son held

for cheating Bank of Baroda,

Syndicate Bank of Rs 80 Cr

Rahul Gaur, the son of real estate group

Gaursons’ chairman-BL Gaur and his wife

Navneet, have been booked by the CBI

for allegedly cheating the Bank of Baroda

and the Syndicate Bank to the sum of Rs

80 crore.

The company had taken a credit of Rs 250

crore (Rs 150 crore from the Bank of

Baroda, Rs 100 crore from the Syndicate

Bank) for developing a high-end

residential complex comprising 291

luxury apartments at Sector 150, Noida.

The Bank of Baroda has alleged in a

complaint that Rs 80 crore were

disbursed by the banks, but the project

was left in the lurch in its initial stages.

India Post will be turned into a

full fledged bank

The Central Government has 50% stake in

RRBs whereas public sector banks and

the state governments have 35% and

15% stakes in RRBs respectively.

India Post reported a loss of Rs.18,255

crore in FY20. RRBs posted a loss of Rs

548 crore in FY19. India Post’s 4.2-lakh

workforce and 1.56 lakh post office

network will provide a tremendous

platform for rural banking. Postmen will

be converted into banking

correspondents and post offices will work

as bank branches.

NITI Aayog recommended

privatisation of Punjab & Sind

Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of

Maharashtra

NITI Aayog has recommended the

government to privatise Punjab & Sind


Maharashtra. Privatisation of Punjab &

Sind Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of

Maharashtra will require an amendment

to Banking Companies (Acquisition and

Transfer) Act of 1970.

One more recommendation has been

made related to India Post. The

government should merge India Post

with the regional rural banks (RRBs) to

form a full-fledged public sector bank.

©helloscholar


India Post reported a loss of Rs.15,000

crore in FY19.

RBI recommended that the

government should reduce its

stake in government banks to

26 per cent

RBI recommended that the

government should reduce its

stake in government banks to

26 per cent

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

recommended that the government

should reduce its stake in government

banks to 26 per cent. RBI also

recommended that the tenure of MDs of

these banks should also be increased.

This will help in managing these banks in

a more professional manner. The RBI

suggested these measures to Prime

Minister Narendra Modi. At present, the

government’s stake in public sector

banks is more than 50 per cent.

On 29th April, PM Modi held a meeting

with the MDs of Public Sector Banks and

these recommendations were made in

this meeting.

Government shareholding in Public

Sector Banks (as on 1st April, 2019)

Bank

Share of

Government

(in %)

Bank of Baroda 63.74

Bank of India 87.0535

Bank of Maharashtra 87.01

Canara Bank 72.55

Central Bank of India 88.02

Indian Bank 81.73

Indian Overseas Bank 91

Punjab and Sind Bank 79.62

Punjab National Bank 70.22

State Bank of India 61

UCO Bank 93.29

Union Bank of India 67.43

NITI Aayog recommended

privatisation of Punjab & Sind


Maharashtra

ADB signed Dollar 200 million

financing deal with Reliance

for power plant in Bangladesh

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has

signed a $200 million deal with the

Reliance Bangladesh LNG and Power

Limited (RBLPL) to build and operate a

718 megawatt combined-cycle gas-fired

power plant in Bangladesh.

The deal has two components of $100

million each. ADB will provide dollar 100

million. The other $100 million will be

https://news.helloscholar.in/rbi-recommended-that-the-government-should-reduce-its-stake-in-government-banks-to-26-per-cent/




https://news.helloscholar.in/niti-aayog-recommended-privatisation-of-punjab-sind-bank-uco-bank-and-bank-of-maharashtra/




©helloscholar


funded by Leading Asia’s Private

Infrastructure Fund (LEAP). LEAP was set

up in 2016 with a $1.5 billion capital

commitment for the Japan International

Cooperation Agency (JICA).

ADB has approved a three

million US dollar grant to India

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)

has approved a three million US dollar

grant to India from its Asia Pacific

Disaster Response Fund (APDRF). This

grant will further support the

government’s emergency response to

the COVID-19 pandemic. This support

will enhance disease surveillance and

help in early detection, contact tracing,

and treatment.

On 28th of April, ADB approved a 1.5

billion US dollar COVID-19 Active

Response and Expenditure Support

(CARES) Programme to support India in

its immediate pandemic response efforts.

Non-resident Indian nationals

can own 100 per cent stake of

Air India now

The government has notified changes in

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms on

civil aviation, which will permit non-

resident Indian nationals to own 100 per

cent stake of Air India. Foreign

investments in M/s Air India Limited,

including that of foreign airlines shall not

exceed 49 per cent either directly or

indirectly except in case of those NRIs,

who are Indian Nationals, where foreign

investments is permitted up to 100 per

cent under automatic route.

Last month, the government extended

the deadline to bid for Air India for the

third time. The deadline was extended by

two months till August 31. The

divestment process was initiated on

January 27.

Govt will divestment in 23

PSUs

The government is working on

completing the stake sale process of

about 23 public sector companies whose

divestment has already been cleared by

the Cabinet, Finance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman said on Monday.

The government wants to sell stake in

public sector companies at a time when

it fetches the right price. There are nearly

22-23 such PSUs which have been

cleared by the Cabinet for disinvestment.

For the 2020-21 fiscal, the government

has set a disinvestment target of Rs 2.10

lakh crore. Of this, Rs 1.20 lakh crore will

come from disinvestment of public sector

undertakings and another Rs 90,000

crore will come from stake sale in

financial institutions.

©helloscholar


The government as part of the

Aatmanirbhar Bharat package had

announced opening up of all sectors for

private participation. In strategic sectors,

the private companies will be allowed to

come in but the public sectors will be

limited to a maximum of four.

India announces 400 million

dollar currency swap for Sri

Lanka

India announces 400 million dollar

currency swap for Sri Lanka. Reserve Bank

of India has signed necessary documents

for extending a 400 million dollar

currency swap facility with the Central

Bank of Sri Lanka. This currency swap

arrangement will remain available till

November 2022.

Sri Lanka has around one billion dollar

loan commitment from India and has

requested to reschedule the payment

due to ongoing financial crisis and COVID

situation.

RBI board member Satish

Marathe said Public sector

banks should not be privatised

RBI board member Satish Marathe said

Public sector banks should not be

privatised. Instead the government can

reduce its shareholding to 26 percent. He

said that still 50 crore people in the

country are not involved in financial

system despite efforts by RBI since 2004.

What can be done?

The government is thinking that

privatisation is the solution of all

problems whereas the covid19 crisis has

shown that our nation strongly needs

government companies. The private

banks are focussed only on profit making

whereas government banks work for the

welfare of general public.

Instead of privatisation, government

should focus on merger of these banks.

The government should closely monitor

the working of these banks and should

try to correct the loopholes within the

management.

Why Bank nationalisation was done?

In 1969, the Indian government

nationalised 14 major private banks. In

1980, 6 more private banks were

nationalised. The single reason of

nationalisation was that the banking

industry was dominated by private banks.

These private banks were not working as

per the directions of the government and

were focussed only on profit making.

Thus, government decided to establish

public sector banks so that general public

could be provided banking services.

Banking is a very important sector and is

critical for the growth of any nation.

Indira Gandhi told the Lok Sabha on 29

July 1969 that the “purpose of

©helloscholar


nationalization is to promote rapid

growth in agriculture, small industries

and export, to encourage new

entrepreneurs and to develop all

backward areas”. This was part of a

political strategy to destroy big business

houses that backed her opponents, as

well as build a new political base.

Airtel Payments Bank partners

NSDC to train rural youth for

financial services jobs

Airtel Payments Bank Ltd has

collaborated with National Skill

Development Corporation (NSDC) to

train and skill young people in rural areas

on financial services, enabling them to

find jobs and become entrepreneurs in

the sector.

The partnership aims at designing and

conducting targeted skill development

programs for rural youth that will focus

on adoption of tools to boost online

banking and digital financial services at a

time when the smartphone market is

growing and usage of 4G has increased

due to stay-at-home restrictions.

Rs 190.76 crore fraud in Bank

of Baroda

[simple_icon

name=”googleplay”] Download

news app

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

has registered a case against two NCR-

based steel and metal companies – Shri

Sidhdata Ispat Pvt. Ltd., Govardhan

Industries Pvt. Ltd., Shri Sidhdata Steel

Tubes, Sudershan Tubes on a loan fraud

complaint by Bank of Baroda and has

conducted searches at three locations in

Noida and Delhi.

It was alleged in the complaint that the

accused cheated Bank of Baroda to the

tune of Rs 190.76 crore (excluding

interest) by way of availing various credit

facilities, on the basis of submitting fake

documents to the bank. They diverted

the funds fraudulently for the purpose

other than they were sanctioned for.

[su_box title=”Bank of Baroda”

box_color=”#8a4957″ radius=”12″]

Bank of Baroda is an Indian Multinational,

public sector Banking and financial

services company. It is the third largest

public sector bank in India, with 131

million customers, a total business of US$

218 billion, and a global presence of 100

overseas offices. It is headquartered at

Vadodara, Gujarat and founded by

Sayajirao Gaekwad III on 20 July 1908.

[/su_box]

Yes Bank fraud: PMLA court

rejects Rana Kapoor’s bail

plea

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.news.helloscholar


https://news.helloscholar.in/yes-bank-fraud-pmla-court-rejects-rana-kapoors-bail-plea/



©helloscholar


HDFC Bank forced customers

to purchase a vehicle tracking

device

salary of bank employees

increased

Good news for Bank employees

Bank employees’ unions and the Indian

Banks’ Association (IBA) have reached an

agreement for a 15 per cent annual hike

in wages, a move that will result in an

additional yearly outgo of nearly Rs 7,900

crore by lenders. 15 per cent hike will

include a 2.5 per cent raise in basic pay

and dearness allowance components

worth Rs 1,155 crore.

The decision was taken at a meeting held

between the IBA – representing

managements of banks – and members

of the United Forum of Bank Unions

(UFBU) representing workmen unions

and officers’ association.

This settlement introduced PLI for public

sector banks (PSBs) and will be based on

the annual operating or net profit of the

lenders individually. Banks reporting an

increase in operating profit of 5-10 per

cent will give additional salary of 5 days,

10-15 per cent 10 days and above 15 per

cent 15 days.

Key features –

Wage revision effective from

November 2017 to October 2022

The increase in wage bill stood at

Rs 7,898 cr on payslip, compared

to a hike of Rs 4,725 cr in the

previous settlement

Banks with increase in operating

profit of less than 5% will get no

additional pay; those with 5-10%

will get additional pay of 5 days,

10-15% 10 days, and above 15%

15 days

Banks with a hike in operating

profit above 5% but no net profit

annually will get additional pay of

only 5 days

Increase in NPS contribution to

14% of basic pay, up from 10% at

present, subject to govt approval

No cap on family pension payout,

which is Rs 9,000 at present

The performance-linked pay will

be linked to operating profit, in

the range of 5-15 days of

additional pay

WFDSA report - India ranked

15th

The Indian direct selling industry has

recorded sales of US$ 2.47 billion in 2019,

reporting a growth of 12.1 per cent,

according to a report by World

https://news.helloscholar.in/hdfc-bank-forced-customers-to-purchase-a-vehicle-tracking-device/



©helloscholar


Federation of Direct Selling Associations

(WFDSA).

India has improved its rank to the 15th

from the earlier 19th a year

before. Furthermore, India stood at sixth

position in terms of the number of direct

sellers, providing employment to 57.50

lakh people.

Although, there was decline in the global

direct selling industry of 4.3 per cent in

sales to US$ 180.47 billion in 2019.

As per the report, with a contribution of

20 per cent of the global direct selling

industry, the US is leading in the list

with sales of US$ 35.21 billion, though

it has registered a marginal de-growth of

0.4 per cent.

China contributed 13 per cent

contribution, followed by Korea and

Germany with 10 per cent each and 9 per

cent by Japan.

This was a positive sign for the industry,

Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA)

said it targets to find space in the top five

players globally much earlier than the

previous estimates of a decade.

India recorded the highest year-on-year

growth and CAGR over three years, in top

20 Direct Selling markets around the

world. India has recorded the highest

year on year growth rate of 12.1 per cent

and the highest CAGR of 16.3 per cent

over the period of last three years,

amongst the top 20 direct selling markets

across the globe.

According to a latest joint report by IDSA

and data insight firm Kantar, the Indian

direct selling industry has observed a

Compounded Annual Growth Rate

(CAGR) of around 16 per cent and grown

from Rs 8,308 crore (US$ 1.18 billion) in

2015-16 to Rs 13,080 crore (US$ 1.86

billion) in 2018-19.

The leading segment in the chart of

Direct Selling was wellness followed

by cosmetics and personal care. The

Indian Direct Selling Industry’s

contribution to the exchequer stood at

around Rs 2,500 crore (US$ 354.66

million) in 2018-19.

Yes Bank fraud: PMLA court

rejects Rana Kapoor’s bail plea

Mumbai’s special PMLA court has

rejected the bail petition of Yes Bank

founder Rana Kapoor, who is an accused

in a multi-crore fraud at the bank. He was

arrested in March under provisions of the

Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The Enforcement Directorate is primarily

investigating Kapoor, his wife and three

daughters over an alleged receipt of 600

crore rupees from an entity linked to the

scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance

Limited.

Why Yes Bank failed?

RBI gave Rs.60,000 crore to

Yes Bank

https://www.helloscholar.in/why-yes-bank-failed/

https://www.helloscholar.in/rbi-gave-rs-60000-crore-to-yes-bank/

https://www.helloscholar.in/rbi-gave-rs-60000-crore-to-yes-bank/

©helloscholar


India to privatise 6 gov banks

India to privatise more than half of its

state-owned banks. This will reduce the

number of government-owned banks to

just five.

The first part of the plan would be to sell

majority stakes in Bank of India, Central

Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO

Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Punjab &

Sind Bank.

The idea is to have 4-5 government

owned banks,” said one senior

government official. At present, India has

12 state-owned banks.

The plan would be laid out in a new

privatisation proposal that would be put

before the cabinet for approval.

India’s Finance ministry declined to

comment on the matter.

What is the need?

The government is working on a

privatisation plan to help to raise money

by selling assets in non-core companies

and sectors when the country is strapped

for funds due to lack of economic growth

caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Several government committees and the

Reserve Bank of India have

recommended that India should have not

more than five state-owned banks.

The government has already said that

there will be no more mergers (between

state-owned banks) so the only option

for them is to divest stakes.

HDFC Bank forced customers

to purchase a vehicle tracking

device

Car loan customers of HDFC Bank Ltd

were forced to purchase a vehicle

tracking device for about four years till

December 2019. The bank on Saturday

said it has taken action against

employees in the vehicle finance unit

after an investigation.

HDFC Bank executives pushed auto loan

customers to buy GPS devices costing

₹18,000-19,500 from 2015 to December

2019. The cost of the device was added

to the loan amount. Customers were told

that unless they agreed to take this

product, their loan would not be

sanctioned. Executives said that they

were under extreme pressure to meet


©helloscholar


sales targets for these devices. HDFC

Bank had tie-up with Trackpoint GPS

company to provide GPS devices.

[su_box title=”HDFC Bank”

box_color=”#8a4957″ radius=”12″]

HDFC Bank Limited is an Indian banking

and financial services company

established in 1994 and is headquartered

in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

[/su_box]

Three people were running

duplicate branch of SBI in

Tamil Nadu

Swiggy partners with ICICI

Bank

AIBEA released the list of wilful

defaulters

India’s largest bank staffers union, the All

India Bank Employee’s Association

(AIBEA) on Saturday released the list of

wilful defaulters who owe Rs.1,47,350

crore to public sector banks. The AIBEA

said that the purpose of this release of

wilful defaulters in the public domain is in

the interest of the country and

demanded that these defaulters should

not be allowed to contest in elections and

hold public offices. In a detailed

statement, the AIBEA general secretary

C.H Venkatachalam demanded that the

Banks must publish the names of all

defaulters and stringent measures must

be taken to recover the corporate loans

and wilful default must be made as a

criminal offence. AIBEA also said that

total Deposits in Indian banks crossed

more than Rs.138 lakh crores.

In the AIBEA released wilful defaulters list

highest is from State Bank of India (SBI)

with Rs. 43,887 crores, followed by

Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda

with Rs.22,370 crores and Rs.14,661

crores dues. Out of the total 2426 cases,

these three banks are having 1365 cases

of wilful defaulters. Among the top 33

defaulters (Rs.500 crore and above) total

dues of this category are Rs.32,737

crores. In the top 33 wilful defaulters

Gitanjali Gems, Kingfisher Airlines, Ruchi

Soya, Rotomac, Sterling Oil Resources are

figured.

Google will buy a 7.7% stake

for $4.5 billion in Jio Platforms

Alphabet’s Google will buy a 7.7% stake

for $4.5 billion in Jio Platforms. Reliance,

India’s most highly-valued company run

by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has now

sold nearly 33% of Jio Platforms which

houses music, movie apps and telecoms

venture Jio Infocomm for 1.52 trillion

rupees ($20.22 billion).

Alphabet Inc said it would invest $10

billion in India via a so-called digitisation

https://news.helloscholar.in/three-people-were-running-duplicate-branch-of-sbi-in-tamil-nadu/



https://news.helloscholar.in/swiggy-partners-with-icici-bank/


©helloscholar


fund over the next five to seven years

through equity deals and tie-ups.

The deal with Google will bolster

Reliance’s tech ambitions, such as

building smart homes, using solutions

similar to Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa voice

assistant, connected cars and security

systems. Jio and Google will also partner

to built a low-cost “4G or even 5G

smartphone” for India. Jio Infocomm, the

mainstay of Jio Platforms and India’s

largest mobile carrier with more than 387

million users, will also widen Google’s

reach in a country where just about 500

million of its 1.3 billion population use

the internet.

PSBs to purchase NBFC

Bonds/CPs worth Rs 14,667 cr

under extended PCGS

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has

said that the Partial Credit Guarantee

Scheme, PCGS was revamped under the

Aatmanirbhar Bharat Package to support

the liability side of Non Banking Financial

Companies, NBFCs. It provides a 20 per

cent portfolio guarantee to Public Sector

Banks for the purchase of Bonds or

Commercial Papers rated AA and below

which are issued by NBFCs.

As of 10th July, under the extended PCGS,

Public Sector Banks have approved the

purchase Bonds or Commercial Papers

issued by 67 NBFCs amounting to 14

thousand 6 hundred 67 crore rupees. Of

these 6 thousand 8 hundred 45 crore

rupees is for Bonds or Commercial Papers

rated below AA, providing liquidity

support to NBFCs with lower rated Bonds

or Commercial Papers.

The purchase of Bonds or Commercial

Papers of 6 thousand 1 hundred 25 crore

rupees, including 5 thousand 5 hundred

50 crore rupees of Bonds or Commercial

Papers rated below AA, is currently under

various stages of approval or at

negotiation stage.

HSBC to set up IFSC Banking

Unit at GIFT city in

Gandhinagar

HSBC- the Hongkong and Shanghai

Banking Corporation Limited is to set up

the IFSC Banking Unit at Gujarat

International Finance Tec City, GIFT city in

Gandhinagar Gujarat. The world’s largest

financial services organization HSBC has

got in-principle approval from the GIFT

SEZ Authority to set up an IFSC Banking

Unit -IBU at GIFT City, subject to other

Regulatory approvals.

The proposed commencement of the IBU

by HSBC marks a significant development

in India’s IFSC business. It also proves

GIFT’s mettle as a globally competitive

international financial center. This

development marks a major milestone

for HSBC in India, which has been present

in the country for more than 160 years.

©helloscholar


13 banks have set up their IBUs in GIFT

IFSC. The cumulative business in the

banking vertical has crossed 28bn US

dollars.

GIFT IFSC Banking Units have played a

pivotal role in the development of IFSC in

India by providing dollar financing to

Indian corporates. As per available data,

GIFT IFSC has contributed around 11

percent of total financial services exports

of India.

Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance

ratings cut to junk

Google to invest Rs. 75,000

crore in India over next 5 to 7

years

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced an

investment of Rs. 75 thousand crore in

India over the next 5 to 7 years through

Google for India Digitisation Fund.

He said the investments will focus on four

key areas of India’s digitisation. They are

enabling affordable access and

information to every Indian in their own

language, building new products and

services relevant to India’s unique needs,

empowering businesses as they continue

to embark in digital transformation, and

leveraging technology and Artificial

Intelligence for social good in areas like

healthcare, education and agriculture.

World’s largest Sardar Patel

COVID care centre



Tamil Nadu

Foxconn to invest $1 billion in

India

Foxconn, the company that makes

Apple’s iPhones, is looking to invest $1

billion to expand its factory in Tamil

Nadu. The move is reportedly part of

Apple’s moves to shift iPhone production

away from China and hence reduce its

dependence on the country.

The investment will take place over three

years, which is within the time frame for

the Indian government’s new

production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.



Tamil Nadu

Three people were running a duplicate

branch of State Bank of India (SBI) in

Panruti, Tamil Nadu. Among the three

people, one was the son of former bank

employees.

https://news.helloscholar.in/axis-bank-bajaj-finance-ratings-cut-to-junk/

https://news.helloscholar.in/axis-bank-bajaj-finance-ratings-cut-to-junk/

https://news.helloscholar.in/worlds-largest-sardar-patel-covid-care-centre/

https://news.helloscholar.in/worlds-largest-sardar-patel-covid-care-centre/




©helloscholar


The mastermind was Kamal Babu, an

unemployed youth whose parents were

former bank employees. His father died

10 years ago, while his mother retired

from a bank two years ago. The branch

was established three-month-ago.

How people came to know?

An SBI customer noticed the branch in

Panruti and discussed the matter with his

Branch manager. Soon after, the matter

was escalated to Zonal office, which in

turn informed the Branch Manager that

only only two branches of SBI are running

in Panruti, and no third branch had been

opened.

SBI officials visited the duplicate branch

and were surprised when they saw the

entire set, which was exactly like a bank

branch, with all the systems and

infrastructure in place. SBI officials

immediately launched a complaint

following which the three people were

arrested.

[su_box title=”In news”

box_color=”#8a4957″ radius=”12″]The

State Bank of India is an Indian

multinational, public sector banking and

financial services statutory body. It is a

government corporation statutory body

headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

SBI is ranked as 236th in the Fortune

Global 500 list of the world’s biggest

corporations of 2019. It was founded on

1 July 1955.[/su_box]

Swiggy partners with ICICI

Bank

Punjab National Bank Reports

Rs 3,689-Crore DHFL Loans As

Fraud

Punjab National Bank on Thursday

reported a loan of Rs 3,688.58 crore

granted to Dewan Housing Finance

Limited (DHFL) as fraud to the Reserve

Bank of India. PNB, said the fraud in the

non-performing asset account of DHFL

“at Large Corporate Branch” in Mumbai

was reported to the Reserve Bank of India

(RBI). This is the fourth scandal Punjab

National Bank has reported in three

years. Non-banking financial company

Dewan Housing Finance is currently

under bankruptcy proceedings.

Punjab National Bank said it had already

made provisions of Rs 1,246.58 crore

pertaining to the incident.

Punjab National Bank in June reported

about Rs 73,500 crore of gross non-

performing assets – or bad loans – for the

fourth quarter of financial year 2019-20.

As a percentage of total loans, gross

NPAs were 14.21 per cent, as against 15.5

per cent in the previous quarter.

Earlier, Punjab National Bank was hit by a

Rs 11,300-crore fraud involving

billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi in 2018.



©helloscholar


Punjab National Bank (PNB)

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is a Banking

and Financial service bank owned by the

Government of India with its

headquarters is in New Delhi, India. The

bank was founded in 1894 and is the

second largest public sector bank (PSB) in

India, both in terms of business and its

network.

PNB has a banking subsidiary in the UK

(PNB International Bank, with seven

branches in the UK), as well as branches

in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Dubai, and

Kabul. It has representative offices in

Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dubai (United Arab

Emirates), Shanghai (China), Oslo

(Norway), and Sydney (Australia). In

Bhutan it owns 51% of Druk PNB Bank,

which has five branches. In Nepal PNB

owns 20% of Everest Bank Limited, which

has 50 branches. Lastly, PNB owns 41.64

% of JSC (SB) PNB Bank in Kazakhstan,

which has four branches.

Related : Rs.350.84 crore bank fraud

by Punjab Basmati Rice Limited

Related : Public & Private Sector Banks

sanction loans worth over Rs. 1 lakh

crore as of June 26 under ECLGS

AIIB has released $50 million in

the first tranche of assistance

to L&T Infrastructure Finance

Ltd for funding Renewable

Energy projects

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

(AIIB) has released $50 million in the first

tranche of assistance to L&T

Infrastructure Finance Ltd for funding

Renewable Energy projects in the

country. AIIB has sanctioned total $100

million loan to unit of L&T Finance

Holdings.

This is AIIB’s first loan to a non-banking

financial company (NBFC) in India. The

loan proceeds will be used to on-lend to

large and mid-scale wind and solar

power infrastructure projects in India.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

(AIIB)

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

(AIIB) is a multilateral development bank

that aims to support the building of

infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.

The bank currently has 82 members as

well as 20 prospective members from

around the world. The bank started

operation after the agreement entered

into force on 25 December 2015 and

opened for operations on 16 January

2016. The starting capital of the bank was

$100 billion.

Merger of government

insurances companies stopped

The government had announced plans to

merge state-owned general insurance

companies, Oriental Insurance, United

https://news.helloscholar.in/rs-350-84-crore-bank-fraud-by-punjab-basmati-rice-limited/

https://news.helloscholar.in/rs-350-84-crore-bank-fraud-by-punjab-basmati-rice-limited/

https://news.helloscholar.in/public-private-sector-banks-sanction-loans-worth-over-rs-1-lakh-crore-as-of-june-26-under-eclgs/



©helloscholar


India Insurance and National Insurance in

Budget 2018.

The government on July 8 said it has

‘ceased’ the process of merger of public

sector general insurance companies.

Instead, the focus will now be on their

profitable growth and maintaining

minimum capital levels.

As of Q3FY20, United India’s solvency

ratio stood at 0.94 as against the

regulatory requirement of 1.5. solvency

means the minimum capital/assets that

have to be maintained against the

liabilities.

Solvency ratio of Oriental Insurance

stood at 1.54 at the end of Q3FY20 while

that of National Insurance stood at 0.12

percent as of Q3FY20.

Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime

Minister Narendra Modi also approved

the capital infusion for an overall value of

Rs 12,450 crore (including Rs. 2,500 crore

infused in FY20) in the three insurers.

Of the total, Rs 3,475 crore will be

released immediately while the balance

Rs 6,475 crore will be infused later.

The government’s idea for merger was

that the merged entity would

subsequently be listed on the stock

exchanges and it would create a stronger

and larger insurance company that was

sustainable in the long run. The other two

state-owned entities, New India

Assurance and General Insurance

Corporation of India are listed on the

exchanges.

Hero Cycles cancels 900 crore

trade deal with china

Hero Cycles has cancelled trade deals

worth 900 crore rupees with China. Hero

Cycles Chairman and Managing Director

Pankaj Munjal said, the company has

boycotted Chinese companies and

decided not to do any trade with Chinese

in future.

He said the company will now

manufacture the high-tech cycles in

India. He said that company is now

looking for opportunities in other

countries and planning to set up plant of

Hero Cycles in Germany, from where the

cycles would be supplied to all European

countries.

Intel Corp invests Rs.18.95

billion rupees in Reliance Jio

Reliance Industries said that Intel Corp

would buy a 0.39% stake in its digital unit,

Jio Platforms, for 18.95 billion rupees

($253.55 million).

Including Intel’s investment, Jio Platforms

will have raised a total of 1.18 trillion

rupees from investors.

©helloscholar


Rs.350.84 crore bank fraud by

Punjab Basmati Rice Limited

Punjab Basmati Rice Limited and its

directors have been booked for allegedly

cheating the Canara Bank to the tune of

Rs 174.89 crore.

The searches took place at the premises

of the company office and accused

directors Kulwinder Singh Makhani,

Jasmeet Kaur and Manjeet Singh

Makhani in Punjab’s Amritsar, they said.

How fraud took place?

The accused had cheated the Canara

Bank-led consortium comprising Andhra

Bank, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank

of Commerce, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank to

the tune of Rs 350.84 crore (including Rs

174.89 crore to the Canara Bank) by

disposing off the stock and prime

security without any prior intimation or

approval from the consortium lender

banks.

Govt launches Special

Liquidity Scheme of 30

thousand crore rupees to

improve liquidity for NBFCs

and HFCs

Govt launches Special Liquidity

Scheme of 30 thousand crore rupees

to improve liquidity for NBFCs and

HFCs

The Union Government has launched the

Special Liquidity Scheme of 30 thousand

crore rupees to improve the liquidity

position for Non-Banking Finance

Companies- NBFCs and Housing Finance

Companies- HFCs. The scheme was

launched yesterday through a Special

Purpose Vehicle in the form of SLS Trust

set up by SBI Capital Markets Limited

(SBICAP).

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had

announced it on 13th of March this year.

Reserve Bank of India will provide funds

for the Scheme by subscribing to

government guaranteed special

securities issued by the Trust. The total

amount of such securities issued

outstanding shall not exceed 30

thousand crore rupees at any point of

time. The Central Government will

provide an unconditional and irrevocable

guarantee to the special securities issued

by the Trust.

The Scheme will remain open for three

months for making subions by the Trust.

The period of lending by the Trust will be

for a period of up to 90 days. The

financing would be used by the NFBCs

and HFCs only to repay existing liabilities

and not to expand assets.


©helloscholar


70.32 lakh Kisan Credit Cards

sanctioned with credit limit of

Rs 62,870 cr under

Aatmanirbhar package

70.32 lakh Kisan Credit Cards

sanctioned with credit limit of Rs

62,870 cr under Aatmanirbhar

package

A total of 70.32 lakh Kisan Credit Cards

have been sanctioned with credit limit of

62,870 crore rupees out of 2 lakh crore

rupees concessional credit under the

Aatmanirbhar package. This will benefit

2.5 crore farmers, including fishermen

and dairy farmers.

Around 24,587 crore rupees have been

disbursed to Cooperative Banks, RRBs

and MFIs under 30,000 cr Special

Liquidity Facility by NABARD. This will

help three crore small and marginal

farmers meet their post-harvest and

Kharif sowing needs.

Carlyle to buy a 25% stake in

Bharti Airtel

Carlyle will buy a 25% stake in Indian

telecom firm Bharti Airtel Ltd’s data

centre arm for $235 million.

The acquisition, by an affiliate of Carlyle,

will give Airtel’s Nxtra Data Ltd an

enterprise valuation of about $1.2 billion.

Airtel will hold the remaining 75% stake

in Nxtra.

The Carlyle Group is an American

multinational private equity, alternative

asset management and financial services

corporation.

Nxtra is building multiple large data

centres across India, and will use the

proceeds from the deal to scale up its

infrastructure, the companies said.

India is seeing a surge in demand for data

centres as more businesses choose cloud

computing, and consumer demand for

digital services such as smartphone

entertainment continues to grow.

Public & Private Sector Banks

sanction loans worth over Rs. 1

lakh crore as of June 26 under

ECLGS

Public & Private Sector Banks sanction

loans worth over Rs. 1 lakh crore as of

June 26 under ECLGS

Under the 100 per cent Emergency Credit

Line Guarantee Scheme, ECLGS backed

by a Government guarantee, Banks from

Public and Private Sectors have

sanctioned loans worth over Rs. 1 lakh

crore as of 26th of this month, of which

more than Rs. 45 thousand Crore have

already been disbursed.

It would help more than 30 lakh units of

MSMEs and other businesses restart their

businesses post the lockdown.

©helloscholar


Public Sector Banks have sanctioned

loans of over Rs. 57 thousand 525 crore

whereas Private Sector Banks have

sanctioned loans of over Rs. 44 thousand

335 crore under ECLGS.

The top lenders under the Scheme are

SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Canara Bank

and HDFC.

Four gunmen attack Stock

Exchange building in Karachi

Four gunmen attack Stock Exchange

building in Karachi

In Pakistan, four gunmen armed with

grenades and automatic rifles attacked

the Stock Exchange building in Karachi

today. They killed two guards and a

policeman before being killed by the

security forces. A security official said

they had come to carry out an attack

inside the building and take hostages

inside. Staff inside took refuge in locked

rooms and many were evacuated.

India-Bangladesh form 50:50

Joint Venture Company for

LPG business in Bangladesh

India-Bangladesh form 50:50 Joint

Venture Company for LPG business in

Bangladesh

India and Bangladesh signed an

agreement for the formation of a 50:50

Joint Venture Company (JVC) for LPG

business in Bangladesh.

The agreement was signed between

the IOC Middle East FZE, Dubai, a wholly-

owned subsidiary of Indian Oil

Corporation (IOC) and RR Holdings Ltd.,

Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, the holding

company of Beximco LPG of Bangladesh.

The Joint Venture Company will help

reduce the cost of import of LPG and

make it more affordable for the

consumers in Bangladesh.

The LPG market in Bangladesh is fast

expanding and the new project will draw

upon the strengths of the Indian oil and

Beximco in their respective areas.

The company plans to diversify into LPG

export to the north eastern states of India

from Bangladesh which will prove to be a

win win situation for both the countries.

Government announces

launch of seven-year floating

rate savings bonds

Government announces launch of

seven-year floating rate savings bonds

Government has announced the launch

of seven-year Floating Rate Savings

Bonds, 2020 (Taxable) scheme

commencing from 1st July.

©helloscholar


According to an RBI notification, Floating

Rate Savings Bonds will enable a person

resident in India or Hindu Undivided

Family to invest in a taxable bond,

without any monetary ceiling. The

interest on the bonds is payable semi-

annually on 1st January and 1st July every

year. The coupon on 1st January 2021

shall be paid at 7.15 percent.

World Bank approves $500

million for STARS project in

India

World Bank approves $500 million

project to better education quality in 6

states – STARS (Strengthening

Teaching-Learning and Results for

States Program)

The project, ‘STARS’ will be

implemented in Himachal, Kerala,

Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,

Odisha and Rajasthan.

The project will be implemented

through the Samagra Shiksha

Abhiyan, the flagship central

scheme.

STARS will help India focus on

learning outcomes and prepare

students for the jobs of the future.

STARS will help improve learning

assessment systems, strengthen

classroom instruction, and

remediation, facilitate school-to-

work transition, and strengthen

governance and decentralized

management.

India and education

India has, over the years, made

significant strides in improving

access to education across the

country.

Between 2004-05 and 2018-19,

the number of children going to

school increased from 219 million

to 248 million, according to the

multilateral agency.

The Global Forum named India

among the top-three

jurisdictions to which

Switzerland provided

information on request

The Global Forum named India among

the top-three jurisdictions to which

Switzerland provided information on

request

India figures among the top-three

countries getting detailed

information from Switzerland

about bank accounts and

beneficiary ownership of entities

established by their residents

according to the latest study by

OECD’s Global Forum on

transparency and exchange of

information for tax purposes.

The latest peer review by the

Global Forum, referring to the

period from July 2015 to June

2018, named India among the

top-three jurisdictions to which

©helloscholar


Switzerland provided information

on request.

The other two countries were

France and Germany.

The review also named Italy,

Netherlands and Spain among

other significant EOI (Exchange of

Information) partners for

Switzerland.

Switzerland received 3,252

individual requests for

information.

The Global Forum said Switzerland

is rated ‘largely compliant’.

India is also rated as ‘largely

compliant’ by this OECD

(Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development)

body.

The Global Forum review said

Switzerland has made “significant

improvements in the areas of

availability of legal ownership

information, exchange of

information on deceased persons

and requests based on stolen

data”.

It, however, said some challenges

remain with regard to availability

of beneficial ownership

information and proper

implementation of rights and

safeguards to ensure effective

exchange of information and

confidentiality requirements.

Black money parked by Indians in

Swiss banks

Switzerland has shared detailed

information in more than 500

cases over the past one year

regarding the accounts in Swiss

financial institutions of Indian

individuals and enterprises

suspected to have indulged in tax

frauds and other financial

irregularities, while the numbers

increase multi-fold after taking

into account such cases from

across the world.

Switzerland has entered into pacts

with more than 100 countries,

including India, for automatic

exchange of information on tax

matters.

IMF approves an emergency

financial assistance worth

356.5 million dollars for

Myanmar

IMF approves an emergency financial

assistance worth 356.5 million dollars

for Myanmar

The IMF has approved an emergency

financial assistance worth 356.5 million

dollars for Myanmar to address

challenges posed by the COVID 19

pandemic.

©helloscholar


The assistance for Myanmar has been

approved under the Rapid Credit Facility

and Rapid Financing Instrument to meet

the urgent balance of payment and fiscal

needs of the country. It will also support

the government’s plans to boost

spending especially on health and social

safety nets.

Myanmar has reported 239 COVID 19

cases till today including 6 deaths and

202 recoveries. A large part of the COVID

19 infection in Myanmar was reported

from people returning from abroad.

Reserve Bank of India extends

enhanced borrowing limit to

banks under MSF till Sept

Reserve Bank of India extends

enhanced borrowing limit to banks

under MSF till Sept 30

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has

decided to extend the enhanced

borrowing facility provided to the banks

to meet their liquidity shortages till

September 30.

The RBI, as a temporary measure, had

increased the borrowing limit of

scheduled banks under the marginal

standing facility (MSF) scheme from 2 per

cent to 3 per cent of their Net Demand

and Time Liabilities (NDTL) with effect

from March 27, 2020.

Under the MSF, banks can borrow

overnight funds at their discretion by

dipping into the Statutory Liquidity Ratio

(SLR). This relaxation, which was granted

till June 30, 2020, has now been extended

till September 30. RBI said that banks

may continue to access overnight funds

under the MSF against their excess SLR

holding.

The marginal standing facility rate

currently stands at 4.25 per cent. The RBI

has also extended the relaxation on the

minimum daily maintenance of the Cash

Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 80 per cent for a

further period of three months till

September 25, 2020.

On March 27, the minimum daily

maintenance of the CRR was reduced

from 90 per cent of the prescribed CRR to

80 per cent till June 26, 2020.

This was done in view of the continuing

of hardships faced by banks in terms of

social distancing of staff and consequent

strains on reporting requirements.

Banking PDF – Learn all banking terms

Police constable who attacked

female staff at Canara Bank

suspended

Police constable who attacked lady

staff at Canara Bank suspended

A police constable entered the bank and

started arguing with the bank staff over

https://www.helloscholar.in/banking-awareness-for-ibps-sbi-bank-exams/

©helloscholar


passbook printing. The passbook printer

was not working and thus, the staff could

not print his passbook. The female staff

was recording the incident in her mobile.

The constable entered the restricted area

and attacked her. The constable has been

identified as Ghanshyam Shyor and FIR

was lodged against him.

Finance Minister looked into the matter

and promised timely action. Check her

tweets.

Spoke to Dr. Dhaval Patel,

Collector, Surat, on the

incident of a lady staff of a

Bank being assaulted in the

premises. Although currently

on leave, he assured me that

timely action will be taken on

the FIR filed late night.

@canarabank @PIB_India

@CP_SuratCity

@DarshanaJardosh

— Nirmala Sitharaman

(@nsitharaman) June 24,

2020

Will be closely following this

matter. Wish to assure that

the safety of all members of

staff in banks is of importance

for us. Amid challenges,

banks are extending all

services to our people.

Nothing should threaten their

safety and dignity.

@canarabank @PIB_India

@CP_SuratCity



2020

My office spoke to the

Commissioner of Police, Shri.

Bhrambhatt (IPS). He has

assured us that he himself will

visit the branch & assure the

staff of their safety. Also he

assured that the accused

constable shall be suspended

immediately. @CP_SuratCity

@PIB_India @canarabank



2020

My office is being informed

that the Commissioner of

Police visited @canarabank’s

Saroli branch and assured

staff of full cooperation; the

accused police constable is

placed under suspension.

@CP_SuratCity @PIB_India

@DarshanaJardosh



2020

Rs.700 crore fraud in PNB

Rs.700 crore fraud in PNB

https://twitter.com/canarabank?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/PIB_India?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/CP_SuratCity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/DarshanaJardosh?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/nsitharaman/status/1275620894036029440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw















https://twitter.com/DarshanaJardosh?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw



©helloscholar


In short –

Directors of Moser Baer Solar Limited

(MBSL) and others took loan from PNB

led consortium and diverted all the funds

leading to a loss of ₹787.25 crore to the

Punjab National Bank and other banks.

The CBI on 26 June searched

premises linked to the then

directors of Moser Baer Solar

Limited (MBSL) and others in

connection with a new case

alleging that they caused a loss of

₹787.25 crore to the Punjab

National Bank and other lenders

of a consortium.

In August 2019, the CBI booked

another group concern, Moser

Baer India Limited (MBIL), and the

Puris for alleged bank loan fraud

involving ₹354.51 crore.

Among those named in that case

were Mr. Deepak Puri, his wife Nita

Puri and their son, besides

directors Sanjay Jain and Vineet

Sharma.

In the latest case, the CBI has

named the Puris, apart from the

MBSL, Sunita Gupta, Deepak

Khandelwal, Rajesh Khandelwal,

Bernhard Hermann Gallus, Sunita

Mowdgal and Sanjay Jain.

The company had taken credit

facilities from Punjab National

Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Exim

Bank, State Bank of India, Union

Bank of India, Central Bank of

India and Bank of Baroda.

The amount stood at ₹955.84

crore in January 2012.

How fraud was done?

Funds were diverted through

sham transactions, as the sale

proceeds and capital funds were

not deposited with the lenders

and routed through several other

banks.

Instead of repayment of loans, the

company allegedly invested

₹696.51 crore in one Helios

Photovoltaic Limited, a related

firm that had been booking losses

since 2011-12.

Actions taken

Based on the first case, the ED

initiated a money laundering

probe and arrested Mr. Ratul Puri

last year.

He is also being probed in the

AgustaWestland VVIP chopper

deal case.

In May last, it attached assets

worth ₹385.44 crore of accused

Rajiv Saxena in the copper deal

and MBIL cases.

Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance

ratings cut to junk

S &P Global Ratings downgraded

ratings of Axis Bank and four Indian

©helloscholar


non-bank financiers due to worsening

operating conditions as a result of the

covid-19 pandemic.

Axis Bank’s issuer credit rating

was cut one notch to BB+,

indicating junk status.

S&P said the rating action reflects

its expectation that heightened

economic risks facing India’s

banking system will affect the

lender’s asset quality and financial

performance.

As on 31 March, 4.86% of the

bank’s total loans were non-

performing.

The four non-banking financial

companies (NBFCs) whose ratings

were downgraded are Shriram

Transport Finance Co. Ltd. (STFC),

Bajaj Finance Ltd., Manappuram

Finance Ltd., and Power Finance

Corp. Ltd.

Shriram Transport’s issuer rating

was downgraded to BB-; Bajaj

Finance was downgraded to BB+;

Manappuram Finance to B+ and

Power Finance Corp. to BB+.

Facebook buys stake in Jio

Facebook buys stake in Jio

The Competition Commission of

India (CCI) approved Facebook

Inc’s 9.99 per cent stake buy in

Reliance Industries’ (RIL) Jio

Platforms.

Facebook will buy stake worth Rs

43,574 crore in Jio Platforms

through a wholly-owned indirect

subsidiary Jaadhu Holdings LLC.

Jaadhu Holdings was

incorporated in March 2020 in

Delaware, US and was not

engaged in any business in India

or anywhere in the world,

according to the submissions it

had made to the CCI.

Urban Cooperative and Multi

State Cooperative banks

brought under RBI

Briefing media in New Delhi today, Union

Information and Broadcasting Minister

Prakash Javadekar informed that Urban

Cooperative and Multi State Cooperative

banks will be brought under direct

supervision of Reserve Bank of India.

Download more books, visit –

www.helloscholar.in/books

Documents

Current Affairs · ICICI Bank closes its banking business in Sri Lanka..... 8 committee on QR code..... 8 World Economic Outlook October 2020 report..... 9 India’s GDP is expected