News Related to Banking & Finance 1. Govt. launch Jan Dhan scheme to promote financial inclusion: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana to help the poor open bank accounts. The slogan for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan mission is “Mera Khata – Bhagya Vidhaata”. Benefits : i. Every individual who opens a bank account will become eligible to receive an accident insurance cover of up-to Rs. 1 Lakh. ii. HDFC Ergo General Insurance will provide the accident cover under the scheme. . | . | . 8 iii. An additional Rs. 30,000 life insurance cover will be provided for those opening bank accounts before January 26, 2015. iv. LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) will provide the life insurance cover of Rs 30,000 under the scheme v. Rs 5,000 overdraft facility for Aadhar-linked accounts, Ru Pay Debit Card with and minimum monthly remuneration of Rs 5,000 to business correspondents who will provide the last link between the account holders and the bank. 2. Arvind Mayaram Committee Report – Govt. accepted the report of a committee on rationalising definitions of FDI and FII. Note: i. Foreign investment of 10 per cent or more in a listed company will now be treated as foreign direct investment (FDI) ii. If the stake is not raised to 10 per cent or above, then the investment can be treated as portfolio investment. iii. Any investment by way of equity shares, compulsorily convertible preference shares/debentures less than 10 per cent should treated as Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI). FPI combines two categories of foreign investors, FII and Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI). 3. Food inflation remains flat at 9.4 % in August. 4. Public Sector Banks require 26–37 billion US dollars to meet Basel-III norms: Moody Note: In the report it revealed that 11 Indian public sector banks (PSBs) need to raise 26 to 37 billion US dollar in external capital in the financial year 2015 in order to meet the Basel-III capital adequacy norms by financial year 2019. 5. Banks Need $200 bn to Meet Basel III Norms: Fitch: The Indian banking sector will need about $200 billion additional capital over next five years in order to meet Basel III capital adequacy norms 6. Qatar-based Doha Bank will acquire the Indian operations of the HSBC Bank Oman. Note: Late last year Doha Bank had secured licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to commence banking operations in India and has been permitted to open a branch in Mumbai to provide full—scale banking services. 7. State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and Federal Bank Limited launched a savings account for minors above 10 years of age. Note: SBI had launched new accounts Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan for kids. ii. ICICI Bank has launched Smart Stars account and Federal Bank Limited has Young Champ Account for minors. 8. ICICI Bank offers Card less Cash Withdrawal at ATMs. Now, withdraw without a debit card at an ICICI Bank ATM, as the bank facilitates cardless cash withdrawal service with the help of a mobile number. 9. SBI signed 500 million dollar Line of Credit with Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank). 10. SBI, celebrated 150 years of its operations in Sri Lanka on 13/Sept/2014. 11. State Bank of India (SBI) tie-up with MasterCard launched its first multi-currency international debit card to allow consumers to use a single card to pay in multiple currencies. At present, the card can be issued at an annual fee of Rs. 100 without any interchange fee to customers. 12. IndusInd Bank launched a new customer service called Video Branch to enable customers to do a video conference with the bank staff at convenience. 13. Axis Bank which is Indias third largest private bank has been featured in Forbes Asias FAB 50 list of 2014. This is the fourth time that Axis Bank has been featured and is amongst the only two banks in this renowned list. Note: i. The FAB 50 comprises of the best of Asia-Pacifics biggest publicly traded companies, chosen from a pool of 1,300 companies in the region that have at least USD 3 billion in market cap or annual revenue. ii. In January this year, Axis Bank became Indias first private sector bank to open a branch in China . | . | . 9 14. Dairy products major Mother Dairy and the State Bank of India announced the launch of the SmartChange Card for Mother Dairy booths in the National Capital Region. 15. Indian economy to grow at 5.5 percent in current fiscal, estimates ESCAP 16. Moodys Analytics released a report titled India outlook: Prospects Brighten Note:. i. In the report, it stated that Indias growth prospects brightened with growth rate expected to accelerate to 5.2 % in 2014 and 6.5 % by end of 2015. ii. The above forecast came following the GDP growth touching a level of 5.7 percent in April-June 2014 quarter. 17. Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) retains interest rate on provident fund at 8.75 percent for the current fiscal. 18. Government notified minimum monthly pension of 1,000 rupees and a higher wage upper limit improvement to15,000 from 6,500 rupees for social security schemes run by retirement fund manager Employees Provident Fund Organisation. 19. Govt. to implement GST (Goods & Services Tax) new indirect tax regime from 1st April 2016. 20. WPI-based Inflation declined to 5-year low of 3.74 percent in August 21. IndiGo has signed a $2.6 billion deal with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) for the lender to finance more than 30 new aircraft 22. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided $63.3-million loan for improving urban services and strengthening municipal and project management capacity in North Karnataka towns. 23. Supreme Court quashed allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks which were allotted to various companies since 1993 and in which it was claimed that around Rs 2 lakh crores were invested. Note: A bench, headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha, saved only four blocks--one belonging to NTPC and SAIL each and two allocated to Ultra Mega Power Projects--from being cancelled. 24. Union Heavy Industry Ministry proposed to shut down six sick Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSEs). i. The sick CPSEs include HMT Watches, HMT Barings, HMT Chinar Watch, Hindustan Photo Films, Hindustan Cables and Tungbhadra Steel. ii. Besides, the Ministry also proposed to revive 5 CPSEs. These CPSEs include HMT Machine Tools, Heavy Engineering Corporation, NEPA, Nagaland Paper & Pulp Co; and Triveni Structurals. 25. India to contribute USD 12 million to UN to tackle Ebola 26. Indias export growth slips to 2.35 % at 26.95 billion dollars in Aug. 27. Bangladesh to join BRICS Bank: Bangladesh has decided to join the newly formed BRICS Bank, an initiative of the worlds five emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 28. Import duty of sugar hiked from 15 to 25 per cent 29. ICICI Bank offers EMI on debit cards: ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank, has launched EMI (equated monthly installments) facility on debit cards to enable its customers to convert their high value transactions into easy installments. Note: ICICI bank is the first in the country to introduce this facility, 30. Inflation at 5-month low of 5.19 per cent in July 31. According to a UN report Indian economy expected to grow by 5.5% in current fiscal. 32. The Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI has imposed a penalty of 13 crore rupees on Reliance Industries Limited for alleged irregularities in issuance of warrants by the company to its promoters. 33. India Ratings & Research revised its FY15 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 5.7 per cent from its April 2014 forecast of 5.6 per cent. 34. World Bank to give $153 mn loan for Odisha project: India has inked a loan agreement with World Bank for assistance of $153 million (about Rs 920 crore) for the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project. 35. Exim Bank has extended USD 46 million line of credit to Mauritius for financing goods and defence related vehicles purchases. 36. World Bank has signed an agreement with the government to provide a loan assistance of USD 1,006.20 million for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan III, which is the largest ongoing Education for All programme in the world. 37. FICCI and IDBI signed an MoU for easy access to organised finance facility at competitive interest rates for micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME). 38. India became third-largest economy in 2011 from 10th in 2005: World Bank. 39. World Bank will provide $500 million loan for water supply and sanitation projects in the rural areas of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. . | . | . 10 40. World Bank will provide 50 million dollar assistance to Afghanistan to support the governments efforts to improve access to credit for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 07:54:38 +0000