Competition Booster OCT 2015 (Part-1) For IBPS Exam

RBI/ BANKING/BUSINESS NEWS THIS MONTH

14 October: Indian government signed a deal, worth 105.5 crore rupees, with Pipistrel, a Slovenian firm, for 194 micro-light aircraft named 'Virus SW 80/100' to be used by Indian Air Force, the Navy and the National Cadet Corps. However, the Indian version of the aircraft will be renamed as Garud.
14 October: Punjab National Bank (PNB) claimed the Beighton Cup hockey tournament at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) ground in Kolkata. PNB defeated Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).
14 October: ICICI Bank has launched 'Money2World,' a fully online outward remittance service for resident Indians. With this, non-account holders of ICICI Bank can now transfer money online from any bank account in India to any bank account overseas in 16 major currencies, in a "convenient and fully secure" manner. It is a first-of-its-kind service by any bank in India. Users can remit up to an equivalent of $25000 in a financial year through this online platform.
14 October: The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, announced that the AfDB would triple its annual climate financing to reach 5 billion dollar a year by 2020.
14 October: Finance Ministers of 20 nations vulnerable to climate change launched the V20 Group. The Group was launched during the annual meeting of International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Lima, Peru. The Group aims to pool resources for their fight against the impact of global warming and is a counterpoint to the G20 group of leading industrialized and emerging economies.
13 October: India and Jordon inked six MoUs in various fields in Amman. These include, agreement on Maritime Transport, Exchange of information on structure and content of training programmes for diplomats, Cooperation in the field of IT & Electronics, Cultural Exchange Programme for 2015-17, Cooperation in the fields of Standardization and Conformity Assessment; and Cooperation Agreement between Jordan News Agency [Petra] and Press Trust of India [PTI]. The MoUs were signed as part of the President Pranab Mukherjee’s three-day visit to Jordan from 10-12 October 2015.
12 October: China launched the much anticipated China International Payment System (CIPS), an international payment system that seeks to provide global dimensions to its currency Yuan. CIPS will provide capital settlement and clearing services for crossborder Yuan transactions for financial institutions domestically and abroad and will effectively enhance efficiency and increase global use of the Chinese currency.
12 October: Union Government released data which discloses that the National Pension System (NPS) and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) have together crossed milestone figure of Rs. 1 lakh crore (or Rs. 1 trillion) with regard to total Assets Under Management (AUM). Both together have more than one crore subscribers with total AUM of Rs.1, 00,275 crores.
12 October: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement of 12 Pacific Rim countries was reached at the ministerial meeting of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) held in Atlanta, USA that will cover almost 36% of global economic output. This is an ambitious agreement to lower trade and investment barriers in 12 partner countries in the Asia Pacific region. The TPP is world’s biggest trade agreement in the past two decades.
12 October: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $15 million grant to rebuild schools, provide micro-loans to help restore livelihoods, and to boost disaster awareness in quake-ravaged Nepal.
10 October: ICICI Bank launched a mobile payment service 'mVisa'. The service enables customers to make electronic payments from their smart phones at traditional stores, ecommerce sites, deliveries made at home, radio taxi and utility bills among others without swiping a debit card. The service is based on 'mVisa', a new mobile payment solution from Visa. ICICI Bank is the first bank globally to launch a mobile app based on 'mVisa' solution for consumers and merchants.
10 October: Drug maker Cipla announced that its South African subsidiary Cipla Medpro (Pvt.) Ltd. has entered into an exclusive agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII). The two organizations have partnered to provide vaccines in South Africa. The partnership will enable affordable and accessible vaccines for South Africans as well as will facilitate a reliable supply stream to the South African Government.
9 October: International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the economic growth rate of 7.5 percent for India in 2016 as against China's 6.3 percent. In its latest World Economic Outlook Update, IMF said growth in India is expected to rise above the rates
in other major emerging market economies.
9 October: National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) signed an
agreement with Kotak Mahindra Bank. Under the agreement, farmers and traders who have kept their commodities in NCDEX-approved warehouses, can use such commodities as collateral for availing financial assistance from Kotak Mahindra Bank.
8 October: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has trimmed its growth forecast for India to 7.3% for the current fiscal, from 7.5% predicted in July, although it maintained the country’s near-term growth prospects still remained favorable. The multilateral agency also cut its projection for global economic growth to 3.1% for 2015. .
8 October: Easing norms for foreign ownership of government debt, RBI announced higher investment limits in rupee terms in government securities by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) with a view to bringing in an additional Rs 1.2 lakh crore by March 2018. The announcement follows a decision by RBI to fix FPI investment limits in rupee terms and raise it in phases to reach 5 per cent of the outstanding stock by March 2018.
8 October: The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the formation of a Group ‘A’ service of the technical cadre of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSD&E). This was earlier called the Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour Employment. The new service will be called the Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS).
8 October: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval to: (i) implement the World Bank assisted National Watershed Management Project "Neeranchal" with a total outlay of $357 million (Rs 2142.30 crore at Rs. 60 = $1 Government Share 50%) (ii) implement the project at the National level as well as in the nine States of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.
7 October: A framework MoU was signed between the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), GoI and Fraunhofer, Germany, which will act as the 'technology resource partner'. The objective of this MoU is to support and augment the 'Make in India' programme through increasing the innovation and technology prowess of Indian industry.
7 October: According the provisional data of the RBI, UCO Bank was listed as the worst performer among the public sector banks (PSU banks) for registering the highest increase in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in percentage terms against total loans for last fiscal year (2014-15).
6 October: The World Bank cut its 2015 and 2016 growth forecasts for the developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, which includes China, to grow 6.5 per cent in 2015 and 6.4 per cent in 2016, down from 6.8 per cent growth in 2014.
5 October: Private bank IDFC Bank became the latest entrant to India’s banking sector on 1 October 2015 as it unveiled its banking operations on this day with 23 branches.
3 October: Global rating agency Fitch Ratings has lowered India's GDP growth estimate for the current fiscal 2015-16 to 7.5 per cent from 7.8 per cent. 1 October: With $31 billion of foreign capital inflows, India has surpassed China and the US to take the pole position in attracting largest FDI in the first half of 2015. The Finance Ministry forwarded a report published in Financial Times, London that said "India grabs investment league pole position." In 2014 India ranked fifth in terms of capital investment, after China, the US, the UK and Mexico. According to the report India has attracted $31 billion of FDI in H1 2015, ahead of $28 billion of China and $27 billion of US.
30 September: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowered the repo rate by 50 basis points from 7.25 per cent to 6.75 per cent, while keeping CRR and SLR unchanged at 4 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively in its Fourth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2015. The reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 5.75 per cent, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 7.75 per cent. However, it has lowered its FY 2015-16 GDP growth target to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent.
30 September: The Government of India signed a loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for US $123.51 million for tranche 3 of the Infrastructure Development Investment Program for Tourism to continue upgrading tourism infrastructure and services in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The loan will be used for development and conservation of places of tourist attractions. The third tranche loan is part of the $250 million multi-tranche financing facility that ADB approved in 2010.
30 September: Silicon Valley based chip-maker Qualcomm announced that it will invest 150 million US dollars for Indian start-ups. The investment will come through a venture fund. The announcement was made after the company’s executive chairman Paul E. Jacobs met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Digital Economy event in San Jose.
29 September: The commodities regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) formally merged with the securities market regulator SEBI in Mumbai. According to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the ultimate objective of merging Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with SEBI is to face the challenges posed by borderless market. Forward Markets Commission (FMC) was established in 1953. The announcement for the merger was made by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech earlier this year.
28 September: The Finance Ministry announced Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) exemption to foreign companies with no permanent establishment (PE) in India with effect from assessment year 2001-02. This means companies not having a permanent establishment or place of business in India would not come under MAT with effect from April 2001. Apart from this, the MAT will also not apply on a foreign company belonging to a country having a Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA).
28 September: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that government has set disbursement target for micro and marginal businesses under MUDRA scheme during the current fiscal at Rs. 1.22 lakh crore. MUDRA has been established as a subsidiary of SIDBI with an initial corpus of Rs. 5,000 crore to provide capital to all banks seeking refinancing of small business loans under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). PMMY loans fall into three categories – Shishu (up to Rs. 50,000), Kishore (Rs. 50,000-Rs. 5 lakh) and Tarun (Rs. 5-10 lakh).
26 September: Snapdeal, India's largest online marketplace in partnership with educational loans specialists Credila - an HDFC group Company, has launched the country's first customized education loans offering on an e-commerce platform. The partnership will usher faster loan process. Customers will have the opportunity to avail exciting benefits, like up to 100% finance of their education with no upper cap on loan and easy EMI repayments at attractive rates of interest.
24 September: In its biggest ever fine, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) imposed a penalty of 7,269 crore rupees on PACL Ltd. and its four directors for illegal and fraudulent mobilisation of funds from the public. The penalty follows another order by Sebi last year wherein the company was asked to refund 49,100 crore rupees it had collected through illicit schemes over a period of 15-years.
24 September: The Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, under the Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the The New India Assurance Company Limited on providing a comprehensive and affordable Health Insurance Scheme - “Swavlamban Health Insurance Scheme” - for the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The scheme has been designed to deliver comprehensive cover to the beneficiary as well as his family (PwD, Spouse & up to two children), has a single premium across age band and can be availed by PwDs aged between 18 years and 65 years with family annual income of less than Rs. 3,00,000 per annum. The scheme also ensures coverage of any pre-existing condition and a health Insurance cover up to Rs. 2, 00,000 per annum as family floater.
23 September: Banks having a capital adequacy ratio of at least 10 per cent, besides being profitable in the last fiscal, do not require prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for equity investments in financial institutions, stock exchanges, depositories and the like in case the investment is less than 10 per cent of the investee company’s equity. Additionally, the RBI said, the bank’s stake in the investee, along with those of its subsidiaries or joint ventures, should not exceed 20 per cent.
23 September: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered growth projections for India for the current fiscal to 7.4 per cent, from the 7.8 per cent earlier due to weak monsoon, poor external demand and inability of the government to push economic reforms in Parliament. It has retained the consumer inflation forecast for India at 4 per cent (+/- 0.2 per cent).
22 September: Lower commodity prices are unlikely to narrow India's current account deficit, Standard Chartered has said, while revising its Current Account Deficit (CAD) forecast for the fiscal to 1.5% from 1.1% of GDP earlier. It has also revised down its fiscal year 2015-2016 balance-of-payments (BoP) surplus forecast to $31.7 billion from $48.5 billion. Standard Chartered expects capital inflows of $64 billion in this financial year, down from its previous estimate of $75 billion.
19 September: As many as 15 MoUs with investment potential of USD 590 million have been signed between Chinese Province Gunagdong and its sister state Gujarat across various sectors for mutual cooperation in the China-India Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference 2015 held in Ahmedabad. These agreements signed for mutual cooperation and business, can be classified under three main areas including manufacturing and information technology. Some key agreements signed between business leaders include a MoU to develop the Ahmedabad Industrial Park and an agreement to promote eCommerce in both the contries.