Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 08 and 09 December 2019

1. $660 million funds collected by Paytm

• The fund has been collected from Alipay, T Rowe Price, SoftBank, and others.
• It will help Paytm in competing with PhonePe and Google Pay.
• Paytm:
  • Parent organization: One97 Communications
  • Headquarters: Noida
  • CEO: Renu Satti
• PhonePe:
  • Headquarters‎: ‎Bangalore
  • Founder & CEO: Sameer Nigam
• Alipay:
  • Headquarters: Shanghai, China
  • Founder: Jack Ma
• SoftBank:
  • Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
  • Founder & CEO: Masayoshi Son
• T Rowe Price
  • It is an American asset management company that provides funds and advisory services.

2. SWAMIH Investment Fund I closes at 10,530 crore

• It aims to provide last-mile funding to complete the construction of unfinished housing projects.
• SWAMIH Investment Fund I is a category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) and was formed under SWAMIH.
• The fund is sponsored by the Government of India and SBICAP Ventures Limited (SVL) is its Investment Manager.
• SWAMIH (Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing):
  • Finance Minister announced SWAMIH on September 14, 2019.
  • Cabinet approved the scheme on November 2, 2019.

3. In 2019, Rupee remains weak against the United States dollar

• Despite an increase in foreign funds, Rupee depreciates by 2.5% and remains weak against the United States dollar.
• The Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have invested a total Rs 1.31 lakh crore over previous 11 months.
• India’s foreign exchange reserves have increased from $428.60 billion on 30 August to $448.59 billion on 22 November.
• The increase of almost $20 billion shows the buying of dollars by RBI to prevent an increase in the value of Rupee (appreciation).
• Weak Rupee (depreciation) helps exports and makes the country competitive in the international market.
• On the other hand, appreciation might have negatively affected exports, particularly manufacturing exports.

4. ARGL will go through CIRP again

• The resolution plan for Amtek Ring Gears Limited (ARGL) has been approved by NCLT.
• ARGL's lenders have approved Investment Opportunities IV Private's bid on June 4, 2019.
• SBI took ARGL to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in 2017, and in 2018 NCLT accepted ARGL for resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
• In August 2018, the lenders chose Liberty House as the highest bidder.
• Later, Resolution Professional (RP) asked Liberty House to begin taking over ARGL.
• But, Liberty House failed to do that. It was also the highest bidder for Amtek auto and failed to take over Amtek auto.
• Then, NCLT ordered the liquidation of ARGL, which was stopped by the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court later took back its order.  

5. IRDAI may start catastrophe insurance

• After approval by Centre, IRDAI will start catastrophe insurance on a pilot basis in selected states.
• Currently, losses due to all catastrophes and man-made disasters that are not insured make up 84 % of total losses.
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI):
  • It is an autonomous, statutory organization.
  • It was formed in 1999.
  • It regulates and promotes both insurance as well as reinsurance industries in India.
  • It has 10 members, including the chairman, 5 full-time and four part-time members.
  • Government of India appoints part-time members of IRDAI.
  • Chairman: Subhash Chandra Khuntia

6. Kerala government starts Kerala Bank

• State co-operative bank and district co-operative banks will be part of Kerala Bank.
• As a result, Kerala will have a two-tier co-operative banking system in place of the earlier three-tier system.
• On 31 March 2017, State Bank of Travancore was merged with the State Bank of India.
• State Bank of India (SBI):
  • It was formed in 1955 from the Imperial Bank of India.
  • Chairperson: Rajnish Kumar