Banking Awareness of 1, 2 and 3 December 2022

Topic: Awards and Prizes

1. Canara Bank has won the Banker’s Bank of the Year Award 2022 for the India segment at the Global Banking Summit.

• It won the award at the Global Banking Summit held in London, UK from November 29, 2022, to December 1, 2022.
• The ability to deliver returns, strategy, innovation, technology, and product and services in their respective geographies in the last 12 months were the judgment criteria for the award.
• The award ceremony was attended by the MD and CEO of Canara Bank, L V Prabhakar.
• The Banker’s magazine is from the Financial Times (FT) group, the British-based global financial daily newspaper. 
• Canara Bank:
  • It was founded in July 1906. It is headquartered in Bengaluru. Lingam Venkat Prabhakar is its CEO.
  • Recently, the government merged Syndicate bank with Canara bank.

Topic: Banking System

2. The deadline for payment aggregators to meet the guidelines on volumes of UPI transactions has been extended by two years.

• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has fixed a new deadline at December 31, 2024.
• NPCI said the timelines for compliance of existing TPAPs (third party app providers) who are exceeding the volume cap is extended till December 31, 2024 to comply with the volume cap.
• The guidelines were introduced in November 2020. As per the guidelines, UPI volume of transactions through a payment service provider (PSP) shall not be more than 30% of the overall volume of transactions processed in UPI during the last 3 months.
• The volume cap was effective from 01 January 2021. PSPs having over 30% share, such as PhonePe and Google Pay, were given two years to comply with the guidelines in phased manner.  
• PhonePe had 47% market share in terms of the volume of UPI transactions in October. Google Pay had 34% share and Paytm had around 15%.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

3. India’s core sector grew to a 20-month low level of 0.1% in October 2022.

• This is significantly lower than the 8.7% output growth recorded in October 2021.
• In September 2022, eight core industries had shown 7.8% growth.
• Only two sectors (crude oil and natural gas) had shown contraction in output in September 2022.
• In October 2022, four of the eight core industries have shown contraction.
• These four core industries are crude oil (-2.2%), natural gas (-4.2%), refinery products (-3.1%) and cement (-4.3%).
• Output growth was seen in the remaining four core industries in October 2022. They are coal (3.6%), fertilisers (5.4%), steel (4%), and electricity (0.4%).
• Government has revised final growth rate of the index of eight core industries for July 2022 from 4.5% to 4.8%.  
• Low core sector growth in October 2022 is caused by high base effect (as growth was 8.7% last year) and slowdown in infrastructure.
• The eight core industries make up 40.27% of the weight of items included in the index of industrial production (IIP).

Topic: Infrastructure and Energy

4. Government has waived inter-state transmission system charges on transmission of electricity generated from new hydro-power projects for 18 years.

• Power Ministry has decided to give this waiver to new hydro power projects, for which construction work is awarded and PPA is signed on or before June 30, 2025.
• The waiver shall be applicable for 18 years from the date of commissioning of the hydro power plants.
• It shall be allowed for inter-state transmission charges only and not losses. It would be made applicable from prospective date.
• The waiver is already available to wind and solar power projects.
• This has been done to remove discrepancy and to provide a level playing field to hydro projects.
• This is a part of the efforts of the government to achieve its power requirement from renewable energy sources.

Topic: Appointments

5. Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar becomes new chairperson of National Statistical Commission.

• Rajeeva Laxman will be part-time chairperson for three years.
• The chairperson of the National Statistical Commission has the status equivalent to that of a Minister of State.
• He has designed, supervised and analysed countrywide opinion polls for parliamentary elections and also for State assemblies since 1998.
• National Statistical Commission:
  • It is an autonomous body set up on the recommendation of Dr. C Rangarajan Commission. It was constituted with effect from 12 July 2006.
  • It has four members and a Chairperson, each having specialisation and experience in specified statistical fields.
  • The Chief Statistician of India, also the secretary to Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), is the Secretary of the Commission.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

6. India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA) will come into effect from 29 December 2022.

• India and Australia have exchanged written notifications regarding ECTA.
• The Agreement will enter into force 30 days after this exchange of written notification between India and Australia according to Article 14.7 of the Agreement.
• Duties on 100 percent tariff lines are to be eliminated by Australia under the agreement.
• Total bilateral trade is expected to cross US$ 45-50 bn in 5 years from the existing US$ 31 bn.
• 10 lakh jobs would be created in India under ECTA.
• Indian Yoga teachers and chefs are set to benefit from the annual visa quota.
• Over 1 lakh Indian students would gain from post-study work visas (1.5-4 years).
• India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA) was signed on 2 April 2022.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

7. Manthan platform won NSEIT the Best Tech Initiative of the Year award at D&B Business Excellence Awards 2022 on 29th November 2022.

• The award has been given for building the technology infrastructure to support Manthan.
• The award has been received by Dr Sapna Poti and Shri Anantharaman Sreenivasan, MD & CEO, NSEIT.
• Dr. Sapna Poti is the Director of Strategic Alliances Division, Office of Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India.
• Manthan is a platform that promotes collaboration between industry and the scientific research and development ecosystem.
• It was launched on India’s 76th Independence Day (15 August 2022). NSEIT team designed and implemented Manthan.
• The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India has conceptualized and implemented the development of the platform.
• National Stock Exchange of India (NSEIT) Limited is a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India.
• Dun & Bradstreet Business Excellence Awards 2022 covers 23 categories largely based on business performance parameters.

Topic: Miscellaneous

8. India formally took over the G20 presidency on 01 December 2022.

• 100 monuments lit up with the G20 logo to mark the occasion.
• G20 logo takes inspiration from colors of national flag of India.
• It juxtaposes Earth with Lotus. India’s national flower Lotus reflects growth amid challenges.
• The Earth reflects India’s pro-planet approach to life. Bharat is written in Devanagari script below the G20 logo.
• The theme of India’s G20 Presidency is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam or ‘One Earth One Family One Future’.
• The G20 leader’s Summit will be held in New Delhi in September 2023.
• India was handed over the presidency of G20 at the closing ceremony of previous G20 summit hosted in Bali by Indonesia in November.

Topic: Reports and Indices

9. World Bank released the "Climate Investment Opportunities in India's Cooling Sector" report.

• The report has estimated that by 2050, India’s peak electricity demand is expected to come from space cooling.
• By 2040, market potential and investment opportunities in space cooling will be around $1.5 trillion in India.
• The demand for cooling will be eight times higher than the current level by 2037.
• It will lead to a demand for a new air-conditioner on every 15 seconds. It can increase annual greenhouse gas emissions by 435 percent in the next two decades.
• Due to heat stress-related productivity decline, around 34 million people in India may lose jobs.
• India is experiencing high temperatures every year. As per the report, around 160-200 million people could get affected by lethal heat waves annually by 2030.
• The report also noted that sustainable cooling can support India’s development by creating new jobs and boosting of the economy.
• The dominant fuel used for space cooling is electricity. ‘Space cooling’ is done by reducing the temperature of a room, building or living space by removing the heat from it.

Topic: Reports and Indices

10. India is likely to receive $100 billion in remittances this year according to a World Bank report published on 30 November 2022.

• This is the first time a single country will reach that figure.
• Cash transfers to India from high-income countries increased to more than 36% in 2020-21 from 26% in 2016-17.
• The World Bank said that the share from five Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, declined from 54% to 28%.
• As per the World Bank, remittances earned by migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are expected to decline this year.
• World Bank report said that over the last few years, Indians have moved to high-skilled jobs in high-income countries like the US, UK and Singapore from low-skilled jobs of Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
• As per the World Bank, India received $89.4 billion in remittances in 2021. It became the top recipient of remittances globally last year.
• World Bank said that it is expected that India’s remittance flows will account for only 3% of its GDP in 2022.
• Other top recipient countries of remittances in 2022 are expected to be Mexico, China, and the Philippines.
• Next year (2023) will be more challenging due to rising prices and slower economic growth around the world.
• In general, remittances to low and middle-income countries have increased by 5% in 2022 to around $626 billion.
• India and Nepal have seen an increase in remittances.
• Other countries in South Asia have seen a decline of over 10% in the last year.
• This decline is because of the end of government incentives introduced during the pandemic.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

11. India's economic growth rate slowed down to 6.3% in July-September quarter of 2022-23 (FY23).

• According to the data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the GDP growth rate was 8.4% in the July-September quarter of the last financial year, 2021-22.
• The growth rate in Q1 of this financial year was 13.5%. The country’s gross value added (GVA) grew 5.6%, against 8.3% a year ago.
• There has been a decline of 4.3% in the manufacturing sector in the July-September quarter, which was 5.6% in the previous quarter.
• At the same time, the mining sector declined sharply by 2.8% as against 14.5% in the second quarter of last year.
• The agriculture sector grew by 4.6% in the July-September quarter.
• The sector, including trade, hospitality, and tourism, saw a growth of 14.7% as compared to 9.6% in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
• The construction sector registered a growth of 6.6% in the quarter.
• Rating agency ICRA had projected the GDP growth rate to be 6.5% in the July-September 2022 quarter, while the State Bank of India report projected it to be 5.8%.
• At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had estimated the economic growth rate for July to September at 6.1-6.3%.
• China's economic growth rate was 3.9% in the July-September quarter this year.
• Fiscal deficit in April-October 2022 period reached 46% of the Budget Estimate (BE) as against 36% in the year-ago period.
• The government’s target is to limit the deficit to over ₹16.61-lakh crore or 6.4% of the GDP in this year’s Budget.

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 1, 2 and 3 December 2022