Banking Awareness of 1, 2 and 3 March 2022

Topic: Appointments

1. Government has appointed Madhabi Puri Buch as new chairperson of the SEBI for three years.

• She is the first woman chairperson of SEBI. She replaced Ajay Tyagi whose term ended on 28 February.
• She was whole-time member of SEBI from April 2017 to October 2021. She headed a seven-member expert group formed to help SEBI design in-house technological systems.
• She has also served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at ICICI Securities Limited.
• Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC) headed by Cabinet Secretary has recommended her name after shortlisting candidates.
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI):
  • It was set up in 1988 and given statutory status in 1992.
  • It is a regulator of the securities market in India and aims to protect the interests of investors in securities.
  • Its headquarters is located in Mumbai.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

2. Centre’s fiscal deficit for April to January 2022 stood at Rs 9.37 lakh crore.

• This is 58.9% of revised estimate fiscal deficit projection of Rs 15.91 lakh crore for 2021-22.
• Centre’s fiscal deficit for same period last year as a percentage of revised estimate was 66.8%.
• In April-December 2021, Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 7.59 lakh crore. This was 50.4% of budgeted fiscal deficit of Rs 15.06 lakh crore.
• Till January 2022, center’s capital expenditure was Rs 4.42 lakh crore. This is 73.4% of revised estimate of Rs 6.02 lakh crore.
• Fiscal Deficit is defined as the difference between the government’s total income and total expenditure when government’s expenditure exceeds its revenue in a year.
• Fiscal Deficit indicates total borrowings required by government.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

3. Eight core industries output increased by 3.7% in January 2022.

• Eight core industries output in January 2022 was higher than 1.3% in same month last year.
• The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 144.4 in January 2022.
• Government has also revised final growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for October 2021 to 8.7%.
• Core industries’ output for April-January 2022 increased 11.6%, as compared to contraction of 8.6% in the same period in the previous fiscal.
• Out of eight core industries, six industries recorded output growth on a year-on-year basis in January 2022.  
• Crude oil and fertilizers recorded contraction at 2.4% and 2%, respectively.
• The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has released Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) for January, 2022.
• Eight core industries are Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. They comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Topic: Appointments

4. Mehmet Ilker Ayci has declined the offer to be CEO of Air India.

• His appointment as CEO of Air India was announced by Tata Group on February 14.
• He was to start working as Air India’s CEO from 1 April. He has earlier worked chairman of Turkish airlines.   
• Tatas had sought the government’s approval for Ayci’s appointment.
• There were reports that government was not happy over his links with Turkish regime.
• Air India was officially handed over to Tata Sons on 27 January 2022.

Topic: Agriculture

5. APEDA and NABARD will train farmer producer organisations (FPOs) in five districts of UP as part of a five-year plan to boost agricultural exports.

• The names of five districts are Varanasi, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur and Chandauli.
• In the initial phase, 30 FPOs in these five districts of Uttar Pradesh will be trained.
• Earlier this week, both APEDA and NABARD have agreed to launch training programme at the earliest.
• Nabard Consultancy Services (NABCONS) will be the project manager to implement the training programme.
• In 2020, government had launched “Formation and Promotion of FPOs” scheme.
• Under the scheme, 10,000 new FPOs are targeted to be formed by 2027-28.
• As part of this scheme, Centre grants up to ₹33 lakh as handholding and financial support for five years to each new FPO.

Topic: Reports and Indices

6. According to CII-Bains & Co joint study, private equity investments in agri-tech startups is growing annually at over 50%.

• The study also says that rural microfinance sector has grown significantly in last 18 months from ₹1.22 lakh crore in December 2019 to ₹1.46 lakh crore in March 2021.
• The study is titled as ‘Innovation in India’s Rural Economy: Disruptive Business Models are Stimulating Inclusive Growth in Agriculture and Rural Finance’.
• It has been published jointly by Bain & Company and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• As per the study, agriculture is the largest sub-sector in the rural economy. It contributed about 37 % of total rural GDP in 2019–20.
• As per CII-Bains & Co joint report, rural economy contributed to 50% of nation’s GDP in 2019-20.
• As per the report, agriculture sector has grown by a CAGR of 11% between 2015 and 2020.
• The report said that rural sector has grown at 10% annually over the last five years.
• Agtech start-ups attracted ₹6,600 crore as private equity investments between 2017 and 2020.

Topic: Banking System

7. Bank of Maharashtra has partnered with Mahagram to launch ‘Bank Sakhi’ project in Odisha.

• The partnership will provide access to the doorstep and hassle-free banking services to the people of Odisha.
• Mahagram, a rural fintech company, has onboarded more than 11,000 bank sakhis (women) on BharatATM platform to help the rural citizens avail basic banking services at their doorstep.
• Bank of Maharashtra is a scheduled public sector bank headquartered in Pune.

Topic: Miscellaneous

8. LIC Housing Finance Ltd and CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd have entered into partnership.

• Under this partnership, loans will be provided to citizens through CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd’s network of over four lakh Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs).
• To get the loans, customers can approach their nearest CSC office with Know Your Customer (KYC) documents.
• CSC e-Governance Services India Limited has been set up by Ministry of Electronics & IT under the Companies Act, 1956 to oversee the implementation of the Common Services Centers (CSC) scheme.
• LIC Housing Finance Ltd is a subsidiary company of LIC. It is one of India’s largest Housing Finance Mortgage loan companies.

Topic: Appointments

9. Deepak Parekh steps down as non-executive Chairman.

• He has left position of HDFC Ergo General Insurance’s non-executive Chairman.
• HDFC has nominated its Vice-Chairman and CEO Keki Mistry as non-executive Chairman of HDFC Ergo General Insurance.
• HDFC ERGO is a joint venture firm between HDFC and ERGO International AG.

Topic: RBI

10. RBI has released data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for January 2022.

• As per the data, credit to agriculture and allied activities registered growth of 10.4% in January 2022 as compared to 8.5% in January 2021.
• Credit growth to industry improved to 6.4% in January 2022 from 0.7% in January 2021.
• Credit growth to services sector stood at 7.3% in January 2022 as compared to 8.1% in January 2021.
• Non-food bank credit registered a growth of 8.3% in January 2022 as compared to 5.9% in January 2021.
• Non-food bank credit means credit to agriculture, industry and services sectors of economy.
• Credit to medium industries registered growth of 74.7% in January 2022 compared to 21.8% last year.
• Credit growth to micro and small industries increased to 19.7% from 0.5%. Credit to large industries recorded a marginal growth of 0.5%.
• Personal loans segment grew by 11.6% in January 2022 from 8.7% a year ago.
• RBI’s data on sectoral deployment of bank credit is collected from selected 39 scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 92% of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks.

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