Topic: Corporates/Companies
1. Dividend payments from CPSEs to the Center have surpassed the revised budget estimate by 26% in FY24.
- Dividend payments from CPSEs to the Center stood at around ₹63,000 crore in FY24.
- For the current fiscal year, dividend receipts from CPSEs were estimated to be ₹50,000 crore in the revised projections of the Budget released on February 1.
- In the fiscal year 2023–24, which ended on March 31, 2024, the actual dividend collections were ₹62,929.27 crore. These were almost 26% more than expected.
- Dividend receipts for the fiscal year 2022–2023 were ₹59,952.84 crore.
- ONGC (₹2,964 crore), Coal India (₹2,043 crore), and Power Grid Corporation of India (₹2,149 crore) paid dividends to the government in March.
- In March, government also got dividends of ₹1,024 crore from NMDC, ₹1,054 crore from HAL, and ₹1,863 crore from GAIL.
- An increase in dividend is a result of CPSEs' strong financial performance in the 2023–2024 fiscal year.
- Over the last three years, the aggregate market capitalization of banks, insurance companies, and CPSEs has increased by 500%, from ₹15 lakh crore to ₹58 lakh crore.
- Since January 2021, the government's equity holding has increased four times, from ₹9.5 lakh crore to ₹38 lakh crore.
Topic: Banking System
2. Total business of City Union Bank has crossed the ₹1 lakh crore mark for the first time.
- City Union Bank has achieved this record in Financial Year 2023-2024 in its 120th year of operations.
- Total business of City Union Bank crossed the ₹50,000 crore mark in FY17.
- From the point of view of business size, City Union Bank is bigger than Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.
- City Union Bank is smaller than Karur Vysya Bank in terms of business size.
- City Union Bank recently opened its 800th branch at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
- City Union Bank:
- It is an Indian private sector bank. It is headquartered in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu.
- N Kamakodi is MD & CEO of City Union Bank. It was founded in 1904.
Topic: RBI
3. RBI imposed ₹74 crore fine on 64 lenders (banks and NBFCs) in FY24.
- In FY23, RBI imposed ₹33.1 crore fine on 41 lenders, excluding co-operative banks and regional rural banks.
- Out of the fine imposed in FY24, 35 regulatory actions were taken against banks.
- These include 16 PSU banks, 13 private banks, 4 foreign banks and one small finance bank and payments bank each.
- 23 of the penalties were of ₹ 1 crore or above. The largest fine of ₹12.19 crore was imposed on ICICI Bank.
- In June 2023, RBI took action against all four credit bureaus as they maintained inaccurate or incomplete data and delayed grievance redressal and credit score updating of customers.
- RBI fined SBI, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Manappuram Finance and Indian Bank twice during the year.
- RBI took three big operational measures against Paytm Payments Bank, IIFL Finance and JM Financial Products in the last quarter of the fiscal.
- During FY24, an increase was seen in both the number and quantum of penalties levied.
- In FY23, penalties against fintechs and housing finance companies and new age lenders were more.
- Banks accounted for 21 of the 41 penalties. Out of these, seven were PSU banks and private banks each, five were foreign banks and two small finance banks.
- In FY23 also, the top reasons for the regulatory actions were KYC violations, customer service and data.
- Bank of India, Punjab and Sind Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, Indian Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank and Central Bank paid a penalty in both the financial years.
Topic: Taxation
4. Anti-dumping investigation has been started on ‘PVC Suspension Resin’ imports from 7 countries.
- The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has started this investigation on Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) Resin (suspension grade) from seven countries.
- These seven countries are China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the U.S.
- The anti-dumping investigation was sought by 3 out of the 5 domestic producers of PVC Suspension Resins in India through a probe.
- The petitioners wanted retrospective imposition of the anti-dumping duty on PVC Resin imports from these 7 countries.
- The imports volume increased 65% in 2022-23 after the validity of anti-dumping duty expired.
Topic: RBI
5. RBI has granted Payment Aggregator (PA) licence to Innoviti Payments and Vegaah.
- Innoviti Payments is an offline point-of-sales deploying company.
- Vegaah is a payment gateway. It is run by Concerto Software and Systems.
- Earlier this month, CCAvenue got its PA licence from RBI. It is run by Infibeam Avenues, which is a listed fintech company.
- Companies with PA licence are authorized to settle e commerce transactions.
- Companies with PA licence directly come under the purview of RBI regulations.
- About 2,500 online merchants are using online payment system of Innovaiti, which is named Innoviti Link.
- MSwipe is another provider that received the PA licence recently.
Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market
6. In March, India received the largest inflow of foreign funds.
- In March, 3.63 billion dollars were invested in Indian equities by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).
- Since December 2023, this was their largest buying activity.
- Domestic institutions remained net buyers in March.
- They made market investments totaling about 52,467 crore rupees and achieved a four-year high level.
- In addition to India, FIIs choose to invest in Taiwan, Indonesia, and South Korea.
- They withdrew money out of markets in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, and Sri Lanka.
- The Japanese market saw the largest FII outflow of $5.35 billion.
- It was followed by outflow of $1.13 billion and $514 million from Thailand and Malaysia.
Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market
7. India’s foreign exchange reserves increased for fifth continuous week.
- As per RBI data, India’s forex reserves reached to a record high level of $642.63 billion in the week that ended on March 22, 2024.
- However, India’s foreign currency assets decreased by $123 million to $568.264 billion.
- In the week that ended on 22 March 2024, India’s forex reserves increased by $139 million.
- In the week, gold reserves increased from $347 million to $51.487 billion.
- India’s foreign currency assets form the biggest component of the forex reserves.
- Forex reserves increased by $6.396 billion before the week that ended on 22 March.
- In the calendar year 2023, RBI increased foreign exchange reserves by about $58 billion.
- In 2022, India’s forex reserve fell by $71 billion cumulatively.
- The last time India’s forex reserves reached an all-time high was in October 2021.
- An increase in the cost of imported goods in 2022 could be the reason for much of the subsequent decrease.
- Forex reserves are the assets that central bank of a country holds.
- It is generally held in reserve currencies (usually the US Dollar, the Euro, Japanese Yen, and Pound Sterling).
- It includes India’s Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund.
Topic: Banking System
8. GNPA ratio of scheduled commercial banks will improve to 2.1-2.4 % in FY25.
- According to CareEdge Ratings, the gross non-performing asset ratio of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) is projected to improve from 2.5–2.7 per cent in FY24 to 2.1–2.4 per cent by FY25.
- The GNPA ratio of SCBs has been decreasing since March 2019.
- The gross non-performing asset ratio of scheduled commercial banks has fallen to 3.9% in FY23, which is a decadal-year low.
- The asset quality has improved due to recoveries, higher write-offs by banks, much lower slippages, etc.
- In FY23, 45% of GNPA was reduced by recoveries and upgradations.
- By the end of Q3FY24, the GNPA and the Net NPA ratios had reduced to 3.0 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.
- Apart from write-offs and recovery via various resolution procedures, SCBs also improved their balance sheets by selling non-performing assets to ARCs.
- The slippages have declined across bank groups in FY23. It indicates a lower accretion of fresh NPAs.
- In September 2023, the services and retail sectors reported 3.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent GNPA.
Topic: Committees/Commissions/Taskforces
9. The report submitted to IFSCA by the expert committee constituted to develop GIFT IFSC as a 'Global Finance and Accounting Hub'.
- A report has been submitted by the expert committee on developing Gujarat International Finance Tech-City International Financial Services Center (GIFT IFSC) as a 'Global Finance and Accounting Hub'.
- On 26th March 2024, this report was submitted to the Chairperson of the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA).
- On January 18, 2024, this expert committee was constituted in compliance with the notification issued by the Finance Ministry.
- Book-keeping, accounting, taxation and financial crime compliance were notified as 'financial services' under Section 3(1)(e)(xiv) of the IFSCA Act, 2019.
- The Expert Committee was chaired by the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
- This committee included experts from industry, academia, and government.
- The expert committee has recommended creating a comprehensive regulatory regime to introduce bookkeeping, accounting, taxation, and financial crime compliance services from IFSC in India.
- Further, the Committee has also made several recommendations to promote and develop GIFT IFSC as a 'Global Finance and Accounting Hub' including measures to enhance the skills and efficiency of the workforce.
Topic: Miscellaneous
10. Government e-Marketplace (GeM) doubled its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) to ₹4-lakh crore.
- In the fiscal year 2023-24, Government e-Marketplace (GeM) doubled its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV).
- Currently, GeM has over 1.5 lakh government buyers and 21 lakh sellers and service providers.
- It has integrated 89,421 panchayats and over 760 co-operatives with its procurement ecosystem.
- Around 50 per cent of the total GMV valued at ₹4-lakh crore can be attributed to procurement of services.
- All Central government and departments, including their attached/ subordinate offices, Central and state autonomous bodies, central and state public sector units, and local bodies, buy products from this portal.
- Government e-marketplaces provide a variety of products, ranging from eggs and office stationery to vehicles and defence equipment.
- The government e-marketplace was launched on August 9, 2016, by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- The main objective is to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers.
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