Banking Awareness of 10, 11 and 12 June 2023

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

1. IRDAI has given approval to Go-Digit to start life insurance operations.

• In its 122nd meeting held on June 2, 2023, IRDAI granted Certificate of Registration to Go Digit Life Insurance Limited to start a life insurance business in India.
• With this approval, the number of life insurance companies in India has grown to 26.
• This is the fourth registration given by IRDAI over the last year.
• IRDAI gave licences to Kshema General Insurance, Credit Access Life Insurance and Acko Life Insurance in FY23.
• Go Digit is backed by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
• SBI Life Insurance is the largest private life insurer.
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI):
  • IRDAI is an autonomous statutory body. It was formed under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999.
  • It regulates and promotes both insurance as well as reinsurance industries in India.
  • Its chairman is Debashish Panda. It is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

2. SCORES platform of SEBI disposed of 2,457 complaints in May against companies and market intermediaries.

• According to the data released by SEBI, the average resolution time for a complaint was 31 days.
• In a notice, SEBI mentioned 12 entities. Complaints have been pending against these entities for over three months on SCORES as of May 2023.
• SCORES is a grievance redressal system. It was launched in June 2011.  
• It facilitates investors to lodge a complaint online with SEBI and view status of the complaint.

Topic: Appointments

3. Centre has appointed senior IAS officer Amit Agarwal as CEO Unique Identification Authority of India.

• Senior IAS officer Subodh Kumar Singh has been appointed as Director-General of the National Testing Agency.
• Agrawal was serving as additional secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• Singh is currently additional secretary in the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
• Richa Sharma has been moved to the Department of Food and Public Distribution to replace Singh.
• Rashmi Chowdhary has been appointed as secretary in the Central Information Commission.
• She is additional secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training.
• Vumlunmang Vualnam has been appointed additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs.
• Maninder Kaur Dwivedi will be additional secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and hold additional charge of managing director in the Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium.

Topic: Appointments

4. Srikrishnan Harihara Sarma has taken charge as MD and CEO of Karnataka Bank on June 9, 2023.

• Srikrishnan Harihara Sarma has been appointed for a period of three years.
• On 26 May, the board of directors of the bank has appointed him as an additional director to take up the role of MD & CEO effective from the date of taking charge.
• He has earlier worked in key positions at HDFC Bank Ltd, YES Bank Ltd and Jio Payments Bank Ltd.
• Karnataka Bank:
  • It is a Scheduled Commercial Bank based in Mangaluru, Karnataka.
  • It is a private sector bank. It was founded in 1924. Its tagline is “Your Family Bank Across India”.

Topic: Infrastructure and Energy

5. Gujarat is now ranked at first place in terms of installed wind power capacity.

• It has pushed Tamil Nadu to second rank in terms of installed wind power capacity.
• As of 31 May 2023, Gujarat’s total installed wind power capacity was at 10,416 MW, while Tamil Nadu’s wind power capacity stood at 10,125 MW.
• Gujarat’s wind power capacity was approximately 1,000 MW lower than that of Tamil Nadu two years ago.
• Gujarat has emerged as the top state due to faster capacity addition aided by favourable policy interventions, the availability of infrastructure, and the strong financial position of Discom.
• Tamil Nadu faces challenges like evacuation issues, restricted offtake, land availability, and delayed payments.
• Gujarat is also the 2nd state after Rajasthan to achieve cumulative renewable energy capacity of over 20,000 MW.
• As of 31 May 2023, Gujarat’s cumulative installed capacity stood at 20,293 MW.
• In the overall renewable sector, Rajasthan is the top state with a total capacity of 22,518 MW.
• Tamil Nadu stands at 3rd position with a total installed capacity of 18,125 MW.
• Tamil Nadu is followed by Karnataka (16,969 MW) and Maharashtra (12,773 MW).
• As per rating agency ICRA, the addition of renewable energy capacity is expected to increase from 15 GW in FY23 to about 20 GW in FY24.

Topic: Reports and Indices

6. RBI surveys show easing of inflation perception and rise in confidence among consumers.

• The Consumer Confidence survey showed improvement in both the Future Expectations Index (FEI) and the Current Situation Index (CSI) from previous round.
• They improved on the back of improved assessment for all the survey parameters, except essential spending.
• The Current Situation Index improved by 1.5 points from the previous survey round to 88.5.
• The Future Expectations Index improved marginally by 0.80 points to 116.3 in the latest survey round.
• Households’ Inflation Expectations Survey showed easing of the median inflation perception by 10 bps to 8.8%.
• Among different respondent categories, inflation expectations of retired persons were the highest.
• Real gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) is likely to increase to from 6.8% in FY24 to 7.4% in FY25.
• Merchandise exports are likely to decrease 2.9% and imports by 4%, in US dollar terms, during FY24.
• Exports are expected to increase 8.3% and imports 7.8% in FY25, per the results of the 82nd Survey of Professional Forecasters on Macroeconomic Indicators.
• Current account deficit (CAD) is projected at 1.5% of GDP in FY24 and 1.6% in FY25.

Topic: Summits/ Conferences/ Meetings

7. CAG India is hosting SAI20 summit in Goa.

• Under G20 Presidency, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) of India is the Chair of the Supreme Audit Institutions-20 (SAI20) Engagement Group.
• SAI20 is scheduled to take place from 12th to 14th June 2023 in Goa.
• CAG of India Shri Girish Chandra Murmu is the chair of the SAI20 engagement group under India's G20 presidency
• The delegates of SAIs of Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Spain, UAE, Morocco and Poland are participating in the summit.
• The CAG India has proposed collaboration on two priority areas- Blue Economy and responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) among the SAI20 Engagement Group.
• Blue Economy is the Sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth with the conservation of the health of the ecosystem.
• SAIs are looking for opportunities to adopt AI into their audit techniques to increase their effectiveness.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is an independent authority established under Article 148 of the Indian Constitution.

Topic: Miscellaneous

8. Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and SIDBI have partnered to launch the NBFC Growth Acceleration Program (NGAP).

• The aim of the programme is to handhold smaller NBFCs that have at least 60% of their exposure to MSMEs.
• NGAP will build capacity of at least 100 smaller NBFCs with assets under management ranging from Rs 75 crore to Rs 250 crore and mainly lending to micro and small businesses in tier two and tier three cities.
• NGAP will also provide NBFCs technology support to help them develop their technology platform.
• The responsibility for executing the program lies with GAME.
• GAME will carry out a pilot with 20 NBFCs to test and outline NGAP’s strategy before expanding it to other financial service players.
• NGAP is likely to be rolled out in August 2023.
• Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) is a mass entrepreneurship enablement platform.
• Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI):
  • It is the principal financial institution in the MSME sector.
  • It is regulated and supervised by the Reserve Bank of India.
  • It was established in 1990. It is headquartered in Lucknow, UP.
  • Sivasubramanian Ramann is Chairman and Managing Director of SIDBI.

Topic: World Economy

9. Eurozone entered into recession as the cost of living increased.

• After official figures have been revised the Eurozone has slipped into recession in the first three months of 2023.
• The EU’s statistical agency data showed that gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2023.
• The cost of living people has increased which has affected consumer spending.
• As per the updated figures, a 0.2% contraction was witnessed in the final quarter of 2022.
• After the Russians invaded Ukraine, the households in Eurozone came under pressure due to rising living costs.
• The prices of gas has sharply increased which increases inflation in most of the countries of the Eurozone.
• The EU’s largest economy, Germany, is also facing recession. France recorded close to zero growth.
• Ireland’s GDP has fallen down by 4.6% in the first quarter of this year.
• Two consecutive quarters of negative growth is technically defined as recession.
• Eurozone:
  • It is a currency union of 20 countries of the European Union (EU).
  • These countries have adopted the Euro (€) as their primary currency.
  • Croatia became the 20th member of the euro area on 1 January 2023.

Topic: Banking System

10. The 'I am Adyar, Adyar is me' campaign has been launched by Federal Bank in Chennai.

• The campaign has been launched to celebrate people and their culture by changing an entire bank branch into a museum of local stories.
• As part of this campaign, 40 compelling stories of individuals have been picked up.
• These stories are showcased in an exhibition at the Adyar branch of Federal Bank.
• The exhibition will continue for two weeks. The 'I am Adyar, Adyar is me' campaign is a first-of-its-kind micro-marketing initiative.
• Federal Bank:
  • It is an Indian private sector bank with headquarters in Aluva, Kochi.
  • Shyam Srinivasan is the CEO of Federal Bank. Its tagline is your perfect banking partner.

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