Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 11, 12 and 13 May 2021

By PendulumEdu | Last Modified: 13 May 2021 18:55 PM IST

Main Headlines:

Topic: Indian Economy

1. Retail inflation declines to a three-month low of 4.3% in April.

Retail inflation has declined to a three-month low of 4.3% in April from 5.52% in March.
The decline in retail inflation based on CPI is mainly led by decrease in food inflation from 4.87% to 2.02%.
Vegetable inflation decreased by over 14%. Inflation still remains high for prices of edible oils, fruits, meat & fish, and eggs.
Inflation for oils and fats increased 26%. Fuel Inflation remained high at around 8%.
Industrial production increases to 22.4% in March. Manufacturing grew 25.8 % and electricity production grew 22.5%.
Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in March increased mainly due to base effect.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

The Union Cabinet approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA).
The MoU has been signed to enhance cooperation between Institutes. It will also increase opportunities for members of ICAI to provide professional services.
ICAI and QFCA will organize roundtables and networking events to explore opportunities for Indian businesses in Qatar.
ICAI and QFCA will also collaborate in the fields of corporate governance, technical research, and advice, quality assurance, etc.
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI):
- It was established as a statutory body by the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.
- It regulates the Chartered Accountancy profession in India.

Topic: RBI

Jose J. Kattoor has been appointed as Executive Director (ED) of RBI.
Earlier, he was heading Bengaluru Regional Office of the Reserve Bank as Regional Director for Karnataka.
He will look Human Resource Management Department, Corporate Strategy and Budget Department as Executive Director (ED).
His appointment is effective from May 04, 2021.
RBI:
- It was established on April 1, 1935, under the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
- It was set up on the recommendations of the Hilton Young Commission.
- Shaktikanta Das is the current RBI governor.

Topic: Banking/Financial Schemes

Financial Services Department (DFS) has appealed to people to subscribe to Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY).
PMJJBY is a low-cost life insurance scheme. It is available to people in the age group 18 to 50 years with a bank account. She/he needs to give instructions regarding auto-debit before May 31 every year.
PMJJBY was launched on May 9, 2015. It offers a renewable one-year term life cover of ₹2 lakh to all subscribing bank account holders in the age group of 18 to 50 years.
It covers death due to any reason, including suicide and murder. The rate of annual premium is ₹330 per subscriber.
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) administers the PMJJBY. Under the scheme, the cover is available for the period starting June 1 and ending on May 31.

Topic: Infrastructure and Energy

As per the new report by International Energy Agency, India’s renewable capacity addition has fallen nearly 50 % year-on-year to 5.62 GW in 2020.
As per IEA, India has been affected more than any other country by the Covid-19 impact on renewable energy deployment.
As per the report, primary challenge to renewable energy deployment in India is financial health of discoms.
Earlier, IEA has projected that India will add 17 GW renewable capacity in 2021.
International Energy Agency (IEA):
- It is an autonomous body within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
- It was established in 1974 and currently, it has 30 members. India is an associate member of the IEA. IEA releases the World Energy Outlook report.

Topic: Reports and Indices

NITI Aayog and Mastercard jointly released a report titled as ‘Connected Commerce: Creating a Roadmap for a Digitally Inclusive Bharat’.
The report identifies challenges in accelerating digital financial inclusion.
It also highlights important elements of a roadmap India can follow to achieve next level of digital transformation in next 3 years.
The report further provides recommendations to make digital services accessible to all citizens.
Mastercard is an American global payments & technology company.

Topic: Indian Economy

Finance Ministry extends anti-dumping duty on seamless tubes, pipes imported from China till October 31.
Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has initiated sunset review investigations on seamless tubes, pipes and hollow profiles of iron, alloy or non-alloy steel from China.
Anti-dumping duty on seamless tubes, pipes imported from China was valid till 16 May.

Topic: Indian Economy

India’s gold reserves have increased by 42.3 tonnes in one year period that ended March 31, 2021.
As per RBI’s Half Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange (Fx) Reserves, RBI had 695.31 tonnes of gold as of end-March 2021 against 653.01 tonnes as of March-end 2020.
Foreign Exchange Reserves increased from $544.69 billion at the end of September 2020 to $576.98 billion at the end of March 2021.
As per the report, share of gold in total foreign exchange reserves decreased from about 6.69% at the end of September 2020 to about 5.87% at the end of March 2021.
The ratio of short-term debt to reserves was 18.9% at the end of September 2020. It decreased to 17.7% at the end of December 2020.

Topic: Appointments

SBI’s Padmakumar Madhavan Nair was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL).
NARCL is commonly known as Bad Bank. Nair is currently serving at the position of chief general manager (CGM), in-charge of stressed assets in SBI.
The announcement for the creation of a bad bank was made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2021 Union Budget.
Asset Reconstruction Company India (Arcil) is the oldest of different Asset reconstruction entities in India.
Arcil is owned by SBI, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank (ICICI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Avenue India Resurgence Pte. It is essentially a private company. Proposed bad bank is likely to be a public sector company.
Gross NPAs of Indian banks is nearly 8%. As per RBI, Gross NPAs are likely to grow to 15% by September this year.