Banking Awareness of 12, 13 and 14 April 2022

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

1. ICICI Bank has signed an MoU with GIFT SEZ.

• As part of the MoU, ICICI Bank and GIFT SEZ will work together to attract global investors and capital market firms to start operations in GIFT SEZ.
• ICICI Bank and GIFT SEZ will also promote GIFT SEZ among MNCs (both Indian and foreign) in the form of best location for access to cross-border trade finance.
• Gujarat International Finance Tech-city (GIFT) SEZ is India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) under SEZ Act 2005. It started business in April 2015.
• ICICI Bank is a private sector bank. Girish Chandra Chaturvedi is chairman of its board of directors. Its MD & CEO is Sandeep Bakhshi.

Topic: Banking System

2. NPCI has asked banks, PSPs and TPAPs to enable international acceptance using UPI or UPI Global by September 30, 2022.

• Many banks, payment service providers (PSPs), and third party application providers (TPAPs) did not meet the earlier deadline of December 31, 2021.
• NPCI had earlier mandated international merchants payments through UPI.
• UPI Global is live in Singapore and Bhutan. Government is trying to enable its acceptance in Nepal and the UAE.
• On 13 April 2022, NPCI also allowed WhatsApp to expand its UPI service to 100 million users. It has approved an additional 60 million users on UPI for WhatsApp.
• NPCI had also asked banks, PSPs and TPAPs to implement an online dispute resolution system by September 2022.
• In FY22, UPI transactions values reached beyond the $1 trillion mark. They accounted for a 60% share in India’s retail payment volumes.
• The testing is being done for UPI123Pay for feature phones. UPI Lite will work in offline mode.

Topic: RBI

3. RBI has issued circular on compliance function and role of Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) – NBFCs.

• It has asked NBFC-UL and NBFC-ML to put in place a Compliance Function, including the appointment of a CCO by October 1, 2023.
• The circular will be applicable to Non-Banking Financial Companies in the Upper Layer (NBFC-UL) and Middle Layer (NBFC-ML).
• The CCO should have a minimum tenure of three years. CCO should be a senior executive of the NBFC.
• CCO cannot have a position below two levels from the CEO.
• CCO will be the nodal contact point between the NBFC and the regulators and supervisors.
• RBI has restored the opening time for eight regulated financial markets to their pre-pandemic timing of 9:00 a.m.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

4. Cosmetics & beauty products e-commerce Company Nykaa’s founder & CEO, Falguni Nayar selected as EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021.

• She will represent India at EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award on June 9.
• In 2019, she won EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award in the Start-up category.
• A.M. Naik won the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is Group Chairman of Larsen & Toubro.
• Other important winners and categories of EY Entrepreneur of the Year award 2021 are given below.

• NMDC won gold and silver awards in social responsibility and digital inclusion categories, respectively at 80^th SKOCH Summit (theme: State of BFSI & PSUs).
• National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC):
  • It is the largest Iron Ore producer in India.
  • It is a Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Steel.
  • It is headquartered in Hyderabad.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

5. Meta (formerly Facebook) has partnered with Sequoia India to promote small and medium businesses in India.

• Sequoia India is taking part in VC Brand Incubator Initiative of Meta for the second time.
• VC Brand Incubator Initiative was launched by Meta in 2019 to promote small and medium businesses in India.
• The initiative supports the growth of small and medium businesses in India by partnering with venture capital funds.
• Sequoia India is a venture capital firm. Meta has partnered with 15 VC funds over three years.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

6. Finance Ministry notifies changes in Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments or NDI) Rules, 2019.

• The changes allow an Indian company to issue share-based employee benefits to a person outside India.  
• As part of the changes, start-ups have been allowed to convert convertible notes into equity shares within a period not exceeding 10 years.
• Earlier, this period was 5 years. The changes also clarify the definition of the real estate business.
• Registered and regulated Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which earn rent or income on the lease of property without transferring it will not be taken as real estate business.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

7. India’s services exports in FY 22 reached to all-time high level of $250 billion.

• In 2019-20, services exports reached to a peak level at $213 billion. Services exports fell to $195 billion in 2020-21.
• Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India is now shifting away from low-cost services like call centres and BPOs toward higher-value services like AI, blockchain and data analytics.
• In March 2022, India’s exports increased 19.76% to $42.22 billion in comparison with the year-ago period.
• Trade deficit in March 2022 increased to $18.51 billion in comparison with $13.64 billion in March 2021.
• In FY22, India’s dairy products exports reached an eight year high level.
• As per provisional data for April 2021 to February 2022, the exports reached 1.70 lakh tonnes valued at more than $552 million.

Topic: Taxation System

8. Donations to Somnath Temple, Gujarat will get tax exemption.

• Under the Income Tax Act, the temple has been granted the status of a place of historical importance and public worship of renown.
• A notification under section 80G of the Income Tax Act has been issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
• Section 80G of the Income Tax Act has a provision for deduction in respect of donations to certain funds, charitable institutions, etc.
• As per this section, donations made to notified funds or charitable institutions, including religious places will be deducted from total taxable income.
• The deductions are available to any taxpayer (individuals, companies, firms or any other person).
• Donations below ₹2,000 can be made via a cheque, draft, or cash. Donations above ₹2,000 should be made only through cheques or digital means.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

9. Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation has increased to nearly 7% in March 2022.

• As per data released by National Statistical Organisation, retail inflation increased to 6.95% in March 2022.
• It was 6.07% in February 2022 and 5.52% in March 2021.
• Retail inflation is high mainly on account of costlier food items.
• Retail inflation has for the third continuous month remained more than RBI’s target of keeping it between two and six percent.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

10. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) increased by 1.7% in February 2022.

• The increase is mainly due to growth in the mining sector and power generation. IIP had fallen 3.2% in February 2021.
• Manufacturing sector has shown a growth of 0.8% in February 2022.
• Mining and electricity sector has grown at 4.5% each on year-on-year (y-o-y) basis in February 2022.
• Primary goods, capital goods, intermediate goods and infrastructure goods segments have shown positive growth in February 2022.
• Consumer durables and non-durables have shown a contraction of 8.2% and 5.5% in February 2022 respectively.
• Finance Minister held a review meeting on asset monetization. Government’s monetisation target for this year is ₹1.67-lakh crore.
• National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) was launched in August, 2021. Under NMP, the government aims to generate ₹6-lakh crore between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

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