Banking Awareness of 13, 14, 15 and 16 December 2025

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

1. India’s wholesale price inflation declined by 0.32% on year-on-year basis in November.

• The fall is mainly driven by a decrease in food prices, mineral oils and crude petroleum & natural gas.
• The inflation based on Wholesale Price India (WPI) declined by 1.21% in October. It rose for 0.19% in September.
• The pace of decline in food prices slowed compared to October.
• Wholesale food prices declined 2.6% in November. In October, food prices had fallen 5.04%.
• Vegetable prices dropped 20.23% in November. This followed a sharper fall of 34.97% in October.
• Manufactured product prices increased in November by 1.33%. In October, manufactured goods prices had increased by 1.54%.
• Fuel and power prices declined by 2.27% in November. A decline of 2.55 percent was seen in October.
• India’s merchandise trade deficit declined to 24.53 billion dollars in November.
• The decline was driven by lower imports of gold, oil and coal.

Topic: RBI

2. Reserve Bank of India has given State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda approval.

• This approval is to set up a company for creating a “Digital Payments Intelligence Platform”.
• The new company will be named Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation (IDPIC).
• It will be incorporated as a Section 8 not-for-profit company under the Companies Act, 2013.
• The company is being established to detect and prevent fraudulent digital transactions in public sector banks.
• RBI approval is subject to the exemption given by Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, to the banks from Section 19(2) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
• The exemption allows the banks to hold more than 30 percent equity in the proposed company.
• The exemption permitting higher shareholding will remain valid until October 16, 2026.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

3. DBS has been named Global Bank of the Year 2025 by The Banker, a part of Financial Times Group.

• The announcement was made on December 4 during the annual Bank of the Year Awards.
• This is DBS Bank’s third win in the Global Bank of the Year category. It previously won the title in 2018 and in 2021.
• DBS is headquartered in Singapore. It also received the Asia Bank of the Year award.
• It was named Singapore Bank of the Year and DBS won Investment Bank of the Year for Asia also.
• It won Investment Bank of the Year for the Financial Institutions Group.
• A total of 294 banks took part globally. The recognition highlights DBS's sustained leadership in global banking.
• This is DBS’s ninth global best bank award since 2018.
• DBS also holds two global best bank titles from Euromoney and The Banker.
• The Banker was founded in 1926. It is owned by the Financial Times.
• Its annual awards recognise excellence across banking sectors.
• DBS has also been named World’s Best Bank by Global Finance.
• Global Finance has named DBS the Safest Bank in Asia.

Topic: Miscellaneous

4. A budget of ₹11,718 crore has been approved by the Union Cabinet for conducting Census 2027.

• On 12 December, the decision was announced by the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi.
• Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases—Phase I and Phase II.
• It has been stated that Census 2027 will be the 16th Census overall and the 8th since Independence.
• India’s Census has been described as the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world.
• Caste enumeration has been included as part of Census 2027.
• Census 2027 will be conducted digitally for the first time.
• Data collection will be carried out using mobile applications available on both Android and iOS platforms.
• Around 30 lakh field functionaries will be engaged to carry out the Census exercise.
• The process will involve visiting every household for houselisting, housing census and population enumeration across the country.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

5. A MoU has been signed between the Department of Posts and BSE on 12 December 2025 in New Delhi. 

• The MoU has been signed to expand access to mutual fund investments across India.
• The initiative aligns with the Budget 2025–26 announcement.
• The announcement emphasised on using India Post’s network to drive economic activity in rural and semi-urban areas.
• As part of the partnership, India Post will act as a distributor of mutual fund products.
• The aim of the partnership is to bring investment opportunities closer to citizens in rural, semi-urban, and underserved regions.
• As part of agreement, postal employees will get training and certification as mutual fund distributors
• With this, they will be able to provide investor services and facilitate mutual fund transactions through the BSE StAR MF platform.
• The validity of MoU is for three years from 12 December 2025 to 11 December 2028. Also, it includes a provision for renewl.
• BSE will support the onboarding of trained postal staff through the generation of Employee Unique Identification Numbers.
• They will also be assisted by BSE in obtaining mandatory NISM (National Institute of Securities Markets) Mutual Fund Distributor certification.
• The collaboration will increase mutual fund penetration in Tier-2, Tier-3, and rural regions.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

6. Supriya Sahu awarded the UNEP Champions of the Earth Honour.

• Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forests, was awarded the UNEP 2025 Champions of the Earth award for her climate leadership.
• She was selected by UNEP for her inspiration and action in tackling urgent environmental challenges.
• During her tenure as secretary over the past four years, she has established Tamil Nadu as a global leader in the fields of climate mitigation, adaptation, and heat resilience.
• Her initiatives were highlighted for integrating governance and nature-based solutions to protect vulnerable communities and reduce emissions.
• She stated in her acceptance that government plays a central role in climate action, but real change begins when people lead.
• She stressed that climate action must become a people’s movement for long-term results.
• UNEP noted that a mix of low-tech and high-tech interventions under her tenure helped safeguard communities.
• UNEP stated that her initiatives have shown how integrated governance and nature-based solutions, along with a mix of low-tech and high-tech approaches, can protect vulnerable communities while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Topic: Appointments

7. Amin Vahdat named Google’s Chief Technologist for AI Infrastructure.

• The appointment comes during an intense competition among tech giants to secure computing capacity for AI dominance.
• The change was described by Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian as establishing AI infrastructure as a major company priority.
• Capital expenditures were expected to exceed $90 billion by year-end due to massive AI-related investments.
• Google is betting on its in-house designed tensor processing units (TPUs) and large-scale infrastructure to stay competitive.
• Microsoft has expanded investments in data centres and strengthened its partnership with OpenAI.
• Amazon continues to grow its custom chip offerings for AWS to enhance AI processing capabilities.
• The industry-wide push highlights how AI requirements are reshaping corporate strategies and technology spending.
• Sundar Pichai has stressed disciplined expenditure supported by a $155-billion cloud backlog to drive Google’s AI ambitions.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

8. An MoU signed between Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya and Amazon.

• Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), India’s leading university for the transportation and logistics sector, and Amazon, the world’s leading e-commerce company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
• An MoU was signed to promote knowledge sharing and joint curriculum development.
• The MoU was aimed at enabling joint research activities and data-driven work in the warehousing sector.
• One of the key elements of the MOU is the creation of an Amazon Chair Professorship at GSV to conduct research in the warehousing sector using a data-driven decision-making framework.
• The collaboration was described by the Vice Chancellor as crucial for shaping the future of India’s logistics sector.
• Prof. Manoj Choudhary said the partnership would provide valuable industry insights for planning, innovation, and design in logistics and transportation.
• GSV, established as a Central University in 2022, operates under the Ministry of Railways and covers all major transportation sectors.
• The university focuses on railways, highways, maritime, shipping, inland waterways, aviation, and logistics networks.
• Sh. Ashwini Vaishnaw (Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology) heads the university as its Chancellor.