Banking Awareness of 14 and 15 September 2023

Topic: Appointments

1. Mastercard India has appointed Rajnish Kumar as chairman.

• Rajnish Kumar is a former chairman of State Bank of India (SBI).
• Rajnish Kumar will provide guidance to South Asia executive leadership team of Mastercard in navigating the domestic payments landscape.
• The team is led by Gautam Aggarwal, Division President for South Asia & Country Corporate Officer, India.
• Rajnish Kumar spearheaded the development of YONO, which is SBI’s digital platform.
• His three year term as SBI chairman ended in October 2020. He currently chairs the Board of BharatPe.
• Mastercard is the second-largest payment-processing corporation worldwide. It is headquartered in US.

Topic: RBI

2. RBI has placed 15 NBFCs in the upper layer (NBFC-UL) under Scale Based Regulations.

• These NBFCs include LIC Housing Finance, Bajaj Finance, Shriram Finance, Tata Sons, and Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company.
• These NBFCs belong to different categories.
• The categories are deposit-taking housing finance companies (HFC), non-deposit-taking HFC, deposit-taking NBFC-ICC (Investment and Credit Company), Non-deposit-taking NBFC-ICC, and core investment companies.
• These 15 NBFCs will be subject to enhanced regulatory requirements, at least for a period of five years from their classification in the upper layer.
• TMF Business Services Limited (formerly Tata Motors Finance Limited) have also qualified for identification as an NBFC-UL as per scoring methodology.
• However, it has not been included in the list of NBFC-UL in the current review due to its ongoing business reorganisation.
• The other NBFCs that are on RBI’s 2023-24 list of NBFC-UL are given in the following table:

• There are four layers in the regulatory structure for NBFCs based on their size, activity, and perceived riskiness.
• NBFCs in the lowest layer are called NBFC-Base Layer (NBFC-BL).
• NBFCs in the middle layer and upper layer are called NBFC-Middle Layer (NBFC-ML) and NBFC-Upper Layer (NBFC-UL), respectively.
• The Top Layer is ideally expected to be empty and is called the NBFC-Top Layer (NBFC-TL).

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

3. All India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number-based annual inflation rate is (-) 0.52% (Provisional) for August, 2023 (over August, 2022).

• This is against (-) 1.36% recorded in July, 2023. This is the fifth successive month of deflation.
• The negative inflation rate in August 2023 is mainly because of decline in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemical & chemical products, textiles and food products.
• Inflation in food articles stood at 10.60% in August. This was lower than 14.25% in July.
• Fuel and power basket inflation was at (-) 6.03% in August, against (-) 12.79% in July.
• In manufactured products, inflation rate was (-) 2.37% in August. This was (-) 2.51% in July.
• The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased from 7.75% in July, 2023 to 5.62% in August, 2023.

Topic: Miscellaneous

4. India became the 13th country in the world to issue an internationally recognized International Organization for Legal Metrology (OIML) certificate.

• India has now become the internationally recognized authority to issue OIML certificates for selling weights and measurement instruments anywhere in the world.
• India now becomes part of an elite group of countries that includes Australia, Switzerland, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, and Slovakia.
• OIML Model Approval Certificate is mandatory for selling weights or measures in the international market.
• This can now be provided by the Department of Consumer Affairs.
• India follows OIML recommendations and procedures for testing and calibration of weights and measures.
• Reports prepared by regional reference standard laboratories of Legal Metrology are now acceptable to OIML issuing authorities.
• Domestic manufacturers can now export their weighing and measuring instruments across the world without any additional testing charges resulting in significant cost savings.
• OIML is an intergovernmental organisation. It was established in 1955. It is headquartered in Paris, France. 

Topic: Taxation

5. Government to set up 31 Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunals (GSTAT) benches.

• The Central government has issued a notification for establishing 31 benches of Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunals (GSTAT).
• This decision will help businesses efficiently resolve various disputes.
• In February 2023, the GST Council had recommended setting up one Principal Bench and several State Benches of GSTAT.
• The Principal Bench in New Delhi and the regional Benches in states will create a unified structure for Tribunals.
• It will help in resolving thousands of matters speedily by the tribunals.
• Three GSTAT branches will be set up in Uttar Pradesh. Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra will have two benches each.
• The Principal Bench in New Delhi will look at matters related to inter-State disputes and Benches in States will look at other issues, including rates.
• GST Tribunals are important for resolving tax cases as they provide an impartial, expert and efficient forum to settle tax disputes.
• They play a key role in ensuring fairness, accountability, and the rule of law in tax administration.
• Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) is the forum of second appeal in GST laws and the first common forum of dispute resolution between Centre and States.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

6. ₹1,831.09 crore paid by LIC to centre as dividend.

• The dividend payment was approved by Shareholders of LIC at Annual General Meeting on August 22 this year.
• On 14 September 2023, LIC Chairman Siddhartha Mohanty presented a dividend cheque of ₹1,831.09 crore to the Union Finance and Corporate Affairs, Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• This amount is the Centre’s share of dividend for 2022-23.
• As of June 2023, Centre held an equity stake of 96.5% in the LIC.
• In May 2022, LIC, the country’s largest insurer, had launched its mega ₹21,000 crore initial public offering (IPO).
• This was the biggest ever public issue in India till date.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

7. Private Equity (PE) investments into India decreased 57% y-o-y in August 2023 to $651 million according to latest data from Refinitiv.  

• Total PE investments into India in January-August 2023 decreased 55% at $9.2 billion.
• PE investments in August 2023 were also substantially lower than the level of $3,056 million recorded in July 2023.
• For the period between January to August 2023, PE investments into India decreased by 55% at $9.2 billion.
• PE investments stood at $20.3 billion in Jan-Aug 2022.
• Main factors affecting the PE flows into India this year have been macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical headwinds and tight credit markets.
• Refinitiv is an American-British global provider of financial market data.

Topic: Banking/Financial/Govt Schemes

8. Union Cabinet approved the expansion of Ujjwala Yojana to 7.5 mn more connections.

• The Union government has decided to expand the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) till the financial year 2026.
• 7,500,000 new Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) connections will be allocated in three years.
• This expansion will increase the total number of PMUY beneficiaries to 103.5 million with a cost of 1650 crore.
• It will increase the total number of PMUY beneficiaries to 103.5 million.
• The government has recently reduced the price of cooking gas by Rs 200 across all markets.
• A subsidy of Rs 200 per 14.2 kg cylinder was sent to 90 million PMUY beneficiaries till May 2022.
• This subsidy was later extended for another year in March, costing an additional Rs 7,680 crore.
• According to the data from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell LPG penetration has reached 99.9 per cent in 2022.
• There were 314 million households in India with LPG connections as of 1 April 2023.
• In FY23, 29.34 million metric tonnes of LPG were sold by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.
• The main objective of the scheme is to provide deposit-free LPG connections to women from poor households.

Topic: Appointments

9. Joshit Ranjan Sikidar has assumed charge as Director (Finance) of Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

• He was working as Group General Manager (Finance) and the Company Secretary of RITES Ltd.
• He joined SECI on 12 September 2023. The SECI is a miniratna company.
• He has worked with RITES for more than four years.
• He has worked for over 16 years in NSPCL, a joint venture of NTPC & SAIL.
• Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI):
  • It was founded on 9 September 2011 to promote solar energy in India.
  • It was set up to facilitate the implementation of the National Solar Mission (NSM).
  • It is the only PSU dedicated to the solar energy sector.

Topic: Summits/Conferences/Meetings

10. Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal represented India at the Eastern Economic Forum.

• The 8th Eastern Economic Forum was held in Vladivostok, Russia from 10-13 September 2023.
• Sonowal addressed the India-Russia Business Dialogue at the Eastern Economic Forum.
• He also addressed the session on Eastern Maritime Corridor.
• The Eastern Maritime Corridor aims to reduce cargo transit times. The journey from Indian ports to the Russian Far East takes just 24 days.
• Eastern Economic Forum:
  • It was established by decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in 2015.
  • It was established to support the economic development of Russia’s Far East and to expand international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • It is an important international platform for establishing and strengthening ties within the Russian and global investment communities.

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