Banking Awareness of 16 and 17 January 2022

Topic: Corporates/Companies

1. IEPFA allowed liquidating the existing holding of equity shares.

• Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) has been allowed to liquidate existing holding of equity shares.
• IEPFA can now liquidate shares held by it and acquired because of dividend remaining unpaid or unclaimed by the shareholder for seven years.
• IEPFA can now offer the shares to the acquiring entity if there is amalgamation, share exchange and conversion of securities.
• IEPFA can also receive money on behalf of minority shareholders. IEPFA could earlier surrender the shares only if there was the delisting of securities or company was getting wound up.
• The money received on behalf of the minority shareholders should now be credited to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEP).
• Company would be liable under all cases to indemnify IEPFA in case any dispute or lawsuit may be initiated.
• Investor Education and Protection Fund’s objectives are the promotion of investors’ awareness and protection of the interests of investors.
• Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA):
  • It was set up in September 2016 for the administration of Investor Education and Protection Fund.
  • Making refunds of shares, unclaimed dividends, matured deposits/debentures etc. to investors is its objective. It also aims to promote awareness among investors.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

2. LEAD becomes third unicorn of 2022.

• Edtech start-up LEAD has become the third unicorn of 2022 after Mamaearth and Fractal AI.
• It has raised $100-million from WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures. It is also the sixth Indian edtech company to reach unicorn status.
• Its valuation has doubled in the last nine months to touch $1.1 billion.
• Smita Deorah is the Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of LEAD. Unicorns are startups with a valuation of $1 billion and above. 
• LEAD:
  • It was started by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah in 2013.
  • It provides tech-enabled solutions to schools with a focus on digital learning.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

3. Yaantra, an electronics recommerce company, acquired by Flipkart Group.

• Yaantra, an electronics recommerce company, has been acquired by Flipkart Group.
• As part of this acquisition, the team from Yaantra will help Flipkart accelerate its re-commerce scale-up plans.
• Yaantra repairs and sells consumer tech products such as smartphones and laptops. It was started in 2013 by Jayant Jha, Ankit Saraf and Anmol Gupta.  
• Flipkart Group includes group companies such as Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Flipkart Health+ and Cleartrip.

Topic: Appointments

4. RBL Bank’s board approves Egon Zehnder as the search firm for identifying suitable candidates for position of the bank’s MD & CEO.

• The board has decided to take the assistance of Pradip Shah as an External Expert to work with Search Committee to identify and evaluate candidates for the position of MD & CEO.
• Pradip Shah is Chairman of National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. (NARCL).
• Manjeev Singh Puri, Ishan Raina and Veena Mankar are the members of the Search Committee.
• RBL Bank is an Indian private sector bank. It is headquartered in Mumbai. It was formerly known as Ratnakar Bank.

Topic: Reports and Indices

5. Indian passport’s rank improved by seven places in Henley Passport Index.

• Global immigration consultant firm Henley & Partners has released the Henley Global Mobility Report 2022 Q1.
• According to the Henley Passport Index, the Indian passport has become 83^rd most powerful in the world. Its rank has improved by seven places from the 90th rank of last year.
• In 2020, India’s rank was 84^th while in 2016, India was ranked 85^th.
• The report shows that the Indian passport now has visa-free access to 60 destinations around the world.
• Oman and Armenia are two recently added destinations in India’s visa-free access list.
• India shares its rank with Sao Tome and Principe of Central Africa.
• Japan and Singapore share the first position in the Henley Passport Index 2022.
• The second place on the passport index was acquired by Germany and South Korea.
• Spain, Finland, Italy, and Luxembourg passports are the third most powerful passport in the world.
• Henley Passport Index:
  • It was launched in 2006.
  • It provides a ranking of the 199 passports of the world.
  • It is based on the data collected from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Topic: Miscellaneous

6. FICCI’s Most Innovative AgTech Startup Award won by Aquaconnect.

• Aquaconnect has won the “Most Innovative Agtech” (Mature Startup) award at the fourth edition of the FICCI Summit and Awards for Agri Startups.
• Chennai-based Aquaconnect is India’s pioneering full-stack aquaculture platform. It works with fish and shrimp farmers to improve productivity.
• It has helped over 60,000 farmers through its unique artificial intelligence and GIS-powered advisory platform.
• Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI):
  • It was established in 1927.
  • It is the largest, oldest and apex business non-governmental trade association in India.
  • It is headquartered in New Delhi.
  • Sanjiv Mehta is its current President.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

7. National Startup Awards 2021 presented by Union Minister Piyush Goyal.

• Union Minister Piyush Goyal presented National Startup Awards 2021.
• A total of 46 Startups have been declared as winners of National Startup Awards 2021 along with 1 incubator and 1 accelerator.
• Applications were invited for National Startup Awards 2021 in 15 sectors and 49 sub-sectors.
• Six special categories were also introduced to recognize exceptional Startups contributing to the good of the society.
• In the 2021 edition of awards, exceptional startups innovating solutions to promote Indic languages were also recognized.
• All applicants for National Startup Awards 2021 were evaluated against six broad parameters.
• On 15 January, PM Modi announced that January 16 will be celebrated as National Start-up Day.
• National Startup Awards were conceived by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to recognize and reward outstanding Startups.

Topic: Miscellaneous

8. India announces USD 900 million loan to Sri Lanka.

• India has announced a USD 900 million loan to Sri Lanka to overcome forex crisis.
• Sri Lanka is currently experiencing a shortage of almost all essentials owing to a shortage of dollars to pay for the imports.
• Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay expressed India’s strong support to Sri Lanka after RBI extended over USD 900 million facilities over the last week.

Topic: Appointments

9. Ujjivan SFB appointed Ittira Davis as its new MD & CEO.

• Ittira Davis has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB).
• The appointment has been approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a one-year term from 14 January 2022.
• Nitin Chugh, the former MD, and CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank had resigned on September 30.
• The bank board's special committee of directors, which was constituted in the absence of a managing director to supervise operations and administration, was dissolved on January 13.
• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank:
  • Ujjivan Small Finance Bank was set up by Ujjivan Financial Services Limited (UFSL).
  • It started banking operations on February 1, 2017.
  • Its headquarters is in Bengaluru.
  • It is a Scheduled Small Finance Bank.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

10. Indifi Technologies joins hands with Google Pay to provide instant loans to eligible small merchants on Google Pay platform.

• The collaboration aims to help small merchants to meet their working capital needs.
• Indifi has partnered with other companies including Amazon, Zomato, Swiggy and more. T serves MSMEs present on these ecosystem platforms.
• Indifi Technologies is a digital lending platform. Google Pay is an online payment system developed by Google.   

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 16 and 17 January 2022