Banking Awareness of 17, 18 and 19 May 2023

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

1. Union Cabinet has approved signing of the MoU between the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA).

• The MoU aims to develop and strengthen linkages between CCI and ECA.
• It envisages the promotion of cooperation in competition policy and law through the exchange of information and sharing of best practices.
• The MoU also aims to develop and strengthen linkages between CCI and ECA.
• The Union Cabinet also approved the signing of the MoU between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and The Chartered Accountants of the Maldives.
• Section 18 of the Competition Act, 2002 allows CCI to enter into any memorandum or arrangement with any agency of any foreign country for discharging its duties or performing of its functions under the Act.

Topic: Taxation

2. TDS will not be applicable on interest earned on Mahila Samman Savings Certificate.

• However, interest income will be added to income for tax calculation.
• According to the Finance Ministry’s notification, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate will be a scheme under section 194A of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
• Section 194A contains provisions relating to TDS on interest other than interest on securities.
• Under Section 194A, tax is to be deducted if interest other than interest on securities is paid to a resident.
• However, this will not apply to interest amounting to Rs 40,000 on any post-office deposit made under any scheme framed and notified by the Central Government.
• In case of senior citizens, the exemption limit is Rs 50,000.
• In her speech for Union Budget 2023-24, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Mahila Samman Savings Certificate will be offered for a two-year period up to March 2025.
• Under the scheme, deposit facility up to Rs 2 lakh in the name of women or girls for a tenor of 2 years will be offered at fixed interest rate of 7.5% with partial withdrawal option.
• The scheme was notified on 31 March. It is now available for deposit.

Topic: RBI

3. RBI has cancelled the Certificate of Registration of the seven NBFCs.

• RBI has done so in exercise of powers conferred on it under Section 45-IA (6) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• These NBFCs are Coorg Tea Company, Trimurthi Finvest, East West Finvest India, J.V.Modi Securities, K K Patel Finance, Purvi Finvest, and Genfin Capital Pvt Ltd.
• These companies will not transact the business of a Non-Banking Financial Institution, as defined in clause (a) of Section 45-I of the RBI Act, 1934.
• 14 Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) have surrendered the Certificate of Registration (CoR) to RBI.
• RBI has cancelled the CoR of 7 of these 14 NBFCs because of exit from Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFI) business.
• RBI has cancelled the CoR of 2 of these 14 NBFCs due to meeting the criteria prescribed for unregistered Core Investment Company (CIC) that do not require registration.
• RBI has cancelled the CoR of 5 of these 14 NBFCs due to NBFC ceasing to be a legal entity due to amalgamation/ merger/dissolution/ voluntary strike-off, etc.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

4. Competition Commission of India has formally notified establishment of its regional offices in three cities.

• These regional offices are located in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.
• Stakeholders will now be able to approach the regional offices without coming to Delhi for their competition law related work.
• Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry are included in the jurisdiction of the Southern Regional Office in Chennai.
• The jurisdiction of Eastern Regional Office in Kolkata include the Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu come under the jurisdiction of the Western Regional Office in Mumbai.
• According to the CCI notification, the Chennai regional office was set up on February 26, 2021.
• Kolkata regional office’s effective date is May 20, 2022. In the case of Mumbai Regional Office, office’s effective date is October 6, 2022.

Topic: Reports and Indices

5. World Economic Situation and Prospects report has been released by the United Nations.

• The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) released a mid-year update of its World Economic Situation and Prospects report.
• The report has projected that the Indian Economy is expected to grow by 5.8% in 2023 and 6.7% in 2024.
• India will remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world. India’s economic growth will be supported by resilient domestic demand.
• India’s inflation is expected to decelerate to 5.5 percent in 2023 due to a decrease in global commodity prices and slower currency depreciation.
• As per the report, the world economy is projected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2023 and 2.5 percent in 2024. The earlier forecast of world economic growth was 1.9 percent for 2023.
• The report highlights that the labour markets in the developed countries have shown remarkable resilience.
• Recently, Fitch Ratings said that India would be one of the fastest-growing sovereigns around the world. It forecasted 6 percent gross domestic product growth for 2023-24.

Topic: Reports and Indices

6. Real money gaming has become the top violative sector in terms of advertisement.

• This sector was followed by education and healthcare, as per the annual complaints report for FY23 released recently by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
• As per the report, there has been a sharp increase in the number misleading ads featuring celebrities.
• 75% of violative ads were found on digital media. ASCI examined 7,928 ads across print, digital, and television in FY23.
• This was an increase of about two-folds over the last two years.  
• TV and print advertisers were highly compliant, digital ads emerged as least compliant.   
• According to the report, real-money gaming industry overtook the education sector for the first time to become the most violative sector, moving from fifth to first place.
• Real-money gaming sector also emerged as the least compliant with only 50% of ads being modified voluntarily.
• Ads by Ticktok Skill Games Pvt Ltd featuring MS Dhoni and Bhuvan Bam were found to be non-compliant.
• Ads by Galactus Funware Technology featuring Virat Kohli and Jim Shrabh were also found to be non-compliant.
• Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI):
  • It was formed in 1985. It is a self-regulatory and non-governmental organization.
  • It is headquartered in Mumbai. Its chairman is N S Rajan. 

Topic: Summits/Conferences/Meetings

7. First Inter-Ministerial Committee Meeting held in New Delhi on 16th May 2023.

• Secretary of Food Processing Industries, Anita Praveen, chaired the meeting with senior representatives from Ministries/Departments/ Boards.
• The meeting was held to apprise the officials of the preparation made so far for World Food India 2023.
• It was held to discuss the participation of respective Ministries/ Departments/Organizations in the event.
• Secretary, Food Processing Industries, requested the officials to share specific plan of action regarding their participation/partnership in the Mega Food Event.
• World Food India 2023 will be organized between the 3rd and 5th November 2023 in New Delhi.
• It will be organised by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
• The next meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee will be held in June 2023.
• This will be held to firm up concrete partnership/participation of different stakeholders.
• The Investment Facilitation Cell (Invest India) and the event partner (FICCI) were directed to coordinate with the ministries and departments.

Topic: Miscellaneous

8. Overall mineral production increased by 6.8% in March 2023.

• The index of mineral production of the mining and quarrying sector for March 2023 was 6.8% higher as compared to March 2022.
• The index of mineral production of the mining and quarrying sector for March 2023 stood at 154.2.
• According to the provisional data of the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), cumulative growth for April-March 2022-23 over the same period of the previous year is 5.8%.
• Important minerals showing positive growth during March 2023 over March 2022 are given in the following table.

• Production level of important minerals in March, 2023 were as given in the following table.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

9. The proposed merger of Credit Suisse with UBS has been approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

• The proposed combination relates to the proposed acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS through an absorption merger and UBS will be the surviving legal entity thereafter.
• Following the transaction, all assets, liabilities and contracts of Credit Suisse will be transferred entirely to UBS.
• The proposed transaction was necessitated by Credit Suisse's financial difficulties.
• Credit Suisse Group AG (Credit Suisse) and UBS Group AG (UBS) are multinational investment bank and financial services company based in Switzerland.
• In India, UBS’ business is mainly focused on brokerage services.
• In India, Credit Suisse’s businesses mainly include wealth management and investment banking services.
• Competition Commission of India (CCI):
  • CCI was formed on 14 October 2003 under the Competition Commission Act, 2002.
  • It aims to eliminate practices that affect competition in the Indian market and protect the interests of the consumers.
  • Sangeeta Verma is the acting chairperson of CCI.
  • Recently, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Ravneet Kaur as chairperson of CCI.

Topic: Miscellaneous

10. 50 Start-ups Exchange Programme launched by India and Bangladesh.

• As part of this programme, 50 Start-ups from India and 50 Start-ups from Bangladesh will exchange visits to each other’s countries.
• These visits will be for expansion of business ties, sharing of experience and knowledge and expansion of youth and entrepreneurial collaboration.
• The first group of 10 start-up companies as part of the 50 start-ups exchange programme returned to Bangladesh after completing a successful visit to India from 8-12 May.
• The start-ups belong to e-commerce, health, transport and logistics, energy, education and skill development sectors.
• During their visit to India, they were introduced to India’s ‘Start-up India’ initiative.

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