Banking Awareness of 18, 19 and 20 January 2023

Topic: Miscellaneous

1. Fee payable to facilitators who help start-ups apply for patents, trademarks or designs have been increased by the government.

• The empaneled facilitators will not charge anything from the start-up or the entrepreneur.
• Centre will directly pay to the facilitator through the office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM).
• Start-ups are offered assistance to file for intellectual property under the Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP).
• SIPP is run by Department for Promotion of Investment and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
• It is envisaged to facilitate protection of patents, trademark and designs of start-ups.
• The fee has been increased to incentivise facilitators to assist start-ups in filing for IPs.
• The fee has been increased from ₹10,000 to ₹40,000 for patents without opposition and ₹50,000 for patents with opposition.
• In case of filing for trademarks and designs, the fee is ₹8,000 without opposition and ₹13,000 with opposition.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

2. ESAF Small Finance Bank has won Inclusive Finance India Award 2022.

• ESAF Small Finance Bank has won the award for its contribution towards the goal of financial inclusion.
• Paul Thomas K, MD & CEO of the bank received the award from Chief Economic Advisor Anantha Nageshwaran, at the 19th Inclusive Finance India Summit organized in New Delhi.
• This award is a recognition of ESAF’s unique spectrum of Financial Inclusion projects.
• These projects include ESAF Dhansree, ESAF Udyog Jyothi, LSEDP (Local Sustainable Economic Development Project), ESAF Balajyothi, ESAF Vayojyothi, and ESAF Garshom.
• The Inclusive Finance India Awards is an initiative of ACCESS Development Services. 
• ESAF Small Finance Bank is a Kerala based Small Finance Bank (SFB). It was founded as a small finance bank in March 2017.

Topic: RBI

3. RBI releases a paper titled “What Drives Startup Fundraising in India’’ in its January monthly bulletin.

• According to the paper, it is expected that start-up fundraising in India will rapidly rebound from the macroeconomic disturbances seen over the last 2-3 years.
• As per the data from the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, there were 107 unicorns as of September 2022.
• The top three cities with the highest number of unicorns in India are Bengaluru, Gurgaon, and Mumbai.
• The authors have said that fund raising by start-ups is usually determined by macroeconomic factors.
• The paper said fundamental factors such as economic growth, attractive capital markets and a stable exchange rate ultimately facilitate the availability of start-up capital.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

4. South Indian Bank has signed an MoU with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

• The MoU is to provide financial assistance to the dealers of SAIL across the country.
• The MoU was exchanged between Surendra Kumar Sharma, (CGM- Finance & Accounts) of SAIL and Praveen Joy (Head-Transaction Banking Group) of South Indian Bank.
• Murali Ramakrishnan, MD & CEO, South Indian Bank said that MoU allows us to offer SAIL’s dealers with financial assistance for working capital, particularly steel procurement.
• Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE). It is headquartered in New Delhi. It was founded in January 1954. Soma Mondal is its Chairman.  
• South Indian Bank (SIB) is a private sector bank. It is headquartered in Thrissur, Kerala. Murali Ramakrishnan is its MD & CEO.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

5. Tamilnad Mercantile Bank has won ‘Best Small Bank Award’ in the ‘Best Banks Survey for the year 2022’.

• Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has received this award under the category of banks with the book size of less than ₹1 lakh crore.
• The survey was conducted by Business Today-KPMG (BT-KPMG Best banks survey).
• The survey is being conducted by the BT-KPMG for the past 27 years with 37 parameters for declaring a bank as an awardee.
• TMB’s MD & CEO, S. Krishnan received the award from Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in a function held in Mumbai recently.
• Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das were also present in the function.
• Tamilnad Mercantile Bank is a Thoothukudi (Tamil Nadu)-based private sector bank. Its MD & CEO is S. Krishnan.

Topic: RBI

6. RBI has given final approval to Paytm Payments Bank to operate as Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU).

• So far, Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) has been operating as BBPOU under in-principle authorisation from RBI.
• As part of Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), BBPOU facilitates bill payment services of electricity, phone, water, insurance, loan repayments, FASTag recharge, education fees, credit card bill and municipal taxes.
• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) owns BBPS.
• Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is a system that offers interoperable and accessible bill payment service to consumers. BBPS Pilot was launched in the year 2016.
• Paytm Payments Bank is an Indian payments bank. It was founded in 2015. It is headquartered in Noida.

Topic: Reports and Indices

7. Ernst & Young (EY) has released a report, ‘India@100: Realising the Potential of a $26-trillion Economy’.

• The report was released on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.
• Railway, IT and Communication Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, launched the report.
• EY has projected Indian economy will be a $26-trillion economy by 2047.
• It has projected that India will celebrate 100 years of independence with $15,000 per capita income and $26-trillion economy.
• It has identified eight key areas that will accelerate India’s growth over the next decade.
• On the basis of first advance estimate released by National Statistical Office (NSO) on January 7, Indian economy’s size during this fiscal is estimated at $3.3 trillion.
• For the purpose of this estimate, nominal GDP is taken at ₹273.08-lakh crore and exchange rate is taken at ₹82.
• Given that the population is estimated by NSO to be 138.3 billion, the per capita income for FY23 is projected to be $2,355.
• EY made projections using International Monetary Fund’s medium-term projections and Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development’s long-term forecasts.
• India’s real GDP growth forecast to average 6.5% during FY23 and FY28.
• Ernst & Young (EY):
  • It is a multinational professional services partnership. It is headquartered in London.
  • It is one of the Big Four accounting firms. Other three are Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

8. Global venture capital (VC) investment declined for the fourth consecutive quarter in Q4 of 2022.

• The latest KPMG Private Enterprise Venture Pulse report shows that global venture capital investment declined from $102.2 billion on 9,767 deals to $75.6 billion on 7,641 deals.
• Global investment has declined to its lowest levels since Q2’2019.
• The Americas and Asia accounted for the largest share of VC investment globally during Q4’22.
• The US recorded the largest proportion of investment. Asia recorded the second largest proportion of investment.
• Most other industries were dominated by investment in the electric vehicle market, which also saw significant fundraising rounds.
• VC investment in India remained slow. Private Equity (PE) activity remained high in India during Q4’22.
• VC investment in India is expected to pick up in Q2’23.
• VC investment in agtech is expected to grow considerably over the next one-two years.

Topic: Reports and Indices

9. As per RBI report, pension provision by State Governments and UT with legislature has increased over 34% between FY20 and FY23.

• This is second highest expenditure among all non- development expenditure.
• This is third highest expenditure among all kind of expenditure.
• Data showed that Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have provided 14% and 19.3% of revenue expenditure for pension.
• In terms of total expenditure (developmental and non-developmental), pension outlay is the largest after expenditure of education and interest payment by States and UT with legislatures.
• As part of GSDP (Gross State Domestic Products), pension provision is up to 4% in some States.
• Old pension scheme (OPS) was discontinued for all government employees (except armed forces) joining on or after January 1, 2004.
• New Pension Scheme (now known as National Pension System) was introduced.
• First, central government implemented it and then all States and Union Territories (except West Bengal) implemented it.
• Under National Pension System (NPS), employees pay 10% of their basic salary. Up to 14% is contributed by governments. A corpus is created with the help of contributions.
• On attaining 60 years of age, NPS subscriber can withdraw up to 60% of accumulated fund. Remaining will be used to purchase an annuity that would provide a regular monthly pension.
• If the corpus is less than ₹5 lakh, entire amount can be withdrawn.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

10. KBCols Sciences and Hygienity Solutions have won National Startup Award 2022.

• Along with KBCols Sciences and Hygienity Solutions, seven other startups from Maharashtra were conferred with the award.
• KBCols Sciences is a bioprocess tech startup. It was founded in 2018 by Vaishali Kulkarni and Arjun Singh Bajwa.
• Hygienity Solutions is an environment sanitation startup. It was founded in 2021 by Vipul Ganesh Chavan and Adwait Joshi.
• The total number of applications received from startups, incubators, and accelerators from 31 states and union territories across the country was 2,667.
• In the third edition of awards, 41 startups, 2 incubators, and 1 accelerator were recognised as winners in their respective categories.
• The winning startups will be awarded a cash prize of ₹5 lakh each.
• One exceptional Incubator and one Accelerator each will be awarded Rs15 lakhs.
• The National Startup Awards 2022 invited applications across 17 sectors. These sectors were further divided into 50 sub-sectors, and 7 special categories.
• 18 startups based in Karnataka became winners. Karnataka topped the list of states having the maximum number of startup winners.
• Karnataka is followed by Maharashtra (9 winners) and Delhi (4 winners).

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 18, 19 and 20 January 2023