Banking Awareness of 18, 19 and 20 November 2023

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

1. PC shipments in India increased to record 4.5 million units in Q3 2023.

• Personal computer (PC) shipments to India increased to record level in July-September quarter of 2023 after a long period of stagnation.
• During the July-September quarter of 2023, PC shipments recorded a 14% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase, as per a report by International Data Corp (IDC).
• Desktops recorded an increase of 19.3%. Notebooks increased by 13.1%.
• Thee shipments increased because of the Centre’s brief import ban and in anticipation of festival season sales.
• Government contracts, particularly the education sector has shown a growth of 117.5%.
• HP dominated market. Its market share stood at 29.4%. Lenovo stood at second in market share. Its share was 17%.
• Dell Technologies came at 3rd place with a market share of 14.6%.

Topic: Banking/Financial/Govt Schemes

2. Total 27 firms have been approved under the government’s new IT hardware production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

• The approved firms include electronic companies like Dell, HP, Foxconn, Flextronics, VVDN Technologies, Bhagwati Products, Rising Stars Hi-Tech, HLBS Tech and Optiemus Telecommunication.
• PLI Scheme – 2.0 for IT hardware was approved by the cabinet on May 17, 2023.
• It covers laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers and ultra small form factor devices.
• It extends incentive of 5% on net incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under the target segment, to eligible companies, for six years.
• The PLI Scheme 2.0 for IT hardware also includes semiconductor design, IC manufacturing, and packaging as incentivised components.
• It will result in broadening and deepening of the manufacturing ecosystem.

Topic: Taxation

3. Biometric Aadhaar authentication would be required for GST registration in Andhra Pradesh.

• This has been done to deter fraudulent entries. Earlier this provision was applicable for Gujarat and Puducherry.
• Finance Ministry has now notified the changes in GST Rules to apply this provision to Andhra Pradesh.
• Biometric-based Aadhaar authentication was implemented by Finance Ministry in Gujarat and Puducherry as pilot to deter fraudulent entries.
• Andhra Pradesh will be subject to the provisions of sub-rule (4A) of Rule 8 of the CGST Rules.
• In the GST Council meeting on December 17, 2022, a decision was taken to tighten the registration process.
• Rule 8 of CGST Rules, 2017 deals with the application procedure for registration.
• Rule 9 of CGST Rules, 2017 deals with verification of the application and approval.   
• In June 2023, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) brought out detailed guidelines for GST registration.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

4. The daily wages of rural agricultural workers in Madhya Pradesh are lowest in country according to the data compiled by RBI.

• As per the data compiled by RBI, the daily wage of male agricultural workers in rural areas in MP is just Rs 229.2 in the year ended March 2023.
• The daily wage of male agricultural workers in rural areas in Gujarat is Rs 241.9 in the year ended March 2023.
• For the year, the national average was Rs 345.7. Kerala pays the highest wage of Rs 764.3 per person among states.
• Rural farm workers in Uttar Pradesh receive an average daily wage of Rs 309.3.
• Rural farm workers in Maharashtra receive Rs 303.5 daily.
• The high wages in Kerala attract farm workers from other poorly paid states.
• Average wages of farm workers in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are Rs 550.4, Rs 473.3 and Rs 470 per person, respectively.
• As per RBI data, in case of male non-agricultural workers, the lowest wage was in MP (Rs 246.3).
• In Gujarat, male non-agricultural workers received daily wage of Rs 273.1. The national average in case of male non-agricultural workers was Rs 348.
• Kerala again leads in non-agricultural workers’ daily wages with Rs 696.6 per person.
• It was followed by J& K (Rs 517.9), Tamil Nadu (Rs 481.5) and Haryana (Rs 451) for the year ended March 2023.
• In the case of rural male construction workers, Gujarat (Rs 323.2) and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 278.7) were below the national average of Rs 393.3.

Topic: RBI

5. Former RBI Governor S. Venkitaramanan passed away.

• S. Venkitaramanan, RBI Governor from December 1990 to December 1992 died recently.
• He served as the 18th RBI governor during which India faced the balance of payments crisis.
• During his term, India adopted the stabilisation programme of IMF under which the Rupee was devaluated.
• He also served as Finance Secretary to the Government of India from 1985 to 1989.
• Before appointment as RBI governor, he was the advisor of the Karnataka government.
• He was born in the town of Nagercoil in the princely state of Travancore.
• During his tenure as RBI Governor, business journalist Sucheta Dalal exposed the Harshad Mehta scam.

Topic: Committees/Commissions/Taskforces

6. Ministry of Consumer Affairs has formed a committee to draft a “Safety Pledge” to stop the online sale of hazardous products.

• The Safety Pledge would be a voluntary commitment by e-commerce players to stop the sale of hazardous products through their platforms.
• The aim of the pledge is to make sure that appropriate measures are taken by online platforms to stop the sale of unsafe goods.
• Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs chaired a stakeholder consultation in this regard.
• Members from e-commerce platforms, consumer associations, industry bodies and National Law Universities are included in the committee.
• The committee will submit its report in two weeks.
• The proposed principles of the Safety Pledge for e-commerce platforms are:
  • Detecting and preventing the sale of unsafe products
  • Co-operating with statutory authorities responsible for product safety
  • Raising consumer product safety awareness amongst third-party sellers
  • Empowering consumers on product safety issues
• Section 2(9) of the Consumer Protection Act recognizes consumer rights to be protected against the marketing of goods, products or services that are hazardous to life and property.
• Consumer Protection Act empowers consumer commissions to pass directions to entities to not offer hazardous or unsafe goods for sale.

Topic: Miscellaneous

7. ChatGPT creator OpenAI has fired CEO Sam Altman.

• On November 17, OpenAI dismissed CEO Sam Altman because the company no longer had confidence in his ability to lead the firm.
• Mira Muratti, the company's chief technology officer will replace Altman on an interim basis.
• OpenAI created ChatGPT about a year ago, which renders human-level content like poetry or artwork in seconds.
• OpenAI's board said in a statement that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.
• Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has given company's technology into its offerings, including search engine Bing.
• OpenAI's board of directors includes OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Topic: Banking System

8. State Bank of India will soon launch the Yono Global app in Singapore and the US.

• With this, SBI will offer digitalized remittance and other services to its customers.
• Vidya Krishnan, Deputy MD (IT), SBI held talks with Singapore-based digital platform enablers and local regulators and the central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
• Presently, SBI offers Yono Global services in 9 countries. In September 2019, it started with the UK operations.
• SBI is integrating the Yono Global app with PayNow in Singapore.
• SBI is continuing to invest in Yono Global to offer the best services available, Krishnan said at the three-day Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF).
• In contests held on testing technologies, Indian-origin Nikhilesh Goel was selected among the winners for the Individual Category.
• Nikhilesh Goel is the Co-founder and Group CEO of Singapore-based Validus Capital, which focuses on leading SMEs in Southeast Asia.

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