Banking Awareness of 21 and 22 March 2025

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

1. Most of major states, excluding Karnataka, are not likely to achieve their FY25 capital expenditure (capex) targets. 

• States have planned a sharp increase in capital spending for FY26. This will take effect from April 1, 2025. 
• The central government has reduced the 50-year interest-free loan under ‘Special Assistance to the States for Capital Investment/Expenditure (SASCI)’.
• The amount has been reduced from ₹1.5 lakh crore to ₹1.25 lakh crore. 
• Maharashtra and Karnataka have increased their revised capital expenditure estimates for FY25. 
• For FY26, all major states excluding Maharashtra have projected higher capital spending.
• Tamil Nadu revised its FY25 capital expenditure estimate downward.
• It lowered the estimate to ₹46,766 crore from ₹47,681 crore. 
• Maharashtra is the only state among the top eight to reduce its FY26 capital expenditure estimate. 
• States have significantly raised their borrowings in March 2025.
• Total borrowings for March stood at ₹1.5 lakh crore.
• This surpassed the indicative target of ₹1.2 lakh crore. 
• States have been slow in meeting conditions for additional SASCI loans. 
• This slow progress led to a downward revision of the SASCI loan allocation.
• The revised FY25 amount now stands at ₹1.25 lakh crore.

Topic: Agriculture

2. India’s tobacco exports have increased over the last four years.

• This increase is driven by higher global demand and rising prices. 
• Export earnings increased from $923 million in 2021-22 to over $1.84 billion by February 2025.
• By March 2025, exports are expected to cross $2 billion. 
• According to the Commerce Ministry, tobacco exports grew by 38.59% between April and February 2024-25.
• In February alone, exports reached $141.80 million, up from $111.87 million the previous year. 
• India’s steady tobacco production gave it an advantage over competitors.
• In contrast, countries like Brazil and Zimbabwe struggled with pandemic-related disruptions.
• India is the world’s second-largest tobacco producer after China.
• It is also the second-biggest exporter of unprocessed tobacco. It comes after Brazil. 
• India has crossed a 1 billion tonnes of coal production.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

3. SEBI imposed fines totaling ₹50 lakh on 10 entities.

• The penalties were imposed by SEBI for manipulative trades in BSE’s illiquid stock options segment. 
• Each entity was fined ₹5 lakh because they engaged in artificial trading activities. 
• The penalized entities include Sachin Jain HUF, Moti Lal Baid, and Ajay Nopani.
• Other penalized entities include Diwakar Jha, Bagdevi Suppliers Pvt Ltd, and Rita R Thakkar.
• Kala Suppliers Pvt Ltd, Megha Nibhwani, Sitaram Jayant, and Amit Shaw were also fined. 
• SEBI found trade reversals in the illiquid stock options segment.
• These reversals caused artificially inflated trading volumes. 
• An investigation was carried out into trading patterns for the period from April 2014 to September 2015. 
• In reversal trades, an entity quickly repurchases or resells a contract.
• Reversal trades involve the same counterparty and lack a valid commercial purpose.
• Reversal trades create a misleading impression of market activity. 
• SEBI also revoked the registration of Corporate Strategic Allianz Pvt Ltd for violating merchant banking regulations.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

4. In February 2025, non-life premiums declined 2.8%.

• In February 2025, total premium underwritten by the non-life insurers dropped 2.8% in comparison to the same period of the last financial year.
• The total premium underwritten by the non-life insurers stood at ₹21,747 crore in February 2025 compared to ₹22,378 crore.
• In the last fiscal, the total premium underwritten by the non-life insurers had reported a 12.6 per cent growth during the same period.
• Slow growth in health and motor categories have caused decline in February 2025.
• As per IRDAI data, public sector general insurers’ premium declined lesser than those in private sector.
• In the current year so far, the growth of private insurers has consistently surpassed that of their public counterparts. This growth can be due to retail health sector.
• In February 2025, year-on-year (y-o-y) growth momentum of Standalone Private Health Insurers slowed to 7.8%.
• Private non-life insurance companies’ overall market share has seen continuous increase from 63% in FY24 to 65% in year-to-date (YTD) FY25.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

5. India's goods trade deficit fell to a 42-month low due to a decline in imports of gold, silver, and crude oil.

• According to Commerce and Industry Ministry data, India's merchandise trade deficit fell to a 42-month low of $14.05 billion in February 2025 due to a decline in imports of gold, silver, and crude oil.
• In January 2025, the difference between imports and exports of goods was $22.9 billion. The merchandise trade deficit was $19.5 billion in February 2024.
• India's gold and silver imports stood at $2.7 billion, the lowest since June 2024, when it was valued at $2.5 billion.
• As far as crude oil and petroleum are concerned, imports stood at $11.89 billion, the lowest since July 2023, when it was valued at $11.81 billion.
• India exported goods worth $36.9 billion in February 2025. However, imports fell to a 22-month low of $50.9 billion.
• The trade deficit was also much lower than the average of over $23 billion during the first 10 months of FY25.
• In February 2025, India exported services worth $35.03 billion and imported services worth $16.55 billion.
• In February 2024, these numbers were $28.33 billion and $15.23 billion, respectively.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

6. SEBI partnered with Digilocker to resolve the issue of unclaimed financial assets.

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) joined hands with DigiLocker to address the issue of unclaimed financial assets.
• This initiative will enable investors to store and access information on their demat and mutual fund holdings through DigiLocker.
• Under this initiative, SEBI and DigiLocker are committed to enhance investor protection.
• It will help in providing seamless access to financial records.
• This mechanism will help in minimizing unclaimed assets and ensures the identification of assets that might get unnoticed.
• Access to securities holdings, a nomination facility for seamless access, automated notification to nominees and the role of KYC registration agencies (KRAs) will be the main features of this initiative.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

7. SEBI lowered the minimum investment in social stock exchange instruments to ₹1,000.

• SEBI has reduced the minimum investment amount for Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments on the Social Stock Exchange from ₹10,000 to ₹1,000.

• Its main aim is to enhance retail participation in social impact investments.
• This step of SEBI will encourage more participation from smaller investors.
• The latest recommendation will come into effect immediately.
• The Social Stock Exchange is a separate segment that brings together social enterprises and donors and facilitates funding and growth of social enterprises.
• It enables mechanisms to ensure robust standards of impact and financial reporting.
• The Social Stock Exchange idea was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2019-20 speech.

Topic: Reports and Indices

8. India ranked 118 out of 147 countries in the World Happiness Report, 2025.

• The Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network released the World Happiness Report 2025.
• Finland emerged as the ‘happiest’ country in the World Happiness Report 2025.
• Denmark and Iceland secured second and third spots respectively.
• The report considers 6 factors for happiness: social support, GDP per capita, health life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perception of corruption.
• Western countries dominated the top 20, especially European countries.
• Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top 10 for the first time, ranking 6th and 10th respectively.
• India's neighbouring countries, Sri Lanka was ranked at 133, Bangladesh at 134, Pakistan at 109, Nepal at 92 and China at 68.
• The United Kingdom also ranked at 23, which is the lowest score since 2017.
• The report focused on the impact of “caring and sharing” on people's levels of contentment and satisfaction.

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 21 and 22 March 2025