Banking Awareness of 22 and 23 July 2022

Topic: RBI

1. RBI has imposed ₹57.75 lakh worth monetary penalty on Suryoday Small Finance Bank Ltd.

• The penalty has been imposed for non-compliance with RBI’s directions on “frauds classification and reporting by commercial banks and select FIs”.
• The bank failed to furnish/provide FMR (fraud report) in certain cases within three weeks of their date of detection. FMR stands for Fraud Monitoring Return.
• Just few days ago, RBI banned three cooperative banks from carrying out banking activity due to poor liquidity positions.
• The names of these banks are Nashik Zilla Girna Sahakari Bank and the Raigad Sahakari Bank and Sri Mallikarjuna Pattana Sahakari Bank.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

2. PFRDA has given licence to DSP Investment Managers to start doing pension fund management business.

• The licence has been granted to DSP Investment Managers as a Sponsor of a pension fund.
• PFRDA Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay told that PFRDA Board has given approval to DSP Investment Managers as a Sponsor.
• DSP Group will become the 11^th pension fund manager in the Indian pension fund management space.
• Currently, there are seven functioning Pension Fund Managers. They are the pension fund management arms of SBI, UTI, LIC, ICICI, HDFC, Aditya Birla SunLife and Kotak.
• Three are about to commence pension fund management business. Their names are Axis Asset Management, Tata Asset Management and Max Life Insurance. 
• Pension assets in India have been growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 30%. However, last fiscal was an aberration with the CAGR of 27%.
• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) was established in October 2003. Its Chairman is Supratim Bandyopadhyay. Its head office is in New Delhi.

Topic: Miscellaneous

3. Gautam Adani has surpassed Bill Gates to become the world’s fourth-richest person on the Real-Time Billionaires rankings.

• Adani stood at the fourth position with net worth of $116.4 billion.
• He became a centibillionaire (having assets worth over $100-billion) in April 2022.
• Bill Gates stood at 5^th position with a net worth of $104.6 billion.
• Mukesh Ambani is ranked at 10^th place with a net worth of $90.1 billion.
• Tesla’s Elon Musk with $235.8 billion net worth, Louis Vuitton CEO Bernard Arnault with $157.1 billion net worth, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with $148.4 billion net worth are ranked top three on the list.

Topic: Reports and Indices

4. In the 3^rd edition of NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index, Karnataka, Manipur and Chandigarh have topped in their respective categories.

• Karnataka has topped in the ‘Major States’ category while Manipur topped in the ‘North East and Hill States’ category.
• Chandigarh has got first place in the ‘Union Territories and City States’ category.
• In the ‘Major States’ category, Telangana and Haryana are in the second and third positions respectively.
• In the ‘North East and Hill States’ category, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya are in the second and third spots.
• NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery has recently released the 3^rd edition of the India Innovation Index.
• In the third edition, number of indicators has been increased from 36 to 66.
• India’s rank in the Global Innovation Index (GII) has risen consistently from 81 in 2015 to 46 in 2021.
• India Innovation Index is based on the innovation capabilities and performance of states and union territories of India. It has been prepared by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness.
• It is based on the 66 indicators divided across 16 sub-pillars and 7 key pillars. As the earlier edition, the five ‘Enabler’ pillars measure inputs and the two ‘Performance’ pillars measure output.

Topic: Banking System

5. Euromoney has again named DBS as World’s Best SME Bank.

• DBS has been honoured as World’s Best SME Bank for the second time since 2008.
• Euromoney has also honoured Fixed Income Execution (FIX) Marketplace of DBS as world’s best ‘Financial Innovation of the Year’.
• FIX Marketplace is Asia’s 1^st automated digital bond issuance platform.
• DBS was also named Asia’s best bank for wealth management and Hong Kong’s best bank.
• Euromoney is a UK-based financial publication.
• DBS Bank Limited is a Singaporean multinational banking corporation.
• It is often known as DBS. It is headquartered in Singapore.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

6. ADB lowered India’s growth forecast for FY23 from 7.5% to 7.2%.

• In April 2022, it has projected growth for FY23 at 7.5%. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised the inflation forecast for India to 6.7% for FY23 from 5.8%.
• ADB estimated that the services sector will do better in FY23 and higher commodity prices will boost the mining industry.
• The manufacturing sector will get affected due to the rising oil prices. Private investment will remain low due to the higher cost of borrowing for firms.
• The high inflationary pressures reduce consumer purchasing power.
• For FY 23, ADB has revised its growth forecast for the Asia region to 4.6% from 5.2%.

Topic: Appointments

7. Rajarshi Gupta has been appointed as new Managing Director of ONGC Videsh with effect from 19 July.

• He has taken place of Alok Gupta, who superannuated as ONGC Videsh's MD in June 2022.
• Earlier, Rajarshi Gupta served as executive director - chief of corporate strategy and planning in ONGC.
• ONGC Videsh Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ONGC. It is a Miniratna Schedule “A” Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE).
• It works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. Its headquarters is located in New Delhi.

Topic: Regulatory bodies/Financial Institutions

8. Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dealt 846 cases regarding abuse of dominant position since its inception till June 2022.       

• These cases include one case initiated suo motu (on its own) by the commission.
• These cases also include 794 cases based on complaints by consumers or their associations or trade associations and 8 cases referred government.
• Section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 prohibits the abuse of dominance by any enterprise or group of enterprises. 
• If a firm is in position of strength in the Indian market, which allows it to operate independently of competitive forces in the market or affect its competitors or consumers or the market in its favour, the firm is said to be in dominant position. 
• A company may legitimately take a dominant position in the market through innovation, entrepreneurial efforts, etc.
• Abuse of dominant position is when a firm (or a group of firms) uses its dominant position in market in an exclusionary or exploitative manner (excessive or discriminatory pricing, excessive sale/purchase conditions, denial of the market access, refusal to deal, etc).
• Competition Commission of India (CCI) can direct an investigation by the Director General (DG).
• After the receipt of DG report, it can direct dominant entity to discontinue abuse of dominant position.
• After the receipt of DG report, CCI can also impose penalty of up to 10 percent of the average of the turnover for the last three preceding financial years. It can also order division of dominant enterprises.
• This year, Competition Act in India enters its 20th year. India enacted the Competition Act 2002 in 2002.

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