Topic: Banking System
1. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has received approval from DIPAM to sell part of its holding or entire stake in UTI AMC.
- Currently, PNB holds 15.22% stake in UTI Asset Management Company Ltd (UTI AMC).
- In October 2020, PNB had sold 3% holding in UTI Mutual Fund. It then had about 18% stake in UTI AMC.
- State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation and Bank of Baroda are its other sponsors.
- All the four sponsors collectively hold 45.16% stake in UTI AMC.
- Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) comes under Ministry of Finance.
- UTI AMC:
- It was incorporated on November 14, 2002. It commenced operations from February 1, 2003.
- It was listed on stock exchanges in mid-October 2020.
- It became 3rd AMC to get listed on stock exchanges after Nippon Life India Asset Management and HDFC AMC.
- UTI AMC is the investment manager to the schemes of UTI Mutual Fund. It is a SEBI registered Portfolio Manager.
Topic: Banking System
2. Mudra Mahotsav has been organised by SBI Kolkata Circle to connect with eligible Mudra borrowers.
- SBI Kolkata circle celebrated Mudra Mahotsav to boost credit growth and encourage entrepreneurs to take loans under government sponsored schemes.
- It was aimed at reaching out to as many entrepreneurs as possible.
- During the event, 1,178 sanction letters were handed over to Mudra beneficiaries.
- Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana:
- It was launched in April 2015. It was launched for providing loans to non-corporate and non-farm small/micro enterprises.
- Mudra loans are extended in three categories. They are Shishu (up to ₹50,000), Kishore (above ₹50,000 and up to ₹5 lakh) and Tarun (above ₹5 lakh and up to ₹10 lakh).
Topic: Banking System
3. Flipkart and Axis Bank have entered into a partnership to launch Super Elite Credit Card.
- With this card, Flipkart customers can earn 8 SuperCoins for every ₹100 spent.
- They can earn a maximum of 200 SuperCoins on every successful transaction.
- Flipkart Axis Bank Super Elite Credit Card will charge customers an annual fee of ₹500 for these benefits.
- This fee is waived off on an annual expense of ₹2 lakhs on the card.
- Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company. It is headquartered in Bengaluru. Kalyan Krishnamurthy is its CEO.
- Axis Bank is the third-largest private sector bank in India. It is headquartered in Mumbai. Its MD & CEO is Amitabh Chaudhary.
Topic: Banking System
4. Airtel Payments Bank has launched face authentication-based savings bank account opening.
- It has become the first payment bank in India to offer face authentication-based savings bank account opening.
- With this facility, business correspondents will be able to open an account just by undertaking face authentication e-KYC.
- The face authentication is processed through a newly developed mobile app by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
- BCs will now only require a smartphone to open an account.
- Till now, customers could open account with Airtel Payments Bank through Aadhaar-based OTP or fingerprint biometric authentication.
Topic: Reports and Indices
5. Maharashtra has been rated as the best among the States in terms of doing business, as per the UK India Business Council’s ‘Doing Business in India’ Report 2022.
- As per the same report, Maharashtra is followed by Gujarat, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh in terms of operating environment.
- As per the report, product standards/certification, intellectual property, and customs procedures are the issues that businesses would like to be covered in UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
- The report is based on a survey of 111 UK businesses and higher education institutions, according to UKIBC.
- The most desired reform by UK businesses is improving turnaround time of approvals and bureaucratic processes.
- Atmanirbhar Bharat is seen by 67% businesses surveyed this year as an opportunity to do more trade and investment with India. 33% businesses saw it as a challenge.
Topic: RBI
6. RBI has advised all Commercial banks that the overnight balances held by them with RBI under SDF shall be eligible as ‘Level 1 HQLA’ for computation of LCR.
- This will improve the ability of banks to achieve Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR).
- LCR promotes short-term resilience of banks by ensuring that they have sufficient High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLAs) to survive an acute stress scenario lasting for 30 days.
- Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) allows RBI to absorb liquidity without any collateral. Current SDF rate is 5.65%.
- Banks shall maintaining a minimum LCR of 100% (that is the stock of HQLA should at least equal total net cash outflows) on an ongoing basis. HQLAs include following:
- Cash, including cash reserves in excess of required cash reserve ratio
- Government securities in excess of the minimum Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) requirement within the mandatory SLR requirement
- Government securities to the extent allowed by RBI under Marginal Standing Facility (MSF)
- Marketable securities issued or guaranteed by foreign sovereigns satisfying certain conditions
- RBI has decided to include Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) as a Financial Information Provider (FIP) under the Account Aggregator (AA) framework.
- It said Department of Revenue shall be the regulator of GSTN for this specific purpose.
- It further said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) Returns, viz. Form GSTR-1 and Form GSTR-3B, shall be the Financial Information.
Topic: Banking System
7. Bank of Baroda has opened its first mid-corporate branch in Kochi, Kerala.
- The branch will provide trade finance, forex, corporate loans, and cash management services to mid-corporate, large corporate, and PSU borrowers.
- The branch was inaugurated by Debadatta Chand, Executive Director in the presence of other officials.
- Mid-corporate branch will focus on increasing corporate book size and income to improve turnaround time for corporate proposals and providing better service to corporate customers.
- Bank of Baroda is an Indian public sector bank. It is headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. Hasmukh Adhia is its chairman.
Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market
8. India’s export of pharma products recorded a growth of 138% from April to October 2022 over April-October 2013.
- India’s export of pharma products increased to over Rs 90,000 crore from April to October of this fiscal year.
- India’s export of pharma products was around Rs 37,988 crore from April to October of 2013.
- The USA, UK, South Africa, Russia, and Nigeria are India’s top 5 pharma export destinations.
- Pharmaceutical and drug exports make up 5.92% of our total exports.
- Formulations and biologicals account for a major share of 73.31% of our total exports. They are followed by Bulk drugs and drug intermediates.
Topic: Appointments
9. Vineet Kumar assumed charge as CEO of KVIC.
- On November 21, 2022, he has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of KVIC, Mumbai, under the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.
- Prior to taking over as the CEO of KVIC, he served as the Chairman of Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port, Kolkata.
- Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC):
- It is a statutory body established in April 1957 by the Government of India under the Act of Parliament, 'Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956'.
- It replaced the former All India Khadi and Village Industries Board in April 1957.
- Its headquarters is located in Mumbai. Its purpose is development of khadi and village industries.
- Chairman of KVIC: Shri Manoj Kumar
Topic: MoUs/Agreements
10. Australian parliament has given approval for free Trade Agreement with India.
- India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA) will further strengthen the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
- Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that duties on 100% tariff lines would be eliminated by Australia under Ind-Aus ECTA.
- He also said that ECTA would boost several sectors of the economy, especially textiles, gems and jewellery and pharmaceuticals.
- Ind-Aus ECTA was signed on 2 April 2022. It is now ready for ratification for its early implementation.
- With this agreement, the total bilateral trade between India and Australia is expected to cross US$ 45-50 bn in 5 years from the existing US$ 31 bn.
- Around 96% of Australia’s exports are raw materials and intermediate products.
- The long-standing issue of Double taxation in relation to IT/ITES has been resolved under this Agreement.
Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market
11. OECD slashed India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.6%.
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has lowered India’s GDP growth forecast from 6.9% to 6.6% for FY 23.
- The OECD in its latest economic outlook report said that economic growth has lost momentum in India due to erratic rainfall.
- As a result, sowing activities got impacted and purchasing power has fallen.
- Slowing exports, the decline in domestic demand, and high inflation are the main reasons behind the slowing down of India's economic growth.
- In the July-September quarter, the current account deficit widened to 2.9 percent of GDP.
- In the current fiscal year, India will remain the second-fastest-growing economy in the G-20.
- The GDP growth rate of India will slow down to 5.7 percent in FY24. The GDP growth rate of India will be around 6.9% in FY25.
- The OECD said that improvement in the business climate with skills development can boost investment and infrastructure.
- The OECD said CPI inflation will remain above the upper limit of 6% until early 2023.
- Apart from the OECD, IMF, World Bank, SBI and RBI have also lowered their GDP growth rate forecast of India for FY 23.
- Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut India's economic growth for 2022-23 to 6.8% from 7.4%.
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