Banking Awareness of 24 and 25 July 2022

Topic: RBI

1. RBI has approved products of four entities for cross-border payments.

• RBI approved the products after they tested acceptable under the second cohort of the regulatory sandbox for cross border payments.
• The opening of second cohort was announced by RBI in December 2020.
• RBI had received 27 applications from 26 entities. Of these, eight entities were selected for the ‘Test Phase’.
• The names of four entities are given below.
  • Payment solution provider, Cashfree Payments
  • Payment solution provider, Fairex Solutions
  • Financial services provider, Nearby Technologies (it operates PayNearby)
  • Neo-banking unicorn, Open Financial Technologies 
• These entities are now out of the second cohort of the regulatory sandbox on ‘Cross-Border Payments’.
• Regulated entities can now consider for adoption of the products found acceptable under the second cohort.
• In September 2021, RBI announced the opening of third cohort under Regulatory Sandbox.

Topic: RBI

2. RBI has placed restrictions on four cooperative banks because of their worsening financial positions.

• These banks will continue to do banking business with restrictions till their financial position improves.
• RBI has issued directions to the banks under Section 35 A read with section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (As Applicable to Co-operative Societies). The directions will remain in force for six months.
• The names of four banks are given below.
  • Saibaba Janata Sahakari Bank in Maharashtra
  • The Suri Friends Union Co-operative Bank Ltd in West Bengal
  • United India Co-operative Bank Limited in Uttar Pradesh
  • National Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd in Uttar Pradesh
• RBI has earlier imposed a ₹ 57.75 lakh penalty on Suryoday Small Finance Bank.

Topic: Taxation

3. CBDT and all its field offices across the country observed 163^rd anniversary of Income Tax Day on 24 July 2022.

• Finance Minister complimented Income Tax Department for having achieved the highest ever revenue collection of over 14 lakh crore in the last fiscal (FY 2021-22).
• In his message on Income Tax Day, newly appointed chairman of CBDT Nitin Gupta said the tax department has reported the highest ever tax collection of ₹14.09 lakh crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.
• Income Tax Day is celebrated on 24 July. This year's Income Tax Day is the 163^rd Income Tax Day.
• On 24 July 1860, Sir James Wilson introduced income tax in India to compensate the British government for the losses incurred at the time of First War of Independence in 1857.
• In 2010, Income Tax Department decided to mark 24 July as Income Tax Day.
• Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT):
  • It is a statutory body under the Central Revenue Act, 1963. It is the administrative body of the Income Tax department.
  • It deals with matters related to levy and collection of direct taxes like personal income tax, corporate tax, etc.
  • CBDT is headed by Chairman and comprises six members. Its headquarters are in New Delhi.
  • Current Chairperson: Nitin Gupta

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Corporates/Companies

4. ITI Limited has signed an MoU with Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) for transfer of 4G technology.

• The MoU is to establish a framework for cooperation of LTE/LTE-A/4G technology-based wireless communication systems.
• As part of this MoU, ITI Limited and C-DoT will collaborate to create ‘Make in India’ stack for the upcoming 4G and 5G opportunities in India.
• ITI will produce the 4G upgradeable to 5G radio access network (RAN) and explore supplying the C-DOT LTE RAN/eNodeB systems to railways, defence, export markets etc.
• ITI Limited:
  • It is a manufacturing telecom and defense equipment company. It is headquartered in Bengaluru. 
  • It is a Public Sector Undertaking under Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Communications, Government of India.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

5. FPIs invested ₹1,099 crore in Indian equity market during July 1-22.

• This investment has come after net withdrawal of ₹50,145 crore from equities in June 2022.
• The outflow (withdrawal) in June 2022 was the highest net outflow since March 2020.
• In March 2020, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) pulled out ₹61,973 crore from equities.
• In addition to equities, FPIs invested ₹792 crore in the debt market during July 1-22.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

6. Market Capitalization (market cap or Mcap) of top 10 firms increased over ₹2.98-lakh cr.

• Nine out of the 10 most valued firms added ₹2.98-lakh crore to their market valuation last week.
• Excluding Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the top 10 companies increased their market valuation by a combined total of 2,98,523.01 crore.
• Reliance Industries and TCS emerged as lead gainers. The mcap of Reliance Industries increased by ₹68,564.65 crore.
• The valuation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) increased by ₹64,929.87 crore. LIC's valuation declined by ₹12,396.99 crore.
• Reliance Industries emerged as the most valued company, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, LIC, HDFC and Bajaj Finance.
• Market Capitalization (market cap or Mcap):
  • It is defined as the market value of outstanding shares of a publicly traded company.
  • It is determined by multiplying the share price by the total number of outstanding shares.

Topic: Taxation

7. On 20 July 2022, government has reduced windfall tax levied on crude petroleum producers.

• Government has reduced the export tax on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) and diesel.
• Windfall gain tax on domestically produced crude will now be ₹17,000 a tonne against ₹23,250 per tonne.
• Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) on exports of ATF has been reduced to ₹4 a litre from ₹ 6 a litre.
• SAED on diesel has been reduced to ₹10 a litre from ₹12.
• Export of diesel will continue to have an additional excise duty of ₹1.
• On petrol, additional excise duty of ₹6 a litre has been removed.
• Petrol, diesel and ATF have been exempted from SAED, if exported from units located in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
• On 1 July 2022, government had imposed windfall tax and other taxes to control inflation and to ensure availability of the transport fuels in the local market. 
• As per a government official, taxes may go up again when crude prices rise. They may decline if prices moderate.
• Total withdrawal of taxes is possible only when crude prices fall to around $75/barrel.
• On 1 July 2022, when the new taxes were imposed, Brent crude prices were at $111.63/ barrel. Prices have now come down to $105.75 on 20 July, 2022.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

8. PB Fintech, the parent entity of Policy Bazaar, informed stock exchanges about IT systems breach.

• The company said that certain vulnerabilities were identified in a part of Policybazaar Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd (“Policybazaar’‘) IT systems on July 19, 2022.
• The company said identified vulnerabilities have been fixed and no significant customer data exposed.
• Recently, Cleartrip said it had suffered a major data breach in its internal systems.
• Cleartrip is a Flipkart-owned airline and hotel booking platform.
• PolicyBazaar is an insurtech player. It serves as a marketplace for insurance products. It was listed on the exchanges in November last year. 

Topic: Reports and Indices

9. India's bioeconomy may reach to $150 billion by 2025 and over $300 billion by 2030 as per India BioEconomy Report 2022.

• Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh released India’s Bioeconomy Report 2022.
• India BioEconomy Report 2022 has been brought out by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
• As per the report, India’s bioeconomy has reached USD 80 billion in 2021, an increase of 14.1% from USD 70.2 billion in 2020.
• The report said that India generated USD 219 million of bioeconomy daily in 2021.
• In 2021, at least three biotech startups were founded every day.
• Dr Jitendra Singh said that in the last 10 years, the number of biotech startups has increased from 50 to 5,300.
• The term BioEconomy generally refers to an economy using renewable natural resources (biomass in forests, soil, fields, bodies of water etc) to produce food, energy, products and services.

Topic: Appointments

10. Vinayak Pai has been appointed as Managing Director of Tata Projects.

• His has assumed office as Tata Projects MD from 22 July. He has taken over from Vinayak Deshpande.
• Pai has been member of the Executive Leader World 50.
• Pai has served as a Commissioner at the Energy Transition Commission UK.
• Tata Projects is an infrastructure company.

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