Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness

1. Several IRS officers give suggestions to generate resources against COVID-19

In the report titled as Fiscal Options & Response to Covid-19 Epidemic (FORCE), several IRS officers have given suggestions to CBDT for generating resources against COVID-19.
Some important measures are up to 40% tax rate for people with income of Rs 1 crore or more in a year and wealth tax for people with income of Rs 5 crore or more.
Officers have also suggested Covid Saving Certificates and 4 % Covid relief cess in case of over Rs 10 lakh taxable income
Suggestions have also been made to increase equalisation levy and campaign similar to Give It UP campaign.
Give It UP campaign was launched in March 2015. Under the campaign, government promotes giving up of LPG subsidy.

RBI has given extension to term of Madhavan Menon as Catholic Syrian Bank's part time chairman and he will continue till July 21, 2020.
His term has been extended under Section 10B (1A) (i) of Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
He was appointed on April 22, 2019 and his term was ending on April 22, 2020.
He also holds the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.
He is also nominee director of FIH- Mauritius Investments Ltd.
CSB is a private sector bank. It is headquartered in Thrissur (Kerala). Its CEO is C.VR. Rajendran.

HDFC has got 6.43% stake in Reliance Capital by selling pledged shares.
The shares were pledged by Reliance Capital while taking loan from HDFC.
The value of acquired shares stands at ₹252 crore.

The export of chemicals from India between April 2019 and January 2020 increased by 7.43% and chemicals and petrochemicals industry now contributes maximum to India's export.
The contribution of chemicals and petrochemicals industry now stands at 14.35% of total exports from India.
The value of India's total chemical exports currently is 2.68 lakh crore rupees.

India's forex reserves have increased by 3.09 billion dollars till 17 April.
The foreign exchange reserves currently stand at 479.57 billion dollars.
The main reason for increase in India's forex reserves is rise in its foreign currency assets by 1.55 billion dollars.
India’s gold reserves and special drawing rights with IMF have also shown increase.
While gold reserves increased by 1.54 billion dollars, special drawing rights with IMF increased by 3 million dollars.
There was no change in India's reserve position with IMF. It remained at 3.58 billion dollars.