Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 25 and 26 August 2021

Topic: Corporates/Companies

1. Microsoft India partners with Invest India to support tech start-ups in country.

• Microsoft India has partnered with Invest India to support tech start-ups in the country.
• Under the partnership, ‘Microsoft for Start-ups’ programme will work with Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (AGNIi Mission).
• AGNIi Mission is a programme of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the government of India.
• AGNIi Mission is executed by Invest India. It helps start-ups become enterprise ready.
• Microsoft has onboarded 11 start-ups into the Microsoft for Start-ups programme with the help of AGNIi Mission.
• These start-ups will get access to benefits like Azure credits as well as support for technology and business acceleration.
• They will be able to utilize Microsoft technology, including Azure, GitHub, and M365.

Topic: Miscellaneous

2. Madras HC directs Indian Bank to return ₹55.19 crore to the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT).

• Madras High Court has directed Indian Bank to return ₹55.19 crore to the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT).
• Justice R Mahadevan directed the bank to return the amount that was saved due to the freezing of a current account on May 14, 2020.
• Out of the ₹100.57 crore deposited by Chennai Port Trust, ₹55.19 crore was saved due to freezing of a current account on May 14, 2020.
• Chennai Port Trust had deposited about ₹100.57 crore in March 2020 by way of fixed deposits.
• Bank’s internal probe found that ₹100.57 crore deposited by Chennai Port Trust was subsequently credited to a fake account.
• Indian Bank was founded in 1907. Its headquarters are in Chennai. From 1 April 2020, Allahabad bank has been merged with Indian Bank. Padmaja Chunduru is the current MD & CEO of Indian Bank.

Topic: Indian Economy

3. India’s crude oil production declines by 3.2% in July.

• India’s crude oil production has declined by 3.2% in July to 2.5 million tonnes when compared with the previous year.
• The crude oil production declined by 3.37% in April-July to 9.9 million tonnes.
• ONGC produced 1.6 million tonnes of crude in July. This was 4.2% lower than last year and 3.8% less than the target of 1.7 million tonnes.
• ONGC's oil output fell 4.8 % to 6.4 million tonnes during April-July.
• Gas production increased 18.36 % year-on-year to 2.9 billion cubic metres (bcm) and by almost 20 % in April-July to 11 bcm.
• Gas production from ONGC fields declined by over 10 %. Gas production from eastern offshore increased 12-fold to 573.13 million cubic metres.

Topic: Appointments

4. Abhay Kumar Singh appointed as joint secretary in newly formed Ministry of Cooperation.

• Abhay Kumar Singh has been appointed as joint secretary in newly formed Ministry of Cooperation.
• Ministry of Cooperation was recently formed with an aim to strengthen cooperative movement in India.
• Singh is a 2004-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Bihar cadre. His appointment has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).
• Vijaya Lakshmi Nadendla and Priya Ranjan have been appointed as joint secretaries in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Pramod Kumar Meherda has been appointed as Managing Director in National Food Security Mission (NFSM).
• Kavita Garg has been named as joint secretary in the Ministry of AYUSH. Vibhu Nayar has been appointed as Executive Director of the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).
• Sreekanth T has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India.
• Shailendra Singh was named as Deputy Director General (DDG), UIDAI headquarters in New Delhi under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Topic: Banking System

5. Fourth edition of the Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda ‘EASE 4.0’ for 2021-22 - tech-enabled, simplified, and collaborative banking released.

• Fourth edition of the Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda ‘EASE 4.0’ for 2021-22 - tech-enabled, simplified, and collaborative banking has been released by Union Finance Minister.
• Along with the Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) 4.0 Reforms Agenda for FY2021-22, Union Finance Minister also released the Annual Report for EASE 3.0 (FY2020-21).
• Over four quarters since the launch of EASE 3.0 Reforms Agenda in February 2020, PSBs have recorded phenomenal growth.
• PSBs have reported a profit of Rs. 31,817 crore in FY21 as compared to a loss of Rs. 26,016 crore in FY20. This is the first year when PSBs have reported profit after five years of losses.
• Union Finance Minister highlighted that high CASA deposits in the Eastern States are a matter of concern.

(Source: PIB)

• Union Finance Minister also took part in an awards ceremony to felicitate best performing banks on EASE 3.0 Banking Reforms Index.
• The awards for best performing banks for PSB Reforms EASE 3.0 based on the EASE index were won by State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India.
• State Bank of India is the overall winner of the EASE Reforms Index Award 2021. The award for the best improvement from the baseline performance was won by Indian Bank.

Topic: Appointments

6. Carol Furtado appointed as Officer on Special Duty at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

• Carol Furtado has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.
• She will serve the banks as OSD till outgoing Managing Director and CEO Nitin Chugh is in office.
• She will take charge as the Interim CEO after September 30, 2021. This is subject to RBI’s approval.
• The board of Ujjivan SFB will submit the names of two candidates to RBI for the MD and CEO position.
• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank was set up by Ujjivan Financial Services Limited (UFSL). It started banking operations on February 1, 2017. It is a Scheduled Small Finance Bank.

Topic: Appointments

7. Re-appointment of Sandeep Bakhshi as MD and CEO of ICICI Bank approved by RBI.

• Re-appointment of Sandeep Bakhshi as Managing Director (MD) and CEO of ICICI Bank has been approved by RBI.
• The re-appointment will be effective from October 15, 2021 till October 3, 2023.
• Bakhshi was appointed as MD and CEO of ICICI Bank in October 2018 after Chanda Kochhar’s early retirement request was accepted by bank’s board.
• ICICI Bank (ICICI Bank Limited) is a private sector bank. Girish Chandra Chaturvedi is Chairman of its board of directors. Its MD & CEO is Sandeep Bakhshi.

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