Banking Awareness of 26, 27 and 28 November 2022

Topic: Appointments

1. FSIB has recommended Samuel Joseph Jebaraj for post of Deputy Managing Director (Lending & Project Finance) in NABFID.

• Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) has interfaced 12 candidates for this post in National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NABFID).
• Samuel Joseph Jebaraj is Deputy Managing Director, IDBI Bank Ltd.
• Deputy Managing Director (Chief Financial Officer), Deputy Managing Director (Chief Risk Officer-CRO) and Deputy Managing Director (Lending & Project Finance) are three DMD positions in NABFID.
• In August, the names of Monika Kalia and B S Venkatesha were recommended by FSIB for the positions of DMD (Chief Financial Officer) and DMD (Chief Risk Officer) respectively.
• In July, the name of former Union Bank Chief Rajkiran Rai was recommended by FSIB for the position of Managing Director at NABFID.

Topic: Taxation

2. 17,000 crore rupees GST compensation released by centre to States.

• Centre has released this amount (17,000 crore rupees) to States/UTs towards the balance GST compensation for the period April to June 2022.
• The total compensation given to the States/UTs thus far in FY23, including the most recent payment of ₹17,000 crore, is ₹1,15,662 crore.
• The total Cess collection till October 2022 is only ₹72,147 crore.
• Due to this, the balance ₹43,515 crore has been released by the Centre from its own resources.
• The total amount of Cess expected to be collected this year till March-end and available for payment of compensation to States has been released by the Centre in advance.
• In May 2022, ₹86,912 crore were released by the Centre as provisional GST compensation to States for the period Feb-May 2022.
• The States that received GST compensation in the latest round are Andhra Pradesh (₹682 crore), Chhattisgarh (₹500 crore), Delhi (₹1200 crore), Gujarat (₹856 crore) and Haryana (₹622 crore).
• Other States that received GST compensation in the latest round are Karnataka (₹1915 crore), Kerala (₹773 crore), Madhya Pradesh (₹722 crore), Uttar Pradesh (₹1202 crore), Tamil Nadu (₹1188 crore) and West Bengal (₹814 crore).

Topic: Committees/ Commissions/ Taskforces

3. Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has formed an independent committee.

• The committee will review the performance of the empaneled agencies conducting e-bidding of natural gas.
• The five-member committee will also act as a grievance redressal body.
• It will examine grievances received from sellers or buyers of natural gas and submit its recommendations.
• DGH has presently empaneled five agencies for conducting the bidding process for buying or selling of natural gas in India.
• SBI Capital Markets, Mjunction Services, RITES, MSTC and Crisil are the names of these agencies.
• The seller or buyer of natural gas participating in e-bidding can raise the complaint within 7 days from close of the bidding.
• The committee shall form its recommendations in 60 days of receipt of the grievance.
• Competent authority shall communicate its decision within 30 days of receipt of recommendations to the committee.
• In April-October of FY23, India’s natural gas production increased marginally by 1%. Imports declined by 11% y-o-y.
• The major consumers were fertiliser (37%), City Gas Distribution (20%), power (13%), refinery (5%) and petrochemicals (2%).

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

4. India’s imports of coking coal increased 6% year-on-year to 28 mt in the April-October of current fiscal year.

• India’s coking coal imports stood at 26.5 million tonnes (mt) a year-ago.
• Coking coal imports from Russia increased over 100% to 1.1 mt during April-October of this fiscal.
• Coking coal imports from Russia stood at 0.53 mt in the corresponding period last fiscal year. 
• Despite the increase, Russia remained fifth largest supplier of coal, after Australia, the US, Canada and Mozambique.
• Coking coal is required as a raw material in steel making. India is world’s second largest producer of crude steel.
• More than 50 mt of coking coal was imported by Indian steel mills in FY22.
• Coking coal imports from Australia declined 14% to 18.33 mt during April to October 2022.
• 21.28 mt of coking coal was imported from Australia in the same period last year.
• There have been no Chinese imports till now this year due to Covid-control measures.
• In April to October period of last year, coking coal imports from China stood at 66,757 tonnes.
• Coking coal imports from US increased 150%. This is the highest growth in percentage terms during the seven-month period.
• Canada and Mozambique are third and fourth largest source of coking coal.
• While exports from Canada increased by 20%, exports from Mozambique increased 40%.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

5. IRDAI has unveiled a set of insurance reforms on 25 November.

• Private equity funds have now been given the option of making investment through special purpose vehicles.
• They have now been enabled to directly invest in insurance companies.
• As part of reforms, IRDAI has allowed promoters to dilute their stake up to 26%.
• This is subject to the condition that the insurer has satisfactory solvency record for past 5 years and is a listed entity. 
• Investment up to 25% of paid up capital by single investor (50% for all investors collectively) will now be treated as ‘investor’.
• Investments over and above that will only be treated as ‘promoter’.
• Earlier the threshold was 10% for individual investor and 25% for all investors collectively.

Topic: Banking System

6. Canara Bank has started issuing Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG) in partnership with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL).

• Canara Bank launched e-BG on its 117th founder’s day. The bank now offers an API based digital workflow of Bank guarantees.
• This will eliminate physical issuance, stamping, verification and paper-based record maintenance of Bank Guarantees.
• Canara bank has become first public sector bank to roll out electronic bank guarantee in partnership with NeSL.
• In September 2022, HDFC Bank (India’s largest private sector bank) became the first bank to issue an Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG).
• Recently, Canara Bank was ranked 1st under Digital Payment performance as on 31.03.2022 (i.e. FY 2021-22) by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
• Canara Bank:
  • It was founded in July 1906. It is headquartered in Bengaluru. Lingam Venkat Prabhakar is its CEO.
  • Recently, the government has merged Syndicate bank with Canara bank.
• National E-Governance Services Limited:
  • It is India’s first Information Utility. It is registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
  • It is incorporated as a union government company.
  • Its primary role is to serve as a repository of legal evidence holding the information pertaining to any debt/claim.

Topic: Committees/Commissions/Taskforces

7. A panel formed by the Centre to revamp the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

• The committee has been constituted to review the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme, particularly to assess the efficacy of the program as a poverty alleviation tool.
• The committee has been headed by former Rural Development Secretary Amarjit Sinha.
• The first meeting of the committee was held on November 21, 2022, and it has been given three months to give its suggestions.
• The Sinha committee has now been tasked with studying the various factors behind the demand for MGNREGA work, trends in expenditure, and inter-state variations and composition of work.
• It will suggest what changes are needed in the focus and governance structures to make MGNREGA more effective.
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA):
  • It was passed by Parliament on 23rd August 2005. It came into force on 2 February 2006.
  • In October 2009, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 was amended and its name was changed from NREGA to MGNREGA.
  • Under MGNREGA, there is a provision to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

Topic: Banking System

8. India’s first sticker-based debit card has been launched by IDFC FIRST Bank.

• The bank said it has launched FIRSTAP, India’s first sticker-based debit card.
• It can be used to tap and pay in stores, restaurants, and all other places.
• The bank has launched the card in association with the National Payments Corporation of India.
• The card has been launched to facilitate transactions by simply tapping the sticker on a Near Field Communication enabled point-of-sale terminal.
• The sticker-based card is one third the size of a regular debit card.
• Customers can affix it on any surface, such as cell phones, identity cards, wallets, tabs, etc.
• Since the card can be used to tap and pay, it does away with the need to carry a debit card or adapting to wearable devices such as watches and rings or entering a UPI PIN after scanning a QR code.
• The sticker-based debit card allows touch-free transactions up to Rs 5,000 without a PIN, and for transactions above that, a tap and PIN is required.
• The sticker-based debit card comes with a complimentary personal accidental cover and other offers.
• IDFC FIRST Bank:
  • It is an Indian Private Sector Bank. It started operations on 1 October 2015.
  • It is headquartered in Mumbai. Its CEO is V. Vaidyanathan.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

9. India's unemployment rate declined to 7.2% in July-Sept 2022.

• According to the National Statistical Office, the Unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above has declined to 7.2% during July-September 2022 from 9.8% a year ago.
• The latest data of the unemployment rate is based on the periodic labor force survey.
• In July-September 2022, the unemployment rate among females (aged 15 years and above) in urban areas declined to 9.4 per cent from 11.6 per cent.
• Labour force participation rate in CWS (Current Weekly Status) in urban areas has increased to 47.9 percent in the July-September quarter of 2022. It was 47.5 percent in April-June 2022.
• The Unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons among the labor force.
• Labor force is the number of persons either employed or unemployed on average in a week.     

Topic: Awards and Prizes

10. FICCI honoured Rajendra Singh Pawar with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award 2022’ at the 8th FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards ceremony.

• 8th FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards ceremony was held in New Delhi on November 17, 2022.
• Rajendra Singh Pawar is the Chairman and Founder of NIIT.
• The award recognizes his contribution and work in the field of education and creating IT Training industry.
• Pawar has been awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2011.
• He has also been honoured as the ‘IT man of the Year’ by Dataquest (an IT industry journal) in 1998.
• FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards were instituted in 2014.
• They were instituted to recognize and felicitate the achievements and excellent work done by the institutions and individuals in the higher education space.
• National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT):
  • It was set up in 1981. It is headquartered in Gurgaon.
  • NIIT has been featured as the only company in Educational Services Industry in the Fortune India 500 list 2020.
  • It was recognised as “Best Education Company to work with” at Indian Education Congress & Awards 2022.

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