Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness

1. DPIIT forwards application of CMA Terminals to other ministries

• Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has forwarded application of CMA Terminals to transfer its stake in ACMTPL to China Merchants Group (CMG) to other ministries.
• France’s CMA Terminals has submitted application to transfer its stake in Adani CMA Mundra Terminal Private Limited (ACMTPL) to CMG on May 21, 2020.
• CMA Terminals is a unit of CMA CGM group, third largest shipping company in the world. CMA CGM group is the joint venture partner of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ). It operates and maintains terminal CT-4 at Mundra Port.
• Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) is India’s largest private port operator.
• Mundra Port: It is India’s largest private port. It is located in Kutch District Gujarat and owned by Adani Group.

2. SoftBank considering acquisition of India unit of TikTok

• Japanese multinational company SoftBank is considering acquisition of India unit of TikTok.
• SoftBank may form a group of bidders to acquire India unit of TikTok.
• It currently holds a stake in Byte Dance, the Chinese internet technology company which developed TikTok.
• On 29 June, India has banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok. So, TikTok is currently banned in India.
• It has also been reported that SoftBank had started talks with Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel for investment in India operations of TikTok.
• SoftBank is a Japanese multinational company. Masayoshi Son is its founder and CEO. It runs world's largest technology-focused venture capital fund. The name of the fund is Vision Fund.
• Tiktok was formed in September 2016. It was developed by ByteDance. In China TikTok is called Douyin.

3. 11^th Gen Intel Core Processors launched

• American multinational technology company, Intel has launched 11^th Gen Intel Core Processors.
• 11^th Gen Intel Core Processors are with Intel Iris X^e graphics and are built on Intel’s 10nm SuperFin process by using new Willow Cove architecture.
• The processors are code-named as Tiger Lake. They are having speeds up to 4.8GHz.
• The processors support Thunderbolt 4, which is next version of Thunderbolt interface launched by Intel in July 2020 and it combines video and data on a single cable.
• The processors support 8K HDR (High Dynamic Range) displays.
• Intel has also launched Intel® Evo™ platform brand. It is based on newly launched processors and verified through Project Athena innovation program’s 2^nd edition specification.
• Intel has also launched its new logo.

(Intel’s new logo, Source: The Hindu)

• Intel is American multinational technology company. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It was founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. Bob Swan is its CEO.

4. Murali Ramakrishnan to be MD and CEO of South Indian Bank

• Murali Ramakrishnan will become MD and CEO of South Indian Bank from October 1.
• His name has been approved as MD and CEO of South Indian Bank by RBI for three years.
• He was working as an adviser with South Indian Bank from July 1.
• He had retired as senior general manager of ICICI Bank from May 30.
• South Indian Bank (SIB):
  • It is a private sector bank.
  • It is headquartered in Thrissur, Kerala.
  • Its CEO is V G Mathew.

5. N. Ravi elected as Chairman of Kasturi & Sons

• N. Ravi has been elected as Chairman of Kasturi & Sons on September 3, 2020.
• He has earlier served as Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu. He is currently publisher of newspapers of The Hindu Group.
• He will replace N. Murali as current chairman of the Kasturi & Sons.
• Kasturi & Sons is the holding company of The Hindu Group.

6. Discussions started for the implementation of National Dairy Plan-II (NDP-II)

• Phase-I of National Dairy Plan (NDP-I) has ended in November 2019 and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has started talks for National Dairy Plan-II (NDP-II).
• Phase-I of National Dairy Plan (NDP-I) was launched in March 2012 and National Dairy Development Board has implemented it during 2012-19.
• Phase-I of National Dairy Plan (NDP-I) was launched to sustain increase in milk production to meet the demand of 200-210 million tonnes of milk by 2021-22.
• It is also known as Mission Milk — The Next Revolution. It was assisted by World Bank.
• NDP-I was implemented in 18 milk producing states, which accounted for over 90% of India’s milk production.
• These states have 87% of India’s breedable cattle population and 98% of fodder resources of India.
• In July 2020, Government has also launched Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) and Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) schemes under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
• Earlier, Operation flood of NDDB was launched in January 1970 and implemented in three phases. They are phase I (1970-1980), phase-II (1981-1985) and phase-III (1985-1996).

7. Priority Sector Lending (PSL) guidelines revised by RBI

• As per the revised guidelines, lending to start-ups (up to ₹50 crore) will now constitute PSL.
• Loans to farmers for installation of solar power plants for solarisation of grid connected agriculture pumps will also be part of PSL.
• Revised guidelines also add loans for setting up Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plants to PSL.
• RBI has increased weightage to incremental priority sector credit in districts with comparatively low PSL credit.
• In revised guidelines, RBI has doubled loan limits for renewable energy and health infrastructure.
• Earlier, RBI has reviewed its PSL guidelines for Commercial Banks in April 2015 and for UCBs in May 2018.
• RBI’s PSL guidelines apply to all Commercial Banks including Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Local Area Banks and Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks other than Salary Earners’ Banks.
• In Priority Sector Lending, banks give specific portion of their lending to sectors specified by RBI.

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 3, 4 and 5 September 2020