Banking Awareness of 3, 4 and 5 May 2022

Topic: RBI

1. Rajiv Ranjan’s nomination as MPC’s ex-officio member has been approved by RBI Board.

• 595^th meeting of RBI’s Central Board of Directors was held on 02 May 2022 through video conferencing.
• The meeting was held under the chairmanship of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das.
• Ranjan was earlier an advisor in-charge in the monetary policy department.
• He replaces Mridul Saggar, who retired in April 2022.
• Monetary Policy Committee:
  • It has 3 Reserve Bank of India officials and 3 Government of India nominated external members.
  • The three internal members are the RBI governor, the deputy governor in charge of monetary policy and a central board nominated official of RBI.
  • The Executive Director of the Monetary Policy Department is usually the third internal member.

Topic: Appointments

2. Sangeeta Singh given additional charge of Chairman of CBDT.

• Sangeeta Singh has taken the charge on 2 May after the retirement of JB Mohapatra.
• JB Mohapatra was appointed as full-time chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes in September 2021.
• Sangeeta Singh is currently holding charge of Audit and Judicial and she is also holding additional charge of Income Tax and Revenue and Tax Payers services.
• Central Board of Direct Taxes:
  • The Central Board of Direct Taxes frames the policy for the Income Tax Department.
  • It is headed by a Chairman and comprises six members.
  • Income Tax Department is headed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

3. India’s services exports in 2021-2022 reached a new record of USD 254.4 billion.

• As per the Commerce Ministry, exports reached an all-time monthly high of USD 26.9 billion in March.
• As per the Ministry, top contributors to the exports are computer, and information services, telecommunications, other business services and transport.
• New record of USD 254.4 billion in 2021-2022 surpasses the previous record of USD 213.2 billion in 2019-20.

Topic: Miscellaneous

4. PM Modi and German Chancellor Scholz decide to start an Indo-German Partnership for Green and Sustainable Development.

• Under the partnership, Germany will provide additional development assistance of €10 billion till 2030.
• Germany will provide this assistance to support India’s green growth plans.
• At 6th round of Biennial Inter Governmental Consultations (IGC) in Berlin, PM Modi thanked Germany and Chancellor Scholz for development assistance.
• India and Germany signed total nine agreements during the IGC.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

5. Bengaluru-based neobank platform ‘Open’ has become the 100^th unicorn in India.

• It has recently announced a series D funding round of $50 million.
• It is now valued at $1 billion. It is now the 100^th unicorn of India.
• The funding round was led by Mumbai-based investment firm IIFL.
• Google, Temasek, Visa, and Japan's SoftBank invested $100 million in the neobank startup just six months ago.
• Neobanks are bridging the gap between the services provided by traditional banks and the changing customer expectations in the digital age.
• Open Financial Technologies Pvt Ltd was set up in 2017. It offers a neo-banking platform.

Topic: Appointments

6. Arvind Krishna has been elected to Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Board of Directors.

• He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. He has been elected as a Class B director.
• He will be the director for the remaining part of three-year term that is ending on December 31, 2023.
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York is a part of Federal Reserve System (commonly called Fed).

Topic: RBI

7. RBI increased repo rate by 40 bps from 4.0% to 4.40%.

• The repo rate has been increased for the first time since August 2018.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points.
• This step is expected to withdraw Rs 87,000 crore liquidity from the system. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) now stands at 4.5 %.
• Now, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate stands at 4.15 % and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate stand at 4.65 %.
• Repo is the rate at which the central bank lends short-term funds to banks.  

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

8. India’s goods exports has grown 24.22% to $38.19 billion in April 2022.

• During April 2022, India’s imports have grown 26.55% to $58.26 billion.
• The data are based on preliminary trade data for April released by the Commerce & Industry Ministry on 03 May 2022.
• Trade deficit is $20.07 billion. This is 31.23% higher than in the year-ago period.
• In April 2022, non-petroleum goods exports increased 12.32% to $30.46 billion.
• During the same month, imports of non-petroleum goods increased 9.87% to $35.27 billion.

Topic: RBI

9. Withdrawal of 225 more RBI circulars has been recommended by Regulations Review Authority (RRA 2.0).    

• The authority has till now recommended the withdrawal of 475 circulars issued by RBI.
• In February 2022, RRA recommended the creation of ‘Regulatory Reporting’ link on the RBI website.
• In April 2021, M Rajeshwar Rao (Deputy Governor, RBI) was appointed as the Regulations Review Authority.
• In May 2021, RRA set up a six-member Advisory Group to help it in reviewing the regulations and compliance procedures of RBI.
• Swaminathan J, Managing Director, State Bank of India headed this group.

Topic: Corporates/Companies  

10. HDFC Life has signed United Nations – Supported Principles for Responsible Investment.

• Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO of HDFC Life expressed pleasure while announcing HDFC Life’s association with PRI.
• HDFC Life has won ‘Best Governed Company in the listed segment: Large category’ award at the 21^st Institute of Company Secretaries (ICSI) National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance.
• PRI or Principles for Responsible Investment were created in 2005. It world’s leading proponent of responsible investment.
• HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited (HDFC Life) is a joint venture between HDFC Ltd. and abrdn (Mauritius Holdings) 2006 Limited.

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