Banking Awareness of 4, 5 and 6 December 2021

Topic: Appointments

1. Gita Gopinath promoted as Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF).

• Gita Gopinath has been promoted as Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• She will be the first woman to hold the post. She will succeed Geoffrey Okamoto.
• She was already holding the post of chief economist at International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• She was appointed chief economist at IMF in 2018. She was earlier economic advisor to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
• Financial Times named her among the 25 Most Influential Women of 2021. IMF counted her among the world’s top 25 economists under the age of 45.

Topic: Banking System

2. Canara Bank raises ₹1,500 crore in Basel III-Compliant AT1 bonds.

• Canara Bank has raised ₹1,500 crore in Basel III-Compliant Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds.
• The Bank has decided to accept ₹1,500 crore at a coupon rate of 8.05% per annum.
• This is the Second AT1 bond issuance of the Bank after new SEBI regulations.
• During October 2021, the bank has raised Basel III Compliant AT 1 bonds of ₹1,500 crore.
• Additional Tier 1 bonds are debt instruments that are perpetual in nature. They do not have a maturity date. They provide higher returns and carry higher risks.

Topic: Appointments

3. Pradip Shah appointed as chairman of NARCL.

• Pradip Shah has been appointed as chairman of National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL).
• Sanjay Jain will be the chief executive of India Debt Resolution Company (IDRCL). Diwakar Gupta is selected as chairman of IDRCL.
• In May, Padmakumar Nair was appointed as MD of NARCL.
• Pradip Shah is the founder of IndAsia Fund Advisors. Diwakar Gupta is former managing director of SBI.
• Sanjay Jain is the managing director of Aditya Birla Asset Reconstruction Company.
• IDRCL is privately owned Asset Management Company. It is mandated to resolve bad loans acquired by NARCL.
• Under the twin structure created by government for the resolution of stressed assets, public sector banks will own NARCL and private lenders will have majority stake in IDRCL.

Topic: Banking System

4. Federal Bank launches Mahila Mitra Plus.

• Federal Bank has launched Mahila Mitra Plus, a feature-rich saving scheme for women.
• Mahila Mitra Plus provides a curated set of features, designed to make financial planning and investments easy for women.
• Exclusive preferential interest rates on housing loans and processing fee waiver for home loans are its special features.
• It also provides complimentary and customised insurance cover.

Topic: Agriculture

5. The share of food processing sector in India’s total FDI stands at 1.5%.

• Ministry of Food Processing has said that the share of food processing sector in India’s total FDI stands at 1.5%.
• The Ministry said that more investments are needed for overall growth of the sector. FDI inflows in the food processing sector declined by 54 % in 2020-21.
• Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel said that Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is implementing Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) since 2016-17.
• PMKSY is a Central Sector scheme for overall growth and development of the food processing sector including for boosting investment. 
• Government allows 100% FDI in food processing. India has fixed agriculture export target of $43 billion for 2021-22.
• India had fixed an overall goods export target of $400 billion for 2021-22 and $262 billion of exports had already been achieved during April-November 2021-22 period.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

6. Oppo signs MoU with IIT Delhi for scholarship programme.

• Oppo has signed MoU with IIT Delhi for scholarship programme covering academics expenses for the shortlisted students.
• The MoU is a part of Oppo India’s Genius+ programme. The programme aims to provide scholarships to outstanding students pursuing engineering courses at premium institutes.
• The basis for selection of first-year applicants for the Genius+ scholarship programme is JEE rank of the students.
• In November 2021, Oppo conducted first 5G VoNR (Voice/Video on New Radio) call from its Hyderabad 5G lab.
• Oppo is a Chinese consumer electronics and mobile communications company.

Topic: Reports and Indices

7. Manufacturing PMI rises to 57.6 in November.

• Manufacturing PMI has increased to 57.6 in November from 55.9 in October.
• Manufacturing has a share of over 14% in Gross Value Added (GVA).
• The report accompanying PMI said that there were tentative signs of an improvement in hiring activity, following three successive months of job shedding.
• PMI is based on responses to questionnaires sent to purchasing managers in a panel of around 400 manufacturers.
• A diffusion index is calculated for each survey variable. The index is the sum of the percentage of ‘higher’ responses and half the percentage of ‘unchanged’ responses.
• The headline PMI is a weighted average of the following five indices:
  • New orders (30%)
  • Output (25%)
  • Employment (20%)
  • Suppliers’ delivery times (15%)
  • Stocks of purchases (10%)

Topic: Miscellaneous

8. AgNext Technologies enters into partnership with NAFED to digitise quality assessment for organic kiwis grown in Arunachal Pradesh.

• AgNext Technologies has entered into partnership with NAFED to digitise quality assessment for organic kiwis grown in Arunachal Pradesh.
• Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Marketing Board had launched the organic kiwis in New Delhi along with NAFED as a marketing partner.
• AgNext will use artificial intelligence (AI) based technology for rapid quality assessment of the organic kiwi.
• Through its quality monitoring program Qualix, AgNext also enabled deep-tech based comprehensive traceability.

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