Banking Awareness of 5, 6 and 7 April 2025

Topic: RBI

1. New Priority Sector Lending (PSL) guidelines have been introduced by RBI.

• New PSL guidelines have become effective on April 1, 2025.
• The aim of guidelines is to improve credit access to priority sectors.
• The limits for education, renewable energy, and affordable housing loans has been raised by RBI.
• The risk weights on bank loans to Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) has been reduced by RBI.
• The risk weight has been decreased from 125 percent to 100 percent.
• This decreased risk weight has come into effect on April 1, 2025. 
• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is implementing new guidelines for UPI number-based transactions.
• These guidelines have taken effect on April 1, 2025.
• Banks and Payment Service Provider apps will need to update mobile number records weekly. 
• UPI users will need to give explicit consent to link their UPI numbers.
• This explicit consent will be mandatory under the new system. 
• The MFIN has introduced revised guidelines for microfinance institutions (MFIs). The guidelines has become effective from April 1.
• Under the new guidelines, borrowers can only take loans from a maximum of four lenders. 
• Urban Cooperative Banks that show signs of financial stress will come under the new Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework.
• This framework will replace the Supervisory Action Framework (SAF). The changes have taken effect on April 1. 
• The new PCA framework will be triggered if banks report two consecutive years of losses.
• It will also apply if their net NPAs are between 6 percent and 9 percent.
• The framework will also apply if their Capital Adequacy Ratio falls up to 250 bps below the required level.

Topic: Taxation

2. Key changes in income tax introduced by the Finance Bill 2025/ Finance Act 2025 notification.

• These changes has come into effect from 1 April 2025.
• These changes will reflect in the Income Tax Returns for the Assessment Year 2026-27.
• Individuals opting for the new tax regime can now claim a rebate under section 87A on incomes up to ₹12 lakh.
• This is an increase from the previous limit of ₹7 lakh.
• Salaried employees can earn up to ₹12.75 lakh annually without paying taxes under the new regime.
• However, they will still need to file their returns.
• People earning between ₹12 lakh and ₹12.75 lakh will be eligible for marginal relief.
• The new tax regime now has seven brackets.
• These start from ₹0 and go beyond ₹24 lakh.
• No tax will be applied to income up to ₹4 lakh.
• Corporate tax rates and the old tax regime remain unchanged.
• The Equalisation Levy will no longer apply starting in April.
• The Equalisation Levy previously applied to online ads and non-resident e-commerce businesses.
• The TDS threshold for senior citizens on bank interest rises to ₹1 lakh. For others, it increases to ₹50,000.
• The TDS threshold for dividend income has also been raised to ₹10,000.
• The TCS limit for remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme is now ₹10 lakh.
• This is higher than the previous limit of ₹7 lakh.
• All GST assesses will need to use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to generate e-way bills and e-invoices.
• The Finance Act has been notified, introducing a punitive tax on undisclosed income, which will only apply starting from September 1, 2024.
• The new legislation replaces the term "total income" with "undisclosed income" when calculating the income discovered during a search procedure.

Topic: Reports and Indices

3. 43% of India's infrastructure projects are behind schedule and cost overruns have exceeded ₹5 lakh crore. 

• Outdated Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concession agreements form the main cause of these delays.
• As per data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, out of 1,873 ongoing Union government projects valued over ₹150 crore, 779 are delayed. 
• These delays have led to cost overruns of over ₹5.01 lakh crore as of April 2024. 
• The railway sector is a significant contributor to these delays, with 127 projects facing an average delay of 52 months. 
• 298 projects lack clear commissioning timelines. This shows gaps in planning and oversight. 

Topic: RBI

4. RBI has decided to keep foreign portfolio investors' (FPIs) investment limits unchanged for FY26. 

• The investment limits has been kept by RBI at 6% for government securities, 2% for state government securities, and 15% for corporate bonds. 
• The total foreign investment limit for government bonds is Rs 2.79 trillion ($32.71 billion) for the first half of the fiscal year. 
• For the second half of the fiscal year, the limit is Rs 2.89 trillion. 
• Foreign investments in corporate bonds can go up to Rs 8.22 trillion in the first half of the year. 
• In the second half, the corporate bond limit is set at Rs 8.80 trillion. 
• Currently, foreign investors have used 22.3% of their limit for government bonds. 
• They have also used 15.7% of their corporate bond investment limit.

Topic: Banking/Financial/Govt Schemes

5. A MoU has been signed between Union Health Ministry and the Delhi Government.

• The purpose of MoU is to roll out Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in Delhi. 
• The program offers 5 lakh rupees in health coverage per family annually. 
• The Delhi government will add another 5 lakh rupees. This will increase the total to 10 lakh rupees per family each year. 
• As per Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, over 6,50,000 eligible families in Delhi will benefit from the program. 
• He said that the share of health treatment costs was 62% in 2014. This has reduced to 38%. 
• Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced that the distribution of health cards for the scheme will start on the 10th of this month. 
• The Delhi government has allocated over 2,100 crore rupees for the scheme. 
• Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana was launched in 2018.
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is the largest health coverage program in the world, covering secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. 
• The scheme benefits over 12 crore families from vulnerable backgrounds, reaching approximately 55 crore people, who represent the bottom 40% of the population.

Topic: Banking/Financial/Govt Schemes

6. 4,991 villages were declared as Adarsh Gram under the PM-Ajay scheme in 2024-25.

• Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY) is a centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2021-22 to improve the socio-economic conditions of SC communities.
• The scheme has three components: (i) Adarsh ​​Gram (ii) Grant-in-aid for district/State level projects for socio-economic development of Scheduled Caste (SC) communities and (iii) Hostels.
• In the year 2021-22, the earlier Pradhan Mantri Adarsh ​​Gram Yojana (launched in 2009–10) was subsumed under the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY).
• From 2018-19 till now, 29,847 villages have been selected, out of which 11,076 villages have been declared as Adarsh Gram.
• In 2024-25, 4,991 villages have been declared as Adarsh Gram.
• Villages where more than 40% of the Scheduled Caste people live and the total population is 500 or more are eligible to come under this scheme.
• Skill development is an intervention included in the grant-in-aid component of the scheme.
• 25 states have submitted perspective plans for 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 and Rs 457.82 crore has been released for 8146 projects, including 987 projects for skill development during 2023-24 and 2024-25 under the grant-in-aid component.
• The objective of the hostel component is to promote participation of SC students in the curriculum by providing adequate residential facilities in quality institutions and through residential schools as per the need.
• It is also to encourage enrolment in schools and higher educational institutions.
• So far, 891 hostels have been approved under PM-Ajay Yojana, out of which 27 hostels have been approved in 2024-25.

Topic: Banking/Financial/Govt Schemes

7. Under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, the sex ratio at birth increased from 918 to 930.

• According to the government, the implementation of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme has contributed to an increase in the national sex ratio at birth from 918 in 2014-15 to 930 in 2023-24.
• According to Women and Child Development Minister Annpurna Devi, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme was launched on 22 January 2015.
• Its objective is to prevent gender-based selection, ensure the survival and safety of girl children and ensure education of girl children.
• This is a 100% funded scheme of the Central Government and is being run in all the districts of the country.
• The scheme focuses on bringing about change in mindset and behaviour towards girls by informing, influencing, motivating, engaging and empowering all stakeholders.
• The gross enrolment ratio of girls in schools at the secondary level is to increase from about 75% in 2014-15 to 78% by 2023-24.
• According to the 2011 Census of India, Kerala recorded the highest sex ratio among states with 1,084 females per 1,000 males.
• In contrast, Haryana recorded the lowest sex ratio among states with 879 females per 1,000 males.
• Among union territories, Puducherry had the highest sex ratio with 1,037 females per 1,000 males, while Daman and Diu had the lowest with 618 females per 1,000 males.

Topic: Reports and Indices

8. In 2023, India was ranked 10th globally for private investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

• The 2025 Technology and Innovation Report from UNCTAD ranked India 36th on the Readiness for Frontier Technologies Index for 2024.
• This is an improvement from India’s 48th position in 2022 on the same index.
• The report highlights the scientific strengths of China, Germany, India, the UK, and the US in the field of AI.
• The US was the leader in private AI investments, contributing 67 billion US dollars in 2023.
• This amount represents 70% of global AI private investment.
• China ranked second, with 7.8 billion US dollars in AI investments.
• India ranked 10th, with 1.4 billion US dollars invested in AI.

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