Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 06, 07 and 08 June 2020

1. Rs 1 lakh crore investment for increasing coal production

• Government has announced that Rs 1 lakh crore will be invested for increasing coal production and supporting coal transportation facilities.
• Union Minister of Coal and Mines has virtually inaugurated three coal mines- one mine in Adasa, Nagpur and two mines in Sharda and Dhankasa, Madhya Pradesh.
• Currently, coal accounts for 75% to 80% of India's electricity generation.
• Government has given Coal India Ltd a target of 1 billion tonnes of coal production by 2023-24.
• India's import of coal has been increasing and government wants to lower the import. In 2019-20, India's coal import stood at 200 to 240 million tonnes.

2. PSBs give Rs 8,320 crore as loan to MSMEs

• Under Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for MSMEs, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have given Rs 8,320 crore as loan to MSMEs till June 5. 
• SBI has sanctioned and given maximum credit under the scheme. Punjab National Bank follows SBI.
• Under ECLGS scheme, National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) provides 100% guarantee coverage.
• The coverage is given for extra funding of Rs 3 lakh crore, which was approved by cabinet on May 21.
• The coverage is given to eligible MSMEs and Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) borrowers, who are interested.
• The scheme will be applicable till 31 October or till sanctioning of Rs 3 lakh crore.

3. Rainfall index developed by NCDEX

• Rainfall index have been developed by National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX).
• NCDEX will launch a weather derivative in future and rainfall index is a precursor to it. It is also a tool for monitoring the monsoon and its progress.
• Rainfall index will initially give data about rainfall and will not be tradable. Later, a derivative instrument will be launched and it will be tradable.
• Earlier, Agridex was launched by NCDEX to track ten most liquid commodities that are traded on platform of NCDEX.

4. Indian Overseas Bank lowers MCLR

• Indian Overseas Bank has lowered Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) by up to 30 basis points.
• The bank has lowered MCLR across all loan tenors. The cost of consumer loans will become lower.
• Interest rate on MCLR linked loans with overnight tenor has been lowered by 30 basis points.
• In case of MCLR linked loans with 1 month to 1 year tenors, interest rate has been lowered by 20 basis points.
• IOB has lowered interest rate on Repo Linked Lending Rate (RLLR) linked loans to 6.85% per annum.

5. Yatra.com ends its merger agreement with Ebix, Inc

• Yatra.com has ended its merger agreement with Ebix, Inc as Ebix has broken the merger agreement.
• Yatra.com has also filed a legal case against Ebix in Delaware court.
• Ebix is an on-demand software supplier and e-commerce services provider. It is based in US.
• As per July 2019 announcement, Ebix had acquired Yatra Online Inc.
• Yatra is a Gurugram based company for travel related services. It was founded in 2006 by Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra. Dhruv Shringi is its current CEO.

6. OPEC and allied nations extend reduction in oil production

• OPEC and allied nations have extended reduction in oil production by nearly 10% till July.
• The decision for extending reduction of oil production has been taken to increase oil prices that have remained low due to Coronavirus pandemic. 
• OPEC:
  • It is an organization with 13 members. Ecuador has left OPEC in January 2020.
  • It was founded in 1960.
  • It is headquartered in Vienna. 
  • It has 10 allied countries. They are called OPEC+ members.

7. Rs 5,683.5 crore invested in Jio Platforms

• The investment has been made by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
• Due to investment, ADIA will get 1.16% equity stake in Jio Platforms.
• Earlier, Jio Platforms have received total investment of Rs 97,885.65 crore from Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala and ADIA.
• Jio Platforms is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL).
• ADIA is a sovereign wealth fund. Government of Abu Dhabi owns it. 

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 6, 7 and 8 June 2020