Quick look on Financial Awareness - 31

By Astha Shukla|Updated : May 11th, 2017

Today we are going to share  some important financial awareness news that took place in recent months. Financial awareness is one section which is important for all the bank exams. To keep you updated with the recent happenings in finance sector , we have started this series. This will help you all in upcoming exams of  SBI PO Mains , NICL AO , BOB PO , NIACL Assistant Mains and all other exams . 

 

1.India’s ranking in various indexes released in 2017 :

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  • India ranks 40 in Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017 among 136 countries. This index was released by the World Economic Forum
  • India ranks 60th in Inclusive Development Index in 2017  out of 79 countries.This was unveiled in  ‘Inclusive Growth and Development Report’ released by World Economic Forum’s (WEF).
  • India ranks 87th among 127 countries in Energy Architecture Performance Index  2017 which is released by the World Economic Forum.
  • India ranks 20th out of 58 countries in Climate Change Performance Index 2017. The index was unveiled by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe. Germanwatch is an independent German NGO.
  • India ranks 92nd in Global index of talent competitiveness(GTC) 2017 among  countries. The index was released by  INSEAD , a global business school  in partnership with Adecco Group and Human Capital Leadership Institute (HCLI) of Singapore.
  • India ranks 143rd in Economic Freedom Index 2017 among 186 countries. This index was released by a top american Think Tank, The Heritage Foundation.
  • India ranks 43rd among 45 nations in International Intellectual Property Index 2017. This index  was released by US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) in its report titled ‘The Roots of Innovation’.
  • India ranks 9th in bribery and corruption in businesses according to EMEIA Fraud Survey. It was surveyed among 41 countries.
  • India ranks 79 out of 176 countries in Corruption Perception Index for the year 2016 by Transparency International (TI).
  • India ranks 131 in 2016 Human Development Index out of 188 countries.The index was published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as part of the Human Development Report (HDR) 2016 titled Human Development for Everyone.

2. ACC appointed Heads of 7 Public Sector Banks   :

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  • As a part of restructuring the public sector banks ,Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed heads of seven public sector banks. It has shifted MD of two banks to the post of MD of Another banks. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet is chaired by Prime minister , Narendra Modi.

Name

Newly Appointed As

Earlier post before this Appointment

Usha Ananthasubramanian

MD and CEO of  Allahabad Bank

MD and CEO of  Punjab National Bank

Melwyn Rego 

MD and CEO of  Syndicate Bank

MD and CEO of  Bank of India

Dinabandhu Mohapatra 

MD and CEO of Bank of India

Executive director of Canara Bank

R Subramaniakumar

MD and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank

executive director of Indian Overseas Bank

Rajkiran Rai G

MD and CEO of  Union Bank of India 

executive director of Oriental Bank of Commerce

Sunil Mehta

MD and CEO of  PNB

executive director of Corporation Bank

 R A Sankara Narayanan

MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank

executive director of Bank of India

  •  The restructuring of public sector banks has been done to tackle the problems of NPA( Non performing assets) or Bad loans mainly  , which has incresed to a great extent in recent years.
  • NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) increased by over Rs 1 lakh crore resulting in total Rs 6.06 lakh crore during April-December of 2016-17.
  • Previously IDBI Bank’s MD & CEO Kishor P Kharat was shifted to Indian Bank and the Indian Bank’s  Mahesh Kumar Jain was shifted to IDBI Bank by the committee.

3.Real Estate Act Comes in to effect:

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  • The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act , 2016, or RERA Act  comes in to effect on 1st May , 2017. The Primary aim of this act is to protect the interests of homebuyers  and  to encourage Investors in real estate sector. The overall aim of this act is to bring transparency.
  • The Real Estate Bill, 2016 was passed in March last year by Parliament and all the 92 sections of the Act comes into effect from 1 May. It has come in to effect  after a nine-year wait.
  • According to Housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) minister M. Venkaiah Naidu , this  law will make “buyer the king”, while developers will also benefit from the increased buyers’ confidence in the regulated environment.
  • Under the rules, it is mandatory for the states and UTs to set up the authority. However, only 13 states and UTs have so far notified the rules. The states that have notified the rules are Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
  • Under this act , there is imprisonment of up to three years for developers and up to one year in case of agents and buyers for violation of orders and rules of regulatory authorities. 

4. IMF predicted world economy to grow at a rate of 3.5% in 2017: 

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  • International Monetary Fund has projected that world economy would grow at 3.5% in 2017 which is marginally higher than  3.1 % of last year . It has projected growth of 3.6%  in  world economy in  2018.
  • According to IMF , Momentum in the global economy has been building since the middle of last year, allowing it to reaffirm its earlier forecasts of higher global growth this year and next.
  • IMF has also said that despite these signs of strength, many countries are likely to continue to struggle this year as well.
  • IMF is an organization of 189 countries which was established on December 27, 1945. It aims to foster global monetary cooperation , to secure financial stability, to promote international trade as well as to promote high employment and sustainable economic growth so as to reduce poverty around the world.

5.RBI makes it compulsory for Asset Reconstruction companies to have a minimum net corpus of Rs100 crore by 2019 :

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  • Reserve Bank of India has said all the existing asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) must have a minimum net corpus/net owned fund (NOF) of  Rs 100 crore by 31st March 2019.
  • In its last bi-monthly monetary policy , RBI had proposed to specify a minimum net owned fund of  Rs100 crore by keeping in mind the increased role of ARCs  and also the  more cash based transactions carried out by ARCs.
  • According to amended SARFAESI Act, 2016, ARCs cannot commence  the business of securitisation or asset reconstruction without having minimum NOF of  Rs 2 crore or any other amount specified by the RBI.
  • Reserve Bank of India is the regulator of   Asset Reconstruction companies.The primary goal of ARC is to turn bad loans or NPAs of Banks in to profitable assets. They do it by buying NPAs from bank and selling it at profitable rates. These are the companies registered under Section 3 of the SARFAESI Act, 2002. ARCs are regulated by the RBI.

6. Lok Sabha Passes all four GST Bills : 

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  • Lok Sabha has passed all  four Bills relating to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).The four GST Bills are Central goods and services tax (CGST), the integrated-GST (IGST), the goods and services tax (compensation to states), and the Union territory GST (UTGST).
  • These GST Bills do not require approval of Rajya Sbha , as these are passed as money bills.
  • GST is an one time indirect tax regime  to bring India under a single integrated tax net for the very first time.This will eliminate the need of taxation at multiple levels and mulatiple tax rates for the consumer.
  • This tax regime will be implemented from the proposed date of July 1, 2017.
  • There are four tax slabs under GST , which are 5% , 12% , 18% and 28% .Essential food items willl not come under any taxation.

7. Bharatiya Mahila Bank  and Five SBI associates bank merged with State Bank of India officially :

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  • Bharatiya Mahila Bank  and Five associates banks of SBI  have merged with SBI officialy on 1st april , 2017. The five associates bank are State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.
  • As a result of this merger ,  now SBI joined the league of top 50 banks in the world in terms of assets.
  • SBI is the only indian bank , which have joined the league of top 50 banks of world.  
  • SBI will now cover the one-fourth of the deposit and loan market in country having a deposit base of more than Rs. 26 lakh-crore and advances level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore
  • This merger has increased the market share of SBI to 22.5-23%  from 17% resulting in overall business of  Rs. 37 lakh crore and after the merger SBI now has  2.77 lakh employees, 50 crore customers and more than 25,000 branches and 58,000 ATMs overall .

8.India’s Forex reserves rose by $1.25 billion :

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  • According to the Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement , India’s Forex reserves have risen by $1.25 billion overall to reach $371.13 billion from $369.88 billion as on April 21, 2017.
  • India's Foreign exchange reserves (Forex reserve) comprise of foreign currency assets (FCAs), gold and special drawing rights (SDR). Among these FCA is the largest component of the forex reserves.
  • FCAs consist of nearly 20-30 % of major (non-US) global currencies.The FCAs also include investments in US Treasury bonds, bonds of other selected governments, deposits with foreign central and commercial banks.
  • FCA has been increased by $1.23 billion to $347.48 billion.
  • The value of SDR increased $5 million to $1.45 billion. Now India's reserve position with the IMF has improved by $7.7 million to $2.33 billion.
  • But the country's gold reserves remained still at $19.86 billion.

9.RBI Board approves proposal to introduce Rs 200 notes :

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  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cleared a proposal of introducing banknotes of Rs 200 denomination. The board of RBI has taken this decision in a meeting held in Mumbai in March 2017. 
  • The printing process of the new Rs 200 notes is expected to start after June 2017 after receiving the final nod from the central government.
  • This decision has been taken to tackle the inadequacy of lower denomination notes soon after the  withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in big demonetiztion move in Novemer ,2016.
  • Reportedly the citizens of country were facing insufficiency of lower denomination notes after the introduction of demonetization. 

10. Central Government to implement 'SAMPADA' Scheme for Food processing industry  :

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  • Central government is going to launch a Rs. 6000 crore outlay scheme SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) for overall development of the food processing sector. It will also include ongoing schemes like mega food parks and cold chain projects as well as three new schemes that are about to launch.
  • The scheme was approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA ) , which was headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi . Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal announced this major scheme. This scheme is aimed for the time period 2016-20.
  • SAMPADA is an umbrella scheme which is aimed to improve the conditions of farmers by giving them good price of their crops as well as to improve the demand and supply chain of food from the farmer's land to the retail outlet in affordable pricing.

 

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