Economy & Banking Current Affairs 2019

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Bank Merger

RBI New Notes

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GDP Growth Forecast of India – 2019-20

• According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, GDP growth during 2018-19 fiscal stood at 6.8%.
• Growth Forecast for 2019-20 is as follows
• GDP growth forecast by RBI – 6.1%
• Crisil Ratings – 6.9%
• FICCI – 6.9%
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) – 6%
• World Bank – 6%
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) – 7%
• UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) – 7.1%
• Moody’s Investors Service – 5.8%
• Fitch rating – 6.6%
• Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) – 6.2%

Committees

• U K Sinha committee for economic and financial sustainability of the MSME sector by RBI
• High-Level Committee by RBI on Digital Payments to encourage digitization of payments, chaired by Nandan Nilekani.
• TN Manoharan committee on the Development of Secondary Market for Corporate Loans by RBI
• VG Kannan committee to review the entire gamut of ATM charges and fees by RBI
• UK Sinha Committee  to suggest long-term solutions for the economic and financial sustainability of MSMEs by RBI

January

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched Survey on Retail Payment Habits of Individuals (SRPHi)
• ESAF small finance bank from Kerala got RBI approval to operate as a scheduled bank
• Ministry of Textiles, Government of India had launched Yarn Bank Scheme for power loom sector development
• According to World Economic Forum (WEF) report, India will be the world’s 3rd largest consumer market by 2030
• India allows Iran’s Bank Pasargad to open branch in Mumbai
• RBI has agreed to provide USD 400 million under a swap arrangement to boost the reserves of Sri Lanka.
• GST Council has doubled the GST exemption limit for the country – Rs 40 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh for North eastern states.
• Union Cabinet approved the creation of a national bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) in New Delhi.
• UAE and Saudi Arabia have launched a common digital currency called Aber.
• Pakistan Government has decided to launch Panda Bonds to raise loans from Chinese capital markets.
• According to Nepal’s central bank circular, Indian currency of denominations Rs. 200, Rs.500 and Rs. 2,000. cannot be carried and used for trading.
• Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Haj has been reduced from 18% to 5%

February

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), is a direct cash transfer of Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments to farmers.
• Union government has announced a Separate Department of Fisheries in Interim budget
• Individual taxpayers with income up to Rs. 5 lakh taxable income will get a full tax rebate
• RBI slapped a Rs. 1 cr. penalty on Syndicate Bank & Rs 20 lakh on Axis Bank for violating norms
• RBI has slapped Rs 1 cr. penalty on SBI for not monitoring the end use of funds
• RBI has imposed penalty of 2 million rupees each on HDFC, IDBI and Kotak Mahindra Bank for non-compliance of KYC and Anti-Money Laundering norms.
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) has bought 14% stake in micro-financier Annapurna Finance for Rs 137 crore
• Pallavan Grama Bank & Pandyan Grama Bank will be merged to form the Tamil Nadu Gramin Bank
• Fino Payments Bank has announced the launch of a sweep account facility in association with Suryoday Small Finance Bank
• Union Government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of sugar for the year 2018-19 from Rs. 29 per Kilogram to Rs. 31.
• RBI will transfer interim dividend 28,000 crore rupees to the central government for the half-year.
• RBI withdrew the 20% limit on investments by FPIs in corporate bonds of an entity with a view to encourage more foreign investments.
• LIC has launched a new micro insurance plan Micro Bachat for 18-55 age group
• Zimbabwe started to trade its new currency ‘the RTGS dollar’
• RBI and Bank of Japan have signed a Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) of 75 billion US dollars
• GST collection in the month of February at 97,247 cr. rupees

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March

• Bank of Baroda has tied up with Germany’s KfW Development Bank for funding of USD 113 million to refinance solar projects
• Tamil Nadu government bestowed the Best Bank Award to the Indian Bank, based on the criteria that the bank met the needs of women’s self-help groups
• Bharti AXA General Insurance has been conferred with the ‘Non-Life Insurer of The Year Award 2019’ by the Assocham
• ACKO General Insurance has been awarded ‘Golden Peacock Innovative Product Award – 2019’ for micro insurance product ‘Ola Ride Insurance’
• World Bank will provide 250 Million USD for the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) to boost Rural incomes across13 States.
• Korea Exim Bank has extended a Rs 4,100 crore loan for Visakhapatnam (VIZAG) Metro Rail project.
• As per the World Gold Council (WGC), India ranks 11th in gold holding.
• HDFC Bank is the 3rd listed company in India to achieve a market cap of Rs 6 lakh crore after Reliance Industries and TCS.
• SBI has launched doorstep banking service for senior citizens over 70 years and differently-abled customers.
• SBI has launched the YONO Cash service to withdraw cash from ATMs without  debit cards.
• Bank of Baroda has launched ‘Crèche’ Child Daycare facility within its Mumbai Corporate Office premises.
• IDBI Bank has been categorized as a private sector lender following the acquisition of majority stake by LIC
• RBI has slapped a penalty of Rs 2 cr. on Punjab National Bank (PNB) for noncompliance of regulatory directions about ‘SWIFT’ operations.
• State Bank Of India has signed a pact with the Bank of China (BoC) to boost business opportunities.

April

• RBI set the average base rate to be charged from borrowers by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) at 9.21%
• RBI will inject long-term liquidity worth 5 billion US Dollars into the banking system through a dollar-rupee buy-sell swap for a tenure of 3 years
• SEBI has given approval to Paytm Money to start offering broking services
• NPCI has reduced the UPI usage fees for small transactions less than Rs 1,000 to 10 paise from 25 paise.
• RBI has announced its first Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Rates for 2019-20
  • Repo rate – 6%
  • Reverse Repo rate – 5.75%
  • MSF rate – 6.25%
  • Bank rate – 6.25%
  • CRR – 4%
  • SLR – 19.25%
• Canara Bank is the 1st PSU bank to shift to EMV chip and PIN for cards across the country.
• Fincare Small Finance Bank has been awarded the Celent Model Bank 2019 Award in the category of Financial Inclusion.
• SBI General Insurance has launched CyRUSS, a product to protect businesses from financial and reputational losses due to cyber-attacks.
• RBI has sold its entire stake in National Housing Bank (NHB) and NABARD to government.
• Lakshmi Vilas Bank is set to merge with India bulls Housing Finance
• As per Forbes World’s Best Bank survey, HDFC Bank has been identified as number 1 bank by customers in India
• Tata Consultancy Services partnered with Google Cloud to build industry-specific cloud solutions.
• GST collection scaled an all-time high 1.13 lakh crore rupees for April 2019

May

• Income tax department has signed an agreement with Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) to exchange of data and to stop tax evasion.
• SEBI directed National Stock Exchange (NSE) to pay more than Rs 625 crore in the case of misuse of its co-location facility.
• LIC Housing Finance has launched ‘Udyam’, a skilling centre in Bengaluru to empower youths
• The Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian has been included in the Advisory Council of the 15th Finance Commission.
• Reliance Industries has acquired British toy retailer Hamleys (founded in 1760)
• RBI has released a vision document ‘Payment and Settlement Systems in India: Vision 2019 – 2021’
• Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has launched “BSE StAR MF” app to enable more participation and help in mutual fund distributors process.
• Paytm has tied up with Citibank to launch 1st white-label credit card called Paytm First Card.
• HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company has announced to launch the Mosquito Disease Protection Policy.
• UPI payments app BharatPe has roped in actor Salman Khan as its brand ambassador.
• Bharti AXA Life Insurance has been conferred with the FICCI Claims Excellence Award for customer-friendly claims services
• SBI has announced a strategic partnership with the FMCG arm of The Art of Living Sri Sri Tattva
• Corporation Bank has launched ‘Corp SME Suvidha’, a product for GST-registered MSMEs.
• USA has added India to its monitoring list for currency practices and macroeconomic policies, alleging undervaluation in its currency.
• Standard Charter has launched the Trade AI Engine, a joint solution developed in partnership with IBM.

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June

• RBI has launched Complaint Management System for filing online complaints against banks, NBFCs “cms.rbi.org.in”
• According RBI, all data related to payments must be stored in systems located only in India.
• RBI has announced its 2nd Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Rates for 2019-20
  • Repo rate – 5.75%
  • Reverse Repo rate – 5.50%
  • MSF rate – 6%
• RBI has released a report on “Benchmarking India’s Payment Systems”
• According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), FDI in the services sector grew in 2018-19 by 36.5% (USD 9.15 billion)
• RBI has slapped a penalty of Rs. 2 crores on Kotak Mahindra Bank for higher shareholding by promoters.
• RBI has waived off all transactions charges to encourage digital transfer of funds NEFT and RTGS
• Union government has reduced the rate of the contribution made by employees and employers under the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Act from 6.5% to 4%
• Amazon moved past Apple and Google to become the world’s most valuable brand
• Amazon India becomes India’s most attractive employer brand According to the survey conducted by the Randstad Employer Brand Research
• IndusInd Bank and Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd merger will be effective from July 2019
• Apollo Munich Health Insurance would be merged with HDFC ERGO general insurance
• Tech Mahindra announced the signing of a multi-year contract with Airbus for cabin and cargo design engineering.

July

• Karnataka Bank has launched the web tool “Vasool So-Ft” to digitalize the NPA recovery process of the bank
• Government has inked pact with IBM India for undertaking a pilot study to utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Kharif crop season 2019 in three districts of MP
• RBI board has finalized a three years roadmap named Utkarsh 2022 to study the practice of Central Banks across the world.
• Kerala Govt. has set up Non-Resident Keralites Investment company
• Bharat Chamber of Commerce has signed a MoU with BRICS of Commerce and Industry for promoting trade and investments between BRICS countries and eastern part of India.
• SBI was fined Rs. 7 cr. for non-compliance with the directions issued by the RBI on Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms
• Andhra Bank has launched an Artificial Intelligence interactive assistant chatbot named ABHi
• NABARD will raise long-term funds of Rs 60,000 cr. through nonconvertible debentures in the current financial year 2019-20.
• GST Council has decided to reduce GST Rate on Electrical Vehicles from 12% to 5%.
• LIC has agreed to offer Rs 1.25 trillion lines of credit by 2024, to fund highway projects.
• Digital Communications Commission (DCC) has approved the cumulative penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
  • The penalty was imposed by TRAI for not providing points of interconnection to Jio when it entered the market.
• Reliance Industries (106) the top-ranked Indian company on the Fortune Global 500 list.
  • Walmart continues to top the Fortune 500 list followed by Chinese state-owned oil and gas company Sinopec Group
• US regulators formalized a record 5 billion US Dollar fine on Facebook violation of users’ privacy in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal

August

• India’s foreign exchange reserves reach all time high at USD 430.572 billion
• Postal Department has decided to convert the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) into Small finance bank
• SBI has become the 1st Indian bank to link up with  China’s National Advance Payment System.
• RBI has announced that the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) facility will be available for the customers round-the-clock
• RBI has announced its 3rd Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Rates for 2019-20
  • Repo rate – 5.40%
  • Reverse Repo rate – 5.15%
  • MSF rate – 5.65%
  • Bank rate – 5.65%
• RBI will set up a Central Payment Fraud Registry  monitor digital payments related frauds on a real-time basis
• SBI General Insurance has launched new cyber insurance scheme for the customers, to safeguard their online bank account or of ATM fraud
• Traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has launched an initiative Digi Vyapari-Safal Vyapari
• RBL Bank and digital healthcare platform Practo have partnered to launch an industry-first co-branded health credit card.
• RBI has approved the transfer of record Rs 1.76 lakh crore dividend and surplus reserves to the union government.
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a USD 500 million loan to Pakistan to support the country’s trade competitiveness and exports

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