General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - May 2018

May 2018

Jan 02, 2022

Sri Lanka, Indian Oil Corp Unit to Sign Oil Tank Restoration Deal

Sri Lanka will sign a deal with Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) to restore 75 oil tanks as the country moves to secure a $500 million fuel credit line from India.
The island nation is facing dwindling foreign exchange reserves and has nearly $4.5 billion worth of debt repayments in 2022, prompting it to look at innovative ways to bring in foreign exchange.
The facility, with 99 storage tanks, is located next to a harbour off Sri Lanka's east coast and though India and Sri Lanka agreed to jointly develop it in 1987, negotiations dragged on for decades.
Under the proposed agreement, LIOC, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), will be given 14 tanks on a 50-year lease and a 49% stake in 61 other tanks that will be held jointly with State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

West End Housing Applies for small Finance Bank Licence with RBI

The Reserve Bank said that West End Housing Finance Ltd has applied for 'on tap' licence for setting up a small finance bank.
West End Housing Finance is headquartered at Mumbai.

Asheesh Pandey Takes Charge of Bank of Maharashtra's Executive Director

Asheesh Pandey assumed the charge of executive director (ED) of Pune-based Bank of Maharashtra (BoM).
Pandey replaced Hemant Kumar Tamta who demitted office after completion of his term.
Prior to joining BoM, Pandey was chief general manager and chief operations officer (COO) at Union Bank of India (UBI).
Pandey started banking career at Corporation Bank at its Industrial Finance Branch, and Investment and International Banking division in Mumbai.

Jan 01, 2022

Domestic Systemically Important Insurers (D-SIIs) for 2021-22

Insurance regulator IRDAI identified the state-owned LIC, GIC and New India Assurance Co. Ltd as Domestic Systemically Important Insurers (D-SIIs) for 2021-22.
D-SIIs are insurers of such size, market importance, and domestically & globally inter-connected, whose failure or distress will result into significant dislocation in domestic financial system.
D-SIIs are perceived as insurers which are 'too big or too important to fail' (TBTF).
This perception and perceived expectation of government support may reduce market discipline, amplify risk-taking, create competitive distortions, as well as increase the possibility of distress in future.
Thus, continued functioning of D-SIIs is necessary for uninterrupted availability of insurance services for national economy.
IRDAI identifies D-SIIs on an annual basis and disclose such insurers names for public information.

RBI Extends Deadline for Periodic KYC Update

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the last date for KYC updation for bank accounts by three months to March 31, 2022.
The central bank extended the deadline in view of the "prevalent uncertainty due to new variant of Covid-19".
The central bank had relaxed the rules first in May last year due to the pandemic and had said that banking services should not be restricted just because the KYC documents have not been updated by the customer.

Dec 31, 2021

SBI Card, Paytm Tie up for Card Tokenisation to Protect Cardholders' Data

SBI Cards and Payment Services tied up with Paytm for card tokenisation to protect data of the cardholders.
SBI Card collaborated with Paytm to enable cardholders to tokenise their cards on devices and make payments through Paytm.
Tokenisation refers to masking the original card number by replacing it with a set of unique characters, termed as token, which secures the customer's card details when a transaction is under process.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance's New Term Plan Offers 105% Return

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance launched a new term plan offering 105 per cent return of the premium paid at age of 60 or 70 or on policy maturity as the policy auto-adjusts the life cover based on the changing life-stages of the insured. The new policy, ICICI Pru iProtect return of premium, also offers an option to take cover against 64 critical illnesses.
The customer-centric proposition offering life-stage based cover wherein the quantum of life cover is automatically adjusted based on the customer's life stages, the new policy offers 105 per cent return of the premium paid on survival, besides providing cover against 64 critical illnesses, which is it claimed is one of the highest in the industry.
The new policy also offers two variants - life stage cover and level cover. The life-stage cover offers a feature that auto adjusts the sum assured or life cover based on the life-stage of customers and enables customers to increase their life cover when it matters the most as responsibilities grow in the initial stages. Also, it automatically reduces the life cover as responsibilities come down in the later life stages.

Vasudevan PN Reappointed as MD & CEO of Equitas Small Finance Bank

Vasudevan Pathangi Narasimhan was reappointed as the Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Equitas Small Finance Bank Limited (ESFBL) for three years (from July 23, 2022, to July 22, 2025), by the Board of Directors (BoD). He is currently serving as the MD and CEO of the bank.
Earlier he was working as the MD of Equitas Holdings Limited. He holds a bachelor's degree in science (physics) from the University of Madras. A qualified company secretary from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, he has extensive experience in the financial services sector.

BRICS New Development Bank to Add Egypt as New Member

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) announced to add Egypt as its new member.
Egypt is the fourth new member admitted into NDB, following Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay.
Inclusion of Egypt has further expanded the global outreach of BRICS Bank.
The NDB will provide a new platform to Egypt, for fostering cooperation with BRICS countries on infrastructure and sustainable development. NDB will also help Egypt in engaging with other emerging economies and developing countries.

IDFC FIRST Bank Begins Process for 3-way Merger

Private lender IDFC FIRST Bank has set in motion the process of merging IDFC Ltd and IDFC Financial Holding Company with itself.
Both entities form part of the bank promoter group. The bank, however, did not elaborate on the timeline for the merger. The board of directors of the bank at its meeting considered the merger proposal. It was, in principle, in favour of it.
The boards of IDFC and IDFC Financial Holding Company too have given the nod for it.

Dec 30, 2021

Ahmedabad most Affordable Housing Market

According to Knight Frank, Ahmedabad is the most affordable housing market among eight major cities while Mumbai is unaffordable due to high EMI to total income ratio.
According to Knight Frank's Affordability Index 2021 report, Indian markets are at their decadal best in terms of housing affordability.
The index captures movement in key constituents like property prices, home loan interest rate and average household income to determine the buyers' ability to purchase a house.

Flipkart Tops Fairwork India Ratings 2021

Walmart-owned e-commerce firm Flipkart topped the list of Fairwork India Ratings 2021 report, which highlights the working conditions of app-based gig workers. It is followed by Urban Company, Asia's largest home services marketplace and Tata-owned online grocer BigBasket. Mobility companies such as SoftBank-backed Ola, Porter and Uber were placed at the bottom of the list with zero scores each.
Combining desk research, worker interviews, and evidence provided by the platforms, the Fairwork India Ratings 2021 scores 11 platforms, including Amazon, BigBasket, Dunzo, Flipkart, Ola, PharmEasy, Porter, Swiggy, Uber, Urban Company and Zomato.
This year, no platform scored more than 7 out of the maximum of 10 points, and none scored all basic points across the five principles. Flipkart scored 7, while Urban Company earned 5 points. Food delivery giant Swiggy scored 4 and its rival Zomato got 3 points. E-commerce companies Amazon, Dunzo and Pharmeasy scored 1 point each.
The Fairwork India Team is spearheaded by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), in association with Oxford University.

Karnataka Govt. Partners with NPCI & SBI to Implement 'e-RUPI'

Karnataka government partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) & State Bank of India (SBI) to enable and implement the 'e-RUPI' payment solution to students under its scholarship programme. For redeeming e-RUPI, the identified institutes will scan the QR code or SMS string displayed by the students using an application. The e-RUPI is a cashless and contactless payment solution provided by NPCI and it will be used to ensure leak-proof delivery transactions.
Digital payment platform e-RUPI will be used to ensure "leak-proof" payment of education fees for students eligible under the scholarship programmes of the Karnataka government. As a part of this process, the Karnataka government will get e-vouchers delivered to the mobiles of eligible students. The voucher code can be received on a feature phone as well. The students will be able to redeem e-RUPI at the identified colleges or institutes for the intended purpose of fees payment.

Dec 29, 2021

AU Small Finance Bank Inducts Ex-RBI Deputy Governor H. R. Khan on its Board

AU Small Finance Bank appointed former RBI Deputy Governor H. R. Khan as an independent director on its board.
The appointment is for a period of three years subject to the approval of shareholders.
The appointment is part of the bank's endeavour to strengthen the board and its independence.

J&K Bank Board Appoints Baldev Prakash MD & CEO

Jammu & Kashmir Bank appointed Baldev Prakash as the MD & CEO for three years.
The board also appointed R. K. Chhibber as an additional director on the board of the bank to be effective from the date Baldev Prakash takes charge as MD&CEO of the bank.
Prakash has over 30 years of experience in banking in various roles at small and large size branches at SBI. He had joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1991 and he is currently the Chief General Manager (Digital and Transaction Banking Marketing Department) at SBI, Mumbai.

Government Appoints Atul Kumar Goel as PNB MD and CEO

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of Atul Kumar Goel, MD & CEO of UCO Bank, as MD & CEO of Punjab National Bank (PNB) with effect from February 1 next year.
Goel will serve as PNB chief until December 31, 2024, which is his attaining the superannuation age.
He will serve as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in PNB, which is the country's second-largest public sector bank, until January 31, 2022.
Goel will replace Mallikarjuna Rao, incumbent MD & CEO of PNB, who is due to demit office at the end of January 2022. Rao was given a three-month extension that will end on January 31, 2022.

IndusInd Bank, NPCI Tie up to Simplify Cross-border Remittances through UPI

Indians can now get remittance money from their foreign sources in a much easier way as IndusInd Bank has tied up with NPCI to facilitate cross-border money transfer by using UPI IDs of the beneficiaries.
This will obviate the need to remember one's bank account details to send money.
IndusInd Bank has joined hands with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to offer real-time cross-border remittances to India using UPI IDs, for its money transfer operator (MTO) partners.

RBI Approves Re-designation of Rajiv Anand as Axis Bank Deputy MD

The Reserve Bank of India has approved the re-designation of Rajiv Anand as the Deputy Managing Director of Axis Bank.
In October this year, the board of directors of the bank approved to re-designate Rajiv Anand as the Deputy Managing Director of the bank, subject to approval of the Reserve Bank of India, and the shareholders of the bank.
Anand is the Executive Director (Wholesale Banking) of the bank since December 2018.
Anand, 55, had joined Axis Bank in May 2013 from its asset management arm, Axis Asset Management Co Ltd, where he was the Managing Director & CEO.

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