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1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 15 July 2013 imposed fines totaling Rs. 49.5 crore on 22 public and private sector banks for violating KYC/antimoney laundering norms. How many banks were given cautionary letters following an expose made by an online portal? Seven (These seven banks are Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and State Bank of Patiala. A penalty of Rs. 3 crore each was imposed on 7 banks which were - State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Federal Bank. The United Bank of India, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and Andhra Bank were slapped a penalty of Rs. 2.5 crore each. A penalty of Rs. 2 crore each was imposed on Yes Bank, Vijaya Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Dhanlaxmi Bank. The other banks which were penalised by the RBI include Deutsche Bank, Development Credit Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Ratnakar Bank) 2) Which PSU bank became the first to take unusual step of publishing photographs of loan guarantors along with that of borrowers who have failed to repay their loans? Allahabad Bank (Allahabad Bank on 9 July 2013 published photographs of three guarantors for a bank loan worth Rs. 314 crore which had not been repaid. PSU banks decided to apply pressure on loan guarantors along-side the defaulters. The move came on heels of 39 listed banks reporting a 36% rise in NPAs (non-performing assets) to Rs. 1,79,431 crore as on 31 March 2013) 3) Union Govt. on 9 July 2013 hiked the import duty on sugar to 15% in an effort to help the sugar industry clear Rs. 9,000 crore cane arrears to farmers. What was the import duty on sugar before this move? 10% (The duty of both raw and white (refined) sugar was raised to 15% as sugar imports had been putting pressure on domestic prices and have prevented millers from clearing cane arrears to farmers. The hike in duty was aimed at curbing import of sugar and improving the bearish sentiment in domestic market. This would, however, lead to rise in sugar prices across the country) 4) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 8 July 2013 allowed NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) to access the external commercial borrowing (ECB) market. What was the category defined for such NBFCs by the RBI? Asset Finance Companies or AFCs (This name was given as NBFCs involved in asset financing have been allowed to access the ECB market. The access is subject to certain conditions including availing of ECB under the automatic route with minimum average maturity of five years to finance import of infrastructure equipment for leasing to infrastructure projects) 5) Which country will become 18th member of the Eurozone from 1 January 2014? Latvia (Economy and finance ministers from the 28 European Union (EU) countries gave the final green light to Latvia on 9 July 2013 to join the eurozone on 1 January. Latvia emerged from a crisis in 2008-09 to become the fastest-growing economy of the EU, having posted GDP growth of more than five percent year-on-year in both 2011 and 2012. It should be noted that 28-member EU is a political entity and represents the interest of all of Europe whereas Eurozone is a currency block of 17 nations that have accepted Euro as a

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common currency. Not all countries of EU use Euro as currency (Britain still uses Pound as its currency)) 6) In the biggest foreign investment pullout from India, worlds largest steel maker ArcelorMittal on 17 July 2013 scrapped its $12 billion (Rs. 50,000 crore) steel plant proposed to be set up in an eastern state. Which state is this? Odisha (ArcelorMittal blamed inordinate delays in acquiring land and securing iron ore linkages for scrapping this deal. This plant was proposed to be set up in Keonjhar district of the state)

have 39 branches across the country in its first year) 9) Market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on 16 July 2013 said that PSUs (public sector undertakings) not fulfilling the minimum public holding, would face action. What are the salient features of minimum public holding norms of the SEBI? a) All listed PSUs are required to fulfill the minimum public shareholding norms, after which the Government will hold a maximum of 90% shares, while the remaining will be owned by the general public, banks, financial institutions or mutual funds. b) Due date for this norm to be complied with is 8 August 2013
c) All private sector listed companies were required to achieve at least 25% public shareholding by 3 June 2013 (SEBI had taken action against the promoters and directors of 105 non-compliant companies) 10) First major economic reform was announced in China on 19 July 2013 since Xi Jinping became the President in March 2013. What is this major economic reform? Decontrol of lending rates for banks with which banks in China will be able to set their own lending rates (This move was seen as a step to address the problem of economic slowdown and declining growth. Competitive bank lending rates is expected to result in lowering the cost of acquiring funds for business)

7) The govt. on 17 July 2013 approved a proposal to amend SEBI Law for providing more powers to crack down on ponzi schemes. What specific additional powers would be provided to SEBI after the amendments comes into effect? a) Direct powers to carry out search and seizure operations and attachment of assets b) Power to seek information, such as telephone call data records, from any person or entities in respect of any securities transaction (Ponzi schemes are schemes which offer very heavy or extraordinary returns to investors and are generally not very transparent about their business operations) 8) What will be the name of Indias first allwomen bank, announcement for which was done in the Union Budget of 2013-14? Bharatiya Mahila Bank BMB (The present deadline for launch of this bank is 1 November 2013 and the bank is expected to

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1) All public sector banks have been asked to set up ATMs in all branches to enable customers in rural pockets to do banking roundthe-clock. What is the deadline for setting-up

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branch-ATMs for these banks? March 2014 (Finance Minister P. Chidambaram reiterated this while inaugurating the 5,999th branch of Punjab National Bank in Tirupattur, Tamil Nadu on 28 July, 2013) 2) Who was chosen as the head of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 22 July, 2013? Abdul Rahim Rather, Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister (The post of Chairman of the Finance Ministrys committee on Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been lying vacant since 17 June 2013 when Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi resigned following the JD(U)BJP split in the state. Rather, who is also a senior National Conference leader, was chosen to head the panel at a meeting of state Finance Ministers held at New Delhi) 3) What was the GDP projection for 2013-14 as announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 30 July, 2013 while delivering the first quarter review of its Annual Policy for 2013-14? 5.5%, which is lower than RBIs previous projection of 5.7% (Weighed down by a weak rupee, the RBI chose to keep all key interest rates unchanged and asked the government to take urgent steps to rein in the high current account deficit. This was the last quarter review for RBI Governor D. Subbarao, who is slated to retire days before the next mid-quarter review on 18 September 2013. RBIs second quarter policy review will be made on 29 October 2013)

public-funds, over which SEBI gets power to carry out its crackdown for non-compliance? Rs. 100 crore or more (The ordnance provides SEBI the powers to regulate any pooling of funds under an investment contract involving a corpus of 100 crore rupees or more and attach assets in case of non-compliance. The ordinance was promulgated by the President following the powers granted to him by Clause 1 of Article 123 of Constitution) 5) Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on 23 July, 2013 resigned from the board of directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in view of conflict of interest over the issue of fresh bank licenses, as one of the companies of his group has applied to RBI for banking license. Which company is this? - Aditya Birla Nuvo, which is one of the 26 companies who have applied for banking license

6) Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma during July 2013 announced major liberalization in the upper limits of foreign direct investment (FDI) in sectors such as defence, telecom, insurance, retail, etc. What were the major announcements made in FDI limits? New clause of raising FDI in Defence sector, under which FDI in state-of-the-art segment of defence manufacturing can be raised from 26% through approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). However, for the rest of the defence sector FDI upperlimit remains at 26% In single-brand retail FDI upto 49% will be through automatic route, while approval of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will be required for FDI above 49% In multi-brand retail also FDI upto 49% made through direct route

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4) The Securities Law Amendment Ordnance, 2013, which was promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee on 18 July, 2013, provides more powers to Indias market regulator SEBI to crackdown ponzi schemes running in the country. Under the promulgated ordnance, what is the prescribed corpus size of pooled

49% FDI in insurance sector approved through automatic route (Present limit for FDI through automatic route was 26%) FDI limit through automatic route in power exchange sector set at 49% 100% FDI in telecom sector cleared by the union govt. The condition of divestment to Indian partner in tea sector cancelled and now stakes can be divested to third-parties also FDI cap in asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) through automatic route set at 49% while FDI above it (till 100%) will be through FIPB approval 7) Planning Commission on 23 July 2013 released a report on the trends in poverty in India. The report dealt comprehensively on impact on poverty reduction due to measures taken by the governments, especially the present UPA Govt. What were the main highlights of this report? Average decline in the poverty ratio between 2005 and 2012 was 2.18% per year as compared to 0.74% per year during 1993-2005 The absolute number of people below the poverty line declined from 407.1 million in 2004-05 to 269.3 million by 2011-12 Poverty in the country stood at 21.9% in 2011-12 as compared to 37.2% in 2004-05 In 2011-12 poverty in rural areas stood at 25.7% while it was 13.7% in urban areas Highest poverty rate of 39.93% was recorded in Chhattisgarh (2011-12) Lowest poverty rate of 5.09% was recorded in Goa (2011-12)

(This report drew its conclusions on the Suresh Tendulkar poverty line formula. Under this formula, the Planning Commission drew the national poverty line at Rs. 816 per capita per month in rural areas and Rs. 1,000 per capita per month in urban areas)
8) What is the name given to 5-Kg LPG cylinder scheme, which was given approval by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on 24 July, 2013? Free Trade LPG Scheme (Under the Free Trade LPG Scheme, Company Owned Retail Outlets (COCO) of oil marketing companies will sell 5-kg LPG cylinders at Nondomestic (commercial) prices. Pilot project of this scheme will be launched in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore. The prospective customer at the time of first sale would only be required to give a copy of Voter ICard, Driving license, Pan Card, Aadhaar Card, Bank Pass book, Employees ID, Passport, Student ID or any other such document that can act as a proof of identity. This scheme has been made especially for those citizens who are always on the move due to their professional requirements) 9) What is the name of the book written by Jean Dreze and Indian Nobel winning economist Amratya Sen, which has created a lot of controversy of-late about what should be the ideal model of governance? An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions (The book created controversy with economists like Jagdish Bhagwati expressing their displeasure about economic policies advocated by Amartya Sen in this book) 10) What is the name given to a newly announced scheme under which a free mobile handset will be provided to one member of

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every rural household who has completed 100 days of work under MGNREGA? Bharat Mobile Scheme (Under this scheme the handset will be provided preferably to a woman member of family. A brief of this proposed scheme was made by the union govt. on 30 July,

2013. The provided handset will be nontransferable as it will later also be used in customized transfer of benefits under the direct transfer scheme of the central govt.)

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1) Union Govt. on 2 August 2013 gave its approval for setting up of a fund to help six PSUs, to make them compliant with the 10% minimum public holding norm of market regulator SEBI. What is the name assigned of this fund? Special National Investment Fund (SNIF). Six sick PSUs which will be covered under this proposed fund are - HMT, ITI, Scooters India Limited, Andrew Yule, Fertilizer and Chemical Limited (Travancore) and Hindustan Photo Films Limited 1) Union Govt. relaxed the norms for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the multibrand retail on 1 August 2013 with a view to attract more investments and transparency in the sector. What are the major norms which were relaxed? Multi-brand retailers like Walmart are now required to source 30% of their products from the small and medium enterprises of India only at the time of starting the business
Now the norm of 50% investment in the backend infrastructure for the retailers will be applicable, only during the first tranche of investments (within three years) of up to 100 million dollars 7) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), on 1 August 2013, approved the proposal for sale of 10% government stake in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). This stake sale is likely to fetch around Rs. 3,840 crore to the exchequer at the current market price. What is Union Govt.s disinvestment target through the stake sale of public sector undertakings in the current financial year (2013-14)? Rs. 40,000 crore

5) Who was appointed as the first woman Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of India (SBI) on 3 August 2013? - Arundhati Bhattacharya (Prior to this she was the managing director of SBI Capital, the merchant banking arm of the bank)
6) Who took over as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Central Bank of India during August 2013? Rajeev Rishi (Rishi was Executive Director of Indian Bank till now and his tenure will be for 5 years)

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Now state governments will have the right to grant permission to open a multi-brand retail store in cities of their states (Earlier 53 urban centers with a minimum population of 1 million were made eligible for opening-up of multi-brand retail stores)

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1) Which body is the regulator of commodity derivatives markets in India, which would be given more teeth to ensure that National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) settles the Rs 5,600-crore dues to investors, as announced by the Union Govt. on 7 August 2013? Forward Markets Commission FMC (NSEL is facing the problem of settlement after it suspended trade in oneday forward contracts on 31 July 2013 following the government direction. On 6 August 2013, NSEL stopped trading in e-series contracts in gold in anticipation of the notification to this effect) 2) Union Govt. on 2 August 2013 gave its approval for setting up of a fund to help six PSUs, to make them compliant with the 10% minimum public holding norm of market regulator SEBI. What is the name assigned of this newly approved fund? Special National Investment Fund (SNIF). Six sick PSUs which will be covered under this proposed fund are - HMT, ITI, Scooters India Limited, Andrew Yule, Fertilizer and Chemical Limited (Travancore) and Hindustan Photo Films Limited 3) Union Govt. on 6 August 2013 disclosed that six Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) have been closed in the country in the last 5 years. Which six CPSEs are these? - Bihar Drugs & Organic Chemicals Ltd. (in Bihar), Indian Oil Technologies Ltd. (in Delhi), Brushware Ltd. (in UP), Pyrites Phosphastes& Chemicals Ltd. (in Bihar), National Instruments Ltd. (in Bihar) and Bharat Yantra Nigam Ltd. (in UP)) allowed to offer mobile and fixed-line services using any technology. They can also provide Internet TV services. It allows companies to offer intra and intercircle roaming, but bars operations from acquiring subscribers in areas where they dont own a license The licenses acquired under this new norm will be valid for 20 years, and will be renewable for another ten years Telecom companies will have to pay a license fee of eight per cent of annual revenues from telecom services. All telecom companies will have to migrate to the new licensing regime upon expiry of their current permits 5) Union Govt. relaxed the norms for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the multi-brand retail on 1 August 2013 with a view to attract more investments and transparency in the sector. What are the major norms which were relaxed? Multi-brand retailers like Walmart are now required to source 30% of their products from the small and medium enterprises of India only at the time of starting the business Now state governments will have the right to grant permission to open a multi-brand retail store in cities of their states (Earlier 53 urban centers with a minimum population of 1 million were made eligible for opening-up of multibrand retail stores) Now the norm of 50% investment in the backend infrastructure for the retailers will be applicable, only during the first tranche of investments (within three years) of up to 100 million dollars

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4) Union Govt. on 2 August 2013 unveiled the long awaited Unified License norms for the telecom sector. What are the main features of this new norm? The new norm provides for delinking of spectrum from operational permits and allows companies to offer services using any technology. Telecom companies would be

6) Who will be the new Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as announced by the Finance Ministry on 6 August 2013? Raghuram Rajan, who is at present the Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India (Rajan will succeed the current RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao whose 5-year term ends on 4 September 2013. He has formerly worked as the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Rajan has been a gold medalist at IIT-Delhi and IIMAhmedabad and he will be the 23rd Governor of Indias central bank) 7) Who was appointed as the first woman Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of India (SBI) on 3 August 2013? - Arundhati Bhattacharya (Prior to this she was the managing director of SBI Capital, the merchant banking arm of the bank) 8) Who took over as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Central Bank of India during August, 2013? Rajeev Rishi (Rishi was Executive Director of Indian Bank till now and his tenure will be for 5 years)

9) The first arrest for default in paying which tax was made during August, 2013 after union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram finalized and approved applicable provisions of CrPC (criminal procedure code) to arrest such offenders? Service Tax (A courier company owner at Kolkata was arrested for allegedly evading service tax of about Rs. 70 lakh in the first such case) 10) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 7 August 2013 disclosed that it had imposed a penalty of Rs. 5,62,555 on the State Bank of India (SBI) on 12 July 2013 for violation of currency chest norms. Which currency chest of SBI was found deficient in following these norms? Secunderabad Branch of SBI, in Andhra Pradesh (The penalty was levied in connection with deficiencies and lapses in the operation and maintenance of the currency chest at the Secunderabad branch of SBI)

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1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) transferred its surplus profit to the government for the year ended June 2013, which is the highest amount to be transferred by the RBI to the government, except year 2007. How much amount was transferred as surplus profit to the govt.? Rs. 33,010 crore (This is more than a 100% jump over Rs 16,010 crore that the RBI transferred in the previous year. In 2007, gave Rs 45,719 crore as surplus profit. However, out of this, Rs 34,308 crore was accounted by the money generated by its stake sale in State Bank of India. The RBI transferred Rs 15,009 crore in 2010-11, Rs 18,759 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 25,009 crore in 2008-09) 2) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 14 August, 2013 cut down the amount of foreign exchange an Indian may use to invest or spend abroad from the current annual limit of $2,00,000 to $75,000 (This means Indian citizens would not be able to take out more than $75,000 in a year by way of travel or investment. In addition to this RBI imposed a restriction on Indians from making an investment in a property abroad. These measures were announced in a bid to check the drain on foreign exchange reserves in the country) 3) State Bank of India (SBI) on 17 August, 2013 achieved another milestone by opening its .branch. 15,000th (The 15,000th Branch of the SBI was inaugurated by Union

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Finance Minister P. Chidambaram at Tamil Nadus Sooranam, a Christian dominated area, and the 15,001st branch of the bank at Kalayarkovil, a Hindu dominated area nearby) 4) State Bank of Indias (SBIs) net profits for the quarter ended 30 June, 2013 stood at Rs. 3,241 crore against Rs. 3,752 crore in the last year for the same quarter, thus recording a 14% dip. What was the main reason for this fall in profits as disclosed by the bank? Huge increase in bad loans (SBIs bad loans increased by Rs 9,702 crore to Rs 60,891 crore as of 30 June, 2013) 5) An inter-ministerial committee constituted to suggest steps to contain the rising current account deficit (CAD) suggested higher taxes for non-essential imports with a view to curbing inward shipments and containing the current account deficit CAD. These suggestions form part of the recommendations made by the committee set up by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Who is the Chairman of this committee? - Rajat Bhargava, Joint Secretary (Budget Division) This committee has suggested higher taxes on those non-essential items which do not add to inflationary pressures. The Committee has also suggested a list of non-essential items the import of which could be compressed, with a view to bridge the trade gap. Trade gap in the first quarter of the current financial year stood at over $ 50 billion) 6) Indian Parliament on 8 August 2013 passed the Companies Bill, 2012, which replaced the 58-year old legislation with radical changes. What is the name of the old bill which was replaced by this legislation? Companies Act, 1956 (The new Companies Bill was passed after a wait of almost two decades and it seeks more transparency in corporate functioning in India. The bill is also a lot less bulky than the existing 1956 Act, with 470 sections as against the current 658 sections) 7) Union Govt. on 7 August 2013 allowed import of steel for major industrial projects without quality certification. The objective

behind this exemption is to give a push to the infrastructure sector of the country. The exemption will be available for projects in the field of infrastructure, petroleum, manufacturing products involving high end technologies, nuclear reactors, defence, chemical and petro-chemicals and fertiliser sectors. What is the prescribed investment limit for the projects to get this exemption? Not less than Rs. 1,000 crore (This announcement was made in a notification made by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The easing import norms came amidst domestic steel manufacturers demanding government to hike duty on imports to prevent steel dumping in the country) 8) The Finance Ministry on 14 August, 2013 announced that public sector insurance company Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) can increase its investments in companies up to 25% under special circumstances. What is the present investment limit of LIC in companies? 20% (LICs investment norm at present is settled at 20% but in special circumstances it can now go up to 25%. LIC for long has been perceived as the last resort for the govt. to meet its disinvestment target, though the Centre denies it) 9) What is the name of a proposed commission that will look into removing ambiguity and establishing a stable and non-adversarial tax administration in the country and establishment of which was approved by the union govt. during August, 2013? - Tax Administration Reform Commission TARC (Union Govt. has approved setting up of TARC on 13 August, 2013. TARC will be a seven member commission including a Chairman. The main objective of TARC will be to review the application of tax policies and tax laws in India in the context of best global practices and recommend measures

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to strengthen the capacity of the tax system in India) 10) On 15 August 2013 the visa-on-arrival facility for tourists visiting India was extended to four more cities. Which are these four cities which have been extended this facility? Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram (The visa-on-arrival facility was earlier available only for the four metro cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai). At present visitors from 11 countries (Japan,

Singapore, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia) are eligible to get this facility. The visa-on-arrival scheme has contributed to an increase in the number of tourists from these countries and the government was in the final stages of consultations on allowing the facility to citizens of another 10 countries, including Germany, France and Russia)

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1) Which bank of Andhra Pradesh came into news during August, 2013 for having opened about 1.5 lakh no-frills accounts in eight districts on a single day as part of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Govt.? Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank APGVB (The 638 branches of the bank together opened 72,122 accounts while the banks financial inclusion machinery under branch-less banking business correspondents model opened 75,320 no-frills accounts at 64 villages in Warangal district. These accounts, opened with zero balance and seeded with Aadhar Cards, will be uploaded on NPCI Mapper along with other banks to join Aadhar Payment Bridge to facilitate electronic fund transfer like subsidies, scholarships etc., from the government departments concerned) 2) On 23 August 2013 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the auction of two 48-days Government of India Cash Management Bills (CMBs). What is the primary benefit of issuing ICMBs? CMBs allow the RBI to meet the temporary cash flow mismatches of the Government of India (CMBs are flexible instruments for the RBI as they are issued at times of requirement. They allow the RBI to have lower cash balances and issue fewer longterm notes) 3) Who is heading the seven-member Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC), which was constituted by the Union Govt. on 26 August, 2013 to have a comprehensive review of existing tax laws and suggest a stable tax administration? Parthasarathy Shome (Apart from Shome, the commission will have Y G Parande and Sunita Kaila as full-time members while M K Zutshi, S S N Moorthy, M R Diwakar and S Mahalingam will be part-time members. TARCs tenure will be of 18-months. Setting-up of this commission was announced by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the Union Budget 2013-14 with an objective of reviewing the application of tax policies and tax laws) 4) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 August, 2013 announced imposition of a total of Rs.

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6.50 crore monetary penalty on six public sector banks for violation of rules relating to know your customer and anti-money laundering. Which 6 public sector banks are these? Allahabad Bank (Rs. 50 lakh), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs. 50.1 lakh), Corporation Bank (Rs. 1.50 crore), Dena Bank (Rs. 2 crore), IDBI Bank (Rs. 1 crore) and Indian Bank (Rs. 1 crore) This penalty was imposed after the RBI carried out a scrutiny of books of accounts, internal controls, compliance systems and processes at these banks 5) Which private sector bank claimed to have opened its 500th branch during August, 2013? Yes Bank (Yes Bank, which is the fourth largest private sector bank of India, also claimed that it has achieved its presence in all 28 states and 7 union territories of the country) 6) As per information furnished by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), what was the life insurance penetration rate in India in the year 2012? 3.17% (The penetration of life insurance sector in India has increased from 2.15% in 2001 to 3.17% in 2012 which is above that of Brazil, Russia, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Australia, Germany but below France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Insurance coverage in a country is generally measured by insurance penetration, which is the ratio of premium underwritten in a given year to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) 7) Cheraman Financial Services Limited (CFSL), which became the first Islamic financial services company to be launched in India, started its operations in which Indian state during August, 2013? Kerala (The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had given its approval to CFSL to launch banking

operations based on the concept of Islamic banking in Kerala. CFSL, a Sharia-compliant nonbanking financial company (NBFC), has been formed by a group of Gulf-based NRI businessmen led by P Muhamed Ali and the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) has a 11% stake in it) 8) Nishi Vasudevas name came to news during August, 2013 when she was selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) to head a Navratna category PSU and thus is on the way to become the first-ever woman to head a Navratna PSU. She is expected to take over as the Chairman and Managing Director of which PSU in March, 2014? - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd HPCL (PESB selected her name after interviewing seven other candidates for top post at HPCL. The PESBs recommendation will now go to the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry, which after getting the mandatory clearances, including those from Central Vigilance Commission and CBI will send it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for necessary clearance and approval) 9) According to the latest data released by the Planning Commission on 17 August, 2013 more than 40 crore 29 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been issued till 31st July, 2013 in the country. Which state is leading in issuing Aadhaar numbers, as stated in this data? Andhra Pradesh (With 65,941,390 Aadhaar numbers issued till 31st July Andhra Pradesh is the leading state as far as issue of Aadhaar numbers is concerned. It is followed by Maharashtra with 62,697,942 and Madhya Pradesh with 27,773,394 Aadhaar numbers. Only 1,848 Aadhaar numbers were issued in Arunachal Pradesh by 31st July. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has reiterated that

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the target of 60 crore Aadhaar enrolments will be achieved by 2014) 10) Which state on 20 August, 2013 became the first to launch the food security scheme for its

citizens? Delhi (UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched the scheme in Delhi by giving away food security ration cards to beneficiaries along with a 5-kg packet of rice. Delhi was the first State to clear the scheme)

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1) What instruction pertaining to home loans was issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 3 September, 2013 to banks? The RBI asked banks to link the disbursal of home loans to stages of construction (This instruction was issued with an objective to protect the interests of buyers and contain the fallout of some innovative housing finance schemes. RBI in its instruction mentioned that upfront disbursal should not be made in cases of incomplete/under-construction/green field housing projects. The notification follows the introduction by some banks of innovative housing loan schemes in association with developers/builders, where upfront disbursal of housing loans is made to builders without being linked to the various stages of construction) 2) How much loan amount was written-off by the public sector banks of India during the January-March quarter of 2012-13 as announced by the Union Govt. in Parliament on 30 August, 2013? Rs. 14,549 crore (The public sector banks made recovery of bad assets to the tune of Rs 16,464 crore during this period. Banks resort to write off bad loans only after exhausting all other possible avenues for recovery or when the asset coverage is not enough) 2) From 1 September, 2013 a new radiation norm put in place by Telecom Ministry came into effect for companies manufacturing or importing mobile phones for sale in India. According to this norm what is the maximum prescribed SAR (specific absorption rate) for mobile phones in India? - 1.6 watt over a gram of human tissue, if a consumer uses it for six minutes (With the new SAR norm, India would become one of few countries that are following the most stringent norm of 1.6 watt a kg average over six minutes period on 1 gram of human tissue. Old stock of handsets available in Indian market can be sold but no fresh stock of non-compliant mobile phones will be allowed to be sold from 1 September)

4) What was the growth rate of GDP (gross domestic product) for Indian economy for the first quarter of the final year (April-June 2013)? 4.4% (This growth rate of GDP was slowest since the 2008 global financial crisis. It is lower than the 5.4% growth logged in April-June last year and 4.8% in January-March this year. Main reason for slow growth rate has been attributed to poor performance registered by countrys manufacturing and mining sector. While manufacturing output fell 1.2 per cent, mining declined 2.8 per cent during this period) 5) What are the important features of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012 that was passed by the Lok Sabha on 29 August, 2013? The bill proposes that land cannot be acquired for any private projects unless they fall in the following categories: infrastructure projects, industrial corridors, mining, investment and manufacturing zones, sports, healthcare, transport projects, and space programme

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The bill proposes that farmers and landowners be paid up to four times the market value for land acquired in rural areas, and two times the market value in urban areas The consent of 80% of land owners is needed for acquiring land for private projects and of 70% landowners for public-private projects The Bill only sets a bottom line for fair compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement in the case of land acquisition and State governments are free to further improve upon it 6) In view of continuous decline in the value of Indian Rupee, what step was taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for helping three state-owned oil marketing companies (IOC, HPCL and BPCL) who require a large amount of foreign exchange for meeting their import bills? A special window was opened for meeting their daily foreign exchange requirement (This special window will provide forex swap facility to these 3 companies which require $8-8.5 billion every month for the import of an average 7.5 million tonnes of crude oil. The RBI decision is aimed at curbing volatility in the forex market. Under the swap facility the RBI will sell/buy USD-INR forex swaps for fixed tenor with the oil marketing companies through a designated bank) 7) In an effort to boost forex inflows, the Finance Ministry has worked out a strategy for as many as 10 public sector entities to tap Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) to raise at least Rs 15,000 crore in foreign currency. This will be part of a tax-free bond issue. Which 10 public sector entities are these? NHB, IIFCL, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, HUDCO, Rural Electrification Corporation, Power Finance

Corporation, National Highway Authority of India, NTPC, NHPC and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (This is the first time that such funds have been allowed to be part of a tax-free bond issue. SWFs are normally state-owned, with funds collected from budget and trade surpluses. The money is normally invested in real and financial assets at home and abroad. Oil-rich West Asian nations own many of the worlds largest SWFs. A tax-free bond is an instrument where investors do not have to pay tax on interest. Such an instrument is normally a long-term one, and the money raised is deployed in long-term infrastructure projects) 8) Which mutual fund company during August 2013 launched an auto premium payment system in collaboration with Life Insurance Corporation to enable its mutual fund investors to pay their insurance premium? - LIC Nomura Mutual Fund (Under the scheme, mutual fund investors will have a facility of paying their premium on time without any hassles. Through the facility, the premium amount of the investor on due date will be remitted to LIC by LIC Nomura Mutual Fund, out of the investors fund. No additional charge will be levied for availing this facility) 9) The Indian Rupee fell sharply on 28 August, 2013 to hit a record low of 68.80 to the dollar. This was its biggest single-day percentage fall since how many years? 18 years (This was the largest single-day percentage fall of the Indian Rupee since October 1995. The partially convertible rupee closed at 68.80 per dollar, compared to its close of 66.24 on 27 August. The unit also posted its biggest fall in absolute terms ever, dropping 256 basis points on the day)

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10) Leading mobile phone manufacturer Nokia Corporation of Finland on 3 September, 2013 announced signing an agreement to sell substantially all of its Devices & Services business, license and patents in an all-cash deal of 5.44 billion. The company expects to gain 3.2 billion from this deal. To which company is Nokia selling its business? Microsoft

Corporation (The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, subject to approval by Nokia shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. After the deal closure Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop, will move to Microsoft Corp.)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 37

1) State Bank of India (SBI) during September 2013 tightened its eligibility conditions for its four-wheeler loan scheme with a view to minimising possible defaults. From now on persons with an annual income of Rs. 6 lakh or more will get SBIs car loans. What was SBIs eligibility condition for availing car loan till now? An annual income of Rs. 2.5 lakh or more (For SBI account holders, the limit has been raised to Rs 4.5 lakh per annum. The rationale for increase in the eligibility criteria is to revise the gross income limit upwards in view of moderation in the economy) 2) The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), chief regulator of forwards and futures commodity markets in India, will, henceforth, be overseen by the Ministry of Finance. FMC was under which ministry/department till now? - Department of Consumer Affairs under the Ministry of Food (This decision was taken at the highest level, and notified in the wake of alleged scam in National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL). The decision has been approved by President Pranab Mukherjee) 3) Which private sector bank during September, 2013 launched Branch on Wheels, an initiative to offer basic banking services in remote areas which have so far been devoid of banking facilities? ICICI Bank (Branch on Wheels is a mobile branch of the bank, which will offer basic banking products and services such as savings accounts, loans, cash deposit/withdrawal, account balance enquiries, statement printing and funds transfer/DD/PO collection, among others. It will also have an ATM. Banks first Branch on Wheels was launched in Kolhapur, Maharashtra and it will cover four unbanked villages) 4) Newly appointed RBI Governor on 4 September, 2013 announced constitution of a committee to take a close look at rising NPAs and suggest steps to improve the recovery of bad debts. Who has been appointed as the head of this committee? - K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of the RBI 5) BRICS nations on 5 September, 2013 gave further impetus to the proposed formation of a $100-billion Currency Reserve Fund (CRF) by announcing individual contributions to the fund. What is the agreed individual contribution of the 5 BRICS countries to this fund? China $41 billion, Brazil, India and Russia - $18 billion each and South Africa - $5 billion (The fund would eventually allow the five nations to access the fund to deal with short-term

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volatility in their capital flows, which might negatively impact their currencies. The idea of such a fund found traction in the last BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, earlier this year) 6) What were the main highlights of the Economic Outlook 2013-14 released by Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C. Rangarajan on 13 September, 2013? GDP growth for 2013-14 lowered to 5.3%, from 6.4% in April, 2013 Current Account Deficit (CAD) highlighted as main concern, estimated to come down to $70 billion or 3.8% of GDP Agriculture growth pegged at 4.8% Industrial growth pegged at 2.7% Services growth to decelerate to 6.6%, from 7.1 % in 2012-13 Trade deficit projected at $185 billion Gold imports seen at $38 billion Net capital inflows to come down to $61.4 billion from $89.4 billion 7) President Pranab Mukherjee during September, 2013 gave his approval to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill (PFRDA), 2011. The bill seeks to establish, develop and regulate pension funds to protect the interests of subscribers to schemes of pension funds and assures minimum returns to subscribers. This bill seeks to grant statutory status to which entity to empower it to regulate National Pension Scheme (NPS)? - Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority PFRDA (The bill would also provide subscribers a wide choice to invest their funds for assured returns, like opting for government bonds as well as in other funds depending on their capacity to take risk)

8) Raghuram Govind Rajan took over as the 23th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 4 September, 2013. On this day itself he came out with a slew of measures, including more trade settlement in rupees to rescue the battered financial markets and hinted at a shift in focus from inflation control, pursued by his predecessor D. Subbarao, to boosting growth. He announced setting up of an outside panel of experts to screen applications for new bank licenses. Who was appointed as the head of this expert panel? Bimal Jalan, Former Governor of the RBI 9) Which company came to news for raising a bond issue of $49 billion on 11 September, 2013, which is the largest corporate bond deal in the world till date? Verizon (Verizon is an American telecommunications and broadband company. The sale dwarfs the previous record, Apples sale of $17 billion in bonds in April. Proceeds from the sale will help Verizon buy the rest of its U.S. wireless business from partner Vodafone. On September 2, 2013, it was announced that Verizon would buy the remaining stake that Vodafone owns in their join venture Verizon Wireless for $130 billion. This deal is the third largest in corporate history) 10) What is the name given to Googles next version of Android-based operating system (Android 4.4) for smartphones and tabs? KitKat (Android 4.4 KitKat was announced as the name for companys upcoming new Androidbased operating system for mobile devices. This name is in keeping with Googles penchant for giving tasty names to its software for powering mobile devices. The list of Android software names over the years includes Cupcake, Donut, Froyo, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. KitKat is a chocolate-covered wafer

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created by British-based Rowntrees, now produced worldwide by Nestle. Google claims

that Android software powers more than a billion smartphones or tablets worldwide)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 38

1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 September, 2013 announced a 13-member committee to frame a clear and detailed vision for financial inclusion/deepening across the country. This committee named The Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households is being headed by - Nachiket Mor, member on the RBIs Central Board of Directors (The committee members are: Bindu Ananth (President, IFMR Trust); Prakash Bakshi (Chairman, Nabard); Bharat Doshi (Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services); A. P. Hota (Managing Director and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India); Sunil Kaushal (CEO, Standard Chartered Bank India); Roopa Kudva (MD and CEO, Crisil); Zia Mody (Managing Partner, AZB & Partners); S. S. Mundra (CMD, Bank of Baroda); Vikram Pandit (former CEO, Citigroup); Ramesh Ramanathan (Chairman, Janalakshmi Financial Services) and Shikha Sharma (MD & CEO, Axis Bank)) 2) In what seemed like an unexpected move Reserve Bank of Indias (RBIs) newly appointed Governor Raghuram Rajan in his maiden Monetary Policy Review on 20 September, 2013 raised the repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF). He thus kept RBIs focus on controlling inflation, which it felt would be above the expected levels in the current fiscal. What is the new Repo Rate? 7.5% (Repo Rate was increased by 25 basis points from its earlier level of 7.25%) 3) What were the main highlights of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajans first monetary policy review presented on 20 September, 2013 since taking office on 4 September? Following are the main highlights of Raghuram Rajans first monetary policy review Repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) increased by 25 basis points from 7.25% to 7.5% with immediate effect (This move clearly reiterated the fact that RBI is still keeping its focus on bringing down the inflation. Consequently, the Reverse Repo Rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 6.5%, and the bank rate stands reduced to 9.5% with immediate effect) Marginal standing facility (MSF) rate reduced by 75 basis points from 10.25% to 9.5% with immediate effect The minimum daily maintenance of the cash reserve ratio (CRR) reduced from 99% of the requirement to 95% effective from the fortnight beginning 21 September, 2013 (This move was aimed at inducing liquidity into the system) Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) kept unchanged at 4.0% (CRR is the portion of deposits that banks are required to maintain with the RBI in cash) (With these changes, the MSF rate and the bank rate are re-calibrated to 200 basis points above the repo rate) 4) A high-level panel on 23 September, 2013 submitted to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram its report on the alleged irregularities at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL). The panel in its report recommended two sets of measures to deal with the NSEL issue and also the problem of regulatory gaps in oversight of spot exchanges. Enforcement action has been recommended against NSEL and the persons behind the company. Who headed this panel on

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NSEL? - Arvind Mayaram, Economic Affairs Secretary 5) Air India tied up with which public-sector bank to launch a co-branded credit card that provides numerous privileges to the holder? SBI (This newly launched credit card has been named Air India SBI Credit Card and it allows a customer spending Rs 5 lakh in a year to earn up to three Delhi-Mumbai return tickets on Air India. The launch of this credit card marks the beginning of a new collaboration between the two major public sector entities (Air India and SBI). State Bank of India is also the leader of a consortium of banks that have helped Air India in its financial restructuring exercise. SBI Cards is a joint venture between SBI and GE Capital) 6) Insurance Regulatory and Development Authoritys (IRDAs) insurance repository system was launched by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on 16 September, 2013. This repository system, which is claimed by IRDA as the first-of-its-kind in the world is situated in Hyderabad (The objective of creating an insurance repository is to provide policyholders the facility to keep insurance policies in electronic form (like shares are kept in Demat account). Five companies have been given the status of insurance repositories and have been provided with a licence that will be valid till 31 July, 2014. Insurers can enter into agreements with one or more repositories) 7) SEBI on 16 September, 2013 notified new norms for angel investors, who provide funding to companies at their initial stages. This has been done with an objective of giving encouragement to entrepreneurship in the country by financing small start-ups. What are the important points under this notification? Angel investors have been allowed to be registered as Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which is a newly created class of pooledin investment vehicles for real estate, private equity and hedge funds

Investments under angel investing restricted between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 5 crore Angel funds can make investments only in those companies which are incorporated in India Angel funds needs to be invested in a firm for at least three years Angel funds can be availed for companies not older than 3 years Angel funds are required to have a corpus of at least Rs 10 crore and minimum investment by an investor should be Rs 25 lakh 8) How much advance tax for second quarter of present financial year was paid by countrys largest commercial bank State Bank of India (SBI), as announced by it on 15 September, 2013? Rs. 1,120 crore (This was about 40% less than that paid during the corresponding period last year when it paid Rs. 1,820 crore. The advance tax pay-out decline from SBI comes amid a period of gloom on the economic front, with the quarterly GDP growth falling to a four-year low of 4.4 per cent for the April-June period) 9) An advanced universal banking solution named Finacle 11E was launched on 18 September, 2013 by a leading IT company of India. This banking solution has been developed to enable banks of all sizes to rapidly modernize their operations. Which company launched this solution? Infosys (Finacle is a range of CBS banking solutions developed by Infosys for Indian banks) 10) The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) opened its tour programme in India at Delhi under the aegis of the Department of Electronics & Information Technology on 17 September, 2013 to promote the features of a new standard for application developers. Which

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new standard is this which is expected to meet the goal of Open Web Platform? HTML 5 (HTML 5 is the next evolution of web development standards by which application developers create end-user experience. One of the most important benefits of HTML 5 is that it is capable of making the Web useful on mobile and wireless devices, which will be next

paradigm shift for internet growth in India. HTML 5 is intended to subsume not only HTML 4, but also XHTML 1 and DOM Level 2 HTML. W3W also held its tours programmes to promote HTML 5 at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkota and Pune)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 39

1) What is the per employee business generation of all Indian banks for 2012-13 according to the latest data on Indian banking sector released by the RBI during October, 2013? - 12.13 crore (RBI released A Profile of Banks: 2012-13, which mentions statistics pertaining to per employee business generation of Indian banks for year 2012-13. However, the business per employee of Indias largest bank SBI was Rs. 9.43 crore, which is much below the aggregate of all banks) 2) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 4 October, 2013 set up a four-member committee under former Governor Bimal Jalan to scrutinize applications for new bank licences. These licenses are expected to be awarded by January, 2014. Who are the other three members of this committee? - Usha Thorat (former RBI Deputy Governor), C B Bhave (former SEBI Chairman) and Nachiket Mor (financial sector expert) - The committee will make its recommendations to the Governor and Deputy Governors, who will make the final proposals to the committee of the RBI central board. There are 26 applicants from the public and private sector for bank licences, including Tata Sons, Indias biggest business group, and firms controlled by billionaires Anil Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla. 3) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 25 September 2013 announced imposition of ban on a very popular scheme for consumers to purchase consumer goods. Which scheme is this? Scheme of 0% interest on EMIs (RBI imposed ban as banks were reluctant to disclose the hidden charges charged by them on purchases done through these schemes. RBI maintained that the very concept of zero per cent interest is non-existent and fair practice demands that the processing charge and interest charged should be kept uniform product or segment wise, irrespective of the sourcing channel, as such schemes only serve the purpose of exploiting vulnerable customers. RBI also issued guidelines that no additional charges can be levied on payment through debit cards. In the zero per cent EMI schemes offered on credit cards, the interest element is often camouflaged and passed on to customers in the form of processing fee) 4) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 30 September, 2013 came up with a report titled A Profile of Banks: 2012-13, which among other data, reported statistics pertaining to net non-performing assets (NPA) of the banking sector. What are the important NPA figures mentioned in this report?

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The net NPA of all banks increased to 1.68% of the total loan at the end of 2012-13 (The net NPA of all banks was 1.28% at the end of 201112. Increase in net NPA reflects deterioration in economic activities) Net NPA of the 26 public sector banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), rose to 2.02% during the year as compared to 1.53% in the previous fiscal SBI and its five associates recorded a net NPA of 2.04% against 1.76% in the comparable period Net NPA of new private sector bank rose marginally to 0.45% as compared to 0.42% Tight liquidity situation resulted in increase in cost of funds of all commercial banks to 6.12% as against 5.90% in 2011-12 The cost of funds for state-owned banks rose to 6.27% from 6.06% in 2011-12 5) What was Indias Current Account Deficit (CAD) for the April-June quarter of the current fiscal as declared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 30 September, 2013? - $21.8 billion (CAD is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange) Other important facts pertaining to CAD during April-June quarter of 2013 CAD for the quarter was 4.9% of the GDP (CAD was 4.4% or $16.9 billion in the same quarter of last fiscal, 2012-13) High imports of gold and oil were the main reasons responsible for pushing up the CAD. Gold imports increased by $7.3 billion in the first quarter of current fiscal. Excluding the increase in gold imports of $7.3 billion in Q1 of 2013-14 over the corresponding quarter of the preceding year, CAD would work out to $14.5 billion, which translates into 3.2% cent of GDP CAD had declined to 3.6% in the January-March quarter after touching a record high of 6.5% in the October-December quarter

The government plans to bring down CAD to 3.7% or $70 billion in the 2013-14 fiscal, from 4.8% or $88.2 billion in 2012-13 6) Which public-sector bank during August, 2013 launched a unique Own Your NPA (nonperforming asset) campaign to focus its managers energies on making recoveries from the top 20 bad loan accounts at the zonal, regional and branch levels? IDBI Bank (As part of the Own Your NPA campaign, each zonal, regional and branch manager will personally go and meet the customers. IDBI Bank has identified a total number of 1,522 cases under the campaign involving an aggregate principal outstanding of Rs 5,805 crore. The campaign ends on 31 December, 2013) 7) Which public-sector bank has installed 2,000 Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs) at marketplaces across the country in the last one year to give facility of depositing money round the clock to its customers? State Bank of India (In order to tap currency in the hands of the public, Indias largest bank SBI has been installing CDMs at marketplaces across the country. Traders, shopkeepers and vegetable vendors can deposit cash into these CDMs anytime of the day (24x7) and 365 days of the year just by swiping their SBI ATM-cum-debit card. The money gets instantly credited to their account and they get a receipt for their transaction. The average cash collection per machine a day is Rs 4 lakh. SBI plans to install 1,000 more machines this year) 8) Indian capital market regulator SEBI on 12 September, 2013 issued new guidelines which make the KYC (know your customer) norm easier for foreign investors. SEBI has classified foreign investors into how many categories in this new guideline? Three Categories Category I, Category II and Category III (The

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issued guidelines relate to registration and disclosure norms for low risk foreign investors. Category I includes Government and Government related foreign investors such as Foreign Central Banks, Governmental Agencies, Sovereign Wealth Funds, International, Multilateral Organizations and Agencies. Category II broad-based regulated funds such as mutual funds, investment\reinvestment companies and investment trusts. Category III includes foreign investors such as charitable trusts/societies, Endowments, trusts, corporate bodies, families, etc which do not invest in India through the PIS route) 9) Life insurance policies of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) became costlier from 1 October, 2013 due to an IRDA guideline that came into effect from this date. What guideline is this? Levy of 3% service-tax on all non-unitlinked products beginning 1 October 2013 (While private insurers add a service tax component to the premium paid by customers, LIC has not been levying the tax on its popular endowment and money-back plans. From 1 October, however, all LIC policies will attract a

separate service tax. In an announcement, insurance watchdog IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) mandated that service tax shall not be included in the contractual premium, but collected from policyholder separately. LIC is the largest lifeinsurance provider in India with a market share of around 83%) 10) Who was awarded the 5th Deutsche Bank Prize for Financial Economics 2013 on 26 September, 2013? Dr. Raghuram Rajan, the Governor of the RBI (The academic prize is sponsored by the Deutsche Bank Donation Fund and carries an endowment of euro 50,000. The Centre for Financial Studies (CFS) awards the prize bi-annually in partnership with Goethe University Frankfurt. Dr. Rajan had in 2005 warned about the dangers of building up unsustainable imbalances in the financial system, three years ahead of global financial crisis. Dr. Rajan was picked up for the prize from more than 260 nominations from top universities, central banks and research centres in 37 countries. More than half of the nominations came from the U.S.)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 40

1) Who is poised to become the first woman to head the US Federal Reserve, which is the central bank of the United States? - Janet Yellen (Yellen was nominated to head US Federal Reserve by President Barack Obama on 9 October, 2013. Yellen has been the deputy Chairman of Federal Reserve since 2010. She will succeed Ben S. Bernanke, whose term expires on 31 January, 2014) 2) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during October, 2013 constituted a committee to examine the feasibility of encrypted SMS-based fund transfers so as to boost mobile banking in the country. Who will head this committee? - B. Sambamurthy, Director, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) - The committee will study challenges faced by banks in mobile banking. It will consider the advantages/ challenges of

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having a single application across all handsets in an SMS-encrypted environment. The committee will also look at any other solution to expand the reach of mobile banking and accordingly, draw a roadmap to implement those solutions) 3) The Union Government on 7 October, 2013 cleared the elevation of Arundhati Bhattacharya as the new Chairperson of SBI. Consequently she became the first woman to head SBI, which is Indias largest commercial bank of India. Bhattacharya became the head of SBI 24th (She succeeded Pratip Chaudhuri, who retired on 30 September, 2013. Her tenure will be of around two and a half years) 4) Which corporate company on 14 October, 2013 became the first Indian corporate to achieve sales of more than Rs 1,00,000 crore in a quarter? Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) RILs turnover or sales soared 14.2% to Rs 1,06,523 crore during the second quarter (JulySeptember) of 2013-14. Companys net profit for the quarter stood at Rs. Rs 5,490 crore, up 1.5% from Rs. 5,409 crore a year earlier) 5) Three American economists - Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen (both with the University of Chicago) and Robert Shiller (Yale University) won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Economics. This announcement was made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 14 October, 2013. What was the area of research of these three economists for which they were selected for this prestigious award? For developing new methods to study trends in asset markets (Fama, Hansen and Shiller had laid the foundation of the current understanding of asset prices. The economics award is not a Nobel Prize in the same sense as the medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and peace prizes, which were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in 1895. Swedens central bank added the economics prize in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel)

6) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 7 October, 2013 eased more money into the system to help banks offer affordable lending options to retail customers. For this, which two steps were taken by the RBI : Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) was brought down to 9% by cutting it down by 50 basis points from 9.5% (MSF is the rate at which banks borrow funds overnight from RBI against approved government securities) Banks were allowed to borrow money from RBI for one-week and two-weeks (This new offer of extended period loans is also expected to further ease liquidity in the system) (These measures came in the wake of a gradual stability in the rupee and point towards a seemingly combined effort by both the central bank and the government to pep up demand during the festive season of 2013) 7) What is the name of a new class of investors, which was announced by Indian capital market regulator SEBI during October, 2013 and which would encompass all FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors), their sub-accounts and Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs)? - Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPIs) - With the announcement of FPI, a new regime for overseas investments in Indian capital markets was ushered. The KYC (Know Your Client) requirements and other registration procedures would be much simpler for FPIs compared to current practices. The SEBI also decided to grant them a permanent registration, as against the current practice of granting approvals for one year or five years to the overseas entities seeking to invest in Indian markets. The SEBI board approved the new Sebi (Foreign Portfolio Investors) Regulations, 2013 to bring about these wide-ranging changes) 8) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during September 2013 gave his approval for setting

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up of a new Central Pay Commission which is expected to give its recommendations in about two years. This will be Central Pay Commission 7th (The recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission are likely to be implemented with effect from 1 January, 2016. The recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission were implemented from 1 January, 2006. The recommendations of this Pay Commission will benefit about 50 lakh central government employees, including those in defence and railways, and about 30 lakh pensioners) 9) Which African country on 2 October, 2013 announced its decision to quit Commonwealth? Gambia (Gambia is a Western African country and was a member of the Commonwealth since 1965, when it gained independence from Britain. The Gambian government did not give a reason for the decision to leave the Commonwealth. However, it comes amid a greater emphasis by Britain on human rights

and increasing pressure to promote equality based on sexuality. Commonwealth is a group of over 50 countries made up largely of former British colonies. Gambia called Commonwealth a neo-colonial institution while announcing its withdrawal from this group headed by British monarch Queen Elizabeth) 10) The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 as announced on 12 October, 2013. This award was given to the organization for its extensive efforts to rid the world of chemical arsenals. The 189-member OPCW has its headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands (OPCW was founded in 1997 to enforce the Chemical Weapons Convention, the first international treaty to outlaw an entire class of weapons. The OPCW has conducted more than 5,000 inspections in 86 countries. It says 100 percent of the declared chemical weapons stockpiles have been inventoried and verified)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 41

1) Indian security market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 28 October, 2013 asked mutual funds to adopt different districts to increase their penetration. SEBI gave reference of a CRISIL report on mutual funds, which quotes data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to disclose the fact that Indian mutual fund market has been dominated by investors belonging to large cities of the country. According to this report what percentage of the gross mutual fund market has been captured by investors of Indias five largest cities? 74% (Another problem effecting Indian mutual fund market is the fact that mutual funds lost 8% or nearly 35 lakh retail folios over past six months ended September, 2013 according to the latest data released by AMFI. Therefore SEBI is pushing to increase mutual fund penetration in small districts of the country for which mutual funds can also adopt some districts) 2) What is the name of a panel constituted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during October 2013, which would give its recommendations for implementing a national Indian Bill Payment System so that households will be able to use bank accounts to pay school fees, utilities, medical bills and make remittances

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electronically? - GIRO Advisory Group (GAG) GAG is headed by Prof. Umesh Bellur, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The panel would submit its report by the end of December, 2013 3) The Finance Ministry on 23 October, 2013 finalised the bank-wise capital allocation, which is part of the capital infusion plan for 20 public sector banks which altogether will get Rs 14,000 crore. How much capital will be infused into the State Bank of India (SBI)? Rs. 2000 crore (SBI has got the largest share in this capital infusion initiative. The capital infusion is done with the twin objective of adequately meeting the credit requirement of the productive sectors of the economy as well as to maintain regulatory capital adequacy ratios. Banks can raise Rs 10,000 crore from markets against the Rs 14,000 crore infusion) 4) The Planning Commission during October 2013 decided that the Raghuram Rajan committee report on the development index for states will not work for distribution of all central funds. The commission's move was in response to protests made by several states at the new ordering of backwardness that has been drawn up by the committee headed by Rajan. The Planning Commission instead set up for a new two-member plan panel for a fresh look at the issues involved in transferring money to state governments from plan budget. Who are the two members of this newly set up committee? Mihir Shah and Abhijit Sen 5) Which four NBFC-Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) during October 2013 became the first MFIs to be given the mfR1 grading by CRISIL, which is the highest grading under its eightpoint scale specially designed for evaluating the operations of MFIs?- Bandhan Financial

Services, Kolkata, Equitas Microfinance, Chennai, Janalakshmi Financial Services and Ujjivan Financial Services headquartered in Bangalore 6) The first meeting of the seven-member Tax Administration Reforms Commission (TARC) led by Parthasarathi Shome was held on 21 October, 2013 at Delhi. What is the tenure of TARC, which will act as an advisory body to the Finance Ministry? 18 months (TARC is expected to submit its first report in six months, suggesting measures to prevent economic offences among other things) 7) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 19 October, 2013 launched the new Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system for large-value funds transfer. This new RTGS system provides new functionalities like advance liquidity features, gridlock resolution mechanism and hybrid settlement facility, facility to accept future value-dated transactions and options to process multi-currency transactions. It complies with which latest ISO standard system? - ISO 20022 (The RTGS system is used to settle interbank fund transfers by banks and their customers and is critical in facilitating orderly settlement of payment obligations. With the implementation of the new RTGS system, new regulations replaced the operating guidelines and regulations of 2004) 8) During October, 2013 it was reported that the public sector banks, which were required to install onsite ATMs at 34,668 branches by March 31, 2013 had set up 5,726 ATMs at the end of August 2013. Hence In the remaining days of the financial year, the 26 public sector banks will together have to set up 28,942 ATMs, or an average of 137 every day to achieve the target of ATM at every branch by 31 March,

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2014. Under which drive the Finance Ministry had asked the public-sector banks to have onsite ATMs or ATMs at branches by the end of March 2014? Financial Inclusion Drive (The government had directed public sector banks to have ATMs at all their branches as part of its financial inclusion drive) 9) The Union Cabinet on 17 October, 2013 gave its approval for setting up six additional benches of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), including three at the existing locations in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. In which three cities new bench of CESTAT would be established? - Chandigarh, Allahabad and Hyderabad (At present, CESTAT has three benches each in Delhi and Mumbai and one bench each at Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. CESTAT was set up in 1982 to provide an independent and impartial forum to hear the appeal against orders and decisions passed by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise under the Customs Act 1962, Central Excise Act 1944 and Gold (Control) Act, 1968) 10) Three American economists - Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen (both with the University of Chicago) and Robert Shiller (Yale University) won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Economics. This announcement was made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 14 October, 2013. What was the area of research of these three

economists for which they were selected for this prestigious award? For developing new methods to study trends in asset markets (Fama, Hansen and Shiller had laid the foundation of the current understanding of asset prices. The economics award is not a Nobel Prize in the same sense as the medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and peace prizes, which were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in 1895. Swedens central bank added the economics prize in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel) 11) HDFC Bank, Indias third largest bank, posted a 27.1% increase in profit to Rs. 1,982 crore for the quarter ended September 2013, announcement about which was made on 15 October, 2013. What was an important fact associated with this announcement? This was HDFC Banks slowest quarterly growth in a decade and it was for the first time in a decade that banks profit growth fell below 30%) 12) Which European country announced its decision to exit the international bailout programme by December 2013 and seek funds from other outside sources? - The Republic of Ireland (The 85bn euro (73bn) bailout was forced on the country after its biggest banks collapsed in 2010. Ireland sought help after a property crash left its banks under-capitalised)

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Banking & Financial Awareness - 42

1) Who on 12 November, 2013 was appointed as the first Chairperson and Managing Director of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the first allwomen bank of India? Usha Anathasubramaniam (Usha assumed her charge on the same day. Prior to her appointment she was the Executive Director with Punjab National Bank (PNB))

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2) What was the guideline issued by the RBI on 29 October, 2013 pertaining to transactionbased SMSes by banks? - The RBI asked banks to charge customers for transaction SMS alerts on the basis of usage, instead of imposing a fixed fee, to ensure equity and be reasonable (In its guideline the RBI said that fees based on actual usage are necessary to ensure reasonableness and equity in charges levied by banks. In March 2011, the RBI had set guidelines for banks to send online alerts to customers for all types of transactions, irrespective of the amount. However, the central bank had not issued rules on charging customers for these alerts) 3) The RBI on 29 October, 2013 allowed the commercial banks to revise the periodicity of interest payments. This guideline was announced under RBIs Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2013-14 by Governor Raghram Rajan. The guideline will now enable savings bank account and term deposit holders to earn interest at shorter intervals. What is present practice of interest payment adopted by banks? At present banks pay interest on savings and term deposits at quarterly or longer intervals (RBI had deregulated the savings interest rates of banks in 2011) 4) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on 29 October, 2013 hiked the repo rate by 25 basis points in the October monetary policy review. The repo rate is now at 7.75%. What was the main reason for increasing the repo rate? Increase in inflation during the past few months (Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation touched 6.46% in September while consumer price index inflation was at 9.84%. Both these measures have been way beyond the comfort level of the RBI. Repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow short term funds from RBI) 5) RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on 29 October, 2013 cut the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate by 25 bps to 8.75% in the October monetary policy review. What was the

significance of this move from the view of repo rate? The gap between the repo rate and the MSF rate is now back to 100 bps, which signals the return to normalcy in currency markets. The MSF is an emergency window that banks borrow from when faced with a funds crunch) 6) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on 6 November, 2013, permitted wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) of foreign banks to acquire domestic private sector banks as well as set up branches anywhere in the country. It also allowed foreign bank subsidiary to list on local stock exchanges. What is the maximum holding above which foreign bank subsidiaries would not be able to hold in domestic private sector banks? 74% (It is the sectoral cap for overall foreign investment and would apply in this case too) 7) What was Indias unemployment rate during the five year period ending 2009-10, data pertaining to which was released by the National Sample Survey Organisation on 26 October, 2013? 2.8% (This displayed fall of 1% in unemployment rate from 3.8% during previous 5-year period. The data pertaining to unemployment rate was based on NSSOs 8th Quinquennial survey on employment and unemployment conducted in the 66th round of NSS during July 2009 to June 2010) 8) Which city witnessed maximum unemployment rate during the five year period ending 2009-10, as stated in the latest NSSO report released on 26 October, 2013? Patna (Patna witnessed unemployment rate of 13.2% during this period and it was followed by Kanpur which witnessed 7.7% unemployment) 9) Which city witnessed minimum unemployment rate during the five year period ending 2009-10, as stated in the latest NSSO report released on 26 October, 2013? Bhopal (Bhopal witnessed an unemployment rate of just 0.1% during this period. Gujarats Surat was in second place with unemployment rate of 0.6%)

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10) Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) retained his title as Indias wealthiest person for sixth year in a row. His networth stood at $21 billion. NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal (USD 16 billion) also continues to hold the second position in this list released by the Forbes magazine. Who pushed IT czar Azim Premji of Wipro to fourth position to become third richest Indian? - Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharmas Shanghvi jumped to third place

with about 50% surge in his wealth to $13.9 billion while Azim Premjis wealth stood at $13.8 billion. Other people on this list include Pallonji Mistry (5th position with $12.5 billion), Hinduja brothers (6th position with $9 billion), Shiv Nadar (7th position with $8.6 billion), Adi Godrej (8th position with $8.3 billion), Kumar Mangalam Birla (9th position with $7.6 billion) and Sunil Mittal (10th position with ($6.6 billion)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 43

1) Following the attack on a woman at an ATM in Bangalore during November 2013, the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to drop which plan associated with increasing the penetration of ATMs in the country? - White-label ATMs (Under the plan of White-label ATMs, it would be the responsibility of the private agencies to locate, install, and maintain these ATMs. Whitelabel ATMs can be opened by even those entities which are not in banking operations. BEFI is of the view that security is a major issue with White-label ATMs. Indias first white-label ATM IndiCash was started during 2013 by Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd. (TCPSL), a subsidiary of Tata Communications) 2) The first all-women Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) was launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 19 November, 2013 with the inauguration of the first branch of the bank. This first branch of BMB was inaugurated at Air India building at Nariman Point in Mumbai (The bank is being started with seven branches (Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow) initially. The bank plans to reach a branch size of 25 in the next four months and thereafter add about 75 banks every year. The capital base for this bank is Rs. 1,000 crore) 3) What is a special fact associated with the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), which was launched on 19 November, 2013 on the occasion of the 96th birthday of late Indira Gandhi? BMB is the first bank started in the public sector space by an Act of Parliament (Other banks in public sector were nationalised in two tranches in 1969 and 1980) 4) What are the main points pertaining to nonperforming assets (NPAs) of Indian banking sector mentioned in the RBI report Trends and Progress of Banking Report 2012-13? Gross NPAs as per cent of gross advances for scheduled commercial banks stood at 3.6% as at March 2013 as against 3.1% previous fiscal Net NPAs as per cent of net advances for banks stood at 1.7% in FY13 as against 1.3% previous year As the end of March 2013, the gross NPAs of Indian banking industry stood Rs. 1,94,000 crore. Public sector banks had highest amount of bad loans at Rs. 1,65,000 crore followed by

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private sector banks at Rs. 21,000 crore and foreign bank at Rs. 7,900 crore The deterioration in asset quality was most perceptible for the SBI group with its NPA ratio reaching a high of 5 per cent at end March 2013 Deterioration in asset quality in 2012-13 was primarily on account of the non-priority sector 5) Market regulator SEBI on 18 November, 2013 said that a single Self Regulatory Organisation (SRO) would be put in place for the oversight of for all mutual fund distributors. SRO is expected to be selected from among which three applicants? - Institute of Mutual Fund Intermediaries (IMFI), Organisation of Financial Distributors (OFD) and Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSB) (The proposal to set up an SRO to regulate the mutual fund distribution business was mooted in August 2012, while a detailed framework in this regard was approved by the SEBI board in June 2013. The deadline for submitting applications for SRO was 31 July, 2013. The decision to set up an SRO followed concerns about mutual fund distributors not being regulated and complaints against them for mis-selling products. The SRO will assist SEBI and ensure a cordial relationship between mutual fund houses and distributors) 6) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 19 November 2013 directed public sector banks (PSBs) to provide loans to women self-help groups (SHGs) at what rate of interest to avail the benefit of interest rate subvention scheme under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana-Aajeevika (SGSY) scheme? 7% per annum (As per this RBI notification, all women SHGs will be eligible for interest subvention to avail the credit upto 3 lakh Rupees at 7% per annum. SGSY is an initiative by the government

to provide sustainable income to poor people living in rural areas of the country) 7) The net profit of Indias largest commercial bank SBI stood at Rs 2,375 crore during the second quarter of 2013-14 as against Rs 3,658 crore in the previous year period. What was the main reason for this 35% slump in net profits? The bank made higher provisions to hedge against rising bad loans during the quarter (The bank set aside Rs 2,645 crore during the quarter as a cover against potential bad loans. In the same period last year, the bank had set aside Rs 1,837 crore. The amount of the banks nonperforming loans rose by 30% to Rs 64,206 crore (Rs 49,202 crore, a year ago)) 8) On 18 November, 2013 which banks were designated by the RBI to collect advance income tax payments? SBI, ICICI bank, HDFC Bank, PNB, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Baroda 9) The Rapid Metro in Gurgaon, which will connect Delhi Metro commuters to six key places within the city, was inaugurated on 14 November, 2013. This project is a public-private partnership (PPP) project between which two entities? HUDA (Haryana Urban Development Authority) and IL&FS Rail Ltd. (Rapid Metro timings will be in sync with Delhi Metro, so that commuters won't have to wait for the local loop train. While there are a total of six stations in the network, the one at Shankar Chowk will become operational later as work is still not complete) 10) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 25 November 2013 widened the definition of infrastructure lending sub category in a bid to swiftly expedite these projects. Which sub-category was added to the infrastructure lending sub category by

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the RBI to widen its definition? Hotels, with project cost of more than 200 crore rupees being built anywhere in India and of any star rating (The list will also include convention centres with project cost of more than Rs. 300 crore. Various sub-sectors under the categories

such as Transport, Energy, Water & Sanitation, Communication, Social and Commercial Infrastructure come under infrastructure lending)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 44

1) The Standing Committee on Finance headed by Yashwant Sinha has during December 2013 given what suggestion to the Union Government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the issue of new bank licenses? It has suggested to desist from giving new bank licences to industrial houses (Banking being a highly leveraged business involving public money and public welfare, it will be more in the fitness of things to keep industry and banking separate, the Standing Committee on Finance has suggested. It urged to ensure that no recurrence of the pre-nationalised situation happens, when the management of private banks deployed their funds to extend undue favour to their own industrial owners without regard to social priorities determined by Government) 2) According to the list of biggest bank defaulters released by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) during December 2013, as much as 25% of the total non-performing assets (NPAs) in public sector banks (excluding SBI) are accounted by 50 corporates. Which is the corporate with largest outstanding in this list? Kingfisher Airlines (Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines owes Rs. 2,673 crore as per the combined NPA list of PSU banks. It is followed by Winsome Diamond (Rs. 2,660 crore) and Electrotherm India Limited (Rs. 2211 crore). The total NPAs of public sector banks (excluding SBI) stood at Rs. 1,64,461 crore. Top 50 corporate defaulters have defaulted Rs. 40,528 crore of bank loans. According to AIBEA, it has released the name of these defaulters as the RBI and the govt. are not publishing them) 3) Which entity on 3 December, 2013 announced plans to set up a MFIs Credit Information Bureau to enable Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to secure credit on faster and better terms? - Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. CIBIL (Under this initiative CIBIL is planning to rope in MFIs as members. Currently, CIBIL is operating four bureaus consumer, retail, mortgage and fraud. Prior to approving individual loans, public sector banks and financial institutions seek CIBIL credit information reports and credit score of an applicant. An individual is given points by the CIBIL TransUnion ranging from 300 to 900 (highest), based on his loan repayment pattern for the last few months. The credit score is updated every month. Individuals with 800 points are the most sought after by banks) 4) Which practice has been made compulsory from 1 December, 2013 with regard to use of debit card at retail outlets? Mandatory punching of debit card PIN number after swiping (This is intended to make bank debit card transactions more secure. In June 2013, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had extended the deadline for implementation of mandatory

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PIN punching at Point-of-Sales (PoS) and merchant outlets till 30 November, 2013 following representation of banks. According to the report of a RBI working group early cases of domestic counterfeit and skimming are being observed as far as debit cards are concerned. Card skimming is the illegal copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit/debit card) 5) Insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) during November 2013 decided to stop selling 34 policies, including popular policies like Jeevan Anand, Jeevan Madhur and Jeevan Saral during December 2013. What is the main reason for this decision of LIC? - To comply with new regulatory guidelines (These policies are not in conformity with the provisions of new regulations on non-linked insurance products, linked insurance products and health insurance products. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) had extended the deadline for implementation of new individual product regulations for the life insurance industry by three months to 31 December 2014. The new guidelines are aimed at making insurance policies more customerfriendly) 6) Which major industrial group of the country on 27 November, 2013 withdrew its application with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a banking licence? Tata Sons, which is the holding company of the Tata Group (It thus became the second industrial group after Videocon-promoted Value Industries to opt out of the race for banking license that now has 25 entities in the fray. For Tata Sons, the constraining factor was the RBI guideline for

new bank licences that required all financial services entities in a group to be necessarily owned by the non-operating financial holding company (NOFHC). To comply, the Tatas would have had to re-organise the existing financial services structure of the Group. The Tata move comes just two months before the final licences for new banks are to be issued by the RBI) 7) Six financial institutions - Germanys Deutsche Bank, Frances Societe Generale, Britains RBS and RP Martin and United States JP Morgan and Citigroup, were imposed fines totalling 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) by the European Union on 4 December, 2013. What is the reason for imposition of this hefty penalty? - For manipulating interest-rate benchmarks (These banks were involved in manipulating interest rate derivatives denominated in the euro and the Japanese yen. There had been suspicions about rate-rigging during the 2008 financial crisis, but the scandal reached full force last year when Barclays bank became the first to settle a fine for attempting to falsify the Libor benchmark. Germanys Deutsche Bank faces the stiffest penalty with a total fine of 725 million euros, followed by Frances Societe Generale with 446 million euros and Britains RBS with 391 million euros) 8) What ease in norms for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) involved in insurance jointventures was announced by the RBI on 28 November, 2013? They have been allowed to hold more than 50% in such companies (As per existing norms, an NBFC could not hold more than 50% of the paid-up capital of an insurance joint-venture)

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Banking & Financial Awareness - 45

1) National Stock Exchange (NSE) during December 2013 completed how many years of its establishment? 20 years (NSE was founded in 1992 and started trading operations in 1993.

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It was the first in India to start electronic trading and was successful in bringing about a paradigm shift in the way trading and settlements were done. NSE has a market capitalisation of more than US$989 billion and 1,635 companies listed as on July 2013 and is the largest stock exchange in India) 2) Who was appointed as the new Chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) during December 2013? - Harsh Kumar Bhanwala (Bhanwala succeeds Prakash Bakshi, who retired as NABARD Chairman in September 2013. Before this appointment Bhanwala was an Executive Director at India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL), a state-owned infrastructure lender. His term will be for 5 years) 3) Who was appointed as the new Finance Secretary of India on 10 December, 2013? Sumit Bose (Bose takes place of R.S. Gujral, who retired during November 2013. Gujral was also looking after the expenditure department. Sumit Bose is an IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre (1976 batch) and was the senior-most secretary in the Finance Ministry that has two other secretaries- Arvind Mayaram (economic affairs) and Ratan P Watal (expenditure). He is due to retire in March 2014) 4) Top 30 loan defaulters of public sector banks (PSBs) account for more than one-third of total gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of state-run lenders. This information was given in the Parliament on 10 December, 2013. According to this information what is the ratio of top 30 NPAs as a percentage of gross NPAs, in respect of public sector banks, as on September 2013? 35.5% (This figure stands at 38.8% for all banks in India. The gross non-performing assets

(GNPA) amount of top 30 accounts of public sector banks (PSBs) stood at Rs. 72,174 crore, while for all banks it was Rs. 91,667 crore at the end of September 2013. In case of nationalised banks, the top 30 defaulters contributed 43.8 per cent to the GNPA with Rs. 55,663 crore. The GNPAs of the SBI Group, comprising SBI and its five associates, were worth Rs. 71,620 crore at the end of first quarter of the current fiscal) 5) Which private sector bank during December 2013 joined hands with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCIL) to introduce eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer) norms in its branches? HDFC Bank (The eKYC procedure will enable a consumer to walk in with an Aadhaar number and open an account by getting his fingerprint scanned. HDFC Bank will install biometric readers for scanning fingerprints at most of its branches in a few months. The banks systems will pull all data stored online with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) including name, address, birth date and photograph) 6) The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), in its memorandum given during December 2013 to the Finance Minister, has kept which demand prominently which has huge support of bank employees all over the country? Working for five-days in a week (Trade unions in the banking sector have raised this demand as part of their bipartite wage negotiations with the Indian Banks Association. With alternative channels such as ATMs, Internet and mobile banking in place, the unions feel that the time is ripe for moving to a five-day week. Unions argue that not only Central and State Government ministries/departments but even the Reserve Bank of India follows the five-day work schedule. However, another section of bankers were of the opinion that five-day week was not

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advisable as it would come in the way of efforts towards financial inclusion) 7) Which natural gas pipeline inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 3 December, 2013 is the first one to connect Southern India to the national grid? - Dabhol Bangaluru Gas Pipeline of GAIL (The Dabhol Bangaluru gas pipeline is 1,000 km long and has been put-up with an investment of around Rs. 4,500 crore. The pipeline starts at Dabhol in Maharashtra and passes through Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Bellary, Devanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Ramanagaram, Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru Urban districts) 8) More than a year after allowing FDI in multibrand retail, the government on 17 December 2013 received the first application to open stores under this category. Which company gave this application to set-up multi-brand retail stores in India with an Indian group? Tesco Plc. (Tesco Plc. is a UK-based retailer and it has sought approval to open retail stores in India with an investment of $110 million in joint venture with Tata Group. The joint-venture Trent Hypermarket, will trade in products under 14 categories and plans to open three to five stores every financial year. The government in September 2012 had allowed 51% FDI in multibrand retail with certain riders)

9) Which public sector bank is the only Indian bank to have a branch in Bangkok (Thailand) and it during December 2013 received the Reserve Bank of India (RBIs) approval for opening a second branch here? - Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) IOB will open the second branch before the end of March 2014. IOB had few years back roped in Deloitte to devise a strategy for the banks overseas expansion) 10) State-run Indian Oil Corp has emerged as the countrys biggest company in terms of annual revenue, followed by Mukesh Ambaniled private sector giant Reliance Industries at the second place, as per an annual list of Fortune 500 companies in India in Fortune magazines Indian edition released during December 2013. Among the top ten companies in this list, the highest number of companies is from which sector? Energy Sector (There are as many as seven energy companies in the top 10 list. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) was the biggest with annual revenue of Rs 4,75,867 crore, followed by Reliance Industries (RIL) with a fullyear revenue of Rs 4,09,883 crore. This is followed by Bharat Petroleum (Rs 2,44,822 crore) at the third place and Hindustan Petroleum (Rs 2,17,771 crore) at fourth. Other entities in the list are State Bank of India (5th rank), Tata Motors (6th), ONGC (7th), Tata Steel (8th), Essar Oil (9th) and Coal India (10th))

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Banking & Financial Awareness - 46

1) The committee constituted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBIs) to promote financial inclusion headed by Nachiket Mor in its report, presented to the RBI on 7 January 2014, recommended universal electronic bank accounts to all Indian citizens above the age of 18 years. What is the deadline for opening these bank accounts as recommended by the committee? 1 January 2016 (The committee has recommended that an instruction to open

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the bank account should be initiated by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) after the issue of an Aadhaar number to an individual over the age of 18. It also recommended that the RBI should issue a circular indicating that no bank can refuse to open an account for a customer who has adequate KYC proof which specifically includes Aadhaar) 2) Which country became the 18th member of Eurozone on 1 January 2014? Latvia (The former Soviet republic on the Baltic Sea recently emerged from the financial crisis to become the EU's fastest-growing economy. Latvia was given final clearance to join Eurozone on 9 July 2013 by finance ministers of the 28-nation European Union. It should be noted that 28-member EU is a political entity and represents the interest of all of Europe whereas Eurozone is a currency block of 18 nations that have accepted Euro as a common currency. Not all countries of EU use Euro as currency (Britain still uses Pound as its currency)) 3) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 31 December 2013 dismissed rumours that it has stopped banks from accepting scribbled currency notes from 1 January 2014 and announced that banks will continue to accept currency notes with scribbling. However, it reiterated that writing or scribbling on banknotes works against its policy to keep currency notes clean and sought co-operation from public, institutions and others in keeping the banknotes clean by not writing anything on them. What is the name of this policy which was released during 2013? Clean Note Policy (RBI in 2013 had said it has been noticed that at certain branches of banks, the practice of writing/scribbling on the body of the bank notes continues to remain in vogue. Under the present system of mechanised processing of

banknotes inscription or scribbling on any part of the banknote would render it to be classified as unfit for reissue) 4) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 December 2013 warned users, holders and traders of virtual currencies, including bitcoins, of financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks. Why was this warning given by the RBI for bitcoins type currency, which is digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments? Because bitcoins as a medium for payments are presently not authorised by any central bank or monetary authority in India (Bitcoin is an alternative currency, which uses cryptography for security, making it difficult to counterfeit. Bitcoin issuance and transactions are carried out collectively by the network, with no central authority. The central bank said it was keeping watch at the developments relating to certain electronic records claimed to be decentralised digital currency such as bitcoins, litecoins, bbqcoins, dogecoins and their usage or trading in the country) 5) Union government during December 2013 announced decision to covert the National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NIMSME) into the National SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) University. NIMSME is situated at Hyderabad (This decision was announced at the golden jubilee celebrations of NIMSME held on 21 December 2013 at Hyderabad) 6) Who on 20 December 2013 was appointed as the first woman managing director of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) by the Government? - Usha Sangwan (She became the first woman MD in corporations history since its establishment in 1956. With this appointment, LIC is set to function at its full strength of four MDs after almost two years.

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These would be S B Mainak, Sushobhan Sarkar, Sangwan and V K Sharma) 7) Indian financial markets were left surprised by Reserve Bank of India (RBIs) mid-quarter monetary policy review released on 18 December 2013 as all key policy rates were left unchanged in this review presented by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. The short-term lending rate was kept unchanged at 7.75%, while the cash reserve ratio (CRR) remained at 4%. Why markets were left surprised with this move? Because markets had expected another 25 bps hike in the short-term lending rate due to persistent high inflationary pressure (The RBI said it will take calibrated action in the future, based on inflationary trends and action by the US Federal Reserve) Key highlights of RBIs mid-quarter review of monetary policy - Key policy rate, cash reserve ratio unchanged - Repo rate unchanged at 7.75%; cash reserve ratio unchanged at 4% - RBI to wait for more data before taking policy action - Outlook on global growth continues to remain moderate 8) According to the statistics given by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) during December 2013, the average number of policies sold by an agent of LIC was almost 10 times that of his private

sector counterpart. LICs agents managed their outperformance last year too, when the life insurance business was on a slide. What was the average policy sale figure for an LIC agent as disclosed by the IRDA? 29 Policies (LIC has an agency force of 11.72 lakh while private companies have 9.49 lakh agents working for them) 9) The much-anticipated inflation indexed bonds, linked to consumer prices were made available for sale for a week beginning 23 December 2013. What was the name of these bonds which sought to protect consumer savings from price rise by offering returns over and above inflation at the retail level? - Inflation Indexed National Savings Securities Cumulative 10) The Ministry of Environment and Forests announced on 20 December 2013 that the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats will remain off-bounds for mining, quarrying, sand mining and other industrial activities. This move comes after a high-level working group recommended that all destructive industrial activities, that include mining and thermal power plants, should be banned in the region. Who headed this group? - K. Kasturirangan, Member (Science), Planning Commission (The group recognised about 37% of the Western Ghats, covering about 60,000 square km, to be ecologically sensitive)

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