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Banking & Financial Awareness - 30

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/anti-

money 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 MahindraBank 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-growingeconomy 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, world’s 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)

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 securitiestransaction

(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 India’s first all-

women bank, announcement for which was

done in the Union Budget of 2013-14? –

Bharatiya Mahila Bank – BMB (The presentdeadline for launch of this bank is 1

November 2013 and the bank is expected to

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, financialinstitutions 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)


1) All public sector banks have been asked to

set up ATMs in all branches to enable

customers in rural pockets to do banking round-

the-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 Ministry’s 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 RBI’s 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. RBI’s second quarter

policy review will be made on 29 October 2013)

4) The Securities Law Amendment Ordnance,2013, which was promulgated by President

Pranab Mukherjee on 18 July, 2013, provides

more powers to India’s market regulator SEBI to

crackdown ponzi schemes running in the

country. Under the promulgated ordnance,

what is the prescribed corpus size of pooled

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 acorpus 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 upper-

limit 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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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 throughFIPB 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 ratiobetween 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 at25.7% 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 Non-

domestic (commercial) prices. Pilot project ofthis 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 I-

Card, 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 displeasureabout 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 proposedscheme was made by the union govt. on 30 July,

2013. The provided handset will be non-

transferable as it will later also be used in

customized transfer of benefits under the direct

transfer scheme of the central govt.)


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 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 multi-brand retail stores)

Now the norm of 50% investment in the back-

end 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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1) Which body is the regulator of commodity

derivatives markets in India, which would begiven 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 one-

day 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))

4) Union Govt. on 2 August 2013 unveiled thelong 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

allowed to offer mobile and fixed-line services

using any technology. They can also provideInternet TV services.

It allows companies to offer intra and inter-

circle roaming, but bars operations from

acquiring subscribers in areas where they don’t

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 licensefee 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 multi-brand retail stores)

Now the norm of 50% investment in the back-

end 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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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 Subbaraowhose 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 IIM-

Ahmedabad and he will be the 23rd Governor of

India’s 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)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 341) 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, Rs34,308 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 tocheck 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

Nadu’s Sooranam, a Christian dominated area,

and the 15,001st branch of the bank at

Kalayarkovil, a Hindu dominated area nearby)

4) State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) net profits for thequarter 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 (SBI’s 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 curbinginward 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 whichcould 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 endtechnologies, 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 thecountry)

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% (LIC’s 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. hasapproved 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 fromthese 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)

Banking & Financial Awareness - 351) 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 bank’s financialinclusion 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 long-

term 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.

TARC’s tenure will be of 18-months. Setting-upof 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 ofMaharashtra (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 non-

banking financial company (NBFC), has been

formed by a group of Gulf-based NRI

businessmen led by P Muhamed Ali and theKerala State Industrial Development

Corporation (KSIDC) has a 11% stake in it)

8) Nishi Vasudeva’s 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

PESB’s 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)


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 interestsof 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 ofhuman 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 lowerthan 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 country’s

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 on29 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 tapSovereign 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 normallystate-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 world’s 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 dealof € 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 ChiefExecutive Stephen Elop, will move to Microsoft

Corp.)


1) State Bank of India (SBI) during September

2013 tightened its eligibility conditions for itsfour-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 SBI’s car loans. What was SBI’s

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 ofalleged 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 amobile 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. Bank’s 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

Minister’s 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 toempower 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 thebattered 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,

Apple’s 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 Google’s 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 company’s upcoming new Android-

based operating system for mobile devices. This

name is in keeping with Google’s 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 Rowntree’s, now

produced worldwide by Nestle. Google claims

that Android software powers more than a

billion smartphones or tablets worldwide)


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 RBI’s 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 India’s (RBI’s) 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 RBI’s

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 Rajan’s first monetary

policy review presented on 20 September, 2013

since taking office on 4 September?

Following are the main highlights of Raghuram

Rajan’s 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 theLAF 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 theNational 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

Authority’s (IRDA’s) 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 thestatus 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 pooled-

in 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 country’slargest 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 ofthe 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)


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 India’s 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 andDeputy 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, India’s biggest business group, and

firms controlled by billionaires Anil Ambani and

Kumar Mangalam Birla.


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)


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?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_Object_Model




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_4



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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 2011-

12. 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 incost 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 India’s 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 theincrease 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’ (non-performing 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 campaignends 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, India’s

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-unit-

linked 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 frompolicyholder separately. LIC is the largest life-

insurance 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.)


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 India’s 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) -

RIL’s turnover or sales soared 14.2% to Rs

1,06,523 crore during the second quarter (July-

September) of 2013-14. Company’s 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. Sweden’s 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 gradualstability 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 QualifiedForeign 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 tothe 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 beimplemented 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 itswithdrawal 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)


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

India’s 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 eight-

point 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)


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 byMarch 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 tohave 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 ofasset 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. Sweden’s central bank

added the economics prize in 1968 as a

memorial to Nobel)

11) HDFC Bank, India’s 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 Bank’s slowest quarterly growth in a

decade and it was for the first time in a decade

that bank’s 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)


1) Who on 12 November, 2013 was appointed

as the first Chairperson and Managing Director

of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the first all-

women 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 transaction-

based 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 RBI’s 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 India’s 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 NSSO’s 8th

Quinquennial survey on employment andunemployment 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 minimumunemployment 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. Gujarat’s 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 India’s

wealthiest person for sixth year in a row. His

networth stood at $21 billion. NRI steel tycoon

Lakshmi Mittal (USD 16 billion) also continuesto 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 Pharma’s Shanghvi jumped to third place

with about 50% surge in his wealth to $13.9

billion while Azim Premji’s wealth stood at

$13.8 billion. Other people on this list include

Pallonji Mistry (5th position with $12.5 billion),

Hinduja brothers (6

th

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 - 431) 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. White-

label ATMs can be opened by even thoseentities which are not in banking operations.

BEFI is of the view that security is a major issue

with White-label ATMs. India’s 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 non-

performing 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)


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 SwarozgarYojana-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 India’s 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 bank’s non-

performing 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 14November, 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. 300crore. Various sub-sectors under the categories

such as Transport, Energy, Water & Sanitation,

Communication, Social and Commercial

Infrastructure come under infrastructure

lending)


1) The Standing Committee on Finance headed

by Yashwant Sinha has during December 2013

given what suggestion to the UnionGovernment 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 privatebanks 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 largestoutstanding 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 ofthese 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 compulsoryfrom 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 customer-

friendly)

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 movecomes just two months before the final licences

for new banks are to be issued by the RBI)

7) Six financial institutions - Germany’s

Deutsche Bank, France’s Societe Generale,

Britain’s 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. Germany’s Deutsche Bank

faces the stiffest penalty with a total fine of 725

million euros, followed by France’s Societe

Generale with 446 million euros and Britain’s

RBS with 391 million euros)

8) What ease in norms for non-banking finance

companies (NBFCs) involved in insurance joint-

ventures 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)


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 and1,635 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 theParliament 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 43.8per 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 multi-

brand 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 multi-

brand 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 (RBI’s) approval for

opening a second branch here? - IndianOverseas 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 bank’s overseas expansion)

10) State-run Indian Oil Corp has emerged as

the country’s biggest company in terms of

annual revenue, followed by Mukesh Ambani-

led private sector giant Reliance Industries at

the second place, as per an annual list of

Fortune 500 companies in India in Fortune

magazine’s 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 full-

year 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))

Banking & Financial Awareness - 461) The committee constituted by the Reserve

Bank of India (RBI’s) 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 toopen 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))


December 2013 dismissed rumours that it hasstopped 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)


December 2013 warned users, holders andtraders 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 NationalInstitute 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 theGovernment? - Usha Sangwan (She became the

first woman MD in corporation’s 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 (RBI’s) mid-quarter

monetary policy review released on 18December 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 actionby the US Federal Reserve)

Key highlights of RBI’s 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. LIC’s 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 anagency 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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