Banking & Financial Current Affairs August 2021

Banking & Financial Current Affairs August 2021

The Most Important current Affairs

Tokyo Olympics 2020 held from July 23 to August 08, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. This was for the fourth time that Japan hosted the Olympic Games.

The United States has topped the overall medal table with 113 medals, which includes 39 Gold, 41 Silver and 33 Bronze Medal followed by China 88 medals, Japan 58 medals, Great Britain 65.
Indian Contingent managed to win 7 medals comprising 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze Medals and holds the 48th position in the medal table out of 86 countries.
Indian Medal Winners include Men’s Javelin Throw: Neeraj Chopra (Gold), Women’s 49kg Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu (Silver), Men’s Freestyle 57kg Wrestling: Ravi Dahiya (Silver) and Women’s Welterweight boxing: Lovlina Borgohain Women’s Singles Badminton: PV Sindhu, Men’s 65kg Freestyle Wrestling: Bajrang Punia, Men’s hockey: India men’s hockey team (All bronze).
The Athletics Federation of India has decided that javelin throw day will be on 7th August every year in honour of Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. The 23-year-old Neeraj is India’s second individual Olympic gold medallist after Abhinav Bindra. This is India’s first-ever gold medal in athletics in the history of the Olympics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award will be renamed as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award was inaugurated in 1991-92; the award comprises a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of 25 lakh.

7- Indian Companies Feature in Fortune Global 500 list for 2021

The Fortune Global 500 is an annual ranking of the top 500 enterprises globally, as measured by business revenues. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd is the highest-ranked Indian company on the list in terms of revenue, with revenues of nearly $63 billion. It is placed at 155^th spot globally.
Globally, Walmart has topped the list in terms of revenue for the eighth consecutive year and the 16th time since 1995. China has dominated this year’s list for the highest number of companies featuring in the list at 143, including those from Taiwan.

Indian Film Festival 2021

Indian film festival of Melbourne Awards 2021 announced The Family Man 2 actors Manoj Bajpayee and Samantha Akkineni were among the winners of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards.

Best Feature Film: Soorarai Pottru, Best Performance Male (Feature): Suriya Sivakumar (Soorarai Pottru), Best Performance Female (Feature): Vidya Balan (Sherni), Best Director: Anurag Basu (Ludo), Best Series: Mirzapur Season 2, Best Indin Film: Fire in the Mountains, Diversity in Cinema Award: Pankaj Tripathi, Best Documentary Film: Shut Up Sona.

The 144 Gallantry awards

Ashok Chakra: Babu Ram (posthumously), ASI, Jammu and Kashmir Police, Kirti Chakra: Altaf Hussain Bhat (posthumously), Constable, J&K Police.

BANKING CURRENT AFFAIRS

EASE Reforms Index Award 2021– Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the EASE 3.0 Awards.
State Bank of India is the Overall winner of the EASE Reforms Index Award 2021 (EASE 3.0 Awards). Bank of Baroda is second and Union Bank of India is third.
Indian Bank won the award for the best improvement from the baseline performance. There were awards for various themes and the winners of these themes are: Smart Lending for Aspiring– India Bank of Baroda, Tech-enabled ease of Banking– SBI, Institutionalized Prudent Banking– Bank of Baroda, Governance and Outcome centric HR– Union Bank of India, Deepening FI and Customer Protection– Union Bank of India.
Nirmala Sitharaman unveils Public Sector Bank Reforms Agenda (EASE 4.0) for 2021-22. The major theme for EASE 4.0 is “Technology-enabled, simplified, and collaborative banking.” EASE stands for Enhanced Access & Service Excellence (EASE).
EASE 4.0 sets the agenda and roadmap to transform all PSBs into digital attacker banks working hand-in-hand with key constituents of the financial services ecosystem to offer industry-best customer experience.
India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a new and enhanced security feature called ‘SIM Binding’ for its YONO and YONO Lite apps to protect customers from various digital frauds.
HDFC Bank launched of an overdraft facility ‘Dukandar Overdraft Scheme’ for small retailers.
Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of Rs 50.35 lakh on Janalaxmi Co-operative Bank, Nashik for non-compliance with directions issued by RBI on ‘Placement of Deposits with Other Banks by Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks’ and ‘Membership of Credit Information Companies (CICs)’.
Axis Bank has crossed the milestone of over one million customers on its WhatsApp banking channel with a total request count of 6 million till now. Axis Bank had launched banking services on WhatsApp in January 2021.
Suryoday Small Finance Bank (SSFB) has launched a ‘Suryoday Health and Wellness Savings Account’ to help customers grow their wealth and also take care of their family’s health amid the covid-19 pandemic. The account offers an attractive interest rate and comes with three major benefits for a family of four- top-up health insurance of 25 lakh, annual healthcare package and on-call emergency ambulance medical care services.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the launch of the ‘Scheme of Penalty for non-replenishment of ATMs’, as per which it will impose monetary penalties on ATMs/WLAs that run out of cash. The Scheme shall be effective from October 01, 2021. Cash-out at any ATM of more than ten hours in a month will attract a flat penalty of 10, 000/- per ATM. In the case of White Label ATMs (WLAs), the penalty would be charged to the bank which is meeting the cash requirement of that particular WLA.
The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit for collateral-free loans to Self-Help Groups (SHG) under the DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission) from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 20 Lakhs. The DAY-NRLM is the flagship program of Govt. of India for promoting poverty reduction through building strong institutions for the poor, particularly women, and enabling these institutions to access a range of financial services and livelihoods.
The Reserve Bank of India has cancelled the license of Raigad based Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank Limited in Maharashtra due to insufficient capital and earning prospects.
RBI imposed a monetary penalty of 1 crore on Cooperatieve Rabobank UA. The penalty has been imposed for contravention of certain provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and directions related to ‘transfer to reserve funds’.
HDFC Bank has announced the introduction of ‘Green & Sustainable Deposits’ to safeguard the environment from climate change. These fixed deposits will be directed towards financing green and sustainable housing credit solutions and services.
The Reserve Bank of India is putting in place a Platform for Regulated Entities for Integrated Supervision and Monitoring (PRISM), a web based end-to-end workflow automation system, to strengthen compliance by supervised entities (SEs). This is aimed at helping supervised entities to strengthen their internal defenses and resilience and bringing focus on root cause analysis (RCA).
RBI appointed panel under the chairmanship of N. S. Vishwanathan suggests 4-tier structure for Urban Co-operative Banks; minimum CRAR (Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets Ratio) for them could vary from 9 per cent to 15 per cent.
Central Government has approved the Indian Banks’ Association’s (IBA) proposal to increase the family pension to 30% of the last salary drawn. The immediate benefit of this approval will be an increase of 30,000 to 35,000 in the family pension of public sector bank employees from a maximum of 9,284 per month, depending on the last drawn salary of the deceased bank employee. The other big announcement is an increase in the employer banks’ contribution to the pension fund of employees under the NPS (National Pension System) from the existing 10 per cent to 14 per cent. Approximately 60% of public sector bank employees are covered under NPS.
AU Small Finance Bank, India’s Largest SFB has unveiled a mega Brand Campaign, aptly titled ‘BADLAAV Humse Hai’. This is the first integrated marketing communication campaign from AU Bank since its inception. Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani roped in as Brand Ambassador.
The Reserve Bank of India has increased the limit of fund transfer under the Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility Scheme from Rs 50,000 per transaction to Rs 2 lakh per transaction. Earlier there was a ceiling limit of 12 transactions in a year. Now, this limit has also been removed.
State Bank of India has opened a floating ATM on a Houseboat at Dal Lake in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar for the convenience of locals and tourists.

ECONOMIC CURRENT AFFAIRS

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for July 2021 were 1.16 lakh crore, 33 per cent more than the corresponding period of last year.
The government has set the loans disbursement target under the PM Mudra Yojana (PMMY) at Rs 3 trillion for 2021-22 (FY22). This target is lower than the previous year was set at Rs 3.21 trillion.
The Finance Ministry has informed Rajya Sabha that over 5.82 crore Jan Dhan (PMJDY) accounts are inoperative. This is 14 per cent of the total number of accounts.
In the pandemic-hit financial year of 2020-21, the number of billionaires in India dropped from 141 in FY20 to 136 in FY21, as per a statement issued by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha. The count is based on the gross total income declared in the income tax returns.
India Ratings (Ind-Ra) has projected the GDP growth rate for India for FY22 at 9.4%.
The Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) has increased the entry age for the National Pension System (NPS) from 65 years to 70 years. Earlier the eligible age to invest in NPS was 18-65 years.
Moody’s Investors Service has retained India’s growth forecast for the calendar year (CY) 2021 at 9.6 per cent, in its August update to ‘Global Macro Outlook 2021-22’ report. The GDP growth forecast for calendar year 2022 is retained at 7 percent.

BUSINESS CURRENT AFFAIRS

LIC Cards Services Limited (LIC-CSL) has partnered with IDBI Bank to launch ‘Lumine’ Platinum Credit Card and ‘Eclat’ Select Credit Card on the RuPay platform. The cards will initially be available to LIC policyholders, agents, as well as employees of the corporation and its subsidiaries.
SBI General Insurance announced a tie-up with Manipal Business Solutions to increase insurance penetration in the rural markets. SahiPay, the fastest growing tech-enabled financial inclusion platform of Manipal Business Solutions, provides digital and financial services to customers in semiurban and rural India.
RBL Bank has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, as its preferred cloud provider.
The Manila-based Asian Development Bank has approved a USD 300 million loans as additional financing for the ongoing Maharashtra Rural Connectivity Improvement Project for upgrading rural roads and connecting remote areas with markets.
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has unveiled ‘Digital Prayaas’ an app based digital-lending platform to facilitate loans to entrepreneurs from low-income groups. The objective is to sanction a loan by the end of the day. The platform has engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
HCL Technologies’ market capitalisation (marketcap) touched Rs 3 trillion for the first time. HCL becoming the fourth Indian information technology (IT) firm to achieve this milestone after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) launched an AI-enabled chatbot, named Urja to provide its customers with a platform for seamless self-service experience and faster resolution of queries/issues. URJA is the first such chatbot in the oil and gas industry in India.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India have signed a $500 million loan to expand the metro rail network in Bengaluru with the construction of two new metro lines totalling 56 km in length.
BharatPe has launched a “12% Club” app that will allow consumers to invest and earn up to 12 per cent annual interest or borrow at a similar rate. Apart from this, consumers can avail of collateral-free loans of up to Rs 10 lakh on the 12 per cent Club app for tenure of 3 months.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched the mobile application of its digital paperless solution, “ANANDA” for LIC agents. ANANDA stands for Atma Nirbhar Agents New Business Digital Application. The ANANDA mobile app was launched by LIC Chairperson MR Kumar.
Flipkart-owned digital payments platform PhonePe has received an insurance broking licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). PhonePe can now distribute insurance products from all insurance companies in India, on its platform.
RuPay has launched a strategic campaign titled- #FollowPaymentDistancing to promote and encourage contactless payments among customers keeping eye on covid-19 norms and restrictions.
Netherlands-based Prosus NV has announced to acquire the Indian digital payments provider BillDesk and merge it with its own fintech service business PayU. This acquisition will make the combined entity of PayU and BillDesk as the leading online payment providers globally and in India by total payment volume (TPV)

Banking & Financial Current Affairs August 2021

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