Current affairs August 2020 - CSEET

Rajeev's ArthaCS is one of the leading Company Secretary Coaching institute in South India. The unique feature of ArthaCS is that we are the dedicated CS coaching centre run by CS. This is our monthly bulletin of current affairs from finance field and will be very helpful for all types of students and professionals.

• The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Reserve Bank of India held its meeting in New Delhi in August 2020.

• The repo rate was kept the same at 4%

• The reverse repo rate was kept at 3.35%

• In June, the retail inflation was 6.09%.

• More than 40 crore bank accounts have been opened under the government's flagship financial inclusion drive Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), launched about six years ago by the Modi-government.

• ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has announced the launch of ICICI Prudential Alpha Low Vol 30 ETF, an open-ended index exchange traded fund tracking Nifty Alpha Low Volatility 30 Index. ETF means exchange traded fund, where the mutual funds will be traded in the stock market as good as other securities.

• Indian Market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to set up a virtual museum of the securities market to highlight achievements and milestones in the Indian capital market.

• The Reserve Bank of India has launched pilot scheme for small value payments in offline mode. The pilot scheme shall be undertaken till March 31, 2021 only this is to help ordinary people.

• India have a commitment to the India-Un development partnership fund for supporting the developing countries in their development priorities through sustainable development. India have contributed $ 15.46 million as another instalment in Aug 4th.

• Three contract manufacturers for Apple iPhones and South Korea’s Samsung have applied for large-scale electronics manufacturing rights in India under a $6.5 billion incentive scheme. This will definitely help the make in India programme.

• Mhealthy, launched by Tech Mahindra, a solution to enable workforce and community safety against COVID19.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that it is planning to set up an Innovation Hub to promote innovation across the finance sector in India by leveraging on technology.

• The Finance Ministry said 15 proposals worth Rs 6,400 crore of stressed NBFCs and HFCs have been sanctioned under the special liquidity scheme announced as part of the Rs 20.97 lakh crore ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ package.

• Current accounts can not be opened by banks for customers who have availed cash credit or overdraft facilities, with a view to improve credit discipline as instructed by Reserve Bank of India .

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has decided to introduce a mechanism of ‘Positive Pay’ for all cheques of value Rs 50,000 and above. Positive Pay is a fraud detection tool adopted by banks to protect customers against forged, altered or counterfeit cheques. It cross verifies all details of the cheque issued before funds are encashed by the beneficiary.

• The e-commerce major in India, Flipkart, has launched its own start up accelerator program in the country in order nurture and fund the start-ups in the country.

• The E-Commerce giant Amazon India has launched its seller-driven campaign known as ‘Itna Aasan Hai’ in order to highlight how the sellers are thriving on the Amazon ecosystem with ease.

• The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the platform for "Transparent Taxation - Honoring the Honest" via video conferencing.

• Reliance Foundation has stated that it has partnered US Agency for International Development (USAID) to launch the W-GDP Women Connect Challenge across India this year with an aim to bridge the gender digital divide in the country.

• Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund has launched a new open-ended arbitrage opportunities fund that will invest in equity, derivatives and debt markets. Arbitrage is the process of simultaneously buying and selling a financial instrument on different markets, in order to make a profit from an imbalance in price. An arbitrageur would look for differences in price of the same financial instruments in different markets, buy the instrument on the market with the lower price, and simultaneously sell it on the other market which bids a higher price for the traded instrument.

• HDFC Bank, launched ‘Shaurya KGC (Kisan Gold Credit) Card, a loan product for the armed forces. HDFC bank is the largest private bank in the country.

• The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India has approved the transfer of Rs 57128 crores as the dividend to the Central government for the accounting year 2019-20 while maintaining the contingency risk buffer at 5.5 per cent.

• SEBI has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the Bank of Baroda for violating mutual fund regulations for noncompliance of Regulation 7B of SEBI Act.

• Reserve Bank of India has released the ‘framework for authorization of pan-India Umbrella Entity for Retail Payments’ in India. The umbrella entity will set up, manage and operate new payments systems in the retail space comprising ATMs, white label PoS, Aadhaar-based payments and remittance services.

• Fino Payments Bank has launched Jan BachatKhata (JBK), which is an Aadhaar Authentication based digital savings account that brings neo-banking experience to consumers. Neo-Bank is essentially 100 % digital banks, without any branches. They are called fintech firms which offer Banking as a Services (BaaS) ranging from faster accounts, mobile deposits, free debit card, credits, payments and many more without the burden of a physical network.

• The ‘National Strategy for Financial Education 2020-2025’ (NSFE), released by the RBI, has suggested a multi stakeholder-led approach for creating a financially aware and empowered India.

• The e-commerce giant Amazon has launched the first Indian online pharma delivery service.

• Investment bank Barclays has revised downward the growth projection for India in FY21 (2020-21) to a contraction of 6%. Earlier it had estimated a contraction of 3.2%.

• Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) will launch India’s first bullion index named Bulldex, on August 24, 2020.

• State Bank of India's research report Ecowrap expects the country's GDP to contract by 16.5 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal.

• Apple Inc. has become the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a market capitalization of over $2 trillion, after its share price climbed above $467.77 on 19 August 2020.

• Axis Bank has launched an initiative named ‘Gig-a-Opportunities’.

• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has launched dedicated debt and credit guarantee product named Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee Programme to NBFC-MFIs to ensure the unhindered flow of credit in rural areas hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• ICICI Bank started using satellite data to assess the creditworthiness of farmers.

• Paytm Payments Bank has integrated Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) on its platform. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) is a system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that allows people to carry out financial transactions on a Micro-ATM by furnishing just their Aadhaar number and verifying it with the help of their fingerprint/iris scan.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to dissolve the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI). BCSBI was set up by the Reserve Bank in February 2006 as an independent and autonomous body, assigned to formulate codes of conduct to be adopted by banks voluntarily for ensuring fair treatment of customers.

• State Bank of India (SBI) has got global recognition for its HR initiative ''Nayi Disha'' which over the course of 1.5 years has touched more than 2.40 lakh employees.

• The Finance Ministry said 24 proposals by stressed non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) worth ₹8,594 crore have been sanctioned under the special liquidity scheme.

• On world’s entrepreneur day, technology-driven general insurance company Digit Insurance has launched an exclusive do-it-yourself (DIY) advisory tool for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups, SME Buddy.

• The Finance Ministry of the Government of India has declared in a series of statements that Businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 40 lakh will enjoy GST exemption. Previously the threshold limit was Rs 20 lakh.

• India’s largest commodity exchange the Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) launched the country’s first bullion index, MCX iCOMDEX Bullion, or Bulldex. Bullion refers to physical gold and silver of high purity that is often kept in the form of bars, ingots, or coins.

• IT services major Infosys has launched its AI-driven 'Cognitive Email Workbench' solution that gives enterprises the ability to augment query management and scale their helpdesk operations.

• India's fiscal deficit is expected to touch 7 per cent of GDP in 2020-21 fiscal as against budget estimate of 3.5 per cent, according to Brickwork Ratings.