Current Affairs July - CSEET

1. The oldest commercial bank in the country, State Bank of India, SBI, is celebrating its 66th year on 1st July. SBI descends from the Bank of Calcutta founded in 1806 through the Imperial Bank of India

2. Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has become the second most-valued listed public sector bank (PSB) with a market capitalisation of over Rs 50,000 crore. As Street discounts privatisation of the state-owned lender, its shares have appreciated nearly 80 per cent on the BSE in the past one month. IOB stood with an m-cap of Rs 51,887 crore, pushing PNB (Rs 46,411 crore) and BOB (Rs 44,112 crore) to third and fourth position, respectively, as per data available on BSE.

3. The RBI has imposed penalties on SBI, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank, Bandhan Bank and 10 other lenders for contravention of various regulatory norms, including on lending to NBFCs. The penalty imposed on the 14 banks totals Rs 14.5 crore, with a maximum Rs 2 crore fine on Bank of Baroda.

4. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched ‘the RBI Retail Direct’ scheme for retail investors, through which they can directly buy and sell government securities (G-Secs), both primary and secondary. The bond-buying window was opened to increase retail participation in G-Secs and democratize ownership of G-Secs beyond the managers of pooled resources such as banks and mutual funds. The date of commencement of the scheme will be announced later.

5. The Reserve Bank of India has imposed restrictions on Mastercard Asia/Pacific Private Limited for adding new domestic customers from 22nd July 2021. MasterCard will not be allowed to add customers, be it for debit, credit or pre-paid cards onto its network as the entity has failed to comply with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data

6. The Reserve Bank of India is currently working on a phased implementation strategy for its own digital currency, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and will launch it in the wholesale and retail segments soon. India is already a leader in digital payments, but cash remains dominant for small-value transactions. RBI is currently examining the scope of CBDCs, the underlying technology, the validation mechanism, distribution architecture and degree of anonymity etc.

7. According to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India, India reported a current account surplus of 0.9% of GDP in FY 21. In FY 20 there was a current account deficit of 0.9%. The reason for the Current Account Surplus in FY21 is a sharp contraction in the trade deficit to US$ 102.2 billion from US$ 157.5 billion in 2019-20. India has seen a Current account surplus for the first time in 17 years.

8. GST collection dipped below Rs 1 lakh crore in June after staying above that mark for eight consecutive months. Centre mopped up Rs 92,849 crore GST for the month of June of which CGST is Rs 16,424 crore, SGST is Rs 20,397 crore, IGST is Rs 49,079 crore (including Rs 25,762 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 6,949 crore (including Rs 809 crore collected on import of goods.

9. The government notified a hike in the foreign direct investment limit in pension fund management to 74% from 49% under the national pension system (NPS). This step is opening doors for experienced foreign partners in this space and facilitating more competition in the fledgling segment. Pension Fund Regulatory &Development Authority (PFRDA) Act links the FDI ceiling in the insurance sector

10. Three of India’s biggest private lenders – ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have taken stakes in the blockchain financial technology firm IBBIC Pvt Ltd. HDFC Bank and Axis Bank invested ₹5 lakh each for the shares. ICICI Bank also said it has subscribed to 49,000 fully paid-up equity shares of face value ₹10 each of IBBIC constituting 5.44 per cent of the issued and paid-up share capital. It paid ₹4.9 lakh for the shares.

11. Digital India initiative has completed its six years on 1 July 2021. Digital India is a government’s flagship scheme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015. In the past 6 years, the government has launched many digital initiatives like Direct Benefit Transfer, Common Services Centres, DigiLocker and mobile-based UMANG services.

12. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has launched BHIM-UPI QR-based payments in Bhutan will further strengthen the cooperation between the two neighbouring nations. With the launch in Bhutan, the payment infrastructures of the two countries are seamlessly connected and will benefit tourists and businessmen from India who travel to Bhutan.

13. The Government of India has extended the duration of the ‘Stand Up India Scheme’ up to the year 2025. The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 05 April 2016 to facilitate loans to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and women borrowers, to promote entrepreneurship among them.

14. The centre has announced 27% reservation for OBCs and a 10% quota for students from the economically weaker sections (EWS) for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses under the All-India Quota (AIQ) scheme. Under the AIQ scheme, 15% of seats at the UG level and 50% seats at the PG level are kept domicile free in government medical and dental colleges against which students from other states to are offered admission while the rest of the seats are kept only for students from within the state.