NOTES - Banking and Financial Awareness

1 NOTES - Banking and Financial Awareness
RBI issued a directive under Section 10 (2) read with Section 18 of Payment and Settlement
Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007) stating an introduction of Positive Pay System for Cheque
Truncation System (CTS) for banks in order to check fraud.
To be implemented from January 01, 2021.
To be developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This system will require re-
confirmation of key details for payments beyond Rs. 50,000.
The usage of Positive Pay System is at the choice of account holder; however banks may make it
mandatory in case of cheques for amounts of Rs. 5 lakh and above.
Under the Positive Pay System, the issuer of the cheque will be required to submit certain
minimum details of the cheques like date, name of beneficiary, payee and amount to the drawee
bank electronically. These details will be cross-checked before the cheque is presented for
payment.
MICR – Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.
In Cheque Truncation System, instead of sending paper cheque to the clearing house, the
customer’s bank scans the cheque, and electronically sends the image + MICR data to the
clearing house. From clearing house, the data would go to the paying bank, they will inspect the
MICR data, signature on the scanned image and release the money to customer’s bank.
CTS eliminates the time, money and manpower wasted during physical movement of cheques. It
reduces frauds and avoids any losing of cheques.
In 2010, RBI came up with the guidelines for CTS.
BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) has signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with YES
Bank in order to empower the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are listed on the BSE
through awareness and knowledge-sharing programmes.
Through this partnership, BSE and Yes bank are aiming to make SMEs more competitive and to
fast-track their growth through solutions that address their business and challenges.
Tagline of YES Bank – Experience our expertise.
MD & CEO of YES Bank – Prashant Kumar.
MD and CEO of BSE – Ashish Kumar Chauhan.
BSE HQ – Mumbai
Yes Bank HQ - Mumbai
Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) became the first to implement document
embedding facility with Letter of Credit (LC)/ Bank Guarantee (BG) messages over SFMS
(Structured Financial Messaging System) platform of Indian Financial Technology and Allied
Sciences (IFTAS) through its middleware application (CSFMS) developed by IDBI Intech
Limited.
This new feature of document embedding provides banks with the functionality of transmitting a
“pdf” document up to 1MB size along with the LC/BG messages.
Through this feature, there will be transmission of digitally signed documents which will ensure
reliability of the transaction.
IFTAS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RBI.
Chairman of IFTAS - Tavarna Rabi Sankar.
IFTAS HQ - Mumbai
Chairman of IDBI – M.R. Kumar.
Tagline of IDBI – Banking for All, Aao Sochein Bada.
IDBI HQ - Mumbai
Domestic rating agency ICRA (formerly Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency)
further downgraded India’s GDP estimate with a contraction of 11% in FY 2020-2021 in
comparison to the earlier contraction of 9.5%.
The revision is due to the continuous elevation in new COVID-19 cases.
ICRA hs projected a GDP contraction of 12.4% in Q2FY21.
ICRA also revised its projections for Q3FY21 and Q4FY21 and expects contractions of 5.4% and
2.5% respectively.
ICRA HQ – Gurugram
MD & CEO N. Sivaraman
RBI deferred implementation of provisions made under Basel 3 capital due to uncertainty related
to COVID crisis. In this regard, RBI will repel the financial tranche of the Capital Conservation
Buffer (CCB) and the implementation of Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) by 6 months i.e.
April 01, 2021.
CCB is an additional pool that banks build in normal times for its use during periods of stress.
RBI has asked Banks to build up the CCB to the required 2.5% in stages. The last stage of
0.625% was to start on Sept 30, 2020. This has now been deferred to April 1, 2021. RBI had
earlier deferred the implementation by 6 months from March 31, 2020.
NSFR requires banks to fund their activities with sufficiently stable sources of funding over a
time of a year to reduce future funding risks for banks.
As per the prescribed timeline, banks were required to maintain NSFR of 100% from April1,
2020 but now this deferred it for a second time to April 1, 2021.
New Development Bank approved loan for Mumbai Metro & Delhi-Meerut RRTS Project.
New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)
Nations approved USD 241 Million (approx INR 1760 Crores) for Mumbai Metro Rail Project
and USD 500 Million (approx INR 3670 Crores) for Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid
Transit System (RRTS) Project.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to undertake Sanitation
Literacy Campaign (SLC) to promote literacy on WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in
2,000 villages across the country covering 1 lakh rural population.
SLC started from Oct 2, 2020 to Jan 26, 2021.
SLC focuses to inculcate significant behavioural changes to adapt good hygiene and sanitation
practices.
NABARD under the Swachh Bharat Mission has supported the GOI to construct 3.29 crore
household toilets by sanctioning and disbursing Rs. 15,000 crore and Rs. 12.298 crore.
SBI and Hindustan Unilever Limited signed a MoU to provide digital Payment solutions and
Financing Solutions to HUL’s retailers and distributors.
As part of the MoU, SBI will provide instant paperless overdraft facility up to INR 50,000 to
retailers for their billings and financing facilities to HUL’s Distributers.
SBI will install point of sale (PoS) machines at multiple HUL touch points across the country to
ensure that it reaches customers in smaller towns.
It will also provide Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based solutions to HUL retailers to ensure
hassle-free, safe and instant cashless payments to dealers through HUL’s retailer application
‘Shikhar’.
The process of availing credit will be made simple through the integration of SBI’s YONO (You
Only Need One) Platform and HUL’s Shikhar app.
The partnership will accelerate the adoption of digital payments among small-scale entrepreneurs
and retailers in all parts of the country.
Tagline of SBI – The Nation Banks on us. Pure Banking Nothing Else. With you all the way.
SBI Chairman – Dinesh Kumar Khara.
SBI HQ – Mumbai.
HUL Chairman and MD – Sanjiv Mehta
HUL HQ – Mumbai.
RBI in consultation with the GOI has fixed Rs. 1,25,000 crore as the Ways and Means Advances
(WMA) limit for the 2nd half of the FY 2020-21, i.e. Oct, 2020 to March, 2021.
When GOI utilises 75% of the WMA limit, RBI may trigger fresh flotation of market loans.
The interest rate on WMA is equal to the repo rate (current repo rate is 4%). In case of
Overdraft, the interest is 2% above the repo rate.
RBI in consultation with GOI had increased the WMA limit of the Govt. for the remaining part
of the 1st half of the FY21 (April, 2020 to Sept, 2020) from Rs. 1.20 lakh crore to Rs. 2 lakh
crore.
RBI under Section 17 (5) of RBI Act, 1934, provides WMA to the States banking with it to help
them to tide over temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their receipts and payments.
RBI excluded 6 Public sector banks (PSBs) from the 2 nd Schedule of the RBI Act, 1934
following their merger with other banks with effect from April 01, 2020.
The 6 banks are Syndicate Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank of India, Andhra
Bank, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank.
OBC and UBI merged into PNB; Syndicate into Canara Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation
Bank into UBI; and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank.
Ministry of Home Affairs has redefined guidelines on how NGOs can accept, transfer and utilise
foreign donations and contributions by amending the provisions of the Foreign Contribution
Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) with Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020.
The amendment in Section 13 of FCRA empowers the MHA to freeze the FCRA Bank Account
in case of any contravention of the FCRA law and can also suspend FCRA registration of an
organisation up to 360 days from current 180 days.
The Act came into effect on Sept 29, 2020. A new provision is introduced in this act under which
furnishing of Aadhar numbers by office-bearers of NGOs has become mandatory for registration.
The Act also lowered the administrative expenses of any NGO receiving foreign funding to 20%
from the existing 50% of annual funds by amending section 8 of FCRA.
As per the amendment of Section 17 of FCRA, foreign contribution can be received only in
“FCRA Account” opened in the SBI branch in New Delhi.
The Act amends the Section 3 of FCRA by adding “public servant” as defined in Section 21 of
the Indian Penal Code, 1860 to the list of persons who are prohibited from receiving foreign
contribution.
Since 1976, FCRA regulates foreign donations in ensuring that such contributions don’t
adversely affect internal security. It was amended in 2010.
It is applicable to all associations, groups and NGOs which intend to receive foreign donations
and thus make them mandatory to register themselves under FCRA.
To commemorate the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Punjab National Bank has
launched a 3 months-long nationwide campaign of financial inclusion and literacy initiative
“Gram Sampark Abhiyan”. It was launched by Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,
Narendra singh tomar on the lines of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.
The campaign is centered on 4 key themes viz. digital, credit, social security and financial
literacy.
This campaign will culminate on December 31, 2020 covering 526 districts in 24 states.
MD & CEO of PNB – SS Mallikarjuna Rao
PNB HQ – New Delhi
Tagline – The name you can bank upon.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by PM Narendra Modi has
approved the term extension of appointment of Madhabi Puri Buch, Whole-Time Member, SEBI
for one year effective from Oct 4, 2020 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
She is the 1st & only woman WTM and also the 1 st from the private sector to be appointed a SEBI
Board member.
Chairman, SEBI – Ajay Tyagi
SEBI HQ – Mumbai
GOI has appointed Dinesh Kumar Khara, the current Managing Director of SBI as the new
chairman of SBI for a period of 3 years. He succeeded Rajnish Kumar as the new chairman.
The appointment of Dinesh Kumar was recommended by the Bank Board Bureau.
Dinesh Kumar Khara is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB) and he
joined SBI as a PO in 1984.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of J Venkatramu as MD

& CEO of India post Payments Bank (IPPB) for a period of 3 years.
J Venkatramu will succeed Suresh Sethi, who served the post till March, 2020.
Venkatramu is currently serving as Chief Digital Officer at Equitas Small Finance Bank.
IPPB was incorporated as Payments Banking Company under Section 22 (1) of Banking
Regulation Act, 1949.
IPPB HQ – New Delhi
For support small businesses and drive demand through customer support, Google India has
launched a nation-wide campaign “Make Small Strong”.
Google India has entered into partnership with Zoho and Instamojo to help Small and Medium
Businesses to build a digital presence.
Zoho to launch a new initiative, ‘Build your business online with Zoho’. It will enable
small businesses to use its website Zoho Sites, Zoho Inventory and Zoho Commerce free
for 3 months. This is available till March 31, 2021.
Instamojo offers a free subscription for 6 months to Instamojo’s Premium Online Store
Solution to SME businesses till March 31, 2021.
It has also partnered with Dunzo and Swiggy to expedite small businesses’ on-boarding process.
The 24x7 Merchant support of Dunzo can be availed by SMBs for free with zero sign-up
fees and instant registration.
Swiggy offers a 7 days ‘Fast Track On boarding’ for restaurants to come on the platform.
In effort to increase its outreach program, Google in partnership with Doordarshan will launch
Namaste Digital. This serves as a mass media program to help SMBs learn about the Internet and
grow their business.
Make Small Strong Campaign enables citizens to support small businesses by buying products
locally, leaving reviews and ratings and promoting their favourite retailers on social media to
help create demand for these businesses. This initiative builds on the “Grow with Google Small
Businesses Hub” effort. It is based on feedback from SMBs as part of Google-Kantar small
businesses tracker research conducted in July.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed an agreement to invest 15 million USD (Rs. 109.9
crore) in Avaada Energy Pvt. Ltd (AEPL) to support the company to scale the photovoltaic solar
energy generation capacity in India.
AEPL Chairman – Vineet Mittal

AEPL HQ – New Delhi and Mumbai
ADB President – Masatsugu Asakawa
ADB HQ – Manila, Philippines
Reliance General Insurance Company Limited announced its partnership with SatSure Analytics
to improve its operations of its crop insurance business and satellite based crop monitoring and
predictive analytics support for risk management.
SatSure Analytics provides agriculture data infrastructure through SPARTA, a proprietary

platform and decision analytics through SAGE across agriculture, Climate change and
infrastructure sectors.
RGICL partners with SatSure with a goal to create a successful crop insurance by investing in
technology and innovations.
ICICI Bank in partnership with Visa introduced a debit card facility who avail Loan Against
Securities from the bank.
With this introduction, ICICI bank became the 1 st bank in India to launch this facility after the
RBI allowed banks to issue e-cards to customers availing an Overdraft facility, that are only in
the nature of personal loan.
New customers who avail LAS will be issued a debit card.
Rs. 3 lakh is the maximum daily transaction limit each for POS and online transactions.
GOI appointed M. Rajeshwar Rao as the new 4 th Deputy Governor of the RBI responsible for
financial regulations.
HE will succeed NS Vishwanathan, the former Deputy Governor of RBI, who resigned in March
2020 before the completion of his term.
M Rajeshwar Rao is currently serving as the Executive Director of RBI. He joined RBI in 1984.
RBI was founded on 1st April 1935.
RBI HQ – Mumbai.
RBI Governor – Shaktikanta Das
Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the
API (Application Programming Interface) integration between the PM SVANidhi Portal and the
SBI’s eMudra portal.
This launch is a part of Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi)
Scheme.
More than 20.5 lakh loan applications have been received under the scheme as on October 6,
2020.
Of these total applications, over 7.85 lakh loans have been sanctioned and over 2.4 lakh loans
disbursed.
RBI extended the term of Rajesh Kumar Chhibbar as CMD of Jammu & Kashmir Bank for
another 6 months, effective from October 10, 2020 or till the appointment of MD & CEO,
whichever is earlier.
Prior to this, he got an extension of 3 months w.e.f. July 10, 2020.
R.K. Chhibber (Non-Independent Executive Director) was appointed as interim CMD in June
2019, following the removal of Parvez Ahmed from the post by the state government.
He has been serving as a full-time CMD under section 10BB of the Banking Regulation Act,
1949, since October 10, 2019, before which he got a few extensions as the interim CMD.
J&K Bank HQ – Srinagar
J&K Bank CMD – Rajesh Kumar Chhibber.
J&K Bank tagline – Serving to Empower.
GOI appointed economists Jayant R Varma, Shashank Bhide and Ashima Goyal as the new
members of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) which was set up in 2016.
The MPC prepares the monetary policies for the country using the monetary policy tools that
include bank rate, repo rate, reverse repo rate and cash reserve ratio.
The committee was constituted under Section 45ZB of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act,
1934.
The MPC consists of 6 members. Out of these, 3 are nominated by GoI that must not be a
Government official. The other 3 members of the committee are appointed by the RBI itself. The
RBI Governor acts as the ex-officio chairperson of the committee while the Executive Governor
of the bank acts as the Deputy Governor.
The members of this committee are appointed for a period of 4 years and they are not eligible for
reappointment.
As per the recommendations made by Chakravarty Committee, the main functions of MPC
include:
 To set the monetary policy norms related to the economic growth, social justice, price
stability, equity and encouraging growth for the new financial enterprises.
 It tries to keep the inflation rates under control when government tries to accelerate the
GDP growth rate.
 The Committee also decides the policy interest rate, repo rate, reverse repo rate etc.
The other 3 members of MPC are:
Shaktikand Das, Governor, RBI
Michael Debabrata Patra, Deputy Governor of Bank in charge of monetary policy.
Dr. Mridul K Saggar, Executive Director of the Bank in charge of monetary policy.
Ashima Goyal is a member of PM Narendra Modi’s economic advisory council. Ms Goyal is a

professor at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai and was a visiting
fellow at Yale University.
Shashanka Bhide is a senior advisor at the National Council for Applied Economic Research, a
New Delhi-based think-tank, whose work has involved research into agriculture, poverty analysis
and macroeconomics.
Jayanth Varma is finance and accounting professor at IIM, Ahmedabad. He was formerly on the
board of the country’s capital markets’ regulator.
The MPC held its meeting from October 7, 2020 to October 9, 2020. Main outcomes of the meet
were:
 The Committee has kept the repo rate unchanged at 4%.

 The Committee has decided to keep Reverse Repo Rate at 3.35% as earlier.
 Ways and Means Advance Limits of the Centre has been kept at Rs. 1.25 lakh crores.
 RBI announced on-tap TLTRO on Rs. 1 trillion money at 4% till March 2021.
 GDP of the fiscal year 2021 has been predicted at 9.5% with chances of strong rebound.
WTO upgraded its World Merchandise Trade Forecast at 9.2% in 2020 from 12.9%.
WTO lowered its projection on the volume of world merchandise trade in 2020 to 9.2% as
compared to 12.9% fall in April 2020. This is due to the strong trade performances in June-July,
2020 due to easing of lockdowns in many parts of the world.
For 2021, WTO forecasts a 7.2% world trade increase, far below the April estimate of 21.3%
growth and pre-pandemic level.
Director General, WTO – To be appointed (Robert Azevedo stepped down on 31 August 2020)
WTO HQ – Geneva, Switzerland
WTO Members – 164 nations.
Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, launched “MSME
Prerana” an online business mentoring programme for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
(MSMEs) by Indian Bank in collaboration with Poornatha & Co, at the bank’s headquarters in
Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
MSME Prerana will bridge the gap in business skills as well as communication & HR by
providing inputs in simple terms and in the local vernacular.
Its 12 session programmes will be available in local languages. The first 2 programmes will be in
Tamil for the Coimbatore clusters of Indian Bank. After which it will be expanded pan-India in
Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Gujarati.
Notably, the sessions on managerial and financial skills will be conducted by Poornatha & Co
while the banking related topics will be handled by Indian Bank.
On successful completion, all participants will get a certificate, issued jointly by Indian bank,
Poornatha & Co and MADE (Michigan Academy for Developing Entrepreneurs), US.
On 1 April 2020, Allahabad Bank amalgamated with Indian Bank.
Indian Bank MD & CEO – Padmaja Chunduru.
Indian Bank Tagline – Your Own Bank.

Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India on behalf of GoI supported Line of Credit (LoC) of USD
310 million to the republic of Zimbabwe to finance repowering of Hwange Thermal Power
Station.
For this purpose, Exim bank has entered into an agreement with the Government of the Republic
of Zimbabwe on February 24, 2020.
Exim Bank MD – David Rasquinha
Exim Bank – HQ – Mumbai
Republic of Zimbabwe Capital – Harare
President of Zimbabwe – Emmerson Mnangagwa
Zimbabwe Currency – Zimbabwean Dollar
Nilesh Shah, the MD of Kotak Mutual Fund was re-elected as the Chairman of the Association
of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
Saurabh Nanavati, CEO of Invesco Mutual Fund was re-elected as the vice chairman of AMFI
and A Balasubramanian, CEO of Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, will continue as the
chairman of the valuation committee.
HDFC Bank and Apollo Hospitals partnered to launch the Healthy Life Programme, a holistic
healthcare solution which makes healthy living accessible and affordable on Apollo’s digital
platform, Apollo 24/7.
It is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India.
It is exclusively created for HDFC bank customers who will get round the clock access to the
emergency Apollo Doctor at free of cost on Apollo 24/7.
HDFC HQ – Mumbai
HDFC CEO – Shashidhar Jagdishan
HDFC Tagline – We Understand Your World.
Axis Bank Limited in collaboration with Google Pay and Visa launched its ACE Credit Card in
India.
The tokenisation feature has been enabled in partnership with Visa. This will allow the users of
Google Pay to use their ACE Credit Card to make payments through a secure digital token
attached to their phone without the need to share their card details physically.
PhonePe in association with Bajaj Allianz Insurance Company launched car and bike insurance
products on its platform.
2 wheeler insurance on PhonePe starts at Rs. 482 and car insurance at Rs. 2,072.
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, MD & CEO – Tapan Singhal
Bajaj Allianz HQ – Pune
Phone Pe HQ – Bengaluru
Phone Pe, CEO – Sameer Nigam
At the meeting of the Managing Committee of the Indian Bank’ Asociation (IBA), Rajkiran Rai
G, MD & CEO, Union Bank of India (UBI), has been elected as the Chairman of the Association
for the term 2020-21. He succeeded Rajnish Kumar.
Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI, was elected as Deputy Chairman of the Association for the
year 2020-21. He is one among the 3 deputy chairman namely, CH S S Mallikarjuna Rao, MD &
CEO of PNB and Madhav Kalyan, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, India.
Earlier, Rajkiran Rai G served as the Deputy Chairman of IBA.
IBA was formed on September 26, 1946. It is an association of banks and other entities in the
banking ecosystem in India catering to its members.
IBA HQ – Mumbai
IBA CEO – Sunil Mehta.
Bank of Baroda (BoB) signed an MoU with Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) for tractor finance
business.
This aims to enhance the agriculture business and support farmers to avail loans to buy tractors.
BoB Chairman – Hasmukh Adhia
BoB MD & CEO – Sanjiv Chadha
BoB HQ – Vadodara
BoB Tagline – India’s International Bank.
Fino Payments Bank announced its plan to add an additional 300 points at the Bharat Petroleum
Corporation Limited (BPCL) outlet to its existing 1075 in Tamil Nadu.
This is aimed to support the truck drivers to get a fleet card recharged by paying equivalent cash.
The staff of Fino point supports the truck drivers and general public to carry out banking
transactions with the Micro ATM and Aadhaar enabled payment system (AePS) devices.
Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, subsidiary of the Reliance Industries Limited acquired the
retail and wholesale logistics and warehousing business of the Future Group Business as going
concerns on a sale basis for lump sum aggregate consideration of Rs. 24,713 crore.
This acquisition is a part of the scheme where Future Group merges with companies including
Future Retail, Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Consumer, Future Supply Chains and Future
Market Networks into Future Enterprises Limited.
DoT & SEBI approved Brookfield Infrastructure Partners proposal to acquire Reliance Telecom
Tower Asset
The Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) and The Securities and Exchange Board of
India-SEBI (with certain clauses) has given approval to Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), to sell
units worth Rs. 25, 215 crore in Tower Infrastructure Trust to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
L.P.
It also approved a downstream foreign investment of Rs. 105.35 crore to acquire remaining 49%
paid up equity share capital in Reliance Jio Infratel Pvt. Ltd. (RJIPL) and increase the foreign
capital in the firm to 100%.
Earlier the deal was approved by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and The Ministry of
Home Affairs-MHA (only the equity part of the deal).
“Fraud and Risk Management in Digital Payments” Report Released: PayPal & DSCI
The Report, “Fraud & Risk Management in Digital Payments” has been jointly developed by the
National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)’s Data Security Council
of India (DSCI) and PayPal Payments Pvt. Ltd.
The report gives a glimpse of growth of frauds and payments scams.
The E-commerce market is anticipated to grow from USD 50 billion (in 2018) to USD
200 billion by 2026.
It is expected that the internet user base will grow to 835 million by 2023 from 560
million in 2018.
Growth of online shoppers – 73% for tier-1 and 400% for tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
As of March 31, 2019, 925 million debit and 47 million credit cards have been issued in
India, 2nd to China.
In line with the vision of Digital India, digital payments are on a rapid growth path with
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)’s UPI alone having a 1.49 billion in
volume and USD 41 billion in transaction value, in July 2020.
As per the prediction of RBI the digital transactions will increase from Rs 2069 crore
(about USD 280) million in December 2018 to Rs 8707 crore (approximately USD 1178
million) by December 2021.
In accordance with the official data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Union
Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) on August 31, 2020, India’s GDP
fell by 23.9% in April-June period quarter of 2020 due to downfall in businesses and livelihood
amid COVID-19 pandemic induced nationwide lockdown restrictions.
This data states slowing of consumer spending, private investments and contraction in exports in
the March quarter. The growth of Indian economy in Q4 FY20 (January-March) quarter was also
at the slowest pace in eight years at 3.1%.
The COVID-19 crisis has brought on India’s fourth recession since independence and the first
since liberalisation. The economy last contracted in FY80. This is the first contraction since India
began releasing GDP growth data on a quarterly basis in 1997-98.
Global economies are also experiencing contraction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated a global contraction of 4.9% in 2020.
The European Investment Bank to invest 650 million euro in Kanpur’s 1st city metro line.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will invest 650 million euro in the construction of
Kanpur’s 1st city metro line. The 32.4 urban rail line, with 18 elevated and 12 underground
stations is EIB’s 2nd biggest operation outside the EU till date.
It is the 2nd metro rail project supported by the EIB in UP, following the 450 million euro
investment in Lucknow metro rail system.
Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (UPMRC) is the promoter-financial intermediary for
this project.
The 650 million euro investment is the 5th investment of EIB in green infrastructure and
connectivity in India.
The EU bank has invested in metro rail systems in Bhopal, Pune, Bangalore and Lucknow.
Japan extended an Emergency Support Loan of up to 50 billion Japanese Yen (Approx Rs. 3,500
crore) to support India’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The financial support will support India’s implementation of health, medical policies and
development of hospitals equipped with ICUs.
This is the largest financial assistance announced by any country to support India’s response to
the COVID-19 crisis.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited has introduced an AI powered voice chatbot,
‘LiGo’, on Google Assistant. LiGo is ICICI Prudential Life’s customer service chatbot.
This will enable the company’s policy holders to address their queries by simple voice
commands.
It provides an easy to use and convenient service touch-point for customers.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) plans to come out with a detailed set of
forensic accounting and investigation standards by the end of December 2020. The move will
make India the first country in the world to release a set of standards for forensic accounting and
investigation.
The council of ICAI has accepted the proposal of Digital Accounting and Assurance Board
(DAAB) of ICAI to develop and issue a set of Forensic Accounting and Investigation Standards
(FAIS) in India.
There will be 30 standards under 6 groups.
RBI has mandated forensic audit for transactions over Rs. 200 crores. Lenders and companies
can individually call for audits or investigations upon suspected fraud.
Forensic Accounting is the investigation of fraud or financial manipulation by

performing extremely detailed research and analysis of financial information.
Usually, Forensic accountants are hired to prepare litigation related to insurance claims,
insolvency, fraud and any other type of financial theft.
Adani Group will purchase 74% Stake in Mumbai International Airport Limited.
Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), holding company of Adani Group for its airports
business (and a subsidiary of Adani Enterpries Limited – AEL: collectively called “Adani”) has
entered into an agreement to acquire 74% in Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) or
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
Through the agreement, AAHL will acquire the debt of current promoter GVK group and buy out
minority shareholders.
MIAL is a joint venture (JV) between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and GVK industries.
Airport Company of South Africa (ACSA) holds 10% and Bidvest Group holds 13.5% in MIAL.
The umbrella body for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), Finance Industry
Development Council (FIDC) requested RBI to review the current account circular released in
August 2020 which stated that no bank is allowed to open current accounts for the customer who
availed credit facilities in the form of cash and credit (CC) or overdraft (OD) from the banking
system.
As per the circular, all transactions should be routed through the CC/OD account which is a
matter of concern for FIDC as there are various current accounts of NBFCs and housing finance
companies (HFCs) in the banks which may not have CC/OD facility extended to NBFC or HFC,
and as per circular these current accounts will need to be closed. If closed, the loan repayments
will suffer and also make tracking of business wise collections and disbursals difficult for
financial institutions.
RBI ceased banking operations of Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank.
RBI has ceased the Banking operation by the Aditya Birla Idea Payments (ABIP) Bank under
Banking Regulations Act 1949.
After this the company could not able to work successfully and applied for voluntary winding up
by the Vodafone Idea Limited which holds 51% in ABIP bank and remaining 49% by Grasim
Industries Limited.
Razorpay launched Cash Advance, Collateral Free LOC to Increase MSME Cash Flow.
Razorpay, leading financial solutions company launched its tech-enabled services “Cash
Advance” – a collateral free line of credit for businesses to support and recover the cash flow of
the capital of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Under the Cash Advance, the MSMEs can borrow the working capital with a credit limit of
50,000 to 10 lakh through the Razorpay dashboard.
The business can renew the Cash Advance with every 6 or 12 months with easy auto repayment
options.
RBI has mandated SCBs to fully automate NPA Recognition Process by June 30, 2021.
RBI issued circular advising banks to switch to automatic identification of non-performing assets
(NPAs), using appropriate IT systems, from manual identification for regulatory reporting and
bank’s own management information system (MIS) requirements. However, over this period of
time, the processes for NPA identification, income recognition, provisioning and generation of
related returns in many banks are not yet fully automated.
On this, RBI issued a notification mandating banks to complete the automation of bad-loan
recognition and provisioning processes by June 30, 2021. In case of non-compliance, suitable
supervisory action would be initiated against the concerned bank.
Canara Bank introduced i-Lead 2.0 to enhance Customer Services.

Canara Bank in order to provide its services regardless of where the customer reside launched a
Lead Management System (LMS) – i-Lead 2.0 (Inspiring Leads System). It will help the bank to
build and sustain business relationships with new customers and existing customers of the bank.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) extended the tenure of the Company Law Committee
by one year, i.e., this committed constituted in September 2019 has been extended up to 2 years
(17/09/2021) from the date of the order to constitute the committee (18/09/2019). It is now
chaired by Rajesh Verma, Secretary of MCA.
The 11-member committee has a mandate to submit periodic recommendations to the

government in phases and subject-wise, as may be decided by the chairman.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs in September 2019 constituted the Company Law
Committee, inter alia, to recommend measures to improve and enhance the functioning
of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and,
The Secretary of MCA will be the chairman of the committee. At the time of formation
of the committee Injeti Srinivas was the chairman.
Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry, GoI informed
that as per the estimate of Finance Ministry, India’s nominal GDP is expected to grow by 19% in
FY22 (2021-22) on a low base.
The nominal GDP in the 1st quarter of this FY contracted by 22.6% to Rs. 38.08 lakh crore
compared to Rs. 49.18 lakh crore in the same period last year.
It measures a country’s GDP using current prices, without adjusting for inflation.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) constituted the Technical Group on Social Stock
Exchange under the chairmanship of Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, former chairman of NABARD.
The group will develop a framework for onboarding non-profit organisations and for-profit
enterprises.
The group will develop a framework for prescribing disclosure requirements relating to
performance and aspects related to social audit and social impact.
Fino Payments Bank Limited in association with fintech partners has introduced Near Field
Communication (NFC)-based contactless payments solution for mass transit systems,
particularly for state bus transport services in India.
It was developed by Fino Payments Bank in partnership with Fintech Firms like City Cash.
NFC-based prepaid smart card ecosystem of Fino payment bank eases contactless or tap and go
payments, which enables cashless ticketing.
The Asian Development Bank has approved a 300million dollar (about Rs. 2,200 crore) loan to
develop the inclusive water supply, sanitation infrastructure and services in secondary towns of
Rajasthan.
It will enhance sanitation services for about 7.2 lakh people in at least 14 secondary towns.
Secondary towns imply the localities have 20,000 to one lakh residents.
RBI granted in-principle approval for Vakrangee Ltd. To set up Bharat Bill Payment Operating
Unit (BBPOU) to handle payment services related to bills.
It has received the authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
ADB has approved an additional financing of USD 270 million loan for construction of water
supply an integrated storm water and sewage management infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh
under Madhya Pradesh Urban Services Improvement Project.
RBI has issued a directive under Section 10 (2) read with Section 18 of Payment and Settlement
Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007) stating an introduction of Positive Pay System for Cheque
Truncation System (CTS) for banks in order to check fraud. It will be implemented from January
01, 2021.
To be developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), this system will require re-
confirmation of key details of payments beyond Rs. 50,000.
It should be noted that the usage of Positive Pay System is at the choice of account holder;
however banks may make it mandatory in case of cheques for amounts of Rs. 5 lakh and above.
Functioning – Under the positive pay system, the issuer of the cheque will be required to submit
certain minimum details of the cheque like date, name of the beneficiary, payee, and amount to
the drawee bank electronically. These details will be cross-checked before the cheque is
presented for payment. In case any discrepancy is flagged by cheque truncation system to the
drawee bank and presenting bank, redressal measures would be undertaken.
GoI’s notification on e-invoicing
GoI of India came up with a centralised e-invoicing scheme for business having turnover more
than 500 crores to generate all their B2B invoices on a centralised government portal which will
go live from 1st October.
Till now, all the companies use their own mechanism for generating invoices. These invoices
vary company to company to company and can be forged easily to manipulate the buyer or for
doing any other forgery. To curb this the government in association with the Central Board of
Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has come up with an initiative wherein it will be mandatory
for business with turnover more than 500 crores to generate an e-invoice through a centralised
governmental portal for all their B2B sales.
India imposes import restrictions on colour TV sets
Following a ban on popular Chinese applications, the GoI has moved the import of colour TV
sets from free to restricted. India imports the majority of TV sets from China.
This step by the government is aimed to promote PM Modi’s vision of “Vocal for Local” which
will boost domestic manufacturing and balance the trade deficit the country is currently facing
against China.
The restriction announced recently by the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) states
that the import policy of the Colour TV sets has been amended from free category to the
restricted category. Importers of those items which is in the restricted category have to seek a
license from the commerce ministry of DGFT for imports.
In the last FY, Colour TV sets worth $781 million were imported in the country most of which
came from Vietnam and China of $428 million and $292 million respectively.
Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a special 2-month campaign, ‘Kona Kona Umeed’ with
offers and discounts across its suite of products to make banking and shopping more rewarding
for the customers so as to boost consumer demand and lift people’s enthusiasm during the
pandemic situation.
Kotak has also tied up with over 100 brands to provide exclusive deals to its customers in
categories such as shopping, essentials, personal care, education and fitness among others.
The campaign provides offers and discounts for its products including for loans, savings
accounts, current accounts, corporate salary accounts, deals on Kotak debit cards, credit cards
and digital payments among others.
Biocon Biologics India approved the primary equity investment of around Rs. 225 crore (30
million USD) by Tata Capital Growth Fund for a 0.85% minority stake in Biocon Biologics.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) announced the establishment of
an expert committee headed by Pradip Shah, Chairman of Indasia Fund Advisors Pvt. Ltd. To
suggest on how to develop the international retail businesses in International Financial Services
Centres.
Experts Committee:
G. Srinivasan, Ex-Chairman and Managing Director, New India Assurance Ltd.
Siddhartha Sengupta, Ex-Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India.
Shyamal Mukherjee, Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Prakash Subramanian, Head of Strategy, Standard Chartered Bank.
Dipesh Shah, Head – IFSC Dept., GIFT IFSC.
Nitin Jaiswal, Head – Govt Affairs & Strategic relations, Bloomberg, Singapore.
In order to provide more time to the listed entities to meet criteria of minimum public
shareholding of 25%, the Centre Government has made changes in the Securities Contracts
(Regulation) Rules, 1957 in rule 19A, in sub-rule (1), where the words “two years” substituted
by words “three years”. Therefore, listed entities get one more year to comply with the rules of
MPS, benefiting more than 3 dozen PSUs who have been unable to meet this requirement amid
COVID-19.
Eligibility for this relaxation: The rules were relaxed for listed entities for whom the deadline to
comply with MPS requirements falls between the period from March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020.
Stock Exchanges will not take any penal action against entities in case of non-compliance during
the above mentioned period.
If any penal actions initiated by stock exchanges from March 1, 2020 till date for non-compliance
of MPS requirements by listed entities may be withdrawn.
As per the current rules, exchanges can slap a fine of up to Rs. 10,000 on companies for each day
of non-compliance with MPS requirements and can also intimate depositories to freeze the entire
shareholding of the promoter and promoter group.
The 6-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI held its meeting in New Delhi. The
committee was headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. During the meet, following key
decisions were taken:
 The repo rate was kept the same at 4%.

 The reverse repo rate was kept at 3.35%.
 The members decided to provide Rs. 10,000 crore additional liquidity facility to National
Housing Bank (NHB), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
 In order to mitigate COVID-19 impact on households, loans against gold have been enhanced to
90% of the value as against the current 75%.
 The lenders will be allowed to restructure loans of individual borrowers, corporate to ease
COVID-19 impact.
 The stressed MSME borrowers are now eligible to restructure the debt if their accounts were
classified standard.
India contributed 15.46% million USD to the India-UN Development Partnership Fund.
India has contributed the funds to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation
(UNOSSC) as a permanent representative of the UN. Of this, 9.46 million USD has been
dedicated to the Commonwealth countries and 6 million USD to the overall fund.
India-UN Development Partnership Fund – The fund is managed by UNOSSC. It was established
in 2017. The Fund supports developing countries in achieving their 2030 Agenda of Sustainable
Development. Currently, there are 36 projects being implemented in 37 countries with the help of
the fund.
The fund mainly focuses on the development of Least Developed Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries and small Island Developing States.
So far, India has contributed 41.8 million USD towards the fund. India has committed150 million
USD towards the funds in the next decade.
RBI launched “Innovation Hub” for ideation and incubation of new capabilities that can be
leveraged to deepen financial inclusion.
The hub is being launched to promote the start ups in the country. It will help in ideation and
incubation of new capabilities. This will in turn help to deepen financial inclusion in the country
and promote efficient banking services.
The hub is to act as a centre to create viable and innovative financial products. This will provide
the following benefits:
 The hub will help achieve efficient banking.

 Business continuity in times of emergency.
 Strengthening consumer protection.
 RBI has recently taken similar initiatives to encourage responsible innovation. One such
recent initiative is the “Regulatory Sandbox”.
Airtel Payments Bank has entered into a partnership with Bharti AXA General Insurance to offer
the latter’s affordable and newly launched shop insurance product namely “Smart Plan Shop
Package Policy” for financial protection of the bank’s retailers and merchants. The policy will
provide financial protection in case of damage to assets inside the shop due to fire and allied
perils and burglary, among others, as covered in the product.
A large number of bank’s retailers and merchants are small- and medium-size shop owners who
are totally dependent on their shops for their livelihood.
India has extended the Line of Credit (LoC) worth USD 18 million to the Government of
Maldives for the expansion of fishing facilities at Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company
(MIFCO) based in Felivaru, Lhaviyani Atoll, through the development of fish collection and
storage facilities, and the setting up of a tuna cooked plant and fishmeal plant.
The amount will also be utilised to develop a 50 tonne ice plant in Gemanafushi, Gaafu Dhaalu
Atoll, in addition to a 100 tonne ice storage facility.
This extension is a part of USD 800 million LoC offered by India through Export-Import Bank of
India (EXIM Bank) carrying an interest rate of 1.75% with repayment tenor of 20 years and a 5-
year moratorium.
On the occasion of Independence Day of the Maldives on July 26, 2020, the largest Indian public
sector bank, SBI provided liquidity support of USD 16.2 million as a COVID-relief for the
Government of Maldives to overcome liquidity shortage.
EXIM Bank on behalf of GoI, extended a LoC of USD 250 million to Mozambique to improve
the power supply quality of the country.
LIC has acquired 4.23% Stake (105.98 crore shares) of YES Bank by purchasing from the open
market. With the acquisition, the hold of LIC in YES Bank has increased from 0.75% (19 crore
shares) to 4.98% (125 crore shares).
ADB has signed a USD 200 million financial deal with the Reliance Bangladesh LNG and
Power Limited (RBLPL) to build and operate a 718 megawatt combined –cycle gas-fired power
plant in Bangladesh.
The plant is proposed to be set up on land allotted by Bangladesh Power Development Board
(BPDB), in Meghnaghat, Narayanganj District near Dhaka.
The financing deal has 2 components of USD 100 million each.
ADB will provide USD 100 million and will also manage the other part worth USD 100 million
from the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP).
The power plant will minimise the dependence of Bangladesh on electricity imports.
The GoI under the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue has set up a 3-member
committee headed by Secretary (retired) G.K. Pillai for determination of ceiling rates under
Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme.
The 2 other members are Y G Parande, retired Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
member and Gautam Ray, retired chief commissioner of custom and central excise.
The Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP)
The scheme aims to reimburse taxes and duties incurred by exporters such as Duty on power
charges, Value Added Tax on fuel in transportation, farm sector, captive power generation,
mandi tax, stamp duty and central excise duty which are not compensated under any other
scheme.
It aims to reimburse the taxes and duties incurred by exporters such as local taxes, coal cess,
mandi tax, electricity duties and fuel used for transportation, which are not getting exempted or
refunded under any other existing schemes.
The previous Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) is being phased out as it was found
to violate the WTO rules. RoDTEP is a WTO compliant scheme.
PM Modi is to unveil a new platform called “Transparent Taxation-Honouring the Honest”. This
was earlier announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as “Tax Charter” in Budget
2020-21.
The GoI is to unveil fresh measures including big-ticket infrastructure projects to make local
industry more competitive. This mainly focuses to reorient tax administration. The steps are a
part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
The taxpayer charter is to be incorporated in the Income Tax act to make sure taxpayers rights
establish trust between tax payer and tax administrator. This is being done to avoid harassments.
There are only 3 countries in the world that have enshrined rights of its taxpayers. They are
Canada, Australia and US.
Paytm has launched India’s 1st Pocket Android POS (Point of Sale) Device, ‘Paytm All-in-One
Portable Android Smart POS’ for contactless ordering and payments in India.
It is integrated with the ‘Paytm for Business’ app to generate GST compliant bills and to manage
all transactions & settlements.
It comes with an introductory price of Rs. 499 per month on a rental basis and is designed like a
phone.
South Indian Bank (SIB) has obtained in-principle approval from the RBI to set up a wholly
owned non-financial subsidiary for undertaking activities permitted by RBI.
The establishment of the subsidiary is a further step in consolidating the position of SIB “as a
Retail Banking Power House”.
LIC has unveiled ‘Special Revival Campaign’ from August 10 to October 9, 2020 to provide an
opportunity for its policyholders to revive lapsed policies.
India extended 1 million USD to Antigua and Barbuda to combat COVID-19 outbreak. This is
aimed at improving health infrastructure in the country.
India has also offered same level of assistance, i.e., USD 1 million to each of Caribbean
Community under CARICOM. CARICOM is a group of 20 developing countries in the
Caribbean region.
Under the USD 1 million assistance, the countries are to be assisted with disposable impervious
gowns, full cover goggles, ventilators, face shields, examination gloves, disposable masks, etc.
Also, Antigua and Barbuda are to receive 10,000 Hydroxychloroquine tablets.
RBI has mandated the urban co-operative banks (UCBs) with assets of Rs. 2,000 crore or above
as on March 31, 2020 to implement system-based asset classification from 30 June 2021.
For UCBs having total assets of Rs 1000 crore or above but less than Rs 2000 crore as on March
31, 2020 and have self-assessed are mandated to implement it from September 30, 2021.
This decision has been taken to improve the efficiency, transparency and integrity of the asset
classification process.
SBI has launched “KCC (Kisan Credit Card) Review option” on its digital agricultural solution
platform, YONO (You Only Need One) Krishi.
With this application the farmers can access their KCC limit in the virtual platform. The farmers
will no longer need to visit the bank branch physically to apply for a revision in their KCC limit.
YONO Krishi platform is providing the following 4 services for the farmers:
1. YONO Khata – Caters to agriculture credit solutions like agri gold loans.
2. YONO Bachat – Financial Super Store for farmer’s investment & insurance needs.
3. YONO Mitra – Agriculture advisory services.
4. YONO Mandi – Online marketplace for purchasing agricultural inputs & farm
equipment.
Aditya Puri, managing Director of HDFC Bank, launched digitally the 1 st of its kind card,
‘Shaurya KGC (Kisan Gold Credit) Card’, a tri colour theme card for Indian armed forces
personnel, i.e., Army, Navy, Air Force and Para military forces and their families.
It will benefit over 45 lakh users. The product is aimed largely towards armed forces personnel
from semi-urban and rural communities. The product is based on the Kisan Credit Card (KCC)
guidelines by the government.
This launch is part of the HDFC Bank’s ‘Har Gaon Hamara’ initiative to provide banking
facilities to customers in the rural and under-served areas of the country.
The card will provide finance for agricultural needs like production of crop, post-harvest
maintenance and consumption needs.
The users can also avail this funding to purchase farm machinery, irrigation equipment or
construct storage structures among others.
The 584th meeting of the Central Board of RBI under the Chairmanship of Governor Shaktikanta
Das approved the transfer of Rs. 57, 128 crore in surplus as dividend to the Central government
for the accounting year 2019-20.
The board decided to maintain the Contingency Risk Buffer at 5.5%.
RBI in 2019 had transferred a record payment of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore (trillion) which included Rs.
1.23 lakh crore as dividend and about Rs. 52,637 crore of excess provisions identified as per the
revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF).
As per the Union Budget 2020-21, the govt. has budgeted Rs. 60,000 crore as dividends from
RBI and state-run banks and financial institutions.
Muthoot Finance has partnered with Kotak Mahindra General Insurance to offer COVID-19
insurance cover of up to Rs. 1 lakh under the initiative Muthoot Finance Ayush Gold Loan.
The cover will be available only for the customers who avail gold loan from Muthoot Finance
under the Muthoot Super Loan (MSL) scheme.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has
acquired 60% equity stake in Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd. And 100% direct equity ownership of its
subsidiaries namely Tresara Health Private Limited, Netmeds MarketPlace Ltd. And Dadha
Pharma Distribution Pvt. Limited (Netmeds) for a cash consideration of around Rs. 620 crore
(USD 83.08 million).
Fino Payments Bank Ltd. launched Jan Bachat Khata (JBK), an Aadhar authentication based
digital savings account for its customers.
The customers can open a JBK account only through Aadhar-based eKYC mode.
With fingerprint and OTP combination the customers can transact at a Fino branch or merchant
point.
The annual subscription fee of JBK is at a nominal rate. It is a zero balance account with no
MAB requirement, no debit card, ATM and SMS charge.
Customers can deposit up to Rs. 25,000 and avail around 10 free transactions in a month, without
any charges.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a wholly-owned subsidiary,
NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL) to internationalize (or export to foreign markets)
NPCI’s indigenously developed offerings and technological acumen, i.e. real-time payment
system, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and card payment network, RuPay along with a few
more offerings of NPCI. It is also responsible to co-create payment technologies with other
countries.
NPCI has appointed Ritesh Shukla as CEO of NIPL.
Lakshmi Vilas Bank has launched ‘LAKSHMI digiGO’, a contactless digital initiative that will
enable customers to open a savings account instantly. This initiative will help people to avail the
most required banking services instantly through the website on account of COVID-19
pandemic.
LAKSHMI digiGO is savings account with select features which include internet and mobile
banking.
This account can be converted to a fully featured regular account of choice and avail cheque
book, debit card and a host of other facilities on visiting the nearest LVB branch.
It is a zero balance account and requires a PAN and Aadhaar card for opening the account.
Customers can immediately tart to transact their accounts with LAKSHMI digiGO.
SBI will receive Brandon Human Capital Management (HCM) Excellence Award (also known
as the Academy Awards of Learning & Development) 2020, a global recognition for its HR
initiative, “Nayi Disha”.
The award winners will be honoured at Brandon Hall Group’s annual HCM Excellence
Conference, January 26-28, 2021 at the Hilton West Palm Beach, Florida.
SBI has won the award in The HCM Spring Program under ‘Excellence in Learning and
Development’ in 3 categories namely, Best Learning Program supporting a Change
Transformation Business Strategy, Best Use of Blended Learning and Best Unique or Innovative
Learning and Development Program for its HR initiative.
The awards recognise the best organisations that have successfully developed and
deployed programs, strategies, modalities, processes, systems and tools that have
achieved measurable results.
The award features 2 annual program namely, The HCM Spring Program and The
Technology Fall Program.
HSBC India becomes 1st Foreign Bank in India to launch a ‘Green Deposit Program’ exclusively
for corporate clients to finance green initiatives and eco-friendly projects like renewable energy,
clean transportation, and pollution preservation among others, that promote transition to a low-
carbon, climate resilient and sustainable economy.
This will enable companies to support environmentally-beneficial projects.
It is available in Rupees as ‘Term Deposit’, which generally attracts higher interests compared to
savings deposits.
The amount for Green Deposits will be subject to limits basis availability of aligible projects &
businesses.
S S Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO of PNB launched a campaign, ‘DIGITAL APNAYEN’ to

encourage customers to use digital banking channels and participate in the noble cause of
donating to PM CARES Fund for COVID-19.
The bank under the campaign will contribute Rs. 5 towards the PM CARES Funds on behalf of
each customer who conduct the 1st financial transaction to activate the following:
 RuPay Debit Card either on point of sale (PoS) or e-commerce platform.

 AePS account through fund transfer, AePS account through Bharat Interface for Money
(BHIM) Aadhaar Merchants payment and activation of UPI service.
 Download and Registration for UPI facility will also be eligible for contribution.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. and Bharti AXA General Insurance Co. Ltd. have
signed definitive agreements to merge their insurance business. The merger will happen through
a scheme of arrangement.
The proposed merged non-life insurance company will have a market share of 8.7% on a pro-
forma basis.
The deal values Bharti AXA at around Rs. 2,700 crore.
Once the deal is completed the combined entity will become the largest private non-life insurer
and the 3rd largest non-life insurer in the general insurance industry. After New India Assurance
and United India Insurance.
Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) and SBI General Insurance Co. Ltd. have signed a
MoU in Dharwad, Karnataka to sell general insurance products through the branches of KVGB.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the businesses with annual turnover of up
to Rs. 40 lakh are exempted from GST.
The announcement was made through series of tweets on the occasion of first death anniversary
former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Also, the Finance Ministery added that those people with
turnover up to Rs. 1.5 crores shall opt for Composition Scheme and shall pay 1% tax.
Earlier the limit was Rs. 20 lakh.
Religare Health Insurance Company, subsidiary health insurance of Religare Enterprises, has
changed its name to ‘Care Health Insurance’ and became effective from August 19, 2020.
Tata Capital Ltd., the financial services arm of the Tata Group launched its new service called,
‘Swift Insta Personal loans’ (SIPL) on WhatsApp.
Through the new service, the existing customers can easily apply for loans and receive sanctions
for personal loans (on a single platform) using TIA, a chatbot of Tata Capital on WhatsApp.
TIA was recently launched on WhatsApp as a service platform to facilitate customer requests,
including queries about Equated Monthly Instalment (EMI) details or updating customer records.
SBI has partnered with India’s first Real-Time Group Negotiation E-Platform, AddaCorner to
launch ‘Online Home Carnival’, which will help in boosting the Real Estate market in
Bangalore. Along with the launch of ‘Online Home Carnival’, AddaCorner was also launched.
The Carnival will invite potential home-buyers to come together as a group and directly negotiate
with empanelled real estate sellers on a real time basis.
RBL Bank has entered into a strategic partnership with Accenture to transform and enhance the
future readiness of the bank’s IT systems and accelerate its digital transformation journey.
The alliance will enable RBL bank to offer next-generation banking services, boost the resilience
and scalability of its systems and business processes, and also to improve its operational
efficiency.
As a part of this partnership, Accenture will provide managed services and enable RBL Bank to
modernise and integrate its large and diverse applications environment.
According to the data provided by Ministry of Finance to Rajya Sabha, Tamil Nadu topped the
list in availing loans to women. It was followed by West Bengal and Karnataka.
According to the data produced by the Ministry of Finance, around 15 crore loans amounting to
Rs. 4.78 lakh crores were disbursed to women borrowers since the inception of Pradhan Mantri
Mudra Yojana.
As of March 31, 2020. Tamil Nadu has availed 58,227 crores.
HSBC India has launched Oni Collect, a one-stop solution in India. It supports businesses to
offer multiple payment options on a single platform.
It is designed for businesses to easily collect payments through various digital methods, thereby
allowing them to easily adapt to the changes in consumer spending.
With Omni Collect solution, HSBC India will enable businesses to offer different digital payment
modes to their clients and also provide them with a comprehensive view of their collections.
Axis Bank has introduces ‘Liberty Savings Account’ for the Indian youth, to address the ever
changing lifestyle needs of young and digitally interested Indians. It offers a complimentary
hospital cash insurance cover of up to Rs. 20,000 per year, which covers hospital expenses
incurred under COVID-19, which makes this a 1st of its kind savings account to cover the
pandemic.
It allows customers to maintain a minimum balance of Rs. 25,000 per month or spend the same
amount each month on lifestyle needs through the Liberty debit card or savings account.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved 100% proposed acquisition of the
share capital of the Indian Operations of C&S Electric Limited (C&S) and Siemens Limited
(Siemens India). For this purpose, Siemens Ltd. has signed an agreement with C&S in January
2020.
At the time of closing the proposed combination, the C&S business scope will include low-
voltage (LV) switchgear components and panels, LV and medium voltage (MV) power bus bars
as well as protection and metering devices of C&S.
Other businesses of C&S, like MV switchgear and package substitution, lighting, diesel
generation sets, engineering, procurement and construction businesses and the “Etacom” bus bars
business will be retained by the existing promoters of C&S.
Siemens India focuses on the following areas, namely, power generation and distribution,
intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems among others.
Unitus investment has received an investment of Rs. 75 crore (USD 10 million) under Small
Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)’s Funds of Funds for Start-ups initiative enabled
by the GoI.
The fund will strengthen the deployment of its second Rs 300 crore fund, which was launched in
2018.
Unitus Ventures has recently invested Rs. 8.5 crore (USD 1.1 million) in Masai School, an ed-
tech platform. This investment will continue to strengthen its job-tech portfolio.
RBI has revised the guidelines applicable for Core Investment Companies (CICs) on the basis of
the recommendations of the Working Group (WG) to Review the Regulatory and Supervisory
Framework for Core Investment Companies (CICs), constituted under the Chairmanship of
Tapan Ray, former Secretary, Ministry Corporate Affairs.
The report by the WG was published by RBI on November 6, 2019.
In this regard, RBI has made the guidelines stricter for CICs by mandating more disclosures,
better risk management and a simpler group structure w.e.f. August 13, 2020. The existing
entities have been given time till March 2023 to reorganise their business structure.
CICs with assets of over Rs. 5,000 crore will have to appoint a chief risk officer (CRO).
CIC in the group, or the CIC with the largest asset size, will have to form a group risk
management committee (GRMC), comprising of at least 5 members, with 2 independent
directors.
Existing individual micro food processing units desirous of upgradation of their units could avail
credit-linked capital subsidy of 35% of the eligible project cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs.
10 lakh per unit.
Seed capital of Rs. 40,000 per Self Help Group (SHG) member would be provided for working
capital and purchase of small tools.
Farmer producer organisations (FPOs)/ SHGs/ producer cooperatives would be provided a credit
linked grant of 35% for capital investment along the value chain.
HDFC Bank has launched ‘e-Kisaan Dhan’ App for Farmers in India.
This app provides information and knowledge to farmers which will help them to meet the needs
of the rural ecosystem. With this app, farmers can access a bouquet of services in banking and
agriculture, through their mobile phones.
ICICI Bank in partnership with Computer Age Management Services (CAMS) launched ‘Insta
Loans against Mutual Funds’, a facility for retail customers to avail loans up to Rs. 1 crore
instantly by pledging their holdings in both debt and equity Mutual Funds.
The facility is an extension of the Insta Loan Against Shares (LAS).
It is a full digital and paperless facility. It empowers customers to get this loan as an overdraft
within a few minutes without having to visit a branch and submit physical documents.
Minimum loan amount for debt and equity schemes of MFs in Rs. 50,000. Maximum loan
amount for debt schemes of MFs is Rs. 1 crore and for equity schemes of MFs is Rs. 20 lakh.
Competitive Margin – Minimum 50% for equity and 20% for debt MFs.
Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) and Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd. announced that they
have collaborated to provide EMI billing options on Kotak Debit Cards which are swiped on
Innoviti Point of Sale (POS) terminals.
The facility will enable about 10 million Kotak customers to pay for their purchases in
instalments by using the EMIs on debit cards facility at over 70,000 Innoviti POS terminals
across more than 1,000 cities.
The Union Cabinet approved capital infusion of Rs. 12,450 crore for three public sector general
insurance companies namely Oriental Insurance Company Ltd., National Insurance Company
Ltd. & United India Insurance Company Ltd. (including Rs. 2,500 crore infused in FY 2019-20).
Out of the total infusion, Rs. 3,475 crore will be released immediately; while the balance Rs.
6,475 crore will be infused later.
Cabinet also approved an increased in the authorised share capital of NICL to Rs. 7,500 crore and
that of UIICL and OICL to Rs. 5,000 crore respectively to give effect to the capital infusion. The
government is reportedly also planning a merger and listing of these companies. However, the
process of merger has been ceased.
SBM Bank India has partnered with MasterCard to enable its customers to make real-time
domestic & cross-border payments (Business to Consumer – B2C) and remittances quickly and
efficiently through ‘MasterCard Send’. This partnership allows the bank’s customer base to offer
quick, convenient and secure payments experiences.
Significance of MasterCard Send – MasterCard Send is a secured and innovative solution. It has
played a key role in diversifying MasterCard payment flows and the payment experience for
customers.
YES Bank launched a digital solution, ‘Loan in Seconds’ for instant disbursement of retail loans.
It is available for the bank’s pre-approved liability account holders.
The solution aims to provide customers, hassle-free loans to help them meet their immediate
financial needs.
Those customers have to verify and accept the final offer.

Karur Vysya Bank has joined hands with Star Health and Allied Insurance Co. Ltd. for bank
assurance (selling of life assurance and other insurance products and services by bank).
In addition, all bank customers will be able to access value-added services like STAR
WELLNESS and get telehealth consultation using TALK TO STAR.
IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Limited (IndiaFirst Life) associated with BOB Financial
Services Limited (BOB Financial), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BOB) to offer
a group insurance cover. The cover will provide financial support to the BOB credit card
customers upon their hospitalization or on COVID-19 diagnosis.
Through this association, the customers who choose IndiaFirst Life Insurance Hospital Care plan
can avail the benefits if diagnosed with COVID-19 positive and also for hospitalization due to
any other reason for more than 24 hours.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
signed a MoU for the data exchange between the 2 organisations via video conference.
It facilitates sharing of data and information automatically between the 2 organisations on a

regular basis.
On request and suo moto basis, both organisations exchange information available in the
databases for doing their functions under various laws.
According to the data from the RBI, Tamil Nadu has topped market borrowings among States in
India with a collection of Rs. 30,500 crore in the fiscal 2020-21.
Tamil Nadu has been followed by Maharashtra Rs. 25,500 crore, Andhra Pradesh Rs. 17,000
crore, Rajasthan Rs 17,000 crore.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has allowed all general
and health insurance companies to increase the sum insured on the Standard Individual Health
insurance Product namely ‘Arogya Sanjeevani’ beyond Rs. 5 lakh.
This decision has been taken in view of the increasing cost of healthcare in the country amid the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Arogya Sanjeevani, is a product for which all insurers are mandated to offer had a cap of Rs. 5
lakh on the sum insured and the minimum cover for it was of Rs. 1 lakh.
The regulator has now allows insurers to offer sum insured as low as Rs. 50,000 with no upper
limit. The sum insured has to be in multiples of Rs. 50,000.
Mastercard has announced that it will invest Rs. 250 crore to support Indian Small and Medium
Enterprises to enable the SMEs to restart itself and help them in businesses recovery.
These initiatives are an extension of the global commitment of Mastercard to inject finance that
pledges to bring a total of 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the
digital economy by 2025.
Jharkhand Government signed MoU with HDFC Bank to provide digital payment solutions to
the state’s transport department.
The Digital solution will enable the traffic police to equip themselves with Point of Sale (POS)
machines to collect traffic-related penalties. The traffic rules violators can also use this online
payment facility to pay a fine.
Visa enters into partnership with Federal Bank to deploy Visa Secure to the bank’s cardholders.
Visa Secure will provide additional authentication layers for issuers and merchants to combat
online frauds.
This will also enhance the focus of the bank on customer-centric digital solutions that make
online shopping experiences seamless.
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has celebrated its 39th
foundation day by organising its first “digital choupal”, a video conference which brought
together farmers from across the country who have been associated with NABARD in 7
development projects in rural India viz. Rural Livelihoods Matter immensely, Empowering
Tribal Communities, Soil Health is Real Health, Direct Marketing to Urban Consumers, Climate
Resilience, Climate Proofing of Koutuguda and Collectivisation of Weavers.
On this occasion, NABARD has announced Rs. 5,000 crore of refinance scheme for banks and
financial institutions for proving finance to the beneficiaries of its 2,150 watershed development
projects and also earmarked another Rs. 5,000 crore for turning Primary Agricultural Credit
Societies (PACS), into multi service centres.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) made it mandatory for
general and health insurers to launch short-term standard health policies for COVID-19 cases in
India. Notably, the premium under both the products shall be the pan-India basis and no
geographic location or zone-based pricing will be allowed.
Minimum entry age for both the policies will policies will be 18 years and the maximum 65.
Ashok Lavasa was appointed as the Vice President of Asian Development Bank. He will
succeed Diwakar Gupta, whose term will end on 31 August, 2020.
Ashok Lavasa was serving as the Election Commissioner and is next in line to become Chief
Election Commissioner.
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) launched projects worth of
Rs. 44 lakhs in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The projects have been launched to develop Self Help Groups and also to help in skill
development of Self-Help Groups in the territory.
Around 385 village level programs are to be conducted and provide training to leaders of newly
formed SHGs with an aid of Rs. 10 lakh.
Under the project, women attached to Self Help Groups (SHGs) are to be trained for Mushroom
Cultivation and Bamboo handicrafts.
Micro Entrepreneurship Development Program – NABARD is to carry out a yearly micro-

entrepreneurship development program for 150 members of various SHGs in Middle Andaman.
Also, NABARD has tied up with Centre of Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) to conduct
agricultural program of Rs. 20 lakhs.
In order to achieve Atma Nirbhar Bharat, under the initiative, NABARD is to organise “Rural
Haats” in Gram Panchayats.
NABARD has sanctioned Rs.795 crore to West Bengal to reconstruct infrastructure which was
damaged by Cyclone Amphan.
The state government appealed for Rs. 1,028 crore from NABARD to repair the damage under
Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).
NABARD has already provided Rs. 145 crore under RIDF to the state as special liquidity support
to enhance rural infrastructure considering the COVID-19 pandemic.
RBI has approved the reappointment of Shyam Srinivasan as the MD Director and CEO of
Federal Bank Limited with effect from September 23, 2020 till September 22, 2021.
In June 2020, RBI proposed to limit the tenure of the CEO’s and Whole Time Directors (WTDs)
from the promoter and non-promoter groups to 10 years and 15 years respectively.
The RBI also proposed to limit the upper age limit of the CEOs and WTDs of the Banks to 70
years.
SBI Cards and Payment Services appointed Mr. Ashwini Kumar Tewari as its new MD & CEO
who s intended to be in charge from August 1, 2020.
His new appointment will be valid for 2 years.
Tewari replaced Mr. Hardyal Prasad.
The South African Customs Union (SACU) comprises of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho,
Botswana and Eswatini. India and the SACU held a virtual meeting to discuss the aspects of
Preferential Trade Agreement.
India during the meet revived its Preferential Trade Agreement with the grouping. Under the
PTA, India is supporting manufacturing and industries in the countries. This mainly includes
agriculture, irrigation, ICT, renewable, pharmaceuticals.
The trade between India and Africa as a whole is USD 66.7 billion. Of this, India and SACU
trade stands at USD 10.9 billion.
Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) announced that the safeguard duty on solar
cells imported from China, Vietnam and Thailand will continue for another 1 year starting from
July 31, 2020. However, the countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have been exempted.
The import duties are to be imposed on all solar cell products whether or not assembled in panels
or modules. The existing safeguard duty was imposed on July 2018.
Consumer Protection Act, 2019 came into force. The Act will empower consumers, help them to
protect their rights through its provisions such as Consumer Protection Council and Consumer
Dispute Redressal Commission. The Act replaces Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
Under the Act, the Central Consumer Protection Authority has been empowered to conduct
investigations on violation of consumer rights, order recall of unsafe goods, misleading
advertisements, impose penalties on endorsers, publishers or manufacturers etc. The Central
Consumer protection Authority was constituted under Section 10(1) of Consumer Protection Act,
2019.
Advertisement Regulation is one of the major features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Several countries such as UK, Belgium and Ireland have banned celebrity endorsement for
unhealthy foods.
Under Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the celebrities can be fined up to Rs. 10 lakhs for
promoting misleading products. Strict actions shall be taken against advertisers for generating
misleading content. However, no action can be taken against the media through which the
advertisement id being published.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 defined 6 major consumer rights as follows:
1. Right to be protected against marketing goods and services that are hazardous to life and
property.
2. Right to be informed about the quality, quantity, standard, purity and price of goods and
services.
3. Right to be assured to access variety of goods at competitive prices.
4. Right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices.
5. Right to sue the celebrity for misleading endorsements.
6. Right to claim product liability action under the act on account of harm caused to
consumers due to defective products.
A Consumer can file a complaint with Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission in relation to
the following:
 Unfair or restrictive trade practices.

 Overcharging or Deceptive Charging.
 Defective Goods or Services.
 Offering of goods and services for sale that may be hazardous to life and safety.
The salient features of the Act are as follows:
 Central Consumer Protection Authority.

 Consumer Protection Councils.
 Simplified dispute resolution processes.
 Product liability.
 Mediation.
 Rules on e-commerce and direct selling.
 Penalty for adulteration of products or spurious goods.
The Act makes it mandatory for the e-commerce entities to acknowledge the receipt of consumer
complaints within 48 hours. Also they have to redress the complaint within 1 month from the
date of receipt.
SEBI has reconstituted the committee advising it on matters related to regulation and
development of the mutual fund industry by including 5 new members.
The new 20 member committee will be chaired by Usha Thorat, former deputy governor of RBI.
Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad announcedthat the state government and SBI will
set up a stress fund to revive Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) projects (about 370 projects)
in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and other urban areas of the state.
For this purpose, the state govt will inject Rs. 700 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in this fund as a
financial support. SRA will act as the nodal agency under the Housing Ministry to implement the
slum redevelopment schemes.
FamPay, India’s first Neobank for teenagers, in partnership with IDFC First bank launched
India’s 1st numberless card, FamCard. FamPay with National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI) developed this card. This card is accepted across the RuPay payment network of
merchants. It is similar to a debit card which enables teenagers to transact in a cashless manner.
It allows the parent to create a FamPool account which is a group account for the family.
Through this account parents will be able to track where the money is spent from this account. As
for teens, they get their own wallets.
Minors can make online (UPI & Peer to Peer – P2P) & offline payments without even having to
set up a bank account.
The details of the card are saved on the FamPay app. There is no need to refer the physical card
to fill in details during online transactions.
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
(CBIC) signed MoU to exchange data with each other.
The agreement will help to facilitate exchange of information between the boards on regular
basis. The agreement signed replaces the former agreement signed between Central Board of
Excise and Customs (CBEC) and CBDT.
The CBIC was established after GST was introduced.
Under Section 138 Income Tax Act, CBDT will share data regarding sales of plant and
machinery. The CBDT will soon start sharing data regarding sales, depreciation, gross turnover
of MSMEs with the Ministry of MSMEs.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched UPI Auto Pay feature for recurring
payments.
The feature launched is dedicated to recurring payments. It can be used for multiple financial
purposes such as booking bus pass, utility payment, paying DTH, train ticket among others. The
organisation such as Policy Bazaar, Axis Bank, Timesprime, Razor Pay and Pay U India are to
provide Auto Pay option to customers using recurring payments.
India’s 3rd-largest public sector bank, BoB launched ‘Insta Click Savings Account’, a 100%
paperless digital self-assisted online savings account. It can be activated in real-time i.e.; the
customer can transact using the Baroda M Connect Plus application with the MPIN received on
the mobile number.
It also offers an option to subscribe to a wide range of digital channels like mobile banking,
internet Banking, UPI and debit card.
There is no requirement to maintain a minimum balance.
The maximum permissible balance is Rs. 1 lakh, on any day. The maximum cumulative
credit/deposit is Rs. 2 lakhs in a FY.
The GoI recently amended General Financial Rules, 2017. The rules were amended to impose
restrictions on public procurement from the neighbourhood countries of India that share lad
border. This has been done on national security grounds.
A detail order on public procurement was issued by the Department of Expenditure to strengthen
defence and national security of India. According to the new order, a bidder from neighbouring
country (the country that is sharing the land border) of India shall place bids to procure goods
only if he is registered with the Competent Authority.
A Competent Authority is the Registration Committee set up by the Department of

Promotion of Industry and Internal trade (DPIIT).
The state-owned Bank of Maharashtra has joined hands with Uniken, a pioneer in the field of
digital security in India to secure its internet banking channels on mobile, card, call centres and
ATMs, among others, against cyber fraud.
In this regard, the bank will use Uniken’s REL-ID technology for Omni-channel security for its
online banking app MahaSecure.
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) became the world’s 2nd most valuable energy company,
overtaking American oil giant ExxonMobil after its market capitalization (m-cap) reached over
Rs. 14 lakh crore (INR 14.1 trillion or USD 189.3 billion).
In order to enhance the flow of information between taxpayers and tax authorities, the Central
Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has launched a revised auto-generated Form 26AS namely
“Annual Information Statement (AIS)” from this assessment year of 2020-21 w.e.f. June 1.
The key difference between the new and old form is that the former will also reflect the details of
“specified financial transactions (SFT)” i.e. all high–value transactions of individuals,
companies, partnership firms etc. which are filled with the tax department under Section 285BA
of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
The SFTs are included in the Part E of the improved form 26AS.
Form 26AS is a consolidated annual tax statement that includes information on tax deducted/
collected at source (TDS), advance tax, other taxes paid, refunds, and self-assessment that is
available on the Income Tax website against a taxpayer’s PAN.
The new form will enable the taxpayer to have all important information available while
preparing the tax return so that the chances of committing any error will reduce significantly.
As per the new format of form 26AS, the tax department will update its contents within 3 months
of receiving the information from third parties like banks, Registrar of Properties, mutual funds
etc.
The details recorded in SFTs are provided by banks and financial institutions.
Form 26AS earlier had an Annual Information Report (AIR) but now it has AIS.
The Budget for 2020-21 had announced the revised Form 26AS giving a more comprehensive
profile of the taxpayer going beyond the details of tax collected and deducted at source.
As stock market data, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) became the 1 st Indian company to reach
market capitalization (m-Cap) of Rs. 13 lakh crore. It becomes the world’s 48 th largest company
by m-cap, ahead of Abbott Labs, Oracle, Chevron and Unilever. It also crossed the stock price of
Rs. 2000 for the first time.
Globally, Saudi Aramco is the company with the highest m-cap of USD 1.7 trillion, followed by
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.
RIL is the 10th highest m-cap company in Asia. China’s Alibaba Group is ranked 7 th globally.
The US listed Reliance Jio among the companies that are becoming “Clean Telcos” (who reject
doing business with tools of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state, like Huawei).
RIL is India’s most valuable listed company, the second-placed TCS has a market capitalization
of Rs. 8.2 lakh crore, followed by HDFC Bank at Rs. 6.2 lakh crore.
The 1st edition of 2 days long (July 22-23, 2020) world’s largest Global Fintech Fest (GFF) was
held virtually, which was organised by Payments Council of India (PCI) and Fintech
Conergence Council (FCC) at National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the theme
“Fintech: With and Beyond COVID”.
The aim of the fest was to bring together the global FinTech and Banking, Financial Services and
Insurance (BFSI) sector.
Notably, both organisers of the fest work under the aegis of Internet and Mobile Association of
India (IAMAI).
The event was hosted by 6Connex Inc., a provider of virtual event solutions.
The Department of Economic Affairs – Ministry of Finance, GoI and RBI were the presenting
partners for this event.
This event was also powered by Amazon Pay and brought to you by WhatsApp and Google Pay,
it is also supported by the World Bank and United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman informed that so far Rs.
8,767 crore has been approved for 81 projects under Special Window for Affordable and Mid
Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund 1. The approved projects will enable the
completion of almost 60,000 homes across India.
The announcement was made when the performance of SWAMIH was reviewed with secretaries
of Ministries of Finance and senior management team of the SBI, SBI Capital Markets Ltd. and
SBICAPS Ventures Ltd. (SVL).
The Finance Minister asked the Department of Economic Affairs to closely monitor the
performance of the SWAMIH Investment Fund 1 so as to ensure that the capital raised by the
fund is committed towards resolving stressed projects and remove any hindrance that arises in
this process.
RBI extended USD 400 million of currency swap with Sri Lanka. The currency swap agreement
is to remain till November 2022.
The currency swap facility was extended under the SAARC Currency Swap Framework. India is
currently considering bilateral currency swap request of Sri Lanka for USD 1.1 billion. The
arrangement is being made to address the economic slowdown.
A currency Swap between 2 countries is an agreement to exchange currencies with

predetermined agreement. The Government engage in currency swap to solve short term
forex liquidity requirements. Currency Swap is the exchange of interest (sometimes
principle as well) in one currency for the same in other.
The agreement is usually signed between 2 friendly countries that have increasing trade.
Especially, the countries pay for import and export trade at pre-determined rates of
exchange. In these cases, no 3rd country currency is involved. This limits the concerns of
exchange rate variations.
India has currency swap line with Japan and SAARC countries. India is currently negotiating
similar arrangements with the US.
The current SAARC currency swap agreement was signed in December 2019. The agreement is
to run till 2022. The major features of the agreement are:
 The RBI will offer swap arrangement with an overall corpus of USD 2 billion.
 The RBI agreed to enter into bilateral swap agreements with SAARC central banks that
wish to avail swap facility.
 The withdrawals can be made in terms of USD, INR or Euros.
 The currency swap arrangement shall be extended to all the SAARC countries provided
they sign bilateral swap arrangements as well.
In accordance with the 21st issue of Financial Stability Report (FSR), July 2020 by RBI released
on July 24, 2020, the gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio of all scheduled commercial
banks (SCBs) may increase from 8.5% in March 2020 to 12.55 by March 2021 under the
baseline scenario; the ratio may escalate to 14.7% under a very severely stressed scenario.
While Public Sector banks’ (PSBs) gross bad loan ratio of 11.3% at the end of March, 2020 may
increase to 15.2% by March 2021 under the baseline scenario, on the other hand, Private Banks
may see an increase from 4.2% t 7.3%.
RBI recently publicised the “Report of the Committee for Analysis of QR (Quick Response)
Code” under the chairmanship of Prof. Deepak B. Phatak on its website for comments/
suggestions of various industry players currently involved in or associated with the use of QR
codes before August 10, 2020. The report has recommended making QR codes more
interoperable. QR code is used to pay utility bills, fuel, grocery, food, travel, and several other
categories.
In India, the factors of post demonetization, increased penetration of smartphones and high-speed
internet connectivity led to the increased adoption of QR codes for digital payments. There are 3
different types of QR Code in India:
1. Bharat QR – It is the world’s 1 st fully interoperable QR code payment system. Its

specifications have been jointly developed by RuPay, Visa, MasterCard and Amex.
2. UPI QR – It was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in
August 2016.
3. Proprietary QR (closed loop) – It is provided by RBI authorised companies as Prepaid
Payment Instruments (PPI).
Closed loop mobile payments are those that enable consumers to load money into a spending
account that is linked to a payment device while open platforms are connected to a personal
account.
The committee has recommended phasing out of proprietary, closed loop QR codes as it requires
customers to manage separate apps and is creating hindrance in this payment system. Instead RBI
must encourage the use of interoperable QR codes such as the Bharat QR and UPI QR to enable
faster on-boarding of all types of merchants for digital payments.
Arvind Kumar – Director General (DG), Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification
(STQC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Sunil Mehta – CEO, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
AS Ramasastri – Director, Institute for development of Research in Banking Technology.
Dilip Asbe – MD & CEO, national Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Vishwas Patel – Chairman, Payments Council of India (PCI).
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Chief M. S. Sahoo announced that a special
resolution framework for MSMEs is being prepared.
The GoI has already suspended several provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to
tackle COVID-19 crisis. It includes exemption of COVID-19 related debts. The GoI also passed
the IBC (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 to prevent companies from being pushed into insolvency.
The Sections 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC were suspended.
The Insolvency Bankruptcy Code provides a time bound process to resolve insolvency.
With the IBC being diluted by GoI, the number of non-performing assets are to increase in the
country. RBI is raising concerns about Government’s action on diluting IBC. According to RBI,
the IBC that is supposed to speed up the resolution and is now slowing it down. This will mainly
have adverse impact on MSMEs. According to the Financial Stability Report (FSR) recently
released by RBI, the NPAs could rise to 14.7% by March 2021 from 8.5% in March 2020. The
FSR is released by RBI twice a year, once in June or July and the next time in December.
Therefore, GoI is to come up with Special Insolvency Resolution Framework for MSMEs.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs, GoI amended the Indian Accounting Standards related to leasing.
The Ind-AS 103, 116 and other standards have been amended.
The Ind-AS 103 is related to business combinations. On the other hand, Ind-AS 116 standard is
related to principles for presentation, recognition and disclosure of leases.
Due to COVID-19, many lessors have extended rent concessions to leases. With Ind-AS 116,
applying charges to lease payments in current situation will be practically difficult. Hence, it has
been amended.
The amendments are being made in consultation with National Financial Reporting Authority
(NFRA).
NFRA is an independent regulator that acts under Companies Act, 2013. It was created
in 2018. The former IAS officer Rangachari Sridharan is the chairperson of NFRA. The
concept of NFRA was suggested after Satyam Scandal that occurred in 2009.
The authority is responsible for investigations, sanctions and auditing firms.
Indian Accounting Standards is issued and supervised by the Accounting Standards Board. The
Board was constituted in 1977. It consists of representatives from CII, ASSOCHAM and FICCI.
The Ind-AS are named and numbered the same way as that of the International Financial
Reporting Standards. The standards included in Ind-AS are for the following:
i. Insurance Contracts. iii. Financial Instruments.

ii. Financial Disclosures. iv. Consolidated financial statements.
v. Joint agreements. x. Statement of Cash flows.

vi. Construction Contracts. xi. Agriculture.
vii. Employee Benefits. xii. Investment Property.
viii. Income Taxes. xiii. Intangible Assets.
ix. Property, Equipment and Plant.
xiv. Accounting for Government Grants.

xv. Disclosure of interests in other entities.
xvi. Non-current assets held for discontinued operations.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) and SBI Card launched a co-
branded contact-less credit card, IRCTC-SBI Platinum Card on RuPay Platform to reward the frequent
railway travellers. The card is equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology by which
users can facilitate their transactions at the Point of Sale (PoS) machines by Tap and Pay option. This
enables consumers to transact safely and securely online.
The card offers exclusive benefits for rail passengers on retail, dining, entertainment besides
transaction fee waivers. It also offers maximum savings proposition on their travel.
When the cardholders make bookings on IRCTC website, they will receive up to 10% value back
on 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, Executive Chair Car and AC Chair Car bookings.
It offers online transaction fee waiver (1% of transaction amount), 1% fuel surcharge waiver and
4 premium lounge free access at Railway Stations in a year (1 per quarter).
Bharti AXA General Insurance has launched its crop insurance campaign, ‘Bohot Zaroori Hai’ for
farmers in Maharashtra and Karnataka to encourage them about their yield protection and financial
security. It aims to create awareness to farming communities about the relevance and significance of crop
insurance, which can alleviate rural distress caused by crop failure or damage due to unseasonal rains,
monsoon failure among others.
Bharti AXA General Insurance had received Rs. 800 crore worth crop insurance mandate from
the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka to insure their farmers under the Pradhan Mantri
Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
The awareness drive describes the buying crop insurance as a very important aspect of farming
and also signifies that the protection of crops will eventually secure the aspirations of farmers.
Bharti AXA General Insurance has secured authorisation for a period of 3 years from
both the state governments to implement the PMFBY in 6 districts of Maharashtra and 3
districts of Karnataka.
The PMFBY offers insurance cover to farmers against losses of crops during the entire
cycle from preparation of sowing to harvesting and post-harvest, due to poor yield.
PMFBY is open for both lenders and non-lenders. The scheme covers food crops
(cereals, millets and pulses), oilseeds as well as horticultural crops.
The farmers pay 2% of sum insured as the premium of Kharif crops and 1.5% of the sum
insured for Rabi crops.
On the occasion of Independence Day of the Maldives on July 26, 2020, the largest Indian
Public Sector Bank, SBI provided liquidity support of USD 16.2 million as COVID-relief for the
Government of Maldives to overcome liquidity shortage. The fund will support economic relief
measures by utilizing it for local businesses and defers loan repayment for over 200 retail
accounts.
2020 marks the 55 years of establishment of diplomatic ties between India and the Maldives.
An assistance of USD 400 million has been made available already to Maldives through an
extended currency swap arrangement which was inked in July 2019 by both nations. Notably,
Maldives is the only country, other than Bhutan, which has been extended with the USD 400
million currency swap facility.
India will soon announce another substantial financial assistance package to support the
Maldivian economy and assist in economic recovery post-COVID-19.
The growing relationship between both nations is premised upon the ‘India First’ policy of
Maldives and ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy of India.
MobiKwik launched Mmpay.me, a UPI payment link service that allows users to send and
receive money from any UPI payment app.
Through mpay.me, users and merchants can set up a personalized link using their mobile
number. The link can be created through the MobiKwik app or the MobiKwik website and can be
shared anywhere with anyone over chat, SMS, email etc.
Mpay.me accepts payments from all UPI apps such as MobiKwik, Googlepay, PhonePe and
PayTM among others.
Similar Systems:
BSNL in partnership with the SBI has launched the UPI based payment platform, Bharat
InstaPay.
Jana Small Finance Bank (SFB) in partnership with National Payment Corporation of
India (NPCI), has launched a UPI QR-based loan instalment payment facility.
Reliance Power and Japanese energy major JERA have inked a pact with a group of banks for
full financing, totalling USD 642 million (approx. Rs. 4,798 crore), for their new gas-fired
thermal power generation project in Bangladesh.
Both partners will develop a new 745 MW natural gas combined-cycle power project in
Meghnaghat in Bangladesh.
Reliance Power holds 51% stake while JERA will hold 49% stake in the joint venture company.
SIDBI in association with TransUnion CIBIL Limited has launched a comprehensive financial
education and one-stop knowledge platform for micro, small and medium enterprises
“MSMESaksham”, which will guide MSMEs seeking quick access to finance and will also
support them in managing their credit obligations.
The portal will have a consolidated list of all the schemes launched by the Centre and State
Governments for MSMEs.
SEBI has extended the date for implementing norms pertaining to power of attorney given by
clients to trading members or clearing members till August 1, 2020 from June 1, 2020. The
decision regarding extension has been taken due to the difficulty in implementing the provisions
amid the situation arising due to COVID-19.
PM Narendra Modi appointed a committee headed by Rajnath Singh to solve the difficulties
faced in the implementation of Rs. 3 lakh crore collateral-free loan for MSMEs announced by
Finance Minister as a part of Rs. 20 lakh crore COVID-19 aid to raise the economy.
The borrowers can borrow from the financial institutions without any asset or pledge collateral
under this scheme.
The units with Rs. 25 crore outstanding credit and Rs. 100 crore turnover are eligible for the
collateral-free loan scheme.
Tenure for the scheme is 4 years, with interest rates capped according to the Finance Ministry
and the moratorium will be for 12 months.
Axis Bank Ltd., MasterCard India & Worldline India partnered to launch a digital point-of-sale
(POS) solution ‘Soft POS’, the 1st financial payments service in India to transform everyday
smartphones into merchant POS terminals. It helps offline merchants and Kirana stores accept
payments using their smartphones.
Through this app, merchants who traditionally accept cash payments will now have a simpler and
more secure way to manage transactions.
The service offers features which include E-Khata for reconciliations, recording store credit
transactions, a cash register to record transactions at store & an Online Dukkan, where merchants
can list their products for consumers to make online orders for home deliveries.
Indusind Bank Limited, an Indian new generation bank, has introduced a first-of-its kind facility
for customers to open current accounts through its Indus Corporate mobile app.
Current account can be opened for all types of businesses including proprietorships, partnerships
and private and public limited companies through this facility.
RBI has created Payment Infrastructure Development Fund of Rs. 500 crores.
The apex bank has made an initial contribution of Rs. 250 crores towards the funds. The rest of
the fund is to come through the card issuing banks. The fund has been created to increase PoS
infrastructure and other digital payment infrastructure in the country.
The Vision Document on Payment and Settlement Systems in India 2019-21 has predict the use
of debit cards at PoS transactions which is around 44% of total debit card transactions by 2021.
The vision document estimated that by 2021, there will be around 5 million active PoS.
SBI, the country’s largest lender has created a separate Financial Inclusion and Micro Market
(FI&MM) vertical within the bank with an exclusive focus to provide financial services to
people in the interior of the country. The new wing will be headed by deputy managing director
(DMD) Sanjeev Nautiyal at the national level.
Under this new category, the bank will mainly finance agriculture and allied activities and
MSMEs.
Over 8000 branches in rural and semi-urban areas have been identified for this purpose.
Emphasis has been placed on improving the rural, semi-urban, urban and metro areas with over
63,000 customer service points.
The RBI has released the results of 3 survey’s namely – Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) –
May 2020; Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) on Macroeconomic Indicators (64 th round)
and Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH) – May 2020.
According to CCS survey, the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) was at 115.2 in March 2020
but in May 2020 it came down to 97.9.
As per SPF survey, India’s GDP growth may contract by 1.5% for the current fiscal year (FY21).
“Summer Treats” campaign has been launched by the private sector HDFC Bank. The special
campaign has been launched by the bank with the easing of the lockdown restrictions in order to
provide offers to both merchants and, salaried and self-employed customers.
Under the “Summer Treats” campaign, bank will offer no cost EMI and no down payment for
large appliances. It will also offer discounts and cashbacks on select brands along with 50% extra
reward points on online spend using credit cards.
NABARD provided Rs. 270 crore Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) to Assam Gramin Vikash
Bank in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic to support the agricultural activities of the farmers.
The GoI has allowed taxpayers to fill their NIL GST monthly return form through SMS. This
will improve ease of GST compliance.
The facility of filling the NIL form through SMS has been made available in GSTN portal.
In order the eliminate the use of a physical card or touch an ATM PIN pad, amid the spread of
corona virus from contaminated surfaces, Empays Payment Systems has joined hands with
MasterCard to launch “Cardless ATM powered by MasterCard” in India based on the standards
of EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa).
With this, India will be the 1st country outside the US where this product will be launched.
This cardless ATM will enable the users to withdraw their money just by scanning a QR code on
the mobile phone, using their banking app.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) launched a flagship programme,
“Turant Customs” at Bengaluru and Chennai with technological support for faster clearance of
imported goods and for the ease of doing business. The start of Turant Customs in Bengaluru
and Chennai would be the beginning of the nationwide program and is expected to be completed
by December 31, 2020.
Turant Customs is a continuation reform for the pilot phase that was initiated in August 2019 at
Chennai and later extended to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Vishakhapatnam Custom
Zones for select commodities.
The 1st phase would include import of mechanical, electrical and electronics pieces of machinery
at the ports/airports/ICDs (Inland Container Depots) of Bengaluru and Chennai.
e-Sanchit Platform is a step by step procedure platform for paperless processing by electronically
uploading the documents.
Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE) is the national portal of Indian Customs of
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) that provides e-filling services to the
Trade, Cargo Carriers and other Trading Partners electronically.
RBI has constituted an internal working group which will review the guidelines of ownership of
private sector banks.
The panel constituted by the apex bank is to examine regulations to hold financial subsidiaries to
through non-operative financial holding company. The group is to be headed by the Executive
Director of RBI, P.K. Mohanty.
The group is to examine the existing regulation and guidelines of ownership of private sector
banks. Also, the panel will suggest appropriate norms to address the issue of concentration of
control and ownership of banks. The group will also review the eligibility criteria of the
individuals to apply for banking license.
The group will also study the current regulations to hold financial subsidiaries through NOFHC
(Non-Operative Financial Holding Company). It will also make recommendations to migrate all
the banks towards a uniform regulation.
The entities in public sector and private sector and in NBFCs shall set up bank that will be owned
by NOFHC. The company formed is to be registered as NBFC.
The RBI has restricted People’s Co-operative Bank located in Kanpur, U.P. from granting fresh
loans and accepting deposits for 6 months from June 10, 2020, due to its weak financial position
in exercise of powers vested in it under sub section (1) of Section 35 A of the Banking
Regulation Act, 1949 read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
The bank is barred from selling, transferring or disposing any of its properties or assets.
Also no withdrawal of amount across all savings account or current accounts or any other
account of a depositor will be allowed from the co-operative bank.
The SBI ahs relaunched ‘SBI Insta Saving Bank Account’, an Aadhaar-based instant digital
savngs account for customers using the Yono platform, which will offer a complete paperless
and instant digital savings account opening with just PAN and Aadhaar number.
Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India, a specialised financial institution wholly owned by GoI,
has provided a line of Credit of USD 215.68 million to the Malawi government.
This assistance will be used on drinking water supply schemes and other development projects
including supply of irrigation network, tobacco threshing plant, cotton processing facilities, green
belt initiative, sugar processing equipment, fuel storage facility and construction of a new water
supply system from Likhubula River in Mulanje to Blantyre.
With the signing of the above LoC agreement, 5 loan facilities worth USD 395.68million have
been provided by the Exim Bank to the Government of Malawi so far.
The GoI recently reconstituted the advisory panel on corporate insolvency resolution and
liquidation process.
The IBBI recently reconstituted advisory panel by inducting 4 members. The committee was
constituted in 2017 and is chaired by a noted banker Uday Kotak. The new members include
Crisil MD Ashu Suyash, former chief economist at NSE Nirmal Mohanty, Edelweiss Group
chairman Rashesh Shah and L&T Director R. Shankar Raman.
The Committee will advise on matters relating to corporate insolvency resolution and liquidation.
ICICI Bank has launched ‘Insta Flexicash’, an online overdraft (OD) facility for its pre-approved
salary account customers, by which these customers can get approval for OD instantly & in a
paperless manner.
The end-to-end fully digital facility can be accessed with no documentation, using the Bank’s
internet banking platform without visiting a bank branch.
The customers can start using the approved overdraft limit within 48 hrs.
The credit limit of OD is worth up to 3 times their new salary.
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chairman M. Ajit Kumar launched the ‘e-
Office’ application in over 500 CGST and customs offices across India at New Delhi.
e-Office has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and supported by the
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievance.
e-Office aims to improve governance by automating the internal processes of handling files and
taking decisions within Government.
Its main module, e-File, enables on-line file related work, operating a file, preparing draft letters,
its approval/signature and dispatch of the signed letter.
In order to strengthen the SEBI’s enforcement mechanism and also to improve its system of
recovery of siphoned off money, the SEBI committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge
Anil Dave has proposed a method of qualification of profit made by the defaulter and loss
caused to investors.
The committee also examined the insolvency, recovery and securities laws jurisprudence of India
and abroad and suggested suitable changes in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 to
ensure that insolvency law is not used as a protection by defaulters, thereby protecting the
interest of investors.
After exercising the powers conferred under section 30 of the SEBI Act, 1992 (15 of 1992), the
board of SEBI has amended the regulation 3, in sub-regulation (2) of SEBI (Substantial
Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (SEBI-SAST) to enhance the
acquisition limit for promoters of a listed company.
These will be called as SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) (Amendment)
Regulations, 2020 when official notification will be issued.
The amendment allows promoters owning 25% or more of the shares or voting rights in a
company to increase his shareholding by up to 10% in a year in comparison to the earlier
5% limit. This limit is permitted only through preferential issue of equity shares and
valid only for FY20-21.
The regulator has relaxed the condition of time gap between 2 qualified institutional
placements (QIPs) to 2 weeks from earlier 6 months.
In August, 2019, the government has exercised the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (23 of 2019) for
amending the National Housing Bank Act, 1987 resulting in transfer of regulation of housing
finance companies (HFCs) to RBI from the National Housing Bank (NHB).
After this, Part VII of Chapter VI of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (23 of 2019) came into effect,
stating an issue of revised regulations.
Main Proposals:
 Minimum net owned funds (NOF) requirement proposed to Rs. 20 crore

 In exercise of powers conferred under Section 29A (1) (b) of NHB Act, 1987,
RBI proposes to increase the minimum NOF for HFCs from the current
requirement of Rs. 10 crore to Rs. 20 crore in order to strengthen their capital
base.
 Existing HFCs will get 1 year to reach the level of Rs. 15 crore and 2 years to
increase it to Rs 20 crore.
 For HFCs, the minimum capital risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR) is currently at
12%, which will be increased to 14% by 31 March 2021 and 15% by 31 March
2022.
 Classifying HFCs into systematically important and non-systematically important
entities.
 Presently HFC regulations are common for all HFCs irrespective of their asset
size and ownership. It is proposed to issue HFC regulations by classifying them
as systematically important and non-systematically important, so as to introduce
a graded approach.
 Non-deposit (AND) taking HFCs (HFC-AND) with asset size of Rs. 500 crore &
above; and all deposit taking HFCs (HFC-D), irrespective of asset size, will be
treated as systematically important HFCs. HFCs with asset size below Rs. 500
crore will be treated as non-systematically important HFCs (HFC-non-SI).
 Defining of term ‘housing finance’
 Under the NHB regulations, there was no formal definition of housing finance.
In the draft framework released on its website, RBI said housing finance will
now mean “financing, for purchase/ construction/ renovation/ repairs of
residential dwelling unit” and some other activities, including giving loans to
corporate and government agencies of employee housing projects.
 Definition of qualifying assets for housing finance companies (HFCs)
 In another proposal, housing loans must account for at least 50% of HFCs’ assets
of which at least 75% should be towards individual housing loans. HFCs which
do not fulfil this criterion will be treated as NBFC-Investment and Credit
Companies (NBFC-ICCs) and will be required to approach the RBI for
conversion of their certificate of registration from HFC to NBFC-ICC.
 In order to remain working as HFC, they would have to follow a roadmap to
make 75% of their assets individual housing loans. The target has been set at
60% by March 31, 2022, 70% by March 31, 2023, and 75% by March 31, 2024.
 Addressing Double Financing
 The regulator also sought to address concerns on “double financing” due to
lending by an HFC to construction companies and also to individuals purchasing
flats from the same companies. As per proposal, HFC can now either lend to a
real estate company or to homebuyers in the projects of group entities, but not to
both.
 Also, HFCs cannot take exposure of more than 15% of owned funds to one
company in a group and more than 25% across all companies of the same group.
RBI has extended the regulatory restrictions imposed on the multi-state urban Cooperative Bank,
Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank Limited (PMC Bank) by another 6 months. As per
the earlier notice dated March 21st, 2020, the regulatory restrictions were up to 22nd June, 2020,
which now has been extended up to 22nd December 2020.
Restrictions were imposed y the RBI on the PMC bank in the month of September last year under
Section 35A of the Banking Regulations Act, 1949. The curbs imposed by the RBI also limited
the bank customer’s withdrawal limits to Rs. 1000 per depositor from 24 th September 2019
onwards, later which was increased gradually to Rs. 25,000 (now increased to Rs. 1 lakh per
depositor).
The PMC bank crisis started when a money laundering case was filed against the bank by the ED
for providing loan to a financially stressed real estate company named Housing Development &
Infrastructure (HDIL) from the Bhandup Branch of the Bank. Despite the non-payment of the
loan amount by the company, the bank officials did not classify the loan as a non-performing
loan.
42 crore citizens received financial aid of Rs. 65,454 crore under PMGKP
As per the data provided by the Union Finance Ministry on 20 th June 2020, through Pradhan
Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP), a total of 42 crore citizens across the country have
received financial aid of Rs. 65,454 crore to date.
The amount was distributed in the 3 forms:
i. Providing free food grains to all families registered as BPL cardholders.

ii. By providing free LPG cylinder to women registered under Ujjwala Yojana.
iii. Through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to beneficiaries such as women Jan Dhan
account holders, senior citizens/differently-abled/ widows registered under Below
Poverty Line (BPL), farmers (PM-KISAN), etc.
Main points of the Rs. 65,454 crore distribution:
 8.52 crore LPG cylinders distributed under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in April and
May.
 In April, 113 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were lifted by all states and union
territories in a combine.
 5.8 lakh metric tonnes of pulses allocated for all states and union territories for
distribution for 3 months from April to June.
 Rs. 2814.5 crore provided to 2.81 crore beneficiaries (senior citizens, widows and
differently-abled persons).
 Rs. 17, 891 crore under first payment for the FY 2020-21 to PM-KISAN beneficiaries.
 In 3 separate instalments, 20.62 crore women Jan Dhan account holders were credited
with Rs. 500 in each instalment. A total of Rs. 10,315 crore was transferred in each
instalment.
India’s 3rd largest lender, Bank of Baroda is set to fully digitise its lending operations including
home, agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), personal and auto loans.
Verification and issuance of new loans will take place through this digital platform & past loans
will also be digitized to reduce costs and improve profitability.
The bank plans to digitize a large part of its retail and MSME processes in the next 6 months.
Export-Import (EXIM) Bank, on behalf of the Indian Government, extended a Line of Credit
(LoC) of USD 20.1 million to the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua for the
reconstruction of Aldo Chavarria Hospital.
Till now, with this agreement EXIM Bank has extended 4 LoCs to Nicaragua, on behalf of Indian
Government, with a total value of USD 87.63 million.
The projects under the LoCs include the following; the supply of equipment for the construction
of 2 sub-stations, construction of transmission lines, building new substation, expanding the
existing substations and reconstructing a hospital.
RBI extended a special liquidity window for Rs. 50,000 crores to Yes Bank for 3 months, to help
private lenders cover for shortfall in deposits.
The Yes Bank was first provided with a special liquidity window for 3 months in March, which
ended in June. The bank has requested for the same facility for 1 year, against which the RBI has
extended for another 3 months.
The RBI has made the emergency credit line of nearly Rs. 600 billion available when the bank as
under a moratorium that restricted deposit withdrawal at 50,000 rupees.
Existing individual micro food processing units desirous of upgradation of their units could avail
credit-linked capital subsidy of 35% of the eligible project cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs.
10 lakh per unit.
Seed capital of Rs. 40,000 per Self Help Group (SHG) member would be provided for working
capital and purchase of small tools.
Farmer producer organisations (FPOs)/ SHGs/ producer cooperatives would be provided a credit
linked grant of 35% for capital investment along the value chain.
The decision to bring Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) and Multi-State Cooperative Banks
(MSCBs) under the supervision of RBI was taken during a meeting of the Union Cabinet.
The ordinance will immediately come into effect from the date of signature of the President of
India.
The decision was taken by the Government following the financial irregularities of the Punjab &
Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank that was unearthed in the month of September 2019.
RBI’s supervision means that the 8.6 crore depositors of these 1482 UCBs and 58 MSCBs
around the country will be able to get the added protection and comfort that are at present
applicable for the scheduled commercial banks in the country, such as Bank Deposit Insurance to
per depositor of up to Rs. 5 lakh.
Hyundai Motor India Limited partnered with HDFC Bank to offer industry 1st online auto retail
financing on its end-to-end online automotive retail platform, ‘Click to Buy’ to customers.
Under this collaboration, HMIL will provide customised car financing solutions to its customers
from HDFC bank through its online car buying platform.
This partnership enables the customers to choose loans and get the funds they need to buy their
favourite Hyundai car without visiting HDFC Bank branch.
The Cabinet has also approved a scheme for interest subvention of 2% for a period of 12 months
to all Shishu loan accounts under Pradhan Mantri Mdra Yojana (PMMY) to eligible borrowers
w.e.f. June 01, 2020 till May, 2021. The estimated cost of the Scheme is approximately Rs.
1,542 crore and will be implemented through the Small Industries Development Bank of India
(SIDBI).
The scheme will be extended to loans outstanding as on 31 st March, 2020; and not in Non-
Performing Asset (NPA) category, as per RBI guidelines, on 31 st March 2020 and during the
period of operation of the Scheme.
Yes Bank launched a digital wallet solution (app) ‘Yuva Pay’ in partnership with UDMA
Technologies Pvt. Ltd. to enable contactless payments for its customers. The wallet is issued
under minimum KYC regulations.
The solution aims to help the low income group to access the digital and contactless transactions,
which will enable broad access to secure electronic payment services.
1st live programme of the solution will be implemented by the Rural Development & Panchayat
Raj Development, Karnataka, which will cover 158 gram panchayats with 238 villages.
The 2nd phase of the programme will be implemented in 6,200 gram panchayats, which covers 12
million households across 29,000 villages.

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1 NOTES - Banking and Financial Awareness

To be implemented from January 01, 2021.

MICR – Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

In 2010, RBI came up with the guidelines for CTS.

Tagline of YES Bank – Experience our expertise.

MD & CEO of YES Bank – Prashant Kumar.

MD and CEO of BSE – Ashish Kumar Chauhan.

Yes Bank HQ - Mumbai

IFTAS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RBI.

Chairman of IFTAS - Tavarna Rabi Sankar.

Chairman of IDBI – M.R. Kumar.

Tagline of IDBI – Banking for All, Aao Sochein Bada.

The revision is due to the continuous elevation in new COVID-19 cases.

ICRA hs projected a GDP contraction of 12.4% in Q2FY21.

MD & CEO N. Sivaraman

SLC started from Oct 2, 2020 to Jan 26, 2021.

SBI Chairman – Dinesh Kumar Khara.

HUL Chairman and MD – Sanjiv Mehta

MD & CEO of PNB – SS Mallikarjuna Rao

PNB HQ – New Delhi

Tagline – The name you can bank upon.

Chairman, SEBI – Ajay Tyagi

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of J Venkatramu as MD

IPPB HQ – New Delhi

AEPL Chairman – Vineet Mittal

AEPL HQ – New Delhi and Mumbai

ADB President – Masatsugu Asakawa

ADB HQ – Manila, Philippines

SatSure Analytics provides agriculture data infrastructure through SPARTA, a proprietary

New customers who avail LAS will be issued a debit card.

RBI was founded on 1st April 1935.

RBI Governor – Shaktikanta Das

Prior to this, he got an extension of 3 months w.e.f. July 10, 2020.

J&K Bank HQ – Srinagar

J&K Bank CMD – Rajesh Kumar Chhibber.

J&K Bank tagline – Serving to Empower.

The other 3 members of MPC are:

Shaktikand Das, Governor, RBI

Michael Debabrata Patra, Deputy Governor of Bank in charge of monetary policy.

Ashima Goyal is a member of PM Narendra Modi’s economic advisory council. Ms Goyal is a

 The Committee has kept the repo rate unchanged at 4%.

WTO HQ – Geneva, Switzerland

WTO Members – 164 nations.

On 1 April 2020, Allahabad Bank amalgamated with Indian Bank.

Indian Bank MD & CEO – Padmaja Chunduru.

Indian Bank Tagline – Your Own Bank.

Exim Bank MD – David Rasquinha

Exim Bank – HQ – Mumbai

Republic of Zimbabwe Capital – Harare

President of Zimbabwe – Emmerson Mnangagwa

Zimbabwe Currency – Zimbabwean Dollar

It is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India.

HDFC CEO – Shashidhar Jagdishan

HDFC Tagline – We Understand Your World.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, MD & CEO – Tapan Singhal

Bajaj Allianz HQ – Pune

Phone Pe, CEO – Sameer Nigam

Earlier, Rajkiran Rai G served as the Deputy Chairman of IBA.

IBA CEO – Sunil Mehta.

BoB Chairman – Hasmukh Adhia