1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 18 August 2014 constituted a 15-member inter-regulatory committee to monitor the growing phenomenon of shadow banking. Who has been appointed as the Chairman of this committee? – P. Vijaya Bhaskar (Executive Director, RBI)
Explanation : Shadow banking refers to banking-like activity by non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) that remain outside the regulatory net. They generally operate as intermediaries between investors and borrowers. The role of this newly constituted committee will be to find out the volume of money in shadow banks, who the investors are and direction of the money flow, etc. Also real estate dealings will be looked into very meticulously by the committee. The 15-member committee comprises of officials of the RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Central Economic Intelligence Bureau and the National Housing Bank (NHB).
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2) What is the name of the new scheme announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2014 to help the poor in opening bank accounts, which will come with the facility of a debit card and an accidental insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh? –‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’
Explanation : The Union Cabinet has already cleared the two-phase financial inclusion scheme under which bank accounts will be opened for 15 crore poor persons with an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 and accidental insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh. The scheme, to be pushed by the government in a mission mode, seeks to provide two accounts to 7.5 crore identified households by August 2018. The Prime Minister in his Independence Day address observed that people have mobile phones but not bank accounts and he hoped that the scheme will help in bringing the benefits of formal banking system to them.
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3) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 22 August 2014 released the charter of customer rights, which seeks to provide the right to be treated with courtesy to both the customer and the financial services provider. What are the important clauses of this charter?
- The customer should not be unfairly discriminated against on grounds such as gender, age, religion, caste and physical ability when offering and delivering financial products by the financial services provider
- The key risks associated with the financial product as well as any features that may especially disadvantage the customer should be made known to him/her by the financial services provider
- The financial services provider should provide customers with product terms and conditions that are in simple language, easily understandable, and with sufficient information that the customer could be reasonably expected to make an appropriate choice of product
- The financial services provider may, however, have certain special products which are specifically designed for members of a target market group or may use defensible, commercially acceptable economic rationale for discriminating between customers
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4) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on 14 August 2014 that its board has given approval to create an additional post in the rank of Deputy Governor. For this RBI has approached the government for required legislative changes. Which post is this? – Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Explanation : The RBI, the central bank of India, is presently headed by a Governor and assisted by four deputy governors looking after different functions of the bank. It now wants to create a post of COO and re-allocate work among the five. The RBI has been deliberating on a broad HR restructuring exercise to align organisational resources and structures with the needs of the domestic economy and changes in the external environment.
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5) Who took over as the fourth Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during July 2014? – Subhash Sheoratan Mundra or S.S. Mundra
Explanation : S.S. Mundra took the charge as the Deputy Governor of the RBI on 31 July 2014. Three other deputy governors of the RBI are Urjit Patel, HR Khan, and R. Gandhi. Before taking this responsibility at RBI, Mundra was the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the public-sector bank – Bank of Baroda (BOB). Mundra filled the vacancy created by the retirement of K.C. Chakrabarty in April 2014, two months before his five-year tenure was come to an end.
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6) On 20 August 2014 the Finance Ministry ordered a forensic audit to be done at the branches of two banks in view of the reports of misappropriation of funds worth Rs. 436 crore. Which two banks are involved in this matter? – Dena Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC)
Explanation : According to media reports, a Mumbai-based branch manager of Dena Bank mobilised fixed deposits (FDs), using middlemen, to the tune of Rs 256.5 crore from seven corporates, while in the case of OBC, misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs. 180 crore was reported. In the wake of rising scams in public sector banks, the Finance Ministry is looking at various steps, including strengthening of risk management, appointment of bank chiefs for longer tenures, separation of posts and better quality of nominee and independent directors.
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7) Which international finance entity launched a $2.5-billion onshore Indian rupee bond programme on 20 August 2014 so as to strengthen the capital market and support infrastructure development in India? – International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Explanation : IFC is a member of the World Bank Group. It finances and provides advice for private sector ventures and projects in developing countries in partnership with domestic financial institutions and banks. Under the rupee bond programme, IFC will use a combination of rupee-denominated bonds and swaps to raise local currency financing of up to $2.5 billion or Rs. 15,000 crore over the next five years. Proceeds from the programme will be used for infrastructure investments in India.
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8) What is the name of the ambitious e-governance project of the Union Govt., which was approved by the Union Cabinet on 20 August 2014 and which aims to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically? – ‘Digital India’ Project
Explanation : The project, which has a total overlay of Rs 1 lakh crore, aims to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and help people gain benefits from the latest information and communication technology. ‘Digital India’ project envisages bringing all the existing initiatives such as the Ebiz project, E-kranti, virtual classroom, e-visas and the National Optical Fibre Network project under a single umbrella. Other programmes include implementation of e-office to make Government departments paperless, encouraging domestic manufacturing of electronic products and kick starting Research & Development and entrepreneurship development fund. The project was unveiled in the Budget 2014-15 and is being directly monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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9) What is the name of the controversial survey conducted by the Telangana Government throughout the state on 19 August 2014 and due to which various sections of the state were scared and apprehensive? – “Samagra Kutumbh Survey” or “Intensive Household Survey”
Explanation : The “Intensive Household Survey”, completed in one day across Telangana, was to identify genuine beneficiaries of government welfare measures. The surveyors sought to see bank account details and the Aadhar card. The government had declared holidays under the Shops and Establishment Act. Residents of Telangana, especially capital Hyderabad, who originally came from Andhra areas were scared with this survey as they felt that the information collected from them would be used against them at a later stage. As various sections of the state populace were apprehensive about this survey, the matter was taken to the Hyderabad High Court about validity of the survey. The High Court on 14 August 2014 permitted the Telangana government to go ahead with the survey on the assurance of the state’s Advocate General that the exercise was not mandatory and denizens could choose not to answer the queries of enumerators. The survey was conducted across the ten districts in the state with the help of four lakh government employees and a huge team of outsourced enumerators in the state.
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10) India’s capital market regulator SEBI on 22 August 2014 ordered which NBFC entity to refund the money raised from some 58.5 million customers through collective investment schemes (CIS)? – Pearls Agrotech Corp. Ltd
Explanation : Delhi-based Pearls Agrotech operates from 15 regional offices and had 3.35 million field associates in 2011-12. SEBI found Pearls Agrotech violating CIS regulations by mobilizing the money without being registered with the regulator. The company offered two kinds of plans- a cash-down payment plan and an instalment payment plan. Under the former, it offered to allot land to customers within 270 days of payment and under the latter within 90 days.
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