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Banking Awareness One Liners July 2019

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Banking Awareness One Liners July 2019

shape Introduction

The article Banking Awareness One Liners July 2019 includes Banking Awareness One Liners with an explanation, analysis and issues of current events in the month of May. And these One Liners will help in the Competitive Exams like IBPS, RBI Grade B, SBI PO, RRB and other banking examinations.

shape July 2019

  • BSE Sensex: 37,397.24 (–289.13), NSE Nifty: 11,085.40 (–103.8).

  • Parliament passes the Companies (Amendment) Bill which seeks to tighten CSR norms and ensure stricter action for non-compliance of the company law regulations.

  • Lok Sabha passes Code on Wages Bill, 2019 to enable introduction of minimum wage for workers.

  • Lok Sabha passes the Consumer Protection Bill, 2019 that provides for creation of Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA).

  • RBI liberalises norms related to ECB by relaxing the end-use restrictions with regard to working capital, general corporate purpose and repayment of rupee loans.

  • Centre nominates Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty on RBI’s central board.

  • Rajiv Kumar designated as the new Finance Secretary.

  • India ranked 4[latex]^{th}[/latex] globally (behind Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia) in terms of business optimism over the next 12 months: Grant Thornton’s International Business Report.

  • The Reserve Bank of India imposed a total penalty of around Rs 25 lakh on two online payment solutions providers One Mobikwik Systems and Hip Bar.

  • Mobikwik Systems Private Limited slapped a fine of Rs 15 lakh while Hip Bar Pvt Ltd faced a fine of Rs 10.85 lakh.

  • Reliance Jio overtook Vodafone-Idea to become India's leading telecom operator. While the monthly subscriber report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

  • Vodafone-Idea's financial report for the same quarter, it has come to light that the operator group lost 14.1 million in Q1 FY20, declining from the industry-topping 334.1 million subscribers as of March 2019, to stand at 320 million subscribers.

  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed domestic banks to directly sell their bad loans in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors to investors abroad as part of one-time settlement (OTS) exercises.

  • The fine print of Reserve Bank of India:

      • 1. Corporates can raise long-term ECB loans for working capital, general purpose, and to repay domestic loans.
      2. Banks or corporates can sell bad loans directly to ECB lenders abroad.
      3. Loans raised will be part of one-time settlement with companies.
      4. Loans with minimum average maturity of 7-10 years can be raised to repay domestic loans.
      5. RBI was earlier opposed to raising ECBs to repay domestic loans.
      6. Experts say the move can raise India’s external liability significantly and build up risks.
      7. Domestic ARCs to lose business, will be forced to merge.

  • Axis Bank slipped up to 7 percent to trade at Rs 658 apiece in the morning deals on the NSE after the bank reported lower than expected net profit of Rs 1,370 crore in June quarter.

  • The Bank's slippages were Rs 4,798 crore during Q1FY20, compared to Rs 3,012 crore in Q4FY19 and Rs 4,337 crore in Q1FY19.
  • Private-sector lender Axis Bank is expected to report a net profit of ₹1,855 crore for the June quarter of FY20 compared with a net profit of ₹701.09 crore in the year-ago.

  • SBI Bank's Car loans are available for both salaried & self-employed individuals with competitive rates of interests.

  • Benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index was up 11.45 points at 11,200.65 while the BSE Sensex was up 58.50 points at 37,744.87.

  • Bank of India said it held 100 percent provision on NCLT accounts of Rs 5,927.5 crore.

  • Bank of India is Non-interest income (other income) grew by 93.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,194.8 crore and operating profit increased by 21.5 percent to Rs 2,271.35 crore in quarter ended June 2019.

  • NITI Aayog and Facebook-owned WhatsApp under the aegis of its Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) announced a partnership to support the growth of a robust ecosystem to promote women entrepreneurs in India.

  • WhatsApp partner with the Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards 2019, flagship initiative of NITI Aayog. WhatsApp decided to provide support amounting to $100,000 to WTI winners.

  • Bank of India shares hit a 52-week low of Rs 70.55 apeice, slipping as much as 6.74 percent in the intra-day trade on the BSE, after the bank's June quarter result for 2019-20 (Q1FY20) showed a weakened asset quality.

  • The bank's gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio deteriorated sequentially. It came in at 16.5 percent, up from 15.84 percent clocked in Q4FY19.

  • Vodafone Idea now has a m-cap of Rs 19,454 crore against Rs 39.942 crore at end of last month.

  • India is expected to import 180-185 million tonnes of thermal coal in 2019, said Dale Hazelton, head of thermal coal at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

  • WoodMac previously said India's thermal coal imports grew at their fastest pace since 2014 to 164 million tonnes in 2018.

  • The government’s move to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was largely to clear its legislative intent and not to encroach on the Supreme Court’s domain, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

  • Sitharaman said the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT’s) interpretation in the Essar Steel case to treat secured lenders and operational creditors on a par defeated the spirit of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

  • According to latest data from the department of agriculture, till July 25[latex]^{th}[/latex], maize has been sown in around 6.38 million hectares, which is around 136,000 hectares more than the same period last year.

  • Microdot technology involves spraying the body and parts of the vehicle or any other machine with microscopic dots, which give a unique identification.
  • India-Nepal Logistics Summit organised in Kathmandu on July 28[latex]^{th}[/latex], theme: ‘Transforming Logistics Landscape’.

  • Hindu Economic Forum (HEF) launches its Nepal Chapter in Kathmandu.

  • Flipkart forays into offline presence with Furniture Experience Centre in Bengaluru.

  • Improved loan growth and increased net interest income (NII) could aid private lender Axis Bank to report an over 150 percent rise in the net profit for April-June quarter for the fiscal year 2019-20 (Q1FY20).

  • Analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher, for instance, peg the bank’s profit at Rs 1,860.3 crore, up 165 percent YoY. This would be a nearly 24 percent rise from the sequential profit of Rs 1,505.1 crore reported in the March quarter of previous fiscal (Q4FY19).

  • India's plans for its inaugural overseas bond sale shrouded in confusion, investors are assessing the government's options for the $10 billion offering.

  • Vodafone Idea tumbled 29 percent to hit a new low of Rs 6.56 on the BSE, after the telecom services provider posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 4,874 crore for the quarter ended June 2019, due to weak revenue.

  • The government reportedly fears the figure for revenue foregone may be as high as Rs 60,000 crore for the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership deal once it goes live.

  • India's benchmark 10-year bond yield fell as much as 11 bps to 6.42% on Sitharaman's comments.

  • Housing sales increased six percent across the nine cities during April-June 2019 to 61,789 units as against 58,292 units in the year-ago period.

  • The nine cities included in the study are Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thane and Chennai.

  • The government intends to mobilise about Rs 70,000 crore through this route as part of diversification of government's resource mobilisation and leaving more funds for the private sector.

  • Benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index was down 47 points at 11,237.30 while the BSE Sensex was down 88.11 points at 37,794.68.

  • The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) intends to conduct the Seventh Economic Census of India 2019 by extensively leveraging Information Technology.

  • The data for the survey has been a flagship task of MoSPI conducted 6 Economic Censuses during, 1977, 1980, 1990, 1998, 2005 and 2013.

  • Aim: To capture the complete count of all establishments located within the geographical boundary of India.

  • Economic Census:

      • 1. The Economic Census becomes the only source of information on the significantly large unorganised sector in the country.
      2. The fieldwork for the census is expected to be completed by December and the results are expected to be available by March 2020.
      3. As per the last Economic Census conducted in 2013, there were 58.5 million establishments employing around 131 million workers.
      4. The data that is collected through a door-to-door survey of each household and commercial establishments.
      5. The non agricultural economic activities including construction, except public administration, defense and compulsory social security are proposed to be covered in the 7[latex]^{th}[/latex] Economic Census.

  • The economic censuses where the report generation involved a lot of manual intervention, the 7[latex]^{th}[/latex] Economic Census is proposed to make use of IT application and platform.
  • The government plans to borrow nearly $10 billion from the foreign overseas market, out of total planned borrowing of about $103 billion in 2019/20.

  • Food and beverages major PepsiCo India said it plans to invest Rs 514 crore over the next three years to set up a greenfield snacks manufacturing plant in Uttar Pradesh.

  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chair the 36[latex]^{th}[/latex] meeting of the GST Council through videoconferencing in Delhi.

  • GST rates - Electric vehicles:

      • 1. The several sops for the electric vehicle (EV) sector includes income tax exemption and reduction in custom duties for certain components
      2. The government is expected to push for a GST rate cut on EVs from 12% to 5%.
      3. The issue of GST rate cut on EVs earlier sent to a rate fitment committee to a rate fitment committee.
      4. The Modi government wants to encourage domestic manufacturing of e-vehicles.
      5. The GST rate for petrol and diesel cars and hybrid vehicles is already at the highest bracket of 28% plus cess.

  • GST rates on lottery:

      • 1. The GST Council is likely to look at the issue of taxation of lotteries.
      2. The two rates of GST on the lottery. The 12% GST is levied on lottery run by the state government and 28%. GST is levied on lotteries authorized by the state government.
      3. Several industry bodies have demanded that the GST Council should expand GST to all other sectors.

  • Mallya, who is currently in the UK, has been charged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore. He is also facing an extradition trial in UK.

  • As per the latest depositories data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulled out a net sum of Rs 14,382.59 from equities during July 1[latex]^{th}[/latex]-26[latex]^{th}[/latex], but invested Rs 10,624.15 crore in the debt segment, taking the total net outflow to Rs 3,758.44 crore.

  • The secondary loan market in India is largely restricted to sale to asset reconstruction companies and ad hoc sale to other lenders including banks.

  • In May, the RBI had constituted two committees, one on the development of housing finance securitisation market and the other on development of secondary market for corporate loans.
  • In a move to make Electric Vehicles (EVs) attractive, GST council approved rate cut on electric vehicles from 12 percent to 5 percent, and on EV chaegers from 18 percent to 5 percent, respectively.

  • The high-powered GST Council on Saturday decided to reduce the tax rate on electric vehicles (EVs) to 5 per cent from the existing 12 per cent, effective from August 1[latex]^{st}[/latex].

  • The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) is looking at raising another $1 billion from external investors, a senior official said.

  • The government commitment of $3 billion, the fund has drawn $250 million so far, while another $3 billion has to be arranged from external sources.

  • The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has changed the process of liquidation to make it time-bound. The new rules say that the process must be finished within one year of its commencment.

  • The panel proposed a 15% income-tax rate if income was Rs 6-20 lakh, and 30 percent for above Rs 30 lakh.

  • ‘Informed PMO (Prime Minister Office) about VRS on July 18[latex]^{th}[/latex]’:

      • 1. Garg said he had informed the PMO on July 18[latex]^{th}[/latex] about his retirement plan
      2. He defended the Budget proposal of raising resources via issuance of overseas sovereign bonds
      3. The issuance was estimated at $10 billion
      4. He said external liabilities are very small and make for a legitimate case to consider these instruments
      5. Of the G20 countries, 19 issue sovereign bonds. So, India will not be the only one.

  • The RBI governor rued the fact that at the global level, $13 trillion of debt, or nearly a third of the bonds issued by advanced economies, was trading at negative yields.

  • The general government debt of AEs as a group has surpassed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), whereas the fiscal space is also constrained in many of these countries.
  • Reliance Industries (RIL) has topped the Indian company to feature in the latest Fortune Global 500 list. RIL has moved 42 positions from its previous and has secured 106[latex]^{th}[/latex] ranking.

  • The profit of RIL has been increased from $62.3 billion to $82.3 billion in 2019. IOC has recorded a 17.7% growth in revenue from $65.9 billion to $77.6.

  • National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) bagged the Rs. 400 crore project to build the Pavilion at Dubai World Expo 2020.

  • India and World Expo 2020 signed participants contract on 10[latex]^{th}[/latex] April 2018 for India’s pavilion in the prestigious World Expo.

  • The Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported a loss of Rs 940 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal (Q1FY19) and that of Rs 4,749.6 crore in the quarter ended March, 2019 (Q4FY19). The NII stood at Rs 4,691.9 crore in Q1FY19 and at Rs 4,200 crore in Q4FY19.

  • The S&P BSE Sensex was trading 54 points, or 0.14 percent, to 37,884.8 levels, with Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, YES Bank, Hero MotoCorp and M&M being the top gainers.

  • Bajaj Auto reported a consolidated net profit at Rs 1012.17 crore for the quarter ended June 30[latex]^{th}[/latex], 2019 versus Rs 1,115.2 crore reported in the year-ago period.

  • Total volumes for the quarter stood at 1,247,174 units. The company's total sales for the period under review came in at 1247,174 units. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) stood at 1,250 crore, a fall of 9 percent YoY.

  • JM Financial Institutional Securities expects VBL to post 38 percent year on year (YoY) growth in net profit at Rs 583 crore, and a 39 per cent YoY jump in the sales at Rs 4,865 crore in Q1FY20.

  • Shares of Varun Beverages (VBL) hit an all-time high of Rs 667 apiece, up 8 per cent intra-day, on the BSE.

  • Shares of Westlife Development slipped 6 per cent intra-day to trade at Rs 272 apiece, also its 52-week low, on the BSE after the company’s consolidated net profit more-than-halved in Q1FY20 to Rs 5.77 crore from Rs 11.6 crore in the same period in the previous fiscal.

  • The company's total revenue during the quarter grew 12 percent at Rs 382 crore on year-on-year basis while Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) margins contracted 180 bps at 8.57 percent from 10.37 percent.

  • ICICI Bank is scheduled to announce its April-June quarter earnings for financial year 2019-20 (Q1FY20) on Saturday, July 27[latex]^{th}[/latex]. Analysts expect the private lender to report net profit of over Rs 1,000 crore.

  • Analysts at Sharekhan expect the bank to report a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 1,377 crore as against a loss of Rs 120 crore in the June quarter of the previous fiscal.
  • The RBI assigned Deputy Governor BP Kanungo to run the monetary policy portfolio after the resignation of fellow Deputy Governor Viral Acharya.

  • Shares of Talwalkars Healthclubs and Talwalkars Better Value Fitness (TBVFL) continued to reel under pressure, falling over 50 percent in the past six trading days.

  • Nirmal Bang expects revenue growth of 2.6 percent YoY to Rs 7,710.5 crore for Bajaj Auto while PAT may drop 3.7 percent YoY to Rs 1,074.1 crore.

  • Tata Motors was trading 2 percent lower at Rs 149, against a 0.39 percent rise in the benchmark index. A combined 13 million shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far.

  • During the quarter, MSIL volumes declined around 18 percent year-on-year (YoY) and around 12 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 402,594 units.

  • Edelweiss expects Maruti to report a 16 percent dip in revenues on YoY basis to Rs 18,626.9 crore while net profit may slide 38 percent to Rs 1,224.2 crore.

  • Shares of Tejas Networks plunged 14 percent to Rs 111, also its all-time low on the BSE, after it reported a sharp 87 percent drop in its consolidated net profit at Rs 6 crore in June quarter (Q1FY20).

  • The chamber also suggested to the GST Council that sale of scrips issued for different duty drawbacks and market promotion should not be subjected to levy of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

  • The Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said it has allocated the "quantity of 10,000 tonne of sugar (raw and/or white) to be exported to the EU under CXL quota from October 2019 to September 2020.

  • "In 2018-19, net disbursals by NBFCs/HFCs to real estate developers declined by almost half from about Rs 52,000 crore in 2017-18 to an estimated Rs 27,000 crore in the next fiscal," Nair said.

  • The outstanding credit by NBFCs/HFCs to real estate developers increased by more than 3.5 times to about Rs 2.3 trillion till 2017-18 from Rs 64,000 crore in 2011-12, Nair said.

  • India is banking on the novelty of a debut offering at a time when investors are desperate for returns as the world's pile of negative-yielding debt grows to a record $13.4 trillion.
  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut India’s growth forecast for 2019-20 to 7% from its forecast in April of 7.3% on poor demand conditions, it said.

  • The IMF’s World Economic Outlook July update also cut India’s growth forecast in 2020-21 to 7.2% from the previous estimate of 7.5%.

  • Maharashtra state-reported around 233 cases of ATM fraud in 2018-19.

  • Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) data revealed a data showed that Delhi grabbed the second spot with 179 cases this is followed by Tamil Nadu with 147 cases In Maharashtra, people lost Rs 4.8 crore to bank fraud in Delhi people around Rs 2.9 crore is involved in bank fraud Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are the only three states a single incident.

  • Banks to implement anti-skimming solutions by March 2019 - RBI

      • 1. RBI insisted banks to upgrade their ATMs or else face action.
      2. Last year, they implemented a host of security measures by August and upgrade all ATMs with a supported version of the operating system in a phased manner by June 2019.
      3. Anti-skimming devices prevent the skimmer from functioning.
      4. An ATM/Debit card, Credit card and Internet banking transactions of over Rs 1 lakh.
      5. There were 1,367 frauds reported in FY 2016-17; 2,127 frauds in FY 2017-18 and 1,477 frauds in FY 2018-19.

  • Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will observe and celebrate the 159[latex]^{th}[/latex] Income Tax Day on 24[latex]^{th}[/latex] July, 2019.

  • Program - Features

      • 1. The several outreach programmes organized to promote payment of taxes as a value norm and for sensitizing potential tax payers that payment of taxes was an ethical duty of all citizens.
      2. The visits of tax officials to educational institutions, public interaction with members of Bar and Chartered Accountant Associations and other stakeholders. Tax officers and officials participated in blood donation camps .
      3. They have conducted Swachhta drives in their offices as also public spaces and carried out plantation drives, both independently and in association with the forest department at several places, including planting of about one lakh seed pods on barren lands. Several others have adopted Lake/Village/School for cleanliness/plantation drive.
      4. While field offices organize functions at local levels to celebrate Aaykar Diwas 2019
      5. The main function at the national level will be held at New Delhi on 24[latex]^{th}[/latex] July.
      6. The event will include release of departmental publications, e-journal, publicity kit for outreach programs among other things.

  • HDFC Life was trading 2 percent higher at Rs 520 on the BSE, as compared to a 0.17 percent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 2.2 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far.

  • "The growth in R&D expenditure should commensurate with the growth of GDP and should be targeted to reach at least 2 percent of GDP by 2022," the report said.

  • FMCG major HUL reported its lowest volume growth in seven quarters owing to moderation in consumer demand while net profit rose 15 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,755 crore.

  • The Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has dropped plans to finance a new capital for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, after the World Bank pulled its support.
  • Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow has increased during the last six years from 36.05 billion US Dollars in 2013-14 to 64.38 billion US Dollars in 2018-19, registering a growth of 79 percent.

  • As part of innovative modes of financing to meet India’s huge infrastructure appetite, insurance giant LIC has agreed to offer Rs 1.25 trillion lines of credit by 2024, to fund highway projects, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

  • “LIC has offered us Rs 25,000 crore in a year and Rs 1.25 trillion in five years They have agreed in principle. We will rope in these funds in highways construction,” Gadkari told.

  • The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued guidelines for the rollout of the Rs 34,422-crore PM-KUSUM scheme, which would encourage farmers to generate solar power in their farms and use the clean energy to replace their diesel water pumps.

  • The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme entails setting up of 25,750-MW solar capacity by 2022 with the total central financial support of Rs 34,422 crore.

  • The scheme has three components. The Component-A provides for setting up of 10,000 megawatts of decentralized ground/ stilt-mounted grid-connected solar or other renewable energy-based power plants.

  • The Component-B of the scheme provides for the installation of 17.50 lakh stand-alone solar agriculture pumps, while the Component-C envisages solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected agriculture pumps.

  • The Singapore-headquartered Global Indian International School (GIIS) said it will launch India’s first SMART campus in Pune as part of its Rs 420 crore investments in education in India over the coming years.

  • Hindustan Unilever (HUL) reported a 14.5 percent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,792 crore for the quarter ended June 30[latex]^{th}[/latex] 2019.

  • Total income for the quarter under review came in at Rs 10,509 crore, up 1.89 percent year-on-year (YoY). Revenue from operations stood at Rs 10,197 crore, up 1.78 percent YoY against Rs 10,018 crore.

  • Shares of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) surged 20 percent to Rs 63 in intra-day trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on heavy volumes.

  • Shares of VA Tech Wabag rose as much as 6 percent intra-day to trade at Rs 309 per share on the BSE after the company won order worth Rs 1,187 crore under Centre’s Namami Gange project.
  • Around seven crore 32 lakh farmer families across the country received the first and second installments of 2 thousand rupees under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. The total cost will be around 14 thousand 646 crore rupees.

  • The scheme approximately covers around 14 crore 50 lakh beneficiaries across the country subject to exclusion criteria.

  • Pradhan Mantri KISAN Samman Nidhi Scheme:

  • This scheme is introduced by the Narendra Modi Government.The scheme got effective from
  • 01.12.2018
    • .
  • Aim of the scheme: To supplement the financial needs of the farmers and plan to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields and plan towards the diet.

  • Benefits:

      • 1. The scheme is expected to cover around 2 crore more farmers.
      2. The aim is to increase the coverage of PM-KISAN around 14.5 crore beneficiaries, The estimated expenditure by the Central Government of Rs. 87,217.50 crores for year 2019-20.
      3. The financial benefit provided to all Small and Marginal landholder farmer families with total cultivable holding up to 2 hectares.
      4. The benefit of Rs.6000 per annum per family payable in three equal installments every four months.

  • According to June shareholding pattern filed by Cox & Kings, the promoters' holding in the company declined to 39.73 percent from 49.80 percent at the end of March 2019 quarter.

  • Shares of RBL Bank continued to reel under pressure, down 5 percent, to Rs 470 in intra-day trade. The stock has fallen 19 percent in the past two trading days after the bank.

  • HDFC Bank slipped 3 per cent to Rs 2,301 on the BSE in the early morning deals on concerns that sluggish auto industry and pressure in MSME and agriculture sector is likely to impact the growth.

  • The stock has fallen 8 per cent in two trading days on slowdown concerns. It is trading at its lowest level since May 17[latex]^{th}[/latex] and has corrected 15 per cent from its all-time high level of Rs 3,761 touched on July 5[latex]^{th}[/latex].

  • NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has voiced confidence that India will achieve economic growth of 8 percent plus from fiscal year 2020-2021 onwards as structural reforms like the GST are set to produce the benefits.

  • Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal opposed the Centre's move to amend the RTI Act, alleging that it will end the independence of central and states information commissions.

  • India’s edible oil imports are likely to rise 7.3 percent in 2019-20 to a record high as weak monsoon rains curtail yields of summer-sown oilseeds such as soybeans and groundnut, a senior industry official said.
  • State-owned Allahabad Bank recently said it proposes to close its only foreign branch in Hong Kong as part of the rationalization of its overseas operations.

  • In compliance with the government’s directives under PSBs’ reform agenda, the bank has initiated various steps, Allahabad Bank said in a filing to stock exchanges.

  • The ATM operations industry on 20[latex]^{th}[/latex] July said the introduction of a new Rs. 100 note creates many challenges and an investment of Rs. 100 crore will be required to recalibrate the country’s 2.4 lakh machines.

  • The RBI had yesterday announced that it will soon issue a new Rs. 100 note in lavender color having motif of ‘Rani ki vav’, a stepwell located on the banks of Saraswati river in Gujarat’s Patan.

  • The dimension of the banknote will be 66 mm x 142 mm, making it smaller than the current Rs. 100 notes as against the current note’s dimension of 157 mm x 73 mm. The earlier notes continue to be legal tender.

  • To address the profusion of fake news being spread through forwards, and the government’s growing discontent with WhatsApp in tackling the issue, the messaging platform recently said it is experimenting with a limit on the number of chats a message can be forwarded to.

  • Government of Haryana and India’s leading Bombay stock exchange(BSE) signed a pact to encourage and support state’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to raise capital.

  • Repco Micro Finance, a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC)-Micro Finance Institution (MFI) promoted by Repco Bank.

  • It provided SHG loans worth Rs 3,600 crore to over 12 lakh individual beneficiaries through 60,000 SHGs.

  • Union Ministry of power has approved proposal by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) for transmission schemes for 66.5 GW renewable energy (RE) generation. It aims to speed up the green projects in the country on July 18[latex]^{th}[/latex].

  • The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the 2,880 megawatts Dibang hydro power project in Arunachal Pradesh.

  • It approved a Rs.1,600 crore pre-investment and clearance expenditure for the Rs.28,080.35 crore strategic project.

  • The move is part of the Modi government’s focus on the northeastern region. The project will produce 11223MU (Million Units) of energy in 90% dependable year.

  • Dibang project is a storage based hydro-electric project. It is the largest ever Hydro Electric Projects to be constructed in India, so far. The Project is located on Dibang River, Arunachal Pradesh.

  • The planned height of the Concrete Gravity Dam is 278 metres. Upon completion it will be the highest dam in India.

  • The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reduced India’s growth forecast for the current financial year to 7%. Earlier, it had announced a growth estimation of 7.2%. It reported in its Asian Development Outlook 2019.
  • The brand “Tata” has become India’s most valuable brand for the second straight year in 2019, according to the Brand Finance India 100 2019 report.

  • Tata’s brand value rose 37% to $19.6 billion as compared to $14.2 billion in 2018, surpassing the combined value of the second and third most valued brands in India.

  • The second most valued brand this year was the government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) at $7.3 billion and a close third was Infosys at $6.5 billion.

  • The GIFT City said UK-based Standard Chartered will be the first foreign bank to launch operations at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

  • Standard Chartered has received in-principle regulatory approvals to set up its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).

  • The disinvestment plan of the Centre is off to a flying start, with the CPSE ETF getting subscribed five times.

  • According to people in the know, the ETF received subscription for more than Rs 40,000 crore as against the base issue size of Rs 8,000 crore.

  • RBL Bank has had little history of disappointing the Street. To that extent, the June quarter (Q1) results, published, maintained the trend.

  • Yet, the RBL Bank stock saw its highest single-day fall to close the week with a loss of about 14 percent.

  • India for long has been pressing China to open its pharmaceutical market for Indian pharma exports to address the yawning trade deficit which last year according to Chinese figures, crossed $57 billion in a $95.5 billion trade.

  • The Delhi government targets having a fourth of the vehicles registered annually — public and private — to be electric by 2024 as it seeks to curb vehicular pollution in one of world’s most polluted cities.

  • An estimated 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles are registered in Delhi every year.

  • The government has tightened the anti-money laundering laws by expanding the ambit of the “proceeds of crime”, which now includes properties and assets created through any criminal activity even if it is not under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
  • The government said there is no proposal to review prices of packages offered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

  • As many as 1,393 benefit packages are offered under the Ayushman Bharat -- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

  • India's renewable power capacity soared by almost 150 per cent in the last five years to 77.6 GW, while the government set a target of 175 GW by 2022.

  • India is also formulating a policy to build a 30 GW local capacity for manufacturing solar cells and modules by 2024.

  • The International Energy Agency (IEA) doesn't expect oil prices to rise significantly because demand is slowing and there is a glut in global crude markets, its executive director said.

  • On July 30[latex]^{th}[/latex] last year, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that India was being upgraded to STA-1 status which makes Indian firms eligible to import high-tech US defence products.

  • Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) will invite expressions of interest (EoIs) next month for partnerships to fund the redevelopment of at least 10 stations.

  • Digital transactions in India increased to 3,133.58 crore in 2018-19, registering a growth of 51 percent over the previous year, said the government in Parliament.

  • Finance ministry officials said the tax on FPI trusts would pull in a mere Rs 400 crore, as against the revenue gain of Rs 12,000 crore from this levy.

  • Gross NPAs as on June 30[latex]^{th}[/latex], 2019 stood at 2.02 percent against 2.04 percent as on March 31[latex]^{st}[/latex], 2019 while Net NPAs stood at 0.56 percent against 0.58 percent in the previous quarter.

  • "Stable asset quality and credit cost would aid the profitability in the recently concluded quarter,” said analysts at Phillip Capital in an earnings preview note, who estimate a PAT of Rs 5,553.2 crore.

  • The government plans to raise up to Rs 10,000 crore from this tranche of the CPSE ETF, which tracks shares of 11 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) -- ONGC, NTPC, Coal India, IOC, Rural Electrification Corp, Power Finance Corp, Bharat Electronics, Oil India, NBCC India, NLC India and SJVN.

  • "Gold is trading above $1,400, we are nowhere near threatening to go back to $1,360 or $1,375, and there is so much buying going on. Expect gold prices to continue to march higher."

  • Spot gold hit $1,452.60 an ounce in early trade, its highest since May 10[latex]^{th}[/latex], 2013, before easing 0.2 percent to $1,442.56 as of 0336 GMT.
  • Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) introduced a web-based application system for contribution from the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS).

  • About Startup India

      • 1. The Startup India initiative, launched by the Modi government in 2016.
      2. Around 30 percent (Rs 3,123.7 crore) of the Rs 10,000 crore corpus that was supposed to be deployed over the 14[latex]^{th}[/latex] and 15[latex]^{th}[/latex] Finance Commission cycles.
      3. The FFS (Fund of Funds for Startups) was set up at SIDBI.
      4. They contribute to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIF). It is registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which in turn extends funding support to startups.
      5. The government launched IFS envisioned to create employment for about 18 lakh people.

  • Andhra Bank launched its Artificial Intelligence interactive assistant — ABHi. Packirisamy, MD & CEO unveiled the chatbot at Bank’s Head office auditorium.

  • Customers can connect and know details from ABHi through website www.andhrabank.in over Mobile/Desktop browser, Facebook Messenger and over voice using Google Assistant.

  • The Reserve Bank of India said it has slapped a penalty of Rs 7 crore on the country’s largest bank SBI for non-compliance with norms related to NPA identification and fraud risk management, among others.

  • The RBI examined the cybersecurity framework of the bank, following reports of seven fraudulent messages (of $171 million) generated through the SWIFT system of the bank in 2016.

  • Private sector lender HDFC Bank has terminated and de-listed its global depository receipts (GDRs) from the Luxembourg Stock Exchange due to low trading volume.

  • “Subsequent to July 15[latex]^{th}[/latex], 2019, the listing and admission to trading of the GDRs on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange will be canceled,” HDFC Bank said.

  • Ecommerce and tech giant Amazon has forayed into the edtech space with the launch of an IIT JEE preparation app called 'JEE Ready'.

  • JEE Ready app, which is Amazon’s first product in the edtech sector in India has already been installed more than a thousand times.

  • The government has permitted the export of 1,239 tonnes raw sugar under its tariff-rate quota (TRQ) to the US, which enables shipments to enjoy relatively low tariff.

  • Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered India’s GDP growth forecast to 7% for the current year on the back of fiscal shortfall concerns.

  • For the south Asian region, ADB said the outlook remains robust, with growth projected at 6.6% in 2019 and 6.7% in 2020.
  • HDFC Bank and Common Services Centres (CSCs) launched a co-branded ‘Small Business Money-Back Credit Card’.

  • Around ₹70,000 crore worth of business is transacted through the network of CSCs which apart from providing a platform for essential government and public utility services.

  • The Centre, Kerala state government and the World Bank had last month signed the loan agreement of US$ 250 million for the program, which aims at enhancing the state’s resilience against the impacts of natural calamities and climate change.

  • India, the world's second-largest coal consumer after China, depends on Coal India for about 83% of the domestic production.

  • The Bombay High Court quashed the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearances granted to the city civic body’s ambitious Rs 14,000-crore coastal road project, saying there was “serious lacuna” in the decision-making process and lack of proper scientific study.

  • The report counsels that India and the United States redouble their efforts to go down a path of constructive engagement that can lead, in the short term, to a first ever bilateral trade agreement.

  • In 2018-19, all commodities loading by the Indian Railways was 1,223.29 million tonnes, out of which coal loading was 605.82 MT, which is almost 50 per cent, the Coal and Mines minister said.

  • The price increase could be anywhere between a few paise to a maximum of ₹2, which is likely to be charged in the form of a special cess or duty," said the second official.

  • The plan comes at a time when the new government is trying to step up its efforts to supply 24x7 power to all.

  • The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government plans to convert all electricity meters into smart prepaid meters by 2022.

  • Greenko's total portfolio comprises operating assets of 4.2 GW and under construction assets of 7 GW.

  • The proposed bond sale follows the recent equity infusion of $329 million into Greenko by GIC and ADIA.
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed fine on State Bank of India (SBI) and Union Bank of India for violating certain regulatory guidelines.

  • RBI fined Rs.7 crore as SBI did not comply with the directions issued by the RBI on Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms, code of conduct for opening and operating current accounts and reporting of data on Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC), and fraud risk management and classification and reporting of frauds.

  • Fine on Union Bank of India:

      • 1. RBI also fined Rs.10 lakh on Union Bank for non-compliance with the directions on the cybersecurity framework in banks issued by the RBI.
      2. The RBI accused Union Bank of India that it failed to carry out the cybersecurity framework in 2016. RBI's examination revealed reports of generation of seven fraudulent messages worth $171 million through the SWIFT system of the bank.

  • The collection on account of access on diesel and petrol yielded the government Rs 1.13 trillion in 2018-19 and is estimated to bring in Rs 1.27 trillion in 2019-20.

  • Debt for the Jharkhand Road Project stands at Rs 1,545 crore, with India Infra Debt, L&T Infra Debt Fund Ltd, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Health Insurance and Capital Asset Fund as secured lenders.

  • In a bid to set a benchmark and create a market for its planned overseas sovereign bonds this year, the Narendra Modi government is likely to make its first tranche of the maiden issue no less than $3-4 billion.

  • The bonds will likely be simultaneously launched in major financial centres such as London, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and others.

  • The benchmark yield may decline to 6% by end-2019, and further to 5.75% by end-March, according to the note. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey stands at 7.10% by year-end, and 7.18% by March 2020.

  • HDFC AMC is the largest actively managed equity-oriented mutual fund manager in the country. Total assets under management rose 18% to ₹3,56,700 crore.

  • General Provident Fund (GPF) interest rate applies to provident funds of central government employees, railways and defence forces.

  • The Ministry of Finance said in a notification. This rate will be in force with effect from 1[latex]^{st}[/latex] July, 2019. The funds concerned are:

      • 1. The General Provident Fund (Central Services).
      2. The Contributory Provident Fund (India).
      3. The All India Services Provident Fund.
      4. The State Railway Provident Fund.
      5. The General Provident Fund (Defence Services).
      6. The Indian Ordnance Department Provident Fund.
      7. The Indian Ordnance Factories Workmen’s Provident Fund.
      8. The Indian Naval Dockyard Workmen’s Provident Fund.
      9. The Defence Services Officers Provident Fund.
      10. The Armed Forces Personnel Provident Fund
  • DHFL’s book was largely loans to developers and the prolonged slowdown in real estate should have made the lender more cautious.

  • The plan to carve the pipelines business into a fully-owned unit will bring greater transparency between the two businesses and may allow govt to sell shares at a later date.

  • Denim, mostly fabric, capacity in India had suddenly shot up a few years ago and now stands at roughly 1,700-1,800 million metres a year.

  • The proposed change is only applicable to insurance intermediaries while the cap on foreign ownership in insurance companies will remain at 49%.

  • The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was at 2.45 percent in May. It was 5.68 percent in June 2018.

  • The fall in the broader market too has been in line with the large caps. Since the Budget, Rs 5.5 trillion worth of investor wealth has got wiped out.

  • India’s S-400 deal signed in October last is among agreements with Russia that are cumulatively worth $10 billion.

  • According to the CBI, the company diverted around ₹ 2,348 crore into the accounts of more than 200 shell companies.

  • JSW Steel had revised its offer from ₹ 11,000 crore to ₹ 18,000 crore and later to over ₹ 19,000 crore, whereas Tata Steel’s last offer was at ₹ 17,000 crore after it had refused to revise its bid.

  • Earlier, PNB reported a fraud worth Rs 3,805.15 crore by BPSL by misappropriating bank funds and manipulating its books of accounts.

  • For 2018-19 financial year, DHFL posted a loss of Rs 1,036 crore. It logged a profit of Rs 1,240 crore in 2017-18.
  • State Bank of India (SBI) has waived the charges on National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions through YONO, Internet, and mobile banking.

  • On the other hand, HDFC Bank's valuation plummeted ₹22,395.4 crore to ₹6,54,084.95 crore.

  • Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) suffered an erosion of ₹16,907.1 crore to stand at ₹3,70,895.36 crore, while that of Kotak Mahindra Bank tumbled ₹6367.64 crore to ₹2,83,393.30 crore.

  • The valuation of SBI tanked ₹6,291.85 crore to ₹3,24,454.25 crore and that of ICICI Bank dropped ₹5,925.68 crore to ₹2,75,568.83 crore.

  • ITC's valuation went down by ₹5,270.27 crore to ₹3,37,297.19 crore and that of HDFC fell by ₹3,795.66 crore to ₹3,89,340.06 crore.

  • DHFL separately announced it had defaulted on interest payments worth ₹2,858 crore on NCDs on 6[latex]^{th}[/latex] July and 8[/latex]^{th}[/latex] July.

  • Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew a net sum of ₹4,953.77 crore from equities during July 1[latex]^{th}[/latex]-12[latex]^{th}[/latex], but poured in a net ₹8,504.78 crore into the debt market, translating into a cumulative net investment of ₹3,551.01 crore.

  • The Bimal Jalan panel, which is looking into the size of capital reserve that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should hold, may recommend transfer of ₹50,000 crore to the Centre from the contingency fund. The panel will submit its report this week to the RBI.

  • As per the 2017-18 RBI annual report, the various types of reserves are Contingency Fund ₹2.32 trillion, Asset Development Fund ₹22,811 crore, Currency and Gold Revaluation Account is ₹6.91 trillion and Investment revaluation Account Re-Securities is 13,285 crore and this all totalled ₹9.59 trillion.

  • The layoffs are expected to affect jobs at Huawei's US-based research and development subsidiary Futurewei Technologies.

  • At present, banknotes in the denominations of ₹10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 2,000 are in circulation, besides Re 1 notes issued by the Centre.
  • Samsung announced its partnership with Paisabazaar.com, an online marketplace for financial products in India.

  • Samsung Pay designed to be the smartest and most convenient method to make digital payments almost everywhere.

  • Walmart Labs, the technology arm of the US retail giant acquire-hired health tech start-up FloCare and B2B trading platform BigTrade undisclosed amount.

  • Walmart brought onboard the ​​teams of the two Bengaluru-based companies to help strengthen its customer technology and supply chain.

  • Jharkhand reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 per cent in 2005-06 to 46.5 percent in 2015-16.

  • The Centre plans to list around 10 state-owned companies on the bourses this fiscal year, to be able to meet the disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 trillion, Atanu Chakraborty, secretary to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management.

  • The government plans to raise around Rs 3.25 trillion ($47.4 billion) in the next five years by reducing its stakes in some large state-owned firms to 40 percent, two senior government officials said.

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration already sold government stakes in a host of companies to raise a record $40.92 billion in his first five-year term, nearly three times the divestment proceeds of $14.52 billion achieved by the Congress government in 2009-2014.

  • Questions on agricultural commodities, e-commerce, and steel and aluminum, have been put off until Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal goes to Washington for talks.

  • Sowing of soybean, the main summer oilseed crop, was at 5.2 million hectares, down from 6.4 million hectares the previous year
  • Exim Bank has signed agreements with Papua New Guinea and Senegal governments for providing USD 124 million (over Rs 850 crore) loans to finance infrastructure and health care projects in these countries.

  • Of the total soft loan for Papua New Guinea, USD 60 million is to go for Bayer-Madang road project and USD 40 million for Hoskins-Kimbe road project.

  • Swiss brokerage UBS has lowered the country’s real GDP growth forecast to 6.7 percent from 6.9 percent earlier in FY20 citing the continuing slowdown in consumption demand and warned that a revival is unlikely before FY21.

  • The Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association of India has stipulated market timings for inter-bank USD/INR forex transactions from 9 am to 5 pm.

  • To figure out how to create a $110-billion mobile phone export business from India, the government has decided to set up a secretary-level task force at the Centre to be steered by NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant.

  • The government will invalidate all PAN cards that are not linked to Aadhaar by September 1. At the moment 180 out of the existing 400 million PAN cards are not linked to Aadhaar.

  • The UPERC has observed UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) and state distribution companies (discoms) had already contracted for “sufficient” thermal power with coal-fired power plants to meet projected demand till 2026-27.

  • Goyal said track kilometre grew from 77,609 km to 89,919 km from 1950-2014 and rose to 1,23,236 km in the past five years.

  • Replying after a general discussion on the Union Budget 2019-20 in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said, "Comprehensive steps" have been envisaged for the next 10 years.

  • National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has already raised Rs 12,000 crore from the market in the first quarter of the current financial year.

  • GST collections fell below Rs 1 trillion ($14.59 billion) for the first time in the current fiscal year in June, projecting weak consumer demand.
  • Five Things To Know About New SBI Loan Interest Rates

      • 1. The latest reduction in MCLR was to the tune of 5 basis points across all tenors.
      2. With this cut, the bank's one-year MCLR came down from 8.45 per cent to 8.40 per cent.
      3. SBI had previous cut the lending rate by the same magnitude each in April and May.
      4. The move by SBI followed remarks by Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, who said he expects faster transmission of the three successive repo rate cuts.
      5. Meanwhile, SBI introduced repo-linked home loan products from July 1.

  • Axis Bank picks banks for $1.3 billion share sale

  • Bank of Baroda to foray into e-commerce business. The bank said it will offer various kinds of banking services and farm-related products on its e-commerce platform.

  • Lenders to move Supreme Court against NCLAT order on Essar, says SBI chairman Kumar pointed out that there is a distinction between secured and operational creditors, and that the former have a greater right on an asset at par with the employees of the crippled company.

  • Govt to induct 5 whole-time directors on boards of large public sector banks

  • Insurers say 5% TDS on net proceeds of life cover will ease tax compliance

  • As NCLAT ruling on Essar Steel pinches banks, SBI chief says IBC can be amended

  • Corp Bank settles 1,148 claims under social security schemes

  • Deutsche Bank to lay off over 20 equities & sales staff in India

  • Job cuts may be the new norm in banks, but Citigroup is hiring

  • SEBI to probe if IndiGo CEO downplayed promoters' tiff

  • The Union Budget 2019-20 does not chalk out a clear roadmap to take India on the path of high economic growth and lacks bold steps and structural reforms, Congress leader P Chidambaram said.
  • State-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has cut the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by up to 10 basis points (bps) for various tenors with effect from Thursday.

  • SEBI employees oppose government’s involvement in its finances.

  • Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) will be strengthening its turnaround plan by adding a few more focus areas to the strategy in order to turn profitable this year.

  • ICICI Securities to offer retail loans to customers

  • Surabhi The Budget has proposed to make it easier for retail investors to invest in government securities (G-Secs) and treasury bills (T-Bills).

  • SunTec launches solutions to help banks with digital transformation

  • SBI takes first cue from RBI governor, lowers lending rates by 5 bps.

  • Budget extends tax on NRIs for receiving gifts from resident Indians.

  • Best short duration or short term mutual fund schemes to invest in 2019.

  • State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced its benchmark lending rate by five basis points or 0.05 per cent across tenors. The new rate, effective from today, marks the third reduction by SBI this financial year, the country's largest lender said in a statement.

  • The Second India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue (IRSED) was held here on Wednesday with a eye on partnership in six areas including infrastructure, connectivity, banking and digital world.

  • Shares of DCB Bank (up 2.18 per cent), YES BankNSE 1.81 % (up 1.64 per cent), RBL BankNSE -0.14 % (up 1.30 per cent) and Federal Bank (up 0.28 per cent) were the top performers in the index.

  • Shares of YES Bank (up 2.24 per cent), RBL BankNSE -0.14 % (up 1.48 per cent), Kotak Mahindra BankNSE 0.89 % (up 0.83 per cent) and HDFC Bank (up 0.73 per cent) were the top gainers in the index.
  • The large exposure regulations in India have been assessed as "Compliant" with the Basel large exposures (LEX) framework, according to the findings of the Regulatory Consistency Assessment Programme (RCAP) of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS).

  • Economic Affairs Secretary SC Garg has said the design of Facebook's upcoming cryptocurrency Libra has not been fully explained.

  • Max Financial Services on Tuesday said that it has not approached insurance regulator IRDAI with any proposal to sell 10 per cent stake in its insurance subsidiary Max Life to Axis Bank.

  • India would do well to go in for a home-grown economist with a world view of things — rather than an overseas-trained NRI economist with academic leanings — to fill the vacant post of RBI Deputy Governor dedicated for external economist, feel economy watchers.

  • India’s decision to raise duties on petrol and diesel is unlikely to threaten the inflation outlook, keeping alive expectations of more interest rate cuts from the central bank.

  • "To facilitate convenient and affordable purchase options for our customers we are pleased to announce partnership with Cholamandalam," said Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India.

  • Deutsche Bank laid off staff from Sydney to New York on Monday as it began to slash 18,000 jobs in a 7.4 billion euro ($8.3 billion) “reinvention” that will lead to yet another annual loss, a plan that knocked its already battered shares.

  • The proposal to increase minimum public shareholding of listed companies to 35 per cent, tax on buybacks, and especially the surcharge on foreign portfolio investors has not been received well by the investor community.

  • At some point in your life you will buy an insurance plan. When it comes to life and health insurance, your premium amount will differ with your age, family history, pre-existing diseases and lifestyle choices among other reasons.

  • Deutsche Bank confirmed on Sunday that it was closing huge parts of its trading businesses, with staff in its equities division in Sydney and Hong Kong among the first to be told their roles would go.

  • The Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Saturday said it had reported a borrowing fraud of 38.05 billion Indian rupees ($556 million) in Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd’s account to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

  • This is a right opportunity for India to raise funds through overseas sovereign bonds at a much cheaper rate compared with those in the domestic market, chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian said.

  • The dollar traded near a three-week high on Tuesday against its peers, as investors reduced bets on aggressive US interest rate cuts ahead of the Federal Reserve chairman's testimony to Congress on the economy.

  • Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said Monday the Union Budget for 2019-20 is "status-quoist" as it seeks to bring about only incremental reforms and not radical reforms required by the country to grow faster.

  • Amid a chorus over lack of employment opportunities, the Central government said it has generated over 3.81 lakh jobs in the last two fiscals in its different organisations, according to the Budget 2019-20 documents.
  • YES Bank acquired a 9.47 % stake in dry cell battery maker, Eveready Industries India by invoking shares pledged by McLeod Russel. The acquisition comes after the Indian tea company McLeod Russel on repayment of credit facilities.

  • McLeod's debt is about Rs.l,800 - 2,000 crore. The bank acquired 68,80,149 equity shares. They have a nominal value of Rs 5 per share constitutes around 9.47% of the post-issue.

  • Deutsche Bank, the German bank, announced that it is to pull out of global equities sales and trading, scale back investment banking. It plans to reduce adjusted costs by a quarter to 17 billion euros ($19 billion) over the next several years.

  • The restructuring plan of the has been estimated with 7.4 billion euros by the end of 2022. Because of this, the German bank may report a net loss of 2.8 billion euros in the second quarter of 2019. On July 25[latex]^{th}[/latex], the bank will release its second quarter results.

  • The Hong Kong government has approved a relief fund and rehabilitation work in of over USD 900,000 for the cyclone-hit Odisha.

  • The government has approved three grants totalling 7.032 million Hong Kong dollars (about USD 902,278) from Hong Kong's Disaster Relief Fund to three agencies.

  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a union budget for the financial year 2019 - 2020.

  • A 10-point Vision for the decade.

      • 1. Building Team India with Jan Bhagidari Minimum Government Maximum Governance.
      2. To Achieve green Mother Earth and Blue Skies through a pollution-free India.
      3. Making Digital India reach every sector of the economy.
      4. Launching Gaganyan, Chandrayan, other Space and Satellite programs.
      5. Building physical and social infrastructure.
      6. Water, water management, clean rivers.
      7. Blue Economy.
      8. Self-sufficiency and export of food-grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables.
      9. Achieving a healthy society via Ayushman Bharat, well-nourished women & children, the safety of citizens.
      10. Emphasis on MSMEs, Start-ups, defence manufacturing, automobiles, electronics, fabs and batteries, and medical devices under Make in India.

  • NPAs of commercial banks reduced by over Rs. 1 lakh crore over the last year. Record recovery of over Rs. 4 lakh crore affected over the last four years. Provision coverage ratio at its highest in seven years.

  • Domestic credit growth increased to 13.8%.

  • Measures related to PSBs: Rs. 70,000 crore proposed to be provided to PSBs to boost credit.

  • PSBs to leverage technology, offering online personal loans and doorstep banking, and enabling customers of one PSBs to access services across all PSBs. The Reforms to be undertaken to strengthen governance in PSBs.
  • Indian mobile network operator, Reliance Jio partnered with Facebook to launch a digital literacy initiative named "Digital Udaan".

  • The main aim is to empower first-time internet users with digital literacy and understanding of the Internet in real time.

  • The initiative is launched in nearly 200 different locations across 13 states. It is expected to reach over 7,000 locations in the country.

  • Facebook is an ally in this mission to achieve 100% digital literacy in the country. At present Jio have 300 million users and it added 8 million users in April 2019.

  • Punjab & Sind Bank set up a centralized hub named "Centralised MSME & Retail Group" (Cen-MARG) for processing retail and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) loans for better efficiency of branches in business acquisition.

  • They will help branches focus better on lead generation for retail lending and MSME and enhanced customer service.

  • Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK) in World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Lighthouse Network a community of manufacturers showing leadership in applying Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to drive financial and operational impact.

  • US clears SoftBank's $2.25 billion investment in General Motors-backed Cruise.

  • Amazon's Jeff Bezos finalises divorce with $38 billion settlement.

  • India’s Ola Cabs received approval from London’s transport regulator to start private hire vehicles (PHV) in the capital city of the UK.

  • Ola UK Pvt. Ltd received a one-year carriage licence from TFL to operate “PHV vehicles" across London.

  • It is raised around $190 million to $280 million in funding Ola’s massive war chest of $3.8 billion.

  • Ola with SoftBank Corp., Sequoia Capital, Accel, and automakers like Kia Motors and Hyundai as its investors.

  • Cantre has announced that the Reserve Bank of India will now be the regulator of housing finance Companies (HFCs). The HFC were regulated by the National Housing Bank.

  • The government has announced to provide a one-time partial credit guarantee for loan losses to state banks if the bank buy Rs.1 trillion ($14.6 billion) of high-rated pooled assets of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed ex-executive director RBI A.K Misra as Additional Director on the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited.

  • The appointment shall be for a period of two years The appointment will be effect from July 3[latex]^{rd}[/latex], 2019 to July 2[latex]^{nd}[/latex], 2021.

  • Airtel Payments Bank partnered with Bharti AXA Life Insurance to offer Bharti AXA Life POS (Point of Sale).

  • Saral Jeevan Bima Yojana, a pure life term insurance decided to plan up to Rs 5 lakhs The scheme is aimed at the under-insured and uninsured segments in India.

  • The policy available at all the Airtel Payments Bank's 25,000 retail outlets. It will be expanded to cover over 60,000 banking points The customers are offered the option of life cover between 3-5 lakh The scheme further extended up to Rs 25 lakh.

  • Reacting to Union Budget 2019, Ola Co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said, "The government's focus on electric mobility and electric vehicles is inspiring.

  • Gurugram-based budget hospitality startup OYO has restricted its largest shareholder SoftBank from directly or indirectly acquiring over 49.99% of its shares without its Founder Ritesh Agarwal and investors' approval, Tech Circle revealed.

  • For the fiscal year 2019-20, an allocation of Rs 19,000 crore has been made for the rural roads programme.

  • In this Budget (2019-20), Rs 25,853 crore has been allocated for the rural housing programme.

  • The minister said around 19.5 million new houses would be built in the rural areas between 2019-20 to 2021-22.

  • Under the first phase of the same scheme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna - Grameen, the NDA government in its first tenure had built 10 million houses with a total spend of Rs 82,000 crore between 2016-17 and 2018-19.
Budget 2019 Highlights:
Taxes:
  • No change in personal income tax rates.

  • Additional Rs 1.5 lakh tax relief on home loan for purchase of a house up to Rs 45 lakh.

  • Custom duty hike on fuel by 1 rupee, gold and precious items; Petrol & diesel to get costlier.

  • 3% surcharge on an income of Rs 2 crore; 7% on Rs 5 crore and above.

  • Corporate tax with turnover of up to Rs 400 crore slashed to 25 percent from a current rate of 30 percent.

  • Interchangeability of PAN and Aadhaar for ITR for those who don't have PAN cards.

  • Advises GST Council to reduce tax rate on EVs from 12 percent to 5 percent.

  • Duty has been raised on: tiles, cashew kernels, vinyl flooring, auto parts, some synthetic rubber, digital and video recorder and CCTV camera.

Affordable housing:
  • Rental laws to be reformed. Modern tenancy laws will be shared with states to promote house renting.

To promote digital payments:
  • 2% TDS on withdrawals of Rs 1 crore in a year from your bank account for business payments.

  • No charge on digital payments: MDR charges waived on cashless payment.

Ease of living:
  • Aadhaar card for NRIs on arrival in India.

  • Rs 3,000 pension per month for workers from the informal sector.

Transportation:
  • Inter-operable One Nation One transport card: ATM-like Transport card for universal travel on various modes of transport (metro, road, railways etc).

  • Govt plans to create MRO (Manufacturing, Repair and Operate) industry.

  • PPP to be used to unleash faster development and the delivery of passenger freight services.

  • Comprehensive restructuring of National Highways Programme for creation of National Highways Grid.

  • Government envisions using rivers for cargo transport to decongest roads and railways.

Economy:
  • Fiscal deficit in FY 19 at 3.3% of the GDP.

  • Govt will start raising part of borrowing in foreign currency.

  • Govt external debt to GDP is among the lowest in the world.

Women empowerment:
  • Nari tu Narayani: Women SHG Interest Subvention Programme to be expanded to all districts in India.

  • Rs. 1 lakh loan to be provided for SHG women members.

  • Every verified woman SHG member having a Jan Dhan account can avail Rs 5,000 rupees overdraft facility.

Banking reform:
  • On purchase of high-rate pooled assets of NBFC amounting of Rs 1 lakh core in this FY, govt will provide one-time 6 month credit guarantee.

  • Propose to provide Rs 70,000 crore capital for PSU Banks.

  • Regulation of HFCs (Housing Finance Cos) to move to RBI from National Housing Bank.

Divestment:
  • Govt to modify present policy of retaining 51% stake in PSUs.

  • Govt to continue with strategic divestment of select CPSEs.

  • Divestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for FY 20.

Railways:
  • A new PPP model will usher in the a new dawn of Indian railways.

  • Railways to be encouraged to invest more in suburban rail network via SPVs.

  • Railway infrastructure will need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crore between 2018 and 2030.

MSME: (Ministry Of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprices)
  • Propose easing angel tax for startups.

  • Angel tax: Wont require scrutiny from I-T department for startup.

  • 2% interest subvention for GST-registered MSME on fresh or incremental loans.

  • ‘Stand Up India' Scheme to continue till 2025.

  • New television channel for start-ups.

  • Pension benefit extended to retail traders with annual turnover less than Rs 1.5 crore.

  • New payment platform for MSMEs to be created.

Education:
  • Govt to launch 'Study in India' programme to attract foreign students in higher education.

  • Allocate Rs 400 crore for world-class higher education institutions in FY 20.

  • To unveil a new education policy.

  • National research foundation to fund, coordinate and to promote research in the country.

  • New Higher Education Commission with focus on higher autonomy.

  • New national education policy to propose changes in school, higher education.

Tourism:
  • 17 iconic world-class tourist sites to be developed.

FDI:
  • Local sourcing norms will be relaxed for the single-brand retail sector.

  • Govt to open FDI in aviation, insurance, animation AVGC and media.

Investment:
  • Existing KYC norms for FPIs to be rationalized and simplified to make it more investorfriendly.

  • Long-term bonds for market.

  • To allow FIIs & FPIs investment in debt securities issued by NBFCs.

  • Credit Guarantee Enhancement Corporation to be set up long-term bonds with specific focus on infra sector
  • Propose Social Stock Exchange under SEBI for listing social enterprises & voluntary organisations.

  • To merge NRI portfolio route with FPI route.

  • To hike statutory limit for foreign investment in some companies.

  • To set up a credit guarantee enhancement corporation.

  • Govt will take up measures to make RBI & SEBI depositories inter-operable.

  • SEBI to mull increasing minimum public shareholding to 35% from 25%.

  • User friendliness of trading platforms for corporate bonds will be reviewed, including issues arising out of capping of International Securities Identification Number.

  • To deepen corporate tri-party repo market in corporate debt securities. Plan to enable stock exchanges to allow AA rated bonds as collateral.

  • 'Annual Global Investors' Meet for attracting global players to come and invest in India.

  • To allow FPIs to subscribe to listed debt papers of REITs.

Auto sector:
  • FAME II scheme aims to encourage faster adoption of electric vehicles through the right incentives and charging infrastructure.

For Rural India:
  • Gaon, Garib and Kisan are the focus of our government.

  • New Jal Shakti ministry will work with states to ensure Har Ghar Jal for all rural houses by 2024.

  • Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana phase 3 is envisaged to upgrade 1,25,000 km of road length over the next 5 years.

  • Govt will set up 100 new clusters for 50,000 artisans in FY 20.

  • To invest Rs 80,250 cr for upgradation of roads under PM Gram Sadak Yojana.

  • Every single rural family, except those unwilling, to have electricity by 2022.

Agriculture:
  • Govt to promote innovative zero Budget farming.

  • 10,000 new farm produce organisations.

  • 80 Livelihood business incubators and 20 technology business incubators to be set up in 2019-20 under ASPIRE to develop 75,000 skilled entrepreneurs in agro-rural industries.

Space:
  • India has emerged as a major space power. It is time to harness our ability commercially.

  • A public sector enterprise, New Space India Limited (NSIL) has been incorporated to tap benefits of ISRO.

Sports:
    • To popularise sports at all levels, National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under 'Khelo India.'

    State of the economy:
    • Railways will require investment of Rs 50 lakh crore from 2018-30.

    • Schemes such as BharatMala, Sagarmala and UDAN are bridging rural urban divide and improving our transport infrastructure.

    • 'Gandhipedia' is being developed to sensitize the youth about positive Gandhian values.

    • The unambiguous mandate by the people in the recent election has set the ball rolling for the New India.

    • NPAs recover Rs 4 lakh crore over the last four years, NPAs down by Rs 1 lakh crore in the last one year.

    • Rashtriya Swachhta Kendra to be inaugurated at Rajghat on October 2[latex]^{nd}[/latex].

    • The people of India have validated their two goals for our country's future: National security and Economic growth.

    • It took us over 55 years to reach $1 trillion dollar economy, but we added $1 trillion in just 5 years.

    • We can very well reach $5 trillion in the next few years.

    • Last mile delivery stood out, citizens in every nook and corner of the country felt the difference; our objective was and continues to be Mazbooth Desh Ke Liye Mazbooth Nagarik.

    • Government lays out 10-point vision for the New India.

    • India will become $3 trillion economy this year. We need to continue to take many structural reforms to achieve $5 trillion economic goal.

    • Connectivity is the lifeline of the economy.
    • ICICI Bank has tied up with NBFC Indo Star Capital for vehicle financing for small and medium fleet owners to buy new as well as old commercial vehicles.

    • Under this partnership, IndoStar will originate and service the customers through the entire loan life cycle including sourcing, documentation, collection and loan servicing.

    • The Reserve Bank of India has set up a working group to review the regulatory and supervisory framework for core investment companies (CIC).

    • The group will be headed by Tapan Ray, non-executive chairman, Central Bank of India.

    • The panel will examine the current regulatory framework for CICs in terms of adequacy, efficacy and effectiveness.

    • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a penalty of Rs 1.75 crore on four public sector banks.

    • The banks which includes PNB and UCO Bank for non-compliance with KYC requirement and norms. This concept is used for opening of current accounts.

    • Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank and UCO Bank fined Rs 50 lakh each.

    • The penalty of Rs 25 lakh imposed on Corporation Bank.

    • Maharashtra achieves first rank in NITI Aayog launched "Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index (AMFFRI)".

    • Karnataka Bank has launched a web tool named VASOOL SO-Ft (VASOOL SOFAST) for digitalising NPA recovery process.

    • Punjab & Sind Bank has set up the Centralized Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) & Retail Group (Cen-MARG) for credit facilities at its head office in the national capital.
    • Asian Development Bank(ADB) approved $350 million in loans to rehabilitate and upgrade two state highways.

    • SBI made extended loans of about 51 crore to 47 infrastructure projects during the financial year of 2018-19.

    • They now project global growth to slow further to hit a six-year low of 2.9 percent by 2019-end from 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019 (1Q19) and the recent peak of 4 percent in the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18).

    • However, they expect growth in the emerging markets (EMs) to be better than that in the developed markets (DMs). As regards India, they peg the economic growth at 6.2 percent in 2019 (7.4 percent in 2018) and at 7.1 percent in 2020.

    • Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, announced that it is the first Airport in India to operationalize a dedicated Transshipment Excellence Centre (TEC) that will simplify and expedite the procedure for transfer of Transshipment cargo.

    • CNG price in Delhi was raised by 90 paise per kg to Rs 46.60. The increase in adjoining Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad was Re 1 per kg to Rs 52.95.

    • The country is taking a lead on this issue as it seeks to have in place a consensus-based solution under OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) framework by 2020.

    • The manufacturers hoped that the Union Budget, which is slated to be presented, would pave the way for the GST Council to take the measure.

    • The government is considering a Rs 74,000-crore bailout plan for revival of two state-owned telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), a media report said.

    • BSNL is the country's biggest loss-making PSU with estimated Rs 13,804 crore in FY19, MTNL came in third with a loss of Rs 3,398 crore.

    • The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index fell to 49.6 in June, down from 50.2 in May, as broadly stagnant sales caused the first drop in business activity in over a year.

    • The government will also try to limit borrowing to the 7.1 trillion rupees ($103.1 billion) pegged in the February interim budget, a two-thirds majority, 25 of 38, said yes.
    • Central government's ambitious project of 'One Nation One Card'.

    • The Central government given states and Union Territories till June 30[latex]^{rd}[/latex], 2020, to use point of sale (POS) machines in the ration shops and the scheme can be implemented.

    • The annual banking statistics report compelled by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), India slipped to 74[latex]^{th}[/latex] place in terms of money with Swiss banks.

    • The top-ranked countries in the list are the:

        • i. UK, the US (United States)
        ii. West Indies, France, and Hong Kong.
        iii. India placed at 75[latex]^{th}[/latex] position in the year 2015 it obtained 61[latex]^{st}[/latex] in 2014

    • India holds 6% in 2018 to 955 million Swiss francs (about Rs.6,757 crore).

    • The global market share of Asia Pacific region also shrank to 13.4 percent from 18.6 percent during the same period last year.

    • The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to extend oil supply cuts until March 2020.

    • U.S. crude futures for August were down 25 percents, or 0.4%, at $58.84 a barrel, after touching their highest in over five weeks.

    • Carbon dioxide emissions from the Indian power sector are likely to be 1,154 million tonnes by 2029-2030, the Central Electricity Authority said.

    • The Jagan Reddy-led government has decided to "review, negotiate and bring down" tariff of all competitively bid, and won renewable power projects in the state.

    • Purchasing managers index (PMI) was down at 52.1 points in the month, compared to three-month high of 52.7 in May, indicating a slight setback in the manufacturing sector.
    • Government of India organized an event on July 1[latex]^{st}[/latex] to celebrate the second anniversary of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

    • The pilot of new return filing replaces the current system of GSTR-3B (summary returns) and GSTR-1 (supplies return) launched on July 1[latex]^{st}[/latex], 2019.

    • Easing price pressure might prompt the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to continue with its dovish stance in its upcoming policy review in August.

    • “PMI data highlighted a slight setback in the Indian manufacturing sector during June,” said Pollyanna De Lima, principal economist at IHS Markit.

    • The previous tariff was Rs 45.32 and India's biggest pipeline operator, GAIL, had proposed a revision to Rs 47.20 /mmbtu for the pipeline network that begins from Krishna Godavari basin in the east coast, the order issued late.

    • Sources indicate that the government is keen on ensuring offline retailers get a level playing field and are not rooted out by major e-commerce firms.

    • RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had expressed concerns over the slow transmission of interest rates to benefit customers, despite successive policy rate cuts.

    • The Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to issue Sovereign Gold Bonds for 2019-20 starting from June 2019 to September 2019.

    • The Bonds will be sold every month between July and September only through:

        • i. Scheduled Commercial banks (except Small Finance Banks and Payment Banks),
        ii. Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL),
        iii. Designated post offices, and
        iv. Recognised stock exchanges viz., National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Bombay Stock Exchange Limited.

    • Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has partnered with IDFC FIRST Bank to provide financing solutions across the country.

    • The two partners have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which facilities like loans up to 100 percent of vehicle cost, zero processing fee, down payment of ₹999, and extended loan tenure of 48 months, among others will be offered to the two-wheeler maker’s customers.
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