Banking Awareness Questions for IBPS Clerk Main | 08th January 2019

Fitch Ratings revised downwards India’s GDP growth forecast to 7.2% for current fiscal citing higher financing cost and reduced credit availability. In its Global Economic Outlook, Fitch projected that for 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years, India’s GDP growth will be 7% and 7.1% respectively. Fitch had in June projected India to grow at 7.4% in current fiscal and 7.5% in 2019-20.

Paisabazaar.com, India’s largest online marketplace for financial products has launched an industry-first feature that will help loan applicants choose their most-suited lender on its platform. Named ‘Chance of Approval’, this advanced predictive algorithm has been created by Paisabazaar.com by using the last four years of lending data.

Leading Investment Bank Axis Capital announced that its MD & CEO Dharmesh Mehta has stepped down. The bank has elevated Salil Pitale and Chirag Negandhi as Joint Managing Directors and Co-Chief Executive Officer.

The government has sanctioned 254 projects worth over 24 thousand crore rupees under National Mission for Clean Ganga. River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Nitin Gadkari, around five thousand crore rupees have been spent in the last four years under it. The Announcement was made at the India Water Impact Summit 2018 in New Delhi.

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended a credit facility of USD 500 million to Tanzania for water supply projects in the country. Exim Bank signed an agreement in May 2018, with the Tanzania government for making available a Government of India-supported line of credit of USD 500 million for the purpose of financing water supply schemes.

Noida-based IT major HCL Technologies will acquire seven IBM products by mid-2019 for $1.8 billion (over Rs 12,700 crore) in its biggest ever acquisition so far. The all-cash deal entails software in areas including security, marketing, collaboration solutions, and represents a total addressable market of over $50 billion. The deal includes the transfer of some IBM employees as well.

The Union cabinet approved an export policy for agriculture, lifting all restrictions on organic and processed food, to help the government’s efforts to double farmers’ income by 2022. The ‘Agriculture Export Policy, 2018’ seeks to double farm exports to $60 billion by 2022 from $30 billion currently and will invest 1,400 crore to set up specialised clusters in different states for different produce to push exports. Policy for sensitive farm goods such as onions will be reviewed from time to time.

The Union Cabinet has approved the launching of National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) to be implemented by the Department of Science and Technology at a total cost of Rs 3,660 crore for a period of five years. The NM-ICPS is a comprehensive mission which would address technology development, application development, human resource development, skill enhancement, entrepreneurship and start-up development in CPS and associated technologies.

The government appointed Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian as the new Chief Economic Advisor. Dr. Subramanian will have a tenure of three years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared his name. He is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Government of Goa, hosted the annual Startup India Venture Capital Summit in Goa. The theme of the Summit was ‘Mobilizing Global Capital for Innovation in India.’ The event showcased the Indian startup opportunity for funds from around the world. The key objectives of the Summit were to showcase the India opportunity, increase capital flow for Indian startups and further promote ease of doing business.

The number of patents granted by India shot up by 50% in 2017, keeping up a trend of steep increases, according to the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). The patents granted by India increased from 8,248 in 2016 to 12,387 in 2017, the WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 report released in Geneva showed. Globally, 1.4 million patents were granted in 2017, the report estimated.

The state government launched an ambitious project State of Maharashtra Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART) in 10,000 villages with an objective to achieve sustainable farming within the next three years. The project SMART will be assisted by the World Bank.

Current account deficit (CAD) widened to 2.9% of GDP for the July-September quarter due to higher trade deficit compared with 1.1% during the same period of the previous year, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

India will retain its position as the world’s top recipient of remittances in 2018 with its diaspora sending a whopping USD 80 billion back home, according to the World Bank report.

Atul Sahai has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the country’s largest general insurance company New India Assurance. The post had been lying vacant since July 2018.