DAILY GK 13-14 AUG 2024
1. RBI TIGHTENS HFCS NORMS TO BRING THEM ON PAR WITH NBFCS
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued
the revised guidelines to tighten the
norms related to public deposit acceptance by Housing Finance
Companies (HFCs) in order to bring them on par with
Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).
·
As per the revised guidelines, deposit-taking HFCs are now required to maintain 15% (as against the
current 13%) liquid assets of public
deposits held by them in a phased manner i.e. 14% of liquid assets by 1st
January, 2025 and to 15% by 1st July, 2025.
·
RBI has lowered the
ceiling on quantum of public deposits taking HFCs, which is in compliance
with all prudential norms and minimum investment grade credit rating, from 3 times to 1.5 times of Net owned Fund (NoF).
·
The revised regulations have mandated the HFCs to ensure that the full asset cover is
available for public deposits accepted by them at all times.
2.
RBI INCREASES UPI TRANSACTION LIMIT FOR TAX
PAYMENTS TO RS 5 LAKH
·
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has raised the upper limit for tax payments through the
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) from Rs 1 lakh to
Rs 5 lakh per transaction.
·
This move is aimed at
boosting digital payments and facilitating larger transactions, particularly
for tax payments.
·
The decision was made
during the 50th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
3.
RBI MANDATES FORTNIGHTLY
CREDIT INFORMATION REPORTING
·
The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has decided to increase the
frequency of reporting of credit information by lenders,
including Banks and Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs), to Credit
Information Companies (CICs) from monthly intervals to fortnightly basis or
shorter intervals.
·
This will be effective
from January 1, 2025.
·
At
present credit institutions (CIs) or
lenders are required to report the credit information of their borrowers to
credit information companies (CICs) at
monthly or such shorter intervals as mutually agreed between the CI and
CIC.
4.
INDIA'S FOREX RESERVES
REACH RECORD HIGH OF $675 BILLION
·
India's foreign exchange reserves reached
an all-time high of $675 billion as of August 2,
2024, indicating strong external sector performance.
·
Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI):Net
Buyers: Foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers in the domestic market,
with net inflows of $9.7 billion from June to August
6, reversing earlier outflows of $4.2 billion in April and May.
·
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) : FDI
flows also showed strong growth in 2024-25, with gross FDI rising by over 20%
during April-May 2024.
5.
RBI PROPOSES ALTERNATIVE
AUTHENTICATION METHODS FOR DIGITAL PAYMENTS
·
The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) proposed alternate methods of
additional factor authentication (AFA) for digital payments including
password, PIN, software tokens and
biometrics like fingerprints.
·
Traditionally, SMS-based OTP (One-Time Password) has
been the primary method for AFA.
·
The
factors of authentication are broadly categorised as Something the user knows
(such as password, passphrase, PIN), Something
the user has (such as card hardware or software token),Something the user is (such as fingerprint or any other form of
biometrics).”
6. PMJDY
REACHES 53 CRORE BENEFICIARIES
·
The Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is set to complete a
decade on August 15, 2024.
·
The PMJDY has played a crucial
role in expanding financial inclusion in India, focusing on women and rural
areas, and making significant strides in integrating underserved
populations into the banking system.
·
Total Beneficiaries 52.99
crore account-holders
·
Total Balance Rs 2,28,362
crore as of July 31, 2024
·
PMJDY has become the world's largest
financial inclusion scheme.
7.
NSE REGISTERED INVESTOR
BASE CROSSES 10 CRORE
·
The National
Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has announced a significant
achievement: its unique registered investor base has
crossed the 10 crore mark.
·
Historical Growth:
While it took over 25 years to reach 4 crore investors by March 2021, the next
6 crore additions occurred at an accelerated pace, averaging around 6-7 months
per crore.
8. INDIA’S 1ST SM REIT
LICENSE FROM SEBI
·
Property Share (PropShare
Investment Manager Private Limited) became the 1st Fractional Ownership Platform (FOP) to received India’s 1st Small and Medium Real Estate Investment
Trust (SM REIT) license from the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the newly notified SM REIT regulations.
·
It received the license
under the name of Property Share Investment Trust (PSIT).
·
In March 2024, SEBI introduced “SEBI REIT (Amendment)
Regulations 2024” by making amendments to the Real Estate Investment
Trusts (REIT) (Regulations) 2014.
·
These regulations aim to regulate FOPs and protect investors
by bringing FOPs within the regulatory framework as a sub-class under the REIT regulations for assets
valued between Rs 50 and Rs
500 crores.
·
Like REITs, SM REITs are regulated by SEBI with units of each
scheme listed on the stock exchanges.
9. NEW MD & CEO OF MCX
·
The Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI) approved the appointment of Praveena Rai as
new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX), India’s
largest commodity exchange.
·
The post of MD & CEO
at MCX has remained vacant since Padala Subbi Reddy (P.S.
Reddy) stepped down on 9th May 2024 after completing his 5 year term.
·
MCX is a state-of-the-art,
commodity derivatives exchange that offers online trading of commodity
derivatives transactions.
·
It started operations in November 2003, under the regulatory framework of SEBI.
·
Chairman- Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala
·
Headquarters– Mumbai
10. REKHA SHARMA STEPS DOWN AS NCW CHAIRPERSON
·
Rekha Sharma, the chairperson of the National Commission for
Women (NCW) stepped down as her tenure ended on August 6 2024.
·
Rekha assumed the charge of the NCW chairperson on August 7,
2018 and served in the role for two
terms (2018
to 2021) and (2021 to August 2024)
·
NCW was set up as a
statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990,
headquartered at New Delhi
11.
INDIA’S NEW AMBASSADOR TO
US.
·
Vinay Mohan Kwatra,
former Foreign Secretary, has assumed charge as the Ambassador of
India to the United States.
·
He succeeds Taranjit
Singh Sandhu, India's former envoy to the United States and a BJP
leader.
12.
RAHUL NAVIN APPOINTED ED
CHIEF
·
The Centre has
appointed Rahul Navin as the full-time Director of
the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a two-year
term, according to a government order.
·
Navin, a 1993-batch IRS officer, had
previously been serving as the acting director of the ED since September last
year.
·
He took charge as the
acting director after the Supreme Court declared the repeated extensions of the
previous ED Director, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, as
illegal.
13. INDIA RETAINED 8TH POSITION IN GLOBAL AGRICULTURE EXPORTS: WTO
·
According to the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s
report titled “World Trade Statistics 2023”, India has
retained its position as the world’s 8th
largest exporter of agricultural products in 2023, despite a decline in its
export from USD 55 billion in 2022 to USD
51 billion in 2023.
·
The
European Union (EU) ranked 1st with export value
of USD 836 billion followed by the
United States of America (USA) at 2nd
(198 billion) and Brazil at 3rd
(USD 157 billion).
·
India’s export declined
mainly due to geopolitical factors such as: the
Red Sea crisis and the Russian-Ukraine
war.
·
Also, the Government of India (GoI) had imposed a ban on export of wheat in May 2022, non-basmati rice in July 2023 and on sugar from October 2023
·
Among the top 10 exporters of agricultural products, Brazil, EU and Thailand are the only 3
economies which saw increase in their exports in 2023.
·
WTO Director-General (DG)- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
·
Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland
·
Member Nations- 164
·
Established- 1995
14. MNRE ISSUED OPERATIONAL
GUIDELINES FOR MODEL SOLAR VILLAGE SCHEME
·
The Ministry of New & Renewable
Energy (MNRE) has issued the operational guidelines
for implementing the ‘Model Solar Village’ scheme under the ‘Prime
Minister (PM)-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana’.
·
Under the scheme
component, emphasis has been laid on
establishing one Model Solar Village per district across India in order to
promote solar energy adoption and enable village communities to become
self-reliant in energy needs.
·
The MNRE has allocated Rs 800 crore for the implementation of
the scheme, providing central financial
assistance of Rs 1 crore per village.
·
A village must be a revenue village with a population size above 5,000 (or 2,000 for
special category states).
·
The villages will be
selected by assessing their overall distributed Renewable Energy (RE)
capacity installed on 6 months after the declaration of the potential candidate by
District Level Committee (DLC).
·
There will be one winning village in each district of the
State which has the highest RE capacity .
·
The scheme will be implemented by State or Union
Territory (UT) Renewable Energy Development Agency (REDA) under the
supervision of the DLC.
·
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister (PM)
Narendra Modi approved the PM-Surya
Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana on 29th February, 2024.
·
The Government of India (GoI) has allocated Rs
75,021 crore for the scheme and is to be implemented till
Financial Year 2026-27 (FY27).
·
Under the scheme, households
will be provided with a subsidy up to 40% to install solar panels on their
roofs.
·
It aims to provide free electricity of 300 units per month
to 1 crore households in India.
