Bank IQ's Monthly Magazine March 2019

1. march 2019 www.bankiq.in toms CBI � 11ii11 BANKING AWARENESS 11 TAXATION e PRACTICE MCQ's TOPPER'S TALK f IN'DIA 6 THE WORLD ,�-.; CURRENT AFFAIRS A- STUDY IQ Initiative

2. bankiq.in March 2019 INDEX 1 TOPPER’S TALK (2-8) (9-10) 11 (12-15) 16 (17-19) 20 21 (22-23) (24-32) 1) Banking & Financial Awareness 2) Taxation 3) Agriculture 4) Industry 5) International Afairs 6) India and the World 7) Polity & Governance 8) Appointments & Resignations 9) Government Schemes 10) Miscellaneous PRACTICE CURRENT AFFAIRS MCQ’S 1) Banking & Financial Awareness 2) Appointments & Resignations 3) Days Dates (33-37) (37-38) (38-40) (40-42) (42-45) (45-48) (48-50) (50-52) (52-55) (55-57) (57-58) (58-60) (61-63) 63 4) Defence & Security 5) Government Schemes 6) Honours & Awards 7) India & the World 8) Industry 9) Infrastructure 10) International Afairs 11) Polity & Governance 12) Reports & Indices 13) Sports 14) Taxation 15) Miscellaneous (63-68) SOLUTIONS CURRENT AFFAIRS MCQ’s (69-74) (74-76) (76-77) (78-80) (80-84) (84-87) (88-90) (90-92) (92-96) (96-99) (99-101) (101-104) (104-106) 107 (107-112) 1) Banking & Financial Awareness 2) Appointments & Resignations 3) Days Dates 4) Defence & Security 5) Government Schemes 6) Honours & Awards 7) India & the World 8) Industry 9) Infrastructure 10) International Afairs 11) Polity & Governance 12) Reports & Indices 13) Sports 14) Taxation 15) Miscellaneous STUDY IQ Initiative A

3. bankiq.in MARCH 2019 TOPPER’S TALK How to Clear RRB PO and Clerk Exam - Tips and Strategy. About me Hi, I am Shruti. I have qualifed RRB PO 2018. I have done my education from Institute for Excellence and Higher Education, Bhopal, MP Why do I want to join the government sector? The government sector provides us job security and respect in society and after I came to know my ability to crack banking exams, I decided to prepare for it from June 2018. How I started my preparation? Four to Six months are enough to qualify a banking exam if and only if you have prepared in a structured or whole-heartedly way. I like to study subjects like General Awareness, banking terms in the morning as it remains in your mind for the long term. After that, I solve as much as questions of maths as possible.It builds your concept and after that I solve puzzles for reasoning section. Structure of the banking exam and some strategies followed by me There are three stages of banking exam. Stage 1 is prelims and stage 2 is mains followed by an interview for the post of PO. For prelims, solve maximum number of quizzes as it will help you to increase your speed which is necessary to qualify prelims, as accuracy and speed play an important role in prelims exams. In Mains Exam there are sections of Maths, Reasoning, General Awareness, and English/ Regional language. For Maths, a continuouspractice is needed to crack quantitative section and it is not very difcult if your practice is good enough. Always try to solve it in a traditional method and build your concept topic wise topic. For Maths, refer R S Agarwal book and go for quizzes. For Reasoning, puzzles play an important role in this section. Go for atleast one high level puzzle everyday and be careful while reading the puzzle, to avoid mistakes. I used to watch videos of Tarun Jha sir for quality questions of puzzles and reasoning questions. For English, start developing reading habit as English needs reading skills. For this, start practicing reading comprehension and go for Study IQ Editorial section, read The Economic Times, The Hindu. For Grammar refer any basic English book like Wren &Martin. This helps a lot to memorize grammar rules. For Mains, do not rely on short tricks and always go for traditional methods as mains exams consist of questions that need a clear concept to solve them. For logical Reasoning, solve puzzles as fast as you can and be accurate with logical questions. For General Awareness, I used to watch Gaurav Garg sir videos from Study IQ for the last 1 year and it covers almost 90% of questions and all the topics important for this section. What you can do is go with everyday current afairs newsand revise them again and again. For Interview, the Financial news section of current afairs is very important. Special thanks to Prashant Dhawan sir and Joicy ma’am to build my concepts in Economics and also to clear my Banking Concepts. Last words At last, I would say, prepare very well for GA as it is the game changer in every exam. Lastly, I want to thank the Study IQ team for giving me a platform to express my views and thoughts. The exam I cleared is due to GA and Study IQ. Thank you, team Study IQ. Page 1 STUDY IQ

4. bankiq.in March 2019 Banking and Financial Awareness order by not paying dues of Rs 550 crore to Ericsson. The apex court had said that they would face a three-year jail term if the order by not paying dues of Rs 550 crore to Ericsson. The apex court had said that they would face a three-year jail term if the company failed to pay up within four weeks. The NCLAT had earlier halted insolvency proceedings against RCom after the case was admitted by the Mumbai bench of National Company law tribunal (NCLT) on May 15, 2018. The apex court had on October 23 asked RCom to clear the dues by December 15, 2018. RCom has already deposited Rs 118 crore with the Supreme Court. On February 4, the NCLAT had allowed Ericsson to fle its reply on RCom’s plea for withdrawal of the appeals. Banks open to big haircuts Bad-loan accounts for sale by banks in the March quarter has risen to over Rs 27,000 crore as lenders rush to make cash recoveries ahead of the close of the fnancial year 2018-19 banks are demanding 1005 cash payments through ARC (asset reconstruction companies) sales to try their provisioning burden does not go up. For instance, Central bank’s reserve price for Alok Industries suggests an 84% haircut and IDBI’s reserve price for RCom implies a 55.5% haircut. Banks are making it clear to buyers that we want the cash in 60 days, delays in resolution through the insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) route may have also forced their hand. Link your PAN with bank for refunds The Income Tax department will “only” issues refunds via the e-mode into bank accounts of tax payers beginning next month and they should link PAN with their accounts to get refund directly, swiftly and securely. RBI faces trouble getting banks to cut rates Electoral bonds in 3 tranches from March The government has authorised only STATE BANK OF INDIA to launch the sale of electoral bonds from March 1-15, April 1-20 and May 6-15 at 29 specifed SBI branches. The electoral bonds will be valid for 15 calendar days from the date of issue. No payment will be made to any payee political party deposited after the expiry of the validity period. Electoral bonds may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India. Indian lenders haven’t fully passed on the central bank’s latest interest rate cut to borrowers, pressuring the monetary authority to loosen policy even more to support economic growth, mean banks face a high cost of capital, limiting their ability to transmit monetary policy easing. NCLAT pulls up SBI SBI snubs RCom National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on admonished State Bank of India (SBI), headed by chairperson SJ Mukhopadhyay saying that the SBI had given a false impression that the RCom-RJio deal would fetch about Rs 37,000 crore, gave a rosy picture before us. SBI worked with RCom and claimed that they would recover around Rs 37,000 crore from sale to Jio and cited losses of crores per day. You failed and now will seek to recover Rs 260 crore. The appellate tribunal pulled up SBI for not releasing the Rs 260- crore income tax returns lying with it, which could be used by RCom to pay Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson. The release would help RCom to clear a part of its Rs 550-crore dues to Ericsson. The Supreme Court had, on February 20, held RCOm chairman Anil Ambani and two others guilty of contempt for violating its SBI said to NCLAT that “RCom should pay Ericsson on its own and refused to release the Rs 266 crore worth of income- tax returns, money did not belong to RCom. The Supreme Court said that the money will come from the Retention and Trust account”. RBI on Kotak’s plea RBI wants Uday Kotak to reduce his stake in the bank because RBI wants to separate Management from Ownership to improve Page 2 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

5. bankiq.in March 2019 corporate governance. After that Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd’s fled a legal petition against the Reserve Bank of India. RBI “The reliefs sought in the petition, if granted, shall result in making inroads into the RBI’s autonomy, and to permit the petitioners and others to become regulators of their own selves”. don’t have any resolution plans, the additional period of 180 days also came to an end on 28.02.2019 barring 2 or 3 cases have been resolved and some cases have been referred to the NCLT, the positions remains the same” February 12th circular by RBI- One-day default rule on term loans Banks need to fnalise a resolution plan for defaults of over Rs 2,000 crore within the next 180 days. Failure to do so will kick start insolvency process RBI want to end evergreening of stressed accounts. Under the scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A), only 22 cases the restructuring could be implemented from June 2016 to February 2018, though banks invoked strategic debt restructuring in more than 140 cases. SEBI lifts foreign investment cap in corporate bonds On March 12 SEBI withdrew the 20% limit on investments by Foreign Portfolio Investors in corporate bonds of an entity. On June 2018 SEBI applied cap and on Feb’ 2019 RBI lifted the restriction. SEBI cleaning house SBI put six non-performing accounts (NPAs) worth Rs 2,338 on saleand are being ofered on a 100% cash basis. The government then put the details of project out in the public and invites proposals from others interested in executing it and the original contractor gets an opportunity to match the best bid. This may entail two rounds of bidding for a distressed company or its assets. Assume that Company A wins the frst round of bidding by a quoting a price of Rs 5,000 crore for a power plant. This will be made public and a second set of bids invited. If Company B quotes Rs 5,500 crore, Company A will be ofered a second opportunity to match it. If it refuses, Company B would be declared the winning bidder. If Company A steps up, then it will bag the power plant at Rs 5,500 crore. Government Pinning hopes on advance tax collection The government had earlier estimated Rs. 11.5 lakh crore from direct tax collection but now increase of Rs 50,000 crore in the interim budget 2019-20 to meet the revised budget target of Rs 12 lakh crore from direct tax collection. RBI concern over role of ‘rating advisers’ 2nd interim dividend Government has pressed cash-rich PSUs like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to pay a second interim dividend for the current fscal, ONGC has declined to pay. The rules are that a company cannot declare a second dividend within a month of the previous pay out. IOC has called a board meeting on 19 March. Government is struggling to meet the revised fscal defcit target of 3.4% in Good and Services Tax (GST) and the shortfall is likely to be around Rs. 30,000-40,000 crore and a similar shortfall is expected in direct tax collections as well. Shaktikanta Das shows his confict of interest in the functioning of credit rating agencies. He questioned the dual practice of rating agencies to rate a bond as well as decide its valuation which is used by mutual funds (MFs) to calculate the net asset value of a MF scheme. It is perceived that the motivation to downgrade a security would be lower for an agency which carries out both businesses. Das clearly spelt out that credit rating is a diferent kind of business in which revenue should not be the primary objective. Central bank is concerned over the role of the little-known club of ‘rating advisers’ which are unregulated entities acting as brokers between companies and rating agencies. $3 trillion digital economy Ravi Shankar Prasad said, India could be a $3 trillion (digital) economy in the next four to fve years in the 5th edition of the Times Network’s Digital India Summit. Digital India is designed to empower ordinary Indians and make India the biggest manufacturing hub in electronics with 1 crore employment in the electronics sector and 35-40 lakhs in the software sector. India is now second only to China in mobile phone manufacturing, also become the second largest starup movement in the world with the valuation of Unicorn is higher than in the UK. Purchase ATMs that are Make in India Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had directed all departments to evolve an internal system of vetting the restrictive and discriminating terms against domestic manufacturers and also looking to amend the public procurement order so that penal action can be taken against erring ofcials of procurement agencies of any government department .The fnance ministry has asked banks to give preference to Indian manufacturers under the ‘Make in India’ initiative when purchasing ATMs. RBI in Supreme Court on defaulters In March 2011 the gross NPAs ratio was 2.35% and in March 2018 it increased to 11.46%. RBI said “It is apparent that the petitioners Page 3 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

6. bankiq.in March 2019 RBI Governor to hold pre- MPC meet RiteshKavdia of the IBBI signed the pact which provides for sharing information and resources, according to an ofcial statement. There will be periodic meetings to discuss matters of mutual interest, including regulatory requirements, enforcement cases, research, data analysis, information technology and data sharing. On March 26 Shaktikanta Das will hold discussions with representatives of trade bodies and credit rating agencies on interest rate and steps to boost economic activities, aim to broadening the consultation process. The frst MPC (monetary policy committee) meet scheduled for April 4 and the bi- monthly policy fnalised by the six-member MPC before the commencement of the seven- phase general elections beginning April 11. Goldman Sachs Rating Indian market has been witnessing a ’catch-up’ rally amid expectation of a potentially stable government. In September Golden Sachs had downgraded India to ‘MARKETWEIGHT’ now again upgraded India back to ‘OVERWEIGHT’. India remains among the most expensive markets in the world. The rally this year has been driven by purchases of overseas investors that have bought stocks worth nearly $.5.6 billion. This year’s infow is a big swing from last year’s outfows of $4.2 billion. Expected earnings growth in India to pick up to 16% this year and 14% next year which should drive Nifty’s outperformance. FII infows, Fed rate decision to guide stock movement this week The equity market is expected to be guided by Fed interest rate decision, foreign fund infows and crude oil prices. FED interest rate decision is the key event in which the Central Bank of USA decide their interest rate. New Liquidity Tool Banks promise RBI to look at lending rate cuts RBI governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday exhorted bankers to ensure better transmission of rate cuts by the central bank and believed to have said that since monetary policy enunciations are based on specifc calculations withrespect to macroeconomic trends, he would expect better and quicker transmission. Bankers, on their part, are understood to have assured the governor that they would look at cutting rates. Central bank has got new cash infusion tool to smoothen tight cash conditions in the banking system. Senior ofcials from the Reserve Bank of India met about two dozen bankers to discuss it. The RBI will conduct a forward dollar/rupee buy-sell swap auction worth $5 billion on March 26. RBI will buy dollars from banks for 3 years promising a specifed premium for selling back the same at maturity, but the bankers suggested to lowering the tenure of the swap to below 3 years as well as reducing the minimum bid size which is $25 million currently. Public Credit Registry RBI guv meets Banks The Monetary Policy Committee of RBI Reduced therepurchase rate from 6.5% to 6.25%, because of the low headline infation, threats to domestic growth from global trade, geopolitical tensions. The present level of growth owes itself primarily to public spending in infrastructure. Private consumption and investment in bleak. Even though bank credit and overall fnancial fows remain robust, they are not broad- based. RBI’s report on sectoral deployment of credit: Gross bank credit to micro and small enterprises reduced by 0.9% year- on- year in December. MSME sector employs approximately 111 million people in 63 million units across the country, contributing 31.6% to gross value added and 49.86% to the country’s exports. Economists raised concerns over a sharp slowdown in Indian economy. Most economists expect the six-member MPC to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points for the second time in a row next month to 6.00 percent, a level last seen in August 2017. Indian’s economy expanded by 6.6 percent during October- December, its slowest pace in fve quarters, on weak consumer demand and investments. Slowing growth has hit the federal government’s tax collections. SEBI, IBBI sign MoU The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for efective implementation of the new bankruptcy law. Executive Directors Anand Baiwar of the SEBI and Page 4 STUDY IQ

7. bankiq.in March 2019 The credit market is characterized by information asymmetry as a result, borrowers have disproportionately more information about their fnancial situation and ability to repay the loan than the lenders. There is also the problem of adverse selection, where safe borrowers are priced out if the credit market owing to their lack of credit history. For this we can set up public credit registry (PCR) which can act as a central repository of information on credit data of individuals and businesses. Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRICL) provides timely information on credit deterioration of large loan accounts those greater than Rs 5 crore and play a crucial role in the asset quality review process initiated by RBI in 2015, which helped identify signifcant divergences in bad loans recognized by several commercial banks in their annual reports. A PCR will enable sharing of credit information mandated by law, fostering transparency and encouraging competition. The next logical step now is the establishment of a PCR. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, though far from perfect, has started the process of unlocking the dead capital of bankrupt frms. listed companies should be for contravention of any securities law without limiting it to violations relating to one or two regulations. FPIs invest in March Foreign investors have poured inn a net amount of Rs 38,211 crore in the domestic capital markets in March, it was Rs 11,182 crore in February. Analysts attributed the increase in infusion to a shift in stance on monetary policy outlook by various central banks globally. Sale of ‘enemy shares’ Regulatory Sandbox RBI is going to issue guidelines for Regulatory Sandbox, it provides a secure environment for fntech frms to experiment with products under supervision of a regulator. It will reduce time to launch innovative products at lower cost. Idea for Sandbox was given by Sudarshan Sen Committee. “An appropriate fntech regulatory and supervisory framework was required to safeguard the interest of all the stakeholders” RBI Governor. Sale of ‘enemy shares’ (the assets left behind by people who migrated to Pakistan or China and are no longer citizens of India) and buyback of stocks by CPSEs have together yielded the government over Rs 11,300 crore and collect Rs 700 crore through the frst ever sale. This helped the exchequer mop up Rs 85,000 crore from disinvestment in the current fscal. Cabinet in November 2018 gave it’s go-ahead to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to sell such shares held in companies. RBI’s swap mechanism “Liquidity situation in the economy was “comfortable”, and it will improve further with the central bank’s move to infuse Rs 35,000 crore”. Finance Ministry. Economic afairs secretary Subash Chandra Garg said the RBI’s swap arrangement is a” sound move”. This means the RBI will be buying dollars from banks and selling ‘forward dollars’ for a premium. IDBI in a PSB IDBI in a PSB IDBI Bank is acquired by LIC a fully government- owned entity. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had classifed IDBI Bank as a private lender in view of government stake falling below 51%, a lender ceases to be a public sector bank once the government stake in it falls below 51%. GST-like Councils Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that we need more GST Council like bodies. Such bodies can work to align the State’s and Centre’s interest on various subjects. Former chief economic adviser also talked about it last January. GST Council is successful because- It parcels decision-making powers amongst the states and the Centre. Consensus is inevitable for any change to be made. In the process, various interests sometimes conficting, are balanced and reform can happen. It helps iron out diferences and reins in an overbearing Centre. GST Council-like structures can help the implementation of central schemes like Ayushman Bharat or PM KisanSamman SEBI seeks more power SEBI seeks more power With an aim to thwart fnancial frauds, regulator SEBI has sought powers to conduct inspection of books of accounts of listed companies for contravention of any securities law also take direct action against the fraudsters. SEBI has proposed a heavy penalty for altering, destroying, mutilating, concealing or falsifying record and documents or other tangible objects with an intent to obstruct, impede or infuence a legal investigation. However, the regulators hasnow asked the government that its power to undertake inspection of books at Page 5 STUDY IQ

8. bankiq.in March 2019 Previously, RBI had imposed penalties worth Rs 71 crore on 36 public, private and foreign banks for non-compliance with various directions on implementation and strengthening of SWIFT operations. Some of these banks were SBI, ICICI Bank, HSBC, Bank of Baroda, Citibank, Canara Bank and Yes Bank. Earlier also PNB was in news over issues of SWIFT system after Rs. 14,000-crore fraud carried out by jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi by misusing this global messaging software. Nidhi Yojana overcome adoption-hurdles in opposition-rules states. Currency & Demonetisation RBI appoints 5-member committee to deepen digital payments Currency in circulation as percentage of GDP declined by over 1 percentage (from11.55 percent to 10.48 per cent) points to 10.48 percent in the two years after demonetization. Post note ban, Rs 15.31 lakh crore worth demonetised notes were deposited in banks within a stipulated time. With regards to digital transactions, the ofcial said the volume increased to 210.32 crore in October 2108, from 71.19 crore in October 2016. The value of digital Transaction also increased to Rs 135.97 lakh crore in October 2018 from Rs 87.68 Lakh Crore in October 2016. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed a fve-member committee under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekhani to strengthen and encourage digital payments and enhance fnancial inclusion through digitization. It was announced by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das at the frst event of Financial Technology (Fintech) Conclave, which was organized by NITI Aayog in New Delhi. Composition of Committee It will be headed by Nandan Nilekani, Former Chairman, Unique Identifcation Authority of India (UIDAI). Other members are former Deputy Governor of RBI - H.R. Khan, former Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology and Steel - Aruna Sharma, former MD&CEO of Vijaya Bank - Kishore Sansi, Chief Innovation Ofcer, Center for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM Ahmedabad - Sanjay Jain. Terms of Reference of Committee It will review existing status of digitization of payments in the country and identify current gaps in digital payment ecosystem and suggest ways to bridge them. It will assess the current levels of digital payments in fnancial inclusion. It will undertake global analyses with view to identify best practices that can be adopted in India to accelerate digitization of economy and fnancial inclusion through greater use of digital payments. It will suggest measures to strengthen safety and security of digital payments. It will provide road map for increasing customer confdence and trust while accessing fnancial services through digital modes. It will suggest a medium-term strategy for deepening of digital payments. Raghuram Rajan: will return if there is an opportunity Raghuram Rajan said he is willing to return to take an opportunity where he could be of use. He may be the fnance minister if an opposition alliance wins the ensuing general elections. He denied a second term as Reserve Bank Governor by the BJP-Led government and said he is very happy where he is, but is open to opportunities. Kerala masala bonds Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIBF), the infra- funding body of the Kerala government, has raised Rs 2,150 crore via its inaugural masala bond issues in the London and Singapore markets. It’s the frst government agency to access the ofshore debt market and the largest dual currency issue by a sub-sovereign backed entity from Asia and other emerging market. Jet Crisis Jet Airways India missed a $109 million loan repayment due to HSBC Bank this week of total $140 million (about Rs 1,000 crore). Jet had also missed the payment on the other $31 million tranche (around Rs 200 crore) tranche that was due on March 11 and hasn’t repaid any of the loans. RBI imposes Rs 2 crore fne on PNB Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed penalty of Rs 2 crore on Punjab National Bank (PNB) for non-compliance of regulatory directions with regards to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) operations. The fne was imposed on PNB for violations of regulatory directions observed during assessment of implementation of SWIFT- related operational controls. Page 6 STUDY IQ

9. bankiq.in March 2019 Components of India’s FOREX Reserves: Foreign currency assets (FCAs), Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), Gold Reserves and RBI’s Reserve position with International Monetary Fund (IMF). FCAs constitute largest component of India’s forex Reserves and is expressed in terms of US dollars. SBI raises Rs. 1,251.30 crore by issuing Basel III- compliant tier-I bonds The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has raised Rs. 1,251.30 crore by issuing Basel III-compliant additional tier-I bonds. The proceeds from these bonds will help SBI to boost its additional tier 1 capital ratio to meet systematically important bank (D-SIB) criteria to which SBI is mandated to meet. SBI-Basel III-compliant tier-I bonds These bonds allotted to investors are in nature of taxable, perpetual, subordinated, unsecured. They are Basel lll compliant for inclusion in additional tier 1 capital. These bonds have face value of Rs 10 lakh each and carry coupon of 9.45% payable annually with call option after fve years. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has classifed SBI along with ICICI and HDFC as domestic domestic systematically important bank (D-SIBs), which are too big to fail. These three banks are needed to comply most stringent capital rules by April 1, 2019. They are required to keep aside additional common equity tier 1 (CET1) requirement in addition to capital conservation bufer. Tier 1 capital is calculated as common equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital plus additional Tier 1 capital (AT1). YONO Cash: SBI launches India’s frst cardless ATM withdrawal service India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) has launched of YONO Cash using which customers can withdraw money from ATMs without using card. With this, SBI became frst bank in India to launch cardless ATM withdrawal service. YONO Cash: SBI customers can initiate cash withdrawal process on YONO app and set six-digit YONO pin for transaction. After initiating process, customers will also get six-digit reference number for transaction on their registered mobile numbers via SMS. ATMs enabled for this service will be termed YONO Cash Point. Cash withdrawal under it has to be completed within 30 minutes at ATM using both PIN and reference number. The transactions using YONO is secured with two-factor authentication. It also eliminates risk of skimming and cloning. Benefts: Through YONO, SBI seeks to create digital universe by integrating entire transactions ecosystem under one platform in coming years. It is designed to help SBI customers to withdraw cash without physical debit card. It seeks to maximize convenience and enhance banking experience for its customers. It will address concerns over using debit cards at ATMs for cash withdrawals by eliminating the possible associated risks Forex reserves rises to $405.6 billion in March 2019 According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves surged by $3.602 billion to $405.638 billion in week to March 15, 2019. The surge was driven by rise in foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves. Reasons for increase The increase in forex reserves could partly be attributed to rising investments by foreign investors in Indian capital markets. The net foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in equity markets in till March 15, 2019 was $2.9 billion, highest since January 2018. Indian debt markets also have seen positive infow of $1.2 billion till March 15, 2019. Forex Reserves in March 2019 Foreign currency assets (FCA): Increased by $3.546 billion to $377.773 billion. Gold reserves: It rose by $38.9 million to $23.408 billion. Special drawing rights (SDRs) with International Monetary Fund (IMF): It rose by $5.9 million to $1.461 billion. RBI’s reserve position with IMF: It increased by $12.1 million to $2.995 billion. Forex Reserves They are reserve assets held by central bank of the country in foreign currencies. These reserve acts as bufer to be used in challenging times. They are also used as back liabilities and also to infuence monetary policy. Almost all countries in world, regardless of size of their economy, hold signifcant forex reserves. Usha Thorat Committee on ofshore rupee markets Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted eight-member task force headed by former RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat to examine issues related to ofshore rupee markets and recommend policy measures to ensure stability of the external value of the domestic currency. This comes in pursuance of RBI’s guided objective of developing deep and liquid on-shore fnancial markets that act as price setter of rupee globally. Other members of task force: Nominee from Department of Economic Afairs, nominee from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Ajit Ranade, SajjidChinoy, Surendra Rosha, and Chief General Manager, Financial Markets Regulation Department, RBI. Terms of reference of the task force: It will assess causes behind development of ofshore rupee market and study efects of ofshore markets on rupee exchange rate and market liquidity in the domestic market. Page 7 STUDY IQ

10. bankiq.in March 2019 It will also recommend measures to address concerns, if any, arising out of ofshore rupee trading besides proposing measures to generate incentives for non-residents to access the domestic market. It will also suggest measures to generate incentives for non- residents to access the domestic market and examine the role, if any, International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) can play in addressing these concerns. Notes Page 8 STUDY IQ

11. bankiq.in March 2019 Taxation government is expecting 7.6 crore returns to be fled by the end of FY19 against 6.7 crore in FY18. I-T department started sending notices to people who engaged in high- value transaction but failed to fle I-T returns after that in 15 days 33,000 persons fled returns for the frst time and 3 lakh people visited the e-fling website. The government gives demonetisation as one of the main reasons for e-returns. Finance minister on corporate tax FICCI President Sandip Somany said that India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised in (2015-16 budget), as the revenue collection from GST go up over a period of time he reduced the corporate tax rate from 30% to 25% and also have a discussion on taxation, job creation, and boosting industrial output. In the budget 2017, the government had reduced corporate tax rate to 25% for companies whose turnover was less than Rs 50 crore in fnancial year 2015-16, and in budget 2018-19 reduced tax rate of 25% to companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore and about 7,000 companies whose turnover is above Rs 250 crore remains in 30% slab. Central board of Indirect Taxes CBIC member John Joseph wrote several letters to zonal heads, pulled up its feld formations for lagging behind their state- level counterparts in revenue collection and enforcement of anti-evasion measures. He has pointed out how they are lax on using the data analytics reports generated on ’risky taxpayers’. He also reminded the feld formations that director general of analytics and risk management (DGARM) has prepared reports on 88,000 GST registrants based on their compliance behaviour and asked each range to verify the contents of the report for at least three taxpayers each week and upload feedback on the same so that reports can be improved soon. Three weeks later, Joseph shot another letter to zone-heads “I am much pained to observe that even after 3 weeks with almost 88,000 GSTN number only 1,500 feed backs have been received in the DDM portal so far”. Last year, the revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia too had pointed out that state tax ofcials were doing decisively better than their counterparts with the centre in revenue collection and recovery. Tax lens on 87,000 The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has ordered ”best judgement assessment” of individuals who failed to comply with the income tax department’s even after the department had sent out SMSes, emails and also issued notices to around 300,000 individuals, who made substantial cash deposits after the November 2016 demonetisation to furnish income-tax returns for the assessment year 2017-18 , but around 87,000 taxpayers failed to comply with those notices. The apex body for direct taxes has now instructed assessing ofcers (AO) to conclude “best judgement assessment proceedings” to deal with such noncompliance. The CBDT has said that the assessment should be completed by March 31and, in any case, by June 30. Angel tax High value cars, jewellery to become cheaper Central board of direct taxes (CBDT) has sent letters to principal chief commissioners of income tax, asking themtoidentify the start- up cases pertaining to them and to ensure that no coercive action is taken in these cases and also directed to request all zones to kindly ensure that appeals pending in these cases, if any, are disposed of on priority” Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said that the Tax Collection at Source (TCS) amount would be excluded from the value of goods while computing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) liability. TCS is also levied on other purchases at diferent rates. Under the Income Tax Act, tax collection at source (TCS) is levied at 1% on purchase of – Motor vehicles above Rs 10 lakh • Jewellery exceeding Rs 5 lakh • Bullion over Rs 2 lakh Earlier in December, the CBIC has said that the TCS amount would be included but in view of the representationsreceived 30% growth in IT returns Income tax e-returns fled has increase nearly 30% in April- February as compared with 17% in FY18 (27% in FY 16 and 20% in FY 17) with 6.4 crore taxpayers in the frst 11 months of the fscal year. The Page 9 STUDY IQ

12. bankiq.in March 2019 The number of crorepatis is quiet small compared to the PRICE estimate of one million crorepati households in the country. PRICE’s data is for households, but that translates to around 6.6 lakh individuals with an annual income of more than Rs 1 crore a year. The tax data for FY17 shows 1.4 million taxpayers declared an annual income of more than Rs 20 lakh; 1.3 million in the case of individual taxpayers. PRICE’s estimate of 8 million households or 5.3 million individuals with an income of more than Rs 20 lakh per annum. All eyes will now be on Project Insight, a computerisation of all databases with extensive search and matching facilities; once this is done, and the Aadhaar-linking of PAN numbers takes place, the taxman will have a very good estimate of expenditure and will match this with income statements. from various stakeholders and after consultation with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the CBIC took the decision to exclude it (TCS). Government Pinning hopes on advance tax collection The government had earlier estimated Rs. 11.5 lakh crore from direct tax collection but now increase of Rs 50,000 crore in the interim budget 2019-20 to meet the revised budget target of Rs 12 lakh crore from direct tax collection. Net direct tax collection The net direct tax collection during April-January of this fscal stood at Rs. 7.89 lakh crore as against Rs 12 lakh crore targeted for the entire fscal of 2018-19. On March 16 the net direct tax collection fgure has crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark, the fourth and fnal installment of tax payment. Fiscal defcit The country’s fscal defcit touched 134.2% of the full-year revised budgeted estimate at the end of February 2019 due to the tepid growth in revenue collections. “Fiscal defcit for April-February 2018-19 was Rs 8.51 lakh crore as against the revised estimate of Rs 6.34 lakh crore for the entire year”. as per the Controller General of Accounts. According to the CGA data revenue receipts of the central government was Rs 12.65 lakh crore or 73.2% of the revised budgetary estimate at February end. Economic Afairs Secretary S C Garg said that government is committed to restrict the fscal defcit at 3.4 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as envisaged in the budget. The government’s tax revenue stood at Rs. 10.94 lakh crore and non-tax revenue was Rs 1.7 lakh crore and total expenditure incurred by the government during April-February 2018-19 was Rs 21.88 lakh crore. Out of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 5.01 lakh crore was on account of interest payments and Rs 2.63 lakh crore on major subsidies. Direct tax collection falls short Pressure is mounting on tax ofcials to meet revenue collection target. Raising concerns over the “alarming situation” of direct tax collection, direct tax receipts are just 85% of the full year estimate. Against the budget target of Rs 12 lakh crore, only Rs 10,21,251 crore has been collected as on March 23. The GST collection was originally budgeted at Rs 13.71 lakh crore which had been lower to Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the revised estimated for 2018-19. The Central Board Direct Taxes (CBDT) has asked its ofcials to pay immediate attention on measures to shore up revenues. CAD widens In October-December 2018 and 2017 the current account defcit widened to $ 16.9 billion and $ 13.7billion. As a percentage of GDP, CAD in the reporting quarter rode to 2.5% against 2.1% in the year ago quarter. Reserve Bank of India’s statement on ‘Developments in India’s Balance of Payment’s: higher trade defcit at $49.5 billion as compared with $44 billion a year ago. Net services receipts increased by 2.8 percent on a year on year basis to $21.3 billion, remittances by Indians employed overseas, amount to $18.7 billion, net foreign direct investment at $7.5 billion in 2018-19, Portfolio investment recorded net outfow of $2.1 billion in quarter 3 of 2018-19, non-resident Indian deposits nudged up only $139 million against $3.32 billion, there is a depletion of $4.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves as against an accretion of $9.4 billion in the year ago period. Big GST shortfalls In the latest budget the tax collection projection is 13.5%. Government realized that the expected boom in FY19 collections- taxes were to rise by 17.2% was a one-time event. Boom was driven by more people paying income tax due to the fear of being caught out by the surveillance mechanism in-built into GST. The government already said it was looking at a Rs 100,000 crore shortfall in GST collections. 5.28 crore to 7.41 crore includes those who fle their return whether electronically or physically, also who pay TDS but don’t fle returns. More important, despite the 1.5 times hike in nominal GDP between FY13 and FY17, the average tax paid across individuals and companies rose by a mere 7%, from Rs 104,704 to Rs 112,604. In 2014 the tax-to- GDP ratio was 10.1% and now it become 11.9% in FY19, a hike of 20%. While the number of e-flers rose 2.3 times. Page 10 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

13. bankiq.in March 2019 Agriculture Notes US Wins WTO RulingonChinese Grains The United States won a world trade organization ruling on china’s price support for grains, successfully challenging a calculation methodology that is also used by India. A WTO adjudication panel agreed on Thursday with the US complaint in September 2016, that china had paid farmers nearly $100 billion more for wheat, indica rice and japonica rice in 2012-2015. China’s excessive support limits opportunities for US farmers to export their world-class products to china. China said it regretted the lack of support from experts, noting that government support for agriculture was a common practice and allowed under WTO rules. China would continue to promote development of its agriculture sector in line with WTO rules and safeguard the stability of the multi- lateral trade system, said by the ministry of commerce. China’s WTO membership agreement permits trade-distorting subsidies of up to 8.5 percent of the total value of production. China argued that it was not breaching the limit because only the gains procured by government should be counted as subsidised. The UN successfully argued that state buying at a guaranteed price raised the whole market. The ruling, which may be appealed could have ramifcations for India, which has made similar arguments to china. At a meeting WTO’S agriculture committee on Wednesday, the united states and Canada rejected India’s claim that its market price support for pulses was 1.5 percent of the value of production, saying it was 31percent to 85 percent, far above allowed limits. Page 11 STUDY IQ

14. bankiq.in March 2019 Facilitating regulatory regime that liberalises the services sector, encourages competition and allow more efcient markets to develop. In addition, we need policy interventions in several key areas. First is setting standards for data fows which are the backbone of any service ofering in terms of both interoperability and privacy. Secondly, a regulator is required which has the technical skills and understanding to develop and regulate the revenue sharing arrangements between partners in the digital ecosystem to create an efcient market. Lastly, a public policy case can be made for creating societal digital platforms like education and health which are ofered for free for the development of business solutions by entrepreneurs. Industry India’s February manufacturing activity hits 14-month high According to the monthly survey, the country’s manufacturing sector performance strengthened in February and touched a 14-month high driven by acceleration in sales, output and employment. The Nikkei India manufacturing purchasing manager’s index rose to 54.3 in February from 53.9 in January. This is the 19th consecutive month that the manufacturing PMI remained above the 50 point mark, a print above 50 means expansion and below denotes contraction. Digitally-Enabledmasssevices is the future In the last 250 years the world has seen 3 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS- o Steam engine in the 19th century in England. o Mass manufacturing in the mid20th in USA. o Internet in the late 20th century in China. Mass services will rule in future. Ford Motor Company launched Model-T in 1908, before Model-T cars were items of luxury. Model-T was being sold for $260 less than half the average annual wages in the US. In 1914 Ford’s 13,000 employees produced 3,00,000 cars as compare to other 299 companies with 66,000 employees produced only 2,80,000 vehicles. The industry volume tripled in just 6 years as price came down. The cost of manufactured goods fell between 3-10 times, increasing mass consumption of products, raising competition and drivingnew investments. This economic cycle was supported by a facilitative regulatory regime to make the markets more efcient and as result it created hundred of millions of new jobs. Advantages of Digital Technologies- It drives productivity Breaking down the service into small consumption ofers. Integration of physical and digital assets. Spur innovation. Potential of 5G “By 2023 there will be a staggering 9.1 billion mobile subscription” World Economic Forum. “By 2020, connected mobile devices will produce 30.6 exabytes per month and annual global mobile data trafc will reach 366.8 exabytes” CISCO. 5G is designed to meet this demand. It not only represents a generational leap in connectivity speeds, also introduce lower latency and the ability to connect more devices at once. Despite the many recognized advantages of 5G, mobile network operators are still looking for concrete evidence of return on investment (ROI). Infact, it will likely amount to a collective investment of billions of dollar in new network equipment, licences and deployment. With Industry 4.0, manufacturers are becoming more efcient through the application of automation and data exchange to To make this happen we have to solve three pieces of the Jigsaw puzzle- The huge unmet demand for services and a decent starting position in service sectors. We need world -class public digital infrastructure as the backbone of mass manufacturing industry Page 12 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

15. bankiq.in March 2019 their existing factory processes to enable better integrated workfows and smarter manufacturing. For instance, production robots now have sensors or software that send information to remote teams; some apps can send alerts on defects or damaged goods; and other apps can help track working schedules of factory workers. 5G plays a vital role in this transformative process, especially as the use of AR and VR applications continues to grow in manufacturing to support the realization of manufacturers’ industry 4.0 goals. The opportunity lies in more than just providing connectivity. Mobile network operators can create partnerships with broadcasters and sports organizations to deliver entertainment services directly to customers through their self-service applications. They are able to compete with wireline, satellite and cable companies, ofering new revenue streams and faster rol. Last arguably the most 5G-centric use case is autonomous driving (level four and above) 5G will ofer the connectivity and speed needed to deliver vast amounts of data to one another as well as other objects simultaneously. If various parties, including the government and network equipment companies,work together to identify commercially viable and desirable customer solutions,5G can fulfl the vast potential ascribed to it these past years. In June 2018, the government announced a soft loan of Rs 4,400 crore and provided an interest subvention of Rs 1,332 crore to mills over fve years. So far, the food ministry has approved 144 applications for a loan amount of Rs 6,000 crore, applications received were for over Rs 13,400 crore worth of soft loans. “To augment ethanol capacity, the government has approved additional funds. The additional funds are part of the government’s measure to address the stress in the sugar sector. These additional funds will be in two categories- Rs 2,790 crore and Rs 565 crore,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. He said, adding that “they (mills) have some stress and outstanding dues. The government is trying to augment the income of mills”. Sugarcane dues have crossed Rs 20,000 crore till February of this marketing year (October-September). The country is expected to cross 10 per cent blending with petrol. Ethanol doping in petrol would also help the country cut its oil imports. Chinese factory-output growth slows to weakest Chinese January-February industrial output slipped to a 17-year low and their investment picked up pace. Government boosted road and rail projects in a bid to avert a slowdown. Premier Li Keqiang last week announced hundreds of billions of dollars in additional tax cuts and infrastructure spending. China’s manufacturers are facing weaker sales at home and abroad, with exports hit by US tarifs on Chinese goods and cooling global demand. China is trying to engineer a construction boom to rekindle demand and kickstart the economy. Wistron to make Apple products in India NCLAT on ArcelorMittal Wistron currently makes cheaper apple phones in India. The information technology ministry has approved contract manufacturer Wistron’s Rs 5,000-crore plan to make high-end Apple devices, it will give a big push to the government’s Make in India initiative. “Openness of India’s democratic polity, where creativity is recognised and respected, add its own incentive, we gave little incentive and you saw how many people came”, Ravi Shankar Prasad. Ravi Shankar Prasad said India ofers three advantages- a burgeoning workforce, English Fluency, Skilled workers in plenty and the fastest growing smartphone market in the world. India is known for its software services- we want it to become a big hub for products. Arcelor Mittal’s Rs.42,000 crore takeover bid for Essar Steel. According to Arcelor Mittal’s resolution proposal fnancial creditors should get Rs 41,987 and operational creditors Rs 214 crore. Essar Steel directors had challenged Ahmedabad- bench of National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) nod to global steel giant Arcelor Mittal and ofer Rs 54,389 crore as it clears 100 percent outstanding. NCLAT said all operational creditors below Rs 1 crore should get 100 percent of the dues also the employees of Essar Steel, and also said Committee of Creditors (COC) cannot reserve 92 percent of the bid amount for fnancial for fnancial lenders and leave just 4 percent for operational Cabinet: Rs 15,500-cr loan for sugar mills The Cabinet Committee on Economic Afairs (CCEA) on Thursday cleared an extra soft loan of Rs 15,500 crore to boost ethanol capacity in sugar mills. The government will bear an expenditure of Rs 3,355 crore as interest subvention, includes a soft loan of Rs2,600 crore which will be provided to molasses-based standalone distilleries to augment capacity and set up new units. Page 13 STUDY IQ

16. bankiq.in March 2019 creditors. Only 90% of 42,000 crore should be allowed for fnancial creditors. If COC doesn’t act to clarify in favour of operational creditors, NCLAT will exercise powers available to it, the judges said. Agricultural landless labourers, pastoralists, fsherman and sharecroppers / tenants / lessee cultivators equally contribute to agricultural growth and deserve special attention. The land reform legislations in post- independence India consisted of redistribution of surplus land from the rich to the poor, abolition of intermediaries, security of tenure to tenants and consolidation of landholdings. Policies must raise land productivity through appropriate technologies and studies says there is direct linkages between tenure security and income security. “Land lease should be viewed as an economic necessity, not more feudal agrarian structure NITI Aayog “. Land leading laws should be the highest priority of state governments. The committee on Doubling Farmers Income (DFI) of the Government of India has also recommended legislating the model Agricultural Land Leasing the model Agricultural Land Leasing Act (by NITI Aayog) to ensure private sector investments in agriculture. Another important aspect is ensuring efective modernisation and digitisation of land records also high resolution satellite imagery coupled with ground truthing has also been suggested for the survey operations. Essar Steel CoC meet The lenders of Essar Steel ltd informed National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that a meeting of the committee of creditors (CoC) of the debt-ridden frm is going on over distribution of Rs 42,000 crore ofered by global steel major ArcelorMittal SA. A decision by the CoC on whether Standard Chartered Plc, an operational creditor, should get higher payout for its dues to Essar Steel would come by Friday, following which it adjourned the matter to 9 April for the next hearing. “We have to see the outcome of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) meeting” said a two-member NCLAT bench headed by chairman justice S.J Mukhopadhaya. NCLAT Ahmedabad had suggested a 85:15 distribution between the fnancial and operational creditors against the 90:10 distribution between them as proposed in the resolution plan. On 20th March in the last hearing. The NCLAT also had directed IBBI to share data over distribution of Funds among the fnancial and operational creditors in the resolution plans. The NCLAT was hearing a plea by Standard Chartered Bank, an operational creditor of the company, challenging the distribution of fund. Green transmission cables Essar Steel The Power Ministry is likely to bring greener options of electricity transmission cables like aluminium to protect from ill-efects of lead- based equipment. A single kilometre of cable weighs about 20 tonne/km has lead content of almost 8 tonne/km with average life span of 25-30 years and once they are laid they are never dismantled. Aluminium-based cable sheaths are greener and cheaper alternative. “240 million people globally are overexposed to lead poisoning” WHO. Lenders to Essar Steel have decided to move the Supreme Court because National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) pressures them to pay unsecured fnancial creditors more than they are inclined to. In India’s growth story E-commerce to play vital role Land Leasing framework PM-KISAN, a support to the agriculture sector is always a welcome move, however the initiative does not cover landless agricultural labourers and the sharecroppers/ tenants. According to the agriculture census 2010-11 there are 138.35 million farm-holdings in India of which 92.8 million are marginal (<1 ha) and 24.8million are small (1-2 ha). Agricultural productivity and farm size are inversely related even though small and marginal farmers account for more than 85% of total farm holdings, their share in operational area is only 41.2% and about 1.5-2 million new marginal and small farmers are added every year due to law of inheritance. “E-commerce has revolutionised the retail sector in India and play a major role in the country’s growth and results in more job opportunities, nobody can stop e-commerce now” said by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. He noted that even if the consumer behaviour is changing the traditional retail and modern retail market will co-exist in India. “India’s e-commerce market will expand $84 billion in 2021 from $24 billion in 2017”Deloitt India and Retail Association of India. Page 14 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

17. bankiq.in March 2019 Khadi Gram Udyog Bhawan is in Connaught Place, New Delhi. The business of khadi is Rs 1 crore or more a day at least three times between October and November. In 2017-18 the sales worth a record of Rs 103 crore. In 2013-14 it was Rs 1,081 crore and in 2018-19 it is Rs 3,200 crore all-time high. MSME ministry data shows sales stood at Rs 2,510 crore in 2017-18. As per First 4 years of Modi Govt. sales grew at an annual average of over 30%, against 6.7% in the previous 10 years. In future some 83,000 postmen across states will be clothed in khadi uniform. Govt takes stock of recoveries Senior ofcials at the fnance ministry and public sector banks held a meeting target to take stock of recoveries from stressed assets, mainly through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The focus of the meeting is in the progress made on recoveries so far, against the government’s FY19 target of Rs 1.8 lakh crore for public sector banks(PSBs), so far Rs 1.1 lakh crore is recovered. Once recovery from Essar Steel is made banks will be close to its target. The gross non-performing asset ratio in banking system is expected to ease for the frst time in almost a decade to 10.3% by the end of 2018-19. Notes IOC & ONGC on interim dividend Indian Oil Corp (IOC) declared a second interim dividend of Rs 1,412 crore for the current fnancial year to help the government meet its tax revenue target and the dividend will be credited to the account of the shareholders dispatched on or before April 10,2019. The government owns 53.88% stake in IOC and is grappling with a possible Rs 80,000 crore shortfall in tax revenues. Sale of fbre assets built for BharatNet With hardly any takers for the 2.5 Lakh kilometre fbre laid by the government under the BharatNet project because there could be duplication in areas where the fbre is laid, meaning telcos may be having their own fbre network in those areas. The department of telecommunications is now considering either selling the assets or leasing it out on long-term basis to private telcos.Telcos may be interested in only revenue generating areas to start with, which are urban centres. The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) has been asked to work out all the leasing options and outright sale of fbre assets and come back to TC within 10 days. Meanwhile, the telecom commission on Thursday also deliberated on the revival of BSNL and MTNL but no decision was taken. Success story of Khadi Page 15 STUDY IQ

18. bankiq.in March 2019 China USA Trade War Talks International Affairs The US and China have make progress in all areas under discussion in trade talks. China had put proposals on the table that went further than in the past, creating hope for a deal that the US insists must include structural changes in the Chinese economy. Washington wants Beijing to end practices it says involve the theft of U.S. intellectual property and the forced transfer of American technology to Chinese companies. The world’s two largest economies have slapped tit-for-tat tarifs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods. China wants the United States to lift its tarifs as part of a deal. Notes Donald Trump on China Trade Trump’s push to force Beijing to change what are widely viewed as China’s market-distorting trade and subsidy practices. Trump’s trade war will force China to reform policies that businesses and foreign governments regard as unfair. Trump has drawn broad support from those who oppose him on almost everything else. Trump’s trade team say they are in the fnal stages of negotiating what would be the biggest economic policy agreement with China in decades. China’s President Xi Jinping is seen as reluctant to make economic reforms under pressure from the United States. Xi may fnd it easier to live with the tarifs Trump has imposed on trade than to change China’s model for economic development. Beijing has ofered to make big-ticket purchases from the United States to help reduce a record trade gap. Trump’s team has said those purchases would be worth more than a trillion dollar over about six years. Chinese purchases might be tempting for Trump’s administration. China infuses $2.2 b in Pakistan China on Monday pumped-in $2.2 billion to cash-strapped Pakistan to shore up its close ally’s foreign currency reserves and help avert a possible default on external debt payments. Pakistan has so far received a total of $9.1 billion in fnancial assistance packages from friendly countries during the current fscal year. Page 16 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

19. bankiq.in March 2019 2) Recognition of foreign proceedings and provision of remedies. 3) Cooperation between domestic and foreign courts and domestic and foreign insolvency practitioners as a bridge. 4) Coordination between two or more concurrent insolvency proceedings in diferent countries. Cross-border insolvency law gives the power to foreign creditors to get money lent to Indian corporate entities and also Indian companies can claim their dues. Cross-border insolvency provisions are in sections 234 and 235of the IBC but not enforced yetbut can be enforced if India enters bilateral treaties with foreign countries. Finalising these treaties takes long and also creates inexactness for Indian courts and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Government wants to create a separate provision for insolvency that would be globally accepted. India and the World India ready for Tit for Tat with USA From April 1, India is likely to impose higher duties on 29 goods ( walnuts, chickpeas, lentils, boric acid and diagnostic reagents, etc..) imported from the US imposing an additional burden of $290 million on them, which withdrew benefts under the Generalised System of Preferences(GSP), on the other hand US had announced heavy tarifs on imported steel and aluminium items on March 9 last year, but not imposed yet.Tarifs were deferred six times between two countries. India- Russia defence deal India to lease Nuclear Attack Submarine from Russia of $ 3 billion named ‘Akula class’ ftted with indigenous communications system and sensors and will be the 3rd Russian nuclear submarine to be operated by India. The vessel will be ready by 2025.In India this submarine is named as ‘Chakra III’. Last year India signed the $5.5- billion contract with Russia for S-400 and this will be the biggest deal after that. The Chakra III will replace Chakra II (2012) and will be in service for atleast 10 years. In 2022 the lease of the Chakra II is to expire and could be extended to 2027 till the new vessel (Chakra III) get built and tested. Nuclear Attack Submarine or SSN is powered by a nuclear reactor but armed with conventional weapons and can remain underwater for months. India to hike Saudi fying rights by 40% Changes in IBC for cross-border cases India decided to give Saudi Arabia 40% fying hike from April 1, after that Saudi Arabia the only country within a 5000-km fying distance becomes the biggest and only benefciary of India. Under the new aviation policy, no country within 5,000 km fying distance from India will be allowed any extra seats unless Indian carriers exhaust 80% of the fying rights quota. India rejected request of countries like Dubai, Qatar, China, Singapore and Malaysia. Saudi Arabia has allowed Indian carrier to add as many fights as they want to Dammam. Ministry of external afairs (MEA) said the aviation ministry that Saudi Arabia allows Air India to fy to Israel using its airspace, and that the national carrier is the only airline that is allowed this facility. Flights between two countries by air services agreements are called bilateral fying rights. Government of India (President) issue ordinance amending the insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and adding a chapter on cross-border insolvency based on the UNCITRAL model law. The model law deals with 4 major principles of cross-border insolvency- 1) Direct approach to foreign insolvency professionals and foreign creditors to participate in domestic insolvency proceedings against a defaulting debtor. Like if you are a foreign company or a party then according to UNCITRAL model law you have the right to commence or participate in any case against insolvency. Page 17 STUDY IQ

20. bankiq.in March 2019 billion. The Indian-Africa trade stands at $ 62 billion. He said FDI infows in the last fscal, and the country’s outbound investment fows are also increasing. India exports pharmaceuticals, engineering and electronic products to Africa and imports natural sources ad diamonds. India wants Iran oil India’s current level purchase of oil from Iran is 300,000 barrels per day. India has reduced its purchase of Iranian oil but has been in talks on extending a sanctions waiver, known as signifcant reduction exception. United States reimposed sanctions against Iran last November, although the United States granted Iran’s biggest oil customers waivers that have allowed them to continue limited imports, Washington is putting pressure on governments to reduce purchases of Iranian oil to zero. Delhi is negotiating with Washington for extending a waiver of US sanctions past early May. The frst round of waivers expires around May 4. India keen to host WTO mini ministerial India US nuclear energy partnership 9th round of India-U.S. Strategic Security Dialogue held in Washington on March 13. He decided to build 6 nuclear power plants in India to strengthen bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation. Both the countries signed a historic agreement to cooperate in civil nuclear energy in October 2008. A major aspect of the deal was the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) that gave a special waiver to India enabling it to sign cooperation agreements with a dozen countries. India signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with the U.S., France, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Sri Lanka, the U.K., Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and South Korea. The U.S. reafrmed its strong support to India’s early membership in the 48-member NSG. India has proposed to host an informal gathering of ministers of the members of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in May to discuss the interests of least developed countries and developing countries in global trade rules aimed the US accusing emerging economics of beneftting from exemptions meant for poor nations. WTO allows special provisions for developing countries called Special and Diferential Treatment (S&DT), a similar meeting hosted by India last year teamed up with China, South Africa and Venezuela to counter the US allegations. o Exemptions under S&DT- Longer time periods to implement agreements and commitments Measures to increase trading opportunities Provisions to safeguard their trade interests Support to build capacity to handle disputes Implement technical standards The mini ministerial meet is being planned even as New Delhi is in the process of fnalising a proposal to reform the multilateral trade watchdog that is rendered unproductive with the US blocking the appointment of judges for more than two years. India USA to exchange CBC reports India and the US can now exchange country-by-country (CBC) reports fled by the ultimate parent corporations based in either of the countries, this will reduce the compliance burden of their subsidiaries. The Income Tax Act requires Indian subsidiaries of multinational companies to provide details of key fnancial statements from other jurisdicationswhere they operate, this provide the IT Department with better operational view with regards to revenue and Income Tax paid. Indian entities would not be required to do local fling of CBC reports in India. Temporary entry of professionals US, the EU, Australia, Canada and New Zealand expressed apprehension at India’s proposal for simpler and more transparent qualifcation and licensing norms for temporary entry of professionals in other countries. The proposal, that talks of giving considerationto relevant professional experience of applicants as a complement to educational qualifcations, has found support from developing countries and LDC members, including the African Group. Mode 4 or movement of natural persons is one of the four ways through which services can be supplied internationally. Developed countries said they were not convinced that India’s approach ofered a way forward. In its revised proposal, India has recommended WTO members to accept applications in electronic format with the FTA for India Africa “India and Africa should examine if they can enter into a free trade agreement or preferential trade agreement” Suresh Prabhu. In the current fnancial year ending March 31, Indian’s exports of services and merchandise together would touch a record $540 Page 18 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

21. bankiq.in March 2019 norm mandating physical presence in the territory of a member for the submission of an application for a license and qualifcation and has included clauses pertaining to requests for extensions of stay. Notes India USA Generalized System of Preferences India will ask the US to delay by 2 months the implementation of the latter’s recent decision to withdraw duty benefts on annual Indian exports of $5.6 billion from May under the so-called Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). New Delhi could seek more time to frm up a fnal ofer. Policymaker are busy campaigning for the general election. The US indicated that it could review its decision on the GSP beneft withdrawal if India commits more to address American concerns. India had proposed to replace its extant price cap regime for coronary stents with a trade margin policy to ease concerns of American manufacturers. US demand to scrap/cut tarif on ICT products. New Delhi had conveyed to Washington that any such across-the - board cut would help only third parties (like China and Korea) and was willing to lower duties on those products where it would beneft the US and also ofered to simplify certain certifcation procedures for dairy imports. US Lawmakers: President Donald Trump should delay his decision to terminate the preferential trade status granted to India. Trump informed the US Congress about his intent to terminate the designation of India as a benefciary developing country under GSP. Nearly 2,000 products including auto components and textile materials can enter the US duty-free if the benefciary developing countries meet the eligibility criteria established by the congress. Country-by -Country (CbC) India and the US signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement for exchange of Country-by-Country (CbC) reports along with the Bilateral Competent Authority Arrangement, will enable both the countries to automatically exchange CbC reports fled by the ultimate parent entities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the respective jurisdications, pertaining to the years commencing on or after January 1, 2016, a Finance Ministry statement said. India has already signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for exchange of CbC reports, which has enabled exchange with 62 jurisdications. Nine banks win case in US A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold nine large European banks liable for allegedly providing banking services to Iran that enabled militants to conduct 55 attacks against U.S. armed forces in neighbouring Iraq. 9 banks were sued by military personnel who survived the attacks and relatives of those killed. The U.S. Department of State has designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984. Page 19 STUDY IQ

22. bankiq.in March 2019 Polity and Governance SNS: code of ethics for Lok Sabha elections SNS: code of ethics for Lok Sabha elections Social media platforms told the Election Commission of India that they will develop a ‘code of ethics’ for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. SNS players met chief election commissioner Sunil Arora and election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra. The focus of discussion is appointment of a dedicated grievance channel for expeditious action by the organisations, pre- certifcation and transparency in expenditure of political advertisements. Chandra said that deterrents like some punitive action against users misusing the platforms should be considered pro-actively. Lavasa said that a clear clause on users voluntarily agreeing not to misuse social media platforms for election or political purposes should be considered by the management. Arora argued the platforms to come up with a similar model code of conduct for the ongoing election process in the immediate context and a lasting document in the long run. ShareChat has also started tagging of content creators so whenever a post leaves its platform with the original creator’s user ID, ShareChat can easily identify who has originally shared the content. It has also has mandatory registration requires a registered mobile number and help to identify individuals if they are proved to be involved in spreading any kind of fake news or hate speech. SECTION 126: Election commission of India formed a10 membercommittee chaired by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha to give recommendations on section 126 of the representation of the people (RP) act,1951. Section 126 deals with ‘Silent Period’ which means that no one will propagate any election matter to the public during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fxed for the conclusion of polls for any election in a polling area. This period of 48 hours in India is ” sacrosanct” and voters are provided a period of silence to “independently consider their decision”. The panel had submitted its recommendations in January this year. Intermediaries (ex., Facebook, twitter, Instagram ...etc) should also be brought within the scope of section 126. The reason behind this that intermediaries are increasingly becoming avenues for manipulating and infuencing voters by providing an easy and convenient medium for spreading disinformation, misinformation fake and hate news across the world. Notes Electoral bonds: better than nothing Electoral bonds help to traced illegal wealth if it is being ploughed into political funding, with electoral bonds the identity of a large donor is captured by the issuing bank. Political money has been a route to white wash illegal money. The identity of a donor ’secret’ can also be traced by Electoral bonds. The earlier donation cap of 7.5% of average of three years net proft for corporate donors has removed by the Government, means a frm can donated unlimited money to party without the public ever getting to know which doesn’t help the cause of transparency. Page 20 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

23. bankiq.in March 2019 Notes Appointments & Resignations UNDP appoints Padma Lakshmi as Goodwill Ambassador Indian- American television personality and food expert Padma lakshmi has been appointed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the eve of International’s Women’s Day as its newest Goodwill Ambassador, supporting the agency’s fght against inequality and discrimination around the world. Page 21 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

24. bankiq.in March 2019 It approved “asset monetisation policy” as a new tool to boost disinvestment receipts from sale of PSU assets such as gas pipelines, power transmission lines, telecom powers of PSUs as well as enemy properties. Limited subsidised loans ofered to sugar mills to help them clear arrears exceeded as much as Rs. 20,000 crore so far. The subsidy will allow mills to get loans at just around 7-8 %. Cabinet approved Kanpur metro rail project cost of Rs.11,076 crore which will be completed in fve years. Metro rail project for Agra has been given the nod, cost Rs 8,380 crore. Another decision was to infuse a share capital of Rs. 1,450 crore into National Housing Bank. Government Schemes Launch of Hackathon Union HDR minister Prakash Javadekar announced the launch of the third edition of “Smart Hackathon” on 1st March,2019 a national competition for students to develop solutions for real life problems. From October the students will be able to register Last year over 1 lakh students took part, expecting participation of around 1.5 lakh students this year,” he added. Twentyninedepartments under various ministries presented 598 problem statements for which they did not have digital solution. It harnesses creativity and expertise of students, sparks institute level hackathon builds funnel for start-up India campaign, improving governance and quality of life and provides opportunity to citizens to provide innovative solutions to India’s daunting problems, a senior HDR ofcial said. Cabinet decision On Thursday government approved number of development projects in areas like health, power, metro rail, bridges. It also cleared upto Rs. 25,000 crore FDI by Vodafone Idea by way of a rights issue and setting up of Air India Assets Holding ltd. (AIAHL) – a special purpose vechile (SPV) housing national carrier’s Rs. 29,464 crore working capital debt. AIAHL will contain four Air India (AI) subsidiaries – Air India Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL), Airline Allied Services Ltd (AASL), Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) and Hotel Corporation of India (HCIL) apart from non-core assets like land, buildings, paintings and artefacts. The working capital debt will be served by selling these assets as per the new turnaround plan for cash-strapped airline. Two policies have been cleared frst is National Policy on Software Products ,2019 aimed at increasing the size of the country’s software products industry to $ 70 billion by 2025 and creation of new employment of 55 lakh. An initial outlay of Rs 1,500 crore will be involved to implement programmes for a period of 7 years. This amount will be divided into Software Product Development Fund and Research and Innovation Fund. Second policy is the National Mineral Policy 2019, aims at encouraging private participation in the non-coal and non-fuel mineral exploration space with a slew of incentives including the frst right of refusal for exploration frms in the mines they had explored. India’s mining exploration sector has been untapped with only 10% of the8lakh square km potentially resourcebearing areaexplored so far. Mining takes place on just 1%of the explored areas. Skill vouchers for skilling Indian youth Indian government is considering issuing skill vouchers or skill wallets to youth to undertake skilling programme of their own choice and pay for skill training at any of the approved skill provider. The government plan is to shift from subsidy- based system to incentive-based Skill India mission launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Enough consolidation and upgradation has happened in the last four years under the Skill India mission, but now it is the time to experiment new model and making skilling aspirational for India’s youth.”The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). Rising number of Ujjwala customers Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) started in May 2016, especially targets the woman below poverty line (BPL) for LPG connections with a support of Rs. 1,600 and those with family Page 22 STUDY IQ

25. bankiq.in March 2019 income below Rs 10 lakh get subsidy of 12 cylinders. In PMUY 40.7 million new liquefed petroleum gas (LPG) connections being added in 2018-19, 45% more than 2017-18. First nine month of the current fscal year marks 23% more than the last year. In April-December 2018 Rs. 25,700 crore subsidywere shelled out as compared to Rs. 20,880 crore during whole of FY18. However, the budget for 2019-20 provided only Rs.20,283 crore. The government expects the rise of 62 per cent to Rs 32,989 crore next year. There were around 148 million LPG consumers in India on March 31, 2015and increased by about 77 percent to 261.6 million now also 68.9 million benefciaries across 714 districts NYAY Scheme P Chidambaram took an doubters and naysayers. He said minimum income support scheme- which will give 20% families in poorest of the poor category Rs 72,000 each annually, benefting around 25 crore people - will be”rolled out in phases” and said that the scheme has to be tested in the feld frst. An expert committee will be set up for its implementation and it will design the scheme at every stage. he claimed that enough economist and expert has been consulted including RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, and they all agreed that India has the capacity to implement this scheme. Rajan said that the scheme can “revolutionise things” if implemented properly, he is sceptical of the funding. The additional potential outlay of Rs 3.6 lakh crore for NYAY will increase the subsidy burden to Rs 6.94 lakh.in that there is no space in the country to handle Rs 7 Lakh crore subsidy, but Chidambaram is confdent that the NYAY scheme will cost 1.8% of the GDP and will not cross 2% of the GDP. FAME-II The government has constituted an inter-ministerial panel for monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of projects under the Rs 10,000-crore FAME-II Programme chaired by the secretary in the department of Heavy Industries, with the aim of incentivising clean mobility. Start-ups rush to register with DPIIT Notes Start-ups rushed to get themselves registered with the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) to take advantage of the incentives. As many as 85 start-ups got themselves registered on Wednesday, much higher than the daily average of less than 10 in recent months. Subsidy Reforms Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s promises to give Rs 6,000 per month to India’s 20% poorest family, if he will win the election. He said it will eliminate poverty completely. We are talking about replacing all with cash transfers. Cash transfer will not distort market, because everything will be at market price. There is no logic in giving support to well of classes. It costs Rs 3,60,000 crore which is greater than what the Central government spends on all manner of subsidies today, from food to electricity, fertilizers, water, scholarships, rations etc. Average household in the bottom most decile as per Price’s ICE all- India income survey D1: earns Rs 129,000/ year D2: earns Rs 178,000/ year D3: earns Rs 224,000/ year D4: earns Rs 253,000/ year D3 + D4 will resent a decline in their relative economic status. Page 23 STUDY IQ

26. bankiq.in March 2019 US China trade deal Miscellaneous The US and China are close to a trade deal that could lift most US tarifs as long as Beijing follows through on pledges ranging from better protecting intellectual property rights to buying a signifcantamount of American products. China“Removing levies on $200 billion of Chinese goods quickly was necessary to fnalize any deal”, US answered “only lift the duties fully when Beijing implemented all parts of the agreement”. According to “The Wall Street Journal” Meeting could happen between President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping around 27march India’s fourishing Services Sector Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index rose from 52.2 in January to 52.5 in February. A print above 50 means expansion and below denotes contraction. The services PMI was in the expansion territory for the ninth straight month and was domestically driven, new business received by services companies rose in February, good news for our economy. According to Pollyanna de lima, principal economist at IHS Markit”Faster increases in new York and business activity supporting one of the best upturns in jobs for eight years” and also the manufacturing and services industry rose from 53.6 in January to 53.8, indicating speeding up activity in the country. e-Commerce policy This policy deals with topic like data dominance, data sovereignty and abuse of market power by big technology companies to protect its data to make it available for Indian start-ups while the opposing camp sees the policy as protectionist that will stife innovation, foreign capital fow and hurt consumer choice. Last date for response is March 9. This policy is not only about ecommerce, there is social media, cloud and It’s like an internet blockade. It proposes that all ecommerce websites and apps selling to Indian consumer for downloading have a registered business entity here. It protects from sharing of sensitive data of Indian users with third party entities, even with consent. Data monopoly is a serious problem where a single company monopolises data and market intelligence. Facebook and Google get Indian data for little and make lots of money. Many technology lawyers and think tanks feels that instead of demonising US companies, the government should encourage the Indian start-up ecosystem to improve through tax incentives and friendly Indian equity investment rules. Trade unions demand national minimum wage, pension Other than the RSS-afliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh,10 central trade unionsdemandsthe next government should aim to set a national minimum wages, same pay for both man and woman, an end to contract labour and a minimum indexed pension of Rs. 6,000 per month. The unions said those employed in diferent government schemes, including anganwadi workers and helpers accredited social health activists (ASHA) and must get minimum wages and social security benefts including pension. Online sales back on track Online business marketplaces become normal after New Delhi’s changes the overseas ownership rules disrupted sales early February. Foreign direct investment gives seller the opportunity to directly deal with the brands. Smartphones and electronics are the two largest categories online with 55-60% of the total business. URLs blocked by government in 2018 Internet activists are concerned about websites being blocked by internet service providers (ISPs) and the government without any reason. Last year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeitY) blocked 2,799 URLs for allegedly hosting Page 24 STUDY IQ

27. bankiq.in March 2019 malicious content, marking a sharp increase from 2017, when 1,385 URLs were blocked. In 2016, 633 URLs were blocked. The government has withheld information on the list of blocked websites under the right to information (RTI) Act, said internet activists. Many blockades, when brought to the notice of courts, were revoked, but the URLsstill remain inaccessible. A MeitY ofcial said, no website is blocked arbitrarily. “No government machinery can order without valid reason and without following valid procedure. The only procedure available to us is Section 69A empowers the Centre to block websites in the interest of national security and Section 79 empowers the government to issue a notice to an intermediary to remove any content that it fnds illegal. Women in the world of Oil At more than 11,800 feet from sea level in Phey Village of Ladakh, Padma Angmo and 10 other women work, more than half the staf of strength of 20, at the world’s highest LPG bottling plant run by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest fuel retailer, ensures cooking gas access to far-fung areas of Ladakh and Kargil where temperature can fall to minus 30 degrees, besides serving the security forces. While women account for 28% of the total workforce in India, the share of women in oil and gas is just 8%. Shell-shocked The Supreme Court has dealt a blow to companies with shell frms to launder money and escape tax. Supreme Court said if the taxman can back up its claim with sufcient investigation and the company receiving funds as a share capital fails to prove the genuineness of the deal, the company will have to pay tax on the amount. Govt panel gets more powers to decide on privatisation of state-owned frms IT Parliamentary panel asks Facebook to fght misinformation The group of ministers (GoM) will now also take decisions on the timing, price and quantum of shares of a company to be put on the block. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Afairs (CCEA) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided on Thursday to delegate these responsibilities to an Alternative Mechanism (AM). This will facilitate quick decision- making and obviate the need for multiple instances of approval by CCEA for the same CPSE. There are 30 state-owned companies, including Air India, Dredging corp, Pawn Hans, Central Electronics and Scooters India. For example, in the case of strategic sale of Pawan Hans, the AM will have Jaitley, Gadkari, along with Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhuand will decide on when to sell the company, at what price, and how many shares will be ofered. “The CCEA has approved delegation of the following delegation of the following Alternative Mechanism in all the cases of strategic disinvestment of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) where the CCEA has given ‘in principle ‘approval for strategic disinvestment,” an ofcial statement said. Facebook executives, including its global policy chief Joel Kaplan and India head Ajit Mohan, met with the parliamentary committee on information technology (IT) and asked Facebook to do more to curb fake news on its platform ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 and to work more closely with India’s election commission to ensure free and fair elections A source on the panel said that while Facebook has acknowledge that it doesn’t “always get it right” when it comes to moderating content, the panel got the sense that the company was “unwilling to be properly scrutinised and transparent”. India needs more exports to boost wages: Report According to a report from the World Bank and the International Labour Organization, India needs to ramp up exports if workers are to enjoy higher wages. The link between exports and economic growth, the authors show how the trade can help draw people out of the informal, or unregulated, economy and boost pay, thereby reducing poverty. The value of India’s exports rises by $100 per worker would increase average annual wages by Rs 572 ($8) per person. Nearly one crore Indians enter the workforce every year in a country where almost 60% of the population live below a poverty line of $3.2 a day. India’s economy has grown at a robust pace of about 7% in the past few years, become less reliant on trade over the years. The World Bank estimates that trade as a percentage of gross domestic product dropped to 41% in 2017 from 55.8% in 2012. India’s share of world exports is 1.7%, 2.5% of global imports and about 800,000 jobs moved from the informal economy to the formal sector between 1999 and 2011 because of export growth, representing 0.8% of the labour force. India’s exports On Thursday Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said India’s goods export will touch 330 billion dollar in 2018-19, which will be the highest ever. He said country’s merchandise exports have seen high growth in the past six years. Page 25 STUDY IQ

28. bankiq.in March 2019 WTO Peace Clause Early warning systems, mitigation and adaption strategies are needed and we have to fnd more sustainable, resilient and efcient ways of producing, trading, distributing and consuming diversifed agricultural food products. Academic and research capacity need to be augmented. Enforcement Directorate on Vijay Mallya Enforcement directorate will oppose any claims of frst right of access to the assets of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya by any private entity, only make an exception for state-run lenders. British spirits maker Diageo is seeking frst right of access to Mallya’s assets. Similar claims made by other borrowers in their responses to the application fled by State Bank of India. The agency is likely to convey its stand in Mumbai on March 13. “It needs to be appreciated that it is the consortium of public banks (led by State Bank of India) which is the complainant in the case registered against Mallya under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A recent ruling of the World Trade Organization (WTO) against China saying that it provided trade distorting support for its grain producers and questioning the methodology of calculating its subsidies is damaging for India as well. India can also invoke the peace clause that grants immunity to its food procurement programmes in case any country takes its farm subsidies to dispute. Brazil and Australia have requested WTO dispute with India regarding domestic support measures and alleged export subsidies provided by India to producers of sugarcane and sugar. The peace clause protects India’s food procurement programmes against action from WTO members as subsidy ceilings- 10% of value of food production in India’s case- are breached. Kochhar’s may have diverted ‘kickbacks’ to tax haven Enforcement Directorate investing the money laundering case against former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak, is focusing on the trail of kickbacks allegedly paid by two companies and now from the interrogation we have some workable leads which indicate that the monies received as kickbacks were diverted to a tax haven and is being investigated over allegations of a quid pro quo for loans to companies linked to Videocon and Essar group with which her husband had a business relationship. Now the probe is concentrating on the diversion and trail of the money fow and how it was used by the couple to buy private assets. India’s nutrition and health insecurity caused by Climate Change Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (October 2018) shared that human activities have led to a 1˚C (0.8˚ C to 1.2˚C) rise in temperatures (global warming) above pre-industrial levels, in which atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide was 280 parts per million (ppm) and at present it is 410 ppm and if it continues to increase this will reach 1.5˚ C between 2030 and 2052. “250,000 deaths per year will take place between 2030 and 2050.” World Health Organisation. India already is one of the top rankers in malnutrition globally. Indian Agriculture and Food Production is highly harmed to climate change largely because the sector continues to be highly sensitive to monsoon variability. 65% of Indian’s cropped area is rain-fed. Increasing population and rapid rate of urbanisation are nutrition threats owing to climate change. Not only money but food scarcity to food excess, climate change, pollution exacerbation the challenge, one of the risk factors for non- communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, absence of adaption strategies, increasing ambient temperature in (sub)tropical areas, tropospheric ozone, water salinity etc. EAT-Lancet Commission’s food advisory recommends consumption of fruits and vegetables rather than meat for preserving own health and nature. India depends a lot on imports for fulflling nutritional needs of the population, funding needs to be earmarked for designing, rolling out modern climate change-resistant infrastructure and technology to tackle climate change and nutrition insecurity. Indian Education Earlier India were facing the problem of access to school education for our children as we have not delivered quality learning outcomes, but the initiatives like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, mid-day meal and improving learning outcomes have solved this problem and now Gross enrolment crossing 100%. Page 26 STUDY IQ

29. bankiq.in March 2019 Assessments by the ministry of human resources development and the Union government, such as the National Achievement Survey (NAS), are designed to strengthen this focus. There is a major shift in the thinking of policymakers in tracking educational inputs. States are undertaking various measures to renovate the quality of school education, to support interventions like improving classroom pedagogy, teacher training and tech- enabled learning, but their impact has been limited when compared to the magnitude of the challenges confronted. There’s a new approach in states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan. These states have recognized that unless academic changes are not accompanied with administrative reforms that create an enabling environment for these new practices to take root, nothing will change. Haryana has signifcant progress in its learning outcomes, with grade-level efciency seeing an increase from 40% in 2014 to approximately 80% currently. Rajasthan’s steady rise to the top of the education chart in NAS in 2017. These changes are also reinstating parents faith in the public education system, states like Himachal Pradesh witnessing a reverse migration of students from private to government schools, as learning levels of government and private schools level begin to meet. These states have also developed user friendly dashboards that assist education ofcials and the sate leadership in decision-making. Adaption of great competence instead of just syllabus completion, efective delivery of remedial education for weaker students, enable and incentivize teachers to perform better through data-driven insights, training and recognition, a tech platform is also set up. This streamlines communication and saves teacher’s valuable time that they might have spent on administrative tasks, such as leave applications, allowance claims, transfers and service book updates after that teachers have more available time in the classrooms, results in improved quality of “in-classroom transactions”. Such state- wide campaigns re-energize parents and the community at large, and channel the attention of all stakeholders towards better learning outcomes. Although this is not enough, it is also important to track the performance of the schooling system on a regular basis and a robust accountability system is required wherein there is a clear articulation of the roles and responsibilities of all relevant stakeholders and the administration is empowered to act where necessary, involves frequent real-time, data-enabled review meetings at the block, district, and state levels. Large overseas fund managers such as Templeton, Fidelity and BlackRock have opposed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposal to create a central database containing the personal information of all benefcial powers of ofshore funds. Such a database held by an external agency in India would violate the law in their home countries. SEBI has issued a circular on April 10 last year asking foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to identify the BO of a fund based on not just ownership but control as well. Under this, FPIs will have to submit KYC documents of benefcial owners to custodian banks, which in turn will share them with registrars. Finance Ministry eyes are set The Finance Ministry is working out a mechanism under which Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) will have to part with a portion of the proceeds of non-core asset sales as dividend to the exchequer. Proceeds from the non-core asset sales of state- owned companies which are candidates for strategic disinvestment and fund raised through sale of immovable enemy property will be treated as ‘disinvestment proceeds’. Niti Aayog has been asked to draw up a list of non-core assets of CPSEs, whether proft making or loss incurring, for possible monetisation. This mechanism would provide incentive to the company to go ahead with asset sale with rewarding the government as promoter of these CPSEs. The government has budgeted Rs 1.36 lakh crore as ‘dividends and profts’ in the next fscal, up from Rs 1.19 lakh crore in 2018-19, amount includes the money received as dividend from CPSEs and surplus transfers from the Reserve Bank. Finance Ministry is planning to set up a special cell in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to coordinate with the concerned company and the administrative ministry as well as appoint transaction advisors. For the next fscal, the government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 90,000 crore, up from Rs 80,000 crore in the ongoing fnancial year FPIs not happy with SEBI rules Pradhan seeks Saudi help to cool fuel rates With oil prices on the boil, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has asked world’s largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia to play an active role in keeping rates at a reasonable level, and also pointed to the need for uninterrupted supplies of crude oil and LPG to India, as international rates have risen on hopes of the Unites States and China ending a trade war that has slowed Page 27 STUDY IQ

30. bankiq.in March 2019 Shell companies down the global economic growth and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ally Russia saying it would ramp up its crude supply cuts. This visitrefects the intensifying engagement between the two countries in hydrocarbon sector. “The companies that are incorporated before December 2017 have to fle a new form to disclose their particulars, including a fully functional registered ofce (Rule 25A) this will help to weed out shell companies” Ministry of Corporate Afairs. MCA can also conduct random checks to ascertain whether the ofce exists and is operational, such steps strengthen the regulatory architecture and cleanses the system of unproductive shell companies. Firms are required to fle in e-form ACTIVE on or before April 25, 2019. ACTIVE stands for “Active Company Tagging Identities and Verifcation”. The concept of ACTIVE to tag the company’s identity and its registered ofce is one feature under the new rule. EXEMPTED COMPANIES- Companies, which have been struck of or are under the process of being stricken of or are under liquidation or dissolved. Any company that has not fled its fnancial statements or annual returns with the Registrar of Companies. Export index for states Niti Aayog and Commerce Ministry are going to make an exports index with the Aim to promote a healthy competition among states, half dozen of parameters with 30-40 parameters under the 6 main sub-heads based on international trade parameters but tweaked to Indian scenario. Trade has been a top priority for the government. If India intends to increase its exports and share of globe trade, we will have to improve the export readiness of states. Export policies of various states are being studied to identify the best practices. Aayog will seek inputs from trade bodies like Export- Import Bank of India (EXIM BANK), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Director General of Foreign Trade etc. India’s exports stood at $303 billion in 2017-18 expected to grow 7.3% year on year to $325 billion in 2018-19. National Voluntary Guidelines by MCA Boeing 737 MAX 8 Ministry of Corporate Afairs revised the National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business, 2100 (NVGs) and formulated the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC). MCA urged NGRBC to follow the principles in letter and spirit. The principles envisage businesses to conduct and govern themselves in a manner that is ethical, transparent and accountable and to provide goods and services in a sustainable and safe manner also respect and promote the well-being of all employees and respect interests of and be responsive to all their stakeholders. MCA has constituted a committee on business responsibility reporting (BRR) to develop BRR formats for listed and unlisted companies also in the process of developing a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights by 2020. United States will mandate that Boeing implement design changes by April. After the recent crashes in Ethiopia and in Indonesia, the plane was airworthy and did not need to be grounded. Boeing confrmed the Federal Aviation Administration’s announcement late on March 11 that it will deploy a software upgrade across the 737 MAX 8 feet in the “coming weeks” as pressure mounted. Norway wealth fund’s watchdog on India Start-ups are hiring fewer Women The ethics watchdog for Norway’s $1-trillion wealth fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund will focus this year on shipbreaking on India’s beach. 80% shipbreaking takes place in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Shipbreaking endangers workers and pollutes the sea and sand also looked out pollution caused by pharmaceutical com. Council of ethics checks that companies the fund invests in meet these ethical standards. The fund owns share in 9,158 companies,1.4 percent of the world’s listed equity. For the 1st time pollution, particularly from antibiotic production, caused by pharmaceutical companies will be under its scanner and will also focus that could endanger UNESCO World Heritages Sites. LocalCircles a major social media platform conducted a survey for Maternity benefts, in which 30,000 small businesses were participated: 46% of start-ups and SMEs, said that mostly males are hired in the past 18 months and about 42% reveal they won’t hire female employees at all. On 7th march LocalCircles wrote a letter to labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar and commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu and demand to exempt those entities that employ less than 20 employees or have an annual turnover of less than Rs 10 crore, these small start-ups and SMEs are willing to ofer 12- week paid leaves only as per the earlier rule in which there are 26 weeks of maternity leave and in which government proposed to share cost of 7 weeks. These are applicable to those only who are getting up to Rs 15,000 a month. “There would be a net job loss of 11-18 lakh women in 2018-19 due to the new rules” TeamLease. Page 28 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

31. bankiq.in March 2019 INTERVIEW of Nitin Gadkari G2G Trade for food products He said- Pace of highway construction almost trebled to 35 km/day in the last fve years, 403 projects worth Rs 3.85 lakh crore were struck and 45 projects were terminated that were found to be non-viable. There is a transparency and honesty in project selection, fnancing and execution. In 5 year he invest Rs 11 lakh for highways, Rs 5 lakh crore for ports and Rs 1 lakh for water resources. HAM is a PPP (Public Private Partnership) model in which the government gives the government gives 40% grant-in and developers bring in the remaining 60% almost evenly through equity and debt. He said, he wanted to make waterways on the Yamuna. India is worried about slowdown in exports and is looking to use its good relations with other countries and push government to government trading arrangements for food products like Non-Basmati rice to the Philippines and Indonesia, Sugar to Egypt. $900b looks bit unachievable due to muted growth of traditional exports. Rupee payment for Venezuelan oil Shakti B (ii) The US has imposed a series of sanctions on Venezuela to squeeze its oil revenue and force the nation’s President Nicolas Maduro step down. Given the massive American infuence on the international fnancial system the only viable alternative for refners in India is to pay in local currency. Coal India will hold a third round of auctions for giving out long term fuel supply contracts under Shakti B(ii), participants of the frst round would be eligible to bid. Shakti B(ii) is for power producers who have power purchase agreements with discoms but do not have coal supply contracts with Coal India. Ten companies with a total capacity of 8,840 MW had taken part in the frst round of auction. Two-wheeler production cut Centre tells EC on PM KISAN Two-wheeler companies decide to cut production by around 15% from the current month till day due to slow growth sales have been sluggish since September. CCI says DP world trying to halt possible adverse probe fndings Centre writes to Election Commission to remove bar on use of data on “small and marginal farmers” received from the state governments after Parliament elections were announced on March 10. Data is pertaining to PM KISAN if not then, not more than 4.76 crore farmers can get the frst tranche of Rs 2,000. So far Rs 5,500 crore to over 2.75 crore benefciary bank accounts are transferred. According to the EC’s manual of model code of conduct, the works on projects could continued by the government agencies without reference to it if “specifc benefciaries have been identifed by name before coming of Model Code into force”. Indian’s antitrust regulator said in a court flling that a challenge by Dubai’s DP World of a probe into its alleged anti- competitive practices at a Mumbai port. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) told a Mumbai court that DP World’s local unit had “prematurely” rushed to court to stall or delay the probe. The CCI last year ordered an investigation into suspected antitrust violations by DP World and Denmark’s A.P. Moller- Maersk followed by a complaint by Singapore’s PSA international Pte Ltd. JNPT is critical to India’s international trade, handling 66 million tonnes of cargo in the fscal year through March 2018. The port typically handles more than half of India’s annual container trafc. The CCI has since last year launched several antitrust investigations involving foreign companies. India may stop gold imports India may stop import of refned gold in three to fve years. India’s annual gold consumption is about 800-900 tonnes of which 750 tonnes is imported. Experts said if gold imported for exporting was not considered, 50 percent of domestic demand was met by gold refned in India. In gold bullion summit most participant said India could produce 100-150 tonnes of gold and gold- monetisation scheme is also expected to gain over the next three to fve years. Only London bullion market-certifed gold was accepted in the international market and India had only one such refnery. Page 29 STUDY IQ

32. bankiq.in March 2019 teachers/classmates, they develop communication and interpersonal skills and learn about ethics and tolerance. Soft skills need to be taught in a more structured manner. Secondary education should focus on building advanced transversal skills. The MSDE was set up in November 2014 to give a fresh impetus to Skill India. Under it, skilling is being integrated into formal education by introducing vocational training linked to the local economy from class 9 onwards, in an atleast 25% of the schools. Disclosure to disqualifcation On September 2018 Supreme Court rejected a bunch of petitions that asked for disqualifcation of criminal candidates in elections, the decision came almost after twenty years after the frst successful petition fled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in the Delhi High Court. Prime Minister’s maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha mentioned this issue of cleansing politics and fast-track courts. “Apex court cannot add new disqualifcation since this is in the legislative domain”. Attorney general. The number of crorepatis in Parliament increased from 156 to 315 to 449 from 2004 till 2014 and the average wealth of the present outgoing Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is 14 crore and 55 crore. Unequal access to tech Power tarif may see hike Tarifs of coal-based electricity may be raised by as much as Rs 0.45/ unit to make thermal power stations to make thermal power stations more fexible to accommodate renewable energy and it will depend on the quantum of green energy being generated by solar and wind plants. The tarif rise is about 13% of the average all-India price at which states procured non-renewable power in FY18. ‘Flexible operation of thermal power plant for integration of renewable generation’ by Central Electricity Authority. This report says that revision of tarif is essential to make proftable fexible operation of thermal units. The country expects to have an installed renewable capacity of 175 GW by FY22 when daily net load swings are expected to be up to 80,000 MW. As per GSMA’s 2019 Mobile Gender Gap Report 80% of women in middle- and low- income countries are now mobile owners. Despite the growth in connectivity, the gender gap in mobile ownership is not closing and varies by region and country but is widest in south Asia where women are 28% less likely than men to own a mobile device and 59% less likely to use the mobile internet. Women highlighted afordability, literacy and digital skills a perceived lack of relevance and safety and security concerns as the top barriers needing to be addressed in order to further decrease the mobile gender gap. Job skills at Schools India is young nation with an average age is estimated to be 29 years. o Europe: 46 years o Japan: 47 years o US: 40 years As per Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 54% of the population below 25 years of age. Over the next 20 years, labour force in the industrialised world will decline by 4% and India labour force will increase by 32%. India needs to equip its workforce with employable skills, particularly transversal skills and knowledge. There are millions of workers willing to fll positions, they lack the skills to do so due to the old-fashioned education system that is focused on ‘book learning’. ‘Transversal skills’ are most important said by UNESCO International Bureau of Education. Skills that are not related to a particular job, task, academic discipline or area of knowledge, but as skills that can be used in a variety of situations and work settings. Critical and innovative thinking, Interpersonal skills includes presentation and communications skills, organisational skills, teamwork. Intrapersonal skills includesself-discipline, perseverance, motivation, adaptability. In primary school, children are exposed to diversity in terms of multiple cultures from which students come. By interacting with Cruise tourism Cruise tourism is an integral part of the tourism industry of major coastal countries globally with a coastline of more than 4,600 miles along with great heritage and culture, a diverse terrain and a variety of fora and fauna. India has a great potential for the cruise-tourism sector still less explored and mostly untapped. Leading cruise liners are trying to target India as a prospective market The Indian government has been encouraging cruise liners to increase their operations in India also appointed global consultants to setup a roadmap for the development of cruise tourism in India. o Steps taken by Ministry of Shipping development of cruise terminals relaxation of port charges relaxation of ship licensing requirements Necessary tax reforms must be announced to ensure a level playing feld for cruise operators from India compared to foreign operators. Page 30 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

33. bankiq.in March 2019 Cruise company enjoy a taxholiday or their income is subject to a favourable tax regime these tax benefts ofered, in turn, have played an important role in the growth of cruise sector in those countries. In India, foreign-based cruise liners, plying in India, are either not subject to tax in India. They got beneft of Article 8 of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement or are subject to presumptive taxation under section 44B of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 with an efective tax rate around 3,3% on India-sourced income. Indian companies operating cruise vessels in India are not eligible for favourable tax treatment under Section 44B of the Act. If a favourable tax regime is not provided to Indian cruise operators, they will be liable to pay taxes at the normal corporate tax rate of 30% which would make them unviable. Another important aspect under the Indian tax regime is the applicability of Goods and Service Tax (GST) law to the cruise liners. Currently, leading global cruise liners are seeking exemptions from GST stating that cruise companies will face difculty to operate in a country where they have to pay GST on the ticket price and on-board supplies and services which form a major part of the total income of the cruise company. Reinvent Niti Aayog: Y V Reddy Former RBI Governor Y V Reddy said, The Niti Aayog sufers from a “wide mandate” and “difused focus” and there is a need to reinvent the organisation in the context of fscal federalism and to upgrade the Niti Aayog and empower it to perform functions of Centre and state coordination. A book titled ‘Indian Fiscal Federalism’ authored by the former governor and co-authored by G R Reddy. India can sell its nuclear expertise India can and must become an active seller, Civil nuclear commerce for India should not mean just buy. The US is to build six nuclear power plants in India, as per a joint statement issued this month in Washington DC. The fact is that Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has now purposefully streamlined nuclear plant construction pan-India. It is currently erecting as many as nine nuclear power reactors, and the target is to build 21 new nuclear plants with an installed capacity of 15,700 MW by 2031. NPCIL has innovated plant specifcations, design parameters and standardised equipment to adhere to scheduled timelines. CBSE curriculum The CBSE is set to introduce Artifcial Intelligence (AI), Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE), and yoga as skill subjects in the school curriculum for the coming academic session. While AI is to be introduced as an optional sixth subject for class IX, ECCE and yoga are to be introduced as elective subjects at senior secondary level. MeitY on Data Breach The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) proposed a stif penalty of Rs 5 crore on IT platforms, including social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for failing to comply with rules and regulations under the Information Technology Act,2000 and send a note to the Union Cabinet for amending Section 45 to provide for compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the person impacted by the breach. Hard copies of telephone bills Confict in the World we live Telecom operators will have to continue providing hard copies of telephone bills to their subscribers without any cost, sector regulator TRAI said on Monday. The TRAI said telecom operators could send electronic copies of the bills to consumers only after their explicit consent also paper industry in India is forest-based but engages around 5 lakh farmers from whom more than 90% of the industry’s wood requirement is sourced. Confict has increased globally during the last decade and it is not just one-of events, but cycle of repeated violence and it afected nearly 2 billion people and resulted in a loss of more than 10% of the global economic activity. Confict comes in multiple forms. International ideological movements can merge with local grievances and diferent forms of violence can get linked to each other. No country can aford to ignore areas where repeated cycles of confict fourish. Export licence for restricted items Commerce Ministry has introduced an online system for exporters to obtain export license for restricted category goods to promote paperless work and EoDB. Applications by exporters will be fled online on E-com module for export authorisations. The consultation process with administrative departments will also be online, from April 1, 2019 it is mandatory to apply online, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). Page 31 STUDY IQ

34. bankiq.in March 2019 o Confict could be external or internal to the country: Internal conficts can be further classifed into two diferent categories: a. Against the state b. People-to-people confict (ethnic and religious violence) Internal conficts are related to economic dynamics. Global evidence supports a strong inverse relationship between confict and per capita income level. A diferent approach to dealing with confict is to conduct negotiations and sign peace agreements with the insurgents. The government must conduct coordinated negotiations. Internal confict has replaced external confict. Internal confict against the state has increased. Notes Page 32 STUDY IQ

35. bankiq.in March 2019 QUESTIONS CURRENT AFFAIRS MCQ’S Banking and Financial Awareness Q1) Hemant Bhargava was appointed as the non-executive chairman of which bank? A. B. C. D. IDBI Bank Punjab National Bank Bank of Baroda Canara Bank Q2) The Reserve Bank has set up a eight members Task Force on Ofshore Rupee Markets which will be headed by whom? A. B. C. D. R. Gandhi Urjit Patel Usha Thorat Haroon R. Khan Q3) AIIB and India have signed US$ 455 Million Loan agreement to improve Rural Connectivity in which of the following states? A. B. C. D. Arunachal Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Bihar Q4) Which public sector bank has topped the EASE Reforms Index released by government? A. B. C. D. State Bank of India Allahabad Bank Bank of Baroda Punjab National Bank Q5) Which Bank has signed a bancassurance agreement with Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) under which the lender will ofer LIC’s insurance products at its branches? A. B. C. D. Punjab National Bank Canara Bank State Bank of India IDBI Bank Q6) India and ADB has signed a loan agreement of USD ______ Million for Mumbai Metro Rail Project? A. B. C. D. USD 655 million USD 472 million USD 700 million USD 926 million Q7) Who has taken charge as MD & CEO of Yes Bank? A. B. C. D. Sushil kumar Rana Kapoor Ajay Kumar Ravneet Gill Page 33 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

36. bankiq.in March 2019 Q8) Ex-Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia was appointed as the non-executive chairman of which bank? A. B. C. D. Bank of India Bank of Baroda Bank of Maharashtra Oriental Bank of Commerce Q9) How much amount has been approved by the Union Cabinet for RBI’s share capital in National Housing Bank? A. B. C. D. Rs 1550 crore Rs 1050 crore Rs 1250 crore Rs 1450 crore Q10) RBI has introduced a scheme named ‘VRR’ to encourage Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) to undertake long-term investments in Indian debt markets. What does “V” in VRR stands for? A. B. C. D. Venture Vertical Voluntar Value Q11) Which bank has bagged the Best Bank Award from the Tamil Nadu government for meeting the needs of women's self-help groups (SHGs)? A. B. C. D. Bank of India Punjab National Bank Allahabad Bank Indian bank Q12)Under the World Bank funded project – Agri-business and Rural Transformation (APART), Rice Knowledge Bank web portal of whish state was launched? A. B. C. D. West Bengal Kerala Assam Chhattisgarh Q13) Who has joined as a member of the 15th Finance Commission? A. B. C. D. Shaktikanta Das Ajay Narayan Jha Gurdeep kohli Gagan Sehgal Q14) Under the World Bank funded project – Agri-business and Rural Transformation (APART), Rice Knowledge Bank web portal of whish state was launched? A. B. C. D. West Bengal Kerala Assam Chhattisgarh Page 34 STUDY IQ

37. bankiq.in March 2019 Q15) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has levied a penalty of Rs 4 crore on which Bank for delayed implementation of four “Swift” related operational controls? A. B. C. D. Bank of India Indian Bank Karnataka Bank Bank of Maharashtra Q16) Which bank has received a government nod to handle import and export transactions with Iran? A. B. C. D. IDBI Bank State Bank of India Bank of Baroda Punjab National Bank Q17) Which was the frst-ever Indian corporate to issue Masala Bond? A. B. C. D. HDFC bank ICICI Bank SBI HSBC Q18) The World Bank will provide a $__________ million loan to India for the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP)? A. B. C. D. $250 mn $150 mn $350 mn $300 mn Q19) The World Bank has signed USD 96 Million Loan Agreement with the Government of India to provide loan to which state’s Disaster Recovery Project? A. B. C. D. Himachal Pradesh Kerala Tamil Nadu Uttarakhand Q20) India has Signed USD 25.2 Million Loan Agreement with the World Bank for which state’s Public Financial Management and Accountability Program? A. B. C. D. Madhya Pradesh Manipur Chhattisgarh Assam Q21) Which bank has acquired 9.9 per cent stake in non-banking fnance company Kisan Finance for cash consideration of Rs 18 crore? A. B. C. D. Axis Bank Punjab National Bank ICICI Bank Yes Bank Page 35 STUDY IQ

38. bankiq.in March 2019 Q22) World Bank has signed a loan agreement worth Rs 2,200 Crore with which state for healthcare project? A. B. C. D. Tamil Nadu Kerala Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Q23) The fnance ministry has launched new series of visually impaired friendly circulation coins in which of the following denominations? A. B. C. D. Rs 20 Rs 10 Rs 5 All of the above Q24) The Export-Import Bank of which country has come forward to extend a loan of ₹4,100 crore for the Visakhapatnam metro rail project? A. B. C. D. South Korea Japan Russia USA Q25) Which bank has signed a bancassurance deal with private life insurer HDFC Life Insurance Company? A. B. C. D. Oriental Bank of Commerce Indian bank United Bank of India UCO Bank Q26) State Bank of India (SBI) along with which Payment Service company has launched SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd (SBIPSPL) for establishing a digital payments platform? A. B. C. D. Hitachi Limited BitsPay PayPoint WireCard Q27) As per the new guidelines by RBI, White LableATMsnow can buy cash, above a threshold of _____ lakh pieces (and in multiples thereof) of any denomination, directly from the Reserve Bank or Currency Chests against full payment? A. B. C. D. 2lakh 5 lakh 3 lakh 1 lakh Q28) To provide short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers at an interest rate of 7 per cent, the RBI has decided to ofer interest subvention of what per cent per annum to lending institutions? A. B. C. D. 3 % 2.5 % 2 % 1.5% Page 36 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

39. bankiq.in March 2019 Q29) India and World Bank has signed $_____ Million Loan Agreement for the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP)? A. B. C. D. USD 137 million USD 124 million USD 155 million USD 169 million Appointments and Resignation Q1) Pranay Kumar Verma was appointed as the India’s Ambassador to which country? A. B. C. D. China Japan Vietnam USA Q2)Which Indian American personality has been appointed vice president and secretary of the University of Pennsylvania? A. B. C. D. Bhargavi Rao MedhaNarvekar Deepa Kumar Nisha Varghese Q3) Name the NITI Aayog member and agricultural economist who has been nominated by India for the post of Director General of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)? A. B. C. D. Rajiv Kumar Ramesh Chand Manoj Kumar Saxena Ajit Pal Q4)Who has been designated as secretary of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)? A. B. C. D. Sanjeev Ranjan Yudhvir Singh Malik Darshan Rawat Sandeep Sharma Q5) Who has been nominated as the Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)? A. B. C. D. A K Sikri Pawan Kumar S A Bobde Hemant Sharma Q6) Who has been appointed as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)? A. B. C. D. G Sateesh Reddy Anirudh Kumar AK Mohanty Vikram Singh Page 37 STUDY IQ

40. bankiq.in March 2019 Q7) KummanamRajasekharan who gave his resignation was the governor of which state? A. B. C. D. Meghalaya Tripura Mizoram Nagal Q8) Who has been appointed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as its newest Goodwill Ambassador? A. B. C. D. Priyanka Chopra Padma Laxmi Lily Singh Alia Bhatt Q9)The Prime Minister of which country,JuhaSipila, along with his entire Cabinet, has resigned over its failure to make necessary reforms to health services in the country? A. B. C. D. Sweden Germany Finland Poland Q10) Who has been appointed as the new Finance Secretary? A. B. C. D. Rajiv Kumar Rajeev Gauba Subhash Chandra Garg Ajay Narayan Jha Q11) Who has been appointed as the chairman of the newly constituted National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) A. B. C. D. AnushDadlani Prakash Nambiar Gurdeep Khullar Bhagwan Lal Sahni Q12) Who has been appointed as the chief of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)? A. B. C. D. Rajendra Kumar Avinash Patel Nagendra Nath Sinha Indra Kumar Singh DAYS AND DATES Q1) National Science Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. February 27 February 28 February 26 February 25 Page 38 STUDY IQ

41. bankiq.in March 2019 Q2) World NGO Day 2019 observed on? A. B. C. D. February 27 February 28 February 26 February 25 Q3)Zero Discrimination Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 1 March 2 February 28 February 27 Q4) World Wildlife Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 3 March 4 March 2 March 1 Q5) 43rd Civil Accounts Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 3 February 28 March 1 February 27 Q6) World Hearing Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 1 March 2 March 3 March 4 Q7) 48th National Security Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 3 March 4 March 5 March 2 Q8) World Civil Defence Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 7 March 5 March 1 March 9 Q9) International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was observed on ? A. B. C. D. March 21 March 22 March 20 March 19 Page 39 STUDY IQ

42. bankiq.in March 2019 Q10) National Ordnance Factories Day was observed on? A. B. C. D. March 19 March 18 March 17 March 16 Q11)The frst International Day of Happiness was ofcially held on? A. B. C. D. March 21 March 20 March 18 March19 Q12)International Women's Day was observed on 8th March. What was the campaign theme of 2019? A. B. C. D. #Balance for better #Gender equality #Rise High #Women Empowerment Defence and security Q1) Delhi Police has launched the automated trafc management system like Red Light and Speed Violation Detection System in association with which country? A. B. C. D. Hero Honda Maruti Suzuki Honda Tata Motors Q2) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired a meeting of the National Security Council in which city following heightened tensions with Pakistan? A. B. C. D. Mumbai Delhi Prayagraj Amravati Q3) Exercise Al Nagah III, third in the series of bilateral joint exercise between India and which country is scheduled to be held from 12 to 25 March 2019? A. B. C. D. Qatar Afghanistan Saudi Arab Oman Q4) Which two countries have decided to call of their joint exercise “Foal Eagle” and “Key Resolve”? A. B. C. D. USA, China Russia, South Korea South Korea, USA France, Sweden Page 40 STUDY IQ

43. bankiq.in March 2019 Q5) Which country will embark on its largest ever defence engagement with Sri Lanka as part of the Indo- Pacifc Endeavour 2019 (IPE-19)? A. B. C. D. Russia Australia England France Q6) Home Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated a training centre of the Central Reserve Police Force in which city? A. B. C. D. Jaipur Pune Jodhpur Delhi Q7) India has signed $3 billion deal with which country for leasing of 8,000-tonne Akula class nuclear- powered attack submarine for Indian Navy for period of 10 years? A. B. C. D. Canada Argentina Russia France Q8) The US military forces and the Indian National Security Guard (NSG) is conducting joint exercises in which city? A. B. C. D. Pune Chennai Hyderabad Bhubaneswar Q9) A joint counter-terrorism exercise Sary-Arka-Antiterror 2019 will be held in which country? A. B. C. D. China Pakistan Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Q10) The Navy is set to induct the second Scorpene submarine by early May, name the submarine? A. B. C. D. INS Vela INS Kalavari INS Karanj INS Khanderi Q11) MITRA SHAKTI 2019 is a joint military exercise between India and which country? A. B. C. D. Nepal Sri Lanka Indonesia Bangladesh Page 41 STUDY IQ

44. bankiq.in March 2019 Q12) Recently, Ministry of Defence has cleared the proposal to procure _______ lakh hand grenades for the Indian Army under its Make in India programme? A. B. C. D. 20 10 5 15 Q13) Who has took over as the Western Fleet Commander, the “Sword Arm” of the Indian Navy? A. B. C. D. MA Hampiholi Sanjay Jasjit Singh NK Singh GaganKhushwa Q14) The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated the project BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique) on which border? A. B. C. D. Indo China Indo-Bangladesh Indo Pakistan Indo Bhutan Government Schemes Q1) Which Ministry has recently launched the SHREYAS Scheme? A. B. C. D. Ministry of Commerce and Industry Ministry of communication Ministry of Defence Ministry of Human Resource Development Q2) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Khelo India Mobile App in which of the following cities? A. B. C. D. Amravati Kolkata New Delhi Mumbai Q3)To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, which country’s based company will globally release 12 bank notes of zero value, the frst-ever limited edition commemorative series? A. B. C. D. South Africa United Arab Emirates South Korea England Q4) Which state has launched the 'Banglar Shiksha' Portal? A. B. C. D. Odisha Karnataka West Bengal Uttar Pradesh Page 42 STUDY IQ

45. bankiq.in March 2019 Q5) Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has launched which scheme, to fund science projects, in the occasion of National Science Day? A. B. C. D. HUNAR STAR STRIKE KAUSHAL Q6) Which of the following states has launched the MukhyamantriParivarSamman Nidhi Yojana? A. B. C. D. Rajasthan Haryana Punjab Gujarat Q7) Which of the following states has launched the ‘Jalamrutha’ scheme? A. B. C. D. Odisha Karnataka Andhra Pradesh Telangana Q8) Union Minister Harsh Vardhan has launched an anthem as a part of a campaign to make India plastic-free by 2022, the anthem is available in how many languages? A. B. C. D. Five Four Ten Seven Q9)Which country’s space agency has launched the Crew Dragon test capsule which will assure astronauts’ safety in future fights? A. B. C. D. Russia Japan India USA Q10) Which state’s Police have launched ‘Samvedna’ campaign to curb crimes against women and children? A. B. C. D. Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh Gujarat Maharashtra Q11) India’s food processing ministry has launched which scheme to bolster the unorganised food processing sector concentrated in rural areas? A. B. C. D. Gram Sahyog Yojana Gram Samridhi Yojana PM Gram Sahayata Yojana Atal Bihari Gram Unnati Yojana Page 43 STUDY IQ

46. bankiq.in March 2019 Q12) PM Narendra Modi has launched Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) Yojana on 5th March 2018 from which state? A. B. C. D. Maharashtra Gujarat Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand Q13) Government has introduced a TMA scheme to provide fnancial assistance for exporting specifed agriculture products to international market. What does “M” in TMA stands for? A. B. C. D. Marketing Money Medium Micro Q14) Mukhya Mantri KarigarSahayata’ scheme was launched by which state? A. B. C. D. Madhya Pradesh Odisha Karnataka Maharashtra Q15) Which state has launched a chatbot named “Aaple Sarkar”? A. B. C. D. Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra Q16) Yuvashree Arpan Scheme for the youth was launched by which state? A. B. C. D. Karnataka Rajasthan West Bengal Odisha Q17) Which state has launched the “MukhyamantriAnchal Amrit Yojana” a free milk scheme? A. B. C. D. Haryana Uttarakhand Himachal Pradesh Punjab Q18) Housing and Urban Afairs Ministry has launched which mobile app for properties/land related matters? A. B. C. D. e-Dharti e-Sampati e-Bhumi e-Rashi Page 44 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

47. bankiq.in March 2019 Q19) The ffth and the fnal volume of the “Dictionary of Martyrs” was launched by PM Narendra Modi, recently. The “Dictionary of Martyrs” project was commissioned in? A. B. C. D. 2014 2009 2015 2011 Q20) Which state has launched the “Atal AaharYojna” for construction workers? A. B. C. D. Andhra Pradesh Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra Q21) Which state government has launched the NutanDisha (new direction) initiative to provide training to teachers? A. B. C. D. Assam Nagaland Tripura Himachal Pradesh Honours and Awards Q1) Who has been ranked 8th in the Hurun Global Rich List 2019? He is the only Asian in top 10. A. B. C. D. Azim Premji Mukesh Ambani Kumar Mangalam Birla Pallonji Mistry Q2) Who has won the silver medal at the National Equestrian Championship (NEC)? A. B. C. D. Akshay Kumar RandeepHooda Rohit Shetty Vicky Kaushal Q3)Khanij online which has won this year’s National e-Governance Award is an online portal of which state? A. B. C. D. Chhattisgarh Madhya Pradesh Jharkhand Rajasthan Q4) The Central Zone Power Distribution Company of which of the following cities of MP has won Saubhagya Award? A. B. C. D. Jabalpur Indore Gwalior Bhopal Page 45 STUDY IQ

48. bankiq.in March 2019 Q5)The National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 awards were given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has won the First Prize? A. B. C. D. Shweta Umre Anjanakshi M.S Mamta Kumari Shreyas Deshpande Q6) Name the Britain's World War II spy who was confrmed as the frst Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a Blue Plaque at her former London home? A. B. C. D. Iram Khan Noor Inayat Khan Mata Hari Madhuri Gupta Q7) Which Indian state has recently created a 7th Guinness Book of World Record by implanting ‘Modern Artifcial Limbs (Legs)’ in 260 Divyangjans within eight hours? A. B. C. D. Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Q8)Who has been honored with the 2019 Missile Systems Award? A. B. C. D. K Sivan Vikram Jain Nirmala Sitharaman G Sateesh Reddy Q9) Who was conferred with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Life Time Award? A. B. C. D. ThangaDarlong Temsuyanger Longkumer Mahapatra JimmyChishi TapanBordoloi Q10) Who has been conferred with the 2019 National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education Award? A. B. C. D. Vrinda Sachdev Priyanka Negi Kavya Kopparapu Smriti Mahajan Q11) Which State Disaster Management Authority has bagged the SKOCH Award, 2018 for its achievements in the feld of disaster management? A. B. C. D. Kerala Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu Odisha Page 46 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ

49. bankiq.in March 2019 Q12) Which Indian company has received an award as one of the 2019 World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute, USA? A. B. C. D. Wipro Tata Steel Infosys TCS Q13) Which Indian has won 10 km race of Nepal's COAS Open Marathon and Run for Fun in Kathmandu? A. B. C. D. Shashank Shekhar R. D. Murgan Anup Singh Saji Kumar Q14) Which Company has recently bagged the ‘Green Era Award for Sustainability’ at Lisbon in Portugal? A. B. C. D. Honda Hero Honda TVS Motor Hyundai Q15) Who will receive the frst Ever ‘Bhagwan Mahavir Ahimsa Puraskar’? A. B. C. D. Naseer Ahmed Jaimal Singh Sukhjinder Singh AbhinandanVarthaman Q16)Which journalist has been chosen for the Chameli Devi Jain Award for an Outstanding Woman Journalist for the year 2018? A. B. C. D. Anchal Vyas Neerja Shrof Priyanka Dubey Archana Gupta Q17) Who has been chosen for the ‘Yashwantrao Chavan National Award 2018? A. B. C. D. Urjit Patel Raghuram Rajan Haroon R. Khan R. Gandhi Q18) The Moortidevi Award is given for which feld? A. Music B. Literature C. Film D. Journalism Q19) Who has been conferred with Pritzker Architecture Prize 2019? A. B. Norman Foster Wang Shu Page 47 STUDY IQ

50. bankiq.in March 2019 C. D. Tom Kuding Arata Isozaki Q20) Which of the following has won the Golden Peacock Innovative Product/Services Award – 2019 under the Insurance Category? A. B. C. D. Bharti AXA Bajaj Allianz IFFCO Tokio Acko General Q21) Which company has won the “Assocham Non-Life Insurer of The Year Award”? A. B. C. D. Apollo Munich Bharti AXA Bajaj Allianz HDFC Ergo India and the World Q1)‘MainamatiMaitree Exercise 2019’ was conducted between India and which country? A. B. C. D. Nepal Bhutan Bangladesh Sri Lanka Q2) Union Cabinet approved an MoU between India and which country to access tipline reports on Missing and Exploited Children? A. B. C. D. Russia Canada England USA Q3) USA has vowed to defend which country against armed attack in the disputed South China Sea? A. B. C. D. Malaysia Singapore Indonesia Philippines Q4) India has signed a deal with which country to manufacture 7.5 lakh AK-203 rifes? A. B. C. D. Japan Israel USA Russia Q5) To protect Asian rhinos India will collaborate with how many nations? A. B. C. D. Three Five Two Four Page 48 STUDY IQ STUDY IQ