Banking and Financial Awareness October 2018: 1st week

Rs. 36,000 cr to be injected into system through purchase of govt bonds by RBI

to address the growing incidence of ATM frauds and boost digital transactions, sbi halved its daily ATM withdrawal limit.
effective from October 31.
customers with a requirement for higher ATM withdrawals can switch to card variants offering the same, SBI Platinum International Debit Card allows ATM withdrawals of up to Rs 1 lakh and the Gold debit card allows Rs 50,000 per day.
State Bank of India

to finance continued improvements to road connectivity and efficiency
the 2nd tranche loan agreement for the $500 million South Asia Sub Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Road Connectivity Investment Program.
It was Approved in 2014, to expand about 500 kilometers (km) of roads in India’s North Bengal and northeastern region.
second tranche will upgrade

about 66 km of national highways in Manipur,
construct about 1.5 km of an international bridge between India and Nepal,
provide additional financing for the construction of about 103 km of a state highway in Manipur.

expand Sewerage and Drainage Coverage in Kolkata
this is the 3rd and final tranche under the $400 million Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program to expand sewerage and drainage coverage and provide sewage treatment in Kolkata.
Under this program

Sewage and drainage system will be expanded to at least 3,000 additional households,
sewage treatment will be providing to at least 100,000 households,
construction of 43 km of additional sewer drain pipes,
4 pumping stations, 13 km of pumping mains, and three sewage treatment plants will be done to improve sanitation service quality and climate resilience.

1st wallet player to disburse loan amount in the user’s mobile wallet.
Loans of upto Rs. 60,000 are sanctioned and disbursed within 90 seconds.
loan sanction decision will be taken in 30 seconds, on the basis of an innovative risk scoring model called ‘Mobiscore’.
users who avail loans via the app will have the option to transfer their loan amount to their bank account.
MobiKwik

RBI proposed a flexible route for FPIs to invest in debt markets with the government and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)
Named as voluntary retention route (VRR).
The foreign portfolio investor will be required to invest a minimum of 67% of the committed portfolio size (CPS) within the one-month period for the specific protocol which also enable to invest in any government security, including treasury bills.
FPIs under VVR would be eligible for participating in repo for liquidity only if their amount doesn’t exceed 10% of their investment under VRR.

India’s GDP growth is expected to touch 7.3% in 2018-19 as per the latest update.
India’s GDP projection for 2019 & 2020 has been projected to 7.5%, its report says.
India’s Growth can be reached 6.7 per cent in fiscal year 2017-18
The main reasons for the growth are:

Agriculture and manufacturing sector (8.8% in second half vs 2.7% in first half) and services growth led by 7.7 per cent, on the production side.
For the growth a widening trade deficit is likely to lead to a current account deficit of around 2.6 per cent of the GDP in fiscal year 2018-19and is likely to be continued with its projection.