Banking and Financial Awareness Digest: December 2021

ADB approved Loan for Uttarakhand Water Supply and Sanitation Projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan for Uttarakhand water supply and sanitation projects.
The funds of USD 125 million (around Rs 938 crore) were approved by ADB for the same.
The loan amount will be used to improve access to quality water supply and sanitation services in the state.
The 136 kilometers of water pipe system will be constructed. This water pipe system will replace defective water networks in South Dehradun.
The fresh, reliable, and continuous water supply will be delivered to 40,000 people of the state.

The India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has projected that India’s GDP to be at 8.3% for the second quarter of the financial year 2022 i.e. Q2 FY22.
It has projected that India’s GDP for the whole year i.e. FY22 to be at 9.4%.
The rating agency has mentioned that due to the growth in vaccination drives, there is an improvement in the economy of the country.
It expects that fixed capital formation to increase at 8.5% in Q2 FY22 as the GOI is supporting investment activities in the infrastructure sector.

The World Bank Group's arm International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has approved a loan to West Bengal to improve the operational efficiency and reliability of electricity supply in the state.
The loan of USD 135 million loans was approved for the same.
The funds will be used to strengthen distribution networks, smart-grid technologies and bring financial sustainability to the state’s electricity distribution companies.
The loan will be having a maturity of 17 years, including a grace period of 7 years.
The funds will be used for West Bengal Electricity Distribution and Grid Modernization Project. The project will work to reduce losses and enhance capacity in the electricity distribution network.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that India’s GDP to be at 9.4% for FY22.
Earlier it has estimated India’s GDP to be at 9.7% for the same.
For FY23, the Indian economy will grow at 8.1%, as per OECD.
The OECD said that the economy is positively recovering and gaining traction and appreciated the country’s speedy vaccination drives.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved the loan to India to enhance the quality of school education and to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the education and learning sector.
In this regard, the ADB sanctioned the loan of $500-million to GOI.
The funds will support the Integrated Scheme for School Education (Samagra Shiksha) and the new Exemplar School Initiative of the Education Ministry.
This will help to enhance and improve education quality as it will lead to imparting inclusive and equitable learning results.
Around 1,800 government schools will be transformed into exemplar schools in the states like Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Paytm named Paytm Money has partnered with PMS Bazaar.
In this partnership, both entities have launched PMS Marketplace for HNI Investors.
The PMS Marketplace will be used to select users followed by a complete rollout.
It grants a transparent and comprehensive analysis of all PMS schemes. Due to this, the platform becomes trustworthy for HNI investors.
It provides past performance data of schemes which is nowadays not available publicly.

The Federal Bank launched the Mahila Mitra Plus savings scheme. It is a feature-rich savings bank product launched for women.
The Mahila Mitra Plus offers a curated set of features and makes financial planning and investments easy and efficient for women.
It is linked with preferential interest rates on housing loans, processing fee waivers for home loans, complimentary and customized insurance cover.
The scheme was launched as part of the women empowerment program of the Federal Bank.

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