Banking and Financial Awareness:
- India has emerged as a top borrower from the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with USD 1.5 billion worth of loans last year and USD three billion more in the pipeline.
- IndusInd Bank and Dynamics Inc. at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) announced plans to introduce the first battery-powered, interactive payment cards to the Indian market in 2018.
- Punjab National Bank (PNB) and National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) have tied up to provide financial assistance for economic empowerment of persons belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) families living below Double Poverty Line (DPL).
- Retail inflation crossed the RBI’s comfort level and rose to 5.21 percent in December on rising in prices of food items, egg and vegetables, dashing hopes of interest rate cut in the near future. The retail inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 4.88 percent in November.
- In the financial year 2016-17, total FDI of US $ 60.08 billion has been received, which is an all-time high. The Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved amendments in FDI Policy and further liberalized few of the policies of FDI.
- World Bank has projected India’s growth rate at 7.3 percent in 2018 and 7.5 for the next two years. According to the 2018 Global Economics Prospect release, despite initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), India’s economy is estimated to have grown at 6.7 percent in 2017.
- The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to December 2017 show that net collections are at Rs. 6.56 lakh crore which is 18.2% higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year.
