SBI Clerk Mains Mock Test - 7 - Banking Exams MCQ

• Uttar Pradesh with 13 expressways has the largest network of expressways in the country.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 296 km long Bundelkhand Expressway on July 16. It will directly connect Bundelkhand to Delhi.

• Bundelkhand Expressway will pass through Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya, and Etawah districts.

• Bank of Baroda, one of India's leading public sector banks, has partnered with Women's World Banking (WWB), a global non-profit committed to giving low-income women access to financial tools for long-term financial security and prosperity, to roll out the third and broader phase of the 'Baroda Jan Dhan Plus' program across 25 districts of Uttar Pradesh and all 13 districts of Uttarakhand.

• The third and largest phase of 'Baroda Jan Dhan Plus' will reach out to a wide base of existing Jan Dhan customers of the Bank of Baroda through financial literacy camps and business correspondents, to disseminate the benefit of savings and provide access to formal credit by way of PMJDY Overdraft facility and other social security schemes. The program will also train and work with over 2000 business correspondents (BC) and 1000 BC Sakhis (women business correspondents) to empower them to help women customers in their regions.

• The initial two pilot projects of 'Baroda Jan Dhan Plus' were conducted with 170 Bank of Baroda branches (with over 650 BCs and over 100 BC Sakhis) across Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh between Jan 2020 to Jan 2022.

• Bank of Baroda is one of the leading commercial banks in India. At 63.97% stake, it is majorly owned by the Government of India.

• Punjab National Bank (PNB) has become the second public sector bank to go live on the account aggregator platform.

• PNB is now acting as Financial Information User (FIU) and Financial Information Provider (FIP).

• It has an on-boarded Account Aggregator (AA) platform. This will help customers digitally access and share information from one financial institution to other regulated entities.

• AA system helps banks use data acquired digitally through customers’ consent.

It, therefore, does away with the requirement of physical documentation furnishing by a customer for other financial usages.

• Financial Information User (FIU) can ask for data from FIP based on consent given by customers on their Account Aggregator handle.

• In May 2022, the Union Bank of India onboarded the Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem.

• About Account Aggregator: The account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem went live in September 2021.

• Account Aggregator is a type of RBI regulated entity (with an NBFC-AA license).

• It helps a person securely and digitally access or share information from one financial institution he/she has an account with to any other financial institution present in the AA network.

In India the Reserve Bank of India acts as the clearinghouse for scheduled banks, which have statutory accounts with it. Through this function the Reserve Bank of India enables the banks to settle their transactions among various banks easily and economically.

The RBI acts as banker to the government the Central as well as state governments. As such, it transacts all banking business of the government, which involves the receipt and payment of money on behalf of the government and carrying out of its exchange, remittance and other banking operations.

The Central Bank also accepts deposits from commercial banks.

However, accepting deposits from general public is the function of commercial banks, and not the central bank.

• Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus becomes the first railway station to have an augmented reality facility.

• The passengers at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus of Mumbai will be able to meet animals, witness magic tricks and snowfall, and visit any place in the world virtually.

• It will generate revenue for Central Railway and provide fun and infotainment during wait periods to passengers.

• In Augmented reality, magic mirrors create a virtual world around the person standing in front of the screen.

• Recently, a pod hotel was also opened at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. This allows rail passengers to rest at the stations at a very low cost.

• Augmented Reality is a technology that allows overlaying of real-world objects and environments with 3D virtual objects using an AR device.

• Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, as part of the ‘National Logistics Policy (NLP)’ on September 17, 2022 is the promising initiative in the logistics sector that aims to bring ease of doing business in the logistics sector by simplifying the logistics processes, improving its efficiency, bringing in transparency and visibility, and reducing logistics cost & time.

• The Platform is receiving tremendous response from the industry. Till date, 13 organisations - MapMyIndia, CargoExchange, Freight Fox, Conmove, Intugine, Eikonatech, Yes Bank, Superprocure, CargoShakti, CloudStrats, Shyplite, APSEZL, and AITWA have signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to access data on ULIP. NDAs with 11 more organisations like Instavans& Trucks, Bosch India, Portlinks, Shiprocket, etc. are in the process.

• The startups are gearing-up to showcase their innovative ideas for creating new solutions for the sector whereas large enterprises are mulling to integrate with ULIP for simplifying complex logistics processes, verifying the documents of vendors as well as to get visibility of cargo movement.

• The ULIP platform will enable the industry players to get secure access to the information related to logistics and resources available with various Ministries.

• At present 30 systems from seven ministries are integrated through more than 100 APIs covering more than 1600 data fields for usage by the stakeholders.

Money obtained from certain crimes, such as extortion, insider trading, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling is "dirty" and needs to be "cleaned" to appear to have been derived from legal activities, so that banks and other financial institutions can deal with it without suspicion. Money can be laundered by many methods which vary in complexity and sophistication.

• The usage of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) is 50% or less in many states even after the Union government’s order making it mandatory to record attendance of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

• September data put out by the Union Rural Development Ministry show only eight States have recorded usage of the app at 90% or more worksites. They are Assam (93.42%), Odisha (92%), Tamil Nadu (93%), Karnataka (92%), Kerala (91.5%), Tripura (91%), Uttarakhand (91%) and Puducherry (99%). In Puducherry, though the usage is high, the number of worksites in September was just 774.

• National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) App was launched by the Minister of Rural Development on May, 21 2021.

• This app is aimed at bringing more transparency and ensure proper monitoring of the schemes.

• The NMMS App permits taking real time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGA worksites along with geo-tagged photograph.

• The app helps in increasing citizen oversight of the programme.

• The National Mobile Monitoring App is applicable for the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers for all the States/ Union Territories.

• NPCI International Payments (NIPL), the international arm of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has joined hands with Euronext-listed payments facilitator Worldline to bring convenience to millions of Indians travelling to Europe every year.

• Their collaboration will allow Indians to pay through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) when they travel and shop in the European markets.

• The National Payments Corporation of India is the specialised division of Reserve Bank of India which is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.It was created by RBI for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. Founded: 2008 , Headquarters: Mumbai.

• Mr. Dilip Asbe is the MD & CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

• Just at the time when the IMF has lowered its forecast of growth for India to 6.8% and highlighted the threat of inflation, the retail inflation rose to 5-month high 7.41 per cent in September from 7 per cent in August, data released by the Ministry of Statistics &Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.

• The rise in inflation in September was driven by higher food prices, with food inflation surging to 8.6 percent from 7.62 percent in August, the data showed.

• This is the 9th month in a row that inflation is above the RBI mark and it does not look likely to come down any time soon.

• Separately, India’s factory output, measured through the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), witnessed a contraction of (-) 0.8 per cent in August, the data showed.

• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in collaboration with Power-CSIRTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams in Power sector), successfully designed & conducted the Cyber Security Exercise “PowerEX”.

• The theme of the exercise was “Defending Cyber induced disruption in IT & OT infrastructure”.

• The Objective of the exercise was to “Recognize, Analyse& Respond to Cyber Incident in IT & OT Systems”.

• CERT-In: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

• It is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security in India and strengthen security-related defence of the Indian internet domain.

Under this act, secured creditors (banks or financial institutions) have many rights for enforcement of security interest under Section 13 of SARFAESI Act, 2002.

• Koo partners with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to promote financial inclusion in remote cities.

• Both have signed an MoU, which aims to bring together the synergies of Koo and IPPB to promote 'financial inclusion' and 'literacy' in tier 2, tier 3, and remote cities.

• Indian microblogging platform Koo said the MoU will help in communicating via Koo’s language communities using Multi-Lingual Koo (MLK) features.

• Koo is an Indian microblogging and social networking service. It is based in Bengaluru. Aprameya Radhakrishna is its CEO.

• India Post Payments Bank: It was established by the Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communications.

• It was founded on 01 September 2018. Its CEO is J. Venkatramu. Its tagline is Aapka Bank, AapkeDwaar.

• It is headquartered in New Delhi. It is a division of India Post which is under the ownership of the Department of Post under Ministry of Communications.

• Air India announced a sale and leaseback tie-up with U.S.-based Willis Lease Finance Corporation for 34 CFM engines installed on 17 of its Airbus A320 family aircraft.

• The alliance involves Willis Lease buying 34 engines and provide spare and replacement engines, helping the airline avoid costly and unpredictable shop visits, the former national air carrier said in a statement.

• Willis Lease will also have an in-country team to co-ordinate and manage the programme and all logistics and transportation involved.

The vaccine is a mist that is sucked in through the mouth.

The inhalable vaccine was developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol version of its one-shot adenovirus vaccine, which uses a relatively harmless cold virus.

• Indian phone manufacturer Lava International Ltd. has signed actor Kartik Aaryan as its brand ambassador to endorse its smartphone range.

• Lava will launch its 360-degree marketing campaign with the actor soon.

• With Aaryan as its brand ambassador, the company aims to increase its consumer base by attracting more prospects, especially millennials and Gen-Z who form the largest chunk of consumers.

A reverse mortgage is a mortgage loan, usually secured over a residential property, that enables the borrower to access the unencumbered value of the property. The loans are typically promoted to older homeowners and typically do not require monthly mortgage payments. Borrowers are still responsible for property taxes and homeowner's insurance. Reverse mortgages allow elders to access the home equity that they have built up in their homes now, and defer payment of the loan until they die or sell, or move out of the home. Because there are no required mortgage payments on a reverse mortgage, the interest is added to the loan balance each month.

• The International Cricket Council confirmed that the ICC World Test Championship final in 2023 will be played at The Oval in London with the 2025 edition to take place at Lord’s.

• The two venues in London will succeed Southampton, which hosted the inaugural final between New Zealand and India in 2021.

• The Oval in London has previously hosted the finals of the 2004 and 2017 editions of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy.

• South Africa and Australia are currently the top two teams in the standings, with a host of teams on their trail, hoping to surpass them on the table.

• Nearly 64 years after the construction of the first Hindu temple, the small Dubai Hindu Temple complex — which houses the Shiva and Krishna Mandir, dedicated to Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna, in the Bur Dubai heritage area — the Hindu community in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will soon have its first large, independent and traditional temple within the Churches Complex in Jebel Ali Village in southern Dubai.

• The area includes a number of churches for Copts, Syriacs and Evangelists, in addition to the Guru Nanak Darbar Temple for Sikhs, which was built in 2012.

• The Sindhi Guru Darbar Temple will be the second Hindu temple in the UAE but also the first independent temple to be officially inaugurated on Oct. 5 this year in the presence of religious and official figures.

• The date was chosen because it coincides with the Hindu festival Dussehra, which commemorates the victory of Rama (a Hindu deity) over the 10-headed demon, King Ravana, who kidnapped Rama's wife, Sita.

• Before the Sindhi Guru Darbar Temple, there was a project to lay the foundation stone for the largest and first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi and the Gulf region in April 2019. However, due to certain circumstances, the project was not completed and work was carried out instead on the new temple in Dubai. The other two small Hindu temples in the Gulf are located in Bahrain and Oman.

• Centre is planning to launch PM Promotion of Alternate Nutrients for Agriculture Management Yojana or PM PRANAM.

• The scheme will incentivize the states. PM PRANAM scheme will pass on 50% of subsidy savings as a grant to the state that saves the money.

• Of this grant, the states have to use 70% on creating assets that would lead to technological adoption in alternate fertilisers.

• Remaining 30% can be used by the states to reward and encourage farmers, panchayats, farmer producer organisations and self-help groups involved in generating awareness and helping in reducing the use of fertilizer.

• There will be no separate budget for the PM PRANAM scheme.

• PM PRANAM scheme will be financed through the savings of existing fertiliser subsidy provided by the department of fertilisers under various schemes.

• In the past five years, the requirement for four fertilisers increased 21% from 528.86 lakh metric tonnes in 2017-18 to 640.27 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in 2021-22.

• These four fertilizers are Urea, MOP (Muriate of potash), DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate) and NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium).

• DAP had recorded a maximum increase of 25.44% from 98.77 LMT in 2017-18 to 123.9 LMT in 2021-22.

• Urea is the most-used chemical fertiliser in India. It recorded an increase of 19.64% from 298 LMT in 2017-18 to 356.53 LMT in 2021-22.

• PM PRANAM scheme is required in order to promote the balanced use of fertilisers or alternative fertilisers.

• It will help government reduce subsidy burden on chemical fertilizers.

• Government’s subsidy burden on chemical fertilizers will rise 39% to RS 2.25 lakh crore in 2022-23 from Rs 1.62 lakh crore last year.