MCQ Test: Latest Acts and Banking Updates- 1 - Assam Police Constable MCQ

The Asian Development Bank cut its economic growth forecast for India to 7.2% for 2022-23 from 7.5% estimated in April.
The reasons cited are higher-than-expected inflation and monetary tightening. It also lowered the GDP growth estimate for 2023-24 to 7.8% from the 8% estimated earlier. ADB raised the inflation forecast for India to 6.7% for FY23 from the 5.8 % estimated earlier.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) clocked over 6 billion transactions in July 2022. This was the highest ever by UPI since its inception in 2016.
India’s flagship digital payments platform- UPI reported 6.28 billion transactions amounting to Rs 10.62 trillion. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operates the platform. The incremental one billion transactions were achieved in a short span of six months.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launches the ‘Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index)’. In the recent edition of the index, which captures the extent of financial inclusion for March 2022, stands at 56.4 compared to 53.9 in March 2021.
The Reserve Bank of India-designed FI-Index captures the extent of financial inclusion across the country, in consultation with the concerned stakeholders.

India’s wholesale inflation in July eased to 13.93 per cent from 15.18 per cent last month and a record high inflation of 16.63 per cent in May.
The July figure eased as vegetables, milk and fuel became cheaper. However, the inflation remained in double digits for the 16th month. It is contributed by rise in prices of mineral oils, food articles, crude petroleum and natural gas, basic metals, electricity, chemicals and chemical products, food products.

The Union Bank of India inaugurated the Ethical Hacking Lab at the Cyber Security Centre of Excellence (CCoE) in Hyderabad.
The lab which is equipped with cyber defence mechanism will protect the bank’s information system, digital assets, and channels, against cyber threats.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has clarified that there will be no charge for RuPay credit card use on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for transactions up to ₹2,000.
Nil Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) would apply for this category up to the transaction amount less than and equal to ₹2,000. In September, RBI Governor launched the Rupay credit card on UPI network.

Insurance penetration is measured as the percentage of insurance premiums to GDP. In India, the insurance penetration is estimated at a little over 3 per cent.
HDFC Life, one of the country’s leading Insurance Companies, has recently launched the ‘Insure India’ campaign. The campaign aims to educate Indians on the benefits of life insurance as a product category.

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has received the central government’s nod to go ahead with Rs 26,281 crore deal with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to launch 4G services in India.
TCS will set up the 4G lines and maintain the network for nine years. The state-run company will aim to launch its 4G services by December 2022 or January 2023.

Federal Bank has tied up with JCB India to finance the buyers of heavy construction equipment. JCB India is a leading manufacturer of earthmoving and construction equipment. Under the arrangement, Federal Bank will be the preferred finance partner of the construction equipment manufacturer, where JCB’s customers can avail loans from the lender at competitive interest rates.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 1 December announced a four-tiered regulatory framework for categorisation of Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs).
The norms are based on the net worth and capital adequacy of these banks. All unit UCBs and salary earners’ UCBs and all other UCBs having deposits up to ₹100 crore are placed in Tier 1. UCBs with deposits more than ₹100 crore and up to ₹1,000 crore are in Tier 2. Tier 3 will cover banks with deposits more than ₹1,000 crore and up to ₹10,000 crore. UCBs with deposits more than ₹10,000 crore have been categorised in Tier 4.

The government has launched the fourth tranche of Bharat Bond ETF, India’s first corporate bond exchange traded fund.
Edelweiss Mutual Fund manages the Bharat Bond ETF. The funds will be utilised for undertaking capital expenditures by central public sector enterprises (CPSEs).

Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited, wholly owned subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Limited, announced an agreement to acquire clinker, cement and power Plants from Jaiprakash Associates Limited and its associate having total cement capacity of 9.4 MnT at an enterprise value of ₹5,666 crore.
This includes clinker of 6.7MnT capacity and thermal power plants of 280MW capacity.

Fitch Ratings affirmed India’s sovereign credit rating at ‘BBB-‘ with stable outlook. It also said that the country’s rating reflected strengths from a robust growth outlook and resilient external finances.
Fitch expects the government to push ahead with fiscal consolidation and forecast FY24 deficit target to be set at 6.0% of GDP in the FY 24 budget.

As per the Article IV Consultation report is based on International Monetary Fund bilateral discussions with the Indian authorities.
As per the report, for India’s economic growth is expected to moderate to 6.1% in FY24 from 6.8% estimated for the current fiscal because of high oil prices, weaker external demand, and tighter financial conditions. IMF cautioned that the emergence of a more contagious coronavirus variant could impact trade and growth further.

Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance commenced a three-week long organ donation initiative. As part of the initiative, a relay marathon called Zindagi Express is organised to tour nearly 5,500 km across the country to raise awareness about organ donation.
For the fourth year in a row, it joined hands with Mohan Foundation, an NGO working in the organ donation landscape.

The GST collection in January surged to over ₹ 1.55 lakh crore, second highest-ever collection recorded.
This is for the third time, in the current financial year that the GST collection has crossed ₹ 1.50 lakh crore mark. The highest collection so far is the ₹ 1.68 lakh crore gross mop-up reported in April 2022.

As per YouGov’s latest report, over a third of urban Indians have claimed that their disposable income has decreased in the last 12 months.
Putting money in their savings (33 per cent), paying for health insurance (26 per cent) and investments in stocks and shares (21 per cent) were the top three financial activities done in the past 12 months, as per the report.

Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) is commemorating its 40 years of operations. It was set up under Customs Act, 1962 in the year 1982.
CESTAT is mandated to hear appeals against orders passed by the Commissioners or Commissioners (Appeals) under Section 129A of the Customs Act,1962. As 80,000 cases are pending before CESTAT, the Government to set up committee to suggest steps to reduce litigation.

The World Bank has forecast a 6.3% economic growth rate for India in the current fiscal year (FY) 2023-24, in its South Asia Economic Focus: Expanding Opportunities: Toward Inclusive Growth report.
This is a downgrade of 0.7 percentage points since its October forecast. The primary reasons for this are high borrowing costs and slower income growth causing weaker consumption, as well as the government tightening fiscal expenditure.

The Goods & Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in the month of May 2023 rose 12% on an annual basis to Rs 1.57 lakh crore. The Finance Ministry reported the GST collections for the month of April 2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh crore, the highest ever.
Monthly GST revenues more than Rs 1.4 lakh crore for 14 months in a row, with Rs 1.5 lakh crore crossed for the 5th time since inception of GST.