Banking Awareness PYQs

• FMCG-major, ITC is in focus on trading session as reports have stated that the government is planning to divest its 7.93% stake in the company to meet the disinvestment target. ITC stock witnessed subdued sentiments on exchanges.
• It is being known that the Centre is in discussion to offload its entire stake in ITC. Also, the Centre is open for all options even including bulk sales on the stock market and strategic divestment to domestic investors for the stake sale.
• The government has set an ambitious disinvestment target of Rs1.75 lakh cr for the fiscal year 2021 - 22.
• The govt's 7.93% stake in ITC which is worth about Rs20,250cr currently - is being held through the Special Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
• Earlier, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sobha, the government has mentioned that they moved Rs7,646cr closer to meeting the disinvestment target.
• The Kolkata-based ITC has a diversified presence across industries such as cigarettes, FMCG, hotels, packaging, paperboards and specialty papers and agribusiness.
• ITC was trading at R207.65 per piece up by 0.41% on Sensex. At the current market price, ITC had a market valuation of a little over Rs1.79 lakh cr.
• The stock has touched an intraday high and low of Rs208.25 per piece and Rs206.55 per piece earlier today.

The correct answer is 1, 2, and 3.

Key Points

• Section 63 of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for the issue of bonus shares. Section 63(1) provides that a company may issue fully paid-up bonus shares to its members out of its-
• free reserves;
• the securities premium account; or
• The capital redemption reserve account.

Additional Information

• Bonus shares are additional shares given to the current shareholders without any additional cost, based upon the number of shares that a shareholder owns. These are the company's accumulated earnings which are not given out in the form of dividends but are converted into free shares.
• Free reserves are those reserves upon which the company can freely draw. There is no specific purpose for these reserves. Free reserves can be used by the company to declare dividends, issue bonus shares, write off accumulated losses, and write off share issue expenses.
• When the company decides to issue shares at a price higher than the nominal value or face value, shares are issued at a premium. The premium amount is credited to the Securities Premium Account. According to the Companies Act 2013, Securities premium amount can be used to issue fully paid-up bonus shares, writing off any preliminary expenses of the company, to write off expenses of issue of shares and debentures, the redemption of debentures or of preference shares and to buy back its own shares.
• When the company proposes to redeem the preference shares out of the profits, it transfers an amount equal to the nominal value of the redeemable preference shares to the Capital Redemption Reserve A/c out of the profits of the company. The company can use the Capital Redemption Reserve to issue the fully paid-up bonus shares.

The correct answer is Armenia.

• Nikol Pashinyan has been re-appointed as **Armenia'**s Prime Minister by President Armen Sarkissian.
• Pashinyan's appointment came after he was re-nominated by the Civil Contract party, which won a majority of the seats in the June 21 parliamentary elections.
• He was first appointed as the PM in 2018.
• Armenia is a nation, and former Soviet republic, in the Caucasus region between Asia and Europe.
• Armenia:
• Capital - Yerevan.
• Currency - Armenian dram.

If a cheque is presented for payment after 3 months from the date of the cheque it is called stale cheque. A stale cheque is not honoured by the bank.

• SBI Life is a private company that commenced operations as a joint venture between BNP Paribas Cardiff – a French financial services provider and multinational bank headquartered in Paris, and State Bank of India – the biggest financial service provider and the state-owned bank in India.
• SBI Life Insurance Company Limited (SBI Life) established in 2001.

Important Points

• The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. is an Indian nationalised general insurance company. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The headquarter of the company is located in New Delhi.
• The New India Assurance Co. Ltd., based in Mumbai, Maharashtra is a nationalized general insurance company. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
• Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited a nationalised insurance company under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India that offers yield-based and weather-based crop insurance programs in almost 500 districts of India.

The correct answer is Magma Fincorp Limited.

• The Mumbai-based non-banking financial company, Magma Fincorp Limited on 31 May 2021 appointed Serum Institute of India's CEO Adar Poonawalla as the Chairman of the company.
• Magma Fincorp also appointed Abhay Bhutada as the Managing Director.
• Vijay Deshwal, a seasoned banker with a track record of over two decades, will take charge as CEO at Magma Fincorp from the first week of July 2021.
• A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956.
• It is engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by the Government or local authority, or other marketable securities.
• It does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities), or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of an immovable property.

The correct answer is option 1 i.e. Central Bank of India

• The government plans to merge 10 public sector banks into 4.
• The number of nationalized banks in the country becomes 27 in 2017 to 12 at present.
• In a first three-way amalgamation, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will merge with Bank of Baroda (BoB) from April 1, 2019, to create the third-largest lender of the country.
• New mergers include:
• Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, and the United Bank of India will combine to form the nation’s second-largest lender.
• Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank.
• Indian Bank will merge with Allahabad Bank.
• Union Bank of India will amalgamate with Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank.

The correct answer is discount.

Key Points 

• As per Companies Act 2013, shares cannot be issued at discount. This means that the issue price cannot be less than the face value of the share.
• Shares can be either issued at par (equal to face value) or at premium(more than the face value).
• Issue of shares at par: When shares are issued at their face value, the shares are said to have been issued at par. i.e. issue price and face value are same.
• Issue of shares at premium: When shares are issued at a value that is higher than the face value of the shares, the shares are said to have been issued at premium, i.e. issue price is more than face value.

• The government appointed Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C. Rangarajan to review the poverty estimation methodology by the Tendulkar panel. It was considered that the amount recommended by the Tendulkar panel is too low.
• Rangarajan committee raised these limits to Rs. 32(rural) and Rs. 47(urban), and worked out poverty line at close to 30%
• The estimation is based on an independent large survey of households by Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

The correct answer is 135:

• The Ministry of Education on 10 June 2021, released the All Indian Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) report 2019-20.
• The report revealed that the number of Institutes of National Importance (INIs) have increased from 75 in 2015 to 135 in 2020.
• The number of PhDs has also increased by 60 per cent in the last five years.
• Students pursuing a Master’s degree in technology had decreased by more than half in the last five years alone, from 2,89,311 in 2014-15 to 1,35,500 in 2018-19, according to AISHE 2018-19.
• B.Tech enrolment fell by 11 per cent in the same period, from 42,54,919 to 37,70,949.
• However, some professional programmes such as MBA, MBBS, BEd and LLB continued to attract more students.

The Correct Answer is Rs. 1 lakh crores. 

Key Points

• Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan: The Economic Survey observes that the major announcements for agriculture and food management under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan have been Rs. 1 lakh crores Agriculture infrastructure fund.
• Rs. 10,000 crores scheme for Formalisation of Micro Food Enterprises (MFE)
• Rs. 20,000 crores for fisherman through Pradhan MantriMatsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)
• National Animal Disease Control Programme; Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund- Rs. 15,000 crores
• Reforms in Essential Commodities Act, Agriculture Marketing and Agriculture Produce Pricing and Quality Assurance; PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana; One Nation One Ration Card.

A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore exhibits elements of partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, one partner is not responsible or liable for another partner's misconduct or negligence.

The correct answer is NPCI.

• SBI Payments has partnered with Hitachi Payment Services to develop the capability to acquire e-RUPI transactions on the Yono SBI Merchant app.
• Merchants can now use the ‘UPI Voucher’ feature on the Yono SBI Merchant App to accept prepaid UPI e-vouchers.
• Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the e-RUPI platform was launched on 2 August 2021.

The correct answer is Narendra Modi.

• PM Modi will launch e-RUPI, a person and purpose-specific digital payment solution on 2 August 2021.
• It is a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment.
• It is a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries.
• The users will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app, or internet banking access.

​The correct answer is A Night of Knowing Nothing.

• The Mumbai-based filmmaker and director Payal Kapadia's "A Night of Knowing Nothing" won the Oeil d'or (Golden Eye) award for best documentary at the 74^th Cannes Film Festival on 17 July 2021.
• Kapadia, an alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), also has films such as the documentary "And What is the Summer Saying" (2018) and "Last Mango Before the Monsoon", to her credit.
• In 2016, the Indian film "The Cinema Travellers", directed by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya, earned an Oeil d'or Special Mention.

The correct answer is All of the above​.

• In News: 
• ​PM Modi will launch e-RUPI, a person and purpose-specific digital payment solution on 2^nd August 2021.

Key Points

• e-RUPI:
• e-RUPI is a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• It is a QR code or SMS string-based e-Voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The users of this seamless one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app or internet banking access, at the service provider.
• It has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India on its UPI platform, in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and National Health Authority. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• e-RUPI connects the sponsors of the services with the beneficiaries and service providers in a digital manner without any physical interface.

The correct answer is GP Samanta:

• The Indian government appointed Dr. G P Samanta as the new Chief Statistician of India (CSI) on March 10, 2021.
• Dr. Samanta was currently deputed as an advisor in the RBI's Department of Statistics and Information Management.
• Samanta, as part of the new deputation, would also hold the post of Secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• His tenure would initially be of two years.
• Samanta will replace 1986-batch IAS officer Dr. Kshatrapati Shivaji who was holding additional charge of the post since September 2020.

The Nainital Bank Limited is a scheduled commercial bank founded by Mr Govind ballabh pant and Shah community in the year 1922

• Sandeep Bakshi has been appointed as the CEO & MD of the ICICI bank for a period of five years till October 2023.
• He was earlier working the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the bank.

The correct answer is 800 grams.

• Javelin throw, athletics (track-and-field) sport of throwing a spear for distance, included in the ancient Greek Olympic Games as one of five events of the pentathlon competition.
• The javelin that is used in modern international men’s competition is a spear of wood or metal with a sharp metal point. It is constructed in accordance with a detailed set of specifications published by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Its overall length must be at least 260 cm (102.4 inches) and its weight at least 800 grams (1.8 pounds). The women’s javelin is somewhat shorter and lighter-a minimum 220 cm (86.6 inches) long and 600 grams (1.3 pounds) in weight.