Roadmap for Banking of the Future

Daily Current Affairs – 01 April 2022

This post contains the current affairs for 01 April 2022. These current affairs are important for banking exams, insurance exams and other competitive exams like IBPS PO and Clerk, SBI PO and Clerk, RBI Assistant and Grade B, etc. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.

Schemes

Government extends Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme by one year until March 2023

Central Government has extended the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) by one year, beyond March 2022 until March 2023.
The total amount to be sanctioned under the ECLGS 3.0 scheme has also been increased from Rs 4.5 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore.
As on March 25, 2022, Rs 3.19 trillion loans has been sanctioned under the ECLGS scheme.

Rs 40,009 crore released under Jal Jeevan Mission in 2021-22; Rs. 60,000 crore budget allocated for 2022-23

As per the government data, Rs. 40,009 crore grant was released to States/ UTs under Jal Jeevan Mission in the financial year 2021-22. The total allocation under the scheme in FY2021-22 was Rs 50,000 crore.
Further, the Cenral Government has enhanced the budget under Jal Jeevan Mission for financial year 2022-23 to Rs. 60,000 Crore.
Since the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 2019, more than 6 Crore households have been provided with tap water connections, so far.
The Jal Jeevan Mission was launched to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India.

Government keeps interest rates on Small Savings Schemes unchanged for Q1 of 2022-23 (April-June 2022)

The Ministry of Finance has decided to keep the interest rates unchanged on small savings schemes or post office schemes for the Quarter -1 of FY2022-23 (April-June 2022).
The interest rates on the various instruments for April-June 2022 range from 4.0 percent to 7.6 percent.
This is the eighth consecutive quarter when the interest rates on small savings instruments remained unchanged.
See the list of small savings scheme with interest rate

Small Savings Instruments	Interest Rate For Apr-June 2022	Compounding frequency
Savings deposit	4.0%	Annually
One-year time deposit	5.5%	Quarterly
Two-year time deposit	5.5%	Quarterly
Three-year time deposit	5.5%	Quarterly
Five-year time deposit	6.7%	Quarterly
Five-year recurring deposit	5.8%	Quarterly
Senior Citizen Savings Scheme	7.4%	Quarterly and Paid
Monthly Income Account	6.6%	Monthly and Paid
National Savings Certificate	6.8%	Annually
Public Provident Fund Scheme	7.1%	Annually
Kisan Vikas Patra	6.9%	Annually

Banking News

Cabinet approves increase in Dearness Allowance / Dearness Relief by 3% to 34% from January 01, 2022

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has approved a hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners by 3 percent to 34%, over the existing rate of 31% of the Basic Pay/Pension.
The hike announced will be effective from January 1, 2022, to compensate for price rise.
The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be Rs.9,544.50 crore per annum.
This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.
The hike will benefit about 47.68 lakh Central Government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners.

RBI set WMA Limit for Government of India for the first half of the Financial Year 2022-23 at Rs 1,50,000 crore

The Reserve Bank of India has set the limit for Ways and Means Advances (WMA) for Central Govenment for the first half of the financial year 2022-23 (April 2022 to September 2022) at Rs. 1,50,000 crore.
The Reserve Bank may trigger fresh floatation of market loans when the Government of India utilises 75 per cent of the WMA limit.
The interest rate on WMA/Overdraft will be:
- WMA: Repo Rate
- Overdraft: Two percent above the Repo Rate

RBI extends timeline for banks to use lockable cassettes in ATMs by a year to March 31, 2023

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had advised banks to consider using lockable cassettes in their ATMs, which shall be swapped at the time of cash replenishment.
Banks were directed to implement the lockable cassette swap in a phased manner, such that at least one-third ATMs operated by them is covered every year, while all ATMs achieve cassette swap by March 31, 2021.
However, this deadline was later extended to March 31, 2022.
Further, upon receiving representations from various banks for facing difficulties in meeting the timeline, RBI has further extended the timeline for implementation of cassette swap in all ATMs by a year till March 31, 2023.

Google Pay collaborates with Pine Labs to offer ‘Tap to Pay’ for UPI

Tech giant Google Pay has launched ‘Tap to Pay for UPI’, a new functionality to bring the seamless convenience of Tap to Pay to Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The initiative has been launched in collaboration with Pine Labs.
So far, Tap to Pay facility was only available for cards.

CBDT signed 62 Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) in FY 2021-22

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signed 62 Advance Pricing Agreements (APA) with Indian taxpayers in FY 2021-22.
This included 13 Bilateral APAs (consequent to Mutual Agreement between India and its treaty partners) and 49 Unilateral APAs.
With this, the total number of APAs has gone up to 421, since inception of the APA program .
In the previous two years, total APAs signed included 31 APAs in FY 2020-21 and 57 APAs in FY 2019-20.

ADB and HSBC India partners to establish $100 million Partial Guarantee Program for Microfinance in India

Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement with HSBC India to establish a USD 100 million partial guarantee programme to support micro-borrowers with special weightage to women-run micro-enterprises across India.
Under the deal, HSBC will expand its lending to microfinance institutions (MFIs) and non-bank finance companies, while multilateral funding agency, ADB will provide partial guarantee to the loans.
The initiative will support more than 4 lakh borrowers.
It has also been decided that an aggregated financing equivalent to $30 million will be disbursed to three MFIs across India by April 2022.

Business

Microsoft launches ‘Startups Founders Hub’ platform to empower startups in India

Tech giant Microsoft launched a new digital and inclusive platform for startup founders in India on March 31, 2022.
The platform called as ‘Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub’ in India, will support startup founders in India at every stage of their startup journey.
This platform will offer over USD 300,000 worth of benefits and credits to startups, including free access to the technology, tools, and resources from the tech giant and partners.
The initiative will help the Startups to gain mentorship and skilling opportunities with industry experts and Microsoft Learn.

Defence Exercise

20th India-France Bilateral Naval Exercise ‘VARUNA -2022’ kicks-off in Arabian Sea

The 20th edition of the Bilateral Naval Exercise between Indian Navy and French Navy named ‘VARUNA’ is being conducted in the Arabian Sea from March 30 to April 03, 2022.
The Bilateral Naval Exercises between the two Navies is being held since 1993 and the exercise was christened as ‘VARUNA’ in 2001.
Various ships, submarines, maritime patrol aircraft, fighter aircraft and helicopters of the two navies will be participating in the VARUNA-2022 exercise.