www.gradeup.co 1 | P a g e www.gradeup.co Monthly GK Digest November 2016 Dear readers, This Monthly GK Digest is a complete docket of important news and events that occurred in a month of November 2016. This file is important for exams like NIACL AO, RBI Assistant, India Post Payment Bank, IBPS Clerk VI, IBPS RRB V 2016 Exam and all upcoming Banking & Insurance exams. Banking & Financial Awareness 1. Which bank recently, launched home loan overdraft facility for salaried customers____ICICI Bank. ICICI Bank has launched 'ICICI Bank Home Overdraft' facility for salaried customers. The minimum and maximum loan over the Home Overdraft facility is Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 1 crore. 2. RBI has directed all the banks to dispense more banknotes through ATMs of which denomination___100 rupees notes. Banks have hence been directed to configure 10% of their ATMs to exclusively dispense currency notes of Rs. 100. 3. What is the rank of India in the global business optimism index, which was issued by Grant Thornton International Business Report____2nd. India has been ranked 2nd out of 36 nations on the global business optimism index during the third quarter (July-September 2016). 4. Who has been appointed as the new Executive Director (ED) of the Reserve Bank of India ____M Rajeshwar Rao. He will succeed G Mahalingam . Rao will look after Department of Statistics and Information Management, Financial markets Operations Department and International Earlier, he was the Chief General Manager, Financial Markets Operations Department. 5. The first ever Agricultural Marketing & Farm Friendly Reforms Index was launched by ___NITI Aayog. The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. 6. Four Tier Tax Structure created by GST council under the Goods and Services Tax which are___ 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent. 7. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has sanctioned loan to help Assam state continue to its drive to improve access to efficient and reliable power in the national capital___$48 million. The project will help Assam to enhance capacity and efficiency of its power distribution system to improve electricity service to end users. The first tranche loan of $50 million was signed in February 2015. 8. Union Government has decided to launch a clean energy equity fund of ___ 2 billion US dollars. 9. The first company to get RBI approval for debt recast under Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets___ Hindustan Construction Company Limited. 10. The Union Government has signed the loan agreement to improve Assam’s Power Distribution with____Asian Development Bank. 2 | P a g e www.gradeup.co Asian Development Bank will provide the second tranche loan of USD 48 million to Assam to help the state expand and upgrade its power distribution system. This is the second tranche loan of the USD 300 million multi-tranche financing facility for the Assam Power Sector Investment Programme that was approved by the ADB Board in July 2014. 11. Who has announced that Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes will cease to be legal tender___PM Narendra Modi. The demonetization drive of these two currency units (Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes) was taken to root out the menace of black money and fake currency from the country. The currency notes of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 rupee will remain unaffected by this decision and remain legal tender. 12. Who has inaugurated Economic Editors’ Conference-2016 in New Delhi____Arun Jaitley. The Main objective of holding the Conference is to apprise the media persons about the major policy initiatives, achievements and future road map of different participating Departments and Ministries of the Government. Press Information Bureau (PIB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance is organizing the Conference. 13. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hands over West Bengal govt. list of entities raising money illegally___194. RBI has also cautioned the state government that in absence of an immediate crackdown, the activities of such entities can trigger another Saradha-like financial scam. The apex bank has also handed over to the state government supportive documents about these 194 dubious entities. 14. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country increased by how many percent to 5.15 billion Dollar in September 2016___77.5%. FDI had stood at 2.9 billion Dollar in September last year. Services received the maximum FDI of 2.29 billion dollar during the first half of this fiscal, followed by telecommunications, trading, computer software and hardware and automobile. 15. India has pledged howw many dollar for development activities across several UN (United Nation) bodies for the year 2017____about 10.95 million. It including 4.5 million dollar for the UN Development Programme, 1.92 million dollar for the World Food Programme, 1.25 million dollar for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Near East and a million dollars towards UN Women. 16. The Union government has introduced the new series of how many denomination notes at the SBI Parliament Street Branch in New Delhi___500 Rupees. State Chief Secretaries to identify the rural pockets where availability of cash is a problem and provide all support to the Banks and Post Offices to ensure the last mile distribution is done through mobile banking vans and Banking Correspondents. Now, Customer can make a complaint to concerned District Magistrate and District Administration for action against such establishments. 17. India’s first banking robot “Lakshmi” has been launched by the Kumbakonam-based ____City Union Bank. The artificial intelligence powered robot “Lakshmi” can speak English, gesture and engage in a life-like manner in conversations. The robot can interact with customers on more than 125 subjects including account balance and interest rates on loans. 18. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed the opening of a bank in conventional banks for “gradual” introduction of Sharia-compliant (interest-free) banking in the country_____Islamic window. 19. Global payments & technology company MasterCard has introduced a safe and secure ‘quick response’ (QR) mobile payments solution in India_______ Masterpass QR. 3 | P a g e www.gradeup.co Masterpass QR is a digital wallet service, which allows mobile banking users to safely pay for face- to-face purchases using their smartphones. 20. The RBI has directed banks to waive ATM charges on all transactions done by savings bank customers till __ 30th December 2016. 21. Who has set to launch intelligent banking chat bots to make mobile banking services more conversational_____Axis Bank. The bank has tied up with Active Intelligence Pte or Active.ai, a Singapore-based fintech platform. It will enable customers to chat through its mobile banking app and messaging platforms such as Facebook messenger. 22. Recently, The Union Government has decided to permit families celebrating weddings to withdraw____ 2,50,000 rupees. 23. The Union Government reduced the limit of exchange of old 500 and 1000 rupees notes from 4500 rupees to___ 2000 rupees. 24. The Company named as the 2016 Digital Innovator of the Year by GE Digital_____Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). 25. The State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) Group has appointed Chief Executive for its India operations_____ Siby Sebastian. State Bank of Mauritius, is a bank in Mauritius. The SBM Group operates four branches in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ramachandrapuram. 26. Recently, Several banks including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank slashed their FD rates by up to ___1 %. Canara Bank announced lowering its deposit rates in the range of 0.05 to 0.25 % while United Bank of India slashed rates of short-term deposits by 1 %. Largest private lender ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank cut their deposit rates by up to 0.25 %. 27. The Union Government has hiked how many Rs. per quintal in wheat Minimum Support Price (MSP) ____ Rs.100. The Union Government has hiked the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of wheat by Rs.100 per quintal and pulses by up to Rs. 550 a quintal to boost the output of these Rabi crops and check prices. 28. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has beeen signed between the state Government and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) to open STPI centres at four districts in the State____Odisha government. STPI is a central body established in 1991 by the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting the export of software from India 29. India’s rank in the 2017 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)_____20th. India has been ranked 20th out of 58 nations on the 2017 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The latest publication issued by German watch and Climate Action Network Europe. 30. Who has launched India’s first payment bank_____ Airtel M Commerce Services. Airtel Bank’s service can be accessed by Airtel customers on their mobile phones through the Airtel Money app, through USSD by dialing *400#. Both the USSD & IVR options are available in Hindi and English language and work on simple feature phones as well. 31. India has signed bank information sharing deal with the country for the implementation of Automatic Exchange of Information between the two countries _____ Switzerland. India will automatically receive all financial information about its residents, including bank accounts and balances, dividends and interest income and sales proceeds used to calculate capital gains tax, from September 2018. 32. RBI has reduced the monthly cash withdrawal limit from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts____ Rs 10000. 33. Percent of tax that will be levied if the declarant voluntarily declare the undisclosed income_____30%. 34. Bank who has launched contactless debit card based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology_____South Indian Bank.