“Risk Index” to facilitate banks in extending loans soon: CIBIL

Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd (CIBIL) is likely to bring in a “Risk Index” that will assist country’s banks in making faster decisions on extending loans to corporates and business houses.
Banks would be able to gauge the potential of a company in servicing its loan by looking at its position in the index.
The Risk Index:

• The Risk Index will be in the form of a score ranging from 300 to 900, a glance of which will provide the Bank the credit history of the respective companies.
• While Banks, currently, take the help of credit rating agencies who provide a broader picture of the risk profile of the company on the basis of their trade data and balance sheets, the Risk index will assist lenders analyze the profile of business establishments.

SBI ASSOCIATE BANKS CLERKS EXAMS GENERAL AWARENESS MCQ CAPSULES

1. The new chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India is:
1) T.V. Raghu Nath
2) D.K. Mehrotra
3) Snigdha Nandipati
4) Rahul Bhattacharya
5) None

2. India has signed Tax Information Exchange Agreement to promote economic Cooperation and Joint investment aimed at boosting bilateral trade that stands at 1.7 Billion Dollars with which of the following countries:
1) Russia
2) Nepal
3) United States
4) Bahrain
5) Srilanka

3. Which of the following states has maximum forest cover area in India as per the recent India state of Forest report?
1) Andhra Pradesh
2) Bihar
3) Tamil Nadu
4) Orissa
5) Madhya Pradesh

4. Which of the following countries is expected to become the 2nd largest producer of crude steel in the world by 2015:
1) USA
2) Russia
3) China
4) India
5) Iraq

5. Which of the following state governments has decided to re-impose property tax on buildings including residential in the state:
1) Tamil Nadu
2) Maharashtra
3) Madhya Pradesh
4) Haryana
5) Andhra Pradesh

6. Find the former Egypt president who has been awarded life sentence, for killing hundreds of protestors -
1) Hosni Mubarak
2) Mohammad Morsi
3) Al Thani
4) Bashar Al-Assad
5) None of these

7. In order to work on health and development related issues Microsoft co-founder and cochairman of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation inked a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) with which of the following states :
1) Andhra Pradesh
2) Uttar Pradesh
3) Madhya Pradesh
4) Kerala
5) Karnataka

8. Who is the first Indian writer to win Ondaatje Prize for his book - 'The sly Company of People who Care' - which is about adventures of an Indian Journalist?
1) Chetan Bhagath
2) Sidney Sheldon
3) Shobha De
4) Rahul Bhattacharya
5) Jeffery Archer

9. The state which has created a new Limca record by holding the largest guitar ensemble of the country in which 5406 guitarists participated is :
1) Andhra Pradesh
2) Goa
3) Assam
4) Tripura
5) Manipur

GENERAL EXPECTED QUESTIONS FOR BANK EXAMS

1. Who was appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) in the Finance Ministry in August 2012?
1) Kaushik Basu
2) C. Rangarajan
3) Y.V.Reddy
4) Raghuram Rajan
5) Ajay Chhibber

2. Which city hosted the 20th ASEAN Summit on April 3, 2012?
1) Jakarta (Indonesia)
2) Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
3) Manila (Philippines)
4) Bangkok (Thailand)
5) Hanoi (Vietnam)

3. India launched its third research station in Antarctica recently. What is its name?
1) Dakshin Gangotri
2) Maitri
3) Bharti
4) Bhuvan
5) Akash

4. Ahmed Ben Bella passed away on April 11, 2012. He was the first President of which of the following African countries from 1963 to 1965?
1) Morocco
2) Tunisia
3) Mauritania
4) Algeria
5) Egypt

5. Which of the following statements about the Nuclear Security Summit is not true?
1) The second Nuclear Security Summit was held in Seoul, South Korea on March 26-27, 2012.
2) The leaders from 53 nations called for strong steps to combat nuclear terrorism.
3) The leaders also called for safeguarding world stockpiles of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) and Plutonium.
4) The next Summit will be held in Washington in 2014.
5) The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh announced that India
would contribute 1 million US dollars to the IAEA's Nuclear Security Fund for 2012-13.

6. Who became the President of Germany on March 18, 2012?
1) Angela Merkel
2) Joachim Gauck
3) Christian Wulff
4) Horst Kohler
5) Sigmar Gabriel

7. Who has been appointed as the Pakistan's High Commissioner to India?
1) Sherry Rehman
2) Hina Rabbani Khar
3) Salman Bashir
4) Riaz Mohammad Khan
5) None of these

8. N.K.P.Salve passed away recently. He was the former president of which of the following sports governing bodies?
1) AIFF
2) IOA
3) BCCI
4) ICC
5) IPL

9. Who was re-elected the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in April 2012?
1) V.S.Achuthanandan
2) Prakash Karat
3) A.K.Padmanabhan
4) Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
5) Sitaram Yechury

10. The Swavalamban pension scheme is targeted to benefit which of the following workers?
1) Anganwadi workers
2) Construction workers
3) Fishermen
4) Dairy workers
5) All the above

GENERAL AWARENESS MCQs FOR SBI CLERKS EXAM

1. Gagan Narang became the first Indian to win a medal at the London Olympic Games on July 30, 2012 when he won a bronze medal in 10 metre air rifle shooting. Who won gold medal in this event?
1) Alin George Moldoveanu (Romania)
2) Niccolo Campriani (Italy)
3) Wang Tao (China)
4) Zhu Qinan (China)
5) None

2. Joyce Banda became the Presi-dent of which of the following African countries on April 7, 2012?
1) Zambia
2) Tanzania
3) Malawi
4) Mozambique
5) Liberia

3. Debabrata Sarkar assumed charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of which of the following public sector banks on April 4, 2012?
1) UCO Bank
2) Andhra Bank
3) United Bank of India
4) Union Bank of India
5) None

4. Macky Sall assumed office as the President of which of the following African countries on April 2, 2012?
1) Senegal
2) Mali
3) Mauritania
4) Guinea
5) Guinea-Bissau

5. Prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won 43 seats in the by-elections for Myanmar parliament in April 2012. What is the name of her party?
1) National Unity Party (NUP)
2) Democracy and Peace Party (DPP)
3) Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)
4) National League for Democracy (NLD)
5) None

6. RBI signed a pact with which one of the following countries' central banks in April 2012 that will establish an arrangement for sharing of supervisory inform-ation and enhancing cooperation in the area of banking super-vision?
1) Pakistan
2) Qatar
3) UAE
4) Saudi Arabia
5) None of these

7. Which one of the following stat-ements about BRICS is not true?
1) The fourth BRICS Summit was organized in New Delhi on March 29, 2012.
2) The theme is "BRICS Partner-ship for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity".
3) The five countries considered the possibility of setting up a new development bank.
4) The leaders have advocated for reforms in World Bank, IMF and UN Security Council by increasing representation from developing countries.
5) The next BRICS summit will be held in China in 2013.

8. Gunter Grass, the German Nobel literature laureate, has accused which of the following countries as a threat to world peace in his poem 'What Must Be Said'?
1) Iran
2) Israel
3) Myanmar
4) North Korea
5) Syria

9. In April 2012, the United States announced a reward of $ 10 million on Hafeez Saeed, for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. He is the founder of which of the following terrorist organizations?
1) Al Qaeda
2) Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
3) Lashkar-e-Taiba
4) Jaish-e-Mohammed
5) None

10. "My Unforgettable Memories" is a book written by which of the following political leaders?
1) Sharad Pawar
2) Mamata Banerjee
3) J.Jayalalitha
4)Naveen Patnaik
5) Narendra Modi

Panel set up to beef up rural credit co-ops

The Reserve Bank of India,  constituted a committee to suggest ways to strengthen the rural co-operative credit structure.

The panel, headed by Nabard Chairman Prakash Bakshi, will review the existing short-term co-operative credit structure (STCCS), focussing on structural constraints in the rural credit delivery system. It will also explore ways to strengthen the rural co-operative credit architecture. The seven-member panel will make an in-depth analysis of the STCCS, and examine various alternatives with a view to reducing the cost of credit, the RBI said in a release.

It will also look at the feasibility of setting up of a two-tier STCCS as against the existing three-tier structure.

The STCCS targets the credit requirement of the small and marginal farmers in the country.

“The panel will submit its report within three months from the date of its first meeting,” it said.

It will mainly assess the role played by State and district cooperative banks in fulfilling the requirement of agriculture credit.

NBFC-MFI norms modified

All registered non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) intending to convert themselves into non-banking financial company-micro finance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) must seek registration with immediate effect, and, in any case, not later than October 31, the Reserve Bank of India said in a notification.

The NBFCs have to maintain net-owned funds (NOF) at Rs..3 crore by March 31, 2013, and at Rs.5 crore by March 31, 2014, “failing which they must ensure that lending to the micro finance sector, that is, individuals, SHGs or JLGs, which qualify for loans from MFIs, would be restricted to 10 per cent of the total assets,” the RBI said in a notification. The RBI made some modifications in the directions issued on December 2, 2011, to NBFC-MFIs.

In order to provide encouragement to NBFCs operating in the north-eastern region, the minimum NOF is to be maintained at Rs.1 crore by March 31, 2012, and at Rs.2 crore by March 31, 2014.

SBI CLERKS EXAM GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE MCQs

1. Saina Nehwal won the Indonesian Open Super Series Premier tournament in Jakarta in June 2012. This is her third Indonesian Open badminton title in four years. Which of the following players did she defeat in the final?
1) Shixian Wang
2) Sayaka Sato
3) Wang Yihan
4) Ji Hyun Sung
5) Li Xuerui

2. Alex Paul Menon was abducted on April 21, 2012 by the Maoists and was released after 13 days. He is the district collector of which of the following districts in Chhattisgarh?
1) Balod
2) Narayanpur
3) Bilaspur
4) Sukma
5) Dantewada

3. Panch Parameshwar Yojana was launched in which of the following states recently for overall development of villages?
1) Bihar
2) Andhra Pradesh
3) Jharkhand
4) Madhya Pradesh
5) Himachal Pradesh

4. Which cricket team has won the Ranji Trophy for 2011-12?
1) Rajasthan
2) Tamil Nadu
3) Baroda
4) Mumbai
5) Karnataka

5. With which game is B.C.Roy Trophy associated?
1) Hockey
2) Football
3) Cricket
4) Tennis
5) Billiards

6. Who was elected as the Chairman of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) in June 2012?
1) J.P.Dua
2) Ajay Kumar
3) Alok Misra
4) M.Narendra
5) Pratip Chaudhary

7. Amalraj and Poulomi Ghatak are the national champions in men's and women's sections respecti-vely in which of the following sports?
1) Billiards
2) Table Tennis
3) Badminton
4) Lawn Tennis
5) Chess

8. Which of the following leaders was associated with the Velvet Revolution?
1) Lech Walesa
2) Nelson Mandela
3) Vaclav Havel
4) Joseph Stalin
5) Helmet Kohl

9. Ajit Singh, the Union Civil Aviation Minister, belongs to which of the following political parties?
1) Samajwadi Party
2) Bahujan Samaj Party
3) Trinamool Congress
4) Rashtriya Lok Dal
5) Biju Janata Dal

10. Who is the author of the book 'Non-Stop India'?
1) Mark Tully
2) Chetan Bhagat
3) Julian Barnes
4) Philip Roth
5) None of these

SBI ASSOCIATE BANKS CLERKS EXAM GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. Who was sworn in as Hong Kong's new chief executive on July 1, 2012?
1) Leung Chun-Ying
2) Donald Tsang
3) Ronald Arculli
4) Chung Sze-Yuen
5) None of these

2. The Templeton Prize honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension. Who won the 2012 Templeton Prize, the largest annual monetary award given to an individual?
1) Martin Rees
2) Michael Heller
3) The Dalai Lama
4) Charles Taylor
5) Francisco Jose Ayala

3. Gulab Kothari has won which of the following awards for the year 2011?
1) Saraswati Samman
2) Moorti Devi Award
3) Jnanpith Award
4) Vyas Samman
5) None of these

4. Ramadevarabetta in Ramana-garam district has been declared as a vulture sanctuary. In which state is this sanctuary located?
1) Kerala
2) Tamil Nadu
3) Karnataka
4) Maharashtra
5) None of these

5. "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness" is a book written by?
1) Barack Obama 2) Joe Biden
3) George Bush 4) Mitt Romney
5) Bobby Jindal

6. Who received the 2011 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema given annually by the Govern-ment of India for lifetime contribution?
1) Tapan Sinha
2)Shyam Benegal
3) D.Ramanaidu
4) Mrinal Sen
5) Soumitra Chatterjee

7. Which of the following films was declared the Best Children Film at the 59th National Film Awards for the year 2011?
1) Stanley Ka Dabba
2) The Blue Umbrella
3) Keshu
4) Chillar Party
5) None of these

8. As per a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in March 2012, which country is the world's largest importer of arms?
1) India
2) South Korea
3) Pakistan
4) China
5) Singapore

9. Who was crowned as the Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2012 on March 30, 2012 in Mumbai?
1) Prachi Mishra
2) Ankita Shorey
3) Vanya Mishra
4) Rochelle Maria Rao
5) Hasleen Kaur

10. Which Indian has been chosen for the Ramon Magsaysay Award for the year 2012, for economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in Tamil Nadu?
1) Dr.Shanta Sinha
 2) Kulandei Francis
3) Sandeep Pandey
4) Arvind Kejriwal
5) Neelima Misra

General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR)

The General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR)- proposed by the then Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the annual budget 2012-13- is anti-tax avoidance rule, drafted by the Union Government of India, which prevents tax evaders, from routing investments through tax havens like Mauritius, Luxemburg, Switzerland.
According to the draft, GAAR will come into effect from 1 April 2013. As per the guidelines, FII not opting for treaty benefits and ready to pay taxes will not come under GAAR, but those who do opt for dual taxation avoidance agreements will come under its purview.
The Union Government was forced to defer the rules until 1 April 2013, as foreign investors had expressed their reservation about the language used in the rules. Investors had maintained that the ambiguous language used in the draft of the GAAR could lead to the misuse of the rule.

 Tax Havens:

Tax havens are countries which have low tax regimes which provide individuals and business opportunities of tax avoidance or tax evasion. There are roughly 45 tax havens in the world today. In Indian context, Mauritius is considered to be the most significant tax havens or tax evading route.
In more precise words the Mauritius route can be described as a channel used by individuals and Multi National Companies to evade paying taxes in India. The tax evasion in India through this route is estimated to be in tune with 55 billion dollar, mostly attributed to the loopholes in a bilateral agreement on double taxation.

State Bank of Patiala launched Gold Loan (Swarn Shakti) for Farmers

State Bank of Patiala (SBOP) on 2 July 2012 launched gold loan (Swarn Shakti) for farmers against the security of gold ornaments to provide free loans to the farmers without taking loan on land. It would make farmers to meet their small and long term agricultural needs with crop production, investment and consumption.

The maximum amount of loan is 10 lakh rupees and 30 percent margin will be given by the farmers. The loan for crop production will be charged at 7 percent per year up to 3 lakh rupees. Further, 3 percent interest of financial support will be given to farmers who refund their loans in time. Therefore, the actual rate of interest charged will be 4 percent. The total period to refund the amount will be 36 months counting with harvesting season