HDFC Bank announced the Launch of Credit Card for Teachers

HDFC Bank on 5 September 2012 announced the launch of credit card for teachers, coinciding with the celebration of Teachers Day. The card offers special features like multiple reward points, weekend bonanza points, petrol surcharge waiver and 500 special gift reward points to be credited annually on the Teachers day.
With a combined market size of more than 450 million students and growth rates of 10-15 per cent expected over the next decade, education is one of the largest service sectors in India. In fact, it is the largest issuer of credit cards in the country with a customer base of 5.60 million as of 31 March, 2012.

Kaushik Basu new World Bank chief economist

The World Bank on 5 September, 2012 named as its chief economist, placing a candidate from an emerging market country in a key position at the global development lender.
Basu, who was most recently chief economic adviser to the government of India, is the World Bank's second chief economist from a developing country. He replaces Justin Lin, a citizen of China, whose term expired on June 1, 2012.
Basu, who holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, is on leave from his position as a professor of economics and international studies at Cornell University in New York. He previously founded the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics.
Emerging market countries have long pushed for more clout at the poverty-fighting World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
Starting from October, Basu will serve under new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American and who took the helm of the World Bank two months ago.

List of World Bank Chief Economists
● Hollis B. Chenery — 1972–1982
● Anne Osborn Krueger — 1982–1986
● Stanley Fischer — 1988–1990
● Lawrence Summers — 1991–1993
● Michael Bruno — 1993–1996
● Joseph E. Stiglitz - 1997–2000
● Nicholas Stern - 2000–2003
● François Bourguignon — 2003–2007
● Justin Yifu Lin — June 2008– June 2012
● Martin Ravallion — June 2012- (Acting Chief Economist)

SBI ASSOCIATE BANK CLERKS EXAM MARKETING KNOWLEDGE MCQs

1. EMI can be marketing tool when
1) EMI is very low
2) EMI is very high
3) EMI is fluctuating
4) EMI is constant
5) EMI is ballooning

2. Advertisements are necessary for
1) only old products
2) launching new products
3) only costly products
4) only obsolete products
5) advertisements are wasteful expenses

3. Publicity is required for -
1) generating more number of leads
2) better training of sales persons
3) market survey
4) product designing
5) OTC Marketing

4. NAV is the price of
1) Entire fund value
2) one unit of a fund
3) surrender value
4) average value of shares
5) dividends paid in a year

5. A master policy in the case of Life insurance indicates
1) policy is sale
2) policy is in the name of servant
3) only one life is assured
4) there are several beneficiaries
5) life assured should be a male

6. Customer database is useful for -
1) advertisements
2) word-of-mouth publicity
3) CRM Functions
4) PR functions
5) sales persons training

7. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is -
1) A pre-sales activity
2) A tool for lead generation
3) an ongoing daily activity
4) the task of a DSA
5) back office duty

Jammu and Kashmir Bank was Awarded Best Banker Prize

Jammu and Kashmir Bank on 20 August 2012 won four national awards-The Sunday Standard FINWIZ-2012 Best Bankers’ Awards. The Bank was awarded Best Banker in Financial Inclusion and Customer Friendliness and declared runner up for Best Banker in Priority Sector Growth and Agricultural Credit.
The Sunday Standard is a part of the New Indian Express Group which is based in Chennai. It had engaged Indicus Analytics- India’s premier economic research agency- to conduct a survey and find out India’s best bankers.
The surveyors highlighted the J&K Bank’s contribution in facilitating the workings of the economy and contributing to its growth by promoting entrepreneurs and innovation.

GENERAL AWARENESS MCQs FOR BANK EXAMS

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

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

“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.