National Councils & Institutions - Banking awareness questions on current affairs

ANSWER: New Delhi

Explanation:
The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) is a government-owned corporation in India.

It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

It is mandated with building affordable housing and carrying out urban development.

• Dr. M. Ravi Kanth, CMD HUDCO received the Governance Now PSU Award 2016.
• The award was presented by Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Babul Supriyo, Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

HUDCO

Founded : April 25, 1970
Headquarters : Mumbai, India
Current Head : Dr. M. Ravi Kanth (CMD)

ANSWER: 1964

Explanation:
Unit Trust of India is a financial organization which was created by the UTI Act passed by the Parliament of India on December 30, 1963 under the direction of Col. Akash Behl.

UTI Mutual Fund is promoted by the four of the largest Public Sector Financial Institutions as sponsors -

• State Bank of India
• Life Insurance Corporation of India
• Bank of Baroda
• Punjab National Bank

with each of them presently holding an 18.5% stake in the paid up capital of UTI AMC.

UTI AMC

Founded : 1964
Headquarter : UTI Tower, Mumbai
Current Head : Mr. Leo Puri (Managing Director)

ANSWER: National Automated Clearing House (NACH)

Explanation:
NACH - National Automated Clearing House

A web based solution to facilitate interbank, high volume, electronic transactions which are repetitive and periodic in nature.

NACH System can be used for making bulk transactions towards distribution of subsidies, dividends, interest, salary, pension etc.

Also for bulk transactions towards collection of payments pertaining to telephone, electricity, water, loans, investments in mutual funds, insurance premium etc.

Major developments and Services by the NPCI -

• National Financial Switch (NFS) - Network of shared automated teller machines in India.
• Unified Payment Interface (UPI) - Single mobile application for accessing different bank accounts.
• Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) - Real time payment with mobile number.
  
  *99# - Mobile banking using USSD.
  
  National Automated Clearing House (NACH) -
  
  Cheque Truncation System (CTS) - Online image-based cheque clearing system.
  
  Aadhaar Payments Bridge System (APBS) - RuPay - Card scheme
  
  Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) Integrated bill payment system

ANSWER: Mumbai

Explanation:
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organization for all retail payments system in India.

It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

The RBI, after setting up the Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS) in 2005, released a vision document incorporating a proposal to set up an umbrella institution for all the ‘Retail Payment Systems’ in the country.

NPCI

Founded : 2008
Headquarter : Mumbai, India
Current Head : Balachandran M (Chairman), A P Hota (MD & CEO)

ANSWER: New Delhi

Explanation:
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is a pension regulator which was established by Government of India on August 23, 2003.

PFRDA is authorized by Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services.

PFRDA promotes old age income security by establishing, developing and regulating pension funds and protects the interests of subscribers to schemes of pension funds and related matters.

PFRDA is responsible for appointment of various intermediate agencies such as Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA), Pension Fund Managers, Custodian, NPS Trustee Bank, etc.

The Authority consists of a Chairperson and not more than five members, of whom at least three shall be whole-time members, to be appointed by the Central Government.

Current members

Hemant Contractor, Chairman

• Shri R. V. Verma, Whole-Time Member (Finance)
• Dr. B.S .Bhandari, Whole-Time Member (Economics)
• Dr. Shashank Saksensa, Part-Time Member
• Ms. Annie George Mathew, Par-Time Member
• Ms. Vandana Sharma, Part-Time Member

ANSWER: Central Board of Excise and Customs

Explanation:
The Central Board of Excise and Custom is the nodal national agency responsible for administering Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax and Narcotics in India.

The Customs & Central Excise department was established in the year 1855 by the then British Governor General of India.

It is one of the oldest government departments of India.
Currently, the Customs and Excise department comes under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance.

The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) is headed by Chairperson CBEC and consists of six Members of CBEC.

CBEC Chairperson - Mr. Najib Shah, IRS

• Member Budget - Mr. Ram Tirath, IRS
• Member Customs - Mr. B.K. Bansal, IRS
• Member Service Tax - Mr. K.K. Sharma, IRS
• Member Central Excise - Ms. Neerja Shah, IRS
• Member Personnel & Vigilance - Ms. Vanaja N. Sarna, IRS
• Member Legal & IT - Ms. Ananya Ray, IRS

CBEC

Formed : 26 Jan 1944
Headquarter : Ministry of Finance, North Block, New Delhi, India

ANSWER: Sushil Chandra

Explanation:
Sushil Chandra

Senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sushil Chandra is Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Chandra, a 1980-batch IRS officer, has replaced Rani Singh Nair (who retired from service).

Chandra had been Member (Investigation) in CBDT since December 2015.

The CBDT is a statutory authority functioning under the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963.

It is India’s official FATF unit (Financial Action Task Force).

Organizational Structure

The CBDT is headed by CBDT Chairman and also comprises of six members, all of whom are Special Secretary to Government of India.

• Member (Income Tax)
• Member (Legislation and Computerization)
• Member (Revenue)
• Member (Personnel & Vigilance)
• Member (Investigation)
• Member (Audit & Judicial)

The CBDT Chairman and Members of CBDT are selected from Indian Revenue Service (IRS).

ANSWER: Financial Stability and Development Council

Explanation:
Financial Stability and Development Council is an apex-level body constituted by the Government of India.

The idea to create such a super regulatory body was first mooted by the Raghuram Rajan Committee in 2008.

In 2010, the then Finance Minister of India, Pranab Mukherjee, decided to set up such an autonomous body dealing with macro prudential and financial regularities in the entire financial sector of India.

Composition of the Council

Chairperson : The Union Finance Minister of India.

Members :

• Governor - Reserve Bank of India (RBl),
• Finance Secretary - Department of Economic Affairs (DEA),
• Secretary - Department of Financial Services (DFS),
• Chief Economic Advisor - Ministry of Finance,
• Chairman - Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI),
• Chairman - Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA),
• Chairman - Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA),
• Chairman - Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

Recently Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has been merged into SEBI.

ANSWER: Export Credit Guarantee Corporation

Explanation:
The ECGC Limited (Formerly Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd) is a company wholly owned by the Government of India.

It provides export credit insurance support to Indian exporters and is controlled by the Ministry of Commerce.

Govt. of India initially set up Export Risks Insurance Corporation (ERIC) in July 1957.
It was transformed into Export Credit and Guarantee Corporation Limited (ECGC) in 1964, and to Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India in 1983.

ECGC Limited

Founded : 1957
Headquarter : Mumbai, India
Current Head : Mrs. Geetha Muralidhar (Chairman & MD)

ANSWER: CIBIL

Explanation:
Credit Information Bureau Limited is the first Credit Information Company in India.

TransUnion CIBIL Limited (Formerly : Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited) is India’s first Credit Information Company (CIC) founded in August 2000.

CIBIL

Founded : August 2000; 16 years ago
Headquarter : Mumbai, India
Current Head : M.V.Nair (Chairman), Satish Pillai (Managing Director)

How it works?

The Credit Information Report (CIR) and CIBIL TransUnion Score are used in the loan approval process.

The CIR and Credit Score help loan providers identify consumers who are likely to be able to pay back their loans.

An individual with a credit score above 750 is perceived as a responsible borrower.