Mohanty Committee Recommendations on Financial Inclusion
1) In a bid to push financial inclusion, an RBI panel chaired by RBI Executive Director Deepak Mohanty has recommended a slew of measures on December 28, 2015, including a special deposit scheme for the girl child, governmcnt-to-person social cash transfer, and opening interest-free windows (Islamic banking) by banks.
2) The committee suggested that the government consider a welfare scheme i.e., Sukanya Shiksha which can be jointly funded by the Central and’State governments. The scheme will link education with banking habits by crediting a nominal amount in the name of each girl child belonging to the lower income group who enrolls in middle school.
3) This would make it incumbent on the school and the lead bank and its designated branch to open an account for social cash transfer. This scheme will also have the benefit of lowering school dropout rates and empowering the girl child.
4) The committee said there is a need for better use of the mobile banking facility for G2P payments, and this would push government in its financial inclusion drive as the personal disposable income is low, particularly for the bottom quartile of the population.
No LPG Subsidy for Taxpayers who Earn over Rs. 10 Lakh Annually
1)The Union government announced on December 28, 2015 that tax payers with an annual income of more than ? 10 lakh during the previous financial year computed as per the Income Tax Act, 1961 will not get subsidised LPG anymore.
2) At present, all households are entitled to get 12 cylinders of 14.2 kg each at subsidised rate of ? 419.26, while the market price is ? 608.
3) According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) data, a total of 20.26 lakh assesses were reported as having a taxable income above Rs. 10 lakh in the assessment year 2014-15.
4) On March 27, 2015, the government had asked ‘well-off people’ to voluntarily give up using subsidised LPG and instead buy cooking fuel at market price. So far, of the estimated 14.78 crore LPG consumers in the country, over 52 lakh are reported to have given up access to subsidised fuel voluntarily.
Reliance Jio Launched 4G Service for its Employees
1) Reliance Jio has launched 4G sendee for its employees under Jio brand name on December 27, 2015. The company will begin the commercial roll-aut of the service from March-April, 2016.
2) On offer from Reliance Jio Infocom will be low-cost 4G devices (under ‘Lyf’ brand) costing as low as ? 4000 and a host of services along with the regular voice and data.
3) These services will include a big collection of music (Jio Beats); around 200 television channels with back-up (Jio Play) and movies (Jio on-demand). Jio TV service will accept voice command to change channels and subscriber will not require remote control to do so.
4) The incumbents have already been preparing for the launch of Reliance Jio with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea all launching their 4G services ahead of the Ambani venture. India is ranked around 150 in the internet and mobile broadband penetration out of 230 countries.
RBI Extended Deadline to Exchange Pre-2005 Notes
1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the deadline for exchanging pre-2005 currency notes of various denominations on December 23, 2015, including ? 500 and ? 1000, by another six months to June 30, 2016.
2) As per RBI from January 1, 2016, such facility will only be available at identified bank branches and Issue Offices of the Reserve Bank. Earlier in June, 2015, the Reserve Bank had set the last date for public to exchange pre-2005 banknotes to December 31, 2015.
3) Over 164 crore pre-2005 currency notes of various denominations, including of Rs 1000 were shredded in regional offices of Reserve Bank in 13-month period ending January, 2016. The face value of the shredded currency notes was around Rs 21750 crore.
Shah Committee Constituted to Look into RIL and ONGC Dispute
1) A one-man committee headed by Justice (Retd.) AP Shah has been constituted to look into acts of omission and commission and recommend compensation to ONGC whose natural gas from Bay of Bengal block had flowed to adjoining fields of Reliance Industries.
2) The panel has been constituted 2 weeks after US-based consultant D&M, in its final report, stated that as much as 11.122 billion cubic metres of natural gas had migrated from idling Krishna Godavari fields of ONGC to adjoining KG-D6 block of RIL.
3) The panel has been asked to look into legal, financial and contractual provisions and submit a report within three months. It has also been asked to report any ‘acts of omission and commission’ on part of all the stakeholders including RIL, ONGC, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons and the government.
Three New Group Indices Launched
1) The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has launched separate indices on three corporate houses of India—Tata, Aditya Birla and Mahindra Group on December 16, 2015. It is a first of its kind in India.
2) The indices Nifty Tata Group Index, Nifty Aditya Birla Group Index and Nifty Mahindra Group Index, have been designed to reflect the performance of companies belonging to the respective corporate group.
3) The indices have been created by the NSE’s group company India Index Services & Products Limited (IISL), which also plans to launch indices on other corporate groups and third-party products based on such indices.
