Daily Gkbytes

PM launched MUDRA Bank under PM Jan Dhan Yojana to fund small entrepreneurs

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 April 2015 launched the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) Bank to fund the small entrepreneurs.
• The Bank was launched under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). The bank will provide credit of up to 10 lakh rupees to small entrepreneurs and act as a regulator for Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs).
• It was set up through a statutory enactment. It would be responsible for developing and refinancing all Micro-finance Institutions (MFIs) which are in the business of lending to micro / small business entities engaged in manufacturing, trading and service activities.

The role of MUDRA Bank

• Lay down policy guidelines for micro enterprise financing business
• Registration of MFI entities
• Accreditation/rating of MFI entities
• Lay down responsible financing practices to ward off over indebtedness and ensure proper client protection principles and methods of recovery
• Development of standardised set of covenants governing last mile lending to micro enterprises
• Promoting right technology solutions for the last mile
• Formulating and running  a Credit Guarantee Scheme for providing guarantees to the loans/portfolios which are being extended to micro enterprises
• Support development & promotional activities in the sector
• Creating a good architecture of Last Mile Credit Delivery to micro  businesses under the scheme
• It would partner with State/Regional level coordinators to provide finance to Last Mile Financiers of small/micro business enterprises.

Products offered by MUDRA Bank

• The bank will initially offer products like Shishu, Kishor and Tarun to differentiate the stage of growth and funding needs of the beneficiary entrepreneur.
• Shishu will cover loans up to 50000 rupees
• Kishor will cover loans above 50000 rupees and up to 5 lakh rupees
• Tarun will cover loans above 5 lakh rupees and up to 10 lakh rupees

Background

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed the creation of a Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of 20000 crore rupees and credit guarantee corpus of 3000 crore rupees during the presentation of Union Budget 2015-16 on 28 February 2015.

2. PM Narendra Modi announces enhanced input subsidy

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced enhanced input subsidy relief for farmers in distress.
• Farmers will now be eligible for input subsidy if 33 per cent of their crop has been damaged, as opposed to 50 per cent or more, which was the norm till now.
• Further, the input subsidy given to distressed farmers will be enhanced by 50 per cent of the existing amount.
• He also gave the assurance that the Centre, State governments, banks and insurance companies would do their utmost to provide relief to the farmers.
• Mr. Modi said banks had been asked to restructure loans of farmers hit by unseasonal rain and insurance companies had been advised to pro-actively settle claims.

3. SBI, ICICI, HDFC Bank heed Raghuram Rajan’s call, cut base rate

• State Bank of India was the first off the block to impress the regulator on Tuesday by reducing its base rate, forcing private sector peers HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank to follow suit as they took heed of RBI governor Raghuram Rajan’s stern message to ensure transmission of monetary policies.
  
• State Bank of India lowered its base rate by a token 15 basis points — from 10% to 9.85%. HDFC Bank lowered its base rate by 15 bps to 9.85%, while ICICI Bank cut it by 25 bps to 9.75%, the lowest in the industry now.
• SBI’s new base rate is effective from April 10, while HDFC Bank’s will come into effect from April 13. ICICI Bank said its existing floating rate customers will get the benefit of the new rate from April 10, while new borrowers will get it from July 1.
• HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have also reduced deposit rates by 25 bps for medium-term deposits of up to Rs 1 crore.

4. Snapdeal acquires FreeCharge

• Online marketplace Snapdeal on Wednesday said it has acquired mobile recharge platform Freecharge. The company did not disclose the financial deal, but claimed it as the largest acquisitions in the Indian consumer internet space.
• Following the acquisition, Snapdeal claims that it will become the largest mobile commerce company in India offering a wide range of products andservices, including financial services, mobile recharge and utility payments with a user base of over 40 million.
• This is the tenth acqusiiton of Snapdeal, the company has earlier acquired smaller companies like RupeePower, GoJavas, Exclusively.in among others.
• Till date, the largest e-commer deal in the country was acquisition of Myntra by Flipkart for $300 million deal in May 2014. According to the company, with the closure of the deal Snapdeal will become the largets m-commerce entity in the country.

5. Mayilsamy Annadurai appointed as Director of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)

• Mayilsamy Annadurai on 1 April 2015 was appointed as Director of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bengaluru.
• He took over as Director, ISAC from Dr SK Shivakumar who superannuated on 31 March 2015.
• As the Director of ISAC he will oversee development of satellite technology and implementation of satellite systems for scientific, technological and application missions.

About Mayilsamy Annadurai
• Annadurai began his career at ISAC in 1982 as the team leader to design and develop Software Satellite Simulator.
• He was the Project Director of Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar probe, in 2009.
• He was also instrumental in completion of India’s first inter-planetary mission Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) in record time.
• He was conferred with Team Excellence Award from ISRO for his Contribution to Indian Space Programme in 2007 and Rajyotsava Award for Science from Government of Karnataka in 2008.

6. TRAI recommended establishment of Integrated Emergency Communication & Response System

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 7 April 2015 recommended the establishment of Integrated Emergency Communication and Response System (IECRS) in the country.
• This system can be accessed through a single emergency number 112 from a landline or mobile phone/device for all emergency phone-calls across the country.

Main recommendations of TRAI on setting up of IECRS
• Adoption of number 112 as the single emergency number for India which may be popularised extensively through a public awareness campaign by the Government
• The existing emergency numbers 100,101,102 and 108 can be retained as secondary numbers. The calls made to the secondary numbers should be re-routed to the new single emergency number for termination of calls on the IECRS. The DoT may amend the National Numbering Plan-2003 accordingly.

• SMS based access to IECRS should be provided and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) may be asked to provide location information in the case of SMS based access to IECRS also.
• PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) operators should be able to handle calls in Hindi, English and the local language.
• Four regional databases, one each in metro city, containing subscriber details of TSPs should be set up in the country. These regional databases will be interconnected.
• Access to the regional databases will be provided free of charge, so that all the TSPs and PSAPs connect their respective systems to these databases.