Odisha mulls scheme to detect jumbo herds
Category: Environment
- With rising incidents of wild elephants straying into human habitation and causing damage, the Odisha government is contemplating a Gaja Bandhu, friend of elephant, scheme to involve local people in detecting jumbo herds in their locality.
- Gaja Bandhu scheme will involve locals residing close to forest areas in tracking elephant movements. It is necessary as existing staff involved in tracking are found to be inadequate.
10 public sector banks to be merged
Category: Economy
- In what comes as the second wave of the government’s efforts to revive the economy, govt. announced a slew of banking reform measures, including merger of 10 public sector banks into four entities.
- This would take the number of banks in the country from 27 in 2017 to 12,.
- These bank mergers, and the ones already carried out, will lead to the creation of big banks with an enhanced capacity to give credit.
- These big banks would also be able to compete globally and increase their operational efficiency by reducing their cost of lending.
- The banks that are being merged with each other run the same or very similar platforms, and so there will be no disruption in their activities.
- The largest of the mergers announced is that of Punjab National Bank with Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank.
- The amalgamated entity — to be called Punjab National Bank — will become the second-largest public sector bank in India, after the State Bank of India.
- It will also become the second-largest bank in India in terms of its branch network.
GDP growth down to 6-year low
Category: Economy
- India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate slowed to a six-year low of 5% in the first quarter of the 2019-20 financial year,led by a dramatic slowdown in the manufacturing sector.
- The last time the GDP grew slower was in the fourth quarter (January to March) of the financial year 2012-13.
- The growth of Gross Value Added (GVA) stood at 4.9% in the first quarter of the financial year 2019-20, also the slowest in six years.
- The manufacturing sector grew at an anaemic two-year low of 0.6% in the first quarter of 2019-20, down from 12.1% in the same quarter of the previous year.
- The agriculture sector also saw a dramatic slowdown in growth to 2% from 5.1% over the same period.
PNB gets lion’s share of recapitalisation
Category: Economy
- Punjab National Bank, which will now be merged with Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank, will receive the highest share of the capital infusion of about ₹16,000 crore.
- Punjab National Bank will, post-merger, become the second-largest bank in the country, after State Bank of India.
- The amalgamated Union Bank of India will become the fifth-largest bank.
- Bank of Baroda, which had earlier been merged with Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank will be the third-largest bank in India.
- Canara Bank, to be merged with Syndicate Bank, will be the fourth-largest bank in India, post-merger.
- The govt had announced the ₹70,000 crore recapitalisation package for public sector banks in the Budget, and had said that given the stronger financials of the banking sector, this amount would be used as growth capital and to increase credit outflow.
