IMPORTANT BANKING NEWS
Moody's cuts India's GDP growth to 6.2% for 2019
• Moody’s Investors Service has cut India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to 6.2 per cent for calendar year 2019 against its earlier projection of 6.8 per cent.
• The rating agency scaled down India’s economic growth to 6.7 per cent for 2020, a cut of another 0.6 percentage points.
India's GDP growth slumps to 5% in April-June quarter
• According to National Statistics Office (NSO), India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 5 % in the April-June 2019,
• It was lower than the 5.8% in the previous quarter and below the 8% in the first quarter of the previous year.
• The June quarter growth was the slowest since the March quarter of 2012-13
Aadhaar-enabled payment system crosses 200 million transactions in July
• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) stated that transactions through the Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) have crossed 200 million in July.
• Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) is a bank-led model which allows basic interoperable banking transactions at point of sale terminals (PoS) through the business correspondent of any bank by using Aadhaar authentication
• The transaction count of AePS stood at 220.18 million with transaction value Rs. 9,685.35 crore compared with a transaction count of 194.33 million and a transaction value of Rs. 8,867.33 crore in June
Sebi imposes restrictions on mutual fund investments in short-term bank deposits
• Mutual fund houses should ensure that banks where a scheme has parked funds in the lender's short-term deposits do not invest in that particular scheme.
• Trustees/ asset management companies (AMCs) shall ensure that no funds of a scheme is parked in STD (short-term deposit) of a bank which has invested in that scheme.
• Trustees and AMCs should ensure that the banks in which a scheme has STD do not invest in the same scheme until the scheme has STD with such banks.
IMPORTANT BUSINESS NEWS
Amazon opens its largest campus in the world in Hyderabad
• Amazon India inaugurated the largest company-owned campus, worldwide in Hyderabad, the only one outside the US. The e-commerce firm will house more than 15,000 employees out of the over 62,000 members of the India team.
• The Hyderabad based campus is the only Amazon-owned office outside the United States and will house over 15,000 employees of its over 62,000 employee base in India.
• Prior to this, the company had the largest buildings in Seattle that could house about 5,000 employees
Airtel becomes first telco to shut down 3G network
• Bharti Airtel switched off its 3G network in Kolkata and has refarmed the 900 MHz band spectrum to further strengthen its 4G network. This is one of the first phase-outs of 3G technology globally.
