• In order to encourage innovation and boost participation, markets regulator SEBI revised the objective and eligibility criteria of its innovation sandbox with graded entry norms.

• As the revised guidelines, an applicant if completed a minimum 60 days in the Stage-I of Innovation Sandbox testing will be eligible to enter into stage 2 of the testing.

• Banks have written off almost Rs 62,000 crore of loans of top 100 wilful defaulters as of March 2020, with Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery topping the list, helping them to show lower non-performing assets.

• Data the Reserve Bank of India shared with Right to Information Act activist Biswanath Goswami showed that Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali Gems was the top wilful defaulter, accounting for Rs 5,071 crore of non-performing assets (NPA).

• Banks wrote off Rs 622 crore of the firm’s loans.

• RBI announced an ‘On Tap TLTRO’ scheme worth Rs 1 trillion, to provide liquidity support to various economic sectors and banks. The TLTRO will be for up to three years and for a total amount of up to Rs 1 trillion at a floating rate linked to the policy repo rate for banks.

• The sectors which could benefit from this move include construction, real estate, and microfinance. RBI will provide these funds under on-tap targeted long-term repo operations (TLTRO) at a floating rate linked to the policy rate for up to three years. At present, the repo rate is 4 percent.

• LTRO lets banks borrow one to three-year funds from the central bank at the repo rate, by providing government securities with similar or higher tenure as collateral.

• Targeted Long-Term Repo Operations (TLTRO), banks can invest in specific sectors through debt instruments (corporate bonds, commercial papers, and non-convertible debentures (NCDs)) to push the credit flow in the economy.

• The liquidity availed by the banks under this scheme is deployed in corporate bonds, commercial papers, and non-convertible debentures. Sectors such as retail, micro, agri, infra, MSME, pharma, and healthcare are eligible for fund deployment under the scheme.

• The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met on 3rd, 4th and 5th February, 2021 which projected India’s gross domestic Product (GDP) growth at 10.5% for the FY2021-22.

• The projection of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation has been revised to 5.2% for the Q4FY21, 5.2 % to 5.0 % in H1FY22 and declined to 4.3% by Q3FY22.

• The MPC has given the mandate to maintain annual inflation at 4% until March 31, 2021 with an upper tolerance of 6% and lower tolerance of 2% i.e. within a band of +/- 2 %,

• ICICI Bank, second largest private sector bank in India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MUFG Bank, Japan’s premier bank for collaboration towards catering to the banking requirements of Japanese corporates present in India.

• The MoU establishes a framework of partnership between the banks across various domains including trade, investment, treasury, corporate and retail banking. It also paves way for the two banks to combine their individual strengths and cater holistically to the banking requirements of Japanese corporations operating in India.

• RBI has permitted Indian residents to make remittances to international financial services centres (IFSCs) established here under the liberalized remittance scheme (LRS).

• Till now, only global participants were allowed to invest in funds set up in Indian IFSCs.

• The move is likely to benefit retail investors, and high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

• Under the LRS, an Indian individual can send up to $250,000 per year overseas for travel, education and medical care as well as for the purchase of shares.

• Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Co. Ltd is India’s first IFSC.

• NSFR stands for - Net Stable Funding Ratio

• It is defined as the amount of available stable funding (ASF) relative to the amount of required stable funding (RSF).

• It promotes resilience over a longer-term time horizon by requiring banks to fund their activities with more stable sources of funding on an ongoing basis.

• The above ratio should be equal to at least 100 percent on an ongoing basis.

• The NSFR reduces future funding risk by requiring banks to fund their activities with sufficiently stable sources of funding in a time period of 1 year.

• It is a component of the Basel III reforms along with Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR).

• The digital payment platform PhonePe has partnered with India’s third-largest bank, Axis Bank on a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) multi-bank model.

• It will enable the PhonePe users to create and use multiple UPI IDs with Axis Bank’s “@axl” handle.

• Until now, the PhonePe’s key banking partner was Yes Bank.

• This collaboration will also give PhonePe access to the Axis bank’s merchant base.

• In accordance with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), PhonePe had emerged as the top UPI app in January, 2021 processing 968.72 million transactions worth Rs 1.92 trillion.

• NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm Limited from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund (together, SoftBank) for USD 40 billion in September 2020. This will be the largest-ever deal in the semiconductor industry.

• Under the deal, NVIDIA will pay Softbank USD 21.5 billion in common stock and USD 12 billion in case, USD 2 billion of which will be payable at signing.

• Another USD 5 billion in cash or stock may also be given to Softbank, depending on Arm’s performance.

• NVIDIA will also issue USD 1.5 billion in equity to Arm employees.