Banking, Finance & Economy Current Affairs - 2022-23

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State Bank of India has signed a 150 million euro (Rs 1,240 crore) loan agreement with the German development bank KfW for funding solar projects. The long-term loan, under the Indo-German solar partnership, will facilitate new and upcoming capacities in the solar sector and further contribute to the country’s goals announced during the COP26. In 2015, New Delhi and Berlin had signed a memorandum of understanding to foster solar energy through technical as well as financial cooperation. Through this agreement, Germany had expressed its willingness to provide the concessional loans to India in the range of 1 billion euros through KfW.

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The credit rating agency, CRISIL, lowered India’s GDP growth forecast for 2022–23. CRISIL reduced India’s expected GDP growth rate from 7.3% to 7.0% for FY23. The rating agency further added that the growth of India’s GDP will slow significantly to 6% in FY24. According to CRISIL, the global slowdown impacting exports and industrial activity was cited as the primary reason behind the cut. The agency also observed that long-term growth movements indicated India’s growth cycles to be remarkably synchronised since the 2000s with those of the advanced economies.

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HDFC Bank Ltd. partnered with Flywire Corporation to offer educational digital payments. This collaboration will enable Indian students to pay international education fees digitally all around the world. HDFC Bank will use Flywire’s platform to give Indian students a fully digital checkout experience. It will allow the Indian students to pay their fees in INR, and the international institutions through Flywire will receive them in their respective local currencies, viz. USD, EUR, etc.

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Germany proposed to grant EUR 1 billion (INR 8440 Cr) for energy transition projects in India. The announcement of EUR 1 billion funding was announced by Germany ahead of its Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock’s visit to India. The objective of this proposed funding by Germany is to assist India in green and sustainable development.

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Bandhan Bank signs Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Defense for Defence Pensioners under SPARSH.SPARSH is known as the System for Pension Administration Raksha, a platform to deal with all defense pensioners’ activities. The MoU was signed by the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), Ministry of Defence. SPARSH is a unified system to bring pension services to the doorstep of veterans. This was implemented by the Ministry of Defense on July 2021.

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After the Flipkart Group’s acquisition of PhonePe in 2016, the latter company announced its separation from Flipkart Group. Additionally, the company stated that the post their separation, the entities will continue to operate under the retail brand Walmart.

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For the second phase of the metro project in Nagpur, the Mahametro Corporation has finalized its financial arrangement and secured a loan of Rs. 3,586 crores from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

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Governor of Uttarakhand Lt. Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh gave the nod to a Bill that gives 30% reservation to the native women of the State.

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The most recent CII Business Confidence Index for the October-December quarter returned to its best rating in almost two years, with a value of 67.6, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering will get underway in Davos, bringing together world leaders to discuss urgent topics like the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global inflation, and climate change. The summit has the theme “Cooperation in a Fragmented World” as its topic and will end on January 20.