NABARD Sanctioned for 50 Loan Irrigation Projects
- The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 19702 crore loan to National Water Development Agency (NWDA) for 50 irrigation projects on October 23, 2016.
- The loan is sanctioned under Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF), announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the Budget 2016-17.
- This would help create additional irrigation potential of 39.14 lakh hectares under these projects in 11 States.
- NABARD gave the 1st instalment of Rs 1500 crore to NWDA, which is an agency of Ministry of Water Resources.
SBP got Special award for excellence in MSME Lending
- State Bank of Patiala (SBP) conferred “Special Award for Excellence in MSME lending” for its performance in lending to the MSME sector during the year 2013-14 and 2014-15 with a growth of Rs 2597 crore (annualised 23%) and Rs 994 crore (annualised 7.10%) respectively, covering the entire range of services on October 19, 2016.
- The bank is maintaining momentum in lending to this sector during the current financial year also.
- With a view to extend the coverage of MSME sector, the Bank has 30 MSME specialised branches.
Union Government Approved Pact between EXIM Bank, New Development Bank
- The Union Cabinet approved a pact between Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and BRICS-promoted New Development Bank (NDB), along with other development financial institutions of member nations, with an aim to strengthen trade and economic ties on October 13, 2016.
- It signed a Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) on general cooperation with NDB through the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism by the government at the level of Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs/ Export Import Bank of India.
- The MoU is a non-binding umbrella agreement aimed at establishing a cooperation framework in accordance with the national laws and regulations, besides skills transfer and knowledge sharing amongst the signatories.
See Also – IBPS Banking Question Papers.
ICICI became First Indian Bank to Execute Blockchain Transaction
- ICICI Bank became the first Indian lender to complete a banking transaction using Blockchain technology on October 12, 2016.
- This remittance transaction has been completed in partnership with Emirates NBD, a lender from the West Asia.
- It authenticated remittance transaction messages as well as original international trade documents related to purchase order, invoice, shipping’ and insurance, etc. electronically on Block chain in real time.
- Block chain technology simplifies the process and drastically reduces duration of the transaction to few minutes, compared with few days otherwise.
