DAILY GK 6 DEC 2025

 DAILY GK 6 DEC 2025

1.       BI IMPOSES PENALTY ON HDFC BANK AND MANNA KRISHNA INVESTMENTS

·         The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed penalties on HDFC Bank and Mannakrishna Investments Private Limited for lapses in regulatory compliance, emphasizing the need for strict adherence to banking and financial norms.

·         The RBI has imposed a Rs.91 lakh penalty on HDFC Bank for multiple regulatory violations, including non-compliance with the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, lapses in Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, failures in outsourcing compliance, and irregularities in handling interest-rate and loan benchmarks.

·         The RBI also imposed a Rs.3.10 lakh penalty on Mannakrishna Investments Private Limited, a Non-Banking Financial Company, (NBFC), for governance-related violations.

·         The company altered its board composition without obtaining prior approval from the regulator, thereby breaching the NBFC – Scale Based Regulation Directions, 2023.

 


2.       SBI & BOI SIGNED MOU TO ESTABLISH COE FOR STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

·         State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest Public Sector Bank (PSB) and Bank of India (BOI), leading PSB in India, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly drive a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Strategic Partnership.

·         This new initiative aims to bolster leadership and expertise in project financing across India.

·         Through this collaboration, both PSBs will be able to explore joint financing of large-scale projects, using their combined strengths to fund key infrastructure and industrial projects across the country.

 

3.       INDIA’S GDP GROWTH –NSO

·         The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the Quarterly Estimates (QE) of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2nd Quarter (Q2: July-September) of the Financial Year 2025-26(FY26).

·         As per the NSO latest data, India’s Real GDP is estimated at Rs 48.63 lakh crore in Q2FY26 compared to Rs 44.94 lakh crore registered in Q2FY25, registering a 6-Quarter high growth rate of 8.2%. 

·         Nominal GDP saw a growth rate of 8.7% in Q1 of FY26.

·         It is estimated to reach Rs 85.25 lakh crore (in Q2FY26) as against Rs 78.40 lakh crore (in Q2FY25).

·         The report highlighted that India’s GDP growth rate was mainly driven by significant increase in the manufacturing sector which registered a growth rate of 9.1% (Q2FY26) over 7.7% in Q1 of FY26 and 2.2% in the same period last year.

·         It is followed by financial, real estate and professional services (10.2%) and public administration defence services (9.7%).

·         The primary sectors including agriculture and mining, registered 3.1% Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth compared to 3.5% in the corresponding period of FY25.

·         Real Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE), used to measure household consumption demand, recorded a growth rate of 7.9% in Q2FY26 over the 6.4% growth rate in the corresponding quarter of previous financial year.

 

4.       RBI FIVE-YEAR NATIONAL FINANCIAL INCLUSION STRATEGY: NSFI:2025-30

·         The “National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI):2025-30”, approved by the Sub-committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC-SC) in its 32nd meeting, was formally released by Sanjay Malhotra, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

·         The strategy of NSFI 2025-30 is anchored in five objectives, termed “Panch-Jyoti” supported by 47 action points: Expanding equitable and affordable services, promoting women-led inclusion, linking finance with livelihoods, leveraging financial education, and strengthening customer protection.

·         The NSFI 2025-30 has been developed under the Technical Group on Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy (TGFIFL), following consultations nationwide with multiple stakeholders.

 

5.       RBI’S ANNUAL REPORT OF OMBUDSMAN SCHEME 2024-25

·         The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the ‘Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme 2024-25’ under the Reserve Bank -Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021.

·         According to the report, total RBI Ombudsman complaints rose 13.55% in Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25), increasing from 11,75,075 in FY24 to 13,34,244.

·         The ORBIOs handled 2,96,321 complaints in FY25, marking a 0.82% increase from 2,93,924 complaints recorded in FY24.

·         Despite the increase in volume, the number of complaints per lakh bank accounts declined to 7.7 from 8.9.

·         The States / Union Territories (UTs) of Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan were the top five contributors to the complaints at the ORBIOs in terms of complaints received per lakh accounts.

·         Mizoram, Nagaland, Ladakh, Manipur, and Meghalaya reported the lowest number of complaints per lakh accounts.

·         Complaints against the banks formed the largest portion accounting for 81.53% of complaints received by the ORBIOs, followed by Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) accounting for 14.80% during FY25.

·         Among the banks, the private sector banks accounted for the highest share of complaints at 37.53% in FY25, while Public Sector Banks(PSBs) recorded a lower share of complaints at 34.80%.

·         Complaints related to Loan and Advances was the highest at 29.25% in FY25.

·         Complaints related to Credit Cards increased by 20.04% and has become the second highest contributor of complaints.

 

6.       SBI, HDFC BANK, & ICICI BANK CONTINUE TO BE IDENTIFIED AS D-SIBS: RBI

·         The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that 3 Indian banks namely, the State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest Public Sector Bank (PSB); HDFC Bank Limited and ICICI Bank Limited, will continue to be identified as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) for 2025 under the same bucketing structure as in the 2024 list of D-SIBs.

·         As per RBI directions, SBI is required to maintain an additional Common Equity Tier-1 (CET-1) capital buffer of 0.80% of its Risk-Weighted Assets (RWAs).

·         HDFC Bank Limited and ICICI Bank Limited must maintain an additional CET-1 of 0.40% and 0.20% of their RWAs, respectively.

·         The current update of D-SIBs list is based on the data collected from banks as on March 31, 2025.

·         In July 2014, RBI 1st issued the ‘Framework for dealing with Domestic-Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs)’ which was later updated on December 28, 2023.

·         The D-SIBs will be selected by RBI based on the size of the bank as a percentage of GDP(Gross Domestic Product) i.e the banks having a size beyond 2% of GDP.

·         The selected D-SIBs are assessed through the 4 indicators of Size, Interconnectedness, Lack of readily available substitutes or financial institution infrastructure, and Complexity.

 

7.       INDIA’S FDI INFLOW RISE 18% -MOC&I

·         The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I), released the quarterly fact sheet on Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) inflow.

·         As per the data, the FDI in India rose 18% to USD 35.18 billion (bn) during April-September of Financial Year 2025-26 (FY26), while the inflow from the United States of America (USA) more than doubled to USD 6.62 bn during the same period.

·         Investments from overseas during the April-September period of the previous fiscal (FY25) stood at USD 29.79 bn.

·         During the July-September quarter (2nd quarter) of FY26, the inflows increased by over 21% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to USD 16.55 bn.

·         Total FDI, which includes equity inflows, reinvested earnings and other capital, increased to about USD 50 bn during the first six months of this fiscal year as against USD 42.3 bn in the same period of 2024-25.

·         During April-September 2025, the computer software and hardware received the highest FDI at around USD 9 bn, followed by the Services sector with USD 5 bn and Trading with USD 2.78 bn.

·         Singapore was the largest source of FDI during the period, contributing USD11.94 bn.

·         Among states, Maharashtra received the highest inflow of USD 10.57 bn during the April-September 2025.

 

8.       SEBI INTRODUCES SINGLE WINDOW GATEWAY FOR LOW RISK FOREIGN INVESTORS: SWAGAT-FI

·         The market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued the SEBI (Foreign Venture Capital Investors (FVCI)) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025 for low risk foreign investors to participate in the Indian securities market with the introduction of a single window access. 

·         SEBI’s framework, Single Window Automatic &Generalised Access for Trusted Foreign Investors (SWAGAT-FI) was introduced with the following objectives:

·         Provide easier investment access to objectively identified and verified low risk foreign investors.

·         Enable a unified registration process across multiple investment routes for such entities.

·         Reduce repeated compliance and documentation for such entities.

·         Sebi notified amendments to the FPI and FVCI regulations will be effective from June 01,2026.

·         SEBI has extended the registration continuance period, including fee payment and KYC (Know Your Customer) review to 10 years, up from the earlier 3–5 years, to reduce operational burden and promote long-term investor participation.

 

9.       NITI AAYOG & IBM UNVEILED ROADMAP TO MAKE INDIA A TOP-3 QUANTUM ECONOMY BY 2047

·         the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog)’s Frontier Tech Hub unveiled a Roadmap on Transforming India into a leading Quantum-Powered Economy.

·         The roadmap aims to make India as one of the world’s top-3 quantum economies by 2047.

·         Roadmap on Quantum Technology was developed by Frontier Tech hub of NITI Aayog in collaboration with International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation (as Knowledge Partner) and with the support of Expert Council of leaders across academia, government, and industry.

·         For India’s Quantum Economy in 2035, the roadmap has set certain targets like incubating minimum 10 globally competitive quantum startups, each surpassing USD 100 million in revenue.

·         Capturing more than 50% of the value in the global quantum software and services market by 2035.

·         Achieving Quantum Atmanirbharata (Self-Reliance) and Controlling critical points in global supply chains.

·         Implementation Phase 1 (2025–2030) focuses on building scale and market momentum. Key goals include expanding quantum hubs, funding at least 50 startups.

·         Phase 2 (2030–2035) shifts toward global leadership.

 

10.    NPCI TO ENABLE UPI IN INDIA AND CAMBODIA

·         NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the global arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ACLEDA Bank Plc., the 1st publicly listed commercial bank in Cambodia, to enable Quick Response (QR)-based cross border transactions between India and Cambodia.

·         As per the MoU, ACLEDA Bank will be the operator for Cambodia’s national Quick Response (QR) network, Bakong (KHQR), by the NBC.