First In India Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The main objectives of the Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank) are to ensure an integrated and coordinated approach to solving the problems of exporters, providing special attention to capital goods export and export of technical services, and to tap domestic and overseas markets for resources, undertaking development and financing activities in the areas of exports. The EXIM Bank provides financial assistance to the exporters and importers and acts as the principal financial institution for coordinating the working of other institutions engaged in financing exports and imports. It also provides refinance facilities to commercial banks and financial institutions against their export-import financing activities.

Answer: A

Correct answer: State Bank of India

The State Bank of India acts as the Reserve Bank's agent where the RBI has no office of its own, conducting government business - receipts, payments and the handling of currency - on its behalf.

The arrangement is a historical one, and it explains the 1955 nationalisation of the Imperial Bank in the first place: a nationwide branch network was needed to carry the central bank's functions into places the RBI's own small number of offices could not reach. Other public sector banks and some private ones were later designated agency banks as well.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 1972

The General Insurance Corporation of India was incorporated in November 1972 under the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act of that year, and it took over the business of 107 insurers from 1 January 1973, grouping them into four subsidiaries - National, New India, Oriental and United India. GIC itself later became the national reinsurer when those four were separated from it in 2000.

Answer: C

Correct answer: HDFC

HDFC Bank launched its watch banking service in 2015, putting balance enquiries, recent transactions and bill payments on a smartwatch. It was among the first Indian banks to extend its mobile channel to wearable devices, part of the same push that produced its chatbot and its digital loan products.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

The Government acquired the Reserve Bank's entire holding in the State Bank of India in 2007, and the price was determined according to SEBI's guidelines for such transfers.

The reason for the transaction was the conflict inherent in the RBI both regulating SBI and owning a controlling stake in it - the same reasoning that moved its holdings in NABARD and the National Housing Bank to the Government afterwards. SEBI's involvement was in valuation, that being its province as securities regulator, not in the policy decision itself.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Ministry of Finance

The one rupee note is the only Indian currency note issued by the Government of India rather than the Reserve Bank, and it carries the signature of the Finance Secretary instead of the Governor. Every other denomination is issued by the RBI under Section 22 of the Reserve Bank of India Act and bears the Governor’s signature. All coins are likewise issued by the Government.

Answer: B

The National Housing Bank monitors the performance of the Golden Jubilee Rural Housing Finance Scheme implemented through the scheduled banks of HDFC and the Cooperative Sector Institutions. During 2009-10, 3.9 lakh dwelling units were successfully financed against a target of 3.5 lakh units.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1956

Life insurance was nationalised by the Life Insurance Corporation Act of 1956, which took over 245 Indian and foreign insurers and provident societies and vested their business in a single Life Insurance Corporation of India. General insurance followed sixteen years later, in 1972. The sector was reopened to private companies after the IRDA Act of 1999.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Commercial banks

A tractor loan is agricultural term credit, and it is advanced by a commercial bank, a regional rural bank or a cooperative - commercial banks being the largest source. The Reserve Bank does not lend to individuals at all, and NABARD does not either: it provides refinance to the institutions that do, and sets policy for rural credit.

Answer: A

Correct answer: September, 2005

The Government began amalgamating regional rural banks in September 2005, sponsor bank by sponsor bank within each state, to give them the scale and viability that many individually lacked. The number fell from 196 to well under half that over the following years, and further rounds have continued the process since.