United India Insurance AO Interview

United India Insurance Interview Experience

Date: 1 August, 2010

Venue: Quality Inn Parle International, Mumbai

There were 4 members in the interview panel, i was third last in the list for the interviews on that day. My interview started at around 5:30. Here's the questions which were asked:

1 Do you know anything about insurance?
2 What is indemnity? What is its principle?
3 What is subrogation? What is its principle?
4 What is your family income? What does your parents do? And some questions about my family.
5 Why your marks in HSC decreased?
6 Which insurance is compulsory in our country?
7 Do the premium for a vehicle vary with company?
8 Why don't you go for higher studies?
9 India's current economic scenario?
10 How will you curb infaltion?
11 What are your hobbies?
12 Which website do you like the most?
13 Wikipedia is in how many languages? Is it in Hindi also?
14 Any problems in working is south?

SBI Associate Banks PO Interview

SBI Associate Banks PO Interview Experience

Date: 27 July, 2010

Venue: SBI LHO, Bhopal

I was in the morning batch, in all 24 candidates, divided into 2 panels were called. I was in panel 2. After the document verification at around 9 am, we were offered Tea and snacks. Around 9:30 we were asked to gather at the GD room, one of the guy in our group was absent.

The 4 interview panel members came and congratulated all of us for making it to this next round, wished us luck and declared the format for GD. The topic was "Economic Development and Environmental Protection can not go hand in hand", we were given 5 minutes to gather out thoughts, we were given 3 minutes each to put our points. There was no fish market or chaos in the GD it all ended pretty smoothly.

Interviews started at around 10:15, my turn came at 12:45, here are the questions asked during the interview:

Which amongst Artic and Antartica is ocean and which is continent?
What is twitter? How is it different from Orkut?
How can Blogging help an organisation?
What is soil pollution?
What is organic farming and bio fertilizers?
There were a lot of questions asked on what i said, why i said, how can i justify it from the points i put in GD. The interview lasted about 15 minutes.

The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd AO Interview

Interview Experience : Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd (AO)

Date : 21-7-2010

Venue : Hotel Broadway, New Delhi

My interview was scheduled at 2 pm, there were 10-12 other candidates
After the document verification, interviews started around 2:30 and lasted till 4:15 pm
My interview lasted 8-10 minutes
There were 4 members (all male in their late 50s and above) in the panel all were very simple and generous.The following questions were asked:

1 You finished your graduation in 2009 what have you been doing since then?
2 What is the difference between corporations, company limited and authority?
3 What is general insurance?
4 What is the difference between Life and health insurance?
5 How will your qualification help us?
6 Showed a picture and was asked to describe about it.
7 What is your goal in life?

So this was it, looking forward to the results after failing to clear Allahabad Bank PO interview.
All the best to all
Thank you

FIFA World Cup 2010 Best 11 (Pre- Quarters and Quarter Finals)

Forward:
David Villa(Spain)
Miroslav Klose(Germany)
Arjen Robben(Netherlands)

Mid Fielder:
Wesley Sneijder(Netherlands)
Thomas Mueller(Germany)
Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER(Germany)
Christian Riveros(Paraguay)

Defender:
Phillip Lahm(Germany)
Sergio Ramos(Spain)
Gerard Pique(Spain)

Goal Keeper:
Iker Casillas(Spain)

Substitutes:
Manuel Neuer(Germany)
Luis Suarez (Uruguay)
Antolin AlcarazParaguay)
Xabi Alonso(Spain)

Canara Bank PO (General Awareness) 2010

1. Term used in Hockey – Penalty Stroke.
2. Inflation in 2009-10 – ?
3. India Bangladesh hydel power plant where – Khulna.
4. GDP – Gross Domestic Product.
5. 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in – London.
6. Earth Day– April 22nd.
7. NBFC – None(Non banking finance company)
8. India Palestine related – West Asia conflict.
9. Bear and Bulls related to – Stock Market.
10. Special Drawing Rights issued by – IMF.
11. Repo Rate – None(5.25 %)
12. Economic Survey 2010 was done for the year - 2009-10.
13. Which country facing Crisis in Europe – Greece.
14. Women’s Reservation in state assemblies – 33%.
15. Base rate will be implemented from – July 2010.
16. Scheme related to Rural Health Scheme – NHRM.
17. Who is not related to famous author – M F Hussain.
18. South Africa Currency – None(Rand)
19. WADI in West Bengal - Tribal Development programme.
20. Chairman of 13th finance commission – Vijay Kelkar.
21. Player associated with women’s cricket – Mithali Raj.
22. India and Saudi Arabia signed pacts in – Energy Sector.
23. Which country does not play International cricket – China.
24. First woman president of Costa Rica - Laura Chinchilla.
25. Government has granted 12000 crore to – None(1200 crore for Bundelkhand)
26. Victor Yankovych has been elected as – President of Ukraine.
27. Basic banking services to rural people termed as - Financial Inclusion.
28. To which country India has given $1 billion– Bangladesh.
29. Teams played in IPL final – None(Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians)
30. Which of the following is not related to banking and finance – Cell fusion.
31. Which country has reservation in parliament for women like India – France.
32. Who presented the Union budget 2010-11 in parliament – None (Pranab Mukherjee)
33. Recently which country celebrated 149th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore – China.
34. Which of the following award is not given in the field of literature - Arjuna Awards.
35. Which country objected the meeting between Dalai Lama and Barack Obama – China.
36. Which of the following told government must cut its fiscal deficit to 3% - 13th Finance Commission.
37. Ela Bhatt chosen for Niwano Peace Prize, she is associated with – SEWA.
38. Which of the following is a book written by R K Narayan – The World of Nagaraj.
39. Who won the best male actor in 55th Film fare awards – Amitabh Bachchan.
40. The details of the companies financial position in the annual report of a company is known as – balance sheet.
41. Meaning of roll back of Stimulus Package
42. GoI recently passed a bill for providing Fundamental Education to children of age group 6-14 years – Right to Education
43. A question whose answer was SEBI
44. Which of the following cup is not related to Cricket – Scindia Gold Cup.
45. Which of the following is true with respect to Union Budget 2010-11- 25000 from Disinvestment and 37% allocation to Social Sector

FIFA World Cup Best 11 (group stage)

It has been 10 days since the World Cup started and its time for the Knock outs now. But before that here's my pick for the World Cup best 11 so far.

Forward
David Villa(Spain): Nicknamed El Guaje, has been the best player on view of Spain so far. After the shocking first round loss to Switzerland, Villa was instrumental in lifting Spain, in the process he netted 3 goals in 3 games, including a brace against Hondorous. It won't be a surprise if Villa ends up winning the Golden Boot. But for that to happen Spain need to go the distance. With a clash against Portugal all eyes will be on Villa to send Spain through to the Quarter Finals.

Lionel Messi(Argentina): Messi, considered one of the best football players of his generation, didn't disappoint anyone at all. But he was easily one of the most unluckiest players so far, had the most shots on target, missed a few by wisker, but the goal always eluded him. Despite that was the best Argentine player on show. With Argentina up against Mexico next, expect Messi to end the goal drought.

Asamoah Gyan(Ghana): Was the inspiration behind the dream enjoyed by Ghana. Scoring in both their victories, he showed his class. With Ghana being the only African nation in the next round, entire Africa would be praying for some Gyan magic for atleast a few more matches.

Mid Fielder
Landon Donovan(USA): What Gyan did for Ghana, Donovan did for USA, he was a class apart from his teammates, scored 2 goals in group stages, with Ghana next he would be looking to add to that tally.

Wesley Sneijder(Netherlands): In the absence of Robben, all eyes were on Sneijder, and how well he responded was something remarkable. He scored the lone goal against Japan which booked the ticket for the next round. With Robben returing , both will make quite a handy combo.

Steven Gerrard(England): What has been quite a disappointing start for England, their captain stood head and shoulders above the others. He scored the first goal for England at WC inside 4 minutes, but thanks to a goal keeping blunder USA drew level.

Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER(Germany): Germany were handed a body blow just before the World Cup when Ballack was ruled out, but that has inspired players like Schweinsteiger to raise the bar. He has been wonderful in the midfield setting up goal opportunities for Klose and Podolski.

Defenders
Maicon(Brazil): If Fabiano and Robinho were the stars for Brazil upfront, Maicon was the heart of their defence. And who could forget his goal against North Korea from such an acute angle.

Gary MEDEL(Chile): At 22 years of age, Gary Medel is already one of the most high-profile players in South American football, displaying the maturity of a veteran. Nicknamed ‘El Pitbull’, he has been inspirational and instrumental in getting Chile home for the next round. However he faces a stern test against the inform Brazil next.

Sergio Ramos(Spain):Sergio Ramos's performances exude determination and commitment. Versatile enough to have played as a centre-back as well as a holding midfielder, Ramos appears to have finally settled in the right full-back role with Spain and his performance in the world cup has been truly wonderful.

Goal Keeper
Edurado(Portugal): He was the only Goal Keeper in this world cup to have a clean sheet in all three matches, Protugal will look up to him to do the same against Spain and if that happens it would mean a certain Quarter Final birth for Portugal.

Substitutes:
Robert VITTEK(Slovakia)
Cristian RIVEROS(Paraguay)
Philipp LAHM (Germany)
Eiji KAWASHIMA(Japan)

FIFA WORLD CUP

Its that time again where the whole world, and yes the whole world is gripped by the soccer fever. For the record it is the 19th FIFA World Cup and it has been organised for the first time in Africa. Since its inception in 1930,FIFA World Cup has been a place where promising players achieve greatness and great players achieve immortality. Such is the charm of the FIFA World Cup that 204 countries participated in the qualifying in the end only 32 had the opportunity to showcase their skills in the biggest single sporting spectacle in the world.

General Awareness UNITED INSURANCE AO 2010

1.Acid rain occurs due to ?
2.Islam started in- 7 AD
3.UID new name - Aadhar
4.Jawahar Lal Nehru solar mission by the end of which plan- 13th
5.Who rang the bell at nasdaq, time square-Shahrukh khan and Kajol
6.who invented video tape: may be Charles Ginsburg
7.Largest Highway NH7-varanasi to kanyakumari
8.River city combination
hungari budapest-denube
berlin germany-spree
9.16 yard hit is related to? Hockey
10.lake Superior is in -Canada
11.17th saarc summit to be held in - Maldives
12.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s rank in Time magazine- ?
13.GARC – global automotive research centre
14.Majuli island is in - Assam
15.Author of the book Speaking for Myself - Cherie Blair
16.Arundhati Roy’s book Inheritance of loss is related to- Gorkhaland Movement
17.Which factor of blood helps in clotting - Platelets
18.Which body part gets affected first by radiation- Skin
19.Ultrasonic rays can be heard by which animal- Bat
20. ?

Terms From The ECONOMIST

OECD: It was formed in 1961,the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based club for industrialised countries, building on the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), which had been established under the MARSHALL PLAN. By 2003, its membership had risen to 30 countries, from an original 20. Together, OECD countries produce two-thirds of the world’s goods and services.

Okun's law: A description of what happens to unemployment when the rate of growth of GDP changes, based on empirical research by Arthur Okun (1928–80). It predicts that if GDP grows at around 3% a year, the jobless rate will be unchanged.

Oligopoly: When a few firms dominate a market. Often they can together behave as if they were a single monopoly, perhaps by forming a cartel.

OPEC: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a cartel set up in 1960 that wrought havoc in industrialised countries during the 1970s and early 1980s by forcing up oil prices.

Open economy: An economy that allows the unrestricted flow of people, capital, goods and services across its borders.

Open-market operations: Central Banks buying and selling securities in the open market, as a way of controlling interest rates or the growth of the money supply. By selling more securities, they can mop up surplus money; buying securities adds to the money supply. The securities traded by central banks are mostly Government Bonds and Treasury Bills, although they sometimes buy or sell commercial securities.

Opportunity cost: The true cost of something is what you give up to get it. This includes not only the money spent in buying the something, but also the economic benefits that you did without because you bought.

Outsourcing: Shifting activities that used to be done inside a firm to an outside company, which can do them more cost-effectively.

Paris club: The name given to the arrangements through which countries reschedule their official debt; that is, money borrowed from other governments rather than banks or private firms.

Perfect competition: The most competitive market imaginable. Perfect COMPETITION is rare and may not even exist. It is so competitive that any individual buyer or seller has a negligible impact on the market price. Products are homogeneous. Information is perfect. Everybody is a price taker. Firms earn only normal profit, the bare minimum profit necessary to keep them in business. If firms earn more than that the absence of barriers to entry means that other firms will enter the market and drive the price level down until there are only normal profits to be made. Output will be maximised and price minimised.

Plaza accord: On September 22nd 1985, finance ministers from the world's five biggest economies - the United States, Japan, West Germany, France and the UK - announced the Plaza Accord at the eponymous New York hotel. Each country made specific promises on economic policy: the United States pledged to cut the federal deficit, Japan promised a looser monetary policy and a range of financial-sector reforms, and Germany proposed tax cuts. All countries agreed to intervene in currency markets as necessary to get the dollar down.

Positive economics: Economics that describes the world as it is, rather than trying to change it. The opposite of Normative Economics, which suggests policies for increasing economic welfare.

Price elasticity: A measure of the responsiveness of demand to a change in price. If demand changes by more than the price has changed, the good is price-elastic. If demand changes by less than the price, it is price-inelastic.

Probability: How likely something is to happen, usually expressed as the ratio of the number of ways the outcome may occur to the number of total possible outcomes for the event.

Profit: In economic theory, profit is the reward for risk taken by enterprise, the fourth of the factors of production – what is left after all other costs, including rent, wages and interest. Put simply, profit is a firm’s total revenue minus total cost.

Protectionism: Opposition to free trade. Although intended to protect a country’s economy from foreign competitors, it usually makes the protected country worse off than if it allowed international trade to proceed without hindrance from trade barriers such as quotas and tariffs.

Purchasing Power Parity: A method for calculating the correct value of a currency, which may differ from its current market value. It is helpful when comparing living standards in different countries, as it indicates the appropriate exchange rate to use when expressing incomes and prices in different countries in a common currency. PPP is the exchange rate that equates the price of a basket of identical traded goods and services in two countries.

Terms From The ECONOMIST

Nafta: Stands for North American Free-Trade Agreement. In 1993, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to lower the barriers to trade among the three economies.

Nash Equilibrium: An important concept in GAME THEORY, a Nash equilibrium occurs when each player is pursuing their best possible strategy in the full knowledge of the strategies of all other players. Once a Nash equilibrium is reached, nobody has any incentive to change their strategy. It is named after John Nash, a mathematician and Nobel prize-winning economist.

National Debt: The national debt is a total of all the money ever raised by a government that has yet to be paid off or the total outstanding borrowing of a country’s Government; this is very different from an annual public-sector budget deficit.

National Income: Everything that is produced, earned or spent in a country.

Nationalisation: When a Government takes ownership of a private-sector business. State-owned businesses often enjoy a legally protected monopoly, and the lack of competition means the firms face little pressure to be efficient.

Neo-Classical Economics: The school of economics that developed the free-market ideas of classical economics into a full-scale model of how an economy works. The best-known neo-classical economist was Alfred Marshall, the father of marginal analysis. Neo-classical thinking, which mostly assumes that markets tend towards equilibrium, was attacked by Keynes and became unfashionable during the Keynesian-dominated decades after the second world war.

Net Present Value: A measure used to help decide whether or not to proceed with an investment. Net means that both the costs and benefits of the investment are included.

Network effect: When the value of a good to a consumer changes because the number of people using it changes.

Nominal value: The value of anything expressed simply in the money of the day. Since inflation means that money can lose its value over time, nominal figures can be misleading when used to compare values in different periods. It is better to compare their real value, by adjusting the nominal figures to remove the inflationary distortions.

Terms From The ECONOMIST

Macroeconomics: It is the big picture, i.e. analysing economy-wide phenomena such as growth, inflation and unemployment.

Market Capitalisation: The market value of a company’s shares the quoted share price multiplied by the total number of shares that the company has issued.

Marshall Plan: It was named after General George Marshall, an American secretary of state, who at the end of the second world war proposed giving aid to Western Europe to rebuild its war-torn economies.

Karl Marx: He was a German economist. His two best-known works were the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 with Friedrich Engels, and Das Kapital, in four volumes published between 1867 and 1910. Most of his economic assumptions were drawn from orthodox classical economics.

Mergers and Acquisitions: When two businesses join together, either by merging or by one company taking over the other.

Microeconomics: The study of the individual pieces that together make an economy. It is the study of the behaviour of individual markets, workers, households and firms.

Misery Index: The sum of a country’s inflation and unemployment rates. The higher the score, the greater is the economic misery.

Mixed Economy: A market economy in which both private-sector firms and firms owned by Government take part in economic activity.

Monetary policy: What a Central Bank does to control the money supply, and thereby manage demand. Monetary policy involves open market operations, reserve requirements and changing the short-term rate of interest. It is one of the two main tools of Macroeconomic Policy, the side-kick of Fiscal Policy.

Money: Makes the world go round and comes in many forms, from shells and beads to GOLD coins to plastic or paper. It is better than barter in enabling an economy’s scarce resources to be allocated efficiently. Money has three main qualities:
• as a medium of exchange, buyers can give it to sellers to pay for goods and services;
• as a unit of account, it can be used to add up apples and oranges in some common value;
• as a store of value, it can be used to transfer purchasing power into the future.

Money Illusion: When people are misled by inflation into thinking that they are getting richer, when in fact the value of money is declining.

Monopoly: When the production of a good or service with no close substitutes is carried out by a single firm with the market power to decide the price of its output.

Bank Of Baroda PO Banking and General Awareness 2010

1 Who was awarded European Footballer of the year? Lionell Messi
2 Lin Dan is ? Badminton player
3 Term not related to football ?
4 Contribution of Agriculture towards total GDP? 17%
5 How much % of the total receipts is Tax?
6 100 Crore alloted for which Government Scheme?
7 AR Rahman is not associated with this movie ? Fashion
8 Recently what has become a Fundamental Right? Right To Education
9 VK Singh is ?The Chief of Army Staff
10 Mr Manmohan Singh visited Bhutan to? attend SAARC Summit
11 Nobel Prize for Literature? Herta Muller
12 Padma Shri not awarded to? Abhishek Bachchan
13 Winner of the Under 19 Cricket World Cup? Australia
14 National Men's Volleyball Champion? Tamil Nadu
15 Author of the book Many Lives Many Masters? Brian Weiss
16 SLR ? Statutary Liquidity Ratio
17 Project Tiger launched by ? Government of India
18 Global Tax is being proposed by?
19 How much is allocated for Public Sector Banks ? 16500 crores
20 Benchmark prime lending rate is now changed to? Base Rate

Terms From The ECONOMIST

Keynesian: A branch of economics, based, often loosely, on the ideas of KEYNES, characterised by a belief in active government and suspicion of market outcomes.

Kleptocracy: Corrupt, thieving government, in which the politicians and bureaucrats in charge use the powers of the state to feather their own nests.

Laissez-faire: The belief that an economy functions best when there is no interference by government.

Lender of last resort: One of the main functions of a Central Bank. When financially troubled banks need cash and nobody else will lend to them, a central bank may do so, perhaps with strings attached, or even by taking control of the troubled bank, closing it or finding it a new owner. This role of the central bank makes credit creation easier by increasing confidence in the banking system and minimising the risk of a bank run by reassuring depositors that their money is safe.

Liberalisation: A policy of promoting Liberal Economics by limiting the role of government to the things it can do to help the market economy work efficiently.

Libor: Short form of London interbank offered rate, the rate of interest that top- banks charge each other for loans.

Liquidity: How easily an asset can be spent, if so desired. Cash is wholly liquid. The liquidity of other assets is usually less; how much less may be measured by the ease with which they can be exchanged for cash.

Terms From The ECONOMIST

Hard Currency: A hard currency is expected to retain its value, or even benefit from APPRECIATION, against softer currencies.

Hawala: An ancient system of moving money based on trust. In Hawala, no money moves physically between locations; nowadays it is transferred by means of a telephone call or fax between dealers in different countries. No legal contracts are involved, and recipients are given only a code number or simple token, such as a low-value banknote torn in half, to prove that money is due.

Horizontal equity: One way to keep taxation fair. Horizontal equity means that people with a similar ability to pay taxes should pay the same amount.

Hot money: The money that is held in one currency but is liable to switch to another currency at a moment’s notice in search of the highest available returns, thereby causing the first currency’s exchange rate to plummet. It is often used to describe the money invested in currency markets by speculators.

Human development index: Calculated since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme, the Human Development Index quantifies a country’s development in terms of such things as education, length of life and clean water, as well as income.

Income tax: A much-loathed method of Taxation based on earnings. It was first collected in 1797 by the Dutch Batavian Republic. In the UK it was introduced in 1799 as a “temporary” measure to finance a war against Napoleon, abolished in 1816 and reintroduced, forever, in 1842. In most countries, people do not pay it until their income exceeds a minimum threshold, and richer people pay a higher rate of income tax than poorer people.

Index numbers: Economists love to compile indices aggregating lots of individual data, so they can analyse broad trends in the behaviour of an economy. Inflation is measured by an index of consumer prices.

Inflation: Rising PRICES, across the board. Inflation means less bang for your buck, as it erodes the purchasing power of a unit of currency. Inflation usually refers to consumer prices, but it can also be applied to other prices (wholesale goods, wages, assets, and so on). It is usually expressed as an annual percentage rate of change on an index numbers.

Insider trading: Insider trading involves using INFORMATION that is not in the public domain but that will move the PRICE of a share, BOND or currency when it is made public. An insider trade takes place when someone with privileged, confidential access to that information trades to take advantage of the fact that prices will move when the news gets out.A practice that was made illegal in the United States in 1934 and in the UK in 1980, and is now banned in most countries.

Insurance: In economic terms, anything used to reduce the downside of risk. In its most familiar form, insurance is provided through a policy purchased from an insurance company. But a fuller definition would also include, say, a financial security used to hedge, as well as assistance available in the event of disaster. It could even be provided by the government, in various ways, including welfare payments to sick or poor people and legal protection from creditors in the event of bankruptcy.

Intellectual capital: The part of a country's or a firm’s capital or an individual’s human capital that consists of ideas rather than something more physical. It can often be protected through patents or other intellectual property laws.

Interest: The cost of borrowing, which compensates lenders for the RISK they take in making their money available to borrowers.

Investment: Putting money to work, in the hope of making even more money. Investment takes two main forms: direct spending on buildings, machinery and so forth, and indirect spending on financial securities, such as bonds and shares.

Invisible hand: Adam Smith’s shorthand for the ability of the free market to allocate factors of production, goods and services to their most valuable use. If everybody acts from self-interest, spurred on by the profit motive, then the economy will work more efficiently, and more productively, than it would do were economic activity directed instead by some sort of central planner.

Terms From The ECONOMIST

Equity: A stock or any other security representing an ownership interest.In the context of real estate, the difference between the current market value of the property and the amount the owner still owes on the mortgage. It is the amount that the owner would receive after selling a property and paying off the mortgage. In terms of investment strategies, equity (stocks) is one of the principal asset classes. The other two are fixed-income (bonds) and cash/cash-equivalents. These are used in asset allocation planning to structure a desired risk and return profile for an investor's portfolio.

Factor cost: A measure of output reflecting the costs of the factors of production used, rather than market prices, which may differ because of indirect tax and subsidy.

Foreign direct investment: Investing directly in production in another country, either by buying a company there or establishing new operations of an existing business. This is done mostly by companies as opposed to financial institutions, which prefer indirect investment abroad such as buying small parcels of a country's supply of shares or bonds.

Financial instrument: Certificate of ownership of a financial asset, such as a bond or a share.

Fiscal drag: Fiscal drag is the tendency of revenue from taxation to rise as a share of GDP in a growing economy. Tax allowances, progressive tax rates and the threshold above which a particular rate of tax applies usually remain constant or are changed only gradually. By contrast, when the economy grows, income, spending and corporate profit rise. So the tax-take increases too, without any need for government action. This helps slow the rate of increase in demand, reducing the pace of growth, making it less likely to result in higher inflation. Thus fiscal drag is an automatic stabiliser, as it acts naturally to keep demand stable.

Fiscal policy: One of the two instruments of macroeconomic policy; monetary policy's side-kick. It comprises public spending and taxation, and any other government income or assistance to the private sector. It can be used to influence the level of demand in the economy, usually with the twin goals of getting unemployment as low as possible without triggering excessive inflation.

Flotation: Going public. When shares in a company are sold to the public for the first time through an initial public offering. The number of shares sold by the original private investors is called the "float". Also, when a bond issue is sold in the financial markets.

Free trade: The ability of people to undertake economic transactions with people in other countries free from any restraints imposed by governments or other regulators. Measured by the volume of imports and exports.

Game theory: Game theory is a technique for analysing how people, firms and governments should behave in strategic situations, and in deciding what to do must take into account what others are likely to do and how others might respond to what they do.

Gross domestic product(GDP): It is a measure of economic activity in a country. It is calculated by adding the total value of a country's annual output of goods and services. GDP = private consumption + investment + public spending + the change in inventories + (exports - imports). It is usually valued at market prices; by subtracting indirect tax and adding any government subsidy, however, GDP can be calculated at factor cost. This measure more accurately reveals the income paid to factors of production.

Gilts: Also gilt-edged securities, meaning a safe bet, at least as far as receiving interest and avoiding default goes. The price of gilts can vary considerably over time, however, creating a degree of risk for investors. Usually the term is applied only to government bonds.

Gini coefficient: An inequality indicator. The Gini coefficient measures the inequality of income distribution within a country. It varies from zero, which indicates perfect equality, with every household earning exactly the same, to one, which implies absolute inequality, with a single household earning a country's entire income. Latin America is the world's most unequal region, with a Gini coefficient of around 0.5; in rich countries the figure is closer to 0.3.

Globalisation: A buzz word that refers to the trend for people, firms and governments around the world to become increasingly dependent on and integrated with each other. This can be a source of tremendous opportunity, as new markets, workers, business partners, goods and services and jobs become available, but also of competitive threat, which may undermine economic activities that were viable before globalisation.

Gross national product(GNP): Another measure of a country's economic performance, also called GNI. It is calculated by adding to GDP the income earned by residents from investments abroad, less the corresponding income sent home by foreigners who are living in the country.

Gresham's law: Bad money drives out good. One of the oldest laws in economics, named after Sir Thomas Gresham, an adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England. He observed that when a currency has been debased and a new one is introduced to replace it, the new one will be hoarded and effectively taken out of circulation, while the old one will continue to be used for transactions, to be got rid of as fast as possible.

Terms From The ECONOMIST

Capital: It is one of the four essential ingredients of economic activity, the FACTORS OF PRODUCTION, along with LAND, LABOUR and ENTERPRISE. Capital takes different forms. A firm’s ASSETS are known as its capital, which may include fixed capital (machinery, buildings, and so on) and working capital (stocks of raw materials and part-finished products, as well as money, that are used up quickly in the production process). Financial capital includes money, BONDS and SHARES. HUMAN CAPITAL is the economic wealth or potential contained in a person, some of it endowed at birth, the rest the product of training and education, if only in the university of life. The invisible glue of relationships and institutions that holds an economy together is its social capital

Capital adequacy ratio: The ratio of a Bank’s Capital to its total Assets, required by regulators to be above a minimum level so that there is little risk of the bank going bust.

Capital markets: Markets in Securities such as Bonds and Shares. Governments and companies use them to raise longer-term Capital from investors.

Cartel: An agreement among two or more firms in the same industry to co-operate in fixing prices and/or carving up the market and restricting the amount of output they produce.

Central bank: A guardian of the monetary system. A central bank sets short-term interest rates and oversees the health of the financial system, including by acting as lender of last resort to commercial banks that get into financial difficulties.

Classical economics: The dominant theory of economics from the 18th century to the 20th century, when it evolved into NEO-CLASSICAL ECONOMICS. Classical economists, who included Adam Smith, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill, believed that the pursuit of individual self-interest produced the greatest possible economic benefits for society as a whole through the power of the INVISIBLE HAND. They also believed that an economy is always in EQUILIBRIUM or moving towards it.

Collateral: An Asset pledged by a borrower that may be seized by a lender to recover the value of a loan if the borrower fails to meet the required interest charges or repayments.

Commodity: A comparatively homogeneous product that can typically be bought in bulk. It usually refers to a raw material – oil, cotton, cocoa, silver – but can also describe a manufactured product used to make other things, for example, microchips used in personal computers. Commodities are often traded on commodity exchanges.

Complementary goods: When you buy a computer, you will also need to buy software. Computer hardware and software are therefore complementary goods.

Credit: A loan extended or taken by, for example, delayed payment of an invoice.

Credit crunch: When banks suddenly stop lending, or bond market liquidity evaporates, usually because creditors have become extremely risk averse.

Debt: An amount owed to a person or organization for funds borrowed. Debt can be represented by a loan note, bond, mortgage or other form stating repayment terms and, if applicable, interest requirements.

EconomicTerminology

Amortisation: The running down or payment of a loan by instalments.

Appreciation: A rise in the value of an asset and the opposite of depreciation. When the value of a currency rises relative to another, it appreciates.

Arbitrage: Buying an asset in one market and simultaneously selling an identical asset in another market at a higher price.

Balance of payments: The total of all the money coming into a country from abroad less all of the money going out of the country during the same period.

Bankruptcy: When a court judges that a debtor is unable to make the payments owed to a creditor.

Barter: Paying for goods or services with other goods or services, instead of with money.

Basel 1 and 2: An attempt to reduce the number of bank failures by tying a bank's capital adequacy ratio to the riskiness of the loans it makes.

Basis point: One one-hundredth of a percentage point. Small movements in the interest rate, the exchange rate and bond yields are often described in terms of basis points. If interest is increased from 5.75% to 6%, it has risen by 25 basis points.

Behavioural economics: A branch of economics that concentrates on explaining the economic decisions people make in practice, especially when these conflict with what conventional economic theory predicts they will do. Behaviourists try to augment or replace traditional ideas of economic rationality (homo economicus) with decision-making models borrowed from psychology.

Beta: Part of an economic theory for valuing financial securities and calculating the cost of capital, known as the capital asset pricing model, beta measures the sensitivity of the price of a particular asset to changes in the market as a whole.

Bond: A bond is an interest-bearing security issued by governments, companies and some other organisations. Bonds are an alternative way for the issuer to raise capital to selling shares or taking out a bank loan. Like shares in listed companies, once they have been issued bonds may be traded on the open market.

Bretton woods: A conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, which designed the structure of the international monetary system after the second world war and set up the IMF and the World Bank.

Bubble: When the price of an asset rises far higher than can be explained by fundamentals, such as the income likely to derive from holding the asset.

Budget: An annual procedure to decide how much public spending there should be in the year ahead and what mix of taxation, charging for services and borrowing should finance it.

Banking Terminology

Swift Code: ISO 9362 (also known as SWIFT-BIC, BIC code, SWIFT ID or SWIFT code) is a standard format of Bank Identifier Codes approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is the unique identification code of a particular bank. These codes are used when transferring money between banks, particularly for international wire transfers, and also for the exchange of other messages between banks. The codes can sometimes be found on account statements.

IFSC Code:The Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) is being used as the addressing code in user-to-user message transmission. The Payment System Applications such as RTGS, CFMS and NEFT developed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) use these codes. The code consists of 11 characters - first 4 characters (4!A) represent the entity; fifth position has been defaulted with a '0' (Zero) for future use; and the last 6 characters (6!X) denote the branch identity.

MICR Code: Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR, is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques. The technology allows computers to read information (such as account numbers) off of printed documents. Unlike barcodes or similar technologies, however, MICR codes can be easily read by humans.The use of magnetic printing allows the characters to be read reliably even if they have been overprinted or obscured by other marks, such as cancellation stamps. Almost all Indian, US, Canadian and UK checks use the E-13B font.

IFSC is being identified by the RBI as the code to be used for various payment system projects within the country, and it would, in due course, cover all networked branches in the country. In due course, when all bank branches participate in electronic payment systems, they would need to have a single identifiable unique code and IFSC would serve the purpose effectively.

Real Time Gross Settlement system (RTGS): The Reserve Bank of India (India's Central Bank) maintains this payment network, which is available on weekdays only from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Fees for RTGS vary from bank to bank. Both the remitting and receiving must have Core banking in place to enter into RTGS transactions. RTGS is a large value (minimum value of transaction should be Rs. 1,00,000) funds transfer system whereby financial intermediaries can settle interbank transfers for their own account as well as for their customers.

National Electronic Fund Transfer: It is an online system for transferring funds of Indian financial institution . This facility is used mainly to transfer funds below Rs. 1,00,000.The key difference between RTGS and NEFT is that while RTGS is on gross settlement basis, NEFT is on net settlement basis.

Mobile Banking

Mobile banking (also known as M-Banking, mbanking, SMS Banking etc.) is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments etc. via a mobile device such as a mobile phone. Mobile banking today (2007) is most often performed via SMS or the Mobile Internet but can also use special programs called clients downloaded to mobile device.
Over the last few years, the mobile and wireless market has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world and it is still growing at a rapid pace. According to the GSM Association and Ovum, the number of mobile subscribers exceeded 2 billion in September 2005, and now it is close to 4.6 billion
The mobile payment industry will experience steady growth, as the number of mobile payment users worldwide will total 73.4 million in 2009, up 70.4 percent from 2008 when there were 43.1 million users, according to Gartner, Inc.
Gartner predicts that the number of mobile payment users will reach more than 190 million in 2012, representing more than 3 percent of total mobile users worldwide and attaining a level at which it will be considered "mainstream." Gartner defines a mobile payment as paying for a product or service using mobile technology such as a short message service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and NFC( near-field communication).
With mobile technology, banks can offer services to their customers such as doing funds transfer while travelling, receiving online updates of stock price or even performing stock trading while being stuck in traffic. Smartphones and 3G connectivity provide some capabilities that older text message-only phones do not.
According to a study by financial consultancy Celent, 35% of online banking households will be using mobile banking by 2010, up from less than 1% today. Upwards of 70% of bank center call volume is projected to come from mobile phones. Mobile banking will eventually allow users to make payments at the physical point of sale. "Mobile contactless payments” will make up 10% of the contactless market by 2010.
Many believe that mobile users have just started to fully utilize the data capabilities in their mobile phones. In Asian countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines, where mobile infrastructure is comparatively better than the fixed-line infrastructure, and in European countries, where mobile phone penetration is very high (at least 80% of consumers use a mobile phone), mobile banking is likely to appeal even more. The banking agent is an important part of the mobile banking business model since customer care, service quality, and cash management will depend on them.
Mobile banking in India: Thirty-two banks have been given approval to provide mobile banking services in India. Of this, 21 banks have started providing these services.

RBI guidelines: For the present, banks are permitted to offer this facility to their customers subject to a daily cap of Rs. 5000/- per customer for funds transfer and Rs.10,000/- per customer for transactions involving purchase of goods/services. Now it has been increased to 50000/-
The services shall be restricted only to customers of banks and/or holders of debit/credit cards.Only banks who have implemented core banking solutions would be permitted to provide mobile banking services.

In future, interoperability between mobile banking service providers and banks and development of a host of message formats. To ensure inter-operability between banks, and between their mobile banking service providers, banks shall adopt the message formats like ISO 8583, with suitable modification to address specific needs.
Obopay India has partnered with Tagit, provider of mobile interactive platform, to create a common mobile banking infrastructure for banks, telecom companies and other financial institutions.

ICICI bank “We have witnessed an increasing trend of customers registering for mobile banking,” a spokesperson from ICICI Bank told Business Line. The bank, which has been offering various mobile banking options to its customers since 2003, now has eight million customers registered for mobile banking services.

Mobile Banking Services

Account Information Mini-statements and checking of account history, Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds, Monitoring of term deposits, Access to loan statements, Access to card statements, Mutual funds / equity statements Insurance policy management.
Payments, Deposits, Withdrawals, and Transfers Domestic and international fund transfers, Micro-payment handling, Mobile recharging, Commercial payment processing, Bill payment processing, Peer to Peer payments.
Investments Portfolio management services, Real-time stock quotes, Personalized alerts and notifications on security prices, mobile banking
Support Status of requests for credit, including mortgage approval, and insurance coverage, Check (cheque) book and card requests, Exchange of data messages and email, including complaint submission and tracking, ATM Location

Online Banking

If the ATMs were a revolution in Banking, the internet banking and mobile banking facilities have taken the entire banking experience to a new level. Gone are the days of long queues at bank counters. You need not worry about their lunch times and closing hours. It means convenience to the bank as well as it saves man hours and helps reduce congestion at the branch.

Online services started in New York in 1981 when four of the city’s major banks (Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover) offered home banking services using the videotex system. Because of the commercial failure of videotex these banking services never became popular except in France where the use of videotex (Minitel) was subsidised by the telecom provider and the UK, where the Prestel system was used.
Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution to offer online internet banking services to all of its members in Oct, 1994.
In India Internet Banking started in late 90s. In 1997, ICICI (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India) bank was the first bank in India to offer Internet banking with Finacle’s (infosys) e-banking solution and established itself as a leader in the Internet and eCommerce space.

Online banking solutions have many features and capabilities in common, but traditionally also have some that are application specific.
Transactional (e.g., performing a financial transaction such as an account to account transfer, paying a bill, wire transfer... and applications... apply for a loan, new account.
Non-transactional (e.g., online statements, check links, cobrowsing, chat)

Features commonly unique to Internet banking include
Personal financial management support, such as importing data into personal accounting software. Some online banking platforms support account aggregation to allow the customers to monitor all of their accounts in one place whether they are with their main bank or with other institutions.
The banking industry in India is facing unprecedented competition from non-traditional banking institutions, which now offer banking and financial services over the Internet. The deregulation of the banking industry coupled with the emergence of new technologies, are enabling new competitors to enter the financial services market quickly and efficiently. Indian banks are going for the retail banking in a big way. However, much is still to be achieved.
• Throughout the country, the Internet Banking is in the nascent stage of development (only 50 banks are offering varied kind of Internet banking services).
• In general, these Internet sites offer only the most basic services. 55% are so called 'entry level' sites, offering little more than company information and basic marketing materials. Only 8% offer 'advanced transactions' such as online funds transfer, transactions & cash management services.
• Foreign & Private banks are much advanced in terms of the number of sites & their level of development.
The Internet banking is changing the banking industry and is having the major effects on banking relationships.
Internet banking involves use of Internet for delivery of banking products & services. It falls into four main categories, from Level 1 - minimum functionality sites that offer only access to deposit account data - to Level 4 sites - highly sophisticated offerings enabling integrated sales of additional products and access to other financial services- such as investment and insurance. In other words a successful Internet banking solution offers
• Exceptional rates on Savings, CDs, and IRAs
• Checking with no monthly fee, free bill payment and rebates on ATM surcharge
• Credit cards with low rates
• Easy online applications for all accounts, including personal loans and mortgages
• 24 hour account access
• Quality customer service with personal attention
Advantages previously held by large financial institutions have shrunk considerably. The Internet has leveled the playing field and afforded open access to customers in the global marketplace. Internet banking is a cost-effective delivery channel for financial institutions. Consumers are embracing the many benefits of Internet banking. Access to one's accounts at anytime and from any location via the World Wide Web is a convenience unknown a short time ago. The six primary drivers of Internet banking includes, in order of primacy are:
• Improve customer access
• Facilitate the offering of more services
• Increase customer loyalty
• Attract new customers
• Provide services offered by competitors
• Reduce customer attrition

Worlds Biggest Banks

Worlds Biggest Banks based on their market capitalisation and assets.

1 Royal Bank Of Scotland
2 Deutsche Bank
3 BNP Paribas
4 Barclays Bank
5 HSBC Holdings
6 Crédit Agricole Group
7 Citigroup
8 UBS
9 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
10 Bank of America Corp

courtesy: The Guardian (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phNtm3LmDZEOoyu8eDzdSXw)

Bank Of Baroda PO (Banking And General Awareness 2008)

1 RBI's open market operation transactions are carried out with a view to regulate
a Liquidity in the economy
b prices of essential commodities
c inflation
d borrowing power of the banks
e all the above

2 When more than one bank is allowing credit facilities to one party in coordination with each other under a formal arrangement, the arrangement is generally known as
a participation
b consortium
c syndication
d multiple banking
e none of these

3 Open market operations, one of the measures taken by RBI in order to control credit expansion in the economy. means
a sale or purchase of Govt. securities
b issuance of different types of bonds
c auction of gold
d to make available direct finance to borrowers
e none of these

4 Bank Rate means
a rate of interest charged by commercial banks from borrowers
b rate of interest at which commercial banks discounted bills of their borrowers
c rate of interest allowed by commercial banks on their deposits
d rate of interest at which RBI purchases or rediscounts bills of exchange of commercial banks
e none of these

5 What is an Indian Depository Receipt?
a a deposit account with a public sector bank
b a depository account wth any of the depositories in India
c an instrument in the form of depository against underlying equity shares of issuing company
d an instrument in the form of deposit receit issued by indian depositories
e none

6 An instrument that derives its value form a specified underlying(currency, gold stocks etc) asset is known as
a derivative
b securitisation receipts
c hedge fund
d factoring
e venture capital funding

7 Fiscal deficit is
a total income less Govt. borrowing
b total payments less total receipts
c total payments less capital receipts
d total expenditure less total receipts excluding borrowing
e none

8 In Capital Market, the term arbitrage is used with reference to
a purchase of securities to cover the sale
b sale of securities to reduce the loss on purchase
c simultaneous purchase and sale of securities to make profits from price
d variation in different markets
e any of the above

9 Reverse Repo means
a injecting liquidity by the central bank of a country through purchase of Govt. securities
b absorption of liquidity from the market by sale of govt securities
c balancing liquidity with a view to enhance economic growth rate
d improving the position of availability of the securities in the market
e any of the above

10 The stance of RBI monetary policy is
a inflation control with adequate liquidity for growth
b improving credit quality of the banks
c strengthing credit delivery mechanism
d supporting investment demand in the economy
e any of the above

11 Currency Swap is an instrument to manage
a currency risk
b interest rate risk
c currency and interest rate risk
d cash flows in different currencies
5 all of the above

12 "Sub Prime" refers to
a lending done by banks at rates below PLR
b funds raised by the banks at sub-Libor rates
c group of banks which are not rated as prime banks as per Banker's Almanac
d lending done by financing institutions including banks to customers not meeting normally required credit appraisal standards
e all of the above

13 Euro Bond is an investment
a issued in the European market
b issued in Euro currency
c issued in a country other than the country of currency of bond
d all of the above
e none

14 Money Laundering normally involves
a placement of funds
b layering of funds
c integration of funds
d all of the above
e none

15 The IMF and World Bank were conceived as institutions to
a strengthen international economic co-operation and to help create a more stable and prosperous global economy
b IMF promotes international monetary cooperation
c The World Bank promotes long term economic development and poverty reductions
d all of the above
e none

16 Capital market regulator is
a RBI
b IRDA
c NSE
d BSE
e SEBI

17 In the term BRICS, R stands for
a Romania
b Rajisthan
c Russia
d Regulation
e none

18 FDI refers to
a fixed deposit investment
b fixed direct investment
c foreign direct investment
d future derivative investment
e none

19 What is Call Money?
a money borrowed or lent for a day or overnight
b money borrowed for more than one day but upto 3 days
c money borrowed for more than one day but upto 7 days
d money borrowed for more than one day but upto 14 days
e none

20 Which was the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ?
a Reliance
b TCS
c HCL
d Infosys
e None

21 Which is the regulator of credit rating agency in India?
a RBI
b SBI
c SIDBI
d SEBI
e none

22 Who is the Brand endorsing personality of Bank Of Baroda
a Juhi Chawla
b Kiran Bedi
c Amitabh Bachchan
d Kapil Dev
e none

23 The branding line of Bank Of Baroda is
a international bank of India
b India's international bank
c India's multinational bank
d World's local bank
e none

24 The logo of Bank OF Baroda is called
a Sun of bank of Baroda
b Baroda Sun
c Bank Of Baroda's Rays
d Sunlight of Bank of Baroda
e none

25 Which is true about exports of China ?
a it exports cheaper goods to rich nations
b in 2007 China's export became almost 40% of its GDP
c When compared to India, China's export share is more than 30% whereas India's mere 6% of global exports
d all
e none

26 A lot of banks in India are offering M-Banking facility to their customers. What is M in M-Banking?
a Money
b marginal
c message
d mutual
e mobile

27 Which is not the part of the structure of Financial System in India?
a industrial finance
b agricultural finance
c government finance
d development finance
e personal finance

28 Which is not part of scheduled banking in India?
a moneylenders
b public sector banks
c private sector banks
d regional rural banks
e state co-operative bank

29 The Govt. of India has raised the amount of loan waiver to the farmers by 20%. The amount is nearly
a 60,000 cr
b 65,000 cr
c 72,000 cr
d 76,000 cr
e 80,000 cr

30 Delimitation Commission has made a recommendation that next census should be panchayat wise. When is next census due ?
a 2010
b 2011
c 2012
d 2013
e 2015

31 Hugo Chavez is
a President of Congo
b PM of Uganda
c President of Venezuela
d PM of Venezuela
e none

32 Hillary Clinton formerly suspended her campaign to ensure election of_____ for next US President?
a George Bush
b Barak Obama
c John McCain
d Bill Clinton
e none

33 Which country allocated US $10 billion to provide relief to its earthquake victums
a Japan
b South Korea
c China
d South Africa
e None

34 Vijay Hazare Trophy is associated with
a cricket
b hockey
c badminton
d golf
e football

35 Which is not a member of ASEAN?
a Malaysia
b Indonesia
c Vietnam
d Britain
e Singapore

Punjab & Sind Bank PO GK 2010

1 New chief of army staff? VK Singh
2 MK Narayan is the governor of which state? West Bengal
3 India gave $1 Billion line of credit to which country? Bangladesh
4 Which film bagged the award for best film in National Film Awards? Antaheen
5 GOI plans to spent Rs 16500 crores in which sector? Public Sector Banks
6 Which term is not associated with Hockey? Bouncer
7 Which trophy is associated with cricket? Duleep Trophy
8 Saina Nehwal is famous ? Badminton Player
9 Which country is no.1 in milk production? India
10 Who got the "order of merit of the Italian Republic" ? Ratan Tata
11 Which committee gave the report for decontrolling petroleum products? Kirit Parekh committeet
12 Which is not a food crop? Jatropha
13 Which awards are associated with sports? Arjun Awards
14 Who has been recently appointed to the Rajya Sabha? Javed Akhtar
15 Who won the mixed doubles Australian open title? Leander Peas and Cara Black
16 Who is a world known musician ? AR Rahman
17 Which institution recently celebrated its platinum jubilee? RBI
18 World Trade Organisation's Head Quarters? None of these (Ans Geneva)
19 Which amongst the following is not an English writer? Harvnash RaiBachchan
20 Like RBI is the regulating bank in India. Which is the regulating bank in USA? Federal Reserve
21 If you are in Bangladesh, you will be making monetary transaction in? Taka
22 Which amongst the following is not awarded the Padma Vibhushan?Shreya Ghoshal
23 Who won the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2009? Barak Obama
24 Which of the following is used as bio-fuel? Sugarcane
25 SAARC summit next year will be held in? Male (Maldives)
26 India is helping which neighbouring country in setting up an AIIMS like institute? I think Bhutan
27 Worlds Science Summit? Thiruvananthapuram
28 Najib Bin Razak is ? The PM of Malaysia
29 Question related to MNREGA
30 Question whose answer was Repo Rate
31 Question related to banking whose answer i think was SLR
32 Which of the following is not a core industry? Paper
33 Commonwealth Representative meet?
34 India-ASEAN meet?
35 Question on India's Look East Policy
36 Question related to River Dam in Andhra Pradesh?
37 Which crop needs most water? Paddy
38 Which of the following is related to fertilizer industry? IFFCO
39 For preventing frauds and counterfeiting , RBI has proposed? Know Your Customer (KYC)

I don't remember the exact questions which came in the exam if any one remembers the exact question then do post it here, it would help everyone.

Oriental Insurance General Awareness 2010

General Awareness section in the paper had 20 questions, GA was mostly static. I remembered 14 questions rest if anyone remembers post them here.

1 Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal's book which has been selected in Denmark for schools curriculum ? Hills of Heaven (not 100% sure)
2 Antibodies are formed in ? Lymphocytes
3 Closest Star to Earth ? Ans is Sun but it was not in the option so Alpha Centurai
4 Provision Constitutional Amendment comes under which article? Article 376
5 Yakshagana is the dance form of ? Karnataka (Mangalore)
6 1 Light year is equal to? 6 trillion miles
7 Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland are together called ? Scandinavia
8 Balance of payments ? Difference between total exports and imports of goods and services
9 % of drinkable water on Earth? Options were 2.7%, 3.6%, 1.2% 5.5%
10 Concept of motion pictures was given by ? Thomas Edison
11 Which State recently celebrated silver jubilee year ? Maharashtra
12 Term associated with Chess? Bishop
13 First cloned dear ? Dewey
14 Bull fighting is the national sport of ? Spain

Bank Of Baroda Agricultural Officer Exam 2008 Banking & General Awareness

1 The UN Secretary Gen. has asked nations to take steps to reduce fod crisis. What suggestions has he given?
a increase productivity limit of small holdings
b invest more in agricultural development research & technology transfer
c increase private sector investment & public funding

2 The GoI is planning to release figures based on revised wholesale price index. The base year for the same is? 2004-05

3 JP Morgan has taken over the major stake of the banking operations business of which US based bank? Washington Mutual Inc

4 " India to depend on edible oil imports for 3-4 years" was the news recently. What at present is the total demand of edible oil in India/annum ?13 mt

5 The GoI has decided to hike the support price of Agri crops, particularly food crops. Why has govt. taken this decision?
a To help farmers in getting good value of their products
b to encourage cultivation of food crops in place of sugarcane etc, which needs more water input
c Govt wishes that farmers should not export their products as it will create a shortage in local markets.

6 GoI has asked various banks to give their support to the implementation of the NREGA. How can banks give their support for the same?
a by opening hassle free savings bank account of the beneficiaries
b by providing job opportunities to the residents of rural areas who are willing to work in banks
c by providing financial support to various schemes projects taken up under NREGA

7 The US Govt. proposed a bail out package, which they thought was able to stablise the faltering US financial system. What was the volume of the package?$700 bn

8 GoI is paying much attention on sustainable growth these days. Which can be called as steps towards sustainable growth?
a e-choupal initiative
b social forestry
c renewable energy

9 Which of the follo. is grown in cold climate of Kashmir? Saffron

10 What was India's rank in "Global Hunger Index 2007" ? 94th

11 Which bank has taken over the Centurion Bank of Punjab? HDFC Bank

12 Which of the follo is not a social sector programme?
a Mid Day Meal
b Look East Policy
c Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyaan
d Kutir Jyoti
e Development of women & children in Rural Areas

Nationalised And Public Sector Banks in INDIA

1 Allahabad Bank: On April 24, 1865, a group of Europeans founded the bank at Allahabad, making it the oldest Joint Stock bank in India, is now head-quartered at Kolkata. On July 19, 1969, the Government of India nationalized Allahabad Bank, together with 13 other banks.The bank has 2260 branches.The Chairman and Managing Director of the bank is Shri J P Dua.In February, 2007, Allahabad Bank opened its first overseas branch, in Hong Kong.

2 Andhra Bank: Came into existence in 1923, it has 1557 branches across the country.
SHRI R S REDDY, is the CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR of the bank.

3 Bank Of Baroda: Started in 1908 this bank now has 3123 branches across the country.Shri. M. D. Mallya is the Chairman & Managing Director.

4 Bank Of India: Established on 7 September 1906 is a bank with headquarters in Mumbai. Government-owned since nationalization in 1969, It is one of India's leading banks, with about 3101 branches including 29 branches outside India. BoI is a founder member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter Bank Financial Telecommunications) in India which facilitates provision of cost-effective financial processing and communication services. The international business accounts for around 17.82% of Bank's total business.Shri. Alok Kumar Misra is the
Chairman & Managing Director.

5 Bank of Maharashtra: Registered on 16th Sept 1935,is head quartered in Pune. Known as a common man's bank since inception, its initial help to small units has given birth to many of today's industrial houses.It now has 1444 branches all over India. The Bank has the largest network of branches by any Public sector bank in the state of Maharashtra.Allen C A Pereira is the Chairman of the bank.

6 Canara Bank: It was established in India in 1906, headquarters in Bangalore. The Bank’s branch network crossed the 3000 mark in 2009-10.In terms of business it is one of the largest nationalized commercial banks in India, with a total business of about Rs.2 trillion. Mr. A. C. Mahajan is the Chairman & MD of the bank.

7 Central Bank of India: It is one of the oldest and largest commercial banks in India based in Mumbai. It has 3563 branches across the country. Mr S Sridhar is the Chairman and Managing Director of state-run Central Bank of India.

8 Corporation Bank: Started about 104 years ago in 1906, nationalised in 1980
n 1997, it became the Second Public Sector Bank in the country to enter capital market, the IPO of which was over- subscribed by 13 times. Shri J. M. Garg, is the Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank.

9 Industrial Development Bank of India Limited:It is one of India's leading public sector banks and 4th largest Bank in overall ratings. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to provide credit and other facilities for the development of the fledgling Indian industry. It is currently the tenth largest development bank in the world in terms of reach with 1162 ATMs, 710 branches and 474 centers.Some of the institutions built by IDBI are the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), the National Securities Depository Services Ltd (NSDL), the Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL), and IDBI BANK. Mr. Yogesh Agarwal, is the Chairman of the bank.

10 Dena Bank: It was founded on 26 May, 1938 is one of the earliest banks in India headquartered in Mumbai.Dena Bank, in July 1969 along with 13 other major banks was nationalized and is now a Public Sector Bank constituted under the Banking Companies (Acquisition & Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970. Shri D.L.Rawal os the
Chairman & Mg. Director of the bank.

11 Indian Bank: Established on 15th August 1907 as part of the Swadeshi movement, is a major Indian Commercial Bank headquartered in Chennai.The Government of India nationalized the bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks, on 19 July 1969. 1,657 branches all over India and overseas branches in Singapore and Colombo including a Foreign Currency Banking Unit at Colombo. 240 Overseas Correspondent banks in 70 countries. Shri T.M. Bhasin is the Chairman & Managing Director of Indian Bank.

12 Indian Overseas Bank: Established 1937, it is a major bank based in Chennai (Madras), with 1950 domestic branches and six branches overseas. Indian Overseas Bank has an ISO certified in-house Information Technology department. Shri S.A. Bhat, is the Chairman and Managing Director of the bank.

13 Oriental Bank of Commerce: Established on 19 February, 1943, in Lahore is now headquartered in New Delhi. Mr T Y Prabbhu is the Chairman & Managing Director of the bank. The bank has presently 1422 Branches across the country.

14 Punjab National Bank: Established in May 19, 1894 under the Indian Companies Act with its office in Lahore. Today, the Bank is the second largest government-owned commercial bank in India with about 5000 branches across 764 cities. It serves over 37 million customers. The bank has been ranked 248th biggest bank in the world by the Bankers Almanac, London. Mr K.R. Kamath is the Chairmen of Punjab National Bank.

15 Punjab and Sind Bank: Established in the year 1908. The bank was founded on the principle of social commitment to help the weaker section of the society in their economic endeavours to raise their standard of life. SARDAR G.S.VEDI is the CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR of the bank. The bank has more than 900 branches across the country.

16 Syndicate Bank:

17 UCO Bank:

18 Union Bank Of India:

19 United Bank Of India:

20 Vijaya Bank:

Banking at a glance

Banks are the most significant players in the Indian financial market. They are the biggest purveyors of credit and they also attract most of the savings from the population. Dominated by public sector, the banking industry has so far acted as an efficient partner in the growth and development of the country.
Indian banking can be broadly categorized into nationalized, private banks and specialized banking institutions. With 30 banking units contributing to almost 50 % of deposits and 60 % of advances. Industry estimates indicate that out of 274 commercial banks operating in India 223 banks are in the public sector and 51(24 foreign banks) are in private sector.
Major differentiating parameter that distinguishes these banks from all other banks is the level of service offered to the customer. The need to become highly customer focused has forced the slow moving public sector to adopt a fast track approach. Indian banking has come a long way from being a sleepy business to a highly proactive and dynamic entity.

Banks that employ IT solutions are perceived to be “futuristic” and proactive players capable of meeting the requirements of a large customer base. Private banks have been fast on the uptake and are reorienting their strategies using the internet as the medium. Indeed the Internet has emerged as the new and challenging frontier of marketing.

Banking began with the idea of safeguarding money, now banks has emerged as money managers not just for individuals but for associations, companies and even countries. Switzerland is one country whose economy mainly runs from its banking industry.

A bank is a pillar of trust. It safeguards your money, transfers it, manages it and invests it. In today’s competitive scenario, it has become very necessary for a bank to provide its customers with a wide variety of services and the best technology.

The Maharatna, Navratna and Miniratna

Maharatna
The main objective of the Maharatna scheme is to empower mega CPSEs to expand their operations and emerge as global giants.
Of the 18 Navaratnas, SAIL, ONGC and NTPC met the stiff criteria set by the government, including a three-year track record of annual net profit of over Rs 5,000 crore, net worth of Rs 15,000 crore and turnover of Rs 25,000 crore, besides being listed entities in the bourses.
The coveted status empowers the boards of these firms to take investment decisions up to Rs 5,000 crore as against the present Rs 1,000 crore limit without seeking government approval. The Maharatna firms would now be free to decide on investments up to 15% of their net worth in a project, limited to an absolute ceiling of Rs 5,000 crore.
The Navaratna companies could invest up to Rs 1,000 crore without government approval.

Navratna CPSEs
Navratna was the title given originally to nine Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), identified by the Government of India in 1997 as its most prestigious, which allowed them greater autonomy to compete in the global market.
The Navratna status is offered to PSEs, which gives a company enhanced financial and operational autonomy and empowers it to invest up to Rs. 1000 crore or 15% of their net worth on a single project without seeking government approval. In a year, these companies can spend up to 30% of their net worth not exceeding Rs. 1000 cr. They will also have the freedom to enter joint ventures, form alliances and float subsidiaries abroad.
Navratna status is conferred by Department of Public Enterprises. To be qualified as a Navratna, the company must obtain a score of 60 (out of 100). The score is based on six parameters which include net profit to net worth, total manpower cost to total cost of production or cost of services, PBDIT (Profit Before Depreciation, Interest and Taxes) to capital employed, PBDIT to turnover, EPS (Earning Per Share) and inter-sectoral performance. Additionally, a company must first be a Miniratna and have four independent directors on its board before it can be made a Navratna
Bharat Electronics Limited
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
Coal India Limited
GAIL (India) Limited
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
Indian Oil Corporation Limited
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
National Aluminium Company Limited
NMDC Limited
Oil India Limited
Power Finance Corporation Limited
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited
Rural Electrification Corporation Limited
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited
Shipping Corporation of India Limited

Miniratna Category - I CPSEs
Miniratnas can also enter into joint ventures, set subsidiary companies and overseas offices but with certain conditions. This designation applies to PSEs that have made profits continuously for the last three years or earned a net profit of Rs. 30 crore or more in one of the three years. These miniratnas granted certain autonomy like incurring capital expenditure without government approval up to Rs. 500 crore or equal to their net worth, whichever is lower.

1.Airports Authority of India
2.Balmer Lawrie & Co. Limited
3.Bharat Dynamics Limited
4.BEML Limited
5.Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
6.Bongaigaon Refineries & Petrochemicals Limited
7.Central Warehousing Corporation
8.Central Coalfields Limited
9.Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited
10.Cochin Shipyard Limited
11.Container Corporation of India Limited
12.Dredging Corporation of India Limited
13.Engineers India Limited
14.Ennore Ports Limited
15.Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited
16.Goa Shipyard Limited
17.Hindustan Copper Limited
18.Hindustan Latex Limited
19.Hindustan Newsprint Limited
20.Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited
21.Housing & Urban Development Corporation Limited
22.India Tourism Development Corporation Limited
23.Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited
24.IRCON International Limited
25.Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited
26.Mazagaon Docks Limited
27.Mahanadi Coalfields Limited
28.Manganese Ore India Limited
29.Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited
30.Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited
31.MMTC Limited
32.MSTC Limited
33.National Fertilizers Limited
34.Neyveli Lignite Corporation
35.NHPC Limited
36.Northern Coalfields Limited
37.Numaligarh Refinery Limited
38.Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited
39.RITES Limited
40. Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited
41. Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited
42. South Eastern Coalfields Limited
43. State Trading Corporation of India Limited
44.Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Limited
45.Telecommunications Consultants (India) Limited
46.Western Coalfields Limited


Miniratna Category-II CPSEs
This category include those PSEs which have made profits for the last three years continuously and should have a positive net worth. Category II miniratnas have autonomy to incurring the capital expenditure without government approval up to Rs. 300 crore or up to 50% of their net worth whichever is lower.

47.Broadcast Engineering Consultants (I) Limited
48.Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited
49.Educational Consultants (I) Limited
50.Engineering Projects (I) Limited
51.Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited
52.HMT (International) Limited
53.HSCC (India) Limited
54.India Trade Promotion Organization
55.Indian Medicines Pharmaceuticals Corporation Limited
56.M E C O N Limited
57.National Film Development Corporation Limited
58.P E C Limited
59.Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Limited
60.Water & Power Consultancy (India) Limited

Chairpersons of Important Commissions

Chairman of 13th Finance Commission of India: Dr. Vijay Kelkar
Chairman of 18th Law Commission of India: A. R. Lakshamanan
Chairman of National Knowledge Commission: Sam Pitroda
Chairman of National Farmer Commission: M.S. Swaminathan
Chairman of National Investment Commission: Ratan Tata
Chairperson of the National Commission for Women: Girija Vyas
Acting chairperson of National Human Rights Commission: G. P. Mathur
Chairman of National Commission for Minorities: Mohammed Shafi Qureshi
Chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes: S. R. Pandian
Chairman of National Commission of Economically Backward Classes: S. R. Sinha
Chairman of National Commission of Scheduled Castes (SCs): Buta Singh
Chairman of National Commission of Scheduled Tribes (STs): Urmila Singh
Chairman of the Babri Masjid demolition issue: M.S. Liberhan
Chairman of 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case: Justice Sri Krishna
Chairman (part time) of Forest Commission of India: B.N. Kirpal
Chairman of Central Water Commission: A.K. Bajaj
Chairman of Company Law Board: S. Balasubramanium
Chairman of National Statistical Commission: R. Radhakrishna
Chairman of the Committee on the Fully Convertibility of Rupee/ Capital Account Convertibility:S. S. Tarapore
Chairman of the sixth pay commission: B. N. Srikrishna
Chairman of the committee appointed to study at the status of Muslims in India: Rajinder Sachar

Heads of Important Government Institutions and Organizations

Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India: K. G. Balakrishnan
Chairman of Sangeet Natak Academy: Ram Niwas Mirdha
President of Sahitya Academy: Sunil Gangopadhyay
Chairperson of Prasar Bharti : Mrinal Pande
Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharti of India: Baljeet Singh Lalli
Chairman of the Planning Commission of India : Dr. Manmohan Singh
Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India: Montek Singh Ahluwalia
President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII): Venu Srinivasan
Director General of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII): Chandrajeet Banerjee
President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FICCI): Harsh Pati Singhania
President of National Association of Software and Service Companies(NASSCOM): Som Mittal
Chairman of National Association of Software and Service Companies(NASSCOM): Pramod Bhasin
Chairman of National School of Drama: Amal Allana
Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG): Vinod Rai
Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC): Pratyush Sinha
Director General of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research:Samir K. Brahmachari
Director of Indian Agriculture Research Institute(IARI): Hari Shankar Gupta
Chairman of the Election Commission / Chief Election Commissioner: Naveen Chawla
Attorney General of India: Goolam E. Vahanwati
Solicitor General of India : Gopal Subramanium
Law minister to the Government of India :- M. Veerappa Moily
Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India: T.S. Vijayan
Chairman cum Managing Director of (CMD) of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC):Yogesh Lohia
Chairman of Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA): J. Hari Narayan
Chairman of National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD): Umesh Chandra Sarangi
Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC): S.K. Thorat
Chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI): Vijay Kumar Chopra
Governor of Reserve Bank of India: D. Subbarao
Chairman of the State Bank of India: O.P. Bhatt
Secretary General of Lok Sabha: P.D.T. Achary
Speaker of the Lok Sabha: Meira Kumar
Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha: Kariya Munda
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha: Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha: K. Rahaman Khan
Secretary –General of the Rajya Sabha: Vivek Agnihotri
Chairperson of the Children Film Society of India: Nandita Das
Chairman of National Film Development Corporation of India: Manmohan Shetty
Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC): D. P. Aggarwal
Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI): Dr. J.S. Sarma
Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India: K. M. Chandrashekhar
Chairman of Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI): C. B. Bhave
President of ASSOCHAM: Swati Piramal
Central Information Commissioner (CIC): Presently vacant
Chief of the Army Staff: V.K. Singh
Chief of the Air Staff: P. V. Naik
Chief of the Naval Staff: Nirmal Kumar Verma
Chief of the Integrated Defense staff: Suresh Chand Mukul
Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI): Ashwini Kumar
Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO): K. Radhakrishnan
Chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB): Amrita Patel

Heads of Important International Organizations

1. United Nations Secretary – General: Ban-ki-Moon
2. President of the International Court of Justice: Hisashi Owada
3. Director – General of International Labor Organization (ILO): Juan Somavia
4. Director – General of Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO): Jacques Diouf
5. Director – General of World Health Organization (WHO): Dr. Margaret Chan
6. Head of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): Ann Veneman
7. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): Antonio Guterres
8. Director – General of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO):Irina Bokova
9. President of the World Bank (WB): Robert B. Zoellick
10. Managing Director the International Monetary Fund (IMF): Dominique Strauss Kahn
11. Director-General of World Trade Organization (WTO): Pascal Lamy
12. Head International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): Mohamed El Baradei
13. Secretary – General of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM): Hosni Mubarak
14. Secretary – General of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC): Sheel Kant Sharma
15. Chairman of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC): Mahinda Rajapaksa
16. Head of the Commonwealth of Nations: Queen Elizabeth-II
17. Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations: Kamalesh Sharma
18. Secretary General of Amnesty International: - Irene Zubaida Khan
19. Secretary – General of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):Jose Angel Gurria
20. Secretary General of Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC): Abdalla–Salem–El-Badri
21. President of European Commission: Jose Manuel Durao Barroso
22. President International Olympic Committee (IOC): Jacques Rogge
23. President of International Cricket Council (ICC): David Morgan
24. Chief Executive Officer of International Cricket Council: Haroon Lorgat
25. President FIFA: Joseph Sepp Blatter
26. Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank of America: Ben Bernanke
27. President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB): Haruhiko Kuroda

SCHEDULES

Schedules are lists in the Constitution that categorizes and tabulates bureaucratic activity and policy of the Government.
•First Schedule (Articles 1 and 4) — States and Union Territories – This lists the states and territories on of India, lists any changes to their borders and the laws used to make that change.

•Second Schedule (Articles 59, 65, 75, 97, 125, 148, 158, 164, 186 and 221) — Emoluments for High-Level Officials – This lists the salaries of officials holding public office, judges, and Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.

•Third Schedule (Articles 75, 99, 124, 148, 164, 188 and 219) — Forms of Oaths – This lists the oaths of offices for elected officials and judges.

•Fourth Schedule (Articles 4 and 80) – This details the allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) per State or Union Territory.

•Fifth Schedule (Article 244) – This provides for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes (areas and tribes needing special protection due to disadvantageous conditions).

•Sixth Schedule (Articles 244 and 275)— Provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam.

•Seventh Schedule (Article 246) — The union (central government), state, and concurrent lists of responsibilities.

•Eighth Schedule (Articles 344 and 351) — The official languages.

•Ninth Schedule (Article 31-B) - This covers land and tenure reforms; the accession of Sikkim with India. It may be reviewed by the courts.

•Tenth Schedule (Articles 102 and 191) — "Anti-defection" provisions for Members of Parliament and Members of the State Legislatures.

•Eleventh Schedule (Article 243-G) — Panchayat Raj(rural development).

•Twelfth Schedule (Article 243-W) — Municipalities(urban planning).

Economic Terminology - II

INFLATION
• A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing power of money, or, an increase in available currency.

DEFLATION
• Reduction of the amount of money in circulation in order to increase its value.

DISINFLATION
• A policy designed to counteract inflation without causing deflation.

STAGFLATION
• A state of inflation without corresponding increase of demand and employment.

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR)
• The liquid cash that all banks are required to maintain with the RBI as a percentage of their demand and time liabilities.

REPO RATE
• It is the rate at which the banks can borrow money from a central bank of the country in order to avoid scarcity of funds.
• Thus, a reduction in the REPO rate will help banks to get money at a cheaper rate.
• It is also a financial & economic tool in the hands of the government to control the availability of money supply in the market by altering the REPO rate from time to time.

PRICE INDEX
• A normalized average (typically a weighted average) of prices for a given class of goods or services in a given region, during a given interval of time.
• It is a statistic designed to help to compare how these prices, taken as a whole, differ between time periods or geographical locations.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
• A consumer price index (CPI) is a measure of the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households.
• It is one of several price indices calculated by national statistical agencies.
• The percent change in the CPI is a measure of inflation.

MARKET LIQUIDITY
• Is a term that refers to an asset's ability to be easily converted through an act of buying or selling without causing a significant movement in the price and with minimum loss of value.

COMMODITY
• A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.

BONDS
• A bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt
and is obliged to repay the principal and interest at a later date, termed maturity.
• A bond can be considered as a loan in the form of a security
• Bonds enable the issuer to finance longterm investments with external funds.

SHARE
• A share (also referred to as equity share) of stock means a share of ownership in a corporation (company).

Difference between Bonds and Stocks
Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the major difference between the two is that stock-holders are the owners of the company (i.e., they have an equity stake), whereas bond-holders are lenders to the issuing company.
Bonds usually have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed, whereas stocks may be outstanding indefinitely.

PROMISSORY NOTE
A promissory note is a written promise by the maker to pay money to the payee. The most common type of promissory note is a bank note, which is defined as a promissory note made by a bank and payable to bearer on demand.

COMMERCIAL PAPER
Commercial Paper is a money-market security issued by large banks and corporations to get money to meet short term debt obligations (for example, payroll. It has a fixed maturity of 1 to 270 days.

SECURITY
A security is a fungible, negotiable instrument representing financial value.
Securities are broadly categorized into:
debt securities (such as banknotes, bonds and debentures)and equity securities, e.g., common stocks.

EconomicTerminology

Economics
Economics can be defined as the science that studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means, which have alternative uses.
Lionel Robbins

An Economy is usually analyzed by the use of Microeconomics or Macroeconomics

Microeconomics - where the unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household, firm or government department.

Macroeconomics examines an economy as a whole with a view to understanding the interaction between economic aggregates such as national income, employment and inflation. It also studies effects of Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy.

Market
The existence of markets is one of the key components of capitalism.
A market is a social arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to discover information and carry out a voluntary exchange.
The information function of a market requires that the buyer and seller are both aware of what is being sold. It is assumed that such knowledge is perfect, including knowledge of alternatives and other factors affecting the proposed sale/purchase.

GDP
GDP is the total measure of the flow of goods and services at market value resulting from current production during a year in a country, excluding net income from abroad.
It is a measure of economic activity in a country
GDP = private consumption + investment + public spending + the change in inventories + (exports - imports).

GNP
Gross National Product (GNP) = GDP + income earned by domestic residents from their investments abroad - income paid from the country to investors abroad.

NNP
Net National Product (NNP) = GNP – Depreciation

Money
Money can be defined as a legal tender that gives the possessor liquidity in hand. It fulfills three functions – each of them providing a criterion of moneyness –
* a unit of account
* a medium of exchange, and
* a store of value.

Banking in INDIA at a glance

Banks are the most significant players in the Indian financial market. They are the biggest purveyors of credit and they also attract most of the savings from the population. Dominated by public sector, the banking industry has so far acted as an efficient partner in the growth and development of the country.
Indian banking can be broadly categorized into nationalized, private banks and specialized banking institutions. With 30 banking units contributing to almost 50 % of deposits and 60 % of advances. Industry estimates indicate that out of 274 commercial banks operating in India 223 banks are in the public sector and 51(24 foreign banks) are in private sector.
Major differentiating parameter that distinguishes these banks from all other banks is the level of service offered to the customer. The need to become highly customer focused has forced the slow moving public sector to adopt a fast track approach. Indian banking has come a long way from being a sleepy business to a highly proactive and dynamic entity.

Banks that employ IT solutions are perceived to be “futuristic” and proactive players capable of meeting the requirements of a large customer base. Private banks have been fast on the uptake and are reorienting their strategies using the internet as the medium. Indeed the Internet has emerged as the new and challenging frontier of marketing.

Banking began with the idea of safeguarding money, now banks has emerged as money managers not just for individuals but for associations, companies and even countries. Switzerland is one country whose economy mainly runs from its banking industry.

A bank is a pillar of trust. It safeguards your money, transfers it, manages it and invests it. In today’s competitive scenario, it has become very necessary for a bank to provide its customers with a wide variety of services and the best technology.