RBI has recently issued a new note under Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series with Shaktikanta Das's signature. The denomination of the note is;

Government infused a capital of Rs. 205 crore into the state owned Bank of Maharashtra in lieu of preferential allotment of shares. After the Capital infusion, the shareholding of government in Bank of Maharashtra has increased to 87.74 % from 87.01%.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML), the excess reserves that RBI holds could be up to Rs.3 lakh crore ($43 billion) or 1.5% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). This also includes the excess capital in contingency reserves and revaluation reserves. The Bimal Jalan committee on the appropriate capital reserves for RBI was likely to identify this excess buffer. The committee was set up in December-end with a 6-member panel headed by former RBI governor Jalan. Indranil Sen Gupta, chief India economist at BofAML notified that RBI maintains higher contingency reserves as a percentage of its total book compared to its peers in Brazil, Russia and South Africa, thus a lower cap will bring in more funds. The BofAML report stated that capping overall reserves at 20% from 25.5% will release Rs. 1.96 lakh crore and there is no specific hindrance which would deter RBI from transferring the money to government.

Recently, Etihad Airways, UAE based flag carrier, has become the first major airline in the gulf region to operate a flight without any single-use plastics on board. The objective is to raise awareness about pollution on Earth Day. The flight named EY484, first flight without use of plastics landed in Brisbane, Australia on April 22, Earth Day. Etihad Airways has pledged to reduce single-use plastic usage by 80 percent across the entire organization by the end of 2022 and this EY484 flight is a part of this pledge.

Mangaluru based Karnataka Bank Limited appointed Balachandra Y V as Chief Operation Officer (COO) and Gokuldas Pai as Chief Business Officer (CBO). Earlier, both are General Managers of Karnataka Bank who were promoted as COO and CBO of the bank. The previous COO of Karnataka Bank was Raghavendra Bhat M.

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has sanctioned loans worth Rs 689 crore to over 1,600 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through the psbloansin59minutes.com portal as part of its effort to promote such industries. Under the Mudra Yojana, the bank has offered loan to over 2.69 lakh small entrepreneurs this fiscal (till February 14, 2019).

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has inked an agreement to invest USD 50 million in solar energy project developer Avaada Energy Pvt Ltd to help the company scale up rapidly. The investment will come equally from ADB's Ordinary Capital Resources and Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP). LEAP is a funding arrangement provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which is administered by ADB.

PAISALO Digital Limited signed the first co-origination loan agreement with State Bank of India (SBI). This is the first agreement of its kind in the country that State Bank of India has signed. The agreement was signed with a vision of empowering the AGRI, MSME segment and small businesses. The loan ticket is designed at Rs.10,000 to 2 lakh. The company expects to disburse 200,000 loan applications in FY20. PAISALO Digital Limited is a leading systemically important non-deposit taking NBFC. It is registered with the Reserve Bank of India, in operations since 1992.

Yes Bank has acquired eight crore shares in electric equipment maker CG Power and Industrial Solutions which were pledged to it by a borrower. The acquired shares represent 12.79% ownership in the company and will be valued at ?292.56 crore. CG Power had a turnover of ?6,287 crore in fiscal year 2017-18.

Fitch Ratings has recently said in its APAC sovereign credit overview report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the first Asia-Pacific (APAC) central bank to begin interest rate easing cycle by cutting the policy rate back-to-back in the last two monetary policy reviews in 2019. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Govenor Shaktikanta Das, cut rates in February and April, citing prospects of benign inflation. In the four months of 2019, the RBI has cut policy interest rates twice twice by 0.25% each to one-year low of 6%. Earlier in April 2019, Fitch Ratings kept India's rating unchanged for the 13th time in a row at BBB- , which is the lowest investment grade, along with a stable outlook. The agency cited various challenges faced by the country such as high public debt, weak financial sector and lagging structural reforms.

The Reserve Bank of India sanctioned reinsurance brokers to initiate non-interest bearing foreign currency accounts with banks for undertaking transactions. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) had issued notification and following this the RBI declared Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a resident person in India) Regulations, 2015 - Opening of Foreign Currency Accounts by Re-insurance and Composite Insurance brokers. Foreign currency account refers to a bank account operated in currency other than the currency of India or Bhutan or Nepal.