General Awareness and Financial Awareness for RRB PO Mains
What general and financial awareness tests
The Mains General Awareness paper has 40 questions for 40 marks. It combines banking and financial awareness with current affairs, static banking, economy and government schemes. Questions favour institutional facts: RBI functions and policy tools, money market and capital market instruments, types of accounts and deposits, priority sector lending, NPAs and recovery laws, insurance, digital payments and financial inclusion.
Core rules and concepts
- RBI was established under the RBI Act, 1934. It issues currency, manages foreign exchange, acts as banker to banks and government, and regulates monetary policy.
- Monetary policy tools include repo, reverse repo, MSF, bank rate, CRR and SLR. Repo is the rate at which RBI lends short-term funds to banks against securities; reverse repo absorbs liquidity.
- The MPC has six members and targets inflation at 4% with a +/-2% band.
- An NPA is a loan overdue for more than 90 days. SARFAESI Act, 2002 and IBC, 2016 are key recovery frameworks.
- DICGC insures deposits up to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank, covering principal and interest.
- Priority sector lending target is 40% of adjusted net bank credit for domestic scheduled commercial banks.
Worked example
A depositor has ₹8 lakh in one bank. If the bank fails, how much is protected by deposit insurance? DICGC cover is ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank, so ₹5 lakh is insured and ₹3 lakh is unprotected. The limit applies per bank, not per branch or per account.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing repo with reverse repo; CRR with SLR; fiscal policy with monetary policy; FDI with FPI; and outdated insurance limits or scheme names. Static facts such as RBI's founding year and policy roles are safer than volatile appointment news.