Central Bank of India ZBO cheat sheet

RBI was established on 1 April 1935 under the RBI Act, 1934, on the recommendation of the Hilton Young Commission; it was nationalised on 1 January 1949.

The Reserve Bank's functions are split: monetary policy and currency issuance are central banking functions, while regulation of banks, NBFCs and payment systems is supervisory.

Constitutional facts: Fundamental Rights are in Part III (Articles 12-35); Directive Principles in Part IV (Articles 36-51); Fundamental Duties in Part IVA (Article 51A, added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976).

Key appointments: the RBI Governor is appointed by the Central Government under Section 8 of the RBI Act; SEBI is headed by a Chairman; IRDAI by a Chairperson.

Important days tied to banking: RBI Foundation Day 1 April; Nationalisation of Banks 19 July; National Consumers Day 24 December; Financial Literacy Week is observed annually by RBI.

International institutions: IMF and World Bank were set up at the Bretton Woods Conference (1944); India is a founder member of both; WTO replaced GATT on 1 January 1995.

Firsts to remember: first Indian bank to be nationalised in the 1969 batch is not ranked, but the 1969 nationalisation covered 14 banks with deposits above Rs 50 crore; 1980 covered 6 banks.

Schemes: PMJDY (2014) for financial inclusion; Atal Pension Yojana for unorganised sector pensions; PMSBY and PMJJBY are social security schemes; Stand Up India covers SC/ST and women entrepreneurs.

Syllogism decision rule: a conclusion follows only if it is true in every possible Venn diagram consistent with the premises; 'some A are B' does not imply 'some B are A' fails - it does imply it, but 'all A are B' does not imply 'all B are A'.

Blood relations: draw a tree, use + for male and - for female, and horizontal lines for siblings, vertical for parent-child; solve from the innermost relation outward.

Coding-decoding: check letter positions (A=1 ... Z=26) for shift ciphers; check reverse positions (A=26 ... Z=1) if forward shift fails.

Seating arrangement: for circular arrangements facing the centre, 'left' means clockwise; facing outward, 'left' means anticlockwise.

Data sufficiency: decide sufficiency before computing; a statement is sufficient only if it yields exactly one value for the asked quantity.

Computer basics: 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 KB = 1024 bytes; RAM is volatile, ROM is non-volatile; cache is faster than RAM which is faster than secondary storage.

OSI has 7 layers (Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application); TCP/IP model has 4 layers; HTTP runs on port 80, HTTPS on 443, FTP on 20/21.

Input devices vs output devices, and shortcut keys: Ctrl+X cut, Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y redo, Alt+Tab switch windows, F5 refresh; MS Excel formula begins with '='.

Simple interest = P x R x T / 100; Compound interest = P[(1 + R/100)^T - 1]; for 2 years the CI-SI difference = P(R/100)^2.

Percentage change: successive changes of a% and b% give net change = a + b + ab/100 (use signs for increase/decrease).

Profit and loss: SP = CP x (100 + profit%)/100; when two articles are sold at the same price with equal percentage profit and loss, there is always a net loss of (x/10)^2 percent.

Time-speed-distance: convert km/h to m/s by multiplying by 5/18; relative speed for same direction is difference, for opposite direction is sum.

Trains: time to cross a platform = (length of train + length of platform)/speed; time to cross a pole = length of train/speed.

Averages: if a person's age is replaced, change in average = (new age - old age)/number of persons; weighted average = sum of (value x weight)/sum of weights.

Ratio and mixtures: alligation rule gives ratio of quantities = (mean price - cheaper price) : (dearer price - mean price).

Permutation and combination: nPr = n!/(n-r)!; nCr = n!/[r!(n-r)!]; probability = favourable outcomes/total outcomes.

Subject-verb agreement: 'one of the + plural noun' takes a singular verb; 'each, every, either, neither' take singular verbs; 'none' may take singular or plural depending on sense.

Articles: 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds (an hour, a university); 'the' with superlatives, unique objects, and rivers/mountain ranges.

Prepositions: 'since' with a point of time, 'for' with a duration; 'between' for two, 'among' for more than two; 'comprise' takes no 'of'.

Tenses: present perfect (has/have + past participle) for past action with present relevance; past perfect (had + past participle) for the earlier of two past actions.

Common error patterns: 'discuss about' is wrong, 'discuss' is right; 'married to' not 'married with'; 'prefer to' not 'prefer than'; 'senior/junior/superior/inferior to'.

Reading comprehension strategy: identify the main idea from the first and last sentences of paragraphs, then answer detail questions by locating the keyword in the passage.

Cloze test: read the whole passage first, then choose the option that fits both grammar and meaning; eliminate options that break collocation.

Para jumbles: find the opening sentence (usually introduces the topic with no pronoun reference), then look for pronoun and connector links to chain the rest.

CRR is the share of net demand and time liabilities kept as cash with RBI and earns no interest; SLR is held in cash, gold or approved securities and earns interest.

Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends to banks against securities; reverse repo is the rate at which RBI absorbs liquidity; MSF is a penal window above the repo rate.

Bank rate is the rate at which RBI lends long-term without securities; the Liquidity Adjustment Facility operates through repo and reverse repo.

Basel III requires minimum Common Equity Tier 1 of 4.5%, Tier 1 of 6% and total capital of 8% of risk-weighted assets, plus capital conservation buffer of 2.5%.

NPA classification: substandard (up to 12 months as NPA), doubtful (over 12 months), loss asset; provisioning rises with each stage.

Priority sector lending target is 40% of adjusted net bank credit for domestic commercial banks; weaker sections sub-target is 12%.

KYC requires identity and address verification; PMLA and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act govern reporting; STR is a suspicious transaction report to FIU-IND.

Negotiable instruments: cheque, promissory note and bill of exchange; a cheque is payable on demand and is drawn on a banker; crossing restricts payment to a bank account.