General / Economy / Banking Awareness
Scope
Static banking plus roughly the last six months of national news. Static: RBI functions and monetary policy tools (repo, reverse repo, MSF, CRR, SLR, open market operations), the structure of Indian banking (scheduled and commercial banks, cooperative banks, RRBs, payment banks, small finance banks), account types, negotiable instruments, NPA classification and recovery laws such as SARFAESI and the IBC, Basel III, financial inclusion, and payment systems (NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, UPI, NPCI products). Know the regulators - RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA - plus the roles of NABARD, SIDBI and EXIM Bank, and the difference between GDP and GNP, CPI and WPI, fiscal and revenue deficit.
Current affairs
Track RBI policy decisions, new schemes, budget allocations, index rankings, appointments, summits and awards. Link each static concept to a headline: knowing 'CRR' is useless unless you also know the latest rate and what changing it does to liquidity.
Traps
- Repo and reverse repo reversed: repo injects liquidity, reverse repo absorbs it.
- CRR is held with the RBI; SLR is held by the bank in approved securities.
- NEFT settles in batches, RTGS is real-time with a higher minimum ticket, IMPS runs round the clock through NPCI.
- Which body regulates what: insurance is IRDAI, pensions PFRDA, securities SEBI - never RBI.
Rule of thumb
For any policy question ask three things: who acted, which instrument was used, and which way liquidity or cost moves.
Worked example
If the RBI raises the repo rate, borrowing becomes costlier, credit growth slows and deposit rates usually rise - reason through that chain rather than memorising it.