To widen the access of foreign exchange facilities to residents and tourists while ensuring efficient customer service through competition.

Ans. Foreign exchange can be purchased from any authorised person, such as an AD Category-I bank and AD Category II. Full-Fledged Money Changers (FFMCs) are also permitted to release exchange for business and private visits.

RBI carries out the general banking business of the governments through its own offices and commercial banks, both public and private, appointed as its agents. Section 45 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, provides for appointment of scheduled commercial banks as agents at all places or at any place in India, for purposes that it may specify, “having regard to public interest, convenience of banking, banking development and such other factors which in its opinion are relevant in this regard”.

Reserve Bank of India maintains the Principal Accounts of Central as well as State Governments at its Central Accounts Section, Nagpur. It has put in place a well-structured arrangement for revenue collection as well as payments on behalf of Government across the country. A network comprising the Government Banking Divisions of RBI and branches of agency banks appointed under Section 45 of the RBI Act carry out the government transactions. At present all the public sector banks and select private sector banks act as RBI's agents. Only designated branches of agency banks can conduct government banking business.

The availability of non-competitive bidding facility in an auction will be announced along with the respective press release and the information is made available on Reserve Bank’s website.

Primarily, there are two variants of ECS - ECS Credit and ECS Debit. ECS Credit is used by an institution for affording credit to a large number of beneficiaries (for instance, employees, investors etc.) having accounts with bank branches at various locations within the jurisdiction of a ECS Centre by raising a single debit to the bank account of the user institution. ECS Credit enables payment of amounts towards distribution of dividend, interest, salary, pension, etc., of the user institution. ECS Debit is used by an institution for raising debits to a large number of accounts (for instance, consumers of utility services, borrowers, investors in mutual funds etc.) maintained with bank branches at various locations within the jurisdiction of a ECS Centre for single credit to the bank account of the user institution. ECS Debit is useful for payment of telephone / electricity / water bills, cess / tax collections, loan installment repayments, periodic investments in mutual funds, insurance premium etc., that are periodic or repetitive in nature and payable to the user institution by large number of customers etc.

The Banking Ombudsman is a senior official appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to redress customer complaints against deficiency in certain banking services covered under the grounds of complaint specified under Clause 8 of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006 (As amended upto July 1, 2017).

Non-competitive bidding means the bidder would be able to participate in the auctions of dated government securities without having to quote the yield or price in the bid. Thus, he will not have to worry about whether his bid will be on or off-the-mark; as long as he bids in accordance with the scheme, he will be allotted securities fully or partially.

Banks can pay interest on savings bank accounts at quarterly or longer rests.

Authorised dealers can permit such remittance, subject to the position stated for Question 1 above, after netting of the commission of local advertisement agent, as also local television channel agent and applicable taxes. Authorised dealers are required to satisfy themselves about the applicant's eligibility to advertise, bonafides of the transactions, and that they are in compliance with the Government of India Notification No.G.S.R.381(E) dated May 3, 2000 and S.O.301(E) dated March 30, 2001.

Yes. Foreign nationals resident in India can open and maintain resident Rupee account in India.

Funds remitted from outside India or those obtained by sale of foreign exchange brought by the tourists to India can be credited to the NRO account.

A person visiting abroad for medical treatment can also obtain foreign exchange upto the amount recommended by the doctor or hospital abroad for his treatment. This exchange is to meet the expenses involved in treatment and in addition to the amount referred to in paragraph 1 above.

• Inflation component on principal will not be paid with interest but the same would be adjusted in the principal by multiplying principal with index ratio (IR). At the time of redemption, adjusted principal or the face, whichever is higher, would be paid.

• Interest rate will be provided protection against inflation by paying fixed coupon rate on the principal adjusted against inflation.

• An example of cash flows on IIBs is furnished below.

Example 1 (For illustration purpose)
Year	Period	Real Coupon	Inflation Index	Index Ratio	Inflation adjusted principal	Coupon Payments	Principal Repayment
I	II	III	IV	Vti=(IVti/IVt0)	VI=(FV*V)	VII=(VI*III)	VIII
0	28-May-13	1.50%	100	1.00	100.0
1	28-May-14	1.50%	106	1.06	106.0	1.59
2	28-May-15	1.50%	111.8	1.12	111.8	1.68
3	28-May-16	1.50%	117.4	1.17	117.4	1.76
4	28-May-17	1.50%	123.3	1.23	123.3	1.85
5	28-May-18	1.50%	128.2	1.28	128.2	1.92
6	28-May-19	1.50%	135	1.35	135.0	2.03
7	28-May-20	1.50%	138.5	1.39	138.5	2.08
8	28-May-21	1.50%	142.8	1.43	142.8	2.14
9	28-May-22	1.50%	150.3	1.50	150.3	2.25
10	28-May-23	1.50%	160.2	1.60	160.2	2.40	160.2
Example 2 (For illustration purpose)
0	28-May-13	1.50%	100.0	1.00	100	1.50
1	28-May-14	1.50%	106.0	1.06	106	1.59
2	28-May-15	1.50%	111.0	1.11	111	1.67
3	28-May-16	1.50%	104.0	1.04	104	1.56
4	28-May-17	1.50%	98.0	0.98	98	1.47
5	28-May-18	1.50%	99.0	0.99	99	1.49
6	28-May-19	1.50%	105.5	1.06	105.5	1.58
7	28-May-20	1.50%	110.2	1.10	110.2	1.65
8	28-May-21	1.50%	106.5	1.07	106.5	1.60
9	28-May-22	1.50%	104.2	1.04	104.2	1.56
10	28-May-23	1.50%	99.2	0.99	99.2	1.49	100

In CTS, the presenting bank (or its branch) captures the data (on the MICR band) and the images of a cheque using their Capture System (comprising of a scanner, core banking or other application) which is internal to them and meeting the specifications and standards prescribed for data and images under CTS.

To ensure security, safety and non-repudiation of data / images, end-to-end Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) has been implemented in CTS. As part of the requirement, the collecting bank (presenting bank) sends the data and captured images duly signed digitally and encrypted to the central processing location (Clearing House) for onward transmission to the paying bank (destination or drawee bank). For participating in the clearing process under CTS, the presenting and paying banks use either the Clearing House Interface (CHI) or Data Exchange Module (DEM) that enables them to connect and transmit data and images in a secure and safe manner to the Centralised Clearing House (CCH).

The Clearing House processes the data, arrives at the settlement, and routes the images and requisite data to the paying banks. This is called presentation clearing. The paying banks through their CHI / DEM receive the images and data from the CCH for further processing.

The paying bank’s CHI / DEM also generates the return file for unpaid instruments, if any. The return file / data sent by the paying banks are processed by the Clearing House in the return clearing session in the same way as presentation clearing and return data is provided to the presenting banks for processing.

The clearing cycle is treated as complete once the presentation clearing and the associated return clearing sessions are successfully processed. The entire essence of CTS technology lies in the use of images of cheques (instead of the physical cheques) for payment processing.

Cheques denominated in US Dollars (USD cheques) constitute a major share of foreign currency cheques deposited by customers for realisation. In order to make the USD cheque collection process more efficient and transparent, RBI has advised banks to refine their USD cheque collection procedures and frame their own USD Cheque Collection Policy covering aspects like mode of collection, collection period, charges for collection, etc. This policy shall be made part of their regular Cheque Collection Policy.

Resident corporate entities and partnership firms registered under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 are eligible to make investment abroad in Joint Ventures/ Wholly Owned Subsidiaries. Resident individuals may also invest abroad as detailed in Q.3.

Foreign exchange can be purchased from any authorised dealer. Besides authorised dealers, full-fledged money changers are also permitted to release exchange for business and private visits.

Answer:

A foreign national of non-Indian origin (other than Nepal/ Bhutan/ PIO)	An NRI/ PIO	Indian entity	A branch or office established in India by a person resident outside India
1. The person has retired from employment in India. 2. Inherited assets from a person referred to in Sec 6(5)1 of FEMA 3. The person is a non-resident widow/ widower and has inherited assets from her/ his deceased spouse who was an Indian national resident in India. May remit up to USD 1 Million in a financial year	1. From the balances of NRO account – subject to declaration* 2. Sale proceeds of assets 3. Assets acquired from legacy/ inheritance/ deed of settlement May remit up to USD 1 Million in a financial year *Where the remittance is to be made from the balances held in the NRO account, the Authorised Dealer should obtain an undertaking from the account holder stating that “the said remittance is sought to be made out of the remitter’s balances held in the account arising from his/ her legitimate receivables in India and not by borrowing from any other person or a transfer from any other NRO account and if such is found to be the case, the account holder will render himself/ herself liable for penal action under FEMA.”	Its contribution towards PF/ superannuation fund/ pension for expatriate employee who are resident but not permanently resident.	Remit its winding up proceeds after submission of requisite documents

The deposit under this Scheme shall be made by any person who declares undisclosed income under sub-section (1) of section 199C of the Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016.

The legal tender character of the bank notes in denominations of ₹ 500 and ₹ 1000 issued by the Reserve Bank of India till November 8, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as Specified Bank Notes) stands withdrawn. In consequence thereof these Bank Notes cannot be used for transacting business and/or store of value for future usage. The Specified Bank Notes (SBNs) were allowed to be exchanged for value at RBI Offices till December 30, 2016 and till November 25, 2016 at bank branches/Post Offices and deposited at any of the bank branches of commercial banks/Regional Rural Banks/Co-operative banks (only Urban Co-operative Banks and State Co-operative Banks) or at any Head Post Office or Sub-Post Office during the period from November 10, 2016 to December 30, 2016.