General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2014

Dec 2014

Nov 10, 2022

Adani Group Enters Sri Lanka's Port Industry as the First Indian Operator

The Adani Group became the first Indian port operator in Sri Lanka as construction of the Colombo Port's West Container Terminal (WCT) started.
The group has the majority stake in the West Container International Terminal Joint Venture (JV) which is valued at $700 million.
The build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement which is to remain valid for 35 years is said to be the "largest" foreign investment ever in Sri Lanka's port history.
The state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority will own 15 per cent, while local company John Keells will own 34 per cent interests in the joint project.

Adidas Appoints Bjorn Gulden as CEO of the Company

Adidas appointed Bjorn Gulden, the CEO of rival Puma, as its new Chief Executive Officer, and he will take over the German sportswear brand in January. Gulden will replace Kasper Rorsted, Adidas' CEO since 2016, whose departure was announced in August 2022. Puma, which like Adidas is based in the southern German town of Herzogenaurach, said its chief commercial officer, Arne Freundt, will replace Gulden as its CEO.
Gulden, a Norwegian who was once a professional soccer and handball player, has been Puma's CEO since 2013. He has worked at Adidas before and was its senior vice president of apparel and accessories from 1992 to 1999. He also has served as CEO of Danish jewellery brand Pandora, managing director of footwear retailer Deichmann and president of Rack Room Shoes and is board chairman at Danish food retailer Salling Group.

All India Rubber Industries Association Elects Ramesh Kejriwal as President

All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) elected Ramesh Kejriwal as its president and Shashi Singh as the senior vice president.
Kejriwal will play a key role in leading forward the road map of the apex body for rubber industries in the country.
Prior to being elected to this position, Kejriwal was a Managing Committee Member of AIRIA and has previously served as the Eastern Region Chairman.
AIRIA is a non-profit organisation, serving industries for the last 77 years.

National Payments Corporation Introduces BHIM App Open-source License Model

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) introduced the BHIM app open-source license model, under which the source code of the BHIM App will be licensed to regulated entities that do not have a UPI app of their own.
Currently, a large number of banks do not have a mobile banking app and by licensing the source code of the BHIM app to such banks, NPCI wants to bridge this gap by extending all the readily available features of UPI to these entities which will be an economical and quick-to-market solution for these entities.
Further, under this model new features that get launched on BHIM App in the future, will also be extended to these entities for them to continue accessing the BHIM app's latest features.

Nov 09, 2022

India's Namita Thapar, Ghazal Alagh & Soma Mondal among 20 Asia Power businesswomen

Three top Indian entrepreneurs were featured in the Forbes' Asia's Power Businesswomen 2022 list. They are among the 20 business leaders who were ranked for their achievements in their current role of running a business with sizeable revenue and demonstrating strong leadership throughout their career.
Steel Authority of India chairperson Soma Mondal, personal care brand Mamaearth's co-founder Ghazal Alagh and Emcure Pharma executive director Namita Thapar are the top Indian business leaders in the Asia's power list.

Birla Corporation Appoints New MD & CEO

MP Birla Group flagship, Birla Corporation board approved the appointment of Sandip Ghose as the company's whole-time director from December 1 to December 31, 2022, and as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2023, for a period of three years, subject to the approval of shareholders. The company informed that Arvind Pathak was stepping down as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer due to personal reasons. Pathak was instrumental in charting a road map for aggressive growth and took multiple initiatives to improve efficiency.

Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Appoints Shantanu Rege as CEO

Mahindra Rural Housing Finance, a subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, appointed Shantanu Rege as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
Rege succeeded Rajnish Agarwal, who stepped down from the role on 30th September. Rege joined as an executive assistant to the group chairman, Anand Mahindra, in 2012. Post this, he moved to the rural housing business in 2016 as the chief operating officer and has played a pivotal role in driving growth opportunities within the rural housing business and spearheaded the setting up of the affordable housing business.

MF Penetration: Maharashtra, Delhi in Lead; Jharkhand in Top 10

According to data released by Association of Mutual Funds India, Maharashtra, New Delhi and Goa, respectively, had the highest mutual fund penetration in India, thanks to the higher income levels, better literacy rates and strong inflows from corporates and high net worth individuals. However, it is not that all higher income and developed states have high MF penetration and all 'poorer' states lag behind.

Nov 08, 2022

Renewable Energy Ministry to Continue Bio Energy Programme till 2025-26

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy said that it will continue National Bio Energy Programme till 2025-26 with a budget outlay of Rs 858 crore for the first phase.
The programme would aid the use of huge surplus biomass, cattle dung, and industrial and urban bio-waste available in the country for energy recovery.
The MNRE continued the National Bioenergy Programme for 2021-22 to 2025-26. The programme was recommended for implementation in two phases.
Phase-I was approved with a budget outlay of Rs. 858 crore.

Tata Motors Becomes India's First to Roll Out 50,000 EVs

Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, the EV arm of Tata Motors rolled its 50,000th electric vehicle—a Nexon EV—from its facility in Pune, Maharashtra, becoming the first auto company in India to achieve the feat. The EV market leader, which entered the market in 2020, is now focusing on a three-phased architecture approach for EVs and plans to launch 10 such vehicles in five years.

GSMA Appoints Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal as Deputy Chair

The GSMA, a global organisation that represents mobile network operators worldwide, elected Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel as Deputy Chair among the newly-elected members, for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2023.
Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete Lopez, CEO of Telefonica Group, will continue to be the Chair at the GSMA.
There are 26 members of the GSMA Board, including senior representatives from global mobile operators as well as smaller independent operators.

Kerala Becomes the First State to Introduce Uniform Gold Price Based on Bank Rates

Kerala became the first state in India to launch uniform gold price based on the bank rate. The decision to introduce uniform price on 916 purity 22 carat gold was taken at a meeting between officials of Malabar Gold and Diamonds, one of the largest gold and diamond retail chains in the country and key members of All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants Association which sets the board rate for gold.
The gold rate should be uniform across the country based on bank rate. However, in most states, gold is priced Rs.150-300 per gram extra over the bank rate. In Kerala, gold used to be sold at different prices on a particular day. Uniform gold price based on bank rate offers an opportunity to the consumers to purchase gold at a reasonable and transparent price.

Nov 07, 2022

Reliance Industries India's Best Employer, in Top 20 Worldwide

According to Forbes' World's Best Employers rankings 2022, Reliance Industries, the country's largest company by revenues, profits and market value, is India's best employer and the world's 20th best firm to work with.
The global ranking was topped by South Korean giant Samsung Electronics, followed by US giants Microsoft, IBM, Alphabet and Apple.
US companied occupy rankings from 2nd to 12th, followed by German automaker BMW Group at 13th. The world's largest online retailer Amazon is ranked 14th in the list and French giant Decathlon is at 15th rank.
There is no Indian company other than Reliance in the top 100. HDFC Bank is ranked 137th. Bajaj (173rd), Aditya Birla Group (240th), Hero Motocorp (333rd), Larsen & Toubro (354th), ICICI Bank (365th), HCL Technologies (455th), State Bank of India (499th), Adani Enterprises (547th) and Infosys (668th) are the other companies on the list.

Anant Goenka Appointed as Interim MD of Zensar Tech

Technology services company Zensar Technologies Ltd appointed Anant Goenka, son of RPG Group chairman Harsh Goenka, as interim Managing Director saying chief executive officer Ajay Bhutoria is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed health condition.
Anant Goenka, Managing Director at Ceat Ltd, was tasked with the additional responsibility of steering Zensar, prompting a few analysts and proxy advisory firms to question the succession planning at the country's tenth largest IT services company.

Centre Appoints Non-executive Chairman in Four Public Sector Banks

Non-Executive Chairman was appointed on the Boards of four public sector banks, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) respectively following approval given by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).
Vijay Srirangam was appointed as part-time Non Official Director as well as Non-Executive Chairman of Canara Bank for three years, K. G. Ananthakrishnan was appointed as part-time Non Official Director as well as Non Executive Chairman of PNB for a term of three years, Srinivasan Varadarajan was appointed as part-time Non-Official Director as well as Non-Executive Chairman of Union Bank of India for a term of three years and Charan Singh was appointed as part-time Non-Official Director as well as Non- Executive Chairman of Punjab & Sind Bank for a term of two years.

Reliance Strategic Investments Appoints K. V. Kamath as Independent Director

Reliance Strategic Investments (RSIL) appointed K. V. Kamath as non-executive Chairman. RSIL will be renamed as Jio Financial Services (JFSL) & will be listed soon. K. V. Kamath will continue as Independent Director & non-executive Chairman of JFSL.
Kamath is an banker who started his career in 1971 at ICICI. In 1988, he moved to the Asian Development Bank and spent several years in South East Asia before returning to the ICICI as its Managing Director and CEO in 1996 and post its merger into ICICI Bank, was Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank.
Kamath was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honours in 2008.

Nov 06, 2022

Ajit Mohan Quits as Head of Meta India; Manish Chopra Interim Chief

Meta Platforms said that Ajit Mohan, vice-president and managing director (MD) of India unit, stepped down from his role to pursue another opportunity outside of the company.
He had taken over as the MD of Meta India in January 2019 from his previous job as the chief executive officer of Star India's video-streaming service Hotstar.
The company announced Manish Chopra, who serves as the director and head partnerships as the interim chief for the India business.

IMFA MD, Subhrakant Panda Appointed as President of FICCI

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) announced Subhrakant Panda as its President-Elect, who is currently serving as FICCI's Senior Vice President.
Panda is the Managing Director of Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd. (IMFA), the largest and fully integrated manufacturer of ferro alloys in the nation with in-house mining and power generation. The company employs about 6,500 people.

Niva Bupa & IDFC FIRST Bank Partner for Bancassurance

Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Limited (formerly known as Max Bupa Health Insurance Company), announced its corporate agency partnership with IDFC First Bank to provide best-in-class health insurance solutions to the bank's customers.
The partnership will empower the two institutions to serve customers better and help them lead healthier lives.
Niva Bupa is known for introducing some of the most innovative health insurance benefits across the industry. Their ability to design and launch products for different customer segments will help us offer customised offerings to our customers depending on their requirement and healthcare needs.
Both Niva Bupa and IDFC Bank share synergy in terms of creating strong digital platforms for customers to enable seamless customer onboarding and excellent service experience.

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