General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - September 2015

Sep 2015

Feb 08, 2022

JSW Group Joins World Business Council for Sustainable Development

JSW Group, one of the country's leading business houses, joined over 200 forward-thinking companies as the newest member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
JSW will be represented in WBCSD by Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director and Group CFO, who also sits on the board of directors of JSW Steel.
The JSW Group is a USD 13 billion multinational conglomerate headquartered in India.
JSW's innovative and sustainable presence in various sectors including steel, energy, infrastructure, cement, paints, venture capital and sports is helping the group play an important role in driving India's economic growth.

Gautam Adani Overtakes Mukesh Ambani as Asia's Richest Person

Gautam Adani, the Indian billionaire who turned a small commodities trading business into a conglomerate spanning ports, mines and green energy, is now Asia's richest person.
His net worth reached $88.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, eclipsing fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani's $87.9 billion. With an almost $12 billion jump in his personal fortune, Adani is the world's biggest wealth-gainer this year.
The Adani Group has spotted and entered all the happening sectors at the right time, which has appealed to a select band of foreign portfolio investors.

L&T, Microsoft Sign Pact to Develop Regulated Sector-focused Cloud Offering

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Microsoft India signed a pact to develop a regulated sector-focused cloud offering to empower customers with the best-of-breed cloud computing and infrastructure services.
In line with emerging regulations, L&T and Microsoft will co-engage with a defined set of large customers in regulated sectors to develop architectures and road maps to modernise their traditional data centres to potentially hybrid models and advance their digital transformation goals.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), the two industry leaders will set up a joint governance group to define future platform designs, investments, and commercial/business models to service the regulated sectors' emerging technology requirements.

ICICI Lombard Tie-up with Airtel Payments Bank for Cyber Insurance

ICICI Lombard General Insurance partnered with Airtel Payments Bank to offer cyber insurance to customers of the bank. This Cyber Insurance policy provides financial protection to customers against potential financial fraud relating to banking, credit or debit card; identity theft; phishing or email spoofing etc. Airtel Payments Bank customers can purchase this cyber insurance policy within minutes using the Airtel Thanks app.
The insurance comes with zero waiting period and allows users to make multiple claims multiple times during the policy tenure, within the limits of the insured amount opted for
The policy will provide a 90-day discovery period followed by a seven-day reporting period.
This means that if the insured discovers an unauthorised transaction processed from their card or account on the 90th day from the transaction date, they can still report it in the next seven days to the issuing bank or mobile wallet company.

Ralf Dieter Speth to Replace Venu Srinivasan as TVS Motor Chairman

TVS Motor announced that its non-executive director Ralf Dieter Speth will be taking charge as the chairman of the company from April 1, 2022, replacing veteran Venu Srinivasan.
TVS Motor Company is an Indian multinational automotive company that manufactures motorcycles, scooters, and three-wheelers, headquartered in Chennai, India. It is the third largest motorcycle company in India.

Mphasis Appoints Dave Cassie as New Country Head Canada

IT services firm Mphasis named Dave Cassie as its new country head for Canada where he will work with the leadership team to increase growth.
Cassie is experienced in consulting, technology solutions, outsourcing, and transformation in multiple industries across North America. He has led major transformation programs for leading banks, insurance companies, investment managers and wealth managers in the US and Canada.
Before joining Mphasis, Cassie was Managing Director, Financial Services Advisory at PwC where he led the PwC Canada Asset and Wealth Management practice. He has worked with TD Bank in Toronto, Canada and Cherry Hill, USA, where he led transformation programmes.

Pfizer India Appoints Pradip Shah as Chairman

Pfizer India appointed Pradip Shah as the chairman of its board following the resignation of R. A. Shah.
Pradip Shah is the ex-managing director and a founding member of Crisil. Prior to founding Crisil, he assisted in founding HDFC in 1977.
He has also served as a consultant to USAID, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. He is a director with several reputed companies and also a member of various prestigious committees/commissions. He is currently the chairman of IndAsia Fund Advisors.
He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and is a chartered accountant and a cost accountant.

Feb 07, 2022

Honeywell Appoints Rajesh Rege as Country President for its India Business

Honeywell International Inc. appointed Rajesh Rege as country president for its India business. He would be based in the company's Bengaluru office.
Rege succeeds Ashish Gaikwad, who served as the interim president for Honeywell India in addition to his existing leadership roles including as managing director of Honeywell Automation India Ltd. (HAIL).
Rege will be responsible for the continued growth of India operations across Honeywell's four strategic business groups: Aerospace, Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT), Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT), and Safety and Productivity Solutions (SPS).
Rege has more than 32 years of corporate experience and his last assignment was with Microsoft, where he was Executive Director, leading the Technology and Cloud Solutions business for India.

Sukla Mistry, First Woman Director on IOC Board

Country's largest oil marketing company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) appointed Sukla Mistry as the director of refineries. She is also the first woman director on the IOC board.
With a rich experience of over 35 years in refining and petrochemicals, Ms Mistry took over the reins of the refining business and operations of India's largest refiner.
Prior to her appointment as the Director (Refineries), she was heading IOC's Barauni Refinery in Bihar where she played an important role in rolling out BS-6 grade fuels and ethanol blended MS. Mistry has an experience of over 35 years in the areas of refining and petrochemicals.
She has worked at IOC's refineries at Barauni, Digboi, Haldia and Panipat as well as at the Refineries Headquarters. Mistry has execution-related experience in various greenfield and brownfield projects in refineries.

SBI Lines up 6 NPA Accounts for Sale to ARCs

Country's largest lender SBI lined up six non-performing assets (NPAs) for sale to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) to recover dues of nearly Rs. 406 crore.
The six NPA accounts put up for sale to the ARCs are -- Patna Bakthiyarpur Tollway with outstanding of Rs. 230.66 crore; Steelco Gujarat Ltd Rs. 68.31 crore; GOL Offshore Ltd Rs. 50.75 crore; Andhra Ferro Alloys Ltd Rs. 26.73 crore; Guru Ashish Taxfab Rs. 17.07 crore and Genix Automations Pvt Ltd Rs. 12.23 crore.

Vodafone Idea Remains Sole Telco to Offer Equity Stake to Govt.

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) withdrew its proposal to offer equity in lieu of interest on deferred liabilities to the government leaving Vodafone Idea (Vi) as the only telco with an active offer.
The finance ministry is currently examining Vi's proposal to convert interest on deferred spectrum and adjusted gross revenue dues into equity and the process is expected to be completed in six weeks. Vi has estimated net present value of interest (NPV) at Rs. 16,000 crore and that would result in issuance of 35.8 per cent stake to the government.

Adani Group Forms New Subsidiary

Ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group incorporated a new subsidiary to set up a data centre in Mumbai, one of the half a dozen cities that the billionaire Gautam Adani's group has identified to set up data centres initially.
AdaniConnex Pvt Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture of Adani Enterprises and EdgeConnex Europe BV incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary Mumbai Data Centre Ltd.
The new unit would undertake business to develop, operate, maintain, deal with data centres, information technology (IT)/ information technology-enabled services (ITES)/ cloud, providing services related thereto and to undertake activities associated with its infrastructure development including land acquisition and development for the said purpose.

IIT Hyderabad to Set Up Suzuki Innovation Centre on its Campus

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) and Suzuki Motor Corporation signed a three-year contract to start Suzuki Innovation Centre (SIC) with the vision of "creating innovations for India and Japan" by way of providing a platform for exchange of knowledge between the two organizations.
SIC is yet another milestone for IITH to play an important role in strengthening the India-Japan relationship. As a part of this initiative, IITH has offered the necessary support for the Centre within the Technology Research Park.

Feb 06, 2022

India's Unemployment rate in January 2022 Stood at 6.57%

The unemployment rate in India in January 2022 fell sharply to 6.57%, according to the data from the economic think-tank, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). This is the lowest rate witnessed since March 2021. In December 2021, the unemployment rate rose to a four-month high of 7.91%, compared to 6.97% in November. CMIE is a Mumbai-based independent non-government entity that serves both as an economic think-tank as well as a business information company.
Telangana recorded the lowest unemployment rate in January at 0.7%.
This was followed by Gujarat at 1.2%, Meghalaya at 1.5%, Odisha at 1.8% and Karnataka at 2.9%.
State-wise highest unemployment rate:
Haryana witnessed the highest unemployment rate of 23.4% in January 2022. It was followed by Rajasthan (18.9%), Tripura (17.1%), Jammu & Kashmir (15%) and Delhi (14.1%).

RBI's Digital Rupee will Help Curb Black Money Menace

The proposed digital rupee to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) starting from the next financial year will not only give a boost to the digital economy but also help curb the menace of black money.
RBI will have each and every trail of the digital rupees.
Black money proceeds are usually received in cash from underground economic activity and, as such, are not taxed, but if RBI has the transaction trail of every digital rupee then it will be difficult for a person to evade taxes.
Announcing the introduction of the digital rupee Finance Minister in her Budget speech said that, the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will give a big boost to the digital economy. Digital currency will also lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system.

Jio Picks up 25% Stake in Deep Tech Start-up Two Platforms

Mukesh Ambani-led Jio Platforms picked up a 25 per cent stake in Silicon Valley-based deep tech start-up Two Platforms (TWO) for $15 million around Rs. 112 crore).
Founded by Pranav Mistry, Two Platforms is an artificial reality company which focuses on building interactive and immersive AI experiences.
The two companies have joined hands to fast track adoption of new technologies and build disruptive technologies such as AI, metaverse and mixed realties.

Feb 05, 2022

Aditya Birla Fashion to Set up Subsidiary for Entry into D2C Space

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) will set up a platform to foray in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) business.
The board of directors of the company in their meeting today approved the setting up of the new subsidiary. Its D2C platform is focused towards building a portfolio of distinct, new-age, digital brands across categories in fashion, beauty and other allied lifestyle segments.
The venture will initially be funded through ABFRL's internal accruals and at an appropriate time, the firm will look to bring in external capital to accelerate growth.

Exim Bank Extends a $500 Million Credit Line to Sri Lanka

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) on behalf of the government of India, extended a line of credit of $500 million to the government of the socialist republic of Sri Lanka for financing the purchase of petroleum products. The fund will be used by the Island nation for the purchase of petroleum products. With the signing of this new LOC agreement, the total LOC extended by Exim Bank to Sri Lanka till date has reached 10, taking the total value of LOCs extended to USD 2.18 billion.
Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) was set up in 1982 by an Act of Parliament for the purpose of financing, facilitating and promoting India's foreign trade. It is the principal financial institution in the country for coordinating the working of institutions engaged in financing exports and imports. Exim Bank is fully owned by the Government of India.
The Bank provides financial assistance to export-oriented Indian companies by way of term loans in Indian rupees or foreign currencies for setting up new production facilities, expansion/modernization or upgradation of existing facilities and for acquisition of production equipment or technology.

IndiGo Appoints Co-founder Bhatia as MD

India's largest airline IndiGo swung back into profit after registering seven consecutive quarters of loss thanks to a rebound in travel demand during the holiday season.
The company appointed co-founder Rahul Bhatia as managing director and he would oversee all aspects of the airline.
Bhatia said that his agenda would be transformational and would focus on expanding the airline's presence in India and in international markets and building for the long term.

Feb 04, 2022

SBI tie-up with Ministry of Culture for Development of Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre for Design

The State Bank of India (SBI) signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Culture Fund (NCF) of the Ministry of Culture, for Development of Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre for Design (ABCD) at L1 Barrack, Red Fort, in Delhi. The main objective of Project ABCD is to highlight, promote and celebrate the products that have the Geographical Indication sign to give a boost to Economic Value Addition to GI products from India.
The ABCD project will be implemented by IGNCA, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture through the ministry's NCF fund. SBI will sponsor the project under CSR with a contribution of Rs. 10 crores for the implementation of the ABCD Project.

LIC Ties up with Policybazaar.com for Distribution of Its Products

Ahead of its much-awaited initial public offering (IPO), state-owned insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), tied up with insurance aggregator Policybazaar.com for distribution of its products. This is LIC's first association with an insurance aggregator, and otherwise relies heavily on its large agency force of 1.33 million agents for distributing its products.
Policybazaar.com, the flagship platform of PB Fintech, is the largest online insurance marketplace in the country which distributes products of 51 insurance companies, which include life, general, and standalone health insurance companies.

Govt. Appoints Ravi Mittal as IBBI Chairperson

The government appointed former civil servant Ravi Mittal as the chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
The appointment comes little over four months after the post fell vacant following the retirement of M S Sahoo who completed his five-year term in September 2021.
In October 2021, IBBI Whole Time Member Navrang Saini was given the additional charge as the chairperson.
Mittal is the second full-time Chairperson of the IBBI, a key institution in implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), which came into force in 2016.

US Regains top Spot as India's Trade Partner in 2021

The United States was India's top trading partner in the calendar year 2021 with a trade of $112.3 billion. The US is followed by China on second. The value of trade between India and China was $110.4 billion. In 2020, China was India's top trading partner and the US was in the second rank. In 2019 USA was India's top trading partner and China was on second.

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