General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - September 2015

Sep 2015

Feb 25, 2020

Indian Bank to Stop Loading and Dispensation of Rs. 2,000 Notes in its ATMs

City based Indian Bank has decided to load more of 200 rupee notes and stop loading and dispensation of Rs. 2,000 notes in its ATMs as a customer friendly move.
"After withdrawing cash from ATMs customers come into the bank branches to exchange Rs. 2,000 notes for smaller denomination currency notes. In order to avoid that we have decided to stop loading of Rs. 2,000 denomination notes in ATMs with immediate effect," the Indian Bank official said.
Indian Bank will load Rs. 200 denomination notes instead of Rs. 2,000 in the currency cassettes.
According to the bank, the 2,000 currency notes left in ATMs after March 1 will be taken out.

TCS and DLF Seek Govt. Approval to Set Up SEZs

Software firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and realty firm DLF have sought government nod to set up special economic zones (SEZs) for information technology (IT) sector in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These proposals will be taken up by the board of approval in its meeting later this month. The inter-ministerial body is chaired by the commerce secretary. TCS has proposed to set up an IT/ITeS SEZ in Noida in an area of 19.9 hectares, according to the agenda paper of the board meeting. The total proposed investment for the project is Rs. 2,433.72 crore.

Mumbai Airport Gets World's Largest 'Export Cold Zone' to Store Agro, Pharma Products

Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a joint venture (JV) between the GVK led consortium and Airports Authority of India (AAI), unveiled the world's largest airport-based temperature-controlled facility, the 'Export Cold Zone' for processing and storage of agro and pharma products, for which Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport will be the largest export gateway.
The Export Cold Zone facility with over 700 tonnes of such cargo at one time with a combined annual capacity of 5.25 lakh tonnes, will be operated by cargo handling service provider and MIAL's business partner, Cargo Service Centre.
The facility also installed with 12 truck docks with dock- levellers, spacious acceptance and examination area, automated workstations, X-Ray machines, unit load device (ULD) storage, ballmat system for ULD transfer and cold rooms.
Mumbai airport, which connects to over 500 cargo destinations across 175 countries through 60 airlines, is the first airport in India and the 3rd in Asia to receive the IATA CEIV ( International Air Transport Association-Center of Excellence for Independent Validators) Pharma accreditation, a global industry recognition helping the air transport industry.

Cash Withdrawals Have Gone up in Last 5 Years, India Second Only to China

According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), cash withdrawals from ATMs in India increased over the past five years. It added that India is next only to China in terms of cash withdrawals from ATMs. "However, the percentage of cash withdrawals to GDP has been constant in India at around 17%," the central bank said in the report titled 'Assessment of the progress of digitisation from cash to electronic'.
Further, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% in terms of volume and 10% in terms of value, ATM withdrawals have been growing more slowly compared with digital payment transactions. Digital transactions grew at a CAGR of 61% by volumes and 19% by value, indicating a shift towards digitisation, said the RBI. Also, the infrastructure for cash withdrawal — ATMs — have grown at a much slower pace, growing at a CAGR of just 4% over the past five years.

Government Approves Merger of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) of India gave Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approval for the merger of India's largest mobile tower company Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel. After the merger, the new Entity will become the world's second largest Tower company after China tower Corporation Ltd, Beijing in China.
The combined Entity will be the Pan-India Tower company with over 163,000 towers and it will operate across all 22 telecom service areas.
Bharti Infratel the tower infrastructure arm of Bharti Airtel has own 42% stake in Indus Towers and the United Kingdom based Vodafone holds 42%, Vodafone Idea holds 11.15% and remaining 4.85% by a private equity firm.
Bharti Airtel which currently owns a 53.5% stake in Bharti Infratel will own the stakes between 33.8% to 37.2% in the new Entity which is formed under the proposed merger and the Vodafone will own between 26.7%-29.4% stakes in the merged tower entity.

Equinor Abandons Controversial Oil Drilling Plans

Oil giant Equinor abandoned controversial plans to drill in the Great Australian Bight in a move hailed by environmentalists as a huge win.
The Norwegian firm was granted approval in December 2019 to begin exploratory drills in seas off South Australia.
As per the firm, the plan was not commercially competitive compared to options elsewhere.
Australia's government said the withdrawal was disappointing.
The Great Australian Bight is said to be one of the most unspoiled marine environments in the world.
Green groups have sought for decades to protect it, but Canberra has been open to extracting the possible oil riches there.
Equinor is now the latest oil and gas company to have abandoned proposals for drilling in the area since 2016, following competitors BP, Chevron and Karoon Energy.

CCI Approves Acquisition of 100% of Issued and Paid-up Share Capital of NEEPCO

Fair trade regulator CCI gave nod to acquisition of government's entire stake in THDC India and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) by state-owned NTPC Ltd.
As part of transactions, NTPC will acquire 100 per cent of the issued and paid-up share capital of the NEEPCO and 74.5 per cent stake in THDC India.
Apart from the government's 74.5 per cent stake in THDC India, the rest 25.5 per cent stake is held by the Uttar Pradesh government.
NTPC is a maharatna company having presence in the power generation business. Among other activities, it is engaged in the business of electric power generation through coal based thermal power plants.

HUL to Set Up Production Arm

India's top packaged consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), announced the setting up of a local arm, which will be engaged in manufacturing to leverage India's growth opportunities.
The new manufacturing subsidiary will help HUL avail benefits of the lowered tax burden on manufacturers, announced recently by the Centre.
According to a stock exchange filing, the board of directors of HUL approved the proposal to form a new 100% subsidiary, which will be incorporated with an authorised share capital of Rs. 2,000 crore.

Feb 24, 2020

India's Top Trading Partner

The US surpassed China to become India's top trading partner, showing greater economic ties between the two countries.
According to the data of the commerce ministry, in 2018-19, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $87.95 billion.
During the period, India's two-way commerce with China aggregated at $87.07 billion.
Similarly, during April-December 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $68 billion. It stood at $64.96 billion with China in the same period.
Trade experts believe that the trend will continue in the coming years also as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further deepening the economic ties.

Sweden's Riksbank Begins Testing World's 1st Digital Cersion of Currency

Sveriges Riksbank (or simply the Riksbank), the central bank of Sweden, began testing its digital version of currency, e-krona. If this year-long pilot project is successful, this would lead to the creation of world's 1st central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The pilot project will be in operation for one year, until February 2021, will use distributed ledger technology inspired by the blockchains that operates cryptocurrencies.
The digital currency e-krona will be used to simulate day-to-day banking functions like payments from a digital wallet such as a mobile phone application.

Monnet Power Invites Bids to Sell Odisha Plant

Following bankruptcy proceedings last year, Monnet Power Company Limited, currently under liquidation, has invited bids for sale of its power plant in Angul, Odisha.
The Angul plant is a thermal power plant comprising two units of 525 MW capacity each.
In 2007, Monnet Power, a subsidiary of Monnet Ispat, was incorporated for setting up a thermal power plant in Odisha.
Pursuant to the directions issued by the Reserve Bank of India, in August 2017, proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code were instituted against the company by IDFC Bank.
Monnet Power owed around Rs. 6,000 crore to a consortium of lenders, including State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.

Greaves to Tap EV, BS-VI Sectors

Greaves Cotton Ltd., a predominantly business-to-business (B2B) player supplying diesel engines to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Piaggio, has, following a business transformation strategy, moved into the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment to take advantage of the fast moving electric vehicles (EV) industry and the BS-VI compliant engine business.
Its fuel-agnostic engine solutions will add to its growth.
Three years ago, when disruptions were coming in, Greaves decided to shift focus from being a pure auto engine player to a fuel-agnostic solution provider and adopted a strategy to diversify into the non-automotive engine segment, clean mobility, including the fuel-efficient CNG engine, electric mobility and strengthen the after-market business.

Indigo and Qantas in Codeshare Deal Talks

IndiGo is in talks with Sydney-based Qantas Airways and its wholly owned subsidiary Jetstar Airways on codeshare agreements, which allows an airline to sell other airline's seats, officials said. Currently, IndiGo has a two-way codeshare agreement with Turkish Airlines and a one-way codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways. In a two-way codeshare agreement, each airline on its distribution system can sell seats on other's flights."IndiGo is currently in talks with Qantas Airways and Jetstar Airways regarding codeshare partnerships. With Qantas, it is likely to be one-way but with Jetstar, it is likely to be a two-way codeshare agreement.

LVB to Focus on Capital-efficient Lending

Cash-strapped private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. (LVB) began focussing on increasing its loan book through assets that require zero or lesser capital allocation, to improve its profitability.
S. Sundar, MD and CEO, LVB said that we are fine-tuning some of our business verticals and have given additional powers to branches, regional managers and centralised executives who were earlier not in the loop. The focus areas are jewel and MSME loans and deposits.

Feb 23, 2020

HDFC Bank Completes 25 Years of Operations

HDFC Bank, the most valuable Indian lender, completed 25 years in February 2020.
The bank observed the anniversary celebrations by committing to plant 25 lakh trees and also digitise 2,500 classrooms.
Its managing director and chief executive Aditya Puri, who has led the bank from scratch, planted a guava tree at a municipal school in central Mumbai, where the bank also donated its first digital classroom.
HDFC Bank is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Hinduja Group May Tie Up with Cerberus to Invest in Yes Bank

London-based Hinduja Group is looking to partner private equity firm Cerberus Capital to buy a stake in Yes Bank Ltd.
Hindujas currently own a stake in another private lender, IndusInd Bank. Therefore, it is to be seen whether the transaction, if talks advance, is able to muster approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
It is no secret that Yes Bank is in dire need of capital and in January, the private lender's board approved raising funds of up to Rs. 10,000 crore in one or more tranches through a qualified institutional placement, or any other private placement of equity or debt.

Victoria's Secret to Have New Owners

L Brands Inc. agreed to sell a controlling stake in its Victoria's Secret brand to private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a deal that values the lingerie brand at $1.1 billion.
Sycamore Partners agreed to buy 55% in Victoria's Secret in the transaction. The lingerie brand, which will include the Pink line of young-adult focused underwear, will become a private company. L Brands will retain a 45% minority stake, while Bath & Body Works will be a public standalone company.
L Brands also said that billionaire founder Leslie Wexner will step down as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Wexner, 82, the longest-serving Chief Executive Officer on the S&P 500 Index, will be Chairman emeritus, remaining on the board of L Brands.

Deutsche Bank Boosts Loans to Cash-strapped Tycoons in India

India's shadow banking crisis and revitalized bankruptcy process are creating new opportunities for Deutsche Bank AG as it steps up lending to cash-strapped tycoons and for purchases of distressed assets.
The German lender is seeing three times the volume of financing deals compared with 2018, when the shadow banking problems erupted, according to Rahul Chawla, the head of global credit trading at Deutsche Bank's India unit. He declined to provide specific numbers, but said that the bank helped deploy a couple of billion euros to Indian structured finance deals.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc. are among the other global firms to have spotted similar opportunities in India's bad-debt woes, which have been magnified by the shadow banking crisis that erupted in 2018 with the default of a major infrastructure lender. As the non-bank finance firms have retreated, Indian companies have been struggling to obtain credit, curbing wider economic growth.

Feb 22, 2020

RBI Clears Appointment of Sunil Gurbaxani as Dhanlaxmi Bank MD

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the appointment of Sunil Gurbaxani as Managing Director and CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank for a period of three years.
Dhanlaxmi Bank was removed from the RBI PCA framework, subject to certain conditions and continuous monitoring, as the bank is found to be not breaching any of the risk thresholds of the framework.

RBI Unveils 5-year Financial Inclusion Strategy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came up with a National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2019-24, aimed at providing access to formal financial services in an affordable manner. It aims to promote financial literacy among customers.
The Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee of the RBI — in consultation with the Centre, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) recommended various ways in which the objective can be fulfilled.
The committee recommended universal access to financial services wherein every village should have access to a formal financial services provider within a 5-km radius. Customers may be on-boarded through an easy and hassle-free digital process. This includes increasing banking outlets of commercial banks. Further, digital financial services have to be strengthened in all tier-II to tier-VI centres to facilitate a less-cash society by March 2022.

Feb 21, 2020

Axis Looks to Buy Stake in Max Life

Axis Bank Ltd is looking to buy more than 20% in Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd, the life insurance unit of Max Financial Services Ltd,.
Axis Bank, Max Financial Services and its subsidiary Max Life Insurance are in exclusive talks to explore the possibility of Axis Bank entering into a long-term strategic partnership with Max Life. The companies, however, did not disclose any financial details of the proposed transaction.
As per reports, the transaction is likely to involve the sale of 20-30% stake in Max Life, and could happen at a valuation of nearly Rs. 17,000-Rs. 18,000 crore. The eventual deal structure, however, would involve a portion of share swap or warrants, for up to 10% stake, in order to compensate for the bancassurance tie-up.

Suzlon's Debt Revamp Proposal Gets SBI's Nod

State Bank of India (SBI) approved a restructuring plan proposed by Suzlon Energy Ltd as the first step towards saving the stressed wind power firm.
Under the plan, Suzlon's debt of Rs. 12,700 crore will be converted into sustainable and unsustainable debt and will be repaid over 20 years. Sustainable debt, which is 32-35% of the total, will be repaid over the first 10 years, after which unsustainable debt, including non-convertible debentures and compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPs), will be repaid. This would mean that lenders will have to take a haircut of 65% on the debt.
Lenders, led by SBI, will pick up 10% stake in Suzlon immediately on issue of shares and 49% stake in its unit, Suzlon Global Services Ltd (SGSL), after conversion of CCPs in 20 years.

Rajasthan Budget 2020: No New Taxes, Job Creation and Education Main Focus

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot presented the state budget for 2020-21 in the legislative assembly. Ashok Gehlot, who also holds the finance portfolio, did not impose new taxes in the budget. He announced concession in stamp duty on lease executed by state government and local authorities, full exemption from stamp duty and concession in registration fees on transfer of sick micro and small enterprises, amnesty schemes to give 100 per cent waiver of interest and penalty payable on stamp duty, existing DLC rates to be reduced by ten per cent to facilitate industries.
Ashok Gehlot announced a DA hike for the state employees besides providing Rs. 100 crore for his flagship scheme "Nirogi Rajasthan" and assuring state's Rs. 2,000 crore share over next four years to set up 15 new medical colleges.
Ashok Gehlot said that job creation is the top priority of his government. "During 2020-21, we will be recruiting 53,181 people more in different departments," Ashok Gehlot said.
In the budget, Rs. 38,524 crore was allocated to education, Rs. 18,530 crore power, Rs. 6,808 crore to PWD and Rs. 8,794 crore to PHED and water resources and Rs. 4,557 crore to CAD.

Indian Bank Eyes Lending to Start-ups

Public sector lender Indian Bank is mulling the option of lending a helping hand to start-ups.
Padmaja Chunduru, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Bank said that Instead of lending Rs. 100 crore to corporates, which carries a higher risk, let us give Rs. 10 crore each to 10 start-ups, where the risk is less and spread out.
The idea to help start-ups, as a new activity, emerged at one of the town hall meetings Ms. Chunduru had with the officials of Allahabad Bank and Indian Bank in the last few months. Allahabad Bank is set to merge with Indian Bank on March 31.

Women Entrepreneurs in India may Help Create up to 170 mn Jobs by 2030

According to a joint report released by Bain and Co. and Google titled Women Entrepreneurship in India—Powering the economy with her, women entrepreneurs in India can generate 150-170 million jobs by 2030, which is more than 25% of the new jobs required for the entire working-age population.
The report identified six dominant segments of women entrepreneurs and said that despite India's economic progress in the last decade, women's participation in the labour force declined and is expected to be under pressure because of labour trends, technological disruption, and constraining social barriers.
The report also pointed out that among other things, women need equal access to finance through broad-based gender responsiveness across the financing sector.

New Polymer £20 Featuring Painter Turner Enters Circulation

You'll soon no longer find Adam Smith in your wallet or purse. The economist has been replaced as the face of the £20 note by artist JMW Turner.
The Bank of England said that the new polymer £20 - which entered circulation and is its most secure ever banknote.
It includes two see-through windows and a two colour foil to help beat forgers.
The new £20 is the third plastic banknote to be issued in the UK after the fiver featuring Winston Churchill - launched in 2016 - and the tenner featuring Jane Austen, which was first issued in 2017.
It replaces the paper-one featuring Adam Smith which has been in circulation since 2007.
But you'll still be able to use the old notes for many months to come. The Bank gave six months' notice ahead of its legal tender status being withdrawn.
The new £20 note is the first to feature the signature of Sarah John, the Bank's chief cashier.

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