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BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - September 2015

Sep 2015

Jan 16, 2020

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Announces $1 Billion Investment To Digitise Small, Medium Businesses

  • Amazon.com Inc chief Jeff Bezos announced USD 1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online and committed to exporting USD 10 billion worth of India-made goods by 2025.
  • Before this, the online retail giant had committed USD 5.5 billion investments in India - Amazon's most important market outside of the US and a key growth driver.

WEF Survey

  • The five biggest long-term risks facing the world are environmental in nature, while the immediate risks that are expected to increase in 2020 are economic, a new survey showed.
  • Geopolitical turbulence is propelling us towards an 'unsettled' unilateral world of great power rivalries at a time when business and government leaders must focus urgently on working together to tackle shared risks.
  • For the first time in the report's 10-year outlook, the top five global risks in terms of likelihood are all environmental -- extreme weather events, human-made environmental disasters, major biodiversity loss, natural disasters, and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  • In comparison, the top global risks a decade ago were dominated by threats to the global economy and financial system.
  • For the short-term, the top risks that are likely to rise in 2020 are economic confrontations, domestic political polarization, extreme heat waves, destruction of natural resource ecosystems and cyber attacks.

RBI Asks Issuers To Provide The Possibility To Turn The Cards On And Off To Avoid Fraud

  • RBI asked banks and other card issuing companies to provide facilities for customers to turn their debit or credit cards on and off, a measure aimed at improving the security of digital transactions.
  • As over the years, the volume and value of transactions made through cards have increased, at the time of issuance or reissue, all cards (physical and virtual) should be enabled for use only at points of contact of use (ATMs and point of sale devices (PoS)) within India.
  • Issuers must provide cardholders with a facility to allow non-present (domestic and international) card transactions, present (international) card transactions, and contactless transactions.
 

WEF Survey

  • The five biggest long-term risks facing the world are environmental in nature, while the immediate risks that are expected to increase in 2020 are economic, a new survey showed.
  • Geopolitical turbulence is propelling us towards an 'unsettled' unilateral world of great power rivalries at a time when business and government leaders must focus urgently on working together to tackle shared risks.
  • For the first time in the report's 10-year outlook, the top five global risks in terms of likelihood are all environmental -- extreme weather events, human-made environmental disasters, major biodiversity loss, natural disasters, and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  • In comparison, the top global risks a decade ago were dominated by threats to the global economy and financial system.
  • For the short-term, the top risks that are likely to rise in 2020 are economic confrontations, domestic political polarization, extreme heat waves, destruction of natural resource ecosystems and cyber attacks.

Jan 15, 2020

SEBI Defers Deadline By 2 Years To Split Chairman & MD Post

  • Markets regulator SEBI has deferred by two years to April 2022 its directive for listed companies to split the roles of chairman and managing director in view of demand from corporates, and to keep compliance burden lower in the wake of the current economic scenario.
  • Under the Sebi norms, the top 500 listed entities by market capitalisation were mandated to comply with the requirement of separation of the roles of chairperson and managing director (MD) or chief executive officer (CEO) with effect from April 1, 2020.
  • The norms were aimed at improving corporate governance structure of listed companies.
  • Now, the date of implementation of the regulatory provision has been deferred to April 1, 2022.

Bajaj Auto Relaunches Chetak In An Electric Avatar

  • Bajaj Auto announced the formal launch of its much awaited electric scooter Chetak at an ex-showroom price of Rs 1 to 1.15 lakh in Pune and Bengaluru post all the subsidies.
  • The vehicle will be available in two variants - Urbane and Premium. A home charging station is included in the package. The Chetak Urbane edition with Drum Brakes is priced at Rs 1 lakh, while the Chetak Premium edition with disc brakes and luxury finish will be priced at Rs 1.15 lakh. Both prices are ex-showroom prices and inclusive of applicable subsidies and exclusive of insurance and road tax.

US Removes Currency Manipulator Label On China

  • The United States removed the currency manipulator label it imposed on China, in a sign of easing tensions between the economic powers after nearly two years of conflict.
  • Just two days before President Donald Trump is set to sign a "phase one" trade agreement with China, the US Treasury said in its semi-annual report to Congress that the yuan has strengthened and Beijing is no longer considered a currency manipulator.

Hallmarking Now a Must For Gold Jewellers

  • The government will make hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts mandatory by issuing a formal notification, but it will give one year's time to jewellers and retailers to register themselves with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and clear their old stock.
  • Gold hallmarking, which certifies the purity of gold, has so far been operating on a voluntary basis in recent years. It has being encouraged by the government because of widespread complaints about impurity of of gold sold in the market.
  • The BIS is already running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000 and around 40% of gold jewellery is being hallmarked currently.
  • No jeweller will be allowed to sell any kind of gold ornaments without hallmark from January 15, 2021, food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan told. He said hallmarked ornaments would be available only in the caratage of 14, 18 and 22. 

Banks, Bankers May Face Fines For Poor Progress

  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to impose heavy penalties on banks, and stipulate higher provisioning for stressed loans. RBI announced it earlier on 7 June 2019. 
  • For the first time, RBI has said that the chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior management of banks can also be held liable for lack of progress. The fresh set of guidelines will be in the public domain by the end of March 2020.

Jan 14, 2020

Now 200 Channels Instead Of 100 In Rs 130

  •  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made amendments to New Tariff Order (NTO) allowing consumers to have 200 channels instead of 100 at the same price of Rs 130.
  • TRAI chairman explained that this was done to remove distortions and unfair practices.
  • TRAI has reduced the prize of channels forming the part of bouquets from Rs 19 to Rs 12. Now the channels having an MRP of Rs 12 or less are permitted to be part of a channel bouquet.

Jan 13, 2020

RBI Releases "National Strategy For Financial Inclusion" Report

  •  The Reserve Bank of India has released a report "National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI): 2019-2024". The National Strategy for Financial Inclusion for the period 2019-2024 has been formulated by RBI under the aegis of Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee (FIAC). The report has been ratified by the Financial Stability Development Council (FSDC).
  • The National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2019-2024 sets forth the vision and key objectives of the financial inclusion policies in India to help expand and sustain the financial inclusion process at the national level through a broad convergence of action involving all the stakeholders in the financial sector. 

India Lost Over $1.3 Billion To Internet Shutdowns Last Year

  •  India lost over $1.3 billion in internet shutdowns across the country — lasting 4,196 hours in 2019 — making it the third-most economically affected country after Iraq and Sudan.
  • The report, titled The Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns, in 2019 by internet research firm Top10VPN, worked on calculating the data in major regions of the world using the COST tool. The tool was developed by internet monitoring NGO Netblocks and advocacy group The Internet Society, and uses indicators from the World Bank, ITU, Eurostat, and US Census.
  • The total cost of internet shutdowns across the world, according to the report, stood at $8.05 billion in 2019, an increase of 235 per cent since 2015-16.

Tata Power Solar Bags Rs 1,505 Crore Project From NTPC Under CPSU Scheme

  •  Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd has received a letter of award from NTPC for a 250 megawatt solar project under the central public sector undertakings (CPSU) scheme.
  • The scheme aims to set up 12,000 MW of solar capacity by government companies by financial year 2022-23. The Cabinet has already sanctioned a viability gap funding support of Rs 8,580 crore towards the scheme capped at Rs 70 lakh per MW.

Record Number Of Foreign Ministers To Attend India's Premier Foreign Policy Dialogue

  •  Foreign Ministers from 13 countries, including Russia, Iran and Australia, would attend the Raisina Dialogue 2020, the fifth edition of the annual geo-political and geo-economic summit, which will begin in the Indian Capital on 14 January.
  • The three-day event, co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, and Observer Research Foundation, will also see the participation of many deputy foreign ministers, former Prime Ministers, former Presidents,national security advisors, military chiefs and other high level policy-makers, scholars and officials.

Centre Opens Up Coal Sector, Does Away With End-Use Restriction

  •  The Union cabinet approved opening up of coal mining and further disinvestments, apart from deciding that the Centre will shoulder 60% of the expense for the North East Gas Grid project. It also extended the validity period of mining lease clearances ending in 2020 by two years.
  • In an attempt to attract investments in coal mining, the Cabinet approved the promulgation of Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020. The ordinance allows coal mining by any company present in sectors other than steel and power, and does away with the captive end-use criteria. While the move will help create an efficient energy market, usher in competition and reduce coal imports, it may also bring an end to state-run Coal India Ltd's (CIL) monopoly.

Jan 12, 2020

Govt Approves Ordinance To Remove End User Restrictions, Boost FDI In Coal Mining

  •  India has opened up the coal sector completely for commercial mining for all local and global firms after easing restrictions on end-use and prior experience in auctions via an ordinance, but the mining minister said the move will not hurt state-monopoly Coal India.
  • The Union Cabinet approved promulgation of Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 to amend the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, as well as the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. The amendment to the latter was required to begin auctions of iron ore mining leases before they expire in March 2020.
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