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BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - November 2015

Nov 2015

Sep 16, 2021

Axis Board Gives Approval to Reclassify Oriental Co as Public Shareholder

Axis Bank's board of directors has approved to reclassify The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd (OICL) from promoter category to public category shareholder.
The bank has received a request from OICL, holding a 0.16 per cent stake in the bank, to reclassify it from promoter to public shareholder.
As per the private sector lender, the go-ahead by its board for the reclassification is subject to the approval of the stock exchanges and other regulatory authorities.

EESL Executive Vice Chairman Saurabh Kumar Resigns

Energy Efficiency Services Ltd Executive Vice Chairman, Saurabh Kumar has resigned from the post.
Kumar was serving his probation period after being appointed as Executive Vice Chairman on April 1, 2021.
His appointment was for five years. According to his terms and conditions of service, Kumar has to serve a notice period of one month.

Yes Bank, Six others Settle Case with SEBI

Private sector lender Yes Bank and six persons settled with SEBI a case pertaining to alleged selective disclosure of asset quality, after paying Rs. 1.65 crore towards settlement amount.
Apart from the bank, the six persons who settled the case are -- Ashish Agrawal, Niranjan Banodkar, Sanjay Nambiar, Devamalya Dey, Rajat Monga and Shivanand Shettigar.
The order comes after the entities approached SEBI to settle the proceedings initiated against them without admitting or denying the findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Govt. to Sell 10% Stake in Hindustan Copper via OFS

The government will sell up to 10 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper through an offer for sale (OFS) in a move that would help the exchequer garner about Rs. 1,120 crore in divestment receipts.
The government will sell 5 per cent or 48.3 million shares in the copper miner at Rs. 116 apiece. The OFS also includes a green shoe option to sell an additional 5 per cent shareholding of the public sector undertaking (PSU).
The entire 10 per cent sale would bring down the sovereign's shareholding in the state-owned company to 62.76 per cent.

PepsiCo Commissions India's Largest Greenfield Plant

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated global food and beverage major PepsiCo's largest greenfield potato chips plant in India at Mathura.
Entailing an investment of Rs. 814 crore, the PepsiCo unit will procure 150,000 tonnes of locally grown potatoes, thus benefitting more than 5,000 farmers and creating 1,500 direct and indirect job opportunities.

Govt. Approves PLI Scheme for Auto, Drone and Auto-component Industries

The Union Cabinet has approved the production linked incentive scheme for auto, auto-component, and drone industries, which will enhance India's manufacturing capabilities. A sum of Rs. 25,938 crore will be allotted to the auto sector and Rs. 120 crore to the drone industry under the budgetary provision for the PLI scheme.
The automobile industry contributes to 35% of the manufacturing GDP of the country. It is a leading sector in generating employment.
The PLI scheme has been brought keeping in mind the needs of the present as well as the future, and for local markets too.

Sep 15, 2021

India Ranks 54th in Housing Prices Appreciation

According to Knight Frank, India ranks 54th out of 55 countries globally in the housing prices index as rates of residential properties fell marginally by 0.5 per cent year-on-year during the quarter ended June.
India was at 55th position in the previous global housing price index report for the first quarter of this calendar year.
Turkey, with 29.2 per cent appreciation of housing prices, continues to lead the annual rankings. New Zealand is at second position with a 25.9 per cent price rise while the US ranks third with 18.6 per cent appreciation.

HCL, HANCOM Collaborate to Share Advanced Software Technology Solutions

HCL Technologies signed a pact with South Korean software company HANCOM Inc to share advanced software technology solutions and establish a mutual bridgehead for overseas expansion.
HCL Technologies will support training for software development at HANCOM's research and development (R&D) centre in India, which was established in 2016.
HCL will also share its development studio and provide HR support to meet demand and development capacity at the R&D centre.
The two companies also plan to cooperate on global market expansion.
This includes HANCOM's entry into Southeast Asian countries such as Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh, Middle Eastern countries, and HCL Technologies' business expansion into the South Korean market.

Tata Motors Inks Pact with Tata Power for Rooftop Solar Project

Tata Motors inked a pact with Tata Power to install and operate a 3 MWp rooftop solar project at its passenger vehicle business unit (PVBU) plant in Pune.
The solar rooftop project is expected to generate nearly 45 lakh KWh per year, reducing carbon emissions by around 3,538 tonnes per year.

Paytm Launches India's First FASTag-based Facility at Delhi Metro Parking

Paytm Payments Bank launched the country's first FASTag-based Metro parking facility, in partnership with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
As an acquiring bank for the parking facility at the Kashmere Gate station, Paytm Payments Bank will facilitate the processing of all FASTag-based transactions for cars having a valid FASTag sticker, thus eliminating the hassle of stopping and paying cash at the counter.
It has enabled a UPI-based payment for two-wheelers entering the parking site, thereby digitising the entire parking payments.

Tata Steel Commissions Carbon Capture Plant at Jamshedpur

Tata Steel has commissioned a 5-tonne-per-day (TPD) carbon capture plant at its Jamshedpur Works, making it the country's first steel company to adopt such a carbon capture technology that extracts carbon-di-oxide directly from blast furnace gas.
Tata Steel will reuse the captured CO2 on-site to promote the circular carbon economy. The project has been executed with technological support from Carbon Clean, a global leader in low-cost CO2 capture technology.
The carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) facility uses amine-based technology and makes the captured carbon available for onsite reuse.

RBI and Singapore Central Bank to Link Payment Systems by July 2022

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will link their payment systems--Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow--to enable instant, low-cost fund transfers for users.
The RBI and MAS hope to complete the linkage by July 2022 on a reciprocal basis without a need (for users) to get onboarded onto the other payment system.
The UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore, and closely aligns with the G20's financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments.

HAL, Rolls-Royce Sign Pact for Make-in-India Adour Engine Parts

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Rolls-Royce signed an agreement for Make-in-India Adour engine parts to support the latter's international defence customer base.
Through this partnership, Rolls-Royce aims to strengthen the ecosystem for Adour engines in India by building on HAL's existing capabilities for manufacturing and supporting the Adour engines for Indian customers over several decades.
This follows the MoU signed by Rolls-Royce and HAL during the Aero India 2021 to establish an authorised maintenance centre for Adour at HAL to support international military customers and operators.

Sep 14, 2021

Kotak Fund invests Rs. 200 cr. in TVS Supply Chain Solutions

A Kotak Mahindra Bank arm announced a Rs. 1,000-crore investment into a third-party logistics (3PL) business promoted by the South-based TVS family.
Kotak Special Situations Fund (KSSF) has invested Rs. 200 crore in TVS Supply Chain Solutions and has provided Rs. 800-crore finance to T.S. Rajam Rubbers Private Ltd. through a non-convertible debentures route.

S. Korean Antitrust Agency Fines Google $177 mn for Abusing Market Dominance

South Korea's antitrust regulator fined Alphabet Inc's Google 207 billion won ($176.64 million), saying the U.S. technology giant abused its dominant market position to restrict competition in the mobile operating system market.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) investigated Google for allegedly blocking local smartphone makers from using other operating systems.
The fine is the latest antitrust setback for Google in South Korea. Earlier this month, parliament passed a bill to ban major app store operators such as Google from forcing software developers to use their payment systems and effectively stopping developers from charging commission on in-app purchases.

APSFL lost Rs. 121 Crore Owing to Lapses during TDP Regime

Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited (APSFL) Chairman P. Goutham Reddy said the CID had detected irregularities that caused a loss of Rs. 121 crore to the government-owned company during the Telugu Desam Party regime, and booked cases against 18 persons, including the prime accused Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad, who was inducted into the board of directors after he was made to step down as the MD of a software firm.
Mr. Reddy alleged that Mr. Prasad, who headed the APSFL tenders committee, and the others had colluded with some private companies in the supply of signal meters, cables and other equipment and payments were made without the bills being submitted. There were massive irregularities in tenders worth Rs. 321 crore invited by the APSFL.

India, U.S. to Tie up on Green Energy

The United States is to collaborate with India to work towards installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030.
Currently India's installed power capacity is projected to be 476 GW by 2021-22, and is expected to rise to at least 817 GW by 2030.
Mr. Kerry is on an official visit to India from September 12-14, and is meeting Ministers and industrialists to "raise global climate ambition and speed India's clean energy transition," according to a communique from the U.S. State Department.

Sep 13, 2021

Indiabulls Housing Gets CCI Approval to Divest Mutual Fund Business

Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHFL) received the CCI approval to divest its mutual fund business to Groww for Rs. 175 crore.
The company's wholly-owned subsidiaries Indiabulls Asset Management Company Ltd (IMACL) and Indiabulls Trustee Company Ltd (ITCL) had entered into a definitive transaction agreement in May this year with Nextbillion Technology (Groww) for divestment of mutual fund business carried out by these two entities.
Groww commenced its financial services business in May 2016. It is currently one of the leading tech platforms for investing in stocks and mutual funds.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, it is backed by marquee investors like Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Y Combinator and Ribbit Capital.
Groww serves over 1.5 crore users in more than 900 cities across India.

Commerce Ministry Recommends Anti-dumping Duty on certain Aluminium Items

The commerce ministry's investigation arm DGTR has recommended the imposition of anti-dumping duty on certain aluminium products from China to guard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports.
The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has concluded in its probe that the dumped imports of 'Certain Flat-Rolled Products of Aluminium' from China have impacted the domestic industry.
The DGTR has recommended USD 65 per tonne and USD 449 per tonne on imports. The finance ministry takes the final decision to impose the duty.

Udaan Names Vaibhav Gupta as CEO

Udaan moved to a CEO-led structure and co-founder Vaibhav Gupta assumed the role of chief executive officer as the B2B e-commerce platform looks at becoming a publicly listed entity in the next 18-24 months.
The other two co-founders, Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, as board members will actively work with Gupta to ensure that the organisation effectively transitions to a CEO-led structure for continued success.
The plan, that involves a CEO-led and board driven organisation, envisages building Udaan as a future-ready organisation with an aim to capitalise on the enormous growth opportunity that the Indian e-commerce market offers.

Sep 12, 2021

CCI Approves Stake-buy in ONGC Tripura Power Company by GAIL

Fair trade regulator CCI gave its nod for acquisition of 26 per cent equity stake in ONGC Tripura Power Company by GAIL (India).
The stake is being acquired from IL&FS group companies IL&FS Energy Development Company Ltd and IL&FS Financial Services Ltd.
GAIL had participated in an open bidding process and had emerged as the highest bidder pursuant to the expression of interest issued for acquiring 26 per cent stake held by the IL&FS Group in ONGC Tripura Power Corporation Ltd.

CoinSwitch Kuber Becomes India's Largest Crypto Exchange

Crypto trading platform and exchange CoinSwitch Kuber has become the largest crypto asset platform in the country after it onboarded more than 10 million users.
CoinSwitch Kuber has reached the milestone in just 15 months since starting operations in India in June 2020.
The surge in users for CoinSwitch Kuber is also a reflection of the rising acceptance of crypto investing in India despite uncertainty around government regulations. India alongwith Vietnam has seen the biggest surge in crypto adoption in the world over the past year.

Ujjivan Financial Services Appoints Sanjeev Barnwal as New CEO

Ujjivan Financial Services has appointed Sanjeev Barnwal as its new chief executive officer.
The company's board of directors at its meeting considered and unanimously approved the appointment of Sanjeev Barnwal as chief executive officer.
Ujjivan Financial said Barnwal will continue to be the company secretary (CS) and key managerial personnel (KMP) of the company.
His elevation comes as former head Carol Furtado assumed charge as the CEO of subsidiary Ujjivan Small Finance Bank last month.

ICICI Lombard Ceases to be ICICI Bank Subsidiary Post Bharti AXA Merger

ICICI Bank said that ICICI Lombard General Insurance has ceased to be its subsidiary, as shareholding of the bank has come down to 48 per cent after the merger of Bharti AXA with the insurer.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company (ICICI Lombard) had in September 2021, allotted equity shares of the company to the eligible shareholders of Bharti AXA General Insurance Company (Bharti AXA), as per the scheme of arrangement between the two insurers.
With the merger of Bharti AXA with ICICI Lombard, both the former owners of Bharti AXA have exited the non-life insurance business.

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