General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - November 2015

Nov 2015

Jul 28, 2021

ICICI Lombard, SVAAS Wellness Tie Up

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories-owned SVAAS Wellness have joined hands to offer cashless outpatient services to health insurance policyholders.
"The partnership marks the launch of Dr. Reddy's digital health solution SVAAS and demonstrates ICICI Lombard's deeper foray into the wellness space.
It is a first-of-its-kind integrated and cashless digital health solution in India. To begin with, there will be pilot launch of the service in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.
The outpatients will get the benefit of doctor consultations, pathology laboratories and diagnostics services, pharmacies, and insurance through various suitable collaborations.
ICICI Lombard will offer wellness solutions to the policyholders through its comprehensive ILTakeCare app to a larger set of health conscious consumers.

Vedanta to Invest Rs. 6,600 cr on Balco Expansion

Oil and gas and metals company Vedanta plans major expansion at Bharat Aluminium Company's (Balco) smelter capacity which will involve an investment of Rs. 6,611 crore over the next 18-24 months.
This would be first major investment after a long gap by Vendanta in the entity it acquired by purchasing majority government shareholding nearly two decades back.
As part of the expansion, Balco's smelter capacity will increase by 414 KTPA, taking its total capacity to close to 1 million tonnes. With this fresh investment, Balco's value-added products portfolio will increase to 92 per cent.
In addition, the carbon plant adequacy business at Jharsuguda (Odisha) will set up a new carbon facility at a cost of Rs. 635 crore.

Axis Bank Buys Stake in IBBIC

Axis Bank bought 5.55 per cent stake in financial technology firm IBBIC.
The bank has subscribed to 50,000 equity shares of face value of Rs. 10 each fully paid up of IBBIC Private Ltd (IBBIC) for a consideration of Rs. 10 per equity share constituting 5.55 per cent of the issued and paid up capital of IBBIC.
Incorporated in May this year, IBBIC platform offers distributed ledger technology (DLT) solutions to the Indian financial services sector.
DLT, more commonly known as blockchain technology, is a protocol to enable secure functioning of a decentralised digital database. It stores information securely using cryptography.

Jul 27, 2021

Highest VAT on Petrol in MP, Diesel in Rajasthan

The highest sales tax or VAT on petrol in the country is levied by Madhya Pradesh at Rs. 31.55 per litre while the highest tax on diesel is levied by Rajasthan at Rs. 21.82 per litre, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed Lok Sabha. The lowest VAT on petrol and diesel is levied by Andaman and Nicobar Islands at Rs. 4.82 and Rs. 4.74 per litre, respectively.
Both central and state governments charge taxes on fuels, making up 55 per cent of the retail price for petrol and 50 per cent for diesel rates. The central government charges a fixed excise duty of Rs. 32.90 per litre on petrol and Rs. 31.80 a litre on diesel. During the financial year that ended on March 31, 2021, central government collected a total excise duty of Rs. 1,01,598 crore from petrol and Rs. 2,33,296 crore from diesel, the minister informed.

Flipkart Ventures, Tiger Global Invest in Thrasio-style Venture G.O.A.T

Flipkart Ventures and Tiger Global have made an investment in Thrasio-style venture G.O.A.T. Brand Labs. It would use the funding to accelerate the growth of digitally native brands in India. G.O.A.T was founded by Rishi Vasudev and Rameswar Misra, who bring with them decades of expertise in this space. Vasudev, a veteran retail executive, previously headed Flipkart's fashion business.
G.O.A.T has completed its Series A funding of approximately $36 million which includes equity and debt. This round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Flipkart Ventures (the early-stage venture fund of the e-commerce firm, Mayfield, Nordstar and Better Capital. Some of the prominent angel investors who are also part of this round are Virender Gupta of DailyHunt, Sujit Kumar (Udaan), Dr. Ranjan Pai (Manipal Group), Suhail Sameer of BharatPe, Neeraj Goenka (Texport) and Alex Kuruvilla (MD Conde Nast India).
"G.O.A.T stands for Greatest of All Time. Through this venture, we are bringing together passionate entrepreneurs, their D2C (direct to consumer) brands, marquee investors, industry experts and a dynamic team, who believe in the philosophy of partnering and nurturing," said Rishi Vasudev, co-founder G.O.A.T.

India Enters WTO's Top 10 Agricultural Produce Exporters in 2019

India has entered the top ten list of agricultural produce exporters in 2019 with a significant share within the export of rice, soya beans, cotton and meat, according to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) report on trends in world agricultural trade in recent 25 years. In 2019, India ranked ninth with a share of 3.1% in global agricultural exports. Earlier this place was New Zealand.
Similarly, Mexico has ranked seventh with a share of 3.4% in global agricultural exports, which was previously followed by Malaysia. In the 'meat and edible meat offal' category, India was ranked eighth with a 4 per cent share in global trade.
The US, which topped the list in 1995 (22.2%), was overtaken by the European Union in 2019 (16.1%). Brazil maintained its ranking as the third-largest exporter, increasing its share from 4.8% in 1995 to 7.8% in 2019. China climbed from the sixth spot in 1995 (4%) to fourth in 2019 (5.4%).

SBI Top-deck Recast

The country's largest lender State Bank of India made new appointments in key functions of Human Resources, Strategy and Information Technology. Om Prakash Mishra is now designated as Deputy Managing Director (Human Resources-HR). Mishra would also function as Corporate Development Officer (CDO).
Prior to becoming the DMD, Mishra was Chief General Manager (CGM) of SBI Hyderabad Circle. He served at various positions in different locations, including as Regional Manager at Regional Business Office, the bank said in a statement.
Rana Ashutosh Kumar Singh is the new DMD (Strategy) & Chief Digital Officer. He was earlier DMD (HR) and CDO. He has served the bank as CGM at SBI Chandigarh Circle as well. He was also heading SBI's operations in Germany as CEO of the Frankfurt Branch.

Nirmala Sitharaman Introduces IBC (Amendment) Bill 2021 in Lok Sabha

Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to replace an ordinance that amended the insolvency law.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced amid opposition ruckus over various issues.
Sitharaman is in charge of both finance and corporate affairs ministries.
The ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was promulgated in April, whereby a pre-packaged resolution process for stressed micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was introduced under the Code.

Jul 26, 2021

Rules Related to Incorporation of Companies Changed

The government has amended the rules concerning to the incorporation of companies which comes under the Companies Act, 2013. From 1st September, these changes will come into effect.
Companies Act, 2013, is being implemented by the corporate affairs ministry and they have amended the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014.
Changes have been made to the Section 16 of the Act which relates to the allotment of a new name to an existing company.
Section 16 relates to rectification of the name of a company which is subjected to various conditions, including that the government may direct the name changing a firm's if it is identical with the name of another existing company. It has to be implemented by the concerned company within three months.
New rules have been introduced by the ministry of Corporate Affairs wherein the 'ORDNC' (Order of Regional Director Not Complied) tag would be attached to a company's name that does not comply with name changing direction within the time period.

YES Bank Inks Pact with RuPay

YES Bank may have to forgo issuance of 100,000 new credit cards in three months. The private lender, which has exclusive tie-up with Mastercard, says the curb will not impact profitability.
The bank has tied up with National Payments Corporation of India for issuing RuPay cards and will ink a similar deal with VISA.
Earlier this month, the RBI barred Mastercard from issuing new cards for failing to comply with rules to store data related to payment systems only in India.
The recent regulatory restrictions would not have any impact on the bank's existing customers.

RBI Increases Loan Limit of Bank Directors

The Reserve Bank of India increased the limit of personal loans given to any director of a bank to Rs. 5 crore, from Rs. 25 lakh earlier.
The central bank amended the master circular for this, and said unless sanctioned by the board of directors or the management committee, banks should not grant loans and advances aggregating Rs. 5 crore and above to any relative other than spouse and dependent children of their own Chairmen/Managing Directors or other Directors.
This also extends to firms in which any relative other than spouse or dependent children is interested as a partner or guarantor.

Shiv Nadar Steps Down as HCL Tech MD

HCL Technologies announced that its Chief Strategy Officer and Managing Director Shiv Nadar has stepped down from the position with immediate effect. However, he has now been appointed Chairman Emeritus & Strategic Advisor to the board, the company added.
The company's board of directors has appointed current President & CEO C. Vijayakumar as the CEO & Managing Director for a term of five years with effect from July 20, 2021.
Shiv Nadar is one of the pioneers of the computing and IT industry in India. In 1976, he founded the HCL Group, leading the computing revolution as India's original garage startup. Under his guidance, HCL has continued to ride the waves of the changing global IT landscape for over 45 years.

Avigna to Invest in Tamil Nadu

Avigna Industrial & Logistics Park will invest Rs. 837 crore in Tamil Nadu to develop industrial parks.
The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government for an investment of Rs. 837 crore in the state.
The agreement has been signed between Managing Director Rajasekaran S. and Executive Director Abhijit Verma from Avigna Group and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.
Avigna will utilise the proposed investment to develop modern industrial development parks in various parts of Tamil Nadu in the coming years.

Jul 25, 2021

PAG Inks Pact to Acquire Controlling Stake in Acme

Asia-focused private equity firm PAG reached an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Acme Formulation Pvt Ltd (Acme) for USD 145 million (around Rs. 1,054 crore).
Acme is a leading contract development and manufacturing outsourcing (CDMO) company with a focus on complex pharmaceutical products.
Viral Shah, the founder of Acme, will retain a significant minority stake in the company and continue as Managing Director and CEO.

Biz2X Launches API-based Loan Management System

Biz2X, a Noida-based digital-lending SaaS platform that enables financial institutions to provide a customised online loan servicing experience for their small- and mid-size business customers, has announced the launch of Biz2X LMS (Loan Management System), an end-to-end API-based platform for loan management, servicing, and collections.
The LMS is an advanced and comprehensive bank loan management system that automates the entire loan lifecycle for achieving cost savings and enhanced customer experience. It is accessible from REST API and can be integrated with any downstream or upstream system, including core banking systems, accounting software, and consumer-facing apps.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Signs MoU with the Indian Navy for Salary Account

The Indian Navy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kotak Mahindra for salary accounts of all its personnel - both serving and retired.
The signing ceremony took place in Delhi in the presence of Commodore Neeraj Malhotra (commodore pay and allowances) of the Indian Navy and Parminder Varma, business head (corporate salary) at Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The bank will reportedly offer special salary account benefits to the Indian Navy like enhanced complimentary personal accident insurance cover, special education benefit for children, and additional girl child benefit, and attractive rates and zero processing fees on personal loans, home loans and car loans.

Banks to Stop Issuing New Cards on Mastercard Network after RBI Ban

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ban on Mastercard Asia Pacific to onboard new debit, credit or prepaid card customers came into effect from July 22. India's central bank pulled the plug on Mastercard over non-compliance with directions on 'Storage of Payment System Data' which mandates all system providers to store entire data of domestic customers relating to payment systems only in India.
In April 2018, the RBI issued a circular notifying all payment networks to store data locally, including end-to-end transaction details, and information collected, carried, and processed as part of the message or payment instruction.
Mastercard is the third major payment system operator to face restrictions for non-compliance with RBI's local data storage rules. The RBI had imposed similar restrictions on American Express Banking Corp and Discover Financial Services' Diners Club card from May 1 for violating data storage norms. While Mastercard has been barred from onboarding new customers from July 22, the restrictions will not impact existing customers.

Jul 24, 2021

Airtel, Intel Announce Collaboration for 5G Rollout in India

Bharti Airtel is collaborating with Intel for 5G network development by leveraging vRAN/O-RAN technologies.
The collaboration is part of Airtel's 5G roadmap for India as it transforms its networks to allow its customers to reap the full possibilities of the hyperconnected world where Industry 4.0 to cloud gaming and virtual/augmented reality become an everyday experience.
Airtel is the first telecom operator in India to demonstrate 5G over a LIVE network and is conducting 5G trials in major cities.
Airtel will deploy Intel's latest third generation Xeon Scalable processors, FPGAs and eASICs, and Ethernet 800 series across its network to build a solid foundation for rolling out wide-scale 5G, mobile edge computing and network slicing.

Government Approves Rs. 6,322 crore PLI Scheme for Speciality Steel

The Union Cabinet approved Rs. 6,322 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for speciality steel in a move that is expected to attract an additional investment of about Rs. 40,000 crore and capacity addition of 25 million tonnes in the segment.
According to the government, the scheme will give employment to about 525,000 people of which 68,000 will be direct employment.
segment by the government because out of a production of 102 million tonnes of steel in 2020-21, only 18 million tonnes of value-added steel/speciality steel were produced in the country.

RBI to Introduce Central Bank Digital Currency in Phases

According to deputy governor T. Rabi Sankar, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will introduce its own version of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in a phased manner and after carefully weighing its impact on various issues, including how it could hamper the deposit mobilisation abilities of banks, and its potential effect on the conduct of the monetary policy.
The RBI is currently working towards a phased implementation strategy and examining use cases "which could be implemented with little or no disruption," said Rabi Sankar.

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