General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2015

Dec 2015

Aug 12, 2020

Reliance Breaks Into Top 100 Global Companies

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries jumped 10 places to break into the world's top 100 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list.
The oil-to-telecom conglomerate is ranked 96th in the 2020 ranking released by Fortune.
This is the highest any Indian company has been ranked on the Fortune Global 500 list.
Reliance had broken into the top 100 in 2012 ranking when it was ranked 99th but slipped in subsequent years to rank 215th in 2016. Since then it has risen steadily .
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) slipped 34 positions to rank 151st on the 2020 ranking while Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is ranked 190th, 30 notches lower than its last year's ranking.
The country's top lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has risen 15 ranks to the 221st position.

BSE Joins Hands with Bullion Trade Associations to Deepen Commodity Derivatives Market

Leading stock exchange BSE joined hands with two bullion trade associations for deepening the commodity derivatives market in the country. BSE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Akola Sarafa Association and Akola Sarafa Va Suvarnakar Yuva Sangh in this regard.
These associations represent members engaged in retail sale and trade of bullion.
The pact is aimed at facilitating cooperation between BSE and physical markets represented by these two trade bodies in areas such as knowledge sharing, education and training, events as well as to explore areas of mutual interests to ensure the best interests of jewellers.
Awareness about effective hedging tools such as derivatives contracts, especially 'options in goods' to enable jewellers face a volatile market would also be provided.

South Indian Bank Gets RBI's Nod to Set up Non-financial Subsidiary

The Kerala-based South Indian Bank obtained in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a wholly owned non- financial subsidiary.
The subsidiary would commence operations once the bank completes the related formalities and after obtaining the final approval from the regulators, it said in a statement.
The subsidiary would enable to streamline and optimise various operations so as to improve the overall productivity and efficiency of the institution.
The bank said that the subsidiary was a further step in consolidating SIBs position "as a Retail Banking Power House." SIB has already centralised all its operations both on the liability and asset sides.

Paytm Launches India's 1st Pocket Android POS Device, 'Paytm All-in-One Portable Android Smart POS'

Paytm has launched India's 1st Pocket Android POS (Point of Sale) Device, 'Paytm All-in-One Portable Android Smart POS' for contactless ordering and payments in India. It is an effort to digitise and empower a large number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It is integrated with the 'Paytm for Business' app to generate GST compliant bills and to manage all transactions & settlements.
It comes with an introductory price of Rs. 499 per month on a rental basis and is designed like a phone.
It is much more powerful than the portable Linux based POS devices presently available in the country.
It weighs 163 grams, is 12mm thick, and has a 4.5-inch touch screen.
It comes with Paytm's 'Scan to Order' service that is being adopted by thousands of restaurants and takeaway joints in the country.
It consists of a powerful processor, all-day battery life, and an inbuilt camera to scan QR codes and instantly process payment.
It works with 4G SIM cards, Wi-Fi and also has Bluetooth connectivity.

Aug 11, 2020

International Financial Corporation to Invest in Endiya Partners Fund II

The International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has committed to invest Rs. 75 crore (about USD 10million) in Endiya Partners Fund II. In addition to this, IFC has also committed an additional USD 10 million for direct co-investments.
The partnership will provide financial and strategic support to Endiya portfolio companies, resulting in increased access to growth opportunities and sustainable scalability.
Endiya Partners Fund II is an India domiciled Category II Alternate Investment Fund (AIF).
It seeks to invest in 16-20 start-ups, from USD 500,000 to USD 1 million in Seed/Pre-series A rounds and a planned investment of upto USD 5 million per company.
It has a corpus target of USD 65 million (around Rs 500 crore) and has already completed its first close at Rs 280 crore (USD 40 million) in May 2019.

LIC Launches Revival Campaign for Lapsed Policies

To encourage continuation of risk cover in this difficult period, LIC said that it will provide an opportunity for its policyholders to revive their lapsed policies. It has decided to launch a special revival campaign from August 10 till October 9 for its customers to revive their individual lapsed LIC policies.
In view of the prevailing circumstances, no concessions are being offered in medical requirements and the same are limited to late fee only; under plans other than term assurance and other high risk plans.
Under this Special Revival Campaign, policies of specific eligible plans can be revived within five years from date of the first unpaid premium subject to certain terms and conditions.
The policyholders will get 20 per cent late fee concession for revival of the policy while 25 per cent concession between Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 3 lakh.
Policies which are in lapsed condition during the premium paying term and not completed policy term as on the date of revival are eligible to be revived in this campaign.
The campaign will benefit those policy holders who were not able to pay premiums due to unavoidable circumstances and their policy lapsed.

Isher Judge Ahluwalia Steps Down as ICRIER Chairperson

The capital's leading economic think-tank, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), has undergone a change of guard after 15 years.
Noted economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia has stepped down and has been succeeded by Pramod Bhasin as chairperson. Currently Vice-Chair, Bhasin is the Founder of Genpact Chairman Clix Capital. He has headed NASSCOM and is a chartered accountant by profession.
Isher will continue as Chairperson Emeritus, a position specially created for her.

Aug 10, 2020

Swiggy Joins Quick Grocery Delivery Race with InstaMart

Swiggy is preparing to launch a chain of virtual convenience stores to deliver grocery and household items within 45 minutes.
The launch of InstaMart comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has hastened consumer preference for doorstep deliveries, especially in metros, and as deep-pocketed entrants, including Flipkart Quick, as well as existing players Amazon, BigBasket and Dunzo have heightened focus on this category.
The move has also come amid the entry of Reliance JioMart, which has expanded into 200 cities, a foray that is expected to give stiff competition to established players.
Swiggy plans to offer about 2,500 items from its partner 'dark stores', the sources who are aware of its plans said. These dark stores do not have walk-in locations and exist only on its app.

Twitter Looking at a Possible TikTok Tie-up

Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express an interest in buying its US operations, according to reports.
Video-sharing platform TikTok has been at the centre of fierce debate in recent weeks and takeover talk.
Last week US Donald Trump ordered firms to stop doing business with TikTok within 45 days over security concerns.
Tech giant Microsoft is the front-runner to buy TikTok but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor.
But it remains unclear whether Twitter can afford to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners and can complete a deal within the 45-day window.
The value of TikTok's US operations are unclear but estimates put it at tens of billions of dollars.
Twitter's market capitalisation is about $29bn (£22bn), dwarfed by Microsoft's at more than $1.6tn.
But experts believe a possible Twitter deal would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's.

PM Launches Financing Facility under Agri-Infra Fund

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a financing facility of Rs. 1 lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund for agri-entrepreneurs, startups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for post-harvest management and nurturing farm assets.
Modi also released the sixth installment of Rs. 17,100 crore to more than 8.55 crore farmer beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
The Prime Minister launched the new Agriculture Infrastructure Fund through video conference. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and senior ministry officials were also present on the occasion.

Aug 09, 2020

Flipkart Signs MoU with UP Government's One District, One Product Scheme

E-commerce marketplace Flipkart signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme of the Uttar Pradesh government to bring artisans, weavers and craftsmen into mainstream business. Flipkart said that the partnership will enable these under-served communities to showcase their specialised products and crafts to millions of customers across the country.
The initiative called `Flipkart Samarth` will enable them to break entry barriers by extending time-bound incubation support which includes benefits in the form of on-boarding, free cataloguing, marketing, account management, business insights and warehousing support.
The ODOP scheme was introduced to give a boost to the MSME sector while preserving and promoting the exquisite, indigenous legacy of art in Uttar Pradesh.

Murugappa Firm to Invest in CG Power

Murugappa Group firm Tube Investments of India Ltd (TIIL) will invest Rs. 700 crore in CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd for a 51% stake, the scam-hit company said. TIIL will be issued 64.25 crore shares at Rs. 8.56 apiece aggregating to Rs. 550 crore, CG Power said. Also, TIIL will invest Rs. 150 crore over the next 18 months in the form of buying warrants that can be converted into shares.

Aug 08, 2020

Exim Bank Extends $250 mn LoC to Mozambique

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) extended a USD 250-million (about Rs. 1,870 crore) line of credit (LOC) to Mozambique for improving power supply quality in the country.
The agreement to this effect was signed ealier this month through exchange between Saroj Khuntia, general manager, Exim Bank, and Adriano Isaias Ubisse, national directorate of treasury, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Mozambique.
With the signing of this LOC agreement, Exim Bank to date has extended 14 LOCs to Mozambique, taking their total value to USD 772.44 million.
Exim Bank has now in place 264 LOCs, covering 62 countries across regions including Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with credit commitments of around USD 25.98 billion, available for financing exports from India.

LIC Acquires Stake of YES Bank

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) acquired 4.23% Stake (105.98 crore shares) of YES Bank by purchasing from the open market. With this acquisition, the hold of LIC in YES Bank has increased from 0.75% (19 crore shares) to 4.98% (125 crore shares).

Business Confidence Index falls in June Quarter

NCAER's Business Confidence Index (BCI), an indicator of the business sentiment across the Indian industry, stood at 46.4 in the first quarter of 2020-21, a drop of 40.1 per cent from its level of 77.4 in the previous quarter.
According to a survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), it fell 62 per cent in the June 2020 quarter on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis.
This is the lowest that the BCI has ever fallen in the history of 113 Rounds of the NCAER Business Expectations Survey (BES).
The decline of 40.1 per cent in the BCI came on the back of a 30.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline in the BCI in April 2020.
The BCI tracks the business sentiments of around 600 Indian companies to compute the composite index.

Gates and Gavi in Tie-up with Serum Institute

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to Serum Institute of India to support the production of two promising vaccines by University of Oxford and Novavax on the condition that the Pune-based firm prices the two vaccines at a maximum of $3 per dose.
Under the pact, Serum Institute will receive funding from the Gates Foundation through Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, and also become part of the Gavi Covax Advance Market Commitment mechanism for equitable access to vaccines for India and other low and middle-income nations.
With a vaccine needed urgently, vaccine makers globally are taking a risk by investing in capacity for candidates despite them still being in clinical trials stage. To aid this effort, governments and Gavi—a global organisation founded by the Gates Foundation to improve access to new vaccines in poor countries—are providing funding to reduce the risk for manufacturers while, in return, securing supplies if approval is granted.

RBI Forms Committee to Recommend Parameters for Loan Restructuring

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has formed a five member committee under the chairmanship of former ICICI Bank CEO K. V. Kamath to make recommendations on the financial parameters to be considered in the restructuring of loans impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic.
Other members of the committee are former State Bank of India executive Diwakar Gupta, current Canara Bank chairman T. N. Manoharan, consultant Ashvin Parekh and Indian Banks' Association (IBA) CEO Sunil Mehta who will also be a secretary to the committee. More members may be added to the committee if required.
As announced with the measures after the monetary policy, the committee will vet restructuring of loans above Rs. 1500 crore.
The immediate task of the committee is to recommend a list of financial parameters to be factored into the assumptions that go into each resolution plan, and the sector specific benchmark ranges for such parameters.
The parameters will include aspects related to leverage, liquidity, debt serviceability etc. The expert committee shall submit a list of financial parameters and the sector-specific desirable ranges for such parameters to the Reserve Bank, which, in turn, will notify the same, along with modifications, within 30 days.

Forex Reserves Hit an All-time High

As per RBI data, the country's foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of $534.568 billion after surging by massive $11.938 billion in the week ended July 31.
While announcing the monetary policy, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the reserves at $534.6 billion are equivalent to 13.4 months of imports.
So far in FY2020-21 (up to July 31), the reserves have risen by $56.8 billion.
In the week ended July 31, the reserves rose due to gains in foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves.
FCAs were up by $10.347 billion to $490.829 billion in the reporting week.

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