General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2015

Dec 2015

Jun 09, 2020

New Car Insurance Scheme

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, when the whole world is shifting towards work-from-home culture and avoiding unnecessary travels, the Tata AIG General insurance has recently launched an innovative "pay as you drive" insurance policy. The insurance company unveiled GPS-enabled device 'Auto Safe' which is linked to a mobile app that records distance traveled by the vehicle, live speed and other driving pattern parameters. AutoSafe will be available on all policies offering personal accidental cover of Rs. 15 lakh for the owner and driver.
Unlike traditional auto insurance policy, the policyholders will be able to customise their premiums. In a regular motor insurance policy, customer need to pay premium based on the car model. Here, they will have an option to choose premiums according to their driving habits. It means, buyers have to pay premium as much as they drive their cars.
Compared to the conventional policies, buyers will benefit from the Tata AIG's flexible kilometre-based package. Customers will have an option to choose between 2,500 kilometres, 5,000 kilometres, 7500 kilometres, 10,000 kilometres, 15,000 kilometres and 20,000 kilometres. If they exhaust all the kilometres within the policy period, they can buy additional kilometres by opting for the top-up kilometres option.
This customised auto insurance policy is launched under IRDAI's regulatory sandbox. This policy includes other value-added propositions like depreciation reimbursement, daily allowance, no claim bonus protection cover.

Saudi Arabia Makes Biggest Oil Price Hike in 20 Years

Saudi Arabia made some of the biggest price increases for crude exports in at least two decades, doubling down on its strategy to bolster the oil market after OPEC+ producers extended historic output cuts.
The steepest jump will hit July exports to Asia, state producer Saudi Aramco's largest regional market. Overall, the increases for Saudi crude erase almost all of the discounts the kingdom made during its brief price war with Russia.
The sharp price increases show that Saudi Arabia is using all the tools at its disposal to turn around the oil market after prices plunged into negative territory in April. As the price setter in the Middle East, the increases in its official prices may be followed by other producers.

Malaysia Ups Rice and Sugar Import from India

Relations between India and Malaysia are back on the upswing after taking a hit under former premier Mahathir Mohamad, with Kuala Lumpur increasing its purchases of rice and sugar from New Delhi in recent months.
India's ambassador to Malaysia, Mridul Kumar, was the first foreign envoy to meet new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein within a week of the formation of the new cabinet in March, and the two sides have worked behind the scenes to put ties back on an even keel.
As per reports, India is buying 200,000 tonnes of palm oil for the June-July period from Malaysia, the world's second-biggest producer and exporter of the commodity after Indonesia.
Indian importers will also benefit from Malaysia's decision of June 5 to fully exempt palm oil from export duty for the rest of this year.

IL&FS Sells Stake in GIFT City to Gujarat Government

Debt-laden IL&FS has completed the sale of its 50 per cent stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) to the Gujarat government for Rs. 32.71 crore.
The stake sale will help the group reduce its debt by Rs. 1,230 crore. The group's current outstanding debt is around Rs. 94,000 crore.
The stake sale was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) a month earlier.
The stake in GIFT City was bought by Gujarat Urban Development Company Ltd (GUDCL), on behalf of the Gujarat government.

Wipro and IBM Announce Collaboration to Develop Hybrid Cloud Offerings

Wipro Limited announced a collaboration with IBM through which the Bengaluru- headquartered company would develop hybrid cloud offerings to help businesses migrate, manage and transform mission-critical workloads and applications, with security across public or private cloud and on-premises IT environments.
Wipro IBM Novus Lounge, located at Wipros Kodathi campus in Bengaluru, is a dedicated innovation centre, according to a Wipro statement.
It will offer a comprehensive suite of solutions leveraging Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of Things capabilities to foster innovation for enterprises, developers and start-ups.
Additionally, Wipro would leverage IBM Cloud offerings and technologies alongside in-house services to develop industry solutions for clients in Banking and Financial Services, Energy and Utilities, Retail, Manufacturing and Healthcare space.

Oman Oil Not to Raise Stake in BPCL's Bina Refinery

As per reports, Oman Oil Company will not increase its stake in the Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), a joint venture between state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and the Oman company.
"Oman has not shown interest and thus we converted our warrants into shares. This has increased our stake in BPCL from 50% to 63%. BORL is now a subsidiary of BPCL," said N. Vijayagopal, director finance, BPCL.
BPCL had made an investment in compulsorily convertible debentures and share warrants of BORL or Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh. This was equivalent to 24% additional equity stake in BORL. Parts of these share warrants, 13%, have been converted to equity. A decision on conversion of the remaining warrants would be taken at a later stage.
Till a year back, in addition to Oman Oil, national oil companies of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi were also in talks with BPCL to buy up to 24% stake in the refinery.

Jun 08, 2020

NABARD Provides Special Liquidity Facility to Assam Gramin Vikash Bank

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) provided Rs. 270 crore Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) to Assam Gramin Vikash Bank in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic to support the agricultural activities of the farmers.
This support and separate line of credit will enable to intensify farmers' crop production.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a Rs. 50,000 crore refinance facility for 3 All-India Financial Institutions (AIFI) namely: NABARD, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and the National Housing Bank (NHB).
From the total of Rs. 50,000 crore NABARD received Rs. 25,000 crore to refinance Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), co-operative (co-op) banks and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to ensure credit flow to farmers for agricultural operations during COVID-19 pandemic.

Western Coalfields Opens Three New Coal Mines

Coal India Subsidiary Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) opened three new coal mines in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. These mines will have combined annual production capacity of 2.9 million tonnes (MT). The company will infuse total capital expenditure of Rs. 849 crores on these projects and generate direct employment for 647 people. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari and Union Minister of Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi inaugurated the mines through video conference.
The three mines which WCL has opened are (a) Adasa Mine in Nagpur Area of Maharashtra, (b) Sharda Underground Mine in Kanhan Area and (c) Dhankasa Underground Mine in Pench Area of Madhya Pradesh. The annual coal production capacity of Adasa Mine is 1.5 MT whereas Sharda and Dhankasa Mines are having annual coal production capacities of 0.4 MT and 1 MT, respectively.

DFC to Invest $350 Million in Indian Firms

To support multiple projects in India, the US International Development Finance Corporation (USIDFC) is planning to invest 350 million USD in sectors of finance, health infrastructure, renewable energy and food security space also look to empower smallholder dairy farmers, generate solar power increase access to education. It is one of the largest approvals made by the Board of Directors.
USIDFC has approved $1 billion of investments for advance development in other countries across the globe. Sixty per cent of the investments are being made in the low to lower-middle income countries.

Customs Dept. Launches Faceless Assessment of Consignments

In order to improve transparency and the ease of doing business, the customs department will on Monday roll out the first phase of the country-wide faceless assessmemt of consignments. Under the system, consignments will be assessed by officials electronically, irrespective of the port where the goods arrive.
The first phase will commence in Chennai and Bengaluru. It will cover a specific set of items and will be expanded across India by this calendar year-end.
The Board has decided to begin faceless assessment in phases. The first phase would begin from June 8, 2020, in Bengaluru and Chennai for items of imports primarily covered by Chapters 84 and 85 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.
Introduction of faceless assessment is part of the string of reforms called 'Turant' Customs, which include paperless customs through intelligent e-Sanchit and Machine Release or end-to-end automated clearance without any interface of officer at any stage.

ADIA Arm Invests in Jio Platforms

Reliance Industries Ltd announced that a unit of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has invested Rs. 5,683.50 crore in Jio Platforms Ltd, taking the total capital-raising by its digital services subsidiary to around Rs. 1 lakh crore in just seven weeks.
The investment by an undisclosed wholly-owned subsidiary of ADIA, valuing Jio Platforms at Rs. 4.91 lakh crore, comes just two days after RIL announced two large investments by foreign investors adding up yo Rs. 13,640.4 crore in Jio Platforms.
With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs. 97,885.65 crore from seven marquee global investors.

L&T Board of Directors Give Approval for Reappointment of AM Naik

Larsen and Toubro's (L&T) board of directors gave its approval for reappointment of AM Naik as the company's non-executive chairman for three years beginning October 1, 2020. The engineering and construction major announced that Naik's current term is due to end on September 30, 2020. The conglomerate's board also gave its nod to extend the tenure of whole-time Director Dip Kishore Sen.
Joining the company as a Junior Engineer in 1965, Naik rapidly rose to positions of increasing responsibility as he moved from General Manager to Managing Director and CEO, leading to his appointment as Chairman and Managing Director on December 29, 2003. He was the Group Executive Chairman of L&T from 2012 to 2017. In October 2017, he stepped down from executive responsibilities and was appointed Group Chairman.

Jun 07, 2020

HDFC Bank Launches Campaign "Summer Treats"

With the easing of the lockdown restrictions, private sector HDFC Bank launched a special 'Summer Treats' campaign with offers for both merchants and, salaried and self-employed customers.
As part of the campaign, the bank will offer no cost EMI and no down payment for large appliances, discounts and cashbacks on select brands and 50 per cent extra reward points on online spend using credit cards.

CCI Gives Nod to Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Merger

Competition Commission of India (CCI), a statutory body of the Government of India (GoI), has given its nod to the proposed merger between French car maker Peugeot S.A (PSA) and London headquartered Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V (FCA).
The merged entity will be the 4th largest original equipment manufacturer by volume and the third largest by revenue after Toyota, Volkswagen, and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. It will generate €3.7 billion ($4.1 billion) in savings, which will come from sharing investments in vehicle platforms, engines as well as new technology and leveraging scale on purchasing.
Having presence in India, both the firms announced their merger in December 2019.

Jun 06, 2020

Standard Life Sells Stake in HDFC Life

Standard Life, the joint venture partner in HDFC Life Insurance, sold 1.98 per cent stake (40 million shares) in the life insurance firm.
The share sale was conducted at Rs. 496.4 per share and fetched the UK-based firm Rs. 1,986 crore ($263 million). More than 50 institutional investor accounts bought the shares. Some of them include Capital World, Nomura, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale. Birla MF, ICICI MF and Mirae MF were among the domestic institutions that bought the stake. Following the stake sake, Standard Life's stake will decline to 10.27 per cent.
Standard Life has pruned its stake in the life insurer in several trances. At the time of HDFC Life's IPO in November 2017, Standard Life held 35 per cent stake.

India's 1st Mobile App Based Facility for Opening Current Accounts

IndusInd Bank Limited has introduced a first-of-its-kind facility for customers to open current accounts (CA) through its 'Indus Corporate' mobile app.
Current account can be opened for all types of businesses including proprietorships, partnerships and private and public limited companies through this facility.
The process of opening a current account in the bank with the mobile app will be paperless and the account will be opened in a few hours. Bank officials will go to the customer's home and gather information about them and his/her business on a real-time basis and verify it.
IndusInd Bank's 'Indus Corporate' mobile app uses several 'Application Programme Interface' (APIs), which enables secure validation of KYC documents from authorised government platforms such as Goods and Service Tax (GST), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Import Export Code (IEC) and Aadhaar etc.

RBI Creates Payments Infrastructure Development Fund

In order to encourage the deployment of Points of Sale (PoS) infrastructure in smaller cities and towns, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has created a Rs. 500-crore ($66 million) Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), in which it will start with an initial contribution of Rs. 250 crore and the remaining half of the amount will be installed by card issuing banks and card networks working in the country.
The fund will encourage businessmen from Tier-3 to Tier-6 centers and in the northeastern states to adopt Point of Sale (POS) machines (both physical and digital modes).
PIDF will continue to receive other cash contributions from card issuing banks and card networks at regular intervals to meet operating expenses.
RBI will also continue to meet the capital deficit on an annual basis, if required.
The PIDF will operate under the supervision of the RBI & will be run by an Advisory Council.

India Extends Anti-dumping Duty on Chinese Steel for Entire Year

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged moves towards a self-reliant economy while announcing a $266 billion economic stimulus package in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing Indian industry leaders earlier this week, the PM expressed confidence that economic growth would soon return.
India has extended anti-dumping duty on certain varieties of steel until December this year (2020) to insulate domestic companies from cheap imports of the commodity from China and other nations like Korea and Malaysia.
India will charge import duty in the range of $180-316 per ton on steal to safeguard its domestic industry.
The Indian government previously imposed import duty on 'hot-rolled flat products of stainless steel 304 series' being imported from China, Malaysia and South Korea on June 5, 2015, for a period of five years.

Jun 05, 2020

Mubadala to Buy Stake in Jio Platforms

Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, has agreed to invest Rs. 9,093.60 crore in Mukesh Ambani led Jio Platforms for 1.85% stake, valuing Jio Platforms at enterprise value of Rs. 5.16 lakh crore.
Jio Platforms with this investment has raised Rs. 87,655.35 crore from leading global technology and growth investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR and Mubadala in less than six weeks.
Jio Platforms, a next-generation technology platform focused on providing high-quality and affordable digital services across India, has more than 388 million subscribers.
Mubadala's Ventures business currently manages several venture funds in the US, Europe and Middle East.
Mubadala's portfolio spans advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, metals and mining, pharmaceutical and medical technology, renewable energy and utilities, and the management of diverse financial holdings.

Eurozone in Fresh Emergency Action to Boost Economy

The European Central Bank has taken further dramatic measures try to boost the eurozone economies, amid their biggest recession since World War Two.
Just months after emergency measures, the central bank said it would increase the size of its bond buying programme by €600bn (£546bn) to €1.35tn.
The programme will run until June 2021, six months longer than planned.
The move will keep borrowing costs low for countries and firms as they face huge budget deficits and recessions.
The bond purchases are often referred to as Quantitative Easing (QE). When central banks buy bonds with printed money, the value of the bonds rise and borrowing costs drop.

Double Whammy for Textile Mills as Operations Resume

Textile mills in the State (Tamil Nadu), numbering over 2,000, are facing a difficult situation despite resuming operations — orders are less, prices have fallen, and export enquiries are yet to pick up.
Tamil Nadu has almost 45% of the country's spindle capacity and produces approximately 175 million kg of yarn a month.
As per Ashwin Chandran, chairman of Southern India Mills' Association, with the mills resuming operations in the last one month, the average capacity utilisation is just 40 %.
Some mills operated at 80% to 90 % capacity, only resulting in rising inventory. Of the total yarn produced in Tamil Nadu, nearly 40% was sold in the powerloom weaving clusters in north India, mainly Maharashtra. Weaving activities were yet to gain momentum in these clusters. Even in Tamil Nadu, where there were nearly five lakh powerlooms, the weaving clusters were operating at just 50% capacity.
Mr. Ashwin appealed to the Union and State governments to come out with schemes to boost exports so that Indian yarn was competitive in the international market.
The mills face labour shortage as most of the migrant workers have gone home. The demand should revive by the time the workers return, say the spinners.

Zomato and Swiggy Get Permit to Test Drone Delivery

Hyperlocal delivery start-ups including Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato can begin to test fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones for deliveries, after receiving permission from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
A senior DGCA official confirmed the development that along with the delivery start-ups, budget airline SpiceJet, Reliance-backed drone startup Asteria Aerospace were among the 13 consortia which had received the approvals to test fly these drones.
The DGCA wanted to see the commercial possibilities which could be achieved through the BVLOS drones, and set up the BVLOS Experiment Assessment and Monitoring (BEAM) committee, in the first half of 2019, calling in for applications.

India's Unemployment Rate Saw a Small Dip in 2018-19

As per the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in May 2020, India's unemployment rate improved from the 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18 to 5.8% in 2018-19. The labour force participation rate also improved marginally, from 36.9% in 2017-18 to 37.5% in 2018-19. The labour force is defined as people who are working, or seeking work or available for work. Its participation rate is the percentage of the labour force in the population. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people without work within the labour force.
The report shows the dip came across all categories, though women and rural workers showed the most improvement.
Women's unemployment fell from 5.7% to 5.2%, while male unemployment only fell from 6.2% to 6%. Urban unemployment was still at a high of 7.7% in 2018-19, a marginal drop from 7.8% in 2017-18, while rural unemployment fell from 5.3% to 5%.

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