General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2015

Dec 2015

Mar 15, 2020

Govt. Hikes Excise Duty on Fuel to Shore up Revenue

The NDA government raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs. 3 per litre, adding to the windfall gains it stands to reap from a slump in global crude oil prices and giving itself room to stimulate a slowing economy that's now bracing for fallout of the coronavirus. The move is expected to result in additional revenue of more than Rs. 40,000 crore to the government.

YES Bank Gets New MD and CEO

The government appointed former Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Managing Director (MD) of SBI Prashant Kumar as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the former Punjab National Bank (PNB) MD Sunil Mehta as Non-Executive Chairman, Mahesh Krishnamurthy and Atul Bheda as non-executive directors of the reconstructed board of Yes Bank.
State Bank of India (SBI), which has a 49 % stake in Yes Bank, will nominate 2 directors & Reserve Bank could appoint one or more additional directors.
Any investor other than SBI with 15% voting rights can nominate 1 director. Until an alternate board is constituted board members will have a term of 1 year.

Bharti Airtel Takes 10% Stake in Spectacom Global Ltd

Bharti Airtel Limited (also known as Airtel), an Indian global telecommunications services company, acquired a 10 % equity stake in fitness start-up Spectacom Global Pvt Ltd, under its 'Airtel Startup Accelerator Program', which focuses on supporting the growth of early-stage Indian startups. However, the company did not reveal how much the deal is worth.
With this acquisition, Spectacom becomes the 2nd firm to join the Airtel Start-up Accelerator Program after Bengaluru-based Vahan.
Under the deal, Airtel will jointly work with Spectacom to help boost awareness and doption of the latter's health and fitness platform and encourage common man to handle the mental issues.
Due to the widespread proliferation of mobile Internet in India, this partnership will help Spectacom to create training and nutrition videos as well as live sports events that Airtel will deliver through its platforms Airtel Xstream and Wynk Music.

Mar 14, 2020

Bandhan Bank Opens 3 New Branches

Bandhan Bank opened three new branches, taking the total number across India to 1,013.
The Kolkata-based lender also opened 122 banking outlets in the form of small-format units.
As per reports, the development comes days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted restrictions on new branch openings for the lender.

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce and Life Insurance Launches iSelect+ Term Plan

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Limited launched iSelect+ Term Plan to provide shield against all uncertainties of life at an affordable premium which includes Whole Life Cover, Return of Premium, Multiple Payout Options, Increase Coverage Option & Tax Benefits. It is available online.
The plan is designed to provide death benefit, terminal illness, & has additional options of accidental death benefit, accidental total, permanent disability benefit & child support benefit
It offers different options for not only coverage, but also for premium payment & benefit payouts.Customers can choose from the various options provided & customize it as per their requirement.
It also offers an option to avail return of premium benefit wherein all your premiums will be returned once you outlive the policy tenure.
The plan has 3 options namely; Option 1 "Life", Option 2 "Life with Return of Premium", Option 3 "Life Plus".

Pepsi to Buy Energy Drink Maker Rockstar

PepsiCo Inc said that it would buy Rockstar Energy Beverages for $3.85 billion, in the soda giant's biggest push into the energy drinks market, where rival Coca-Cola Co has been rapidly expanding.
Pepsi, which already distributes Rockstar drinks, has a smaller presence in the energy space with its Mountain Dew Kickstart and Mountain Dew Game Fuel brands.

SpiceJet Inks Pact with GMR Hyderabad Aviation SEZ

Budget carrier SpiceJet signed a pact with GMR Hyderabad Aviation SEZ Limited (GHASL) for setting up a warehousing, distribution and trading facility in the airport operator's aerospace and industrial park.
GAHSL is a fully-owned subsidiary of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL).
The facility, to be intially spread over in 33,000 sq feet area, will come up within the Free Trade Warehousing Zone of multi-product special economic zone (SEZ), SpiceJet said in a release.
It may be further expanded to 1,00,000 sq ft based on demand, it said.
GMR Aerospace and Industrial Park is housed in Hyderabad Airport City.
The park offers 'ready-to-use' industrial infrastructure with the flexibility of choosing land within SEZ for businesses focusing on foreign markets and land in domestic tariff area for businesses catering to the Indian market.

GOKADDAL, World's First Digital Solutions Exchange Cloud in India

GOKADDAL, the World's first Digital Solutions Exchange in Cloud, was launched in India. www.gokaddal.com, a cloud based solution exchange platform mainly focuses on 4As – Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics and Augmentative Technologies.
GOKADDAL – It is a Business to Business (B2B), Business to Government (B2G), Business to Consumer (B2C) solution platform which connects solution providers to solution seekers and an innovative platform for Startups and SME companies.
It is a Dubai based emerging Technology company led by Ravinder Pal Singh (Digital Disrupter, Industry Expert, Ex Cisco and Dell Executive) and it is a part of the Mekado Group at Bangalore, Karnataka.
It was created to help the solution seekers realize their digital transformation vision. The company is already working with innovative projects consists of Data Analytics as platform, like Smart Cities eGov tracking application, Digital Healthcare Diagnostic as a Service, IoT based Smart Water Management and Cyber Assessment for digital world.

Mar 13, 2020

ADB to Give $200 mn to Companies Manufacturing Products to Combat Coronavirus

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $200 million (about Rs. 1,480 crore) to companies manufacturing and distributing medicines, and other items needed to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
As per the Manila-headquartered multilateral funding agency, the funds will be made available through ADB's Supply Chain Finance Program and provided to selected companies within weeks.
Companies manufacturing and distributing products, including medicines and personal protective equipment, are increasingly strained as production and distribution ramp up to address COVID-19.
The support from ADB, working in partnership with commercial banks, will provide such companies in Asia and the Pacific with additional working capital to meet expansion and other requirements.

QNu Labs Starts Shipping Quantum Cyber-security Products

QNu Labs, the only firm in the country to develop Quantum cyber-security products, successfully conducted field trials and has started shipping its solutions to the customers. The Bengaluru-based firm said that it is engaging with customers across defence, government, financial sector and data centre and cloud service providers in India and overseas markets such as the US, Middle East and Southeast Asia. It has already set up its office in the US to accelerate commercialization of the technology.
"We are gearing up our production capabilities to meet the demand of customers globally," said Sunil Gupta, co-founder and chief executive at QNu Labs. QNu Labs also established a channel partner network globally for a much larger and faster client reach.

SBI to Foray into Microfinance

State Bank of India has decided to enter the microfinance market that has shown immunity to economic downturn.
The move by India's largest lender is likely to roil the segment because it is planning to offer micro loans at rates lower than that is prevailing in the market nationwide through its wide network of branches.
The state-owned lender is setting up a vertical, Financial Inclusion & Micro Market (FIMM), to handle its microfinance operations and has assigned a deputy managing director for the task. It is doing the groundworks for a national roll-out of the business soon.

Hakuhodo Acquires AdGlobal360

As part of expanding growth strategy in India, Hakuhodo Inc, Japan's second-largest advertising company acquired AdGlobal360 (AGL).
Adglobal360 was ranked as the fastest-growing MarTech Company in 2019 by Deloitte.
AdGlobal360 is Hakuhodo's first acquisition in India as it seeks to enhance its technology and digital footprint.
Hakuhodo, which was founded in 1895, is one of the few agencies in India that offers communication and business solutions to clients, not through specialist silos, but by integrating skill sets into a single structure.
Founded in 2009, AdGlobal360 is headquartered in Gurugram in Haryana. The company offers end to end digital solutions to a plethora of brands across industries.

Mar 12, 2020

TCIS Signs MoU with Gambia for MEA's eVBAB Network Project

Telecommunications consultants India Limited (TCIS) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Gambia. This MoU is signed for the participation in MEA's (eVBAB) e-VidyaBharati and e-ArogyaBharati Network Project for tele-medicine and tele-education in Africa.
It is signed by the High commissioner of Gambia, Jainaba Jagne to the Director-Technical at the TCIL, Kamendra Kumar India at New Delhi.
Gambia is the 16th country to participate in this e-Network project.

Google India Unveils 18-week Long Skill Development Programme 'DigiPivot' for Women

Google India launched a skilling programme for women called 'DigiPivot', for woman who wishes to return to their company careers after a break or just planning to make mid-career shifts to digital advertising and marketing.
The programme will end on August 28, 2020 with a day-long graduation occasion on the Google Hyderabad (Telangana) Campus.
The skilling programme was developed jointly in partnership with a career portal service –Avtar & and the Indian School of Business (ISB) with the aim to help the general gender mix within the digital advertising and marketing panorama in India and can offer an opportunity for 200 girls professionals to re-skill themselves.
Woman who're at present working and those that are ready to return to the workforce with 4-10 years of expertise in consulting, analytics, branding and sales and support are eligible to attend this programme.
The selected woman will undergo a curated 18-week studying program and engagement (each offline & on-line) that aims to empower them with digital advertising and marketing data and instruments in addition to mentorship on strategic management abilities.

Qatar's Black Cat Engineering Ties up with TCS for Digital Solutions

IT firm TCS partnered with Qatar-based Black Cat Engineering & Construction (BCEC) to provide digital solutions and innovation strategy.
Tata Consultancy Services was selected by BCEC as the strategic partner to drive the latter's digital transformation and co-innovation strategy.
As part of the tie-up, TCS is enabling BCEC to reimagine its end-to-end business processes from tendering to construction, incorporating EPC industry's best practices, to design and implement multifunctional and multiservice solution on Oracle Cloud ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).

Five Indians in WEF's Young Global Leaders List

Byju Classes' founder Byju Raveendran and Zomato's co-founder Gaurav Gupta are among the five Indians named by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its new list of 115 Young Global Leaders.
Announcing the list, Geneva-based WEF said these 'change-makers' from as many as 52 countries are working in areas ranging from revamping of health systems to investigating corruption while using their power of the under 40s to change the world.
The other three Indians on the list are Tara Singh Vachani (CEO of Antara Senior Living), Vinati Mutreja (managing director and CEO, Vinati Organics Limited), and Swapan Mehra (CEO, Iora Ecological Solutions).
These five Indians are joined on the 2020 list of YGLs by US women's football team co-captain Megan Rapinoe, world-renowned street artist JR, New Zealand's first refugee parliamentarian Golriz Gharhaman, Finland's youngest prime minister Sanna Marin, BBC News's Africa Business Editor Larry Madowo and Xiaomi's international business president Chew Shou Zi.
The list also includes Muhammad Hammad Azhar (Federal Minister for Economic Affairs in Pakistan), Ugyen Dorji (Minister of Labour and Human Resources, Bhutan) and Atika Rehman (UK Correspodent for Dawn.com, Pakistan).

HDFC, Kotak to Join SBI in Yes Bank's Rescue Plan

Top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (HDFC) and automobile financier Kotak Mahindra Prime Ltd will invest Rs. 2,000 crore each in crisis-hit Yes Bank Ltd, according to a rescue plan prepared by State Bank of India (SBI), with the state-run lender bringing Rs. 2,450 crore on its own. As per the plan, Yes Bank needs to raise capital of Rs. 20,000 crore in the next six months, which will be infused in stages.
A draft recapitalisation plan outlining the initial investment was submitted to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Union Finance Ministry, which will provide enough equity capital into cash-starved Yes Bank and help it stay afloat.

Mar 11, 2020

Saudi Arabia and Russia Raise Stakes in Oil Standoff

Saudi Arabia will raise its crude supply to a record high in April, the kingdom announced on Tuesday, as it ratcheted up a standoff with Moscow over market share and appeared to reject Russian overtures for new talks.

Mukesh Ambani Loses Asia's Richest Crown

Mukesh Ambani, an Indian industrialist and chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is no longer Asia's richest man. Now, Jack Ma has become the richest man of Asia as RIL's share prices crashed at the stock market due to the Coronavirus epidemic and fall of oil prices.
Mukesh Ambani lost USD 5.8 billion in net worth due to the crash of share prices. The founder of Alibaba became Asia's richest man with a net worth of USD 44.5 billion. However, Mukesh Ambani is the richest man of India with a net worth of USD 41.8 billion.

TESCO Sells Asia Unit

TESCO Plc agreed to sell its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia to Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont for more than $10 billion and will return almost two-thirds of the proceeds to shareholders. Britain's largest supermarket chain plans a £5 billion special dividend after agreeing to sell the assets to Chearavanont's Charoen Pokphand Group. The deal will generate cash proceeds of £8 billion and represents an enterprise value of £8.2 billion.

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