General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2015

Dec 2015

Aug 07, 2019

Airtel Looking at Dish TV for Merger

Airtel is eyeing Dish TV for a merger. The move to merge Dish and Airtel's DTH operations would help the telco take on the competition it is facing from Reliance Jio.
After leading the consolidation wave with the merger of Videocon d2h with its operations, Dish TV might again be involved in a second deal in the direct-to-home (DTH) space.
According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Dish TV (including Videocon d2h subscribers) commands a market share of 37 per cent while Airtel Digital TV enjoys a market share of 24 per cent, bringing the combined market share of the two to 61 per cent.
This will leave Tata Sky a far second in terms of market share, currently at 27 per cent. Reliance Jio. Jio recently took control of cable operators Hathway and Den Networks, giving it a significant leg up in the TV distribution platform market.
With the impending launch of Jio's GigaFibre, existing distribution platform operators (DPOs) are bracing themselves for a shake-up in the market.

World's richest lose $117 billion in a day

Twenty-one members of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lost $1 billion or more as investors reacted to stepped-up tensions between the US and China.
Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos declined the most, shedding $3.4 billion as shares of the online retailer tumbled.
But he's still the richest person on the planet with $110 billion.

Aug 06, 2019

Flipkart Starts Free Streaming Service

Walmart's Flipkart unit is set to introduce a free video streaming service to draw new users from small towns and cities in India and take on rival Amazon's Prime Video service. Flipkart is eyeing the next 200 million consumers who are coming online. The company believes that most consumers are introduced to the internet through online videos. Hence, video content and entertainment could play a big role in getting consumers to come and buy online.

China Lets Yuan Break Key Seven Level

China let the yuan breach the key 7-per-dollar level for the first time, in a sign Beijing might be willing to tolerate more currency weakness that could further inflame a trade conflict with the United States.
The sharp drop in the yuan comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump stunned financial markets by vowing to impose 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports from September 1, 2019.

Government Unveils Draft E-com Norms

To protect consumers' interest, the Centre proposed guidelines for e-commerce firms. The guidelines entail a 14-day deadline to effect refund request, mandate e-tailers to display details of sellers supplying goods and services on their websites and moot the procedure to resolve consumer complaints.
The consumer affairs ministry has sought views of stakeholders on the draft guidelines on e-commerce have been sought by the consumer affairs ministry.

SBI Seeks Bids for Videocon's Global Oil, Gas Assets

The State Bank of India (SBI) has invited bids for overseas oil and gas assets of Videocon Industries Ltd, as India seeks to recover billions of dollars in loans from the beleaguered private firm. Consumer electronics firm Videocon Industries is one of the most indebted companies in India, with outstanding loans worth around ₹60,000 from its financial and operational creditors. In October 2018, SBI Caps, the investment banking arm of SBI, was appointed to start the process of valuation and monetization of the firm's oil and gas assets overseas. SBI said it had appointed consultant Deloitte to find buyers for Videocon's exploration assets in Brazil and Indonesia.

Indian Bank Profit rises

Public Sector Indian Bank posted a 74.56% growth in its standalone net profit for the first quarter ended
June 2019 to Rs. 365.37 crore on lower provisioning and higher income.
During the period, the bank's net interest income was lower by 1.2% while net interest margin contracted by 29 basis points.
Indian Bank reported Gross slippages of Rs. 1,035 crore against Rs. 1,391 crore were reported by Indian Bank. Provisions and contingencies dropped to Rs. 794.82 crore from Rs. 1,029.56 crore. Non-performing loan provision coverage ratio was 66.34%.

Aug 05, 2019

Blackstone, Indiabulls Set For Rs 4,800-Cr Realty Deal

US-based private equity giant Blackstone Group is set to acquire the remaining 50% stake in Indiabulls Real Estate's commercial properties for around Rs 4,800 crore.
The deal is pegged as one the country's largest real estate portfolio transactions. This will give Blackstone full control of the portfolio and further strengthen its position as the country's largest commercial property owner.
The transaction is part of the Indiabulls Group's strategy of exiting real estate completely and focusing on financial services as it seeks to merge with Lakshmi vilas bank.

Aug 04, 2019

Sun Pharma shuts two clinical units in Vadodara

To ensure optimal utilisation of clinical pharmacology units (CPUs) that conduct bio-equivalence studies, the company is discontinuing operations at two centers at Tandalja and Akota in Vadodara.

MRPL reports Q1 net loss of ₹450.53 crore

Managalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) reported a net loss of ₹450.53 crore for the first quarter compared to a net profit of Rs. 237.47 crore a year earlier.
The state-owned refiner posted the loss on a 33.66% fall in revenues to Rs. 11,175.6 crore.
MRPL operates a 3-lakh barrels per day (bpd) coastal refinery in Karnataka.

RCEP negotiations: India lists out demands before China for market access

Playing hardball with China in the on-going negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact, India has read it out a big list of demands for market access in both goods and services, including larger exports of drugs, sugar, rice, dairy, soybean, IT and other services.
In a meeting between China's Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen and India's Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan on the sidelines of the on-going RCEP Ministerial meet in Beijing, New Delhi pointed out that a RCEP deal will be acceptable to the country only if it addresses the existing level of trade imbalance.

Aug 03, 2019

SBI Posts Profit, But Slippages Rise

State Bank of India reported a net profit of Rs. 2,312 crore for the June quarter, below analyst estimates, on flat growth in net interest income (NII) while its slippages shot up.
A net loss of Rs. 4,876 crore was reported by the lender during Q1FY19. On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, SBI reported a 176 per cent jump in profit against Rs. 838.40 crore in the March quarter.
Its NII growth was flat sequentially at Rs. 22,939 crore in Q1FY20 compared to Rs. 22954 in Q4FY19. Non-interest income, or other income, fell 36 per cent to Rs. 8,015 crore compared to Rs. 12,685 crore in Q4FY19.
The gross slippages, at Rs. 16,212 crore, for the June quarter increased sharply by 62.38 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 116.01 per cent sequentially.
Hence, the slippage ratio rose significantly to 2.83 per cent in Q1FY20, from 1.39 percent in Q4FY19.

RBI Slaps Fine on Eight Public Sector Banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed monetary penalty ranging between Rs. 1-2 crore was imposed on eight public sector banks by RBI for violating norms on fraud classification, bill discounting and monitoring of end use of funds.
The following banks were fined Rs. 1 crore each: Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Union Bank of India, while Allahabad Bank and Bank of Maharashtra were penalised Rs. 2 crore each.
A scrutiny was carried out b RBI carried out a scrutiny in the accounts of the companies of a group and it was observed that the banks had failed to comply with provisions of one or more of the directions issued by RBI.
In a separate statement, the regulator said that a fine of Rs. 1 crore was levied on Corporation Bank for non-compliance of norms on cyber security framework as well as fraud classification and reporting.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

October GK, September GK, August GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services and Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26