General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2015

Dec 2015

May 14, 2019

Hindustan Times the Most Read Paper

Hindustan Times has consolidated its position as the most read newspaper across India's two top markets, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai combined, reaffirming the formidable trust of readers in the brand.
The newspaper has a combined daily readership of 2.72 million in the two cities.
Published by HT Media Ltd, HT has grown readership in all major markets while retaining its spot as the second most read English newspaper in the country, with 3.39 million readers.
It continues to be the undisputed No. 1 newspaper for the 16th time in a row in Delhi and the National Capital Region with 1.84 million readers against The Times of India's 1.34 million.
It also has 885,000 readers in Mumbai as compared to the latter's 1.28 million readers.

Pure Nutrition to Expand Offline Stores

Pure Nutrition, an online nutraceutical company, has announced offline store expansion plans to augment its retail presence in the country.
The company, which operates in five different verticals viz. dietary supplements, super foods, protein powder, pure herbal infusions and cold pressed oils, has already opened a few stores at airports for better visibility of its products and is now planning to put up stores in key cities.

Nabventures Launches Maiden Fund

Nabventures, a subsidiary of NABARD, announced its maiden fund to back agriculture, food and rural start-ups.
Nabventures Fund has a proposed corpus of Rs. 500 crore with a greenshoe option of Rs. 200 crore.
It has received an anchor commitment from NABARD. The fund plans to raise the resources from domestic and global investors.

China Hits Back

China said that it will raise tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods from June 1, in retaliation to the latest round of U.S. tariff hikes and Washington's plans to target almost all Chinese imports.
The announcement came after the latest round of U.S.-China trade negotiations ended without a deal, and after Washington increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
U.S. President Donald Trump had also ordered the start of a process to impose new duties on another $300 billion worth of Chinese items.
Despite the retaliation, Beijing appeared to give time to find a resolution by setting the June 1 date.

Exporters to Get Auto GST Refunds

Exporters of goods and services as well as suppliers to SEZ units are likely to get GST refunds automatically from June as the revenue department plans to introduce faceless scrutiny of refunds and faster claim settlement.
Currently, manufacturing exporters and suppliers to SEZs, who want to claim ITC (input tax credit) refund, have to file an application on the common portal and thereafter, manually submit a print out to the jurisdictional officer.
Once implemented, the time period for such refunds will come down to about a fortnight from months at present.

May 13, 2019

IMF to Loan Pakistan

After signing an agreement, Pakistan's adviser on finance said that Pakistan will get $6 billion from the IMF over the next three years to meet its foreign debt obligations.
The deal comes after months of negotiations over what will be Pakistan's 22nd bailout aimed at staving off a potential balance-of-payments crisis.
Pakistan will get $6 billion from the IMF, and in addition, will get $2 to $3 billion from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank in the next three years.

IT Sector on Recovery Path

According to international IT experts, after some years of dry drive, Indian tech firms now seem to have turned the corner and established themselves firmly as digital transformation agents in the global market.

May 12, 2019

SRF to Sell Engineering Plastics Unit

Chemicals firm SRF Ltd. will sell its engineering plastics business to DSM for Rs. 320 crore, as part of a strategy to focus on core operations.
The Gurugram-based SRF is engaged in the manufacturing of industrial and specialty intermediates.
The company has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its engineering plastics business to DSM, a life sciences and materials sciences company.
SRF's engineering plastics business manufactures multiple grades of engineering plastic compounds.

Facebook Sues S. Korean Firm

Facebook is suing South Korean data analytics firm Rankwave to make sure it isn't breaking the leading social network's rules.
A lawsuit was filed against Rankwave in a California State court in Silicon Valley to enforce terms the company agreed to in order to operate apps on the social network.
Facebook suspended apps and accounts associated with Rankwave, and asked the court to order Rankwave to abide by its rules for applications.

May 11, 2019

Trump Raises Tariffs on Chinese Goods

The trade war between the U.S. and China took a turn for the worse as the Trump administration increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Tariffs on 5,700 categories of goods increased from 10% to 25%.
The tariffs went into effect just hours before U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He held a second day of talks in Washington.

RBI Withdraws Circular

Following an NCLAT order, the Reserve Bank of India withdrew its circular asking banks and financial institutions to declare details of their exposure and provisions related to the crisis-hit IL&FS.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had allowed banks to declare their defaulting accounts of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and its group companies as non-performing assets.
The circular had asked banks and financial institutions to disclose their exposure to IL&FS and its group entities as the NCLAT verdict was pending.

Two Bids for Jet Airways

State Bank of India received two unsolicited bids for ailing Jet Airways, nearly a month after the airline was forced to ground all operations due to funding troubles.
Jet, once India's largest private airline, stopped all flights on April 17 after its lenders, led by SBI, declined to extend more funds to keep the carrier going.

IIP At 21-month Low

According to latest data, growth in industrial activity dipped to a 21-month low in March, contracting 0.1% due in large part to a continuing slowdown in the manufacturing sector.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) contracted in March for the first time since June 2013.
To further put this contraction in perspective, the IIP grew a robust 5.33% in the March, 2018, and 4.39% in March 2017.
Within this, the manufacturing sector contracted by 0.43% in March, the second consecutive month of contraction (it contracted 0.39% in February) and the third consecutive month of slowing growth.

India Adds 40 million New Internet Users

According to the latest report by Google, India is adding 40 million new Internet users on an average every year, among the fastest in the world, led by the rise of the non-English speaking Internet user.
The online space in India has never been this vibrant. Indian internet users are fast adopting (Google's) search tool and finding comfort in regional languages.
With growing connectivity, the rise in searches from non-metro cities across categories is faster than that of the metros.
This is due to the rise of the non-English speaking internet user. Google's latest report said that nine out of 10 new internet users in India are likely to be Indian language users.

L&T Acquires Additional Stake in Mindtree

Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has acquired another 2 per cent stake in Mindtree by purchasing shares from the open market, taking its overall holding in the mid-sized IT company to 25.93 per cent.
The shares were purchased at Rs 980 apiece.

May 10, 2019

Trump Sanctions Iran's Industrial Metals Sectors

The Trump administration announced new sanctions against Iran targeting its industrial metals sectors, which is the country's largest non-petroleum export revenue earner, and warned of further actions unless Teheran fundamentally alters its conduct.
The new curbs impact Iran's iron, steel, aluminium and copper sectors, that account for 10% of its economy, and go into effect after 90 days during which countries and businesses are expected to wind down ongoing arrangements, or face sanctions.

RIL Arm Buys Hamleys

Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), has signed a definitive agreement with C Banner International, a Hong Kong-listed company, to acquire 100% shares of centuries-old British toy retailer Hamleys for £68 million.
The 250-year old English toy retailer pioneered the concept of experiential retailing, decades before the concept of creating unique experience in brick and mortar retailing become the new global norm.
The worldwide acquisition places Reliance in the frontline of global retail.

Bank Credit Grows

Bank credit grew by 13.2% in financial year 2018-19 as compared to 10.3% in the previous financial year (2017-18), mainly aided by loans to services and retail sector.
Deposit growth also gained momentum, growing by 10% as compared to 6.7% in 2018.
Banks typically tend to push for more loan disbursement and also try to get more deposits ahead of the end of a financial year to shore up their balance sheet and meet year-end targets.

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport among Top 10 Airports

According to a survey conducted by AirHelp, a company which deals with the rights of air passengers, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad was ranked among one of the top 10 airports in the world.
According to the survey, Hamad International Airport in Doha in Qatar was rated the world's best airport with 8.39 out of 10, followed by Tokyo International Airport in Japan and Athens International Airport in Greece.
The Hyderabad airport was ranked eighth, with a score of 8.27 out of 10, just below Singapore's Changi Airport and above the Tenerife North Airport in Spain.

Sri Lanka to Buy Buses from ALL

Sri Lanka will purchase 325 buses worth $21.2 million from Ashok Leyland Ltd. (ALL). The decision was taken following Cabinet approval to a proposal submitted by Minister of Transport & Civil Aviation Arjuna Ranatunga, for the purchase of 272 high-back, 50-seater buses, and 33 buses that seat 53 persons, for the Sri Lanka Transport Board.
As per a release from Lanka Ashok Leyland, a joint venture company set up with the Government of Sri Lanka, the purchase is to be made under a lease agreement, allowing Sri Lanka to pay the cost over a period of five years.

Time to Break Facebook

Facebook Inc co-founder and former Mark Zuckerberg roommate Chris Hughes called for the break-up of the world's largest social media network.
Hughes joins U.S. lawmakers who have also urged anti-trust action to break up big tech companies as well as federal privacy regulation.
Facebook has been under scrutiny from regulators around the world over its data sharing practices and hate speech and misinformation on its networks.
Facebook's social network has more than 2 billion users across the world.
It also owns WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, each used by more than 1 billion people.
Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.

Morgan Stanley Downgrades RIL

Morgan Stanley has downgraded Reliance Industries Limited's (RIL) stock to 'equal weight' (EW), leading to a 3.41% fall in the company's shares.
With this fall, the company has again lost the tag of India's most-valued firm to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as RIL's market capitalisation fell to Rs. 7,98,628.55 crore compared with TCS's Rs. 8,13,779.67 crore.

McDonald's Ends Dispute with Bakshi

Estranged partners McDonald's and Vikram Bakshi announced an out-of-court settlement, ending their almost six-year-long dispute.
As part of the agreement, the U.S. fast food chain will buy out for an undisclosed sum Mr. Bakshi and his entities' 50% stake in Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. (CPRL) that operates McDonald's chain of quick service restaurants in northern and eastern India.
The company also announced the appointment of Robert Hunghanfoo as head of CPRL with immediate effect.
CPRL is now wholly owned by MIPL and its affiliate MGM (McDonald's Global Markets LLC) following the completion of a settlement reached with former JV partner, Vikram Bakshi.

India to Add 3 Million Tech Jobs

According to the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), the apex body for the 'flexi' working industry, Indian tech industry will add another three million new jobs in the next five years.
With the additions, the size of the country's tech army will be 7 million by 2023.
As per Rituparna Chakraborty president, ISF, all these new jobs would come up in digital technology areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, Internet of things (IOT), data science, analytics, big data, block chain and augmented reality.
Jobs would also be created in newer technology areas that are presently unknown but are expected to emerge and evolve in the next few years.

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