General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - January 2016

Jan 2016

Oct 26, 2022

Netherlands Becomes India's Third-largest Export Market

The export pecking order changed dramatically this fiscal. The Netherlands emerged as India's third-largest export destination, ahead of China and Bangladesh. It moved up two spots in the list of India's top ten export destinations since FY22, thanks to a 106% surge in despatches until August this fiscal from a year before to $7.5 billion.
Similarly, Indonesia moved up seven notches to grab the 7th position. However, amid a demand slowdown, only two European nations, the Netherlands and the UK, are among India's top ten markets, against 4 in FY22. Germany and Belgium, which featured in the list last fiscal, are out of it now.
But what comes as a greater surprise is that Brazil, which occupied the 21st spot in FY22, is now India's 8th biggest export market.
Meanwhile, the US and the UAE continue to be the largest and second-largest export destinations, respectively, for India. The exports to the US climbed 18.3% until August to $35.2 billion, while those to the UAE shot up 27.3% to $13.8 billion.

ICICI Bank Re-appoints Sandeep Bakhshi as MD and CEO

ICICI Bank's board of directors re-appointed Sandeep Bakshi as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for a period of three years.
The tenure Sandeep Bakshi was till October 3, 2023. The re-appointment period is from October 4, 2023 to October 3, 2026, which is subject to approval from Reserve Bank of India, and the shareholders of ICICI Bank.
He was appointed as the banks's MD and CEO since October 15, 2018. He has served as Wholetime Director and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the bank, prior to his appointment as MD and CEO.
Bakhshi has been with the ICICI Group for 36 years and has handled various assignments across the group in ICICI Limited, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, ICICI Bank and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

BSE Launches Electronic Gold Receipts

BSE, or the Bombay Stock Exchange, launched Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR) on its platform.
It introduced two new products of 995 and 999 purity during the Muhurat trading on Diwali. Trading would be in multiples of 1 gram and deliveries in multiples of 10 gram and 100 gram.
India is the second largest consumer of gold globally, with annual gold demand of approximately 800-900 tones, and holds an important position in the global markets. Despite being second only to China, in consumption of gold, India has remained only as a price-taker in the global markets.
To address the issue, Government of India has authorized the introduction of a gold exchange where the metal will be traded in Electronic Gold Receipts (EGR) form on Indian exchanges (BSE, NSE etc.)

IndusInd Bank Raised USD 150 Mn Loan from US DFC

IndusInd Bank executed an agreement with the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for a $150 million loan to expand its microfinance portfolio.
The private sector lender would use the proceeds to lend to women borrowers in rural communities of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
IndusInd Bank aims at boosting access to finance for women borrowers, as well as uplifting the livelihoods of these women and their families.
The bank had acquired Bharat Financial Inclusion in 2019, which kick-started its journey in microfinance. The loan from DFC will help support the bank in increasing its reach and enhance lending to women in the targeted states.

PNB's Goel Re-elected as IBA Chairman

The Managing Committee of the Indian Banks' Assocation (IBA) re-elected A. K. Goel, Managing Director & CEO, Punjab National Bank, as the Chairman of the Associaion for the term 2022-23.
The Committee also elected three Deputy Chairmen: Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India (re-elected); A. S. Rajeev, MD & CEO, Bank of Maharashtra; and Madhav Nair, Country Head & CEO, Mashreq Bank PSC. N. Kamakodi, Managing Director & CEO, City Union Bank, was elected as the Honorary Secretary.
IBA was set up in 1946 to look after the interests of the banking industry. The vision of the Association is to work proactively for the growth of a healthy, professional and forward-looking banking and financial services industry, in a manner consistent with public good.

Oct 25, 2022

Air India Appoints Henry Donohoe as Head of Safety, Security & Quality

Air India appointed Henry Donohoe as the Head of Safety, Security and Quality from November 7.
An Irish national, Donohoe started his career at Aer Lingus in 1978 and became its Chief Pilot before going on to head key departments including Safety, Quality, Flight Operations and Engineering.
Donohoe then spent seven years with Emirates in various safety roles and ultimately as Divisional Senior Vice President Flight Operations and Primary Crisis Director.
Most recently, Donohoe served as Senior Vice President Safety, Security, Compliance & Emergency Response at Norwegian Air.
He has a long history on the international safety stage, serving with both the IATA Safety Committee and Flight Safety Foundation Board of Governance.

CCI Clears Two Private Equity Players' Stake Purchase in Yes Bank

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposed Rs. 8,900 crore deal wherein two entities will buy stakes in Yes Bank.
CA Basque Investments, part of the Carlyle Group, and Verventa Holdings, an affiliate of funds managed by Advent International are to acquire 10 per cent stake each in the private sector lender.
In July, Yes Bank announced raising of equity capital of Rs. 8,900 crore from funds affiliated with two private equity investors -- Carlyle and Advent International.
Deals beyond a certain threshold require approval from the regulator, which keeps a tab on unfair business practices in the market place.

Oct 24, 2022

REC, PFC ink MoA with STPL for Financing Buxar Thermal Power Plant

REC and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) - CPSEs under the Ministry of Power - signed a memorandum of loan agreement with SJVN Thermal (STPL) for financing 2x660 MW coal based Buxar Thermal Power Plant (BTPP). STPL is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of SJVN (Mini Ratna CPSE under administrative control of Ministry of Power, Govt. of India).
STPL is currently executing 2x660 MW coal based Buxar Thermal Power Plant (BTPP) which is a green field project designed on supercritical technology with the objective to improve the reliability of India's Eastern Electricity region and providing power to the state of Bihar.

LGT Group Forays into Indian Wealth Management Space via LGT Wealth India

LGT Group, a Liechtenstein-based private banking and manager, forayed into the Indian wealth management market through its entity, LGT Wealth India.
Majority owned by LGT Group, LGT Wealth India employs more than 200 staff and has a presence in 14 cities across India, including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Bengaluru. With LGT Wealth India, LGT is gaining a foothold in the Indian wealth management market and is further strengthening its Asia presence, including offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and India.

Oct 23, 2022

HDFC Securities Opens Women-Only Digital Centre in Bengaluru

Leading stock brokerage firm, HDFC Securities, announced the opening of the first-ever women-only Digital Centre (DC) in India. This pioneering centre, staffed with a team of women, will serve both male and female investors. This closely follows the company's announcement regarding the opening of multiple DCs across India to ease access to services and promote digital adoption.
The women-only DC is another step in HDFC Securities' aim to foster diversity within the organization, while also empowering its customers with technology that eases their journey to financial freedom.

Sachin Tendulkar Partners with Digital Cricket NFT Platform Rario

Digital cricket collectibles platform Rario announced that it has partnered with former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to enter the non-fungible token (NFT) market.
With this partnership, Tendulkar not only serves as a strategic investor, but also makes it possible for fans to purchase his digital collectibles exclusively on the platform.
Many legendary and upcoming cricketers are already on Rario's platform exclusively, including Aaron Finch, Faf Du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Shakib Al Hasan, Rishabh Pant, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Smriti Mandhana, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel.
"The NFT technology brings fans closer to sports, giving them an opportunity to treasure their favourite moments.

Wipro Appoints Suzanne Dann as CEO for Americas 2 Strategic Market Unit

Wipro appointed Suzanne Dann as Chief Executive Officer of Wipro Americas 2 Strategic Market Unit, effective immediately. Dann would also join the Wipro Executive Board.
In her new role, Dann would focus on increasing bookings, large deal signings, and revenue in high-growth strategic areas. She will also direct operational changes to improve margins and continue investments in talent to serve clients' changing needs.
Dann joined Wipro in April 2021 as US Senior Vice President for Capital Markets and Insurance.

Oct 22, 2022

India Post Payments Bank, RBIH Join Hands for Financial Product, Services

India Post Payments Bank and Reserve Bank Innovation Hub joined hands to focus their efforts on enhancing the reach of financial solutions to large sections of society across India and enabling frictionless finance to a billion Indians. Under the arrangement India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) will plan, design and execute innovative products and offerings to bridge the existing gap by bringing digitalised services at the customer's doorstep.
The collaboration between IPPB and RBIH will explore projects which shall have impact on the masses by leveraging the deep rural reach of IPPB-Department of Posts (DoP) to take rural finance to a billion Indians.
Both entities will jointly work to enabling access to sustainable and secure finance services to every segment of the society, through research and innovation.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Partners with India Post Payments Bank

To enhance credit access to larger customer base Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited announced a strategic partnership with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to further enhance credit access to a larger customer base. As a part of this alliance, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) would provide Lead referral services to MMFSL for Passenger Vehicles, 3-Wheeler, Tractor and Commercial Vehicle Loan categories and provide cash EMI deposit facility to existing MMFSL customers at Post Offices.

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