General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2016

Feb 2016

Jul 09, 2023

Flipkart Partners with Axis Bank to Facilitate Personal Loans for Customers

Flipkart e-commerce marketplace, entered into a strategic partnership with Axis Bank, one of the largest private sector banks, to facilitate personal loans for its valued customers, adding additional convenience and enhanced benefits to its 450 million customers. The newly introduced personal loan service offers highly competitive loan options, granting access to amounts as high as Rs. 5 lakh, allowing customers flexible repayment cycles ranging from 6 to 36 months. Flipkart's introduction to personal loans demonstrates its commitment to addressing customers' demands in today's financial environment and leveraging the potential of digital lending.

PNB Launches Its Virtual Branch in the Metaverse

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) launched a virtual branch, PNB Metaverse.
It is a virtual branch of the bank, which will deliver a unique experience of banking to existing and new customers who can now explore the bank's products and services such as bank deposits, retail and MSME loans, digital products, women and senior citizens, 'Do It Yourself' and government flagship schemes.
PNB developed the bank's Metaverse branch, where its esteemed customers will get exclusive access to its virtual environment from the comfort of their home or office through their mobile phones and laptops.
In addition, the bank will offer an immersive 3D experience to customers while they perform traditional banking activities through their digital avatars.

Indian Refiners Start Yuan Payments for Russian Oil Imports

Indian refiners started paying for some oil imports from Russia in Chinese yuan, as Western sanctions force Moscow and its customers to find alternatives to the dollar for settling payments.
Western punishments over Russia's invasion of Ukraine have shifted global trade flows for its top export, with India emerging as the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil even as it casts about for how to pay for it amid shifting sanctions.
The U.S. dollar has long been the main global oil currency, including for purchases by India, but now the yuan is playing an increasingly important role in Russia's financial system.

Jul 08, 2023

RBI Panel Suggests Steps for Internationalisation of Rupee

A Reserve Bank-appointed committee suggested a host of short-term and long-term measures for internationalisation of Indian rupee, including efforts for inclusion of the Indian currency in IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket.
SDR is an international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement the official reserves of its member countries. It is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. As such, SDRs can provide a country with liquidity. A basket of currencies defines the SDR: the US dollar, euro, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and the British pound.

RBI Permits UBS-owned Credit Suisse to Keep Indian Banking License

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted permission to UBS, the owner of Credit Suisse, to retain the banking license for operations in India. This decision came as UBS intends to reduce more than half of Credit Suisse's workforce. Additionally, UBS has yet to determine the future of the Swiss domestic business acquired from Credit Suisse.
To facilitate the integration of Credit Suisse, UBS has enlisted the help of Tom Wipf from Morgan Stanley, who will play a key role in the tie-up.

Reliance Jio to Sign 5G Equipment Deal with Nokia

Reliance Jio Infocomm is ready to finalise a $1.7 billion deal with Finland-based Nokia to buy 5G network equipment.
The contract is likely to be signed at Nokia's headquarters near Helsinki. Senior executives from the Reliance Group and representatives from the banks that are financing the purchase will be present.
Reliance's purchase from Nokia is in addition to the $2.1 billion worth of 5G equipment that it is already buying from Sweden's Ericsson. The purchases are part of Jio's arrangements as it plans to roll out its 5G services across the country by the end of this year (2023).
Global banks like HSBC, JP Morgan, and Citigroup are among the several banks that will be lending money to Jio to finance this 5 G equipment from Nokia and Ericsson. The total loans stand at around $4 billion.

Jul 07, 2023

Sirisha Voruganti New MD & CEO of Lloyds Banking Group's Technology Centre in India

Lloyds Banking Group, one of the leading UK-based financial services groups appointed Sirisha Voruganti as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of its new Lloyds Technology Centre, based in Hyderabad, India. Voruganti, a globally renowned technology and innovation leader joined from JCPenney, where she served as the Managing Director and member of the Board for JCPenney in India.
Voruganti brings extensive experience in IT architecture, data engineering, and fintech innovation and has held several senior technology positions in multiple global firms. She was the first woman Managing Director for JP Morgan Chase in Technology in India and has served as an Executive Vice President of Architecture, Data and Shared Services for Mastercard. Lloyds Technology Centre is part of the Group's 3 billion strategic investment over the next three years to transform its digital offering.
Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank was founded in 1765 but the wider Group's heritage extends over 320 years, dating back to the founding of the Bank of Scotland by the Parliament of Scotland in 1695.

Bihar Surpasses Tamil Nadu as State with Highest Micro Lending Borrowings

Bihar overtook Tamil Nadu and emerged as the state with the highest micro lending borrowings as of March 2023. Bihar achieved the growth courtesy of a 13.5 per cent growth in the gross lending portfolio in the March quarter as compared with the preceding quarter.
The report by Crif High Mark put the overall Microfinance (MFI) borrowings in Bihar at Rs. 48,900 crore as of March 2023, which represented 14.5 per cent of the overall portfolio, while the same in Tamil Nadu stood at Rs. 46,300 crore, representing 13.7 per cent of the overall outstanding.
The top ten states now account for 85 per cent of the outstanding portfolio and also include Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Kerala.

Jul 06, 2023

FPSB India Appoints Krishan Mishra as its CEO

The Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) of India appointed Krishan Mishra as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective 1 August 2023.
FPSB India is the Indian subsidiary of FPSB, the global standards-setting body for the financial planning profession and owner of the international Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification program.
With over 20 years of experience, Mishra has held a variety of leadership positions including Country Head-International Business (India and South Asia) of Becker Professional Education, Head of North and East India of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and Regional Head (East) and Business Head-Channel Business at HCL Infosystems.

Bank of India Becomes First Bank to Offer Mahila Samman Savings Certificate

Bank of India, one of the largest public sector banks (PSBs) in the country, became the first bank to officially roll out Mahila Samman Savings Certificate (MSSC) scheme.
The scheme was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her Budget speech this year (2023). The scheme offers an interest rate of 7.5 per cent per annum, compounded quarterly.
Individual girls or women can open an account under the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate scheme or a guardian can open an account on behalf of a minor girl.
The account will mature after two years from the date of opening. Accounts under this scheme can be opened until March 31, 2025.
While the minimum investment is Rs. 1,000, any sum in multiples of Rs. 100 can be deposited, up to a maximum limit of Rs. 2 lakh.
Account holders can also make partial withdrawals, up to 40 per cent of the eligible balance, after one year from the date of opening the account.

Jul 05, 2023

Axiscades Appoints Former DRDO Chairman S. Christopher as Director

Engineering solutions provider Axiscades Technologies Ltd. onboarded former DRDO Chairman S. Christopher as a director in the company.
Christopher holds an engineering degree from University of Madras, M-Tech in Microwaves and Radar Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, and PhD in Antenna and Measurement Techniques from IIT Madras.
In his over two decades of career as a scientist, he has earned many recognitions and is also known as the man behind the indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system in defence.
S. Christopher will greatly enhance the company's strategic capabilities and contribute significantly to enhance the company's offerings in advanced defense solutions to global customers and Indian defence.
Bengaluru-based Axiscades is a leading end-to-end engineering and technology solutions provider catering to sectors like aerospace, defence, heavy engineering, automotive, and energy among others.

Debadatta Chand Takes Charge as Bank of Baroda MD

Debadatta Chand took charge as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Baroda. He took over from Sanjiv Chadha, whose tenure ended in June 2023.
Prior to his appointment, Chand served as the executive director at Bank of Baroda since March 2021. In his role as executive director, he was overseeing corporate and institutional credit, corporate and institutional banking, treasury and global markets, mid-corporate business, and trade and foreign exchange.
Chand began his career in 1994 as an officer at Allahabad Bank and later worked as a manager at the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) from 1998 to 2005.
In 2005, he joined Punjab National Bank as chief manager and was elevated to the position of chief general manager. During his over 15-year tenure at Punjab National Bank, he held various roles, including head of the zonal audit office in Patna, circle head of the Bareilly region, head of integrated treasury operations, and head of the Mumbai Zone.

Bhel Appoints Krishna Kumar Thakur as New HR Director

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) appointed Krishna Kumar Thakur as the new Director of its Human Resources (HR) team. He will assume charge as Director (HR) of the public sector engineering and manufacturing enterprise.
Thakur has 25 years of experience in handling HR matters and administration in the Indian Railways as well as other central public sector undertakings (PSUs).
He has a postgraduate degree in literature from Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpuras as well as a postgraduate diploma in management with specialisation in human resource (PGDM-HR) from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
Thakur is an officer of the Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) from the 1988 batch.

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