General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Sep 03, 2021

HDFC Life to Acquire Exide Life

HDFC Life Insurance announced that its board has approved acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Exide Life Insurance Company Limited for a total consideration of Rs. 6,687 crore.
The life insurance company will acquire 100% stake in Exide Life from Exide Industries through issuance of 8,70,22,222 shares at an issue price of ₹685 per share and a cash payout of Rs. 726 crore aggregating to Rs. 6,687 crore.
The process for merger of Exide Life into HDFC Life will be initiated on completion of the acquisition.
The company expects Exide Life's strong foothold in South India, especially in Tier 2 and 3 towns, to provide access to a wider market.
The entire process, including the acquisition and subsequent merger, is subject to obtaining the relevant regulatory and other approvals.

Atul Bhatt News CMD of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd

Atul Bhatt has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of disinvestment-owned steel company Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL).
Bhatt was the CMD of state-owned consultancy firm MECON, which offers a full range of services required to set up a project from concept to commissioning including turnkey execution.
In June the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended Bhatt's name for the post of CMD of RINL.
P. K. Rath retired as CMD RINL in May, after serving the company for 38 years.
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, (abbreviated as RINL), also known as Vizag Steel, is a government owned steel producer based in Visakhapatnam, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Steel , Government of India . RINL is the government entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), India's first shore-based integrated steel plant built with state-of-the-art technology.
When founded in 1982, RINL was wholly owned by the Government of India. In November 2010, the company was granted the Navratna status by the government.
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has P. V. Sindhu ,the ace badminton player as its brand ambassador since 2016.

PhonePe Starts First Indian Digital Payment Interactive Geospatial Platform

Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has launched PhonePe Pulse, India's first interactive platform with data, insights and trends on digital payments in the country. The PhonePe Pulse website showcases more than 2000 crore transactions by consumers on an interactive map of India. With over 45 per cent market share, PhonePe's data is representative of the country's digital payment habits.
PhonePe also launched the Pulse Report, an in-depth study on the evolution of digital payments over the past 5 years. The report also has insights about how digital payment adoption across India has evolved since 2016, and includes detailed geographical and category-specific trends.
PhonePe Pulse is a first-of-its-kind product in India and is the culmination of months of research and collaboration by a cross-functional team. It included corporate communications professionals, business analysts, marketers, designers, writers, engineering and business teams from across the company.

Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa Launch CBDC Scheme

Central banks in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa launched a Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) Scheme.
CBDC scheme is a cross border payments trial that uses different central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in order to assess if this allows transactions to be settled in a cheap and easy manner.
Many governments and central banks across the world are exploring the use of CBDCs.
CBDCs are digital forms of existing currencies.
Countries like China, are trialling retail-focused CBDCs that have been designed to replicate cash in circulation.
Other countries are considering using wholesale CBDCs in order to improve the internal workings of financial systems.

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Commissions 6 Million Tonne Pellet Plant

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel, commissioned its second six million tonne pellet plant, taking the total capacity at Paradeep complex in Odisha to 12 million tonnes, making it the largest single-location pelletisation complex in India.
AM/NS India's total pelletisation capacity now stands at 20 million tonnes with 12 million tonnes at Paradeep and eight million tonnes at Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

Sep 02, 2021

IMF Raises India's Special Drawing Rights Allocation

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sharply increased its allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to India, in line with the country's existing quota in the fund.
SDR is an alternate reserve currency floated by the IMF, which the member countries can freely exchange between themselves instead of relying on currency of any one particular country.

El Salvador Congress Backs $150 Million Fund for Bitcoin

El Salvador's Congress approved a law to create a $150 million fund to facilitate conversions from bitcoin to U.S. dollars ahead of the Central American country's planned adoption of the cryptocurrency as legal tender next week.
With 64 votes in favour and 14 votes against, Congress approved the fund as El Salvador, which already uses the U.S. dollar, prepares to officially adopt bitcoin on September 7.

EIL Technical Director Vartika Shukla Takes Charge as Chairperson

Vartika Shukla has taken charge as Chairperson & Managing Director of Engineers India Limited (EIL). Prior to this, she was the Director (Technical) of EIL.
A graduate in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Shukla joined EIL in 1988 as a Management Trainee in EIL's Process Division. She possesses over 32 years of consulting experience comprising Design, Engineering and Implementation of complexes in Refining, Gas Processing, Petrochemicals, Fertilizers etc. She has led to the successful completion of many projects in the Oil & Gas and Petrochemical Industry both in India and overseas.

BHEL Bags Order from NPCIL

BHEL secured the largest ever order worth Rs. 10,800 crore from NPCIL for EPC of Turbine Island for 6 units of 700 MWe.
The six orders, received envisage setting up of four units of 700 MWe at Gorakhpur, Haryana, and two units of 700 MWe at Kaiga, Karnataka.

Amarinder Launches 'Innovation Mission Punjab' to Boost Start-up Sector

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh launched 'Innovation Mission Punjab' (IMPunjab), a public-private partnership that brings in global investors and experts to catalyze start-ups.
The Mission will mobilise a global pool of ambassadors and partners for investment, mentorship and market accessand will also leverage the strength of the Punjabi diaspora, allowing them to partake in this renewed growth story of the state besides running focused programmes to encourage entrepreneurship amongst women.

Equitas Small Finance Bank Launches Digital FDs

Equitas Small Finance Bank (SFB) has launched a new initiative that enables Google Pay users to book fixed deposits (FDs) on Google Pay in just 2 minutes without opening a bank account.
This functionality of booking FDs will be available for Google Pay users who are using the app from Android devices.
Collaboration between SFB and Google Way was done ahead of the SFB's 5th anniversary on September 5th, 2021.
Under this functionality, principal and interest of the FD will go directly to the Google Pay user's existing bank account once the FDs are matured.

Sri Lanka Receives $787 Million SDR from IMF and $150 Million Swap from Bangladesh

Sri Lanka has received $787 million from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) special drawing rights (SDR) allocation and $150 million from Bangladesh Central Bank as a currency swap arrangement, boosting the island nation's depleting foreign exchange reserves as it struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The IMF distributed a total SDR allocation of equivalent to $650 billion among its member countries on August 23, in proportion to their existing quotas in the IMF.

Sep 01, 2021

Amul Ranks 18th in Rabobank 2021 Global Dairy Top 20 Report

Amul, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has dropped two places to rank 18th in Rabobank's 2021 Global Top 20 Dairy Companies list. Amul was placed at 16th spot in 2020. Amul has achieved an annual turnover of $5.3 billion.
French-based dairy company Lactalis has topped the list as the world's largest dairy company with a turnover of US $23.0 billion. It has unseated Switzerland-based global behemoth Nestle, which dominated the list for decades.
Rabobank's Global Dairy Top 20 Report is released annually to rank the dairy industry upon their sales data and financial statements.

Tata Consultancy Services Breaches Rs. 14 Trillion Mark

The market valuation of Tata Consultancy Services has breached the Rs. 14 lakh crore mark, becoming the second company after Reliance Industries Limited to achieve this milestone.
The market valuation of Tata Consultancy Services had in August 2021 past the Rs. 13 lakh crore mark.
The IT major had in January 2021 breached the Rs. 12 lakh crore market valuation mark.
Reliance Industries Limited is the country's most valuable firm with a market valuation of Rs. 14,32,270.38 crore.

Axis Bank Ties up with BharatPe to Expand its Merchant Acquiring Business

Private sector lender Axis Bank has tied up with BharatPe to expand its merchant acquiring business in the country. As a part of the partnership, Axis Bank will be the acquiring bank for BharatPe's point of sale (PoS) business, BharatSwipe, and will provide acceptance of credit and debit cards for merchants associated with BharatPe.
With over 600,000 PoS terminals spread across the entire country, Axis Bank is the third largest PoS acquiring bank in the payments acceptance business and processed around Rs. 19,000 crore worth of volumes in a month. On the other hand, BharatPe's PoS machine BharatSwipe has an installed base of 100,000 across 16 cities, processing around Rs. 1,400 crore per month. BharatPe clocked an annualised transaction value of $2 billion on PoS terminals at the end of FY21. The company has set a target of $6 billion in transaction processed value (TPV) by FY22.
This association will help BharatPe enhance merchant experience by leveraging the best-in-class technology platform offered by Axis Bank.

PFRDA Increases the Entry Age in National Pension System

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has revised the guidelines for senior citizens joining the National Pension Scheme (NPS) after the age of 65 years.
With the revised guidelines, elderly people can now open an NPS account till the age of 70. PFRDA has also eased the exit norms.
Furthermore, the PFRDA has permitted subscribers who join the scheme after the age of 65 years, to allocate up to 50 per cent of the funds in equity.
The National Pension Scheme (NPS) is a voluntary retirement savings scheme laid out to allow the subscribers to make a defined contribution towards planned savings, thereby securing the future in the form of a pension. It provides an adequate retirement income for senior citizens.

Exim Bank Extends Loan to Africa Finance Corporation

Exim Bank of India has extended a line of credit of USD 100 million (Rs. 730 crore) on behalf of the Indian government to the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) to develop infrastructure in the continent and boost economic revival of countries in the region.
AFC is an infrastructure solutions provider in the African continent.
The tenure of the soft loan is 10 years.
India Exim Bank, the sovereign export credit agency of the country, has actively sought opportunities to co-finance projects in Africa through credit lines to support infrastructure development.
AFC draws capital from a diverse range of international investors and lenders as part of its strategy to maintain Africa's second highest investment grade credit ratings.

PayU to Acquire BillDesk in One of Largest Indian Fintech Deals

Prosus-backed fintech firm PayU is set to acquire India's earliest payment gateway BillDesk in an all-cash transaction of $4.7 billion. This will be the largest acquisition in India's digital payments space. The deal will also give exit to investors General Atlantic, TA Associates, Temasek, Clearstone Ventures, and Visa.
The proposed acquisition will help PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus which operates in more than 20 markets, become one of the leading online payment providers globally by total payment volume (TPV). The combined entity will have a total of 4 billion transactions annually.
Prosus, the global consumer internet group is one of the largest technology investors in the world.

Aug 31, 2021

PhonePe Receives Broking Licence from Insurance Regulator

Walmart-backed payment firm PhonePe has received a broking licence from the insurance regulator, which will enable it to distribute insurance products from all insurance companies in the country.
The new broking licence will allow it to start offering personalised product recommendations to its more than 300 million users, and offer a much more diverse portfolio of insurance products for Indian consumers.
"PhonePe is India's fastest growing insurtech and this move to broking will give us further momentum and accelerate our growth in this space," said Gunjan Ghai, vice president and head of insurance at PhonePe.

SSWL Inks Pact with Tata Steel Long Products

Steel Strips Wheels Limited (SSWL) has signed an agreement with Tata Steel Long Products for rolling of round bars of various grades for a period of 3 years. These products will target automotive customers in India.
The supplies from the company's Saraikela Plant, in Jharkhand, will start from October 2021.
A subsidiary of Tata Steel, Tata Steel Long Products, is in the business of manufacturing high alloy steel, primarily for the auto sector and wire rope industry.

RBI Enhances Limit under Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility

The Reserve Bank of India has increased the limit of fund transfer under the Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility Scheme from Rs. 50,000 per transaction to Rs. 2 lakh per transaction. Earlier there was a ceiling limit of 12 transactions in a year. Now, this limit has also been removed. However, for cash-based transfers under the Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility, the per transaction limit of Rs. 50,000 will still be present with a maximum number of transfers in a year allowed at 12.
Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility is a fund transfer mechanism from India to Nepal (not otherwise) that operates on NEFT. It was started by RBI in the year 2008. It is managed by SBI in India and Nepal SBI Bank Limited (NSBL) in Nepal.

Govt. Extends Tenure of Bank of India Executive Director Rajagopal

The government has extended the term of P. R. Rajagopal Executive Director of state-run Bank of India by two years.
His current term was to expire on February 28, 2022.
The government last week extended the term of executive directors of various public sector banks.
It also extended the terms of MD & CEOs of Punjab National Bank and Bank of Maharashtra.

RBI Receives Two more Applications for SFB Licence

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has received applications from two more entities under the 'on-tap' small finance bank licensing guidelines of 2019, taking the total number of applicants to six.
Cosmea Financial Holdings Pvt Ltd and Tally Solutions Pvt Ltd have applied for a small finance bank licence.
Bengaluru-based Tally Solutions Pvt Ltd is a technology and innovation company, which, according to its website, delivers business software for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Established in 1986, Tally Solutions is headed by Tejas Goenka, with Sheela Goenka as the chairperson.
Cosmea Financial Holdings Pvt Ltd is a Mumbai-based entity, which is involved in activities, which are auxiliary to financial intermediation. It has four directors namely, Soumen Ghosh, Lav Ramji Chaturvedi, Mihir Kanak Sundhani, and Amit Agarwal.

Axis Bank Begins Issuing Debt Securities

Axis Bank has started issuing debt securities under its Rs. 35,000 crore-debt raise plan announced earlier this year.
In April, the private sector lender had said that its board had approved capital raise proposal up to Rs. 35,000 crore by issuing various debt instruments in Indian or foreign currency in domestic/overseas markets in one or more tranches.
The bank has initiated the process of issuing of the debt instruments, in the form of the additional tier 1 notes (notes) in foreign currency, subject to market conditions.
This will be a sustainable bond under the sustainable financing framework of the bank.

S. L. Jain is MD & CEO of Indian Bank

Bank of Baroda said that Shanti Lal Jain would cease to be its executive director from September due to his appointment as the MD & CEO of Indian Bank.
Giving reason for his cessation, the public sector lender said Jain has been appointed as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indian Bank, to be effective on or after September 1, 2021.

HSBC Asia Appoints Ex-SBI Chief Rajnish Kumar as an Independent Director

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has appointed former State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar as an independent director and a member of Audit Committee and Risk Committee of the Asian entity.
The Indian operation is a branch of this Asian entity. HSBC is also listed in the UK as a separate entity called HSBC Plc.
Rajnish Kumar retired in October 2020 after a 40-year career at the SBI. His international tenure included stints at SBI's UK and Canada operations.
Kumar is also currently a director of India's Lighthouse Communities Foundation, an independent director of Larsen & Toubro Infotech, a senior advisor of Baring Private Equity Asia Pte. Ltd in Singapore and an advisor of Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd in Mumbai.

Aug 30, 2021

Nazara Technologies Acquires OpenPlay

Nazara Technologies has acquired Hyderabad-based OpenPlay for Rs. 186.41 crore.
Nazara's Board has approved the acquisition of OpenPlay Technologies from its existing shareholders - Sreeram Reddy Vanga and Unnati Management Consultants LLP - at a consideration of Rs. 186.41 crore, in one or more tranches.
OpenPlay offers a strong tech and product platform for the company to build a network of skill gaming destinations operating on one common platform under the proven leadership of the open play team.

RBI Slaps Fine on Four White Label ATM Operators

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed penalties totalling Rs. 6 crore on four White Label ATM (WLA) operators, including Hitachi Payment Services, and Tata Communications Payment Solutions, for deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
According to a release, a penalty of Rs. 3 crore was imposed on Transaction Analysts (India) Pvt Ltd for contravention of certain provisions of directions related to issuance and operation of prepaid payment instruments and KYC. A penalty was imposed on four WLA operators for "contravention of /non-compliance" with certain provisions of the directions in the 'White Label ATMs in India – Guidelines' dated June 20, 2012. A penalty of Rs. 2 crore each was imposed on BTI Payments and Hitachi Payment Services, and Rs. 1 crore each on Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd and Vakrangee Ltd.

RBI Launches Surveys to Get Inputs for Monetary Policy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the launch of the next round of households surveys to capture inflation expectations and consumer confidence, which provide useful inputs for its monetary policy.
The central bank has been regularly conducting these surveys.
Announcing the launch of September 2021 round of Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH), the RBI said that the survey aims at capturing subjective assessments on price movements and inflation, of about 6,000 households, based on their individual consumption baskets, across 18 cities.

IndiGo Board Appoints Director Gregg Saretsky as Special Advisor

The Board of Directors of IndiGo appointed of Gregg Saretsky, Member of the Board, to the position of Special Advisor with immediate effect.
In this capacity, he will work closely with Rono Dutta, the Executive Leadership Team of IndiGo, and Rahul Bhatia to accelerate operational and commercial improvement opportunities at the airline, InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo.
Saretsky brings extensive experience in commercial aviation including, most recently, as CEO of WestJet, Canada's most successful low cost carrier.

Cuba to Recognise and Regulate Cryptocurrencies

Cuba's government has said that it will recognise and regulate cryptocurrencies for payments on the island.
According to a resolution published, the Central Bank will set rules for such currencies and determine how to license providers of related services within Cuba.
The popularity of such currencies has grown among a technologically savvy group in Cuba as it has become harder to use dollars, in part because of toughened embargo rules imposed under former President Donald Trump.

Anjali Bansal is President of Bombay Chambers of Commerce

The Bombay Chambers of Commerce at its board meeting has appointed Anjali Bansal as president for the 2021-22.
Bansal will take over from Sudhir Kapadia. Bansal.
Prior to this, Bansal was the chairperson of Dena Bank. Nilesh Shah, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, has been appointed as the senior vice-president for 2021-22.

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