General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Jul 09, 2021

Govt. Sets Up 25-Member Development Council for Cement Industry

The government has set up a 25-member development council for cement industry, including Dalmia Bharat Group CMD Puneet Dalmia and UltraTech Cement MD K C Jhanwar, which will suggest ways to eliminate waste, obtain maximum production, improve quality, reduce costs and promote standardization of products.
According to an order, other functions of the council include recommending measures for securing the full utilization of the installed capacity and for improving the working of the industry, particularly of the less efficient units; promote training of persons; and promoting or undertaking scientific and industrial research.
It would also work for standardization of accounting and costing methods and practice; and promoting the adoption of measures for increasing the productivity of labour, including measures for securing safer and better working conditions.
Dalmia is the chairman of the council. Its members include Shree Cement Ltd MD HM Bangur, The India Cements Ltd Executive President Rakesh Singh; Birla Corporation Limited CEO Pracheta Majumdar; J.K. Cement Ltd Deputy Managing Director Madhavkrishna Singhania, and JSW Cement Ltd CEO Nilesh Narwekar.

Govt. Launches Mobile App 'Matsya Setu'

Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Giriraj Singh launched a mobile app 'Matsya Setu' to disseminate the latest freshwater aquaculture technologies to the country's aqua farmers.
The app has been developed by the ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar, with the funding support of the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad.
Matsya Setu app has species-wise/ subject-wise self-learning online course modules, where renowned aquaculture experts explain the basic concepts and practical demonstrations on breeding, seed production and grow-out culture of commercially important fishes like carp, catfish, scampi, murrel, ornamental fish, and pearl farming.

Jul 08, 2021

Dept. of Public Enterprises Brought under Finance Ministry

Central government has decided to bring Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under Finance Ministry.
DPE was earlier under Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
It has been brought under Finance Minister in a bid to ease coordination regarding future disinvestment plans.
Finance Ministry now comprises of the following six departments: DPE, Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Expenditure, Department of Revenue, Department of Investment & Public Asset Management and Department of Financial Services.

PNB Advises Housing Arm to Rejig Carlyle Deal as Per SEBI Order

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has advised its housing finance arm to restructure its fundraising deal with investors, led by the Carlyle Group, in accordance with the recent directive by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). However, PNB Housing Finance has decided to wait for the Securities Appellate Tribunal's (SAT) order.

Moglix Acquires Used Machinery E-commerce Firm Vendaxo

Moglix in its quest to build the operating system for the manufacturing sector has acquired Vendaxo, an e-commerce platform for buying and selling of used machinery. This move by Moglix, the industrial business-to-business unicorn for manufacturing, is a step towards creating a sustainable and capital-efficient manufacturing ecosystem. Through the acquisition, Moglix wants to provide access to high value capital goods at economical prices to manufacturers.
Founded in 2017, Vendaxo is a B2B e-commerce platform that provides used machinery liquidation solutions to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and large manufacturing enterprises such as Siemens, Arvind India, Marico, Raymond, and Torrent Pharma. The used machines and equipment marketplace enables 40 thousand users to buy and sell from its verified listings of 31 thousand SKUs (stock keeping units) through its digitally enabled and secured escrow process. India's used machinery market is close to Rs. 64,000 crore and is a critical lever for driving sustainable manufacturing in the country.

Jul 07, 2021

Razorpay, Mastercard Launch MandateHQ for Recurring Payments

Fintech unicorn Razorpay and payments technology major Mastercard have launched Mandate HQ, a platform, which is a safe and secure recurring payment interface. To further the adoption of digital payments in a safe and secure manner, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a framework for processing of e-mandates on recurring online transactions.
RBI has made AFA (Additional Factor of Authentication) mandatory for all recurring transactions below Rs. 5000 on debit cards, credit cards, even UPI and other Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs). All stakeholders are required to ensure full compliance with the framework by September 30, 2021.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group to Acquire Stake in FICC

Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) is set to acquire a 74.9 per cent stake in Fullerton India Credit Company (FICC), a non- banking finance company that offers credit to retail as well as small businesses, for about $2 billion. The transaction is contingent upon regulatory approvals.
SMFG has plans to eventually acquire 100 per cent in FICC — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), which, in turn, is a wholly-owned entity of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings. The acquisition would mark a big Asian push by SMFG towards consumer and MSME lending.
Through this investment, SMFG will gain a retail finance platform in India, which is essential for its Asia franchise, and will strive to contribute to further develop India's financial industry as a whole.

Tata Power to Re-appointment N. Chandrasekaran as Director

Tata Power said that its shareholders have approved the re-appointment of its Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran as director of the firm.
The shareholders approved the resolution to reappoint N. Chandrasekaran as director in its annual general meeting (AGM).
Chandrasekaran was appointed as non-independent non-executive director of the firm in February 2017.

TCS Enters Strategic Partnership with OTT Streaming Platform SonyLIV

IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) entered into a strategic partnership with India's premier OTT streaming platform, SonyLIV, to help create an innovative business model enabled by digital technologies, enhance customer experience, and pave the path to future growth.
The partnership will leverage TCS' next-gen digital capabilities, global expertise, domain knowledge and innovation ecosystem to define SonyLIV's platform transformation roadmap for India and global markets. TCS will help enhance its core OTT platform to leverage AI and machine learning to provide personalized experiences to subscribers across devices. It will also help SonyLIV use data and insights to monetize content and create new revenue streams.

Jul 06, 2021

NetConnect Global to Expand Operations in India

Bengaluru-based technology services firm NetConnect Global (NCG) said that the company is planning to hire 5,000 technology professionals pan-India by the end of this calendar year to facilitate its expansion operations in India.
By strengthening its workforce by recruiting 5,000 technology professionals, the company aims to enhance its focus on new-age digital technologies in the IoT, Cloud App Development and Deployment and AI/ML space.
NCG has been supporting over a 100 businesses through digital transformation and acceleration of operations across telecom, manufacturing, retail, energy and finance sectors.

Nandan Nilekani to Join Govt Panel on Curbing Digital Monopolies

Infosys Chairman and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani will join a panel set up by the central government, along with eight other members, to advise the government on designing and accelerating adoption of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), aimed at curbing digital monopolies.
The larger idea is to give 'free and fair' choice to consumers to buy products on an online platform. The system will help physical traders get on online platforms. This will be done by creating a network based on open protocols through ONDC.

Paytm Announces Launch of Small Ticket Loan Product Postpaid Mini

Digital payments and financial services platform Paytm launched of Postpaid Mini, small ticket loans that will give users flexibility to access loans ranging from Rs. 250 – Rs. 1,000, in partnership with Aditya Birla Finance Ltd.
The product is an extension of its Buy Now, Pay Later service, driving affordability amongst those new to credit. These small ticket instant loans will give flexibility to users and also help manage their household expenses to maintain liquidity during the ongoing Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
With this service, Paytm Postpaid is offering a period of up to 30 days for repayment of loans at 0 per cent interest. There are no annual fees or activation charges, only a minimal convenience fee.

PhonePe- Flipkart to Launch Contactless 'Scan and Pay' Feature

Digital payments platform PhonePe has tied hands with Flipkart to launch a contactless 'Scan and Pay' feature for Flipkart's pay-on-delivery orders.
Dynamic QR code solution of PhonePe will enable customers, to pay digitally through UPI Apps during the delivery of product, who earlier opted for cash on delivery.
This feature will help in reducing personal contact while ensuring safety.
It will drive contactless payments for customers who are traditionally comfortable with cash on delivery.
Digitisation of these cash-based payments will provide a major boost to e-commerce and will also contribute to larger goal of Digital India.
This facility will enable customers to pay just by scanning the PhonePe QR code. Customers can make contactless payments from home for deliveries from Flipkart.

Michelin Names Gaganjot Singh as head of Africa, India & Middle East Region

French tyre major Michelin appointed Gaganjot Singh as the President of Africa, India and the Middle East region.
Singh, who will be based out of Pune, succeeded Marc Pasquet who was called for other functions in the Michelin Group.
In his ten year association with Michelin, Singh has held various leadership roles in finance, sales, and other commercial functions across Asia, Africa and Europe.
Since 2019, he served as Global Business Model Leader Large Fleets within the Long Distance Transportation Business Line.
In 2012, he joined Michelin Group in India as Chief Financial Officer of the country.

Jul 05, 2021

Indian Overseas Bank Becomes the Second most-valued Public Lender

Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has become the second most-valued listed public sector bank (PSB) with a market capitalisation of over Rs. 50,000 crore. As Street discounts privatisation of the state-owned lender, its shares have appreciated nearly 80 per cent on the BSE in the past one month. IOB stood with an m-cap of Rs. 51,887 crore, pushing PNB (Rs. 46,411 crore) and BOB (Rs. 44,112 crore) to third and fourth position, respectively, as per data available on BSE.
In the past month, the market price of IOB has zoomed 57 per cent, as compared to a 4 per cent decline in PNB and a 5 per cent gain in BOB share price. The bank plans to come out of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework by focusing on recovery, low-cost deposits, and less capital consuming advances.

BPCL's R&D Centre Bags 80 Patents in 20 Years

State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has bagged as many as 80 national and international patents in the past two decades, and approvals for 53 more filings are pending, for various innovations including the world's cheapest and the fastest crude oil assaying tool BP Marrk.
Its research and development (R&D) centre, located at a 68-acre sprawling campus at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, has won 18 patents in the past 12 months alone.
BPCL has an annual budget of Rs. 80-100 crore for R&D.

Reserve Bank of India Imposes Penalty on Punjab & Sind Bank

The Reserve Bank of India imposed a penalty of Rs. 25 lakh on Punjab and Sind Bank for non-compliance with certain provisions of directions on 'Cyber Security Framework in Banks.
.The state-owned bank had reported a few cyber incidents to the RBI in May 2020.

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