General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Jun 30, 2021

Axis Bank Strikes Cloud Computing Deal with AWS

Amazon Web Services, (AWS), the cloud computing arm of e-commerce giant Amazon said that Axis Bank, India's third-largest private sector bank, has selected AWS to accelerate its digital transformation program and meet the growing demand for its digital banking services.
As part of a multi-year agreement, Axis Bank will draw on the breadth and depth of AWS services. This includes containers, database, and compute, to build a portfolio of new digital financial services to bring advanced banking experiences to customers. This includes online accounts that can be opened in under six minutes and instant digital payments, helping the bank increase customer satisfaction by 35 per cent and lower costs by 24 per cent.

UK-based Tide Forays into India

Tide, a British company focused on providing financial and administrative solutions to small businesses, announced its entry into India, committing a Rs. 1,000-crore investment over the next five years.
The company, which plans to target the small and medium enterprises, will be hiring 1,000 people in software development, product development and field teams to help penetrate the business.
The company plans to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) right from incorporation to normal conduct of business in a compliant manner, he said, adding that it is targeting to have 2.5 million SMEs as clients in the next five years.

AMNS India Executes Paperless Bill Discounting Transaction with ICICI Bank

AMNS India has executed "a paperless bill discounting transaction" in partnership with ICICI Bank.
Gujarat-based ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) India said that it is first such transaction in India.
In a step forward for digitising trade payments, AMNS India announced it has executed the country's first domestic paperless bill discounting transaction in partnership with ICICI Bank.
ICICI Bank was the intermediary between the buyer and seller.

Standard Life Sells Stake in HDFC Life Insurance

Standard Life divested 5 per cent stake in HDFC Life Insurance Company. A total of 100.8 million shares were sold in two tranches at Rs. 672 and Rs. 673.
Standard Life raised a total of Rs. 6,784 crore from the share sale.
Prior to the share sale, Standard Life currently held 8.8 per cent (180 million) shares in HDFC Life. After the share sale, its stake has dropped to 3.8 per cent.

Paris Gets New JPMorgan Trading Hub

French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated JPMorgan's new trading hub in Paris, as France pitches for more banking jobs and tries to lure finance workers looking to leave London after Brexit.
Banks are spending billions of dollars beefing up their European Union operations post-Brexit to avoid disruption to some of their activities.
Flanked by JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, Macron visited the U.S. bank's trading base in central Paris, focused on European debt trading. It is set to employ 800 people in Paris by 2022, including some at its existing headquarters nearby.
JPMorgan also has big trading hubs in Amsterdam, Dublin and Frankfurt, and remains firmly rooted in London too, even if some jobs are migrating. The bank employs some 19,000 people in Britain overall, with over 10,000 in London alone.

IDBI Intech Eyes Fintech Firms for Takeover

IDBI Intech Ltd, the technology services arm of IDBI Bank, is expanding into business geographies like Europe, South East Asia and Japan to provide services including digital regulatory compliance. The firm is also in talks to acquire fintech firms to boost revenue offerings.
At present it has 20 fintechs in its eco-system.
Private sector lendet IDBI Bank, which holds 100 per cent stake in IDBI Intech, is looking to divest 49 per cent stake in the Infotech firm. The lender has appointed IDBI Capital markets as advisor to rope in a strategic investor. It aims to finalise deal in the current financial year.
It has roped in technology advisory firm, Lemon Advisors UK Ltd, to extend its fintech products and services for the banking and financial services sector to new global markets. IDBI Intech has a suite of products in the area of Financial Crime and Payments.

Jun 29, 2021

UK Bans World's Largest Crypto Exchange

Britain's financial regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has banned world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
Binance cannot conduct any regulated activity as it will come under growing scrutiny globally.
Binance Markets was acquired by Binance Company in 2020. It was not using regulatory permissions.
FCA's move will extend a regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrency sector because of rising concerns about its involvement in money laundering and fraud.
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange from Cayman Islands. It provides a platform to trade several cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017. Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange worldwide in terms of trading volume, as of April 2021. This cryptocurrency exchange was founded by Changpeng Zhao. It was initially based in China. But due to increased regulation of cryptocurrency in China, it moved headquarters out of China.
FCA is a financial regulatory body in United Kingdom. It operates independently of UK Government. It is financed by charging fees to members of financial services industry. Its function is to regulate financial firms providing services to consumers. It works alongside Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Policy Committee.

WhatsApp Appoints Amazon Executive to Lead Payments Business in India

Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp has appointed Manesh Mahatme to lead the growth of its Payments business in India. As Director of WhatsApp Payments-India, Mahatme will focus on enhancing the payments experience for users, scaling the service offering and work towards contributing to WhatsApp's vision of digital and financial inclusion in India.
Mahatme brings with him 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments across Citibank, Airtel Money and Amazon. He joins WhatsApp from Amazon where he spent close to seven years as Director and Board member of Amazon Pay India and led product, engineering, and growth teams.

Power Mech Bags Contract from Central Coalfields

Power Mech Projects Ltd has bagged a Rs. 9,294 crore contract from Coal India arm CCL to develop and operate a mine.
The project has been awarded to a consortium of Power Mech and AMR India Ltd. Power Mech is the consortium leader with 74 per cent equity stake and AMR India will hold 26 per cent stake.
The contract will comprise mine infrastructure development, removal of overburden and extraction of coking coal, processing, crushing and transportation of coal up to washery of CCL, carrying out R&R activities and any other activities incidental to mining as per the project document at Kotre Basantpur Pachmo OCP located in Ramgarh and Bokaro districts of Jharkhand.

IT, Financial Players most ESG Compliant; INFOSYS Tops CRISIL Rankings

Information technology and financial services players are the most environmental, Social, and governance (ESG) compliant companies in the country, and second-largest software exporter Infosys sc¬oring the highest on the key metric, according to scores prepared by Crisil.
Companies in oil and gas, chemicals, metals and mining, and cement companies have lower ESG scores, reflecting high natural-resource intensity, and thereby higher emission levels, extractive use of natural resources, potential adverse environmental and community impact, and generally more moderate levels of disclosure.
Scores for 225 companies computed by the agency pointed to scope for improvement on gender diversity as women's representation both on the boards and workforce remai¬ns low at 17 per cent, independent directors and reliance on renewable sources of power, among others.
Infosys tops the list, with a score of 79 on 100, while among the financial sector players, Kotak Mahindra Bank has a score of 75. There are many IT companies and also financial sector companies having an overall ESG score in the 70s.

HDFC Bank Acquires Stake in Virtuoso Infotech

Virtuoso Infotech Pvt. Ltd, an enterprise software solutions company, founded by Preeti Nahar and Yogesh Satpute, based out of Pune, India announced its first investment fundraise.
India's largest private sector bank HDFC and its subsidiary HDFC Securities Limited has acquired a 7.4 per cent stake in Virtuoso Infotech.
Virtuoso Infotech specializes in product engineering and offers customized software solutions for enterprises across a wide range of sectors. The list includes software solutions for Hospitality, Finance, Media, Religious Institutions, Communities, Cloud Computing, Food & Travel industries, using Data Analytics and Machine Learning.

Commercial Bank of Kuwait Selects TCS BaNCS to Transform Treasury Ops

IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), announced that Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK), one of the largest financial institutions in Kuwait, has selected TCS BaNCS for Treasury to manage risk better, enhance asset class coverage, and drive future growth.
CBK was looking for a modern, integrated treasury solution to help transform its treasury operations and offer new generation asset classes, enhance risk management, and ensure regulatory compliance. TCS BaNCS for Treasury will help CBK offer a wider range of cash and derivative treasury products, integrate various trading and messaging platforms, manage cash and positions in real time, and offer extensive accounting and reporting capabilities. This front-to-back, cross-asset solution will enable the bank to lay a firm foundation for digitization and expand its customer base, said a statement from TCS.

Jun 28, 2021

GAME Partners with SIDBI to help MSMEs Revive Business

The Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) have signed a pact to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) address their challenges that were accentuated during the pandemic.
The broad themes covered under the partnership include expanding credit access, increasing formalisation, building competitive clusters, and improving the legal framework for ease of doing business.
The two organisations have committed that at least 25 per cent of the beneficiaries from the partnership would be women entrepreneurs.

Policybazaar.com Forays into Insurance Brokerage

Leading web aggregator Policybazaar has embarked its insurance broking journey with 15 outlets and aims to expand it to 100 locations.
Insurance regulator IRDAI had approved insurance broking licence proposal of the company and will undertake business including insurance aggregation under the broking umbrella.
With this development, the company surrendered its web aggregator licence to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
As a first step, the company is launching offline retail stores across India, it said, adding, the brand has set up 15 stores and will eventually expand to 100 locations.

Toshiba's Board Appoints CEO Tsunakawa as Interim Board Chairman

Toshiba's board appointed CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa as interim chairman after investors voted to oust his predecessor in a stunning rebuke for its collusion with the Japanese government against shareholders.
Tsunakawa's appointment came after shareholders delivered a clear message to management by voting out Osamu Nagayama as chairman and another director over the handling of the scandal, which has put Japan's corporate governance under the microscope. The company recognises the seriousness of the rejection, of the two.
The board said that it would would identify a permanent successor for Tsunakawa and would consider external candidates and use a global executive search firm.

Indians Invested $40 bn in Cryptocurrency in 2020

As per Chinalysis report, Indians who are known to traditionally invest in gold are now investing into cryptocurrency.
India is home to world's biggest holders of gold (25,000 tonnes).
Now, Indians are shifting towards cryptocurrency and have invested billions in it.
Investments in cryptocurrency has increased from $200 million $40 billion in last one year.
This investment has increased even though Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not inclined towards digital currency. RBI had banned banks from supporting cryptocurrency transactions in 2018 following several digital currency frauds. However, in March 2020, Supreme Court struck down the ban and prompted RBI to notify that its earlier order has been reverted.

World Bank Board Approves $125 Million Support Program to Kerala

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a $125 million program to support Kerala's preparedness against natural disasters, climate change impacts, disease outbreaks and pandemics.
The heavy monsoons of 2018 were the worst Kerala had seen in nearly a century, triggering devastating floods and landslides which impacted more than five million people, mainly in the Pamba River Basin.
In a statement issued by the World Bank, the Resilient Kerala Program will focus on two key areas which includes incorporating disaster risk planning in the master plans of urban and local self-governments to ease financial constraints on the state government when faced with unexpected shocks.

Jun 27, 2021

Seven-member Panel to Manage Jet Airways under Resolution Plan

A seven-member monitoring committee, including members appointed by the winning bidder Jalan Kalrock Consortium and the lenders, will soon start managing the day-to-day affairs of Jet Airways till the resolution process is complete.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the consortium's resolution plan for grounded Jet Airways, subject to certain conditions.
The full-service carrier, which suspended operations in April 2019, was undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).

Tyre Industry Seeks Raw Material Partners to Unleash Growth

According to industry body Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), India's tyre sector is seeking effective collaboration with raw material partners to harness its potential.
Last year, the growth plummeted in the first quarter in view of the lockdown. However the industry staged a strong recovery in the subsequent quarters and the supply side was under stress to meet the demand.
This year again the industry witnessed a slowdown in the months of May and June.

Hero Cycles Delivers First Batch of Made in India E-bikes to Europe

India's Hero Motors Company (HMC) Group has said that Hero Cycles has successfully delivered its first batch of Made in India e-bikes to Europe.
The shipment, under the HNF brand of Hero International (HIT), marks the start of the Indian bicycle major's plan to become a leader in the European Union (EU) market, the company said this week.
The first batch of around 200 units has been delivered to Germany, with further units planned for the EU in future.
The shipment marks a step forward to establish HMC as the largest fully integrated e-bike company in Europe, with a well-oiled manufacturing capability in India and brightens the prospect of India as a reliable supplier to the market other than China.

Jun 26, 2021

Adani Group Strikes First Coal from its Carmichael Mine

The Adani Group struck first coal from its Carmichael, Australia project and will start shipping to its customers according to schedule. With this, the project will not only lift the economic prospects of the hitherto barren Australian outback, but also help Indian power plants to source cheap coal.
The project had faced protests from a section of population with several banks even refusing to fund it.
India will be a foundation customer for the Carmichael mine and is the fourth largest global user of electricity as well as the source of the biggest growth in global energy demand.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Launches 'Pay Your Contact' Service

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd (KMBL) announced the launch of the 'Pay Your Contact' feature on KMBL's mobile banking app that uses the Unified Payments Interface platform and allows customers to send money or make payments to any of their contacts across all payment apps simply by entering the beneficiary's mobile number.

Reliance to Conclude Aramco Deal this Year

Saudi Aramco chairman and head of the Kingdom's cash-rich wealth fund PIF Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan will join the board of Reliance Industries Ltd as a precursor to a USD 15 billion deal that is now expected to conclude this year.
Al-Rumayyan will replace Yogendra P. Trivedi who has expressed a desire to retire.
RIL had inked an initial pact to sell a fifth of the unit that houses its oil refineries, petrochemical plants and fuel retailing business in August 2019, but the outbreak of global pandemic delayed the deal.

SBI Launches Aarogyam Healthcare Business Loan

To provide enhanced support to the healthcare sector amid the pandemic, the State Bank of India (SBI) has launched the Aarogyam healthcare business loan. Under this new product, the entire healthcare ecosystem such as hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic centres, pathology labs, manufacturers, suppliers, importers, logistic firms engaged in critical healthcare supply can avail of loans up to Rs. 100 crore (as per the geographic location) repayable in 10 years.
The Aarogyam loan can be availed either as a term loan to support expansion or modernisation or as working capital facilities such as cash credit, bank guarantee/letter of credit.

$32 mn World Bank Loan for Improving Healthcare Services in Mizoram

The Indian government, the Mizoram government, and the World Bank have signed a $32 million Mizoram Health Systems Strengthening Project to improve management capacity and quality of health services in the northeastern state, particularly for the benefit of under-served areas and vulnerable groups.
The project will strengthen the governance and the management structure of the Department of Health and Family Welfare and its subsidiaries, improve the quality and coverage of services delivered by the state government health systems, and invest in a comprehensive Quality Assurance programme which would enable quality certification of health facilities.

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