General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Apr 16, 2021

Facebook Signs First Deal to Buy Renewable Energy from Local Firm in India

Facebook signed a deal to buy renewable energy in India from a local firm's wind power project, the social media giant's first such deal in the South Asian nation.
The 32 megawatt wind power project, located in southern Karnataka state, is part of a larger portfolio of wind and solar projects that Facebook and Mumbai-based CleanMax are working together on for supplying renewable power into India's electrical grid.
CleanMax will own and operate the projects, while Facebook will buy the power off the grid using environmental attribute certificates, or carbon credits.
Facebook's head of renewable energy, Urvi Parekh said that the company typically does not own the power plants but instead signs "long-term" electricity purchasing agreements with the renewable power company.

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter Sets up Separate Business Vertical for Exports

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) set up an overseas business vertical to spearhead its exports from the country.
The new vertical would harness the strength of over 100 associates across different functions to make the company a global hub for two-wheeler exports.
Based out of company's Manesar facility, the new Overseas Business Expansion vertical strategically integrates SEDBQ (sales, engineering, development, purchasing and quality) functions under one roof to create a globally optimal operating system.

RBI Sets Up RRA to Streamline Regulations and Reduce Compliance

The Reserve Bank set up the second Regulatory Review Authority (RRA 2.0) with a view to streamlining regulations and reducing compliance burden of regulated entities.
Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor M. Rajeshwar Rao was appointed as the Regulations Review Authority.
The RBI had set up a Regulations Review Authority (RRA) initially for a period of one year from April 1, 1999, for reviewing regulations, circulars, reporting systems, based on the feedback from public, banks and financial institutions.
The recommendations of the RRA enabled streamlining and increasing the effectiveness of several procedures, simplifying regulatory prescriptions, paved the way for issuance of master circular and reduced reporting burden on regulated entities.

Amazon Launches $250 mn Venture Fund for Indian Start-ups, Entrepreneurs

E-commerce giant Amazon India launched $250 million Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund (the venture fund) to invest in start-ups and entrepreneurs focusing on technology innovations in SMB (small and medium business) digitization, agriculture and healthcare. The venture fund will invest in technology-led start-ups that are passionate about unlocking the possibilities of a digital India.
The fund will specifically focus on encouraging the best ideas to digitize SMBs (small and medium businesses). It would drive technology-led innovation in agriculture to improve farmer productivity and enable them to bring the best of India's farms to consumers. It would also enable universal and quality healthcare access for all using technology.
Additionally, Amazon announced plans to digitally empower and bring 1 million offline retailers and neighbourhood stores online, on the Amazon India marketplace, by 2025 through the Local Shops on Amazon program. At the same event, Amazon also launched the 'Spotlight North East' initiative to bring 50,000 artisans, weavers and small businesses online from the 8 states in the North East region of India by 2025 and to boost exports of key commodities like tea, spices and honey from the region.

Four Entities Apply for Universal Bank, Four others for SFB Licence

Four entities — Repco Bank, Chaitanya India Fin Credit, UAE Exchange and Financial Services, and Pankaj Vaish and others — have applied for licence to start a universal bank in the country.
Those who have applied for licence for small finance banks (SFBs) are VSoft Technologies, Calicut City Service Co-operative Bank, Akhil Kumar Gupta, and Dvara Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the names of the applicants under the guidelines for on tap licensing of universal banks and SFBs.

Citigroup Announces Retail Business Exit from India

Citigroup said that it was exiting retail banking in India and 12 other countries across Asia and parts of Europe to focus on its wealth management business, as it lacked the scale to compete in this space.
The decision to exit retail businesses from a few markets was one of the first moves by newly appointed CEO Jane Fraser after she took over the US-headquartered bank in February.
Citigroup, while announcing its quarterly results, said it would exit its consumer franchises in India, Australia, Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Citigroup's Institutional Clients Group will continue to serve clients in these markets, which remain important to Citi's global network.

Apr 15, 2021

After 48-year Search, Physicists Discover Ultra-rare 'Triple Glueball' Particle

A never-before-seen particle has revealed itself in the hot guts of two particle colliders, confirming a half-century-old theory.
Scientists predicted the existence of the particle, known as the odderon, in 1973, describing it as a rare, short-lived conjointment of three smaller particles known as gluons. Since then, researchers have suspected that the odderon might appear when protons slammed together at extreme speeds, but the precise conditions that would make it spring into existence remained a mystery. Now, after comparing data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the 17-mile-long (27 kilometers) ring-shaped atom smasher near Geneva that's famous for discovering the Higgs boson, and the Tevatron, a now-defunct 3.9-mile-long (6.3 km) American collider that slammed protons and their antimatter twins (antiprotons) together in Illinois until 2011, researchers report conclusive evidence of the odderon's existence.

National Housing Bank Launches Special Refinance Facility

National Housing Bank (NHB) has rolled out a Rs. 10,000 crore 'Special Refinance Facility-2021' (SRF-2021) to provide short-term refinance support to housing finance companies (HFCs) and other eligible Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs).
This facility is expected to meet the short-term liquidity requirements of the PLIs and will also support them for onward lending to individuals to maintain steady growth in the housing finance sector.
This NHB initiative comes on the heels of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extending fresh support ( in the recent monetary policy review) under another Special Liquidity Facility-2 (SLF-2) of Rs. 10,000 crore to the NHB for one year to support the housing sector.

Toshiba CEO Resigns

Toshiba Corp CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani resigned amid controversy over a $20 billion buyout bid from CVC Capital Partners and the conglomerate's shares surged on reports that more suitors were planning offers.
Toshiba Chairman Satoshi Tsunakawa will become chief executive.
Nobuaki Kurumatani departure could upend CVC's offer last week to take Toshiba private at a time when rival suitors are said to be weighing bids.

Bharti Airtel Rejigs Corporate Structure

Bharti Airtel announced a new corporate structure to sharpen the company's focus on driving the rapidly-unfolding digital opportunities while enabling it to unlock value.
The new structure involves Airtel Digital Limited folding into the listed entity Bharti Airtel.
This will now house all of the digital assets spanning Wynk Music, Airtel X stream, Airtel Thanks, Mitra Payments platform used by a million retailers, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and all future digital products and services, the company said in a statement.
The telecom business will be housed in a newly created entity -- Airtel Limited a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited.
Bharti Telemedia, the 100 per cent arm operating DTH services, will sit alongside Airtel Limited for now.

Apollo Tyres Forays into Truck and Bus Tyre Segment in US, Canada

Apollo Tyres announced its foray into the truck and bus tyre segment in the US and Canada, following the launch of its passenger vehicle range in the two markets.
The commercial vehicle range has been introduced under the Apollo brand although the PV (passenger vehicle) range was launched under the premium European brand, Vredestein last September.
The North American range of truck and bus tyres will be produced at the company's manufacturing units in Hungary and Chennai, India. The tyre line-up will encompass a full range of regional, super-regional, coach/urban and mixed-use applications with fitments for rims ranging from 17.5 inches to 24.5 inches.

Apr 14, 2021

CCI Approves APSEZ Acquisition in Gangavaram Port

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved acquisition of 89.6 per cent of equity shareholding in Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL) by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd (APSEZ) under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act 2002.
APSEZ is an integrated port infrastructure services provider currently present across 11 domestic ports in six maritime states of Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha.
GPL is engaged to own, develop and operate the deep-water port at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh pursuant to a concession agreement on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer basis with the government of Andhra Pradesh for a concession period of 30 years from the date of commercial operations and entitled for a further period of 20 years (two periods of 10 years each).

Punjab National Bank Launches Digital Initiative PNB@Ease

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) launched a digitial initiative PNB@Ease under which every transaction undertaken by a bank branch will be initiated and authorised by customers themselves. The service can range from savings accounts opening to availing various loans and more, without visiting a branch or help from the bank employees.

NCDC Secures Loan from Deutsche Bank

The National Cooperative Development Corporation, NCDC secured Rs. 600 crore loan from Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, for onward lending to cooperatives in the country. An agreement in this regard was inked between NCDC and the German Bank in presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi. The Minister also presided over signing of an agreement between the Indian Chamber of Commerce and NCDC to boost farmers linkages with markets.
This is for the first time that one of the largest European banks in the world is lending to the NCDC, thus reflecting the confidence of the global financial institution in the Indian development finance institution, particularly at a time when global economic turmoil created by the Covid-19 crisis has made lending a challenging proposition.

Pine Labs Enters Consumer Payments with Acquisition of Fave

Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs acquired Southeast Asian fintech platform Fave in a transaction valued at $45 million. "The acquisition will help both companies accelerate their growth in the Asia region and unlock massive consumer opportunities across retail, F&B, fashion, and FMCG markets. Joining forces with Pine Labs will reinforce Fave's market position in Southeast Asia.
Fave's founders will have their roles expanded to lead the overall consumer platform for the group across Asia. Fave will also be hiring over 100 new employees in Southeast Asia (SEA) and India to accelerate cashless payments and smart savings across the region. The firm claims to have enabled 6 million consumers in SEA to save over $400 million across 40,000 retailers since 2016.
According to Pine Labs, the introduction of the Fave app in the country comes at a time when UPI has grown to 2.7 billion transactions. Pine Pabs claims to have recorded a growth of 171% in UPI transactions over the last two quarters.

Apr 13, 2021

Airtel Payments Bank Launches Rewards123 Savings Account

Airtel Payments Bank announced a new type of savings bank account on its platform. The newly introduced bank account is called Rewards123. The company claims that its newly introduced saving account is designed to offer consistent value, with assured rewards on different types of digital transactions throughout the year.
The Rewards123 savings bank account gives multiple benefits to users with annual earnings of up to Rs. 960. In addition to that, users will get 1% cashback when they load Rs. 1,000 through UPI in their account. Users will get a maximum of Rs. 10 per month as a part of this benefit.
Users can open or upgrade to Rewards123 savings account using the company's Airtel Thanks app. Users will have to do a Video KYC to upgrade their Airtel Payments Bank accounts.

India's First Floating LNG Storage and Regasification Unit

India's first Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) arrived at H-Energy's Jaigarh Terminal in Maharashtra, which sailed from Keppel Shipyard, Singapore.
This will also be the first year-round Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Maharashtra, the statement added. The LNG terminal is located at JSW Jaigarh Port in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, on the west coast of India. The port is the first deep water, 24x7 operational private port in Maharashtra.
The 2017-built Höegh Giant has storage capacity of 170,000 cubic metres and installed regasification capacity of 750 million cubic feet per day (equivalent to about six million tonnes a year). H-Energy has chartered the FSRU for a 10 year period.
Höegh Giant will deliver regasified LNG to the 56-km long Jaigarh-Dabhol natural gas pipeline, connecting the LNG terminal to the national gas grid. The facility will also deliver LNG through truck loading facilities for onshore distribution, the facility is also capable to reload LNG onto small-scale LNG vessels for bunkering service.

Flipkart Inks Pact with Adani Group

Flipkart entered into a commercial partnership with the Adani Group to strengthen logistics and data centre capabilities of the Walmart-owned company and create about 2,500 direct jobs.
In this two-pronged partnership, Flipkart will work with Adani Logistics Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, to strengthen its supply chain infrastructure and further enhance its ability to serve its rapidly growing base of customers.
In addition, Flipkart will set up its third data centre at Adaniconnex's Chennai-based facility, leveraging the latter's expertise and industry-leading data centre technology solutions.
Adaniconnex is a new joint venture formed between EdgeConneX and Adani Enterprises Ltd.
As part of this partnership, Adani Logistics Ltd will construct a 5.34 lakh sq ft fulfilment centre (warehouse) in its upcoming logistics hub in Mumbai that will be leased to Flipkart to address the growing demand for e-commerce in western India and support market access of several thousands of sellers and MSMEs in the region.

SEBI Fines Yes Bank in AT-1 Bonds Case

Markets regulator SEBI imposed a penalty of Rs. 25 crore on Yes Bank in the matter of misselling the lender's AT-1 bonds few years ago.
Besides, the watchdog has imposed a fine of Rs. 1 crore on Vivek Kanwar, who was the Managing Director of Yes Bank, Rs. 50 lakh each on Ashish Nasa and Jasjit Singh Banga, who were part of the bank's private wealth management team at the time of violation.
As per SEBI order, they need to pay the penalty within 45 days.
Yes Bank and certain officialsdevised the "devious scheme to dump the AT-1 (Additional Tier-1) bonds on their hapless customers", the regulator noted.

Coforge Acquires BPM Firm SLK Global

Mid-sized technology services firm Coforge Limited acquired SLK Global Solutions Private Limited for Rs. 918.3 crore. The acquisition is expected to expand Coforge's BPM operations, strengthen its financial services business, and increase presence in North America.
SLK Global is a business process transformation enterprise offering business process management and digital solutions for the financial services industry. The firm has deep domain expertise in the banking and insurance businesses in North America.
Coforge, earlier known as NIIT Technologies, said it would initially acquire 60 per cent stake in SLK Global, whose founders will completely exit. Fifth Third Bank, the largest customer of SLK global and a significant minority shareholder, will have its stake in the company reduced to 40 per cent and will continue at that level for the next two years. Coforge will acquire an additional 20 per cent stake from Fifth Third Bank after the completion of 2 years.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan Launch Construction of Trans-border Trade Center

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have launched the construction of an international center for trade and economic cooperation named 'Central Asia' on the borders of the two countries. Uzbekistan Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov and his Kazkazhstan counterpart Askar Mamim, laid a capsule at the construction site of the logistic centre, which is located in the vicinity of the border check post Gisht Kuprik.
The center, which occupies 400 hectares of land, will have a capacity of accommodating 35,000 people and 5,000 trucks per day in both directions. The center is intended to become a large industrial, trade and logistics platform for the implementation of joint investment projects of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the news release said. It added that the most promising areas of industrial cooperation are the manufacturing sector, agro-industrial complex and light industry. Kazakhstan is Uzbekistan's third largest trade partner after China and Russia.

OneWeb to Provide Satellite Internet in Kazakhstan

Bharti Group-backed internet provider OneWeb signed a formal agreement with the Kazakhstan government and local firms to provide satellite internet services in the country.
The formal agreement covers several areas of cooperation that include the use of OneWeb's low latency, high throughput satellite connectivity platform to provide broadband to remote and hard-to-reach rural communities, building a ground station to provide connectivity to Central Asian countries and localisation of the supply chain for the firm's low-Earth orbit satellites.
OneWeb has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with subsidiaries of the Kazakhstan government's Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry: national satellite operator Republican Centre of Space Communications JSC, National Company Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary and Ghalam LLP, a spacecraft component supplier.

Apr 12, 2021

Morgan Stanley India Infra Invests in iBus

Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure acquired a stake in iBus Networks for $21 million (around Rs. 150 crore).
iBus offers in-building wireless solutions, outdoor small cells and other last-mile connectivity solutions to mobile operators to enable them to serve their customers seamlessly. With Covid forcing professionals and companies to adopt to WFH, the demand for robust in-building connectivity has increased manifold. The need for low latency, high-speed internet is being demanded be it for running schools and colleges online or WFH, e-comm, online transactions and remote health monitoring has never been felt so urgently before.
iBus, through its coverage of 277 million sq ft across top 10 cities, serves approx four million customers. The company currently deploys its infrastructure across 233 commercial, residential and retail sites across the country.

L&T's Arm Bags Order to Set up Solar Power project in Saudi Arabia

The renewable arm of Larsen & Toubro's Power Transmission & Distribution Business has bagged an order to set up Sudair solar power project of 1.5 GW in Riyadh province of Saudi Arabia.
The EPC (engineering procurement construction) contract, was awarded by the consortium of ACWA Power and the Water and Electricity Holding Company, a subsidiary of the Public Investments Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).
L&T has been a provider of EPC services for several green projects in recent years. The L&T has over 2.1 GW of Utility Scale Solar projects commissioned and are also operating and maintaining several of them.

Saudi Aramco Agrees $12.4 Billion Deal

Saudi oil producer Aramco has agreed a $12.4 billion deal to sell a 49% stake in its pipelines to a consortium led by U.S.-based EIG Global Energy Partners.
It is the company's largest deal since its record $29.4 billion initial public offering in late 2019.
The lease and leaseback agreement includes a 49% stake of newly formed Aramco Oil Pipelines Co and rights to 25 years of tariff payments for oil carried on Aramco's pipelines, it said in a statement.
Aramco will retain a 51% stake in the new company.

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