General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Nov 15, 2020

World's Biggest Trade Pact

China and 14 other countries have agreed to set up the world's largest trading bloc, encompassing nearly a third of all economic activity, in a deal many in Asia are hoping will help hasten a recovery from the shocks of the pandemic.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, is to be signed virtually on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
As per Malaysia's Trade Minister, Mohamed Azmin Ali, after eight years of negotiating we have finally come to the moment where we will seal the RCEP Agreement.
The deal sends a signal that RCEP countries have chosen ''to open our markets instead of resorting to protectionist measures during this difficult time.
The accord will take already low tariffs on trade between member countries still lower, over time, and is less comprehensive than an 11-nation trans-Pacific trade deal that President Donald Trump pulled out of shortly after taking office.It includes the 10 nations belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, but not the United States.

India Contributes 1 Million to Covid-19 ASEAN Respond Fund

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cochaired India-ASEAN summit along with the Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngyuyen Xuan Phuc. ASEAN is Association of South East Asian Nations. During the summit, PM annoucned that India is to contribute 1 million USD to COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund.
The summit reviewed the status of India-ASEAN strategic partnership. It focused on key areas such as maritime cooperation, connectivity, trade and commerce, capacity building and education. ASEAN is considered as an influential grouping as the ASEAN region has high potential for upcoming markets. The region is expected to grow at an average of 5.2% by 2022. It is to become the world largest single market by 2030. Therefore, India, China, Japan and Australia are competing with each other to grab their place in the market.
The ASEAN summit is being held amid China's aggressive behaviour in the South China sea.
During the summit, India and ASEAN adopted "ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025)". The ten members of ASEAN include Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar.

Nov 14, 2020

China Halts Imports of Seafood Products from Indian Firm

China has suspended the import of seafood products from an Indian company for a week, after traces of COVID-19 were reportedly found on the outer packaging of some samples of frozen cuttlefish exported by the firm.
The report, however, has not provided any details of the company which exported the fish to China.
It also said Liangshan county in East China's Shandong Province reported that packaging from one batch of imported frozen beef tested positive for COVID-19.

RIL to Invest $50 mn in Bill Gates' Company

Reliance Industries (RIL) will invest $50 million in Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), a climate change company owned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
Reliance will make the investment in tranches over the next 8 to 10 years. The capital contribution commitment of $50 million constitutes 5.75% of the size of the fund contemplated at present.
The transaction is subject to approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
BEV will invest the funds raised from the investors to support innovation in clean energy solutions.

India's Exports Dip 5.12 pc in October

According to according to government data, India's exports fell 5.12 per cent to USD 24.89 billion in October, after recording positive growth in September, on account of drop in shipments of petroleum products, gems and jewellery, leather and engineering goods.
Trade deficit in October narrowed to USD 8.71 billion as against USD 11.75 billion in the corresponding month a year ago.
Imports also fell 11.53 per cent to USD 33.6 billion (year-on-year) in October 2020.
Major export commodities that recorded negative growth in October included petroleum products (52 per cent), cashew (21.57 per cent), gems and jewellery (21.27 per cent), leather (16.67 per cent), man-made yarn/fabrics/made-ups (12.8 per cent), electronic goods (9.4 per cent), coffee (9.2 per cent), marine products (8 per cent) and engineering goods (3.75 per cent).
During April-October 2020, exports declined 19.02 per cent to USD 150.14 billion, while imports fell 36.28 per cent to USD 182.29 billion over the same period a year ago.

RBI Imposes Rs. 1 crore Penalty on PNB

RBI imposed a penalty of Rs. 1 crore on Punjab National Bankit for contravention of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act.
RBI observed that the bank was operating a bilateral ATM sharing arrangement with Druk PNB Bank Ltd, Bhutan, (international subsidiary of the Bank), since April 2010 without the prior approval/authorisation from RBI.
RBI also cancelled the Certificate of Authorisation (CoA) of five Payment System Operators (PSOs) engaged in issuance and operation of prepaid payment instruments.
The certificates of Card Pro Solutions Private Limited and InCashMe Mobile Wallet Services Private Limited were cancelled because of 'noncompliance with regulatory requirements', while Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Limited and Pyro Networks Private Limited voluntarily surrendered their certificates.
The CoA of Aircel Smart Money Limited was cancelled because of non-renewal.
All these five entities were into issuance and operation of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs).

Nov 13, 2020

NMDC Board Approves Buyback Plan

The board of state-owned NMDC approved a share buyback proposal of up to Rs. 1,378 crore.
The decision was taken at a meeting of its Board.
The Board approved a proposal for buyback of 13,12,43,809 fully paid-up equity shares of a face value of Re. 1 each from the company's shareholders at a price of Rs. 105 per equity share payable in cash.
The buyback will be for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 13,78,05,99,945 (offer size), representing 5% and 5.05% of the total fully paid-up equity share capital and free reserves, respectively.
NMDC, under the steel ministry, is the country's largest iron ore miner. Besides iron ore, it is also involved in the exploration of a wide range of minerals like copper, rock phosphate, lime stone, dolomite and gypsum.

TCS Buys Assets of Pramerica

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) inked an agreement with Prudential Financial, Inc (PFI), under which the Indian firm will acquire over 1,500 employees and select assets of Pramerica Systems Ireland Ltd (Pramerica).
The move will help strengthen TCS's delivery capability in Ireland. Pramerica is PFI's subsidiary based in Letterkenny, Ireland.
PFI will retain the Pramerica Ireland entity, which will continue to operate from Letterkenny and will focus on providing regional business services, reporting under its global asset manager PGIM.
The transaction — whose financial details were not disclosed — is subject to completion of customary regulatory approvals. The enhanced partnership builds on a long relationship between the two organisations and will see over 1,500 of Pramerica's staff in Ireland transfer to TCS.

Moody's Revises the Gross Domestic Product forecast of India

Credit rating agency, Moody's Investors Service has revised the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast of India to -8.9 percent upwards for calendar year 2020 from the -9.6 percent contraction forecasted earlier. The agency forecasted in September 2020 that India's GDP will contract by 9.6%.
GDP forecast for calendar year 2021 for India has also been revised to from 8.1 percent to 8.6 percent now. The Indian economy had contracted by about 23.9% in the April-June quarter and is earlier seen contracting more than 10% in the financial year 2021. This was due to the impact of the nationwide lockdown for fighting against COVID-19 pandemic.
The report also pointed that geopolitical and trade risks would remain a major focus in the next year as the relationship between the two largest economies of the world, the U.S. and China had deteriorated.
Also, as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's GDP is expected to contract by 8.6% for the July-September period.

Stricter Foreign Funding Rules for NGOs

The government has issued a notification changing the rules of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act — FCRA — to tighten norms for flow of foreign fund to the voluntary sector in India.
The new rules require any organisation that wants to register itself under the FCRA to have existed for at least three years and to have spent a minimum of Rs 15 lakh on its core activities during the last three financial years for the benefit of the society.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has also mentioned that office-bearers of the voluntary organisations seeking registration under the FCRA must submit a specific commitment letter from the donor indicating the overseas contribution amount and the purpose for which it is proposed to be given. Election candidates, government servants, members of any legislature and political parties have also prohibited from accepting foreign funding.

China's Tencent Profit Surges

Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd reported an 89 per cent rise in quarterly profit, with its blockbuster game Honour of Kings and solid advertising businesses helping it to beat forecasts and lift its shares.
The world's largest gaming firm by revenue has benefited from the healthy growth of paying users for video games in China and international markets.
Its flagship game Honor of Kings reported a record 100 million daily active users in the first 10 months of 2020.
Tencent made 38.5 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) profit for the three months through September. That was ahead of an analyst average estimate of 30.81 billion yuan.

Nov 12, 2020

Operation Greens Scheme

On November 11, 2020, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries announced that a 50% transport subsidy is being provided to 41 notified fruits and vegetables from the Himalayan and the North Eastern states.
Earlier, these notified fruits and vegetables were provided with rail subsidies under the Kisan Rail Scheme. This is being done after UDAN scheme has developed significant number of airports in these regions.
Operation Greens was launched in 2018. Operation Greens is a price fixation scheme that makes sure if farmers are provided with right price for their produce. The scheme aims to promote processing facilities, Farmer Producer Organizations and professional management of agri-produce. It mainly focuses on tomatoes, onions and potatoes by connecting farmers and consumers.

First Commercial Shipment from Bangladesh through Water Route

India has received the first commercial shipment from Bangladesh through water route in November 2020. The shipment was received Assam's Karimganj on the Protocol for Inland Water Trade and Transit (PIWTT) route. This is a step towards utilizing the inland waterway connectivity for trade and prosperity between both the countries.
India and Bangladesh have a Protocol on Trade and Transit through inland waterways. The protocol was first signed in 1972 and renewed in 2015.
The protocol allows making mutual arrangements for using the waterways of both the countries for commerce.
The protocol now has a provision of automatic renewal after 5 years.
A second addendum was added to the protocol in May 2020 which includes new Indo Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) routes and port of call.
According to the 2nd addendum, the number of IBP routes has been increased to 10 from 8 and new locations have also been included.

Govt. Notifies Mandatory E-invoicing by Businesses with Rs. 100 cr. Turnover

The government has notified mandatory requirement of e-invoicing for B2B transactions for businesses with a turnover over Rs. 100 crore with effect from January 1, 2021.
Under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, e-invoicing for business-to-business (B2B) transactions is mandatory for companies with turnover of over Rs. 500 crore from October 1.
In a notification, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said e-invoicing will be extended to businesses with a turnover over Rs. 100 crore from January 1.
Under e-invoicing, taxpayers have to generate invoices on their internal systems (ERP/accounting/billing software) and then report it online to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP).

Union Ministry of Textiles launches "Local4Diwali"

The Union Ministry of Textiles has launched a campaign for Diwali- "Local4Diwali". The campaign has been launched to promote the Indian handicraft which is the cultural heritage of the country and also a source of livelihood for many. As per the available data, the handicrafts sector is a major sector of women empowerment as almost 55% of the workers and artisans are women.
The main aim of the #Local4Diwali campaign is to urge people to buy and gift Indian handicraft products on this Diwali.
The basic aim of the campaign is to give a boost to Indian handicrafts and artisans.
This campaign will help the handicraft artisans and workers in increasing their sales and promoting their business. After the promotion of idea of "Vocal for Local" by PM Modi, every sector is working towards promoting local businesses and strengthening Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Nov 11, 2020

SEBI Orders Attachment of Bank, Demat, MF Accounts of 11 Entities

Markets regulator SEBI has ordered attachment of bank as well as share and mutual fund holdings of 11 entities to recover dues totalling over Rs. 1 crore.
These defaulters are—Minesh Devendra Shah, Saraf Equity Services, Sunil Kumar Agarwal, Shreenath Finstock, Gedalia Multitrading, Rushabh Jitendra Shah, Bhavin Sureshbhai Thakkar, Bipin Jayant Thakker, Bharat Shantilal Thakkar, Hemant Madhusudan Sheth and Kiran Madhusudan Sheth.
The recovery proceedings have been initiated against these 11 entities after they failed to pay the fines imposed on them.
The fines were imposed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) between 2018 and 2020 for violating provisions of securities market norms.
The pending dues, Rs. 1.3 crore, include the initial fine amount, interest and recovery cost.

RBI Imposes Rs. 50 lakh Penalty on Central Bank of India

The Reserve Bank imposed a penalty of Rs. 50 lakh on state-run Central Bank of India for non-compliance with its directions on disbursal of some housing loans.
Giving details, it said an off-site examination of the records pertaining to some housing loans disbursed by the bank was conducted by RBI.
The examination and related documents revealed non-compliance with the directions issued by RBI.

States Likely to Cut Capital Outlay on Infra by up to 40%

According to rating agency ICRA, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic states are likely to cut capital outlay on infrastructure by up to 40 per cent.
States account for 37-40 per cent of the total infrastructure capital expenditure.
The rating agency said that major states together had a budgeted capital outlay of over Rs. 5.7 lakh crore for 2020-21 as against revised estimate of Rs 5.1 lakh crore in 2019-20.
Some states could witness a steeper decline depending on the extent of additional borrowings, which is availed.

India Bid to Expand Alternative Supply Chain

India is keen on expanding its current conversations with Japan and Australia on a proposed supply-chain partnership to include other countries in the region.
India proposed that some ASEAN countries can be added to the India-Australia-Japan discussions on China-free supply chains. The proposal comes against the backdrop of these very two countries planning to launch a regional economic cooperation partnership (RECP) framework pact in partnership with China, South Korea, New Zealand and 10 countries of the ASEAN bloc.
The 15 Asia-Pacific countries, barring India, aim to ink the RCEP on November 15 to set up an economic bloc equal to third of the global GDP and population.

Paytm Introduces Payout Links

Fintech major Paytm launched 'Payout Links' for businesses, enabling them to instantly process payouts to customers, employees and vendors without collecting their bank details.
Payout Links offer seamless payment integration for businesses to quickly send incentives and refunds to customers through a simple payout link.
Removing the need to store thousands of bank details, the facility benefits partnered SMEs in diverse sectors such as gaming, e-commerce, retail, export and manufacturing, to transfer salaries, vendor payments, commissions and gratification instantly.
The sender can create Paytm Payout Links and share with the receiver. The receiver needs to open the link and is then provided a list of saved accounts such as Paytm Wallet, Paytm UPI and connected bank accounts that can be chosen to receive money instantly.

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