General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Jul 02, 2020

Indian Oil Corp Agrees to Form Joint Venture with Beximco LPG

Indian Oil Corp has agreed to form an equal joint venture with Bangladesh's Beximco LPG to set up a terminal to import liquefied petroleum gas in Bangladesh.
Indian Oil's Dubai unit IOC Middle East FZE and Beximco's holding company RR Holdings Ltd, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE have signed an agreement for LPG business in Bangladesh, as per a statement by Indian Oil.
The joint venture would begin with acquiring Beximco's existing LPG assets in Bangladesh.
The JV also intends to diversify into other downstream oil and gas businesses such as lube blending plant, LNG, petrochemicals, LPG export to north east India through pipeline between two nations and renewable energy.

World Bank Approves $750 mn to Aid MSMEs

The World Bank approved $750-million loan to increase flow of finance to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India, which have been severely impacted by the covid-19 crisis. This will support the MSME package announced by the government under its 'Self-reliant India' programme.
The World Bank's MSME Emergency Response programme will address the immediate liquidity and credit needs of some 1.5 million viable MSMEs to help them withstand the impact of the current shock and protect millions of jobs.
India's MSME sector, which contributes 30% of India's GDP and 40% of exports, is currently facing severe stress. The sector, which employs 150-180 million people, is now burdened with cancelled orders, loss of customers and supply chain disruptions, causing a sharp fall in revenues. This cash flow shortage is worsened by constraints to accessing finance, potentially creating solvency problems. The broad-based loss of cash flows has triggered a chain of non-payments throughout the economy, including to the financial sector.

PPF Rates, Small Savings Schemes Remain Unchanged

The government kept interest rates unchanged for small savings schemes, including that of popular Public Provident Fund or PPF, for the July-September quarter despite a fall in the interest rate in the overall financial system. Post office savings accounts will continue to fetch 4% interest, while the interest rate on post office deposits between 1 year and five years remain between 5.5% to 6.7%.
The 5-year recurring deposit will fetch 5.8% interest. The interest rate on Senior Citizen Savings Scheme will continue to fetch 7.4% interest while Monthly Income Scheme or MIS will offer 6.6% interest. Public provident fund or PPF will offer 7.1% interest rates while NSC or National Savings Certificate 6.8%.
Kisan Vikas Patra will offer 6.9% interest rate and will mature in 124 months. Among the small savings schemes Sukanya Samriddhi Account will fetch the highest interest rate, at 7.6%.
Amid excess liquidity in the financial system and weak credit growth, banks have been sharply cutting interest rates. For example, SBI retail fixed deposits with maturity between 5 years and 10 years currently offer interest rate of 5.4%.
Since 2016, the government has been revising interest rates on small savings schemes on a quarterly basis, depending on the trend in interest rate in the financial system. Prior to that, interest rates were revised once a year. The government had cut interest rates on small savings schemes for the April-June quarter by up to 140 basis points. The interest rate on PPF was cut by 80 basis points for the April-June quarter to 7.1%.

HDFC Bank Launches 'e-Kisaan Dhan' App for Farmers

HDFC Bank has launched 'e-Kisaan Dhan' app for farmers in India.
This app provides information and knowledge to farmers which will help them to meet the needs of the rural ecosystem. With this app, farmers can access a bouquet of services in banking and agriculture, through their mobile phones.
It will provide users information in regard to new government schemes and ways to access them.
The e-Kisaan Dhan app provides value added services like mandi prices, latest farming news, weather forecast, information on seed varieties, SMS advisory, e-pashuhaat and Kisan TV among others.

Jul 01, 2020

Asia's First Continuous Galvanised Rebar Production Facility in Punjab

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Steel & Petroleum and Natural Gas virtually inaugurated Asia's first Continuous Galvanised Rebar (CGR) Production Facility near Gobindgarh, Punjab launched by Madhav KRD Group in association with International Zinc Association(IZA) with the support of Hindustan Zinc Limited.
The facility will produce the new Continuously Galvanised Rebar (CGR).
The annual capacity of the facility is over 30,000 tonnes.
Under the brand "Jyoti", the facility will manufacture ZNCOAT TEMPCORE TMT bars.
Jyoti is the first of its kind in Asia to apply CGR technology with enhanced life and low maintenance cost.

The Most Innovative Companies Of 2020

According to BCG's analysis of the 50 most innovative companies of 2020Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung, are considered the five most innovative companies.
Companies who are strongest at innovation most value advanced analytics, digital design and technology platforms.
JD.com, Bosch, ABB, FCA, Novartis and Volvo join the list of the top 50 most innovative companies for the first time this year.
Fastest movers include Huawei, who jumped from 48th to 6th, Walmart, who jumped from 42nd to 13th, HP, who jumped from 44th to 15th and Dell, who jumped from 41st to 20th.
Only eight companies have made the list every year, and they include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, and Toyota.

WTO Sets Up Dispute Panel on India's Import Duties on ICT Products

The World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to a second request from the EU to establish an adjudication panel over India's customs duties on imports of certain information and communications technology (ICT) products, including mobile phones, taking the dispute up a notch.
However, New Delhi blocked the complaints by Japan and Chinese Taipei to setup panels.
While the EU asked India to agree to establish a single panel to review the three complaints, India was disappointed with the EU request. Since India had blocked the EU's request for a panel in February, it cannot do so a second time as per WTO rules.
China, the US, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Canada, Turkey, Korea, Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, Singapore, Thailand, Russia and Pakistan reserved their third party rights to participate in the proceedings.
Consultations on the issue took place last year (2019) but failed to settle the dispute prompting the EU's request for a panel.
The dispute is crucial for India as losing it will directly benefit China, from where India imported telecom equipment parts worth $3.4 billion and mobile phones worth $665.21 million in the April-February period of 2019-20. While China is involved in consultations on the issue with India, it has not asked for a panel.

GoI and World Bank Sign Agreement to Increase Access to Affordable Housing

The World Bank and the Government of India signed an agreement along with the Government of Tamil Nadu to help the low-income groups in the state of Tamil Nadu to get access to affordable housing.
Legal agreements of two projects were signed to strengthen the state's housing sector policies, institutions, and regulations.
First Tamil Nadu Housing Sector Strengthening Programme worth $200 million(Rs 1,510 crore),
Tamil Nadu Housing and Habitat Development Project worth $50 million (Rs 377 crore).
The loans from the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) have a maturity period of 20 years (including grace period: 3.5 years).

Jun 30, 2020

Swiggy Launches its Own Digital Wallet

Food delivery platform Swiggy launched its own digital wallet to enable single-click checkout experience on its platform.
Called 'Swiggy Money,' the full-fledged digital wallet in partnership with ICICI Bank will enable customers to store money and be used for all food orders.
Users choosing 'Swiggy Money' can avail instant refunds and use the money for easy checkouts and hassle-free payment processing on future food orders.
If the Swiggy customer is an existing ICICI Bank customer, he or she can instantly start using the wallet.

India and Bhutan Sign Kholongchhu Hydroelectric Project Agreement

India and Bhutan signed concession agreement on the 600 MW Kholongchhu hydroelectric project (KHEL). The hydroelectric project will be the first-ever joint venture project to be implemented in Bhutan. The joint venture partners of the project are India's Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) and Bhutan's Druk Green Power Corporation Limited (DGPC).
Speaking at the signing ceremony via video conference, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that commencement of the construction activities of the Project will create economic and employment opportunities in Bhutan in this critical time.
KHEL will be the first joint venture project to be implemented under an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed in 2014.

Jun 29, 2020

Amazon India to Hire 20,000 Employees

E-commerce major Amazon India said that it is offering close to 20,000 'seasonal' or temporary employment opportunities in its customer service (CS) organisation to help customers in India and globally with a seamless online shopping experience.
The new temporary positions -- being added to meet the anticipated demand in customer traffic in the next six months -- are open in Hyderabad, Pune, Coimbatore, Noida, Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Mangaluru, Indore, Bhopal and Lucknow.
Most of the positions are part of Amazon's 'Virtual Customer Service' programme that provides flexible work-from-home options.
The new positions will see associates support customer services through e-mail, chat, social media and phone. The eligibility criteria for these positions include having minimum educational qualification of 12th standard pass and proficiency in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or Kannada.

Government Extends Deadline to Bid for Air India

The government has again extended the deadline to bid for Air India by two months till August 31 as the COVID-19 fallout has disrupted economic activities globally.
The divestment process for the national carrier was initiated on January 27.
While issuing the EoI in January, the last date for bids was kept at March 17, which was later extended till April 30. This was further extended to June 30, and now till August 31.

Nokia Wins Taiwan Mobile 5G Contract

Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia Oyj won a 5G contract worth about €400 million ($449.48 million) from Taiwan Mobile to build out the telecom operator's next-generation network as the sole supplier.
Taiwan Mobile's earlier networks, Nokia will prepare for the deployment this month and complete the migration to 5G standalone within a three-year period.
Nokia, along with Nordic rival Ericsson, has picked up most of the 5G contracts in Taiwan.
While Nokia also won 5G contracts from Taiwan Star and Chunghwa Telecom, Ericsson picked up the deal with Far Eas Tone and a part of the contract from Chunghwa.

Jun 28, 2020

Carlyle to Buy Stake in Piramal Pharma

The Carlyle Group's CA Clover Intermediate II Investments has agreed to buy a 20% stake in Piramal Pharma Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Ltd. (PEL), for $490 million (Rs. 3,700 crore).
Based on milestone achievements, Piramal Pharma will be paid an additional $70 million. The transaction is expected to close in 2020.
The transaction values PEL's pharma business at an enterprise value of $2,775 million with an upside component of up to $360 million depending on the company's FY21 performance.

Microsoft to Permanently Close All Physical Stores

Microsoft is permanently closing nearly all of its physical stores around the world. Like other retailers, the software and computing giant had to temporarily close all of its stores in late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to its website, Microsoft has 83 stores worldwide, including 72 stores in the US, and several others abroad where they showcase and sell laptops and other hardware. This announcement reflects what the company calls a strategic change for its retail business as sales increasingly shift online.
Microsoft said it would reimagine the physical spaces at its four high-profile Microsoft Experience Centers in New York City, London, Sydney, Australia and at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Amazon Acquires Zoox

Amazon has just taken its boldest step yet into self-driving vehicles, acquiring six-year-old start-up Zoox.
The deal will help bring Zoox's vision of autonomous ride-hailing to reality. Zoox will continue to operate as a standalone business within Amazon, with CEO Aicha Evans and Jesse Levinson.

Hitachi and Microsoft Ink Multi-year Deal

Hitachi and Microsoft have announced a multi-year strategic alliance to accelerate the digital transformation of the manufacturing and logistics industries across Southeast Asia, North America and Japan.
Hitachi will integrate its industry-leading solutions such as Lumada, and its Internet of Things (IoT)-ready industrial controllers HX Series, with the Microsoft cloud platform, leveraging Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 to help businesses increase their workforce productivity and operational efficiency.
The first joint solutions will be available in Thailand in July 2020.
With this collaboration with Microsoft, Hitachio will be able to accelerate our customers' digital transformation and continue to deliver social, environmental and economic value.
Hitachi and Microsoft will also work together to support skilling initiatives that empower businesses to grow their digital capabilities and unlock new business opportunities.

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