General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

May 01, 2019

Core Sector Growth

Growth in the core sectors of the economy surged in March to a five-month high of 4.7%, driven by a broad-based recovery in sectors such as cement, refinery products, steel and coal.
The March edition of the Index of Eight Core Industries also provides a full year (April-March) performance review, which shows that the core industries maintained their growth rate of 4.3% in 2018-19, the same as in 2018.

NSE Fined in Co-location Case

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which has the largest market share in equity segment and almost a monopoly in equity derivatives, from accessing the securities market for six months.
The capital markets regulator has further ordered the exchange to disgorge around Rs. 1,000 crore — that is, Rs. 624.89 crore plus 12% interest from April 1, 2014 — for its alleged failure to exercise proper due diligence while offering co-location facility thereby affecting market fairness and integrity.

NSEL-FTIL Merger Declared Violation of Companies Act

The Supreme Court declared the government's amalgamation of the over Rs. 5,600 crore scam-hit National Spot Exchange Ltd. (NSEL) with Financial Technologies India Ltd. (FTIL), now known as 63 Moons Technologies Ltd. as a violation of both the Constitution and the Companies Act.
A Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Vineet Saran held that the Centre's amalgamation order of February 12, 2016 was ultra vires Section 396 of the Companies Act and contrary to Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
Section 396 of the Companies Act, 1956, deals with compulsory amalgamation of companies by a Central Government order when it becomes essential in the public interest.

I-T Departmen and GSTN to Sign MoU

The Income Tax Department and the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) are all set to sign an MoU that will allow the two to match their data regarding company financials so as to pin down any anomalies.
The department order provides for the Principal Director General or Director General of Income Tax (Systems) to sign an MoU with the GSTN allowing them to send information on assessees to the nodal officer in the GSTN.
The order, dated April 30, states that the GSTN can ask for and be provided data relating to an assessee's status of filing income tax returns, turnover, gross total income, financial ratios, and any other data with the I-T Department to be decided at a later date.
The order also provides for the automatic exchange of such data, and not just based on requests, the modalities of which will be decided.
The MoU will also include the rules pertaining to the modalities of the exchange, the confidentiality of the data, and the weeding out after usage.

Probe against Alleged Dumping of Alloy Steel Rod

According to the American department of commerce, the U.S. has initiated a probe into alleged dumping of a particular variety of steel rod from four countries including India.
The department said that it was also probing whether producers of carbon and alloy steel threaded rods in India and China were receiving unfair subsidies from their respective governments.

Amazon Eyes $5 bn in Exports from India

E-commerce giant Amazon's Global Selling programme has achieved a significant milestone of $1 billion in cumulative e-com exports sales from India in the last three years.
The programme launched in May 2015 with a few hundred Indian sellers on board, now has more than 50,000 exporters selling over 140 million products to Amazon's customers across the globe.
According to Amazon India senior VP and country head Amit Agarwal, over the next five years, the exports initiative had the potential to fuel the growth of lakhs of Indian manufacturers, exporters and small enterprises and that Amazon was confident of clocking exports sales of $5 billion by 2023.

Apr 30, 2019

China Shores up Projects

China is shoring-up its connectivity projects with Nepal and Myanmar, including a trans-Himalayan network, a cross-border railway venture and an economic corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The Nepal-China Trans-Himalayan Multi-dimensional Connectivity Network, including the Nepal-China cross-border railway, have been named under the list of projects under the BRI.
The naming of the bilateral projects with Nepal coincided with Beijing dropping the BCIM or the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Corridor from the BRI projects' list.
Instead, China has now named the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor under the BRI, an indication that Beijing will go ahead with infrastructure projects in south Asia bilaterally.

India Notifies Pact with US

India has notified the inter-governmental agreement with the US for exchange of country-by-country (CbC) reports on multinational companies regarding income allocation and taxes paid in order to help check cross-border tax evasion.
The agreement, which was signed by Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman P. C. Mody and US ambassador to India Kenneth Juster in March, was notified by the revenue department in April.
This agreement for exchange of CbC reports, along with the Bilateral Competent Authority Arrangement, will enable both the countries to automatically exchange CbC reports filed by the ultimate parent entities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the respective jurisdictions, pertaining to the years commencing on or after January 1, 2016.

Max Offers Exit to Investors

Analjit Singh's Max India Ltd said that it would offer an exit opportunity to public shareholders as the company plans to enter new businesses after selling its hospitals and health insurance arms.
Max India is currently in the midst of selling a 51% stake in its health insurance joint venture, Max Bupa, to private equity firm True North. The process is likely to be completed in the next six months.
Max India is also preparing to demerge into two listed entities. The first entity will be created by the merger of Max Healthcare Institute Ltd with the KKR backed hospital operator Radiant Life Care Pvt. Ltd. The combined entity will be India's third largest corporate hospital chain, with more than 3,200 beds and 16 hospitals and will be listed on the stock exchanges.
Radiant Life Care agreed to buy a majority stake in Max Healthcare from Max India in December last. According to the company's statement, Max India's other demerged entity named Advaita will own the group's retirement homes business, Antara Senior Living. It will also manage a corpus of over ₹500 crore received from the sale of Max Bupa.

Apr 29, 2019

Sale of Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo

The apex child rights body has asked all states to stop the sale of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo after its sample was found to be of substandard quality in a lab test.
In a letter to chief secretaries of all states, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) ordered stoppage of sale of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo and also removing the product from stock of shops after Drug Testing Laboratory, Jaipur declared it of substandard quality as the presence of formaldehyde was confirmed in it.

Apr 28, 2019

PayPal Invests in Uber

As per reports, global online payments system PayPal is investing $500 million in Uber ahead of the highly anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO).
PayPal needs to step on the growth gas pedal and these investments will buy the company access to millions of global customers.
Earlier in March, the payments major had invested $750 million in Argentina`s e-commerce giant MercadoLibre.
PayPal has been working with Uber providing payment services since 2013 and is its lead processing partner in the US and Australia.

Apr 27, 2019

IL&FS Invites Bids for ITNL Stake

Troubled infrastructure conglomerate Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) has invited expression of interest from potential investors for buying stake in ITNL International Pte Ltd.'s 49% equity in Chongqing Yuhe Expressway Company Limited.
ITNL International Pte Ltd. is a company incorporated in Singapore and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited. ITNL is a subsidiary of IL&FS.

Piramal Looks to Merge Shriram Group Entities

Piramal Group is looking at a possible merger of Shriram Transport Finance and Shriram City Union Finance with Shriram Capital, before selling its stake in Shriram Group, with investments of $1 billion.
Besides, the group is also looking to segregate the less-risky pharma business from the riskier financial services business in the mid-term.

Yes Bank in Red

Private sector lender Yes Bank posted a whopping Rs. 1,507 crore loss during the Jan.-March period of 2018-19, as bad loans surged due to its exposure to troubled firms like Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) and an airline company.
The lender posted a Rs. 1,179-crore profit during the same period of the previous financial year. This is the first quarterly results under the new MD & CEO Ravneet Gill, who replaced Rana Kapoor.

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