General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Feb 13, 2019

RBI Penalises Seven Banks

Seven Banks were penalised by the Reserve Bank of India for violating various norms.
Three banks- HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDBI Bank were fined Rs. 2 million each for non-compliance with various directions issued by RBI on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards.
As per RBI, this action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their customers.
The central bank also penalised four other banks- Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Maharashtra- for non-compliance with various directions issued by RBI on monitoring of end use of funds, exchange of information with other banks, classification and reporting of frauds, and on restructuring of accounts.
While Andhra Bank was fined Rs. 10 million, the other banks were fined Rs. 15 million each.

JSW Steel Receives Letter of Intent from BPSL

JSW Steel has received letter of intent (LoI) from the resolution professional of Bhushan Power & Steel Limited (BPSL), taking the country's largest steelmaker a step closer towards acquisition of the insolvent company.
The development comes more than a week after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) turned down Tata Steel's request to consider its bid as the most legitimate one for BPSL.
The resolution plan will be submitted to the National Company Law Tribunal after company's approval. JSW Steel topped Tata Steel's offer of Rs. 17,000 crore with Rs. 19,650 crore bid.

Air India Arm Stake Sale

The government has invited interest for 98% stake sale in Air India's ground handling arm — Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL). The remaining 2% will be offered to the employees of the subsidiary for a stock ownership plan.
The expression of interest was floated on behalf of Air India Asset Holding Company, the special purpose vehicle set up by the government which will house Air India's subsidiaries, assets as well as debt. Interested players have time till March 26 to submit their bids.
The ground handling company currently provides passenger and baggage handling, cabin cleaning, ramp handling and cargo handling services at 76 airports.
Private limited companies, public limited companies, corporate, funds and AIATSL employees are eligible to buy the ground handling company, either as a sole bidder or as part of a consortium provided they have a net worth of at least Rs. 200 crore.

Feb 12, 2019

S&P Affirms IOB's Ratings

International rating agency S&P Global affirmed the credit rating of state-run Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) at 'BB' and 'B' on expectation of government's capital infusion.
The lender's outlook has also been kept stable.
The bank's capital position improved in Q4 of FY19 through an employee stock purchase scheme (ESPS) and sale of non-core assets for which it has received initial payment.

KKR Buys Stake in Ramky Enviro

Global investment firm KKR has completed the acquisition of 60% stake in Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd. (REEL), a provider of environmental services and solutions, for $510 million via a combination of primary and secondary investments.

Exatron to Set Up Plant in Tirupati

Exatron Servers is setting up a manufacturing and assembly plant at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and planning to invest Rs. 360 crore over the next five years to scale up its operations.
The facility, located at the Industrial Park Electronic MFG Cluster -II in Tirupati, will be the assembling and manufacturing centre for high-end servers and storage products.

Amazon to Acquire Eero

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire Eero, a builder of Wi-Fi-networking tools, in another deal aimed at bolstering the retail and technology giant's home devices business.
Eero, based in San Francisco, makes gadgets that extend Wi-Fi coverage throughout a home using local networking, known as mesh technology that removes hiccups in broadcasting internet signals.

Exim Bank on Track to Hit Profit Target

Export Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) is hopeful of recovering over Rs. 640 crore from two big accounts that have gone to National Company Law Tribunal during the second quarter.
The bank is hopeful of recovering Rs. 240 crore from Bhushan Power and Steel and Rs. 400 crore from Essar Steel in second quarter of February.
Exim Bank was successful in recovering its dues from Binani Cement.

Feb 11, 2019

Voltas to Invest Rs. 500 crore in Andhra Pradesh

Voltas Limited plans to set up a new manufacturing facility, spread over 65 acres, at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, at a cost of Rs. 500 crore.
This facility would initially manufacture and assemble air-conditioners and related cooling products with a total capacity of more than one million units and is expected to start rolling out products from the second half of 2020.
The new facility would be one of the first cooling appliances units in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

Third Round of OALP

India offered 23 oil and gas and CBM blocks for bidding in the third round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OLAP), expecting up to to $700 million of investment that it hoped will help raise domestic output and cut imports.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the OALP-III bid round at the Petrotech 2019 conference.
In OALP-III, 23 blocks in 12 sedimentary basins are being offered. Of these, five are coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks.

FPIs Turn Net Buyers in Feb

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have infused Rs. 5,300 crore in the Indian equity markets in the last six trading sessions, mainly on the expectations of higher economic growth.
This follows a pull-out of Rs. 5,264 crore by FPIs in January.
However, they pulled out Rs. 2,795 crore from the debt market in February. After turning net sellers in January, FPIs have turned net buyers in February.

SBI and OBC Put Stressed Accounts on Sale

State-owned State Bank of India (SBI) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) have put on sale various financial accounts to recover dues of about Rs. 5,740 crore.
SBI has invited bids from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and financial institutions (FIs) to recover an outstanding of Rs. 4,975 crore.
The bulk of accounts up for sale by SBI are of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have dues of Rs. 4,667 crore. OBC wants to sell 13 accounts with a collective outstanding of Rs. 764.44 crore, as many as 281 SME accounts are up for sale by SBI, belonging to those firms that have dues of up to Rs. 50 crore.
SBI will also sell three accounts — Dennis Steels Pvt. Ltd. with outstanding of Rs. 258.73 crore, Shiva Speciality Yarns (Rs. 37.90 crore) and Bansidhar Spinning & Weaving Mills Ltd. (Rs. 11.73 crore).
Among the major loan accounts invited for sale by OBC are Mittal Corp Ltd. (Rs. 207.17 crore), Jayaswal Neco Industries Ltd. (Rs. 157.03 crore) and NCS Sugars Ltd. (Rs. 106.60 crore).

Feb 10, 2019

Godrej Properties Signs Six-Project Deal with Solitaire Group

In a major consolidation exercise, leading property developer Godrej Properties Ltd will develop six projects of a Pune builder in what it called an "equity investment platform".
The Godrej group firm will develop Solitaire's six projects spread across 300 acres. A Godrej Properties statement to BSE said that the six projects, with a development potential of 25 million sq. ft, include housing projects, plotted development as well as mixed-use and township projects.
This is a first-of its-kind equity platform investment, and is in alignment with Godrej Properties' strategy of deepening its presence across leading real estate markets.

Withdrawing Trade Benefits for India

As per reports, India could lose a vital US trade concession, under which it enjoys zero tariffs on $5.6 billion of exports to the United States, amid a widening dispute over its trade and investment policies.
A move to withdraw the generalised system of preferences (GSP) from India, the world's largest beneficiary of a scheme that has been in force since the 1970s, would be the strongest punitive action since US President Donald Trump took office in 2017 vowing to reduce the US deficit with large economies.
Trump has repeatedly called out India for its high tariffs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has courted foreign investment as part of his Make in India campaign to turn India into a manufacturing hub and deliver jobs to the millions of youth entering the workforce.
Trump, for his part, has pushed for US manufacturing to return home as part of his Make America Great Again campaign.

Feb 09, 2019

Airtel Kenya to Merge Operations

Bharti Airtel said that its subsidiary Airtel Networks Kenya has inked a pact with Telkom Kenya to combine operations, including mobile, enterprise and carrier services businesses. The combined entity will operate as Airtel-Telkom.
As per the agreement, the partners will combine their operations in Kenya and establish an entity with enhanced scale, operational efficiency and strategic brand presence.

Lifting More Banks from PCA

There are eight more public sector banks (PSBs) that are under the PCA framework after restrictions were lifted from Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and Oriental Bank of Commerce.
After Reserve Bank of India lifted restrictions under prompt corrective action (PCA) on three public sector banks last week, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government will try to help lift the restrictions on other public sector banks too.

Bengal Global Business Summit 2019

The two-day Bengal Global Business Summit 2019 closed, with the West Bengal government signing 86 agreements entailing business proposals worth Rs. 2.84 lakh crore. On the inaugural day, the State received firm announcements totalling Rs. 40,000 crore from Reliance, Group, ITC and others.
Besides city-based corporates, the summit saw participation from JSW Group, the House of Hiranandani, Great Eastern Energy and multinationals such as Alstom, Accor, DP World, IKEA, Schneider Electric, IBM and Dell. A significant outcome of the summit was the state-to-state partnerships signed with Lombardy Regional province Italy, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and Jeollonam-do Province, Korea.

SBI Cuts Rate

A day after the Reserve Bank of India reduced its repo rate, State Bank of India decided to reduce the rate on home loans by 5 bps (basis points) for loans up to Rs. 30 lakh.
SBI has the highest market share of the home loans market.

Insolvency Proceedings against Parsvnath Landmark Closed

The National Company Law Tribunal closed the insolvency resolution process against a Parsvnath Developers' subsidiary after homebuyers 'amicably settled' their dispute with the realty firm. The NCLT had allowed insolvency proceedings against Parsvnath Landmark after three home buyers approached the tribunal complaining about delay in completion of the project.

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