General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2017

Dec 2017

May 22, 2022

RBI Allows Settlement of Trade Transactions with Sri Lanka in Indian Rupee

In view of difficulties being faced by exporters in getting payments from crisis-hit Sri Lanka, the RBI allowed settlement of trade transactions in Indian rupee outside the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) mechanism. In March, 2022, the government had guaranteed a term loan of USD 1 billion extended by the State Bank of India (SBI) to Sri Lanka for financing purchase of essential goods by the island nation from India.
Under the arrangement, financing of export of eligible goods and services from India would be allowed subject conditions and whose purchase may be agreed to be financed by SBI under the agreement. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis has been caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which means the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

MakeMyTrip Partners with Banks, NBFCs for 'Book Now Pay Later' Option

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip on partnered with 15 banks, NBFCs and fintech players, including HDFC Bank, IDFC Bank, Capital float and Zest Money, for its 'book now pay later' option while booking flight or hotels.
The company's fintech arm TripMoney has established a marketplace attracting 15 banks, NBFCs and fintech players, which also include Kissht, Lazypay and Simpl, among others, to offer easy travel credit to travellers.
The book now pay later (BNPL) payment has been introduced on bookings for travel, flight or hotels, on MakeMyTrip as well as on the Goibibo app.
Travellers who opt to travel without making any payment at the time of booking are provided short-term credit by the partner NBFCs and banks through an underwriting platform that evaluates customers' creditworthiness using data science models.

May 21, 2022

India, Fastest-growing Major Economy, Projected to Grow 6.4% in 2022: UN

As the Ukraine conflict impacts the global GDP, India is projected to grow by 6.4 per cent in 2022, slower than the last year's 8.8 per cent but still the fastest-growing major economy, with higher inflationary pressures and uneven recovery of the labour market curbing private consumption and investment, according to a UN report.
The global economy is now projected to grow by only 3.1 per cent in 2022, down from the 4.0 per cent growth forecast released in January 2022. Global inflation is projected to increase to 6.7 per cent in 2022, twice the average of 2.9 per cent during 20102020, with sharp rises in food and energy prices.
For the fiscal year 2023, India's growth is forecast to be 6 per cent.

C-DOT and Vodafone Idea Sign MoU for Cooperation in Area of IoT/M2M

Centre for Development of Telematics(C-DOT), the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India and Vodafone Idea Limited, one of the major telecom operators of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the occasion of "World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD)".
The signing of MOU will help both the organizations leverage each other's expertise in their respective domains to develop and deploy IoT/M2M solutions in India. IoT adoption has become critical for any organization's digital transformation journey. However, certain operational challenges such as device network compatibility, over the air firmware upgrade, remote device configuration, security vulnerabilities and implementation in siloes with proprietary protocols are preventing businesses from reaping the scale benefits of IoT.
To address these challenges in IoT implementation, both C-DOT and Vodafone Idea Limited have agreed to collaborate and work jointly on non-exclusive basis, to evaluate applications and devices from various solution providers against oneM2M specifications and offer joint certificates.

May 20, 2022

World Bank Sanctions USD 350 Billion to Gujarat' SRESTHA-G Project

The World Bank approved 350 million dollars aid for the Systems Reform Endeavors for Transformed Health Achievement in Gujarat -SRESTHA-G project.
The SRESTHA-G project will be a 500 million dollars project with 350 million dollars support coming from the World Bank. The project will include transforming key health delivery systems in the state.The programme will focus on four key result areas to improve quality, equity, and comprehensiveness of primary healthcare, services for adolescent girls and the capacity of disease surveillance systems.

India Overtakes Germany to Become 4th Largest Vehicle Market

According to the report released by Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA), India surpassed Germany to become 4th largest vehicle market in the world. The 1st was occupied by China, followed by the US and Japan. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, India sold 3,759,398 vehicles in 2021 as compared to 2,973,319 vehicles in Germany. This is almost 26 per cent of growth and the only country to register double-digit growth among the top 5 countries.
India is expected to become the third-largest Vehicle market by 2025, However, it requires India to surpass Japan which sold 4,448,340 units in 2021. The personal mobility space is around 33 vehicles per 1,000 which is one of the lowest compared to the developed market.

Bharti Airtel Reappoints Gopal Vittal as MD and CEO for 5 Years

Bharti Airtel board reappointed Gopal Vittal as Managing Director & CEO for a further period of five years ending on January 31, 2028. The reappointment came on a day the telco posted a consolidated net profit at Rs. 2,007.8 crore in the March quarter, up 141% sequentially and 164% on the year. Analysts had an estimated net profit of around Rs. 1,970 crore. This was Airtel's sixth successive quarter in the black after six straight losses earlier.
For the India business, its revenue growth stood at 23 per cent during the fourth quarter, while mobile revenues rose 21 per cent on the back of an increase in Average Revenue Per User ARPU led by healthy flow-through of tariff revision and strong 4G customer additions during the year.

KLM Veteran Pieter Elbers is IndiGo CEO

The country's largest domestic budget carrier IndiGo announced the appointment of Pieter Elbers as its CEO, replacing incumbent Ronojoy Dutta. The 71 year-old Dutta, who came to helm the airline in January 2019, decided to retire on September 30, 2021. Elbers' appointment, which is subject to regulatory approvals, will be effective from on or before October 1.
Since 2014, Elbers (52) served as the president and CEO of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Air France-KLM Group.

May 19, 2022

BSE Appoints Former RBI Deputy Governor S. S. Mundra as Chairman

Leading stock exchange BSE appointed S.S. Mundra, a public interest director, as its chairman. Mr. Mundra replaced Justice Vikramajit Sen. Mr. Mundra retired as Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India in July 2017 after a stint of three years. Prior to that, he was Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Baroda from where he superannuated in July 2014.
In a banking career spanning over four decades, Mr. Mundra held several important positions, including Executive Director of Union Bank of India, Chief Executive of Bank of Baroda (European Operations), amongst others. He also served as RBI's nominee on the Financial Stability Board (G20 Forum) and its various committees. He was also the Vice-chair of OECD's International Network on Financial Education.

PNB MetLife Launches India's First Dental Health Insurance Plan

Private insurer PNB MetLife India Insurance Co launched a dental health insurance plan. This is the first insurance plan in India that covers fixed-benefit outpatient expenses and provides financial assistance with costs related to overall dental health.
PNB MetLife's new Dental Care Plan will help customers manage their dental health and ensure they do not have to dive into their savings or reduce their essential spending in order to make space for dental treatment. To provide convenience to its customers, PNB MetLife tied up with more than 340 dental clinics.

May 18, 2022

Reliance Top-ranked Indian Firm on Forbes Global 2000 List

Forbes Global 2000 ranks the largest companies in the world using four metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd climbed two spots to No. 53 on Forbes' Global 2000 list of public companies worldwide 2022. Reliance is the top-ranked Indian firm on the list, followed by State Bank of India at No. 105, HDFC Bank at No. 153 and ICICI Bank at No. 204.
Globally, Berkshire Hathaway took the No. 1 spot for the first time since Forbes started publishing the Global 2000 in 2003, dethroning the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which dropped to No. 2 after nine consecutive years at the top of the list. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) took the 3 Spot.
Other top 10 Indian firms on the list include state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) at 228 ranks, Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) at No. 268, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at No. 357, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) at No. 384, Tata Steel at No. 407 and Axis Bank at No. 431.

Adani Become India's Second-biggest Cement Maker Company

The Adani Group officially acquired a controlling stake in Holcim AG's cement businesses in India in a deal worth $10.5 billion and became the second-biggest cement producer in the country. The richest person in Asia, Gautam Adani's conglomerate, obtained 63.19 per cent of Ambuja Cements Ltd and its subsidiary ACC in an assertive bidding war with other local companies.
Ambuja Cement has a total of 14 cement plants that employ approximately 4,700 people. Meanwhile, ACC has 17 cement plants, 78 ready mix concrete factories and nearly 6,000 employees.

B. Govindarajan Appointed as CEO of Royal Enfield

Eicher Motors Limited (EML), the parent company of Royal Enfield, announced the appointment of B. Govindarajan as the motorcycle brand's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Previously, Govindarajan was serving as the Executive Director of Royal Enfield since August 2021, and prior to that, he was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the company since 2013.
In addition, Govindarajan will also serve as a Wholetime Director on the Board of EML. He has spent over 23 years working across Royal Enfield and Eicher Motors, and over the years, has led several key developments including the likes of Himalayan, Continental GT 650 and Interceptor INT 650 as well as the more recent J-platform based Meteor and Classic 350 models.
Eicher Motors posted a 16% increase in its consolidated net profit after tax at INR 610 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022, on the back of steady growth across business verticals. The company had reported INR 526 crore during the January-March period of 2021-2022 fiscal.

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