General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - May 2018

May 2018

Aug 15, 2021

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Launches Guaranteed Annuity Plus

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance (ABSLI) has launched an annuity plan – ABSLI Guaranteed Annuity Plus – a single premium plan with a guaranteed regular income for one's retirement and future financial needs, ensuring a stress-free and sustained lifestyle.
The insurance company claims this annuity plan with multiple annuity options can be customised to perfectly suit customers' unique financial needs during retirement. This non-linked, non-participating plan also provides policyholders with the flexibility to choose either an immediate or deferred annuity.

IDFC FIRST Bank Signs up with Indian Navy to Offer 'Honour FIRST'

IDFC FIRST Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Navy to offer Honour FIRST, a premium banking solution, to serving personnel and veterans of the Indian Navy.
Keeping in mind the needs of the Armed Forces and its veterans, the bank claims that the Honour FIRST Defence account was specially designed. Account-holders of Honour FIRST is supported by a dedicated team of defence veterans. The MoU for Honour FIRST was signed at the Naval Headquarters in New Delhi between Commodore Neeraj Malhotra, Commodore – Pay and Allowances, Indian Navy and senior officials of IDFC FIRST Bank.

Aug 14, 2021

KreditBee Launches a New Age Card for the New India

KreditBee, one of India's leading digital lending platforms, entered into the card segment with the launch of 'KreditBee Card'. The card provides the unserved and underserved banking customers, quick and secured access to short-term liquidity with multiple repayment options, eliminating the need to avail a separate loan. KreditBee has partnered with RuPay and RBL Bank for the launch of this product. KreditBee Card is a credit-line backed prepaid card for the end consumer, where the amount is loaded into the KreditBee card account once the user sends a purchase or drawdown request.
KreditBee intends to offer 1 million cards by the end of FY22. It offers versatility and flexibility in terms of ticket size and repayment options. The customer can avail credit limit of up to Rs. 10,000 that can be repaid within a single billing cycle not going beyond 45 days.

NPCI Bharat BillPay Appoints Noopur Chaturvedi as CEO

National Payments Corporation of India announced the appointment of Noopur Chaturvedi as the Chief Executive Officer of NPCI Bharat BillPay.
As CEO, Chaturvedi's mandate is to work on RBI's vision to scale up the Bharat Bill Pay (BBPS) platform and make it the preferred solution for all bill payments. She will work closely with the BBPS ecosystem to grow digital bill payments with superior customer experience.
NPCI Bharat BillPay is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPCI. It came into effect from April 1, 2021.

Aug 13, 2021

DCB Bank Gets RBI Nod to Conduct Govt. Related Transactions

The Reserve Bank has empanelled DCB Bank as an agency bank to facilitate banking and payment transactions for the central and state governments.
This empanelment follows the announcement by the Finance Ministry in May 2021 lifting the embargo on further allocation of government business to private sector banks.
Through this arrangement, DCB Bank will carry out specific banking services on behalf of both the central and state governments, while continuing to offer SME, micro SME and individual customers the convenience of routine financial transactions through its advanced banking platform.

Royal Enfield CEO Vinod Dasari Quits

Eicher Motors announced that Royal Enfield CEO Vinod K Dasari resign from his post. Dasari also stepped down from the post of Director (Whole Time) of Eicher Motors Ltd. The resignation came into effect from August 13.
The firm has approved the appointment of B. Govindarajan as Executive Director - Royal Enfield (Whole Time, Additional Director) of Eicher Motors Ltd. with effect from August 18, 2021. Govindarajan has been roped in for five years subject to provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. Govindarajan is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Royal Enfield.
Dasari had been appointed as the CEO of Royal Enfield in April 2019. Before joining Royal Enfield, Dasari was the CEO and managing director of Ashok Leyland, a position he held since 2011. He had joined Ashok Leyland as the CEO in 2005.

RBL Bank Selects AWS as Preferred Cloud Provider

RBL Bank has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, as its cloud provider.
AWS would help RBL Bank strengthen its AI-powered banking solutions and drive digital transformation at the lender.
The bank is building on its analytics practice and investing in AI capabilities to implement various use cases across multiple segments, including risk, customer service, human resources, and operations," RBL Bank said in a statement on Monday.
It will leverage Amazon Textract, a machine learning service that automatically extracts text, handwriting, and data from scanned documents, across the bank's risk and operations divisions to analyse documents such as financial statements, stock statements, and stock audit reports to predict default risk.

Aug 12, 2021

SIDBI Unveils "Digital Prayaas" Lending Platform

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched 'Digital Prayaas', an App based end to end digital lending platform, whereby loan sanction will be accorded to aspiring entrepreneurs from the bottom of the pyramid by the end of the day.
Further, to cater to the aspiring youth in urban areas, SIDBI tied up with a major aggregator -- BigBasket -- to on board its delivery partners across the country and provide loans at an affordable interest rate for purchase of environment friendly e-Bikes and e-Vans.

RBL Bank Gets Accredited as an Agency Bank to RBI

RBL Bank said that it has been accredited by the RBI to be an agency bank to carry on banking transactions of the central and state governments.
This authorisation will enable RBL Bank to handle a broad range of transactions related to government business.
It will be able to carry on the business of distributing subsidies, pension payments, collecting central and state taxes, including income tax, excise duties, customs, GST, stamp duty, registration, state Excise (VAT) and professional tax. These businesses can be conducted in both online and offline modes.
The accreditation comes on the heels of the RBI's guideline authorising scheduled private sector banks as agency banks to carry out specific government-related business transactions.

L&T to Sell Singoli-Bhatwari Hydroelectric Project to Renew Power

Larsen & Toubro announced divestment of 100 per cent stake in 99 megawatt run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant owned by its subsidiary L & T Uttaranchal Hydropower Ltd (LTUHPL) to Renew Power Services Pvt Ltd.
This is in line with the declared L & T focus of divesting non-core assets and improving shareholder value. The transaction is subject to completion of customary closing conditions and closing is expected to take place before September 30.
The sale consideration is Rs. 985 crore.

Aug 11, 2021

Japan's TechnoPro Acquires Udupi-based Robosoft

Udupi-based Robosoft Technologies, a digital transformation solutions firm that counts Apple as its client, has signed a definitive agreement to sell the company to the Japanese firm Technopro Holdings for the total cost of Rs. 805 crore.
Robosoft was founded by Rohith Bhat in 1996 in Udupi, a small town in Karnataka. With Apple as its first customer, Robosoft set out to create software solutions. Since then it has developed device drivers, games, video editing software, and imaging software for demanding clients across the globe.
Robosoft will continue to be led by its current management team, headed by chief executive officer Ravi Teja Bommireddipalli who is also being elevated to managing director and CEO.

RBI to Levy Penalty on ATMs that Run Out of Cash

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks and white label automated teller machine (ATM) operators to put in place a robust system that will allow them to monitor the availability of cash in ATMs and ensure timely replenishment to avoid cash-out situations.
The central bank has introduced a 'scheme of penalty for non-replenishment of ATMs', effective October 1, 2021, wherein banks and white label ATM operators will be penalised, in the event of cash-outs beyond the permissible time limit.
According to the scheme, a penalty of Rs. 10,000 per ATM will be levied in the event of a cash-out situation for more than 10 hours in a month. "In the case of white label ATMs, the penalty would be charged to the bank which is meeting the cash requirement of that particular white label ATM. The bank, may, at its discretion, recover the penalty from the white label ATM operator.

Suvomoy Saha is Eveready's New Joint Managing Director

The country's largest dry cell battery maker, Eveready Industries India, appointed Suvomoy Saha as joint managing director, for re-orientation of processes in the post pandemic world and new growth avenues.
The move comes more than a year after the Burman family – promoters of Dabur India – became the largest shareholder in Eveready at around 19.84 per cent. The Khaitan family – promoters of Eveready – is at 4.77 per cent and Amritanshu Khaitan, is the managing director of the company.
Saha was a non-executive director prior to his appointment as joint managing director. From March 2005 to July 2019, he was a whole time director of Eveready.

Hindujas Sell Health Care Unit to Baring Private Equity

Hinduja Group's business process management entity, Hinduja Global Solutions Limited (HGS) entered into definitive agreements to divest its Healthcare Services business to funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), at an enterprise value of $1.2 bilion.
The deal is subject to closing adjustments, and is expected to complete within 90 days, subject to shareholder and other regulatory approvals.

Amazon to End Partnership with Murthy's Catamaran Ventures

E-commerce giant Amazon and Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy's Catamaran Ventures have mutually decided to not continue their joint venture (JV) beyond the end of its current term. The JV, Prione Business Services, which has been running successfully for the past seven years, was coming up for renewal in May 2022.
Amazon and Catamaran had entered into a JV in the early days of e-commerce in India with a shared vision of transforming small businesses in a fast-changing digital world by providing online capabilities and enabling them access to customers - both in India and abroad.

India Companies Seal 181 Deals in July

According to Grant Thornton Bharat's Dealtracker, India Inc recorded 181 deals amounting to $13.2 billion in July 2021.
There has been a significant year-on-year rise in deal volumes at 66 per cent and 3 per cent increase in the deal values. This is also the highest record volumes for any given month since 2005.

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