General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - May 2018

May 2018

Jul 21, 2021

IOC to Build India's First Green Hydrogen Plant

India's largest oil firm IOC will build the nation's first 'green hydrogen' plant at its Mathura refinery, as it aims to prepare for a future catering to the growing demand for both oil and cleaner forms of energy.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has drawn a strategic growth path that aims to maintain focus on its core refining and fuel marketing businesses while making bigger inroads into petrochemicals, hydrogen and electric mobility over the next 10 years.

BBNL Invites Global Bids for BharatNet Broadband Project

Special purpose vehicle BBNL invited bids for Rs. 19,041 crore BharatNet project to roll out high-speed broadband services in the rural areas across 16 states.
The government will only provide viability gap funding under the project.
Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) has invited a global tender for the development (creation, upgradation, operation and maintenance and utilisation) of BharatNet through a public-private partnership model in 9 separate packages across 16 states for a concession period of 30 years.
Under the project, the government plans to cover an estimated 3.61 lakh villages (including gram panchayats) across Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

Wipro to Invest $1 bn in Cloud Technologies

IT Services major Wipro announced the launch of Wipro FullStride Cloud Services and its commitment to invest $1 billion in cloud technologies, capabilities, acquisitions and partnerships over the next three years.
Wipro has seen consistent growth in its cloud business and today employs over 79,000 cloud professionals and more than 10,000 people certified by the leading cloud service providers.
Over the past 12 months, Wipro has announced significant cloud-related wins with Telefónica Germany / O2, Verifone, and E.ON in addition to METRO AG, one of the largest deals in Wipro's history.
Wipro FullStride Cloud Services will work with clients to better align business and IT with the cloud imperative, create significant business value and increase competitive differentiation. It will also improve their business agility, embed resilience and significantly optimize their technology investments in favor of change and innovation.

NTPC Bags 325 MW Solar Projects at Shajapur Solar Park

State-owned power giant NTPC bagged solar projects 325 megawatts (MW) at Shajapur Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh.
As per NTPC, the projects have been won by its wholly-owned subsidiary NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NTPC REL).
NTPC REL has emerged winner at the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited auction for 450 MW of solar projects at the Shajapur Solar Park in MP. NTPC Renewables has won 105 MW capacity and 220 MW capacity, quoting the lowest tariffs of Rs. 2.35 per kWh, and Rs. 2.33 per kWh, respectively.
NTPC, under the Ministry of Power, is the country's largest power producing company. Currently, it has an installed capacity of 66 GW across 70 power projects, with an additional 18 GW under construction.

Bank of Maharashtra Signs MoU with NABARD

To boost priority sector lending in Maharashtra, Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) to boost ongoing developmental initiatives linked to priority sector lending in Maharashtra.
The MoU envisages joint initiatives for the benefit of farmers, farmer producer organisations, joint liability groups, self-help groups, rural artisans, weavers, agri-preneurs, agri start-ups, micro, small and medium enterprises in the state.

Tamil Nadu Receives Rs. 28,508 crore Investment Commitments

Tamil Nadu received investment commitments to the tune of Rs. 28,508 crore from 49 companies across various segments that will create 83,482 jobs in the state.
The event was organised by the industries department and 'Guidance Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister M. K. Stalin layed the foundation stone for nine projects, entailing investments of Rs. 4,250 crore that will generate 21,630 jobs.
35 Memorandums of Understanding were signed in the presence of the Chief Minister, with a cumulative investment of Rs. 17,141 crore, which would create 55,054 jobs.
General Electric (GE) has proposed to establish a Centre of Excellence to enhance production of aircraft and aeronautical components for industries in the aerospace and defence sector, using advanced manufacturing technologies.

Godrej Forays into Dishwashers

Godrej & Boyce, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, announced its foray into the dishwashers market and is eyeing 15 per cent market share by the end of this financial year in this segment.
Godrej Appliances Business Head and Executive Vice President Kamal Nandi stated that the dishwasher segment is at a very nascent stage and the total market size is expected to cross USD 90 million (Rs. 667-700 crore) by 2025-26.
Godrej Eon Dishwasher is available in pan-India in 3 variants with a starting price at Rs. 37,900 plus taxes.

Jul 20, 2021

Google Cloud Adds 2nd Cloud Region in country

Google Cloud has announced the launch of its new Cloud Region in Delhi NCR, for customers and the public sector in India and across the Asia Pacific. With the new region, the customers operating in the country will benefit from lower latency and higher performance of their cloud-based workloads and data.
This new Google Cloud region is the second such in India after Mumbai and the 10th in Asia-Pacific. As the second cloud region, customers are expected to benefit from improved business continuity planning, while maintaining data sovereignty. Totally, 26 Google Cloud regions are present across the world.

Importers of Pulses Exempted from Stock Limits

The Central Government has relaxed stock limits for Millers and wholesalers and exempted importers from the stock limits after considering the softening of the prices and feedback received from State Governments and various stakeholders.
These entities will however continue to declare stocks on the web portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs.
The Stock Limits will be applicable only to Tur, Urad, Gram and Masur.
The Ministry said, for wholesalers, the stock limit will be 500 Metric Tonnes, provided there should not be more than 200 Metric Tonnes of one variety, for retailers, the stock limit will be 5 Metric Tonnes and for Millers, stock limits will be last the 6 months' production or 50 percent of annual installed capacity, whichever is higher.

India's First Monk Fruit Cultivation Exercise Begins in HP's Kullu

The 'monk fruit' from China, which is known for its properties as a non-caloric natural sweetener, was introduced for field trials in Himachal Pradesh by the Palampur-based Council of Scientific Research and Industrial Technology Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (CSIR-IHBT) in Kullu.
The field trials have begun three years after the CSIR-IHBT imported its seeds from China and grew it in the house.

Microsoft Acquires Cybersecurity Firm RiskIQ for $500M

Microsoft has reached a deal to acquire RiskIQ, a San Francisco-based provider of cybersecurity services, including malware and spyware monitoring and mobile app security.
RiskIQ's services and solutions will join Microsoft's suite of cloud-native security products, including Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Azure Defender, and Microsoft Azure Sentinel.
While Microsoft hasn't valued the deal, Bloomberg reported that the company is said to be paying more than $500 million for RiskIQ.

India Emerges as 5th Largest Forex Reserves Holder in the World

With India's forex reserves at $608.99 billion as on June 25, 2021 stood, India has emerged as the fifth largest foreign exchange reserves holder in the world after China, Japan, Switzerland and Russia.
This was stated by Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The Minister stated that India's foreign exchange reserves position is comfortable in terms of import cover of more than 18 months and provides cushion against unforeseen external shocks. Government and RBI are closely monitoring the emerging external position calibrating policies or regulations to support robust macroeconomic growth.
Giving more details, the Minister said that RBI takes regular steps for diversification of forex reserves by scaling up operations in forex swap and repo markets, acquisition of gold and exploring new markets/products, while adhering to safety and liquidity standards. Variation in India's forex reserves is primarily the outcome of RBI's intervention in the foreign exchange market to smoothen exchange rate volatility, valuation changes due to movement of US dollar against other international currencies in the reserve basket, movement in gold prices, interest earnings from deployment of foreign currency assets and inflow of aid receipts.

Jul 17, 2021

Zomato IPO Receives 38 Times Oversubscription

Zomato's mega initial public offering (IPO) ended with a bumper 38 times oversubscription as institutional investors poured money to get a pie of the hottest online food delivery platform.
Zomato got bids for 2,751.25 crore shares against 71.92 crore shares on offer, stock exchange data showed.
The IPO is India's biggest since March 2020.
Institutional investors, who shied away in the first two days of the IPO, bid several times over the number of shares reserved for them.
While qualified institutional buyers or QIBs bid almost 52 times the quota reserved for them, non-institutional investors sought 640 crore shares against their quota of 19.43 crore.
Retail investors bid 7.45 times against the 12.96 crore shares reserved for them.

Jul 16, 2021

RBI Cancels Licence of Dr Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar Urban Co-op Bank, Latur

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the licence of Dr Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd, Nilanga, Latur, as it does not have adequate capital and earning prospects.
Also, the Maharashtra-based bank with its current financial position would be unable to pay its depositors in full, the central bank said while announcing cancellation of its licence.

Adani Group Takes over Mumbai Airport Management

At a time when the aviation sector is going through an all-time low owing to the pandemic, the Adani Group has formally taken over the management of the Mumbai International Airport from the controls of the GVK Group.
With the addition of Mumbai airport, Adani Airport Holdings will now have control over 33% of India's air cargo traffic.
Adani Group will have 74% stake in Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, post the stake purchase transaction, with 50.5% being bought from GVK Group and 23.5% from minority partners including Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), and Bidvest Group.

RBI bars Mastercard from Onboarding New Customers in India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred global card player Mastercard Asia/Pacific Pte Ltd from onboarding new domestic customers on its network from July 22 over non-compliance with local data storage guidelines. That makes Mastercard the third entity to be barred on these grounds after the RBI had in April told American Express and Diners Club International to not get new domestic customers.
The entity (Mastercard) has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on storage of payment system data, notwithstanding the lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities given

RBI Extends Implementation Timeline of ATM Cassette Swap

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the timeline for implementation of cassette swap in all ATMs till March 31, 2022.
This comes in the wake of the Indian Banks' Association making a representation on behalf of various banks, expressing difficulties in meeting the March 31, 2021 timeline.

Jul 14, 2021

Vineet Sood to be Alliance Air CEO

The government has appointed former Biman Bnagladesh CFO Vineet Sood as Alliance Air (AA) CEO.
Sood will take over the role from July 31, 2021, for a period of three years. Alliance Air, the regional turboprop arm of Air India, will remain the only government-owned fixed wing airline in India once Al and Al Express are privatised, a process expected to be completed this fiscal.
Sood will take over from Harpreet A De Singh, Al's ED and chief of flight safety before being appointed as CEO of AA last October.
Sood did B Com (Hons) from Delhi's Shri Ram College of Commerce and went on to become a CA.

Google Fined $592 Million by French regulator over News Copyright Row

France's competition regulator announced that it has fined Google 500 million euros ($592 million) over a dispute with French publishers who want the company to pay for the use of their news.
The agency threatened fines of another 900,000 euros (around $1 million) per day if Google doesn't produce proposals within two months on how it will compensate news producers.

NPCI arm to extend BHIM UPI payments system to Bhutan

National Payment Corporation of India's arm, NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL) has partnered Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan for implementing BHIM UPI in Bhutan.
The collaboration between NIPL and RMA will enable acceptance of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) powered BHIM App in Bhutan.
And RMA will ensure that the participating NPCI mobile application through UPI QR transactions is accepted at all RMA acquired merchants in Bhutan.
This facility will benefit more than 200,000 tourists from India who travel to Bhutan each year, NPCI said.

India Sets up Bad Bank to Reduce Debt Burden

India formally set up a bad bank as part of the nation's ongoing efforts to remove one of the world's largest piles of soured debt from the balance sheet of financiers and accelerate lending.
The firm was registered as the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. on July 7 with Padmakumar Madhavan Nair as the managing director, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies, where firms must register before becoming operational.
NARCL's paid-up capital is Rs 74.6 crore ($10 million), according to the filing. Nair previously worked at the State Bank of India where he handled stressed assets resolution.

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