General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - May 2018

May 2018

Feb 13, 2021

Infosys to Invest Additional $1 Million in ideaForge Technology

IT services major Infosys said that it will invest an additional USD 1 million (about Rs 7.2 crore) in ideaForge Technology, a UAV systems manufacturing company.
In 2016, Infosys had announced investing in ideaForge, an Indian start-up focused on unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV solutions (drones).
The company has agreed with ideaForge Technology to invest an additional USD 1 million (earlier, the company had invested USD 1.5 million in 2016) taking the cumulative investment to USD 2.5 million as of date, subject to necessary closing conditions.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of FY21.

Chinese Exports to US Up

With Chinese exports to the US rising substantially during the last quarter of 2020, Asian countries like India are facing a shortage of containers. Besides, freight rates on major routes from India have almost doubled as compared to last year.
During October-December 2020, Chinese exports to the US increased by 19 per cent ($44,828 million) in value terms as compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
China's total exports expanded 13.5 per cent on year-on-year basis in December 2020, compared with an increase of 25.4 per cent in the previous month. The surge made China number one US trade partner in December last year. It had ranked number three in the same month in 2019.

Feb 12, 2021

SBI Achieves Rs. 5 lakh Trillion Mark in Home Loan Segment

Maintaining its leadership in the home loan segment intact, the State Bank of India (SBI) has reached another landmark by crossing the Rs. 5 trillion (5 Lakh crore) mark in its home loan business. The bank has set its sight on achieving a home loan AUM of Rs. 7 trillion by FY24.
The Real Estate and Housing Business unit of SBI has grown 5 times in the last 10 years with an AUM of Rs. 89000cr in 2011 to Rs. 5 trillion in 2021. Despite a massive setback to the real estate sector triggered by pandemic-induced lockdown, the REHBU vertical registered unparalleled growth in the home loan business.

SoftBank Pulls out of Latin America Partnership with Oyo Hotels

The Latin American unit of Indian hotel startup Oyo Corp has ended its joint venture with the SoftBank Latin America Fund, less than six months after they struck a partnership in the region.
Oyo's business in Latin America, known as Oyo Latam, said that it was moving to a digital-only model, and that the changes would require laying off nearly its entire staff.
SoftBank Group has poured $75 million into Oyo in Latin America, part of its more than $1 billion investment in the parent company.
Although hotels in the region can still operate under Oyo's brand, operations will now be managed directly from Oyo's home base in India.

CCI Approves BOI's 49% Stake-buy in BOI AXA Investment Managers, BOI AXA Trust

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Bank of India's acquisition of 49 per cent stake each in BOI AXA Investment Managers Pvt Ltd (BAIM) and BOI AXA Trustee Services Pvt Ltd (BATS).
Pursuant to this transaction, Bank of India will hold 100 per cent equity in BAIM and BATS.
Prior to this transaction, BOI AXA Mutual Fund was a joint venture between BOI (51 per cent stake) and AXA Investment Managers Asia Holdings Pvt Ltd (AXA IM), which held 49 per cent stake each in BAIM and BATS.

Realty Firm Prestige Group Partners Awfis to Set up 6 Co-working Centres

Realty firm Prestige Group has tied up with co-working operator Awfis to set up six centres, comprising around 4,000 desks, in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai with an investment of about Rs. 40 crore.
Bengaluru-based Prestige Group and Awfis will jointly invest to set up these centres and also share revenues.
These six centres, spread over 2 lakh square feet area, will come up at Prestige Group's commercial properties in the three cities.
Of the six centres, four are located in Bengaluru's prime commercial locations, namely Koramangala, Outer Ring Road and two in Whitefield. The other two centres are at Guindy in Chennai and Begumpet in Hyderabad.

Feb 11, 2021

PNB Inks Deal with Indian Oil to Provide up to Rs. 2 crore Loan to Dealers

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has inked a pact with Indian Oil Corporation to provide up to Rs. 2 crore to the oil company's dealers.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India Oil Corporation Ltd to cater to the financing needs of the Indian Oil dealers.
The MoU would benefit dealers with credit facilities at lower interest rates, nil margin, and with minimum or zero collateral requirements through the PNB e-Dealer scheme.
Understanding the financial requirements and providing ease of banking services, PNB electronic dealer finance scheme is a tailor made credit lending product crafted for the Indian Oil dealers.

SEBI Plans to Introduce Framework to Compensate Investors for Technical Glitches

Markets regulator SEBI is considering a proposal to introduce a framework to ascertain the incidents of technical glitches whereby compensation would be given to investors.
Besides, the regulator is also looking to devise a methodology and calculation of compensation.
Further, to improve the efficacy of liquidity enhancement measures such as market making, Liquidity Enhancement Scheme (LES) and call auction mechanism for illiquid securities, SEBI would review the existing framework.
The regulator is also considering a proposal to ascertain the optimum corpus for the Investor Protection Fund (IPF) of the stock exchanges on the basis of rigorous stress testing, to ensure that the legitimate claims of the clients of the defaulting members or brokers even in extreme times are met.

Cabinet Approves Rs. 100 crore Grant-in-aid for Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a grant-in-aid of Rs 100 crore to the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizers Corporation Limited (BVFCL) at Namrup in upper Assam's Dibrugarh district to sustain operations of its urea manufacturing units.
BVFCL Namrup is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) formed as per the Companies Act under the administrative control of the department of fertilizers.
The company currently is operating its two vintage plants – Namrup-ll and Namrup-lll – in the premises of BVFCL at Namrup.

SBI Eyes Doubling of Mortgage Portfolio in 5 Years

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, is looking to scale up its home loan business in a big way, cashing in on the demand from the younger population and leveraging its low-cost borrowing. The public sector bank, which took a decade to grow its mortgage portfolio to Rs. 5 lakh crore from Rs. 89,000 crore in 2011, is now aiming to cross the Rs.10-lakh-crore-mark over the next five years.
The home loan book is now the single-largest portfolio in the asset base of SBI. When it comes to demand, every third borrower happens to be from SBI.
Currently, SBI dominates the home loan segment with 34 per cent market share and its portfolio stood at Rs. 4.84 lakh crore as on December 31, 2020.

South Sudan Issues New Banknote

South Sudan's central bank introduced a banknote of 1,000 South Sudanese pounds (SSP), the largest denomination in the country, amidst high inflation.
The local currency continues to depreciate against foreign currencies, but Bank of South Sudan governor, Dier Tong Ngor, said the new banknote "will partially restore the dollar value of SSP".
He said that the new banknote will not increase inflation, but it will reduce the cost of printing lower denominations.
The introduction of the new banknote is in line with international best practices ensuring that demand for banknotes is aligned with economic activities.
The country has banknotes for denominations of 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 100 pounds and 500 pounds.

Feb 10, 2021

Virescent Floats First Solar InvIT, Places 400 Mw Assets under Pvt Trust

KKR backed Virescent Infrastructure has floated the first infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) in the green power space. It will be a private Invit for which they have sought the approval for the Securities Exchange of India.
It is in the process of acquiring a portfolio of operational solar assets of close to 76 MWp at different locations including Patan (Gujarat), Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Mohaba (Uttar Pradesh). The power purchase agreements (PPAs) for these assets are with state-owned counterparties. These assets would be vested in the InvIT.
The InvIT aims to achieve approximately 1.5 GW of assets in the next two to three years.

HDFC Bank Invites Applications from Entrepreneurs for SmartUp Grants

Private sector lender HDFC Bank is inviting applications from start-ups and individual entrepreneurs for its SmartUp grants.
This year, the bank will focus on start-ups creating social impact at scale in sectors such as education – technology (ed-tech) and skill development, among others.
SmartUp grants are a part of the bank's umbrella CSR brand, and are aimed at finding and deploying long-term, sustainable solutions at scale, to address social issues, and contribute to the economic and social development of the country.

Airtel, Jio, Vodafone Idea Queue up to Participate in 4G Spectrum Auction

Putting speculations to rest, all three private telecom operators – Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Jio – submitted their applications for participation in the upcoming auction of airwaves by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). It is learnt that the three companies waited till the last day to submit their application. This development paves the way for an assured tripartite contest, in the auction, for buying the spectrum.
In the past, all the three telcos had expressed their reservation in purchasing the spectrum or participating in the auctions, over financial issues.
However, the reservation was more on the high price of 5G spectrum, which hasn't made the cut in the upcoming tender. According to Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Gopal Vittal, the 5G ecosystem is yet to develop here and the prices are very high and the company can't afford it.

India and Afghanistan Ink Deal for New Dam

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in Afghanistan to end a spike in violence, as the two countries signed an agreement for building a dam to supply water to Kabul city.
The project is a sign of India's continuing commitment to Afghanistan against the backdrop of the troubled peace process with the Taliban and a sustained wave of violence targeting officials, civil society activists and journalists in cities across the war-torn country. The agreement was signed on a day when eight people were killed in four targeted attacks in Kabul.

Feb 09, 2021

HDFC Life's New Term Plan

HDFC Life has launched its latest flagship term product 'Click 2 Protect Life'. The non-linked, non-participating, individual term plan has been designed to cater to the changing needs in the different life stages of an individual.
The 3D's in the plan stand offers protection against - Death, Disability and Disease.

Tesla Buys $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin, will accept crypto as payment soon

Holders of Bitcoin may be able to cash in some of their investment in the digital currency for a brand new electric car.
Electric automaker Tesla invested around USD 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, and it plans to begin accepting the digital currency as payment for its high-end vehicles soon.
The price of Bitcoin soared 15.4 per cent to around USD 44,500 in reaction to Tesla's announcement.
The California-based electric carmaker headed by Elon Musk revealed the new strategy in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and said that its investment in digital currency and other alternative reserve assets may grow.
Bitcoin has drawn enthusiasts for its scarcity and security, but the volatile digital currency still is not widely used to pay for goods and services.

RBI to Conduct OMO of Rs. 20,000 Crore

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that it will purchase four government securities (G-Secs) that amount to Rs. 20,000 crore. The central bank will purchase it on February 10, 2021 under the open market operations (OMOs).
This move was announced in the aftermath of the yields that was moving up to touch the intra-day high of 6.1634 per cent recently. The RBI was concerned about the higher government borrowing.
After the announcement of the OMO purchase was made, yield on the benchmark 10-year G-Sec slowed down by 3-4 basis points. It now carries a coupon rate of 5.77 per cent as opposed to its previous closing yield of 6.1283 per cent.
Open Market Operations are the purchase and sale of the Government securities (G-Secs) by RBI from and to the market. The Open Market Operations are conducted with the objective of adjusting the rupee liquidity conditions in the economy.

Paytm's Vijay Shekhar, Innov8 CEO Invest in Startup Supersourcing

IT outsourcing platform Supersourcing has raised Rs. 1.5 crore from investors including Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and co-working space provider Innov8 CEO Ritesh Malik.
Nikhil Sharma was also part of the seed-funding round.
The eight-month-old Indore-based company provides a platform to help companies find IT agencies to work with.

Siemens Ties up with IISc, CMTI to Set up Digital Transformation Labs

Siemens signed pacts with Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) to set up digital transformation labs.
Siemens signed two separate memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with IISc and CMTI, respectively, to establish first-of-its-kind digital transformation labs.
The labs are aimed at enhancing the expertise of researchers at IISc as well as technical skills of professionals in the machine tool industry, it said, adding that the MoUs will focus on development of industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0-enabled products and technologies.
This initiative will benefit many research scholars, students and industry professionals across the machine tool industry in Bengaluru for a period of three years.

PE Firm Advent International Acquires Stake in ZCL Chemicals

Private equity firm Advent International has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in ZCL Chemicals (ZCL), one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical firms in India. The business was formerly known as Zandu Chemicals.
Advent picked up a 51 per cent stake in the entity, which has an enterprise value of Rs. 1,700 crore. With this, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (MSPEA), a private equity platform that previously managed a minority investment in ZCL, will exit the company.
ZCL was advised by Jefferies (Sole Financial Advisor), Bombay Law Chambers (Legal Counsel), and Deloitte (Finance and Tax).
ZCL is one of the fastest-growing manufacturers of speciality active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and advanced intermediates.

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