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BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Jun 06, 2020

Standard Life Sells Stake in HDFC Life

Standard Life, the joint venture partner in HDFC Life Insurance, sold 1.98 per cent stake (40 million shares) in the life insurance firm.
The share sale was conducted at Rs. 496.4 per share and fetched the UK-based firm Rs. 1,986 crore ($263 million). More than 50 institutional investor accounts bought the shares. Some of them include Capital World, Nomura, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale. Birla MF, ICICI MF and Mirae MF were among the domestic institutions that bought the stake. Following the stake sake, Standard Life's stake will decline to 10.27 per cent.
Standard Life has pruned its stake in the life insurer in several trances. At the time of HDFC Life's IPO in November 2017, Standard Life held 35 per cent stake.

India's 1st Mobile App Based Facility for Opening Current Accounts

IndusInd Bank Limited has introduced a first-of-its-kind facility for customers to open current accounts (CA) through its 'Indus Corporate' mobile app.
Current account can be opened for all types of businesses including proprietorships, partnerships and private and public limited companies through this facility.
The process of opening a current account in the bank with the mobile app will be paperless and the account will be opened in a few hours. Bank officials will go to the customer's home and gather information about them and his/her business on a real-time basis and verify it.
IndusInd Bank's 'Indus Corporate' mobile app uses several 'Application Programme Interface' (APIs), which enables secure validation of KYC documents from authorised government platforms such as Goods and Service Tax (GST), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Import Export Code (IEC) and Aadhaar etc.

RBI Creates Payments Infrastructure Development Fund

In order to encourage the deployment of Points of Sale (PoS) infrastructure in smaller cities and towns, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has created a Rs. 500-crore ($66 million) Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), in which it will start with an initial contribution of Rs. 250 crore and the remaining half of the amount will be installed by card issuing banks and card networks working in the country.
The fund will encourage businessmen from Tier-3 to Tier-6 centers and in the northeastern states to adopt Point of Sale (POS) machines (both physical and digital modes).
PIDF will continue to receive other cash contributions from card issuing banks and card networks at regular intervals to meet operating expenses.
RBI will also continue to meet the capital deficit on an annual basis, if required.
The PIDF will operate under the supervision of the RBI & will be run by an Advisory Council.

India Extends Anti-dumping Duty on Chinese Steel for Entire Year

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged moves towards a self-reliant economy while announcing a $266 billion economic stimulus package in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing Indian industry leaders earlier this week, the PM expressed confidence that economic growth would soon return.
India has extended anti-dumping duty on certain varieties of steel until December this year (2020) to insulate domestic companies from cheap imports of the commodity from China and other nations like Korea and Malaysia.
India will charge import duty in the range of $180-316 per ton on steal to safeguard its domestic industry.
The Indian government previously imposed import duty on 'hot-rolled flat products of stainless steel 304 series' being imported from China, Malaysia and South Korea on June 5, 2015, for a period of five years.

Jun 05, 2020

Mubadala to Buy Stake in Jio Platforms

Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, has agreed to invest Rs. 9,093.60 crore in Mukesh Ambani led Jio Platforms for 1.85% stake, valuing Jio Platforms at enterprise value of Rs. 5.16 lakh crore.
Jio Platforms with this investment has raised Rs. 87,655.35 crore from leading global technology and growth investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR and Mubadala in less than six weeks.
Jio Platforms, a next-generation technology platform focused on providing high-quality and affordable digital services across India, has more than 388 million subscribers.
Mubadala's Ventures business currently manages several venture funds in the US, Europe and Middle East.
Mubadala's portfolio spans advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, metals and mining, pharmaceutical and medical technology, renewable energy and utilities, and the management of diverse financial holdings.

Eurozone in Fresh Emergency Action to Boost Economy

The European Central Bank has taken further dramatic measures try to boost the eurozone economies, amid their biggest recession since World War Two.
Just months after emergency measures, the central bank said it would increase the size of its bond buying programme by €600bn (£546bn) to €1.35tn.
The programme will run until June 2021, six months longer than planned.
The move will keep borrowing costs low for countries and firms as they face huge budget deficits and recessions.
The bond purchases are often referred to as Quantitative Easing (QE). When central banks buy bonds with printed money, the value of the bonds rise and borrowing costs drop.

Double Whammy for Textile Mills as Operations Resume

Textile mills in the State (Tamil Nadu), numbering over 2,000, are facing a difficult situation despite resuming operations — orders are less, prices have fallen, and export enquiries are yet to pick up.
Tamil Nadu has almost 45% of the country's spindle capacity and produces approximately 175 million kg of yarn a month.
As per Ashwin Chandran, chairman of Southern India Mills' Association, with the mills resuming operations in the last one month, the average capacity utilisation is just 40 %.
Some mills operated at 80% to 90 % capacity, only resulting in rising inventory. Of the total yarn produced in Tamil Nadu, nearly 40% was sold in the powerloom weaving clusters in north India, mainly Maharashtra. Weaving activities were yet to gain momentum in these clusters. Even in Tamil Nadu, where there were nearly five lakh powerlooms, the weaving clusters were operating at just 50% capacity.
Mr. Ashwin appealed to the Union and State governments to come out with schemes to boost exports so that Indian yarn was competitive in the international market.
The mills face labour shortage as most of the migrant workers have gone home. The demand should revive by the time the workers return, say the spinners.

Zomato and Swiggy Get Permit to Test Drone Delivery

Hyperlocal delivery start-ups including Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato can begin to test fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones for deliveries, after receiving permission from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
A senior DGCA official confirmed the development that along with the delivery start-ups, budget airline SpiceJet, Reliance-backed drone startup Asteria Aerospace were among the 13 consortia which had received the approvals to test fly these drones.
The DGCA wanted to see the commercial possibilities which could be achieved through the BVLOS drones, and set up the BVLOS Experiment Assessment and Monitoring (BEAM) committee, in the first half of 2019, calling in for applications.

India's Unemployment Rate Saw a Small Dip in 2018-19

As per the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in May 2020, India's unemployment rate improved from the 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18 to 5.8% in 2018-19. The labour force participation rate also improved marginally, from 36.9% in 2017-18 to 37.5% in 2018-19. The labour force is defined as people who are working, or seeking work or available for work. Its participation rate is the percentage of the labour force in the population. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people without work within the labour force.
The report shows the dip came across all categories, though women and rural workers showed the most improvement.
Women's unemployment fell from 5.7% to 5.2%, while male unemployment only fell from 6.2% to 6%. Urban unemployment was still at a high of 7.7% in 2018-19, a marginal drop from 7.8% in 2017-18, while rural unemployment fell from 5.3% to 5%.

Jun 03, 2020

Horticulture Production in 2019-20 Estimated

In 2020, onions are not likely to bring tears as the government expects 17% rise in the onion output from last year.
As per the second advance estimate, the production onion is likely to be 26.74 million tonnes in 2019-20 as against 22.82 million tonnes in 2018-19.
The second advance estimates also places total horticulture production in 2019-20 to be at 320.48 million tonnes - 3.13% higher than last year.
The official said that the production of fruits is likely to be 99.07 million tonnes as compared to 97.97 million tonnes in 2018-19.
The production of vegetables is also likely to be higher in 2019-20.

SBI Creates Separate Business Vertical for Financial Inclusion

State Bank of India has created a separate business vertical to focus on financial inclusion and micro-markets (FI&MM) in semi-urban and rural areas.
Under FI&MM, the bank will offer loans predominantly for agriculture and allied activities, and micro/small enterprises and vastly improve customer experience for the citizens in the hinterland.
About 8,000 branches in rural and semi urban areas have been identified for providing specialised services to the micro segment including micro credit for small businesses and farmers under new vertical.
At the national level, the FI&MM vertical will be headed by Deputy Managing Director, Sanjeev Nautiyal.

Jun 02, 2020

Yes Bank Acquires 24.19% Stake in Dish TV

Yes Bank Ltd acquired a 24.19% stake in direct-to-home service provider, Dish TV India Ltd, by invoking pledges against 44.53 equity shares kept as collateral with the private lender for a loan.
This is the fifth instance in the past one year that Yes Bank has acquired majority stake in a non-banking businesses simply due to invocation of pledge against shares of a company that had availed loans from the bank and later failed to repay the dues.
According to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the DTH market in the country is dominated by Dish TV (40%), followed by Tata Sky (25%) and Airtel TV (22%).

Indian Energy Exchange Launches Real-Time Electricity Market

Energy trading platform Indian Energy Exchange launched the real-time electricity market (RTM) on its platform, a move that will help utilities buy and sell power just an hour before the requirement.
The RTM enables consumers, including distribution companies (discoms) and captive users, to buy power on exchanges just an hour before delivery.
The real time market is an endeavour by the regulator, CERC, to make the power market dynamic by enabling trade in electricity through half-hourly auctions, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) said in a regulatory filing.

May 31, 2020

Three Indian Companies Get Licence to Manufacture NASA's Ventilators

Three Indian companies have got licences from NASA to manufacture its indigenously developed ventilators for critical COVID-19 patients.
The three Indian companies are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd.
Apart from the Indian firms, 18 other companies, including eight American and three Brazilian, have been selected to manufacture the critical breathing devices.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed the ventilator specifically for coronavirus patients at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JLP) in Southern California.

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