General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

May 23, 2020

IRDAI Permits Union Bank to Continue With IndiaFirst Stake

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has approved Union Bank of India's proposal to continue with its 30% holding in IndiaFirst Life Insurance with the caveat that the lender will exercise no control in the management of the insurer.
The bank was earlier expected to divest either the entire stake in IndiaFirst Life Insurance, or a sizable part of it, as IRDAI guidelines prohibit a lender to own more than 10% stake in two insurance companies.
With IRDAI approval, the state owned lender has now been allowed to carry on with its promoter holding in the two insurers at least in FY21 under the condition that "arrangements are made to remove conflict of interest."

RBI Slashes Benchmark Lending Rate by 40 Basis Points

In a surprise move, the Reserve Bank of India slashed the benchmark lending rate by 40 basis points to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 crisis.
In an off-cycle meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the decision was taken unanimously to cut repo to support growth.
Following the reduction, the repo rate has come down to 4 per cent and the reverse repo rate has been cut to 3.35 per cent.
The MPC, headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, has last reduced the repo rate (the rate at which central bank lends to banks) on March 27, 2020 by a staggering 0.75 per cent to 4.14 per cent.

Airtel Acquires 10% Stake in AI Startup Voicezen

Bharti Airtel has acquired 10 per cent stake in Gurgaon-based start-up Voicezen, which focusses on conversational artificial intelligence technologies, in an all-cash deal.
The acquisition has been made by the company under its fast expanding Airtel Startup Accelerator Programme.
Voicezen has been working on developing advanced solutions that leverage machine learning, AI, speech to text and voice technologies to offer real time analytics to help brands engage with customers.
The global conversational AI market size is expected to grow from USD 4.2 billion in 2019 to USD 15.7 billion by 2024.

KKR Picks 2.32% Stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 11,367 Crore

Reliance Industries announced the sale of a 2.32 per cent stake in its digital unit to US private equity giant KKR for Rs 11,367 crore, the fifth deal in four weeks that will inject a combined Rs 78,562 crore in the oil-to-telecom conglomerate to help it pare debt.
This is KKR's largest investment in Asia.
Founded in 1976, KKR has a long history of building leading global enterprises and successfully investing in businesses in the technology sector, including BMC Software, ByteDance and GoJek, through its private equity and technology growth funds.

CCI Approves Emami Cement Acquisition by Nirma Arm

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of Emami Cement Ltd by Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd (part of the Nirma group).
The sale of the cement business is part of Emami group's plan to become debt-free.
Emami Cement Ltd operates an integrated cement plant in Risdah, Chhattisgarh, and grinding units in Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha, with a total installed capacity of 8.3 million tonnes per annum.
It has mining leases in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Facebook Buys Popular GIF Database GIPHY for $400 Million

Facebook has acquired GIPHY for $400 million to integrate its GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps.
According to Shah, 50 percent of all of GIPHY's traffic comes from its apps, with half of that coming from Instagram alone.
GIPHY is a popular library where users share and create billions of GIFs on a regular basis.
GIPHY as part of the Instagram team will make it easier to send GIFs and stickers in Instagram stories and direct messages.

Ircon Signs MoU With RZD International for Joint Development of Railways

State-owned Ircon International Limited (IRCON) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RZD International L.L.C. (Limited Liability Company), a subsidiary of government-owned Russian Railways Company, to explore opportunities for joint development of railways and other infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
According to the MoU, both parties have agreed to form a joint Indo-Russian working group.
Ircon International is a Miniratna (Category – I) Schedule A Public Sector Enterprise and a leading turnkey construction company in the public sector.

May 22, 2020

ONGC, NTPC Sign MOU to Set Up Joint Venture for Renewable Energy Business

India's top oil and gas producer ONGC and country's biggest electricity generator NTPC have signed a preliminary agreement to set up a joint venture company for renewable energy projects.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and NTPC Ltd entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on May 21, 2020 in New Delhi to formalize this arrangement.
The MoU will enable both companies to achieve their respective targets in renewable energy business.

May 21, 2020

Kotak Mahindra Bank Becomes First Indian Lender to Allow Video KYC

Kotak Mahindra Bank has introduced video-KYC facility for customers opening savings account on Kotak 811 - the banks digital banking platform. The private lender is the first Indian bank to offer video based "zero-contact" onboarding service.
The initiative is presently being launched on a pilot basis for savings accounts.
With Video KYC, verification of documents, signature are completed via a video call with representative from the bank without any physical interface.

Flipkart Ties up With Bajaj Allianz General Insurance for Digital Motor Cover

Flipkart and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company have partnered to offer a digital motor insurance policy to customers of the e-commerce major.
Consumers can buy this motor-insurance policy using their Flipkart app.
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance also offers mobile insurance on Flipkart.

May 20, 2020

Accenture Acquires Startup Byte Prophecy to Deliver AI Solutions to Enterprises

Accenture plc (stylised as Accenture), an Irish-domiciled multinational professional services company, has acquired Ahmedabad (Gujarat)-based AI (Artificial Intelligence) startup Byte Prophecy for an undisclosed sum.
Under this acquisition, more than 50 data science engineers from Byte Prophecy will now join Accenture's Applied Intelligence unit.
This acquisition will be very important for Accenture because as an IT (Information Technology) consulting company globally a better and different kind of digital facilities and automated solutions will attract clients.
Some time back similar acquisitions have also been done by Accenture's main rivals Infosys and TCS (TATA Consultancy Services Limited).

May 18, 2020

GCPL Acquires Balance 25% Stake in Kenya-Based Canon Chemicals

FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) announced acquisition of the balance 25 per cent stake in Kenya-based Canon Chemicals Ltd for an undisclosed sum.
Through this transaction, Canon Chemicals would now be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. The acquisition was made through its step down firm Godrej East Africa Holdings Ltd.
The Company through its wholly-owned subsidiary, has acquired the balance 25 per cent stake in Canon Chemicals Limited, said GCPL in a regulatory filing.
The Godrej Group firm had earlier acquired 75 per cent stake in Canon Chemicals Limited, Kenya, in 2016.

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