General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Mar 02, 2020

ICAR Signs Pact with Patanjali

The country's premier agri-research body ICAR signed an agreement with Hardiwar-based Patanjali Bio Research Institute (PBRI) to undertake research work as well as training and education.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Director General Trilochan Mohapatra and PBRI CEO Acharya Balkrishna in the presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
As per the MoU, the specific plans will be developed to work on collaborative research programmes in areas of national interest related to sustainable agriculture development suitable to different agro-ecologies of the country.
ICAR and PBRI will collaborate in mutually identified areas of training and education where the post graduate students of deemed universities and research institutes of ICAR may undertake internships in various areas of specialisation with PBRI.

J&K and Ladakh Sign Pact with Bajaj Allianz

State Health Agency, Jammu and Kashmir signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company for implementation of Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh for a contract period of one year.
For the selection of an insurance company, an e-tendering process was conducted by the State Health Agency, he said, adding that Bajaj Allianz was selected as the lowest bidder on the premium of Rs. 720 per family per year.

Axis Bank Looks to Raise its Stake in Max Life Insurance

Axis Bank Ltd is looking to raise its stake in Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd by buying an additional 17.9% stake.
The potential deal will be made in two parts with the private lender taking a 7.9% stake while the rest would be held through its non-banking unit Axis Finance Ltd.
Axis Bank will value Max Life at par with its current embedded value (EV). Embedded value or the sum of net asset value and present value of future profits is a commonly used valuation metric for life insurers.
The development comes amid lack of regulatory clarity on how much banks can hold in domestic insurers.

Reliance Industries Buys Stake in Alok Industries

Alok Industries Ltd allotted 83.33 crore equity shares of Rs. 1 each at a premium of Rs. 2 per equity share for cash at a total consideration of Rs. 250 crore to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). Pursuant to this acquisition, RIL will hold 37.7 per cent equity share capital of the Mumbai-headquartered integrated textile manufacturer.
RIL said that the acquisition is in accordance with the approved Resolution Plan.
In March 2019, RIL had intimated the exchanges regarding approval by the National Company Law Tribunal, Ahmedabad Bench (NCLT) of the Resolution Plan, jointly submitted by RIL and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (JMFARC) for acquisition of Alok Industries under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, vide its order dated March 8, 2019.
Alok Industries, incorporated in India on March 12, 1986, has interests in polyester and cotton segments. It has a product suite comprising cotton yarn, apparel fabrics, bed linen, terry towels, embroidery, garments and polyester yarn. It has representative offices for sales promotion in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Mar 01, 2020

IMF and Pakistan Reach Agreement on Second Review of $6 bn Bailout Package

IMF reached a staff-level agreement with the Pakistani authorities "on policies and reforms" needed to complete the second review of the USD 6 billion loan approved for the cash-strapped country to help its fragile economy.
In July 2019, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Executive Board "approved a 39-month extended arrangement" under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan for USD 6 billion to support its economic reform programme.
Pakistan's finance ministry approached the IMF in August 2018 for a bailout package when the Imran Khan government took over.
The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF management and consideration by its executive board, which is expected in early April.
Completion of the review will enable disbursement of around USD 450 million.

Vistara Takes Delivery of Its First B787-9 Dreamliner Aircraft

Vistara took the delivery of its first wide-body Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner plane on Friday, making it the first Indian airline to fly this aircraft.
The plane, which has the registration number VT-TSD, will depart from the Boeing facility here at 2 pm (local time) on Friday and land in Delhi at 2 pm (local time) on Saturday, Vistara officials said here.
The new aircraft is the first of the six that Vistara purchased from Boeing.
The second Dreamliner aircraft is currently on the production line and will be delivered soon.
Vistara's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft comes with 299 seats in a three-class cabin configuration, giving customers a choice of business, premium economy and economy cabins.

Jeff Bezos Teams up with Narayana Murthy to Enter India's Food Delivery Business

Amazon is all set to start its food delivery business in India from Bengaluru next month, says a news report in The Economic Times.
The launch of the service, which would be offered as part of either Amazon's Prime Now or Amazon Fresh platform, could happen as soon as next month. With this, Amazon will take on estabished players such as Zomato and Swiggy.
Executives at two restaurants, who did not want to be named, confirmed that Prione Business Services, a joint venture between Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy's Catamaran Ventures and Amazon India, has been signing contracts with brands to list on Amazon, offering 10-15% commissions, the report said.

India Post Payments Bank Reaches Milestone of 20 million Customers

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) achieved the milestone of two crore customers, providing a major impetus to the government's efforts in furthering financial inclusion in unbanked and underbanked areas across the country.
The success of IPPB's business model underlines the government's intent in creating an interoperable banking infrastructure for the public good contributing toward changing the financial inclusion landscape in India.
IPPB was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 1, 2018. It reached the landmark of one crore customers in the first year of operations. The next one crore customers have been acquired and onboarded in just five months.

Tulsi Tanti, Sun Pharma promoters to invest Rs 400 cr in Suzlon Energy

The promoters and associates of Suzlon Energy will infuse up to Rs. 400 crore as equity into the troubled renewable energy company, through various securities as part of the proposed restructuring plan.
The entities pumping in money include Tanti Holdings Pvt (promoter), Shanghvi Finance and associates.
The board of directors, in a late night meeting on Thursday, approved a proposal for restructuring debt of the company and its certain identified subsidiaries, the company said in its filing with the BSE. Suzlon's stock closed 5.9 per cent lower at Rs. 2.69 per share on the BSE on Friday.
Under the debt recast plan, the Tulsi Tanti-controlled entity will issue securities — shares, convertible bonds and warrants — to 17 lenders for converting part of the debt into equity. Some of the lenders include State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and YES Bank. The Pune-based entity will also dispose of some of its investment, assets and also dilute stake in some of the units in line with the approved plan. However, the company did not specify the assets it would sell to reduce stake.

Feb 29, 2020

Amul to Acquire Heritage Foods' Dairy Plant in Punjab

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)'s flagship Amul Dairy is set to acquire Heritage Foods Ltd's dairy plant in Punjab for Rs. 21.20 crore.
Heritage Foods Ltd's Board of Directors on Friday approved the sale of "all tangible assets" of the dairy plant located at Bhambri village of Fatehgarh Sahib district in Punjab, the company said in its filing with exchanges. The move is part of its business rationalisation in northern India. The board approved the sale to Anand-based Kaira District Milk Producers Union Ltd (Amul Dairy), the flagship dairy under GCMMF.
On its part, GCMMF is evaluating the acquisition proposal, with its board likely to take a call soon, even as it looks to expand operations in Punjab to cater North India for liquid milk, curd and buttermilk, among other dairy products.

Rajiv Kumar Launches Baroda Startup Banking Initiative for Start-ups

Finance Secretary Shri Rajiv Kumar launched the 'Baroda Startup Banking' service with the objective of making Bank of Baroda (BoB) a preferred ally of start-up companies and connecting more than 2,000 start-ups over the next 2 years. The initiative was launched simultaneously in 15 cities across India.
A total of 15 Baroda start-up branches will be opened under this initiative. It will provide banking products and services as per the needs of startup companies.
Along with existing banking products, startup companies at these branches have special facilities like current accounts (CA), state-of-the-art payment gateway facilities, corporate credit cards, Corporate salary account and loan facility etc. will be made available. It will also help start-ups by way of cloud credits, mentorship, co-working space, legal/accounting services and other support services.

Thomson Reuters Appoints Steve Hasker as CEO

Thomson Reuters Corp appointed former Nielsen Holdings Plc president Steve Hasker as its new Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Jim Smith.
The parent of Reuters News also announced higher-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, reporting a 60% year-on-year rise in operating profit, helped by lower costs and investments following the separation of the Financial and Risk (F&R) business.
Stephane Bello, Chief Financial Officer, will also step down from his role and will be succeeded by Mike Eastwood, current Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance. Bello will oversee strategy and business development into 2021.

HDFC Bank Ties-up with IndiGo to Launch Co-branded Credit Card 'Ka-ching, Powered by Mastercard

IndiGo airlines has partnered with HDFC Bank to launch its first travel credit card.
Called 'Ka-ching', it is powered by Mastercard and comes in two variants – 6E Rewards and 6E Rewards XL – and also offers complimentary air tickets. "Customers can avail complimentary air tickets worth between Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 3,000, depending on the variant," HDFC Bank said in a statement, adding that the credit cards will allow customers to accrue accelerated 6E Rewards on IndiGo transactions.
"This card has been tailored to allow customers to accrue accelerated reward points not only on IndiGo flights, but also on all types of spend such as shopping, dining and groceries.

Feb 28, 2020

Capri Global Capital Ltd launches UDAAN New SME Lending Scheme

The Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) Capri Global Capital Limited (CGCL) launched an SME (Small and medium-sized enterprises) lending product "UDAAN" for women entrepreneurs to provide secured loans up to Rs. 40 lakh only for business purpose with the loan repayment period of 10 years to 15 years at a competitive interest rate after conducting due diligence.
Woman borrower has to be the primary applicant, within the age group of 18-45 years and must not be more than 60 years of age at the end of their loan repayment period.
The applicant must be the owner or co-owner of the enterprises and must be involved in the business activity for more than 12 years.
In India, the annual requirement for financial support to women-owned enterprises is USD 29.16 billion, but can meet only USD 9 billion from all the sources of MSME.

ONGC and HPCL Acquire 34.56% Stake of 8 PSBs in Petronet MHB Ltd

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and its subsidiary Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) have bought out lenders in Petronet MHB Ltd, the firm that owns a petroleum product pipeline in Mangalore, for about Rs. 371 crore.
A consortium of eight public sector banks held 34.56 per cent stake in Petronet MHB Ltd, where ONGC and HPCL held 32.72 per cent apiece.
ONGC and HPCL bought 17.28 per cent stake each from lenders.
The two firms paid Rs 185.38 crore each for acquiring 17.28 per cent more share in Petronet MHB Ltd. They now hold 49.99 per cent each in the company that transports petroleum products from Mangalore Refinery.

Puneet Sharma New CFO of Axis Bank

Axis Bank appointment of Puneet Sharma as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from March 6.
Sharma will replace Jairam Sridharan, who has resigned as the Group Executive and Chief Financial Officer of the bank, with effect from the close of business hours on March 5, 2020.
Puneet Sharma, President and Chief Financial Officer of the bank shall report directly to the Managing Director and CEO of the bank.
He has over 23 years of experience across banks, financial institutions and consulting. Prior to joining Axis Bank he spent 12 years at Tata Capital as a senior management functionary and was the Group Chief Financial Officer since 2014.

Bharti AXA General Insurance First Company in India to Use Whatsapp for Policy Delivery & Renewal...

Bharti AXA General Insurance, a private non-life insurer became the 1st company in India to use Whatsapp chatbot for entire services such as policy documents delivery, renewal notices and claim intimation for its customers. It will soon start to sell private cars, 2 wheelers & Travel insurance through Whatsapp.
Features of Whatsapp chatbot:
It is an Instant Messaging platform to be connected with the policyholders anytime, anywhere.
It provides instant & additional customer service options, & assistance for various queries for the policyholders other than the company's multiple channels, which includes its vast network of branches,strong customer care & contact center & its dynamic portal.
By providing the pin code of the city/town in the chatbot it helps to locate the nearest cashless network of garages & hospitals.

Thyssenkrupp to Sell Elevator Unit to Advent-led Consortium

Thyssenkrupp agreed to sell its elevators division to a consortium of Advent, Cinven and Germany's RAG foundation for 17.2 billion euros ($18.7 billion) in what could be the world's largest buyout this year. The bidding group prevailed against a rival consortium comprising Blackstone, Carlyle and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
The price, which makes the deal Europe's biggest buyout since 2007, beats the most optimistic estimates and roughly matches a bid that had been submitted earlier in the process by Finnish rival Kone, which dropped out of the race earlier this month over expected antitrust risks.
Thyssenkrupp Elevator is the world's fourth-largest lift manufacturer behind United Technologies Corp's Otis, Switzerland's Schindler and Finnish rival Kone.

IndusInd Bank Appoints Sumant Kathpalia as New MD & CEO

IndusInd Bank elevated bank's head for consumer banking Sumant Kathpalia as the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
As previously advised to the exchanges, the bank's nomination and remuneration committee and the board had considered and submitted the name of a potential candidate for the role of MD and CEO, to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking an approval for the appointment.

Feb 27, 2020

CRISIL Completes Acquisition of Greenwich Associates

Rating Agency CRISIL completed the acquisition of 100% stake in Greenwich Associates. The transaction was announced in December 2019.
Greenwich is a leading provider of proprietary benchmarking data, analytics and qualitative insights to financial services firms worldwide.
Greenwich serves over 300 clients across top investment banks, corporate banks, commercial banks, asset managers and key players in the market infrastructure.
Greenwich will accelerate CRISIL's strategy and be the leading player in the growing market of global benchmarking analytics across financial services.
CRISIL provides ratings, research and policy advisory services. CRISIL's majority shareholder is Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw Hill Finance & provider of financial market intelligence.

NTPC to Provide Financial Support for Monitoring Air Quality

NTPC Ltd, India's largest power producer, signed an agreement with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to provide financial support for installation and commissioning of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS).
NTPC will provide financial support of Rs. 80 crore for installation of 25 CAAQMS across 6 States and 3 Union Territories. The CAAQMS will be installed in Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Patna (Bihar), Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Allahabad (all in Uttar Pradesh), Pimpri – Chinchwad (Maharashtra) and Madurai (Tamil Nadu). Along with these cities, CAAQMS will also be installed in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (Port Blair, Silvassa and Daman).
The MoU was signed by Dr. Prashant Gargava, Member Secretary, CPCB and Shri Ravi V Babu, General Manager (Corporate Environment Management), NTPC Ltd in presence of Shri Prakash Tiwari, Director( Operations), Shri Ramesh Babu V, ED to CMD and Shri B Basu, CGM(SSEA).
Data garnered from these stations will be used as inputs for Air Quality Index evaluation for the respective cities. NTPC is continuously making efforts to curb pollution in varied ways.

Hurun Global Rich List 2020

The Hurun Global Rich List 2020 was jointly released by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute and Shenzhen-based Shimao Shenkong International Center. Jeff Bezos retains 1^st rank for the third running year and Mukesh Ambani is positioned at 9^th.
It is a ranking of US-Dollar billionaires in the world.
Ranking is based on the wealth calculation as of 31^st January 2020.
It is the 9th year of ranking.
The Title sponsor of the list is Shimao Shenkong International Center,a real estate development in Shenzhen.
The list ranks 2,816 billionaires from 71 countries and from 2,182 companies.
Total Wealth rises to 16% to US $11.2 trillion, 479 were new to the list & 130 dropped off.
Women made up 15.7% of the list, Alice Walton (Walmart) is the richest woman with US $ 59 billion and ranked 12^th in the list.
China topped the country's list with 799 billionaires,US with 626 billionaires at 2^nd place & India is spotted 3^rd in the list with 137 billionaires(added 39 new faces).

CCEA Approves Setting up a National Technical Textiles Mission

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved setting up of a National Technical Textiles Mission with a total outlay of Rs. 1,480 crore. The move is aimed at increasing exports in this 'futuristic and niche' segment by over a third to Rs. 20,000 crore by 2021-22, and expanding the domestic market size for technical textiles nearly threefold to $40-50 billion by 2024.
Technical textiles are used in various applications in agriculture, roads, railway tracks and sportswear on one hand, and in bullet-proof jackets, high-altitude combat gear and space application on the other.

ADB Raises $118 mn Through Offshore India Rupee Linked 10-year Bonds

Asian Development Bank (ADB), a regional development bank, secured Rs. 850 crore ( about $118 million) from a new issue of offshore Indian rupee-linked 10-year bonds, with the bonds bearing a semi-annual coupon of 6.15% and priced to yield 6.19%.
This is the such 1st maturity secured in Indian rupees since the year 2017, and gives an established yield curve that starts from 2021 through 2030 with Rs 72.4 billion ($1 billion) of outstanding bonds.
JP Morgan has underwritten the long term bonds, which are denominated in Indian rupees but settled in US dollars. It also distributed to investors in the Americas (21%) and Europe (79%). By investor type, 28% of the bonds were placed with banks and 72% with fund managers.
Earlier in 2019, the ADB had issued the local currency bonds in Georgian lari, Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah, Kazakhstan tenge, and Philippine peso.

Weir Group to Focus on Mining after Oil Losses

Scottish engineering giant Weir Group said that it will focus on mining after suffering losses in US oil and gas.
It said that there was rising demand for metals needed for batteries, as more companies sought to cut carbon.
It comes after Weir announced an annual pre-tax loss of £372m, including one-off costs.
The Glasgow firm is also developing technology to help the mining industry reduce its environmental impact.
In November 2019, Weir issued a profit warning for its oil and gas division and axed a fifth of its US workforce in the face of tough trading.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Launches Self-charging Hybrid Electric MPV Vellfire

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) launched self-charging hybrid electric luxury multi-purpose vehicle Vellfire in the country priced at Rs. 79.5 lakh (ex-showroom).
Equipped with a 2.5 litre gasoline hybrid engine coupled with two electric motors and a hybrid battery, the model churns out a power of 115 BHP.
The seven-seater model comes with various luxury features like lounge seats in second row, leather upholstery, three zone AC, one-touch power side doors, twin sunroofs among others.

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