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BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Feb 26, 2020

Microsoft and SBI Join Hands to Train Differently-abled for Employment in BFSI Sector

Microsoft collaborated with the Centre run State Bank of India (SBI) to train differently-abled people to find jobs in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. In the first year of partnership 500 differently-abled youths will be up skilled.
As a part of this partnership, SBI Foundation and Microsoft will develop an artificial intelligence powered market so that BFSI industry can connect more easily with differently-abled people for employment opportunities.

NABARD Grants Rs. 400.64 cr for UT of J&K to Boost Infrastructure

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), an Apex Development Financial Institution in India, granted a sum of Rs. 400.64 crore to the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
The amount was sanctioned under its 'Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) – Trench XXV' for boosting rural infrastructure during the current financial year-FY (2019-20).
Out of the total amount, Rs. 209.87 crore will be provided for the construction of 82 rural roads length of 291 km & 3 bridges. This will benefit 9.15 lakh people in 19 districts of UT of J&K & they get all weather improved connectivity to 461 remote villages.
An outlay of Rs. 143.66 crore was approved for implementation of 38 water supply schemes, which will benefit over 3.54 lakh people across 86 villages in 17 districts of UT of J&K.

RBI Lifts Ban on Bandhan Bank Network Expansion

The Reserve Bank allowed Bandhan Bank to expand its branch network after considering the efforts made by the private lender to comply with the licensing conditions.
The central bank in September 2018 had barred Bandhan Bank from expanding its network as the lender failed to reduce the promoters' stake to 40 per cent from close to 82 per cent within the stipulated three-year time frame of commencing operations.
The bank said RBI has lifted the regulatory restriction on branch opening, subject to the condition that the bank ensures that at least 25 per cent of the total number of banking outlets opened during a financial year are opened in unbanked rural centres.
Bandhan Bank had commenced operations on August 23, 2015.

Mauritius FPIs Can Continue to Invest in India, Says SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) clarified that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from Mauritius will continue to be eligible for registration as foreign investors in India but subject to increased monitoring.
The regulatory clarification was necessitated after the island nation was placed in the list of 'jurisdictions under increased monitoring' — commonly referred to as the grey list — leading to apprehensions that the Mauritius-based FPIs will not be able to trade in the Indian capital market.
As per the release by SEBI, FPIs from Mauritius continue to be eligible for FPI registration with increased monitoring as per FATF norms. On February 21, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Mauritius in the grey list.
This assumes significance since Mauritius accounts for the second-largest chunk of foreign investments, as per data from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Feb 25, 2020

Indian Bank to Stop Loading and Dispensation of Rs. 2,000 Notes in its ATMs

City based Indian Bank has decided to load more of 200 rupee notes and stop loading and dispensation of Rs. 2,000 notes in its ATMs as a customer friendly move.
"After withdrawing cash from ATMs customers come into the bank branches to exchange Rs. 2,000 notes for smaller denomination currency notes. In order to avoid that we have decided to stop loading of Rs. 2,000 denomination notes in ATMs with immediate effect," the Indian Bank official said.
Indian Bank will load Rs. 200 denomination notes instead of Rs. 2,000 in the currency cassettes.
According to the bank, the 2,000 currency notes left in ATMs after March 1 will be taken out.

TCS and DLF Seek Govt. Approval to Set Up SEZs

Software firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and realty firm DLF have sought government nod to set up special economic zones (SEZs) for information technology (IT) sector in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These proposals will be taken up by the board of approval in its meeting later this month. The inter-ministerial body is chaired by the commerce secretary. TCS has proposed to set up an IT/ITeS SEZ in Noida in an area of 19.9 hectares, according to the agenda paper of the board meeting. The total proposed investment for the project is Rs. 2,433.72 crore.

Mumbai Airport Gets World's Largest 'Export Cold Zone' to Store Agro, Pharma Products

Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a joint venture (JV) between the GVK led consortium and Airports Authority of India (AAI), unveiled the world's largest airport-based temperature-controlled facility, the 'Export Cold Zone' for processing and storage of agro and pharma products, for which Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport will be the largest export gateway.
The Export Cold Zone facility with over 700 tonnes of such cargo at one time with a combined annual capacity of 5.25 lakh tonnes, will be operated by cargo handling service provider and MIAL's business partner, Cargo Service Centre.
The facility also installed with 12 truck docks with dock- levellers, spacious acceptance and examination area, automated workstations, X-Ray machines, unit load device (ULD) storage, ballmat system for ULD transfer and cold rooms.
Mumbai airport, which connects to over 500 cargo destinations across 175 countries through 60 airlines, is the first airport in India and the 3rd in Asia to receive the IATA CEIV ( International Air Transport Association-Center of Excellence for Independent Validators) Pharma accreditation, a global industry recognition helping the air transport industry.

Cash Withdrawals Have Gone up in Last 5 Years, India Second Only to China

According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), cash withdrawals from ATMs in India increased over the past five years. It added that India is next only to China in terms of cash withdrawals from ATMs. "However, the percentage of cash withdrawals to GDP has been constant in India at around 17%," the central bank said in the report titled 'Assessment of the progress of digitisation from cash to electronic'.
Further, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% in terms of volume and 10% in terms of value, ATM withdrawals have been growing more slowly compared with digital payment transactions. Digital transactions grew at a CAGR of 61% by volumes and 19% by value, indicating a shift towards digitisation, said the RBI. Also, the infrastructure for cash withdrawal — ATMs — have grown at a much slower pace, growing at a CAGR of just 4% over the past five years.

Government Approves Merger of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) of India gave Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approval for the merger of India's largest mobile tower company Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel. After the merger, the new Entity will become the world's second largest Tower company after China tower Corporation Ltd, Beijing in China.
The combined Entity will be the Pan-India Tower company with over 163,000 towers and it will operate across all 22 telecom service areas.
Bharti Infratel the tower infrastructure arm of Bharti Airtel has own 42% stake in Indus Towers and the United Kingdom based Vodafone holds 42%, Vodafone Idea holds 11.15% and remaining 4.85% by a private equity firm.
Bharti Airtel which currently owns a 53.5% stake in Bharti Infratel will own the stakes between 33.8% to 37.2% in the new Entity which is formed under the proposed merger and the Vodafone will own between 26.7%-29.4% stakes in the merged tower entity.

Equinor Abandons Controversial Oil Drilling Plans

Oil giant Equinor abandoned controversial plans to drill in the Great Australian Bight in a move hailed by environmentalists as a huge win.
The Norwegian firm was granted approval in December 2019 to begin exploratory drills in seas off South Australia.
As per the firm, the plan was not commercially competitive compared to options elsewhere.
Australia's government said the withdrawal was disappointing.
The Great Australian Bight is said to be one of the most unspoiled marine environments in the world.
Green groups have sought for decades to protect it, but Canberra has been open to extracting the possible oil riches there.
Equinor is now the latest oil and gas company to have abandoned proposals for drilling in the area since 2016, following competitors BP, Chevron and Karoon Energy.

CCI Approves Acquisition of 100% of Issued and Paid-up Share Capital of NEEPCO

Fair trade regulator CCI gave nod to acquisition of government's entire stake in THDC India and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) by state-owned NTPC Ltd.
As part of transactions, NTPC will acquire 100 per cent of the issued and paid-up share capital of the NEEPCO and 74.5 per cent stake in THDC India.
Apart from the government's 74.5 per cent stake in THDC India, the rest 25.5 per cent stake is held by the Uttar Pradesh government.
NTPC is a maharatna company having presence in the power generation business. Among other activities, it is engaged in the business of electric power generation through coal based thermal power plants.

HUL to Set Up Production Arm

India's top packaged consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), announced the setting up of a local arm, which will be engaged in manufacturing to leverage India's growth opportunities.
The new manufacturing subsidiary will help HUL avail benefits of the lowered tax burden on manufacturers, announced recently by the Centre.
According to a stock exchange filing, the board of directors of HUL approved the proposal to form a new 100% subsidiary, which will be incorporated with an authorised share capital of Rs. 2,000 crore.

Feb 24, 2020

India's Top Trading Partner

The US surpassed China to become India's top trading partner, showing greater economic ties between the two countries.
According to the data of the commerce ministry, in 2018-19, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $87.95 billion.
During the period, India's two-way commerce with China aggregated at $87.07 billion.
Similarly, during April-December 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $68 billion. It stood at $64.96 billion with China in the same period.
Trade experts believe that the trend will continue in the coming years also as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further deepening the economic ties.

Sweden's Riksbank Begins Testing World's 1st Digital Cersion of Currency

Sveriges Riksbank (or simply the Riksbank), the central bank of Sweden, began testing its digital version of currency, e-krona. If this year-long pilot project is successful, this would lead to the creation of world's 1st central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The pilot project will be in operation for one year, until February 2021, will use distributed ledger technology inspired by the blockchains that operates cryptocurrencies.
The digital currency e-krona will be used to simulate day-to-day banking functions like payments from a digital wallet such as a mobile phone application.

Monnet Power Invites Bids to Sell Odisha Plant

Following bankruptcy proceedings last year, Monnet Power Company Limited, currently under liquidation, has invited bids for sale of its power plant in Angul, Odisha.
The Angul plant is a thermal power plant comprising two units of 525 MW capacity each.
In 2007, Monnet Power, a subsidiary of Monnet Ispat, was incorporated for setting up a thermal power plant in Odisha.
Pursuant to the directions issued by the Reserve Bank of India, in August 2017, proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code were instituted against the company by IDFC Bank.
Monnet Power owed around Rs. 6,000 crore to a consortium of lenders, including State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.

Greaves to Tap EV, BS-VI Sectors

Greaves Cotton Ltd., a predominantly business-to-business (B2B) player supplying diesel engines to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Piaggio, has, following a business transformation strategy, moved into the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment to take advantage of the fast moving electric vehicles (EV) industry and the BS-VI compliant engine business.
Its fuel-agnostic engine solutions will add to its growth.
Three years ago, when disruptions were coming in, Greaves decided to shift focus from being a pure auto engine player to a fuel-agnostic solution provider and adopted a strategy to diversify into the non-automotive engine segment, clean mobility, including the fuel-efficient CNG engine, electric mobility and strengthen the after-market business.

Indigo and Qantas in Codeshare Deal Talks

IndiGo is in talks with Sydney-based Qantas Airways and its wholly owned subsidiary Jetstar Airways on codeshare agreements, which allows an airline to sell other airline's seats, officials said. Currently, IndiGo has a two-way codeshare agreement with Turkish Airlines and a one-way codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways. In a two-way codeshare agreement, each airline on its distribution system can sell seats on other's flights."IndiGo is currently in talks with Qantas Airways and Jetstar Airways regarding codeshare partnerships. With Qantas, it is likely to be one-way but with Jetstar, it is likely to be a two-way codeshare agreement.

LVB to Focus on Capital-efficient Lending

Cash-strapped private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. (LVB) began focussing on increasing its loan book through assets that require zero or lesser capital allocation, to improve its profitability.
S. Sundar, MD and CEO, LVB said that we are fine-tuning some of our business verticals and have given additional powers to branches, regional managers and centralised executives who were earlier not in the loop. The focus areas are jewel and MSME loans and deposits.

Feb 23, 2020

HDFC Bank Completes 25 Years of Operations

HDFC Bank, the most valuable Indian lender, completed 25 years in February 2020.
The bank observed the anniversary celebrations by committing to plant 25 lakh trees and also digitise 2,500 classrooms.
Its managing director and chief executive Aditya Puri, who has led the bank from scratch, planted a guava tree at a municipal school in central Mumbai, where the bank also donated its first digital classroom.
HDFC Bank is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Hinduja Group May Tie Up with Cerberus to Invest in Yes Bank

London-based Hinduja Group is looking to partner private equity firm Cerberus Capital to buy a stake in Yes Bank Ltd.
Hindujas currently own a stake in another private lender, IndusInd Bank. Therefore, it is to be seen whether the transaction, if talks advance, is able to muster approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
It is no secret that Yes Bank is in dire need of capital and in January, the private lender's board approved raising funds of up to Rs. 10,000 crore in one or more tranches through a qualified institutional placement, or any other private placement of equity or debt.

Victoria's Secret to Have New Owners

L Brands Inc. agreed to sell a controlling stake in its Victoria's Secret brand to private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a deal that values the lingerie brand at $1.1 billion.
Sycamore Partners agreed to buy 55% in Victoria's Secret in the transaction. The lingerie brand, which will include the Pink line of young-adult focused underwear, will become a private company. L Brands will retain a 45% minority stake, while Bath & Body Works will be a public standalone company.
L Brands also said that billionaire founder Leslie Wexner will step down as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Wexner, 82, the longest-serving Chief Executive Officer on the S&P 500 Index, will be Chairman emeritus, remaining on the board of L Brands.

Deutsche Bank Boosts Loans to Cash-strapped Tycoons in India

India's shadow banking crisis and revitalized bankruptcy process are creating new opportunities for Deutsche Bank AG as it steps up lending to cash-strapped tycoons and for purchases of distressed assets.
The German lender is seeing three times the volume of financing deals compared with 2018, when the shadow banking problems erupted, according to Rahul Chawla, the head of global credit trading at Deutsche Bank's India unit. He declined to provide specific numbers, but said that the bank helped deploy a couple of billion euros to Indian structured finance deals.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc. are among the other global firms to have spotted similar opportunities in India's bad-debt woes, which have been magnified by the shadow banking crisis that erupted in 2018 with the default of a major infrastructure lender. As the non-bank finance firms have retreated, Indian companies have been struggling to obtain credit, curbing wider economic growth.

Feb 22, 2020

RBI Clears Appointment of Sunil Gurbaxani as Dhanlaxmi Bank MD

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the appointment of Sunil Gurbaxani as Managing Director and CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank for a period of three years.
Dhanlaxmi Bank was removed from the RBI PCA framework, subject to certain conditions and continuous monitoring, as the bank is found to be not breaching any of the risk thresholds of the framework.

RBI Unveils 5-year Financial Inclusion Strategy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came up with a National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2019-24, aimed at providing access to formal financial services in an affordable manner. It aims to promote financial literacy among customers.
The Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee of the RBI — in consultation with the Centre, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) recommended various ways in which the objective can be fulfilled.
The committee recommended universal access to financial services wherein every village should have access to a formal financial services provider within a 5-km radius. Customers may be on-boarded through an easy and hassle-free digital process. This includes increasing banking outlets of commercial banks. Further, digital financial services have to be strengthened in all tier-II to tier-VI centres to facilitate a less-cash society by March 2022.

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