General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Aug 13, 2019

Kotak Gets $1 Bn For Special Situations Fund

Kotak Special Situations Fund, which aims to invest in distressed assets, has reached its final close with total commitments of $1 billion (₹7,000 crore) from investors.
The fund, launched in February 2019, is anchored by a $500 million commitment from sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
The fund will be managed by Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd.

Indian Railways Launches Onboard Shopping

Indian Railways introduced onboard shopping in train for passengers traveling in the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Karnavati Express.
The services will start from August 15, 2019 and passengers can enjoy it on both the directions of the train.
This will give the opportunity to passengers to buy FMCG products of daily need while commuting.

Jio Fiber To Be Rolled Out

Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani kicked off India's broadband wars, with the launch of feature-rich JioFiber, a wired internet service that hopes to replicate the runaway success of its Jio mobile service.
Combining high-speed internet, telephony, television and movies, JioFiber will also offer additional features for home security, multiplayer gaming, multiparty video conferencing, virtual shopping and immersive viewing through wearable headsets.
While some plans will come bundled with subscriptions to over-the-top content apps, premium users will get to watch movies on the day of their release from mid-2020.

RBL Bank Launches Co Branded Credit Card RBL Bank Practo Plus

RBL Bank, one of India's fastest-growing private sector banks and Practo, India's leading digital healthcare platform, have partnered to launch a co-branded credit card, powered by Mastercard.
This industry-first credit card is available on both Practo and RBL mobile apps and websites. The people are increasingly busy to pay attention to their day-to-day health needs, this is an innovative step to encourage users to think health-first on a daily basis.
The card is designed to cater to customers in both metros and non-metro cities, through Practo and RBL Bank's extensive customer base that spans across the country.

First Corporate Credit Card 'Freedom Card' Launched

EnKash launched the country's first corporate credit card called 'Freedom Card' for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Freedom Card is a true commercial credit card with open acceptance.
The Freedom Card would give SMEs and startups the freedom to avail credit facility for immediate needs and to manage their liquidity.
EnKash has come up with a corporate card to cater to the varied billing cycles as per the working capital cycles of different businesses, which is a first in India.

RIL Eyes $700 Bn Opportunity In Unorganised Retail

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) aims to revolutionise India's retail industry by connecting as many as 30 million kirana or neighbourhood stores, through its offline-to-online initiative.
Unveiling what he termed as a $700 billion opportunity, the 'new commerce' platform would connect consumers, merchants and producers across the country.
The main purpose of new commerce is to completely transform the unorganized retail market, which accounts for 90% of India's retail industry.
The three crore merchants and kirana shop owners, who generate direct and indirect livelihoods for over 20 crore people, form the backbone of India's commerce ecosystem.
RIL is working towards enriching and empowering the merchants and kirana shop owners with its end-to-end digital and physical distribution stack.
They are deploying blockchain, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies on a pan-India basis.
This tech-enabled partnership will link producers, traders, small merchants, consumer brands and consumers.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited And Microsoft Corporation Join Hands

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, and Microsoft Corp. are embarking on a unique, comprehensive, long-term strategic relationship aimed at accelerating the digital transformation of the Indian economy and society.
This 10-year commitment combines the world-class capabilities of both companies to offer a detailed set of solutions comprising connectivity, computing, storage solutions, and other technology services and applications essential for Indian businesses
Jio and Microsoft aim to enhance the adoption of leading technologies like data analytics, AI, cognitive services, blockchain, Internet of Things, and edge computing among small and medium enterprises to make them ready to compete and grow, while helping accelerate technology-led GDP growth in India and driving adoption of next-gen technology solutions at scale.

Reliance To Sell Stake To Saudi Aramco To Turn Debt-Free By '21

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is in the process of selling a 20% stake in the company's flagship chemicals and refining business to Saudi Aramco in a deal valued at $15 billion, as the Indian company seeks to cut its massive debt and secure an assured supply of crude oil to its refineries.
Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, announced the proposed transaction at the company's 42nd annual general meeting.
The deal, which values the oil to-chemicals (O2C) business at $75 billion, is part of a plan to make RIL a zero-debt company in the next 18 months.

Aug 12, 2019

Centre May Roll Out Measures To Revive Growth, Stimulate Economy

The government is stitching together a set of measures, including tax cuts and targeted sops, to reverse an economic downturn, amid fears of a global slowdown.
The measures being considered include steps to boost infrastructure investments; goods and services tax (GST) relief to specific sectors, including the automobile sector, that could boost demand; ways to further cut red tape on cross-border trade and steps to improve ease of doing business.

GST Boost In Real Estate

The Union government is planning to incentivise homebuyers and create demand in the sluggish real estate sector with a slew of measures, including a proposal by homebuyers that would marginally increase Goods and Services Tax (GST) on housing projects but bring down the overall cost, people aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held two separate meetings — the first with realtors' associations, and the second with homebuyers' groups — to discuss how to strengthen the realty sector.
Homebuyers who met the minister proposed that GST on premium housing projects be increased from the existing 5% (excluding input tax credit) to 8% (including input tax credit) — a move that would eventually reduce the cost of a project substantially.
The present GST regime of 5% without ITC [input tax credit] is actually translating into a tax burden of around 14% for consumers. An 8% tax with ITC will offset tax paid by builders on building.

Sintex To Sell Overseas Biz To Xtech Invest

Sintex group, known for its Sintex branded water tanks, has agreed to sell its overseas business to a consortium of private equity investors as part of efforts to pare debt and repay lenders.
Sintex Plastics Technology, the arm of the group engaged in manufacturing of water storage tanks and other building products and solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its European subsidiary Sintex NP SAS to Xtech Invest SAS for a consideration of €155 million.
Xtech is owned by private equity investors Siparex, Crédit Agricole Régions Investissement, BNP Paribas Development and Africlnvest.

Jio GigaFiber services from Sept 5; Aramco to invest $75 bn

Reliance Industries (RIL), the oil-to-telecom conglomerate, made a slew of announcements at its 42nd annual general meeting (AGM).
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the group first announced that Saudi Aramco will invest $75 billion in the group's oil to chemicals (O2C) business for a 20% stake.
Mukesh Ambani announced commercial launch of Jio GigaFiber on September 5, 2019 - the third anniversary of Reliance Jio. The plans will range from Rs 700 to Rs 10,000 per month.
Jio's commercial IoT (internet of things) services will be available from January 1, 2020. It also announced that the company will complete Jio Fiber roll out in months.

IL&Fs Proposes To NCLT Sale Of Wind Energy Biz

Embattled Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) group has proposed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) the sale of its wind energy business to Japan's Orix Corp. which will help reduce the debt of the firm by Rs. 4,800 crore.
IL&FS has filed the proposal to complete the sale of its wind energy business, held under IL&FS Wind Energy Ltd (IWEL) to Orix, with NCLT for final approval.
The proposal has been filed before the tribunal after completing binding share purchase agreement with Orix and obtaining "in-principle" approval from all lenders for completing this transaction.

SEBI Plans To Ease Norms For 'Muni Bonds' To Help Smart Cities Raise Funds

Capital market regulator Sebi is planning to ease its norms for 'Muni Bonds' to help smart cities and other registered entities working in areas of city planning and urban development work, like municipalities, raise funds through issuance and listing of their debt securities.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had issued its Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalites (ILDM) Regulations nearly five years ago and since then seven municipalities have raised nearly Rs 1,400 crore by issuing their debt securities, which are commonly known as 'Muni Bonds'.

Govt Permit 100% FDI In Contract Manufacturing

The government is working on a proposal to allow 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in contract manufacturing with a view to attract overseas investments.
According to the existing foreign investment policy, 100% FDI is allowed in the manufacturing sector under the automatic route.
A manufacturer is also allowed to sell products manufactured in India through wholesale and retail channels, including through e-commerce, without government's approval.

Aug 11, 2019

Facebook Offering 'Millions' To Publishers For News

Facebook is pitching a new media initiative to license articles from some of the largest American news publishers and display that content inside the social network's mobile app.
The project involves the social network striking deals potentially worth millions of dollars to publishers, including New York Times, Washington Post and Dow Jones.
The agreements would let Facebook pull in headlines and previews of the articles from partner publications for display inside a "News" tab in the Facebook app.
The talks with news organisations are continuing and it is unclear if any deals are close. Facebook hopes to introduce the effort by the end of 2019.

Tata Power-DDL Signs An MoU With CEEW

Tata Power-DDL signed an MoU with the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) to evaluate and accelerate the integration of decentralised renewable energy into Delhi's power grid.
The collaboration will include research on impact of increased solar rooftop deployment, determining optimum rooftop solar PV share at distribution transformer-level and techno-economic feasibility of agricultural solar micro-grids.

Time Till July 2024 To Use CSR Funds, Govt Tells Firms

The government has clarified that amended corporate social responsibility (CSR) laws are with prospective effect and companies have time until July 2024 to use accumulated CSR funds in projects of their choice -an assurance that should bring relief to corporate entities and executives confronting punishment for violation of the guidelines.
Parliament in July 2019 passed amendments to the Companies Act under which unspent CSR allocations would have to be transferred to a fund specified by the government. Under amended rules, company executives could face a 3-year jail term and penalty of ~50,000 to ~5 lakh, or both for breach of rules.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured India Inc that she would review the criminal penal provision for not complying with corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandates and also promised more simplification of the taxation system to end harassment.
Her assurance to industry comes against the backdrop of sharp criticism of the provision of a jail term of up to three years and stringent fines ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 25 lakh for executives of companies violating CSR provisions, which were added in the amended Companies Act 2013.
This clause has jolted industry and triggered calls for a rollback.

After CM Visit, Reliance Plans Battery Unit In MP

CM Kamal Nath's meetings with the industry bigwigs in Mumbai to promote Madhya Pradesh as an investment destination are paying off.
During a one-on-one with the CM, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said MP is his "favourite destination" to set up a vanadium battery manufacturing unit.
The Aditya Birla Group has promised to fund, under its CSR programme, a building of 100 'high-tech gaushalas' in 18 months in MP.

Jet Airways Get Expressions Of Interest From Two Parties

Jet Airways has received expressions of interest (EoIs) from three interested parties – two financial investors and another global company .
Etihad Airways has not yet submitted an EoI for the airline.
As many as four potential bidders have evinced interest in Jet Airways (India) Ltd.The EOIs are learnt to have been submitted by strategic and financial players, and not any airline, from places like Panama and the US.
RP will examine the three EOI before advising the next course of action.

Aug 10, 2019

Godrej: State Derailing Bullet Train Land Deal

The Godrej Group, the city's biggest private land owner, railed against the state government in Bombay high court for trying to keep it from getting Rs 572 crore for a 10-acre plot it has offered for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project.
It is recognised as a project of national importance, but the state is putting a spoke in it.
The company said it is willing to give its land to the National High Speed Rail Corporation for tunnelling for the bullet train.

NCLT Rejects Deloitte, KPMG Arm's Plea Against 5-Year Ban

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) rejected an appeal by the auditors of debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), challenging the court's jurisdiction to ban them for alleged abetment of financial fraud.
The government has asked for a five-year ban on Deloitte Haskins & Sells Llp and a KPMG affiliate for allegedly aiding and abetting a financial fraud at IL&FS Financial Service Ltd (IFIN), a unit of IL&FS, whose debt defaults in 2018 triggered fears of a financial contagion and spooked investors. Both firms have denied any wrongdoing.
As part of a widespread probe into an alleged fraud and mismanagement at IL&FS, the government detected at least 22 violations of auditing standards by the auditors, according to legal filings seen by Reuters.
The auditing firms gave clean audit reports and "deliberately" failed to report fraudulent activities at IFIN.

Trade On Agenda As PM Visits Bhutan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bhutan will be the occasion for moves by India to diversify its partnership with the kingdom by shifting the focus from the hydro-power sector to enhanced trade and linkages in sectors such as space and education.
India continues to be a key development partner for Bhutan against the backdrop of efforts by Beijing to woo Thimphu. India is providing Rs. 5,000 crore for Bhutan's 12th five year plan that began in 2018, the same as the allocation for the previous plan.
However, sections of the Bhutanese political establishment have called for a shift away from the hydro-power sector and some have also advocated stronger diplomatic ties with China.
Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said India will retain its role as a developmental partner but intends to make the relationship more broad-based. As part of these efforts, India will provide Rs. 400 crore for a trade support facility to encourage Bhutanese exporters.

Aug 09, 2019

FPIs May Be Spared Super- Rich Surcharge

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) may be spared an increased surcharge slapped by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's inaugural budget on so-called super-rich taxpayers, as the government seeks to boost investor confidence and arrest a slide in the stock market.
The Narendra Modi government is consulting experts and stakeholders to address the concerns of FPIs.
Sitharaman, who announced the higher surcharge in her July 5 budget for fiscal 2019-20, has been talking to representatives of specific sectors of the economy daily on ways to boost sagging economic growth, which sank to a five-year low of 5.8% in the quarter ended March 2019.

Steep Increase In Limits For I-T Filing Tax Appeals

The threshold limits for filing of appeals by the income tax department with tax tribunals, high courts and the Supreme Court were raised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, especially to cut down litigation backlog and usher in a tax-friendly regime.
In a significant upward revision, the circular said the I-T department cannot file an appeal before the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) unless the 'tax effect' is Rs 50 lakh. It was Rs 20 lakh earlier.
In simple terms, 'tax effect' means the difference between the tax on the total income assessed by the I-T department and the tax levy without considering the income relating to disputed issues. To arrive at the tax effect, both surcharge and cess are considered.

Visa's M-Cap Tops All The Banks

Visa rose to a market value of $348 billion, surpassing that of JPMorgan Chase for the first time.
This makes Visa the world's most highly-valued financial firm outside of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
JPMorgan jointly owned Visa with other banks before they cashed out in a March 2008 initial public offering that was among the biggest in history.
Since then, Visa's stock has soared almost 1,500%, while the KBW Bank Index has risen 15%.

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