General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Aug 08, 2019

Reliance Industries Set To Bring Tiffany Stores To India

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is partnering with iconic US-based luxury jeweller Tiffany & Co. to open a line of stores in the country, adding yet another marquee name to its growing portfolio of brands.
Tiffany, popular for its engagement rings and robin's egg blue boxes, plans to open stores in New Delhi and Mumbai in the second half of fiscal years 2019 and 2020, respectively.
The tie-up comes as Reliance, which is run by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani and runs a sprawling conglomerate, bolsters its consumer-focused units such as retail and telecoms to match the strength of its dominant oil and gas business.

Pension Fund Manager CPPIB Looks To Re-Enter Private Debt Market In India

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), biggest pension fund manager is looking to re-enter the private debt market in India.
In 2014, it had formed a joint venture (JV) with Piramal Enterprises to provide debt financing for real estate projects, which did not take off well.
The desire to enter the private debt space in India comes when there is an acute fund crunch in real estate and among non-banking financial companies, after August 2018 defaults by the IL&FS group.

Gold Hits Highest In Six Years

Gold soared more than 2% to breach the $1,500 ceiling for the first time in over six years as investors rushed to safe havens, spooked by a host of uncertainties including US-China trade and a slowing global economy.
Spot gold gained 1.6% at $1,497.69 per ounce, having touched $1,509.80, its highest since April 2013.

RBI Cuts Repo Rate By 35 Bps To 5.4%

On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India at its meeting on 7th August, 2019 has decided to reduce the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 35 basis points (bps) from 5.75% to 5.40% with immediate effect.
Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands revised to 5.15%, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 5.65%.
GDP forecast scaled down to 6.9% for 2019-20 from 7.0% earlier.
The MPC also decided to maintain the accommodative stance of monetary policy.

SBI Lowers Lending Rate By 15bps

After RBI cut key policy rates by 35 basis points (bps), State Bank of India (SBI) announced a cut in the benchmark rate at which it lends to retail consumer — by 15 bps .
The reduction will make all loans cheaper, the rate on home loans will come down to 8.25% from 8.4%. On a ₹30 lakh loan over a 20-year period, the savings would be ₹70,000.
Other banks are expected to follow suit. Home loans, car loans and personal loans are set to get cheaper.

RBI Unveils Measures To Boost Confidence In NBFC's

India's central bank outlined two measures aiming at easing liquidity pressures on crisis-hit shadow banks, but industry insiders say the moves, while positive, are unlikely to lead to any substantive improvements in the troubled sector.
The Reserve Bank of India, which also cut its benchmark policy rate by 35 basis points, would allow banks to increase their exposure to a single non-banking finance company (NBFC). The move was aimed at boosting credit.
The RBI also allowed banks to classify loans to NBFCs for key areas such as agriculture, housing and small & medium businesses - up to certain limits - as priority sector lending, in a bid to keep credit flowing to the parts of the economy where most Indians work.

Apple, Goldman Sachs Start Issuing Apple Cards

The Apple card is designed to work with the iPhone, where users sign up for the card and can start using it immediately if approved via the Apple Wallet app and Apple Pay system.
Apple Inc rolled out its virtual credit card , working with bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc on the new iPhone add-on that may help Apple diversify from device sales and build out the Wall Street bank's new consumer business.

Aug 07, 2019

Airtel Looking at Dish TV for Merger

Airtel is eyeing Dish TV for a merger. The move to merge Dish and Airtel's DTH operations would help the telco take on the competition it is facing from Reliance Jio.
After leading the consolidation wave with the merger of Videocon d2h with its operations, Dish TV might again be involved in a second deal in the direct-to-home (DTH) space.
According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Dish TV (including Videocon d2h subscribers) commands a market share of 37 per cent while Airtel Digital TV enjoys a market share of 24 per cent, bringing the combined market share of the two to 61 per cent.
This will leave Tata Sky a far second in terms of market share, currently at 27 per cent. Reliance Jio. Jio recently took control of cable operators Hathway and Den Networks, giving it a significant leg up in the TV distribution platform market.
With the impending launch of Jio's GigaFibre, existing distribution platform operators (DPOs) are bracing themselves for a shake-up in the market.

World's richest lose $117 billion in a day

Twenty-one members of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lost $1 billion or more as investors reacted to stepped-up tensions between the US and China.
Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos declined the most, shedding $3.4 billion as shares of the online retailer tumbled.
But he's still the richest person on the planet with $110 billion.

Aug 06, 2019

Flipkart Starts Free Streaming Service

Walmart's Flipkart unit is set to introduce a free video streaming service to draw new users from small towns and cities in India and take on rival Amazon's Prime Video service. Flipkart is eyeing the next 200 million consumers who are coming online. The company believes that most consumers are introduced to the internet through online videos. Hence, video content and entertainment could play a big role in getting consumers to come and buy online.

China Lets Yuan Break Key Seven Level

China let the yuan breach the key 7-per-dollar level for the first time, in a sign Beijing might be willing to tolerate more currency weakness that could further inflame a trade conflict with the United States.
The sharp drop in the yuan comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump stunned financial markets by vowing to impose 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports from September 1, 2019.

Government Unveils Draft E-com Norms

To protect consumers' interest, the Centre proposed guidelines for e-commerce firms. The guidelines entail a 14-day deadline to effect refund request, mandate e-tailers to display details of sellers supplying goods and services on their websites and moot the procedure to resolve consumer complaints.
The consumer affairs ministry has sought views of stakeholders on the draft guidelines on e-commerce have been sought by the consumer affairs ministry.

SBI Seeks Bids for Videocon's Global Oil, Gas Assets

The State Bank of India (SBI) has invited bids for overseas oil and gas assets of Videocon Industries Ltd, as India seeks to recover billions of dollars in loans from the beleaguered private firm. Consumer electronics firm Videocon Industries is one of the most indebted companies in India, with outstanding loans worth around ₹60,000 from its financial and operational creditors. In October 2018, SBI Caps, the investment banking arm of SBI, was appointed to start the process of valuation and monetization of the firm's oil and gas assets overseas. SBI said it had appointed consultant Deloitte to find buyers for Videocon's exploration assets in Brazil and Indonesia.

Indian Bank Profit rises

Public Sector Indian Bank posted a 74.56% growth in its standalone net profit for the first quarter ended
June 2019 to Rs. 365.37 crore on lower provisioning and higher income.
During the period, the bank's net interest income was lower by 1.2% while net interest margin contracted by 29 basis points.
Indian Bank reported Gross slippages of Rs. 1,035 crore against Rs. 1,391 crore were reported by Indian Bank. Provisions and contingencies dropped to Rs. 794.82 crore from Rs. 1,029.56 crore. Non-performing loan provision coverage ratio was 66.34%.

Aug 05, 2019

Blackstone, Indiabulls Set For Rs 4,800-Cr Realty Deal

US-based private equity giant Blackstone Group is set to acquire the remaining 50% stake in Indiabulls Real Estate's commercial properties for around Rs 4,800 crore.
The deal is pegged as one the country's largest real estate portfolio transactions. This will give Blackstone full control of the portfolio and further strengthen its position as the country's largest commercial property owner.
The transaction is part of the Indiabulls Group's strategy of exiting real estate completely and focusing on financial services as it seeks to merge with Lakshmi vilas bank.

Aug 04, 2019

Sun Pharma shuts two clinical units in Vadodara

To ensure optimal utilisation of clinical pharmacology units (CPUs) that conduct bio-equivalence studies, the company is discontinuing operations at two centers at Tandalja and Akota in Vadodara.

MRPL reports Q1 net loss of ₹450.53 crore

Managalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) reported a net loss of ₹450.53 crore for the first quarter compared to a net profit of Rs. 237.47 crore a year earlier.
The state-owned refiner posted the loss on a 33.66% fall in revenues to Rs. 11,175.6 crore.
MRPL operates a 3-lakh barrels per day (bpd) coastal refinery in Karnataka.

RCEP negotiations: India lists out demands before China for market access

Playing hardball with China in the on-going negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact, India has read it out a big list of demands for market access in both goods and services, including larger exports of drugs, sugar, rice, dairy, soybean, IT and other services.
In a meeting between China's Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen and India's Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan on the sidelines of the on-going RCEP Ministerial meet in Beijing, New Delhi pointed out that a RCEP deal will be acceptable to the country only if it addresses the existing level of trade imbalance.

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