General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Jul 13, 2019

Infosys Raises Revenue Outlook

Tech bellwether Infosys posted 'encouraging' first quarter revenue numbers on the back of strong deal wins and robust growth in its digital transformation business.
Buoyed by these, the company has revised its revenue growth guidance upwards for FY20.
However, the company said that growing attrition had been a major cause for concern.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2019, Infosys's revenue was Rs. 21,803 crore, a growth of 14% year-on-year (YoY) and 1.2% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).

SBI to Waive IMPS Charges

State Bank of India waived charges on NEFT and RTGS transactions through Internet and mobile banking from July 1, 2019 after the Reserve Bank of India decided to do away with the charges with an aim to move the country towards less-cash economy.
The country's largest bank, which has about 25% market share, also decided to do away with the charges on fund transfer through mobile phones using the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) from August 1, 2019.
The Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system is meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers, while the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system is used for fund transactions of up to Rs. 2 lakh.
Before July 1, 2019, SBI used to charge between Rs. 1 and Rs. 5 for transactions through NEFT, and Rs. 5 to 50 for RTGS transactions.

Jul 12, 2019

L&T bags Significant Orders

Infrastructure company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) received significant orders across various business segments in the domestic and international market.
The company did not provide value of the contracts but said the orders fall under "significant" category which ranges between Rs. 1,000 crore and Rs. 2,500 crore as per its classification of contracts.
The construction arm of L&T secured orders from prestigious clients across various Indian states for its varied businesses.
L&T's power transmission and distribution business secured orders for multiple clients in the domestic and international markets.
The company's heavy civil infrastructure business' defence unit secured order from one of the major defence PSUs for the construction of a strategic project for the Indian Air Force.
L&T's water and effluent treatment business secured orders from the Gujarat Water Infrastructure for MS pipeline from Brahmani Dam-2 to Chakampar village (Package II) and from Chakampar village to Nava Sadulka (Package III) including its operation and maintenance for five years in Morbi district, Gujarat.

Amnesty for Commercial Tax Disputes

The Union government is set to open a three-month window for taxpayers to resolve existing excise and service tax disputes on a no penalty, no interest, no prosecution principle in a new one-time scheme that aims to monetise a chunk of the Rs 3.75 lakh crore of disputed taxes stuck in various tribunals.
The Union finance ministry, which is working on the details of the scheme, would announce it soon to fulfil two objectives — augment its revenue in the current financial year, and settle old legacy issues from the previous indirect tax.

Bank of Baroda to Foray into E-commerce Business

Bank of Baroda plans to launch an online marketplace to its customers offering banking services and farm-related products.
The state-owned lender invited bids seeking a partner to supply 'digital commerce platform' to provide assistance to merchants on catalog management, purchase management fulfilment, pricing, promotion and other similar services.
Bank of Baroda is keen to strategise and enhance online digital capabilities with a focus on creating a marketplace to fulfil services relating to different segments of customers' daily needs and lifestyle needs.
The bank would offer various kinds of banking services and farm-related products on its e-commerce platform.
The online platform partner would be required to provide assistance to merchants on catalog management, purchase management fulfilment, pricing, promotion and other similar services.

Carlos Slim's Bank to Acquire Stake in Brazil Unit

As per reports, Brazilian antitrust watchdog Cade approved Mexican lender Inbursa's acquisition of a roughly 33% stake in the Brazilian unit of payment technology company Global Payments Inc.
Inbursa, which is controlled by the family of billionaire Carlos Slim, intends to have a card processor business in Brazil through Banco Inbursa SA.
Inbursa informed it that Global Payments and Slim's Brazilian subsidiary of America Movil may forge a partnership in the future.

GIC, ADIA Invest in Hyderabad-based Greenko Energy

In one of the largest funding rounds by an Indian clean energy producer, sovereign wealth funds GIC Holdings Pte. Ltd and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) agreed to pump in an additional $329 million in Greenko Energy Holdings.
This fresh tranche follows the $495 million investment in June 2019 by the sovereign wealth funds in Greenko to build power storage projects.
With multilateral and bilateral agencies, as well as sovereign wealth funds, not showing interest in businesses contributing to climate change, the two sovereign funds have so far infused $2.2 billion in Greenko (including the fresh round), which was founded by Mahesh Kolli and Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty.
Greenko Energy Holdings (Greenko), one of India's leading renewable energy companies, announced the signing of definitive agreements for a primary equity raising of $824 million, which includes a previously announced $495 million raising towards IREP (integrated renewable energy project) Projects Equity commitment, from an affiliate of GIC and by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
The investment comes in the backdrop of a power sector package, comprising a new tariff policy and structural reforms in the offing, announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech.
While GIC and ADIA hold 61% and 15%, respectively, in Greenko, Kolli and Chalamalasetty own the remaining 24%.
Greenko has a total renewable energy operational capacity of 4.2 gigawatts (GW), with 7GW under construction.

Jul 11, 2019

India Inc.'s FDI Down

According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India Inc.'s foreign direct investment in June fell by over two times from a year ago to $820.36 million.
The outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by the Indian firms stood at $2.29 billion in the year-ago same month.
In May, the Indian firms had invested over $1.56 billion in their overseas ventures.
Of the total overseas direct investment during June, $340.28 million was in the form of equity infusion, $222.06 million was through loan and $258.02 million came in through issuance of guarantee.
Among the major investors included ONGC Videsh Ltd. $61.74 million in its various joint ventures in Myanmar, Russia and Vietnam; Asian Paints $43.45 million in a wholly-owned unit in Singapore and Alok Infrastructure $24 million in a wholly-owned subsidiary in the British Virgin Islands.

OBC Cuts MCLR

Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), a public sector bank, cut its Marginal Cost of Fund-based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 5-10 basis points across various tenors.
A basis point is one hundredth of one percentage point. While OBC's one-year MCLR now stands reduced at 8.65 per cent from 8.70 per cent, the six months' MCLR was reduced to 8.55 per cent from 8.60 per cent earlier.
The latest revision in MCLR is applicable from Thursday till the next review by the bank. MCLR refers to the minimum interest of a bank below which it cannot lend.

Change in Timings for Foreign Exchange Market

An internal committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which was set up to review timings of different financial markets, suggested that the foreign exchange market could function from 9 am to 9 pm At present, the currency market works from 9 am to 5 pm.
"Calibrated extension of market hours, and to begin with, revised market timings of 9 am — 9 pm, may be considered to gauge demand and potential benefits," the draft report of the committee said.
The report noted that there are mixed views on the benefits of extension of market timing.

Jul 10, 2019

Sanjay Kaul Launches Start-up Named Sofyx

Former Country Manager Apple India, Sanjay Kaul launched his own start-up named 'Sofyx', a social commerce platform for general traders dealing in smartphones and accessories in India.
Sofyx would bring together the mobile reseller community along with other stakeholders like telecom operators, device manufacturers, distributors and other vendors on a single platform.
As per Sanjay Kaul, the first and foremost objective is to strengthen and improve the General Trade (GT) business in India. At the basic level, the platform would enable information exchange, engagement, real-time feedback and community building amongst the stakeholder group.
At a functional level, Sofex would help drive business transactions between various stakeholders. Our platform would streamline and digitize in-store operations, buying, as well as customer interactions.

Wealth of High Net Worth Individuals falls

According to the World Wealth Report 2019, the overall wealth of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) declined by 3 per cent in 2018, resulting in a worldwide loss of $2 trillion.
This is the first drop in the last seven years.
Largely due to a drop in wealth in the Asia-Pacific region (specifically China), this decline has resulted in a loss of $2 trillion worldwide.
The global HNWI population and wealth declined by 0.3 per cent and 3 per cent respectively, with Asia-Pacific hit the hardest.
The region (Asia Pacific) represented $1 trillion of the global decline in wealth, as the HNWI population decreased by 2 per cent and HNWI wealth by 5 per cent. China alone was responsible for more than half (53 per cent) of Asia-Pacific and more than 25 per cent of global HNWI wealth loss.

France to Impose Green Tax

The French government is to impose a tax of up to 18 euros on plane tickets for all flights from airports in France to fund less-polluting transportation projects.
The move, which would take effect from 2020, would see a tax of 1.5 euros imposed on economy-class tickets on internal flights and those within Europe, with the highest tariff applied to business-class travellers flying outside the bloc.
The new measure is expected to bring in some 182 million euros a year which would be invested in greener transport infrastructures, notably rail, This would only be applied on outgoing flights and not those flying into the country.
A similar tax was introduced in Sweden in April 2018, which imposed an added charge of up to €40 on every ticket in a bid to lessen the impact of air travel on the climate.

Jul 09, 2019

IOC, GAIL Pact in LNG Project Expires

State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and gas utility GAIL India Ltd's initial agreement to buy a 50 percent stake in Adani Group's Rs. 5,000-crore Dhamra LNG project in Odisha expired.
IOC and GAIL had in September 2016, signed a "non-binding MoU" with Adani Petroleum Terminal Pvt Ltd to take 39 per cent and 11 per cent stake, respectively in the planned 5 million tonnes a year liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Dhamra.
The MoU was subject to management approvals of IOC and GAIL and successful negotiation of the respective regasification agreements.

Spectrum Auction

In a setback to the operators, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stuck to its earlier recommendation on the forthcoming spectrum auction, including on base price and valuation of spectrum to be put on sale.
Last month, the Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the highest decision making body in the DoT, asked the sectoral regulator to reconsider its recommendations to ensure competition and greater participation in auctions.

RBI Finalises Utkarsh 2022

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) board, which met in New Delhi, finalised a three- year roadmap to improve regulation and supervision, among other functions of the central bank.
This medium term strategy named 'Utkarsh 2022' was in line with the global central banks' plan to strengthen the regulatory and supervisory mechanism.
It is a three-year roadmap for medium term objective to be achieved for improving regulation, supervision of the central bank.
Worldwide, all central banks strengthen the regulatory and supervisory mechanism, everybody is formulating a long-term plan and a medium-term plan. So, the RBI also decided it would formulate a pragramme to outline what is to be achieved in the next three years.

SEBI Gets Powers to Probe New-age Cases

The Finance Bill, 2019 gave the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) new powers to act against entities that tamper or destroy electronic databases or fail to furnish information when sought by the capital markets regulator, SEBI, can now also impose penalties of up to Rs. 1 crore on brokers for certain violations.
These new powers assume significance as the regulator is in the midst of probing the leak of sensitive data through WhatsApp and also recently passed fresh orders on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) co-location matter, which were challenged at the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).
As per the Finance Bill, a new section — 15HAA — which was inserted in the SEBI Act that said if a person tampers with information to obstruct or influence an investigation, destroys regulatory data or tries to access data in an unauthorised manner then the entity could be penalised up to Rs. 10 crore or three times the unlawful gains, whichever is higher.

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