General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Jun 13, 2019

India Unlikely to Resume Iran Oil Import

India is unlikely to resume Iranian crude oil purchases, which stopped when exemptions to US sanctions expired in May 2019.
This is impacting energy security because India hasn't been able to find an alternative source that matches the quality, quantity and lucrative commercial terms of Iranian crude.
American sanctions against Tehran have also hit India's plans to develop Iran's Farzad-B gas block and indirectly impeded operations at Chabahar Port even though it is exempted from the restrictions.

Blue Star Eyes Share in Home Water Purifiers

Blue Star Ltd. Drew plans to capture about 10% market share in residential water purifier segment by 2020-21 and enter the commercial water purifier segment soon.
Blue Star entered into residential water purifier segment during October 2016.
As per the plan, Blue Star would invest about Rs. 30 crore in advertising and sales promotion in FY20, increase the number of stores to 5,000, raise the number of store sales representatives to 1,000 and service franchisees to 500.

Industrial Growth Recovers

Industrial activity rebounded in April 2019 to grow to a six-month high of 3.4%, driven by a turnaround across all the sectors measured.
Separate data release showed retail inflation in May 2019 accelerated marginally to 3.05% driven by a slight rise in food price inflation.
Growth in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) returned to positive territory in April 2019 following a contraction of 0.1% in March 2019.

Yes Bank Reduces Stake in Fortis Healthcare

Yes Bank reduced its stake in Fortis Healthcare by around 2 per cent by selling over 1.51 crore shares of the company in various tranches, according to a regulatory filing by the healthcare firm.
The private sector lender had 8.76 per cent stake in Fortis Healthcare before these transactions.

Canon India Eyes Market Share in Inkjet Printers

Canon India is targeting a 25% market share of the inkjet printer market in India, which is pegged at about 1.8 million units, in 2019.
India is one of the fastest growing inkjet business for Canon, especially among emerging markets.

Adani Wins Final Approval

Adani Enterprises received the go-ahead to start construction of a controversial coal mine in outback Australia, after a state government approved a final permit on groundwater management.
Queensland`s Department of Environment and Science (DES) approved Adani`s groundwater Dependent Ecosystem Management Plan.
Adani's Carmichael mine would produce 8-10 million tonnes of thermal coal a year.

PWC Quits as Auditor

Price Waterhouse & Co. (PWC) resigned as statutory auditor of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance.
PWC put in its resignation, with effect from June 11, 2019, citing unsatisfactory response to certain observations made by it as a part of the ongoing audit for fiscal 2018-19.
Both Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance said that they do not agree with the reasons given by PWC.

Jun 12, 2019

NEFT/ RTGS Charges Waived

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to waive the charges levied on banks for Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) transactions from July 1.
Banks were advised to pass on the benefits to their customers. Separately, the RBI formed a committee to review the entire gamut of automated teller machines' (ATMs') charges and fees.

TPG Capital-Manipal Set to Seal Deal with Medanta

As per reports, buyout firm TPG Capital and Manipal Hospitals are set to announce the purchase of Dr. Naresh Trehan's Medanta chain of hospitals, one of the largest acquisitions in the Indian healthcare industry.
The transaction ascribes an enterprise value of Rs. 5,800-6,000 crore to the hospital chain. The two parties are expected to sign definitive agreements soon.
Medanta counts private equity firms Carlyle and Temasek as its investors.
While Carlyle Group acquired a 27% stake in Medanta's parent, Global Health, in 2013, Temasek bought an 18% stake in 2015 from Punj Lloyd Ltd. Trehan, his family, and Medanta co-founder Sunil Sachdeva own the rest.
Medanta's existing investor, Carlyle, is likely to exit the company through the proposed transaction.
The combination of TPG Capital and Manipal Group started exploratory talks with the owners of Medanta in October 2018 to buy a majority stake in the hospital chain after Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd withdrew its non-binding offer.

RIL and BP Project in KG Basin

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP Plc. have sanctioned the development of MJ project, known as D55, in Block KG D6, offshore east coast of India.
MJ is the third of the three new projects in the Block KG D6 integrated development plan and its approval follows sanctions for the development of 'R-Series' deep-water gas field in June 2017 and for the satellites' cluster in April 2018.
As per Mukesh Ambani, CMD, RIL, the gas will satiate the increasing demand for clean fuel in the country, save foreign exchange and reduce dependency on imported gas.

Salesforce Acquires Tableau

US-based Cloud computing firm Salesforce announced the acquisition of leading analytics platform Tableau Software for $15.7 billion in an all-stock deal.
The coming together of world's top CRM (customer relationship management) platform with leading analytics firm would accelerate Salesforce's opportunity in the $1.8 trillion digital transformation space.
Tableau helps people see and understand data and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers.
More than 86,000 organisations around the world, such as Charles Schwab, Verizon, Schneider Electric, Southwest and Netflix, rely on Tableau to help them see and understand data.

AAI Cancels Ground Handling Tender

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) cancelled its tender for ground handling services at 76 airports following concerns over some short-listed bidders offering steep royalties.
A decision was taken to cancel the tender. AAI will now have to start a fresh bidding procedure.
The tender procedure was initiated May 2018, but faced several delays.
In January, AAI short-listed bidders and asked other players to match the bids when objections were raised about royalties as high as 226% quoted by some entities and how that would make ground handling business unviable in the country.

RBI to Pump in Liquidity

The RBI said that it will infuse Rs. 15,000 crore into the financial system.
Based on an assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and also of the durable liquidity needs going forward, RBI decided to conduct purchase of (six) government securities under OMOs for Rs. 150 billion on June 13 through multi-security auction using the multiple price method.

Jun 11, 2019

UltraTech Cement Gets Green Nod for Project in AP

UltraTech Cement got the Environment Ministry's nod for a Rs. 2,500-crore project in Andhra Pradesh.
Under the project, the firm will set up an integrated cement plant at Petnikote in Kurnool district with a clinker capacity of 4 million tonne per annum (MTPA), 6 MTPA of cement, 60 MW of captive power plant and 15 MW of waste heat recovery-based power unit.

Ludhiana Cycle Industry

Ludhiana bicycle industry is upbeat as it's raining tenders for conventional black-coloured "Roadster" cycles from various state governments.
Around half a dozen states have already floated tenders for 23 lakh bicycles in 2019 to be distributed among students free of cost under various social schemes.
Industry expects that few other state governments are in the process of floating tenders which will take the total quantum of government order to 50-60 lakh bicycles.
The state governments which are likely to float tenders are West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. According to sources, West Bengal alone may procure 15 lakh more bicycles.
With more than 50,000 cycles manufactured every day, Ludhiana is the hub for bicycle manufacturing in India.
According to Indian Bicycle Manufacturers Association, Ludhiana has been producing over 1.5 crore bicycles per annum with support of small and medium ancillary units.

Socure Inc. to Focus on India

New York-based Socure Inc., a provider of digital identity verification technology on real-time basis, is planning to focus more on India for its business growth.
So far, Source Inc. had deployed $1 million in Chennai centre in staff, infrastructure and training.
By 2021, it plans to double the investment and the number of staff to 60 in India.

Etihad and Hindujas May Back Out

Hinduja Group and Etihad Airways PJSC may not proceed with plans to resurrect Jet Airways (India) Ltd, dealing a severe blow to efforts aimed at rescuing the airline that has suspended flights for nearly two months.
London-based Hinduja Group decided to halt negotiations to buy a stake in Jet Airways, while Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi put on hold a plan to add more investments in the Mumbai based airline.
As far as bidding for Jet Airways is concerned, the Hinduja Group has taken a back seat now.
The promoters of the group feel that it's too risky for them to get involved (with Jet Airways) at the moment, due to ongoing government investigations and the recent insolvency pleas submitted by operational creditors at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
The board of directors of Etihad Airways is also against investing further in Jet Airways. The Abu Dhabi-based airline was earlier keen to save their investment but now their plan is on the back burner.
Etihad Airways had in May 2019 confirmed its interest to reinvest in a minority stake in Jet Airways, subject to conditions.

Coal India Identifies Assets in Australia

Public sector Coal India Ltd. (CIL) identified assets in Australia, in which it is keen to acquire equity stakes.
Accordingly, it is planning to appoint an internationally reputed merchant or investment banker to carry out the financial due diligence.
CIL had earmarked about Rs. 6,000 crore for the purpose.
The mine acquisition initiative is in line with CIL's plans to set up overseas businesses involving coking coal and high-grade low-ash thermal coal.
Its strategy is to acquire the coal resources, produce them and import the output into India.
The production would either be through opening of new mines or through equity participation in working mines on production-sharing basis.

Cheque Books for No-frills Accounts

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed banks to offer cheque book facility and other services to the no-frills account holders, but said that they could not ask such account holders to maintain any minimum balance for such services.
The basic savings bank deposit account or no-frills account was designed as a savings account which will offer certain minimum facilities, free of charge, to the holders of such accounts.
As per the norms of no-frills account, account holders are not required to maintain minimum balance and can get certain minimum facilities for free.
These facilities include four withdrawals from ATMs in a month, deposit of cash at bank branch and ATM card or ATM-cum-debit card.

Jun 10, 2019

Unicorns Outpace Traditional Tech Companies

The top unicorns, shorthand for startups with valuations of $1 billion or more, in India are also the most acquisitive. Among other things, it indicates how many of these companies have used mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to scale up rapidly in a short period of time.
In contrast, among traditional technology companies in India, such deals are few and far between.

BoB Puts NPAs on the Block

As resolution through the insolvency courts keep getting delayed inordinately, the state-run Bank of Baroda has put on sale non-performing loans amounting to Rs. 9,060 crore, including two large accounts Bhushan Power & Steel and Alok Industries which are undergoing insolvency process but delayed.
While Bhushan Power & Steel dues are to the tune of Rs. 2,099 crore, Alok Industries dues are Rs. 903 crore.
Both companies are among the 12 largest stressed accounts which the Reserve Bank of India had asked banks to refer to National Company Law Tribunals for resolution in June 2017 and forms the first list put out by the monetary authority in the mid-2016.
The third largest lender had put Bhushan Power & Steel on sale in December 2018 but could not find a buyer.

China Calls in Foreign Tech Companies

China summoned global technology companies for talks following US ban on selling technology to China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.
The blacklisting of Huawei, the world's largest maker of telecoms network equipment, bars US companies from supplying it with many goods and services due to what Washington said were national security issues, a potentially crippling blow that sharply escalated US-China trade tensions.
Huawei denies that its equipment poses a security threat.
Soon afterwards, Beijing announced it would release its own list of "unreliable" foreign entities. It also has hinted that it will limit its supply of rare earths to the US.

Jun 09, 2019

Vodafone Idea to Transfer Fibre Assets to Vodafone Towers

Shareholders and creditors of telecom operator Vodafone Idea approved a plan to transfer optical fibre assets to its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone Towers Limited.
The company proposed to transfer its telecom fibre infrastructure to Vodafone Towers before monetising it and approached the National Company Law Tribunal Ahmedabad in April 2019 for its approval.

Mastercard and W-GDP Team Up

Mastercard and the U.S. government-backed Women's Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative have teamed up to further women's empowerment along the lines of financial inclusion, access to capital and ability to work.
Mastercard and the W-GDP have entered into an agreement to work on three pillars to do with women's empowerment.

India Key Market for Coloured Gemstones

Gemfields Group, a leading coloured gemstones mining and trading company, accorded high importance to India due to growing demand for gemstones and plentiful availability of skilled workforce required for cutting and polishing the gemstones.
As per Sean Gilbertson, CEO, Gemfields Group, India plays a crucial part in Gemfields' operations.

Panipat Firms under Lens in GST Scam

As many as 400 big and small firms in Panipat have allegedly used fake bills amounting to Rs. 800 crore to evade tax.
During the investigation, it has been found that the firms in question have registered 19 bogus firms, including 17 in Panipat and two in Uttar Pradesh, to facilitate the tax evasion.
The Superintendent of Police (SP) Sumit Kumar has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to inquire the matter in detail.

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