General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Apr 04, 2019

Volkswagen Plans to Merge Three Indian Entities

German automotive major Volkswagen Group said it plans to merge its three Indian subsidiaries, Volkswagen India Private Ltd, Volkswagen Group Sales India Private Ltd. and Skoda Auto India Private Ltd. to bring about synergy in operations and make the organisation more agile.
The proposed merger is aimed at making more efficient use of the existing synergies in developing India which is an important growth market.

Raymond Forays into Realty

Textile major Raymond Group has decided to foray into the real estate development business by developing its Thane land, and expects revenue to total Rs. 3,500 crore over the next five years.
The company has set up a new division called Raymond Realty for its maiden venture into the real estate sector, which will develop 14 acres of land with five acres of central landscaped greens and amenities.

Tata Projects Bags NPCIL Order

Tata Projects has received an order from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India for the construction of 2 x 700 MW power plants, valued at about $321 million. This is the firm's third contract in the nuclear power sector.

Roadis and NIIF to Invest Jointly

Roadis, a private investor and operator of transport infrastructure worldwide and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) have jointly set up a platform to invest in road projects in India. The platform would invest up to $2 billion of equity targeting toll-operate-transfer models, acquisitions of existing road concessions and investment opportunities in the road sector with an aim to create a large roads platform in the country.
With 710 km of highways under ownership and management, Roadis is one of the largest European highway concession managers in India and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada's largest pension funds.

Reliance Jio in Pact with Haptik

Reliance Jio Digital Services Limited (RJDSL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has entered into a definitive business transfer agreement with Haptik Infotech Pvt. Ltd. one of India's largest conversational AI platforms, for Rs. 700 crore.
On a fully-diluted basis, Reliance would hold about 87% of the business with the rest being held by Haptik founders and employees through stock option grants.
The focus of the investment is on enhancement and expansion of the platform, with an addressable market opportunity of more than one billion users in India.

Amara Raja and Johnson Controls End Alliance

The 22-year equity partnership between Amara Raja Batteries Ltd. (ARBL) and the Johnson Controls Group of the U.S. has come to an end. According to an announcement by ARBL to the stock exchange, the shareholders' agreement between the Galla Family, Johnson Controls (Mauritius) Pvt. Ltd. and Johnson Controls Battery Group has been terminated.
Consequent to the termination, which took effect on April 1, a few other agreements, including the technical assistance as well as the power frame and technology collaboration agreements, stand terminated from the same date.

Apr 03, 2019

EU Drags India to WTO

The European Union (EU) has dragged India into WTO's dispute settlement mechanism over imposition of import duties on certain ICT products, including mobiles, alleging breach of global trade norms. The EU is challenging the introduction of import duties on a wide range of ICT products, for instance mobile phones and components, base stations and integrated circuits.

Indonesia to Raise Imports

Indonesia is looking at increasing sugar, rice and bovine imports from India.
According to Consul General of Indonesia, Ade Sukendar, India exported about 50,000 tonnes of rice last year. It is looking at importing more non-basmati rice from India.
Negotiations are on between the two countries to increase imports.
Total exports from Indonesia to India last year were to the tune of $13.72 billion and exports from India were to the tune of $5.01 billion.

RBI to Set Up Regulatory Sandbox

The governor of Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das said that the central bank will set up a regulatory sandbox, for which guidelines will be issued in the next two months.
The objective is to have appropriate regulatory and supervisory frameworks to ensure an orderly development of fintech, to streamline their influence into the financial system, to protect the customers and to safeguard the interest of all the stakeholders.
The central bank's working group on fintech and digital banking suggested the introduction of a 'regulatory sandbox or innovation hub' within a well-defined space and duration to experiment with fintech solutions, where the consequences of failure can be contained and reasons for failure analysed.

Apr 02, 2019

UK's Exports to India Register Fastest Increase

The United Kingdom's exports to India registered the fastest increase among trading partners outside the European Union in 2018.
The exports to India grew 19.3% (amounting to £8 billion), compared to the UK's exports to Japan (7.9%), China (4.6%), and Canada (4.2%).
Of all UK exports to India in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2018, £5.5 billion (69.2%) were goods and £2.5 billion (30.8%) were services, the figures show. In the four quarters to the end of Q4 2018, £7.7 billion (61.9%) of all UK imports from India were goods and £4.8 billion (38.1%) were services.
Material manufacture was the largest contributor to the increase in goods exports to India in 2018, increasing by £1.1 billion to £5.5 billion. Non-ferrous metals were the second largest ontributor, increasing by £556 million to £1.4 billion.
Oil exports were the third largest contributor to the increase in goods exports to India, increasing by £512 million to £1.1 billion.

Citibank Settles Case with SEBI

Citibank N.A. has settled a case with the SEBI regarding the bank's alleged failure to adequately supervise an employee who carried out an unregistered portfolio investment scheme. The case was settled after the bank paid Rs. 4.5 crore towards settlement charges. In April 2015, SEBI had issued a notice to the bank for alleged violation of portfolio manager's norms with respect to one relationship manager.

Elgi to Strengthen Presence in EU

Air compressor manufacturer Elgi Equipments will strengthen its presence in the European Union to tap opportunities in that market. Elgi is identifying key countries in Europe to expand its footprint and is building a team to focus on that market. Initially, the expansion will be through distribution network. The firm is looking at organic and inorganic growth in the EU.

SEBI Mulls SRO for Investment Advisers

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed a self regulatory organisation (SRO) for the growing number of investment advisers to address issues related to the quality of advice given to investors by such entities.
The capital markets regulator released a consultation paper, which, among other things, proposed the strengthening of the existing regulatory framework for SROs by introducing features such as a governing board with public interest directors and a clear policy for arbitration and dispute resolution.

FY19 Saw More Rating Upgrades

Rating agency Crisil said that the credit ratio, or the number of upgrades to downgrades, at 1.81 in the second half of fiscal 2019, was marginally up from 1.68 in the first half.
There were 594 upgrades and 328 downgrades in the second half, a period marked by rebound in exports, and continued government spending.
Notably, the downgrades were driven mostly by firm-specific concerns emanating from deterioration in business profiles or worsening of capital structures or increased liquidity pressures on the rated entities.

Apr 01, 2019

Government Extends Deadline for Linking PAN with Aadhaar

The government extended the deadline for linking PAN with biometric ID Aadhaar by 6 months till September 30.
This is the sixth time the government has extended the deadline for individuals to link their Permanent Account Number (PAN) to Aadhaar.
In June last year, the government had said that PAN has to be linked with the biometric ID by March 31.

Mar 31, 2019

GSP Withdrawal by the U.S.

The move by the United States (U.S.) to terminate India's designation as beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme because it no longer complied with the statutory eligibility criteria is likely to affect plastic exports from India.
At the Plastic Export Promotion Council (Plexconcil), an analysis was conducted and found that in India's case, the GSP concessions extended by the U.S. amounted to a duty reduction of $30 million per annum on imports of plastic products worth $600 million for the period January to December 2018.
Some of the product segments which may face a decline in exports to U.S. due to withdrawal of GSP concessions include plastics raw materials, consumer and houseware items and polyester films.

Cardif Sells Shares in SBI Life Insurance

BNP Paribas Cardif, the foreign partner of SBI Life Insurance, sold 5 crore shares of the company for Rs. 2,889 crore. The share sale was undertaken at average price of Rs. 577.93 per equity share. Meanwhile, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has bought 2 crore shares at an average price of Rs. 577.50 per share. The transactions were carried out as bulk deal from one investor to another.

India's Forex Reserves Up

India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves increased by $1.02 billion during the week ended March 22.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s weekly statistical supplement, the overall forex reserves rose to $406.66 billion from $405.63 billion reported for the week ended March 15.
India's forex reserves comprise Foreign Currency Assets (FCAs), gold reserves, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

More Looks to Scale up Operations

Aditya Birla Group's retail chain 'More' plans to invest about Rs. 1,000 crore to scale up its operations in the next five years. The retail chain, in which U.S.-based e-commerce major Amazon and Samara Capital jointly invested about Rs. 4,200 crore last year, also expects its turnover to grow threefolds in five years. The company has about 600 supermarkets and 20 hypermarkets.

Iran Seeks Improved Trade Ties with India

Amid U.S. sanctions, Iran is exploring ways to increase its bilateral trade with India, including expanding banking channels.
Only one bank (UCO Bank) has business relationship with Iran.
According to Hamid Reza Fouladgar, head of the seven-member Parliamentary delegation from Iran, there is need to sign free trade agreements with India to reduce customs and tariffs on both sides to improve bilateral trade.
The volume of trade between Iran and India stands between $10 billion and $13 billion.

NTPC to Set up Floating Solar Power Plant

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is setting up a 25 MW floating solar power plant in its water storage reservoir here as part of its diversification into the solar segment. Group general manager of NTPC's Simhadri plant, A. R. Maiti, said that it was also setting up a flue-gas desulphurisation plant.

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