General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Feb 27, 2019

Foreign Shareholding Limit in Kotak Mahindra Bank

The board of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) has approved a proposal to increase foreign shareholding limit from 43% to 45% from with immediate effect.

Adani Wins Bid for Guwahati Airport

Adani Enterprises Ltd. made the highest bid for the Guwahati airport, thus becoming a claimant for all the six airports offered by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for operations, management and development for a period of 50 years.
The decision on awarding the airports would be taken by the Union Cabinet.

Max India Exits Health Insurance Business

Max India sold its entire 51% stake in Max Bupa Health Insurance Co. Ltd. (Max Bupa) to True North Fund VI LLP for over Rs. 510 crore.
The transaction values Max Bupa at an enterprise value of Rs. 1,001 crore.

Organised Retail in India May Double by 2021

Strong macroeconomic factors coupled with robust demographics and Internet penetration will fuel the growth of the retail market in India, which is third largest in Asia and fourth-largest globally after U.S., China and Japan.
According to a latest joint report by Deloitte and the Retailers Association of India (RAI), as Internet penetration increases in the country and more international retailers start operating in India, the share of organised retail market would increase from about 12% in 2017 to about 22-25% by 2021, which would partly also be driven by the growth of e-commerce market from $24 billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021.
The report pegs the growth in e-commerce market to factors like growing Internet penetration and increased usage of smartphones among others.

Three Banks Taken Off Prompt Corrective Action Framework

Allahabad Bank and Corporation Bank, from the public sector, and Dhanlaxmi Bank from the private sector are now out of the Reserve Bank of India's prompt and corrective action (PCA) framework.
Earlier such restrictions were taken off from Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Maharashtra.
There are other six banks that are still under PCA framework.

Global and National AAA Ratings

In the wake of criticism that Indian credit rating agencies (CRAs) are liberal in assigning AAA ratings, rating agency Crisil Ltd. said that global and Indian AAA ratings were not comparable.
Comparing the 276 AAA ratings that Indian CRAs have assigned with nine by S&P Global Ratings or 53 by Moody's is erroneous.
It tantamount to equating differing scales such as Celsius and Fahrenheit.
If the 32,500 rated Indian firms were to be assessed on the global scale, their ratings will be boxed into a far more narrow-bound between BBB and D on the global scale, because India's sovereign rating (in the BBB category) will usually serve as a ceiling.
A national rating scale affords granular benchmarking of domestic issuers on a 20-point scale (AAA to D) and the sovereign, which has the flexibility to print local currency, is pegged at AAA on this scale.

Feb 26, 2019

BEL Receives Export Order from Elbit

Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) received export orders valued at $33 million from Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Elop Ltd. (ELOP), a subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd., Israel, for manufacture and supply of EOIR payloads for airborne applications.
BEL has entered into a technical collaboration pact with ELOP for the manufacture of the payloads and for providing lifetime support at its manufacturing facility at Chennai.

Adani the Highest Bidder for 5 Airports

The AAI opened the financial bids of nine entities, more than a week after technical bids were opened in a two-phase bidding process.
Adani Enterprises was among the 10 companies which had submitted a total of 32 bids for the six airports.
Bids were invited on the basis of per-passenger fee for passengers handled at the airport.
Adani Enterprises has offered Rs. 177 per passenger for Ahmedabad Airport, Rs. 174 for Jaipur, Rs. 171 for Lucknow, Rs. 168 for Thiruvananthpuram and Rs. 115 for Mangaluru.

PPIs Get Six Months More to Finish KYC

The Reserve Bank of India extended the deadline to complete know your customer process by the Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) issuers by another six months.
Earlier, PPI issuers were required to complete the KYC process by February 28, 2019.

JBM Acquires Stake in Linde-Wiemann

Auto components major Jay Bharat Maruti Group (JBM) Group acquired majority shareholding in Germany-based Linde-Wiemann GmbH KG, a manufacturer of complex structural components and assemblies to automakers globally.
As per report, this was the biggest business transaction in the history of the JBM Group.
Linde-Wiemann, with revenues of $700 million and 2,300 employees, has base of 17 manufacturing plants across eight countries, including Germany, U.S., China, Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa.
The acquisition is being done through the the group's flagship company, Neel Metal Products.

Thomas Cook India Group Acquires Stake in Digiphoto Ent

Travel services firm Thomas Cook India Group acquired a 51% stake in imaging solutions and services provider Digiphoto Entertainment Imaging, at an enterprise value of $40.6 million.
This acquisition of DEI presents an opportunity to participate in an exciting new business space, adjacent to our core travel services portfolio that is both PAT and free cash accretive.

Luxmi Tea to Buy Tea Gardens

Luxmi Tea Company, which came into the limelight with the acquisition of the iconic Makaibari Tea estate in Darjeeling, is aiming to boost its kitty of quality teas through a proposed purchase of the African tea estates of Mcleod Russel India Ltd. (MRIL) for about Rs. 149 crore.
MRIL, a B.M. Khaitan Group company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Borelli Tea Holdings Ltd., has entered into an agreement with Rwanda Tea Investments Ltd. (RTIL) for selling its entire stake in Gisovu Tea Company Ltd., Rwanda and half its stake in Pfunda Tea Company, also in Rwanda. Luxmi Tea Company and The Wood Foundation, Africa are the shareholders of RTIL.
The total turnover of Gisovu and Pfunda is Rs. 125 crore, accounting for 5.6% of MRIL's 2017-18 turnover.
MRIL had earlier sold four Assam tea estates to Luxmi Tea Company, which is more than 100 years old and whose crop averages 23 million kg.

Feb 25, 2019

GST Rates on Real Estate Slashed

The Goods and Services Tax Council decided to cut the tax on under-construction houses to 1% for properties valued up to Rs. 45 lakh and to 5% for those in the premium segment in order to boost the troubled real estate sector and provide relief to aspiring homebuyers.
The rates will be brought down from the existing 8% and 12%, respectively.
The new GST rates will be applicable from April 1.

Mine Expansion Programme

HCL is now pursuing a Rs. 5,500 crore mine-expansion plan that will increase its capacity to 20 million tonnes by 2024.
Mining and ore exploration are HCL's key growth areas.
The company's mine expansion plan aims to take ore capacity from 3.8 million tonnes in 2018 to 20 million tonnes by 2024.
The capital outlay is phased over five years. About Rs. 1,000 crore has already been invested.
The strategy involves expansion of existing mines, reopening of closed mines in Jharkhand and development of new mines.
The expansion projects are located in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. Most of the funding would be through internal accruals.

Feb 24, 2019

GVK to Buy Additional Stake in Mumbai Airport Operator

GVK Group announced raising its stake in Mumbai airport operator MIAL to 64% by acquiring additional shares for nearly Rs. 1,247 crore.
Exercising the "Right of First Refusal", GVK Airport Holdings Ltd would purchase 13.5% stake from South Africa's Bidvest.
Mumbai Airport International Ltd. (MIAL) operates Mumbai aerodrome, which is the second busiest in the country.

Commodity Brokers Declared Unfit

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has declared Motilal Oswal Commodities Broker and India Infoline Commodities (IICL) unfit to function as commodity brokers on account of their alleged role in the Rs. 5,600-crore settlement scam at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) that came out in the open in July 2013.
In two separate orders issued late on Friday, the capital markets regulator rejected the application for registration of the two entities and further directed that all existing clients should be allowed to move to other brokerages within 45 days.
This is the first set of actions against large brokerages alleged to have colluded with the spot exchange for marketing of the so-called pair contracts wherein clients were assured fixed returns of between 13% and 16% per annum.

Adani Logistics to Buy Agri-logistics Arm of AEL

Adani Logistics, a subsidiary of Adani Ports and SEZ would acquire Adani Agri Logistics from Adani Enterprises Ltd. (AEL) in an all-cash deal, which is expected to be completed by March. "Adani Agri Logistics is a subsidiary of AEL and the transaction is proposed at an enterprise value of Rs. 1,662 crore," a statement said.
Adani Agri Logistics will add 28 locations and 7 trains to Adani Logistics network.

Feb 23, 2019

RBI Bundles NBFCs

To provide greater operational flexibility to non-banking lenders, the Reserve Bank created a single category for NBFCs by bundling their present three-tier structure.
The central bank also decided that exposures to all NBFCs, excluding core investment companies, would be risk weighted as per credit ratings.
According to RBI, asset finance, loan, and investment companies have been merged into a new category called NBFC- Investment and Credit Companies.

FPIs Invest in Markets

Foreign investors pumped in Rs. 6,311 crore into the Indian capital markets, the highest inflow in a single day in February so far.
According to the latest data from the BSE, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought securities worth Rs. 10,437.99 crore and sold securities amounting to Rs. 4,126.98 crore, translating into a net inflow of Rs. 6,311 crore.

Vistara and Japan Air sign Deal

Full-service carrier Vistara and Japan Airlines announced a code share partnership that will allow passengers a seamless transfer from one airline to the other.
With this agreement, Vistara has become the only code share partner for Japan Airlines in India.
Japan Airlines will now be able add its 'JL' designator code to approximately 32 Vistara-operated flights each day across India covering seven Indian cities, namely Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.
Vistara already has similar tie-ups with British Airways, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

October GK, September GK, August GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services and Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26