General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Feb 18, 2019

Indian Bank Revises Interest Rates

Chennai-based public sector lender Indian Bank has revised interest rates on domestic term deposits with immediate effect.
The lender announced upward revision in interest rate on domestic term deposits by 50 bps to 90 bps for amount less than Rs. one crore across various tenors from three years to less than five years, five years and above five years.

RBI Net Buyer of Dollars in FY19

The Reserve Bank of India has turned net buyer of dollars in December, first time in the current fiscal, as it purchased $607 million of the greenback on a net basis from the spot market.
RBI bought $837 million and sold $230 million in the spot market during the reporting month.
As against this, in December 2017, the RBI was a net buyer of $5.647 billion, after it bought $6.008 billion from the market and sold $361 million.

Old System for Oil Block Bid

Two years after the government shifted to revenue sharing contracts for oil and gas block auctions, a high-level panel has suggested reverting to the earlier system of awarding areas in most basins based on exploration commitment.
The six-member panel, headed by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar, in its report, stated that unexplored areas in Category II & III basins be bid out exclusively based on exploration work programme.
According to the panel, no revenue or production sharing other than payment of statutory levies (including royalty) should be the criteria.

Feb 17, 2019

Privatisation of Six Airports

A total of 32 technical bids have been received from 10 companies to operate six airports that are currently under AAI's management.
As part of an open international competitive bidding process, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had sought bidders for carrying out operations, management and development of the six airports - Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.
Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports have received seven bids each. Lucknow and Guwahati have received six bids each. Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram have received three bids each.
AAI will open the financial bids on February 25. The winning bids will be announced on February 28.

US and Canada Move WTO against India

The US and Canada have jointly approached the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against India for allegedly under-reporting market price support for five varieties of pulses and have submitted their own steeper calculations for scrutiny of members.
According to a US Department of Agriculture release, based on United States/Canadian calculations, it appears that India has substantially under-reported its market price support for chickpeas, pigeon peas, black matpe, mung beans and lentils.

HCL 5th Tech Firm Receives H1-B Certifications in US

At a time when the US moves to limit H1-B visas has left major tech companies perturbed as it will seriously affect their ability to get and retain talented staff, Indian company HCL has secured 5,085 foreign labour certification for the H1-B work visas.
HCL America had 2.9 per cent share of all foreign labour certification for the H1-B work visas for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019 that ended December 31.
Deloitte Consulting topped the list with 18,306 H1-B specialist occupation labour certifications, followed by Apple with 16,426 H1-B speciality occupations.
Professional staffing agency KForce was third with 10,292 visa certifications, Amazon.com Services was listed fourth with 5,485 certifications and HCL was fifth with 5,085 certifications.

Customs Duty on All Imports from Pakistan Raised

India raised customs duty on all imports from Pakistan to 200% after withdrawing the most favoured nation or MFN status over Pulwama attack in which at least 40 CRPF jawans were killed.
This decision is expected to impact Pakistan's exports to India. In 2017-18, India imported goods worth Rs. 3,482.3 crore from Pakistan.
The two main items imported from Pakistan are fruits and cement, on which the current customs duty is 30-50 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.
Slapping an import duty of 200 per cent effectively means almost banning the imports from Pakistan.

Feb 16, 2019

Bid to Acquire Jaypee Infratech

State-owned NBCC and Mumbai-based Suraksha Group have submitted bids to take over bankruptcy-bound Jaypee Infratech and complete stalled housing projects in Noida.
NBCC's CMD Anoop Kumar Mittal said that the company is keen to acquire Jaypee Infratech and complete over 20,000 housing units.

SEBI Waiver for Wipro

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has granted an exemption to Wipro to enable the firm to launch a buy-back offer.
The exemption was necessary as the firm is in the midst of a scheme of amalgamation wherein four wholly owned subsidiaries are being merged with the technology major.
SEBI rules state that a firm cannot go ahead with a buy-back offer if any scheme of amalgamation is pending.
While the scheme is pending approval of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Wipro sought a waiver considering the "backlog of cases" at the tribunal.

Minda to Merge With Harita Seating

Auto components manufacturer Minda Industries Ltd. (MIL) will merge Harita Seating Systems Ltd. (HSSL) and four other companies with itself.
As per the scheme, Harita Ltd., Harita Venu Pvt. Ltd., Harita Cheema Pvt. Ltd. Harita Financial Services Ltd. and HSSL will merge with the BSE-listed Minda Industries.
The boards of HSSL and MIL approved the proposal. The proposed merger would enable firms to realise the benefits of greater synergies between their businesses.
The merger of HSSL with MIL will generate additional value for shareholders by providing access to diversified product mix so as to deliver significant near and long-term growth.

Essar Steel Loan Auction

State Bank of India, which had put its Rs. 15,431-crore exposure to Essar Steel on the block to sell it to asset reconstruction companies and other financial institutions, is not likely to pursue the proposal further.
The auction received lukewarm response because a resolution on the issue is expected soon through the bankruptcy proceedings.
In January, SBI decided to sell the exposure to Essar Steel and the e-auction was scheduled for January 30.
However, the auction process received response only from one prospective buyer.

GMR Infrastructure Likely to Demerge Airports Business

GMR Infrastructure recorded a net loss of Rs. 561 crore for the December quarter as finance costs soared, other income fell and losses in the power vertical continued to dim the profits made by airport vertical.
The loss came on the back of a 5.5% fall in revenue and a 14% fall in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to Rs. 412 crore. Interest costs climbed 13% while other income fell 20.6%.
The power vertical of the group continued to reel under losses, clocking Rs. 184.48 crore, offsetting the Rs. 364.74 crore profit by the airports segment.
The firm's board approved the constitution of a sub-committee to consider and evaluate options of a demerger to unlock shareholder value in the existing business of the group.

Feb 15, 2019

Grover Zampa Vineyards Buys Four Seasons

Bengaluru-based Grover Zampa Vineyards, a producer of Indian fine wine, has drawn up plans to expand production capacity to 12 million cases.
Currently, the company has a capacity to make 2.50 million cases a year. This will be increased to six million cases by March 2020 and thereafter doubled to 12 million cases in three to four years' time.
The doubling of capacity from six million cases would entail an investment of Rs. 200 crore. The Singapore-based investment banker also announced three major acquisitions to the tune of Rs. 70 crore.
These include Four Seasons, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Spirits Ltd; Charosa Vineyards, an asset of Hindustan Construction Company; and Bengaluru-headquartered Myra Vineyards.

Banks to Acquire Majority Stake in Jet

A consortium of commercial banks led by State Bank of India will acquire a majority stake in Jet Airways (India) Ltd. by converting part of their debt into equity for a consideration of Re. 1 and advancing more capital to give the airline a lifeline to enable it to achieve a turnaround.
Jet Airways' board considered and approved a bank-led provisional resolution plan (BLPRP) that proposes restructuring under the provisions of the 'RBI Circular' to meet a funding gap of nearly Rs. 8,500 crore, including proposed repayment of aircraft debt of Rs. 1,700 crore.
This will be met by an appropriate mix of equity infusion, debt restructuring, sale/sale and lease back/refinancing of aircraft, among other things.

Glenmark to Spin off Innovation Business into New Company

As per reports, drug firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals' board has given an in-principle approval to spin off its innovation business into a new company in the U.S.
Setting up of the new company, which will be the firm's wholly owned subsidiary, will provide an enhanced focus to the innovation business and help accelerate the pipeline towards commercialisation.

L&T Info to Buy N+P of Germany

Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. (LTI) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Germany's Nielsen+Partner (N+P), an independent Temenos WealthSuite specialist, for 28 million euros on a cash-free, debt-free basis, which includes upfront consideration and a performance based earn-out.
N+P is a leading partner of Temenos in Europe and APAC with subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Thailand, Singapore and Australia and branch office in Belgium.

Feb 14, 2019

Apollo Founders May Sell Stake in Munich Re JV

Prathap C Reddy and his family, founders of India's Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd, plan to sell their holdings in an insurance venture with Munich Re AG to repay debt.
The family is seeking to sell its entire holding of 41% in Apollo Munich Health Insurance Co., for about $170 million in six months. The proceeds will be used to repay part of the debt raised by pledging Apollo Hospital's equity as collateral.
Four companies including two private equity funds have shown interest in acquiring the family's holdings in the venture with the world's largest reinsurer.

Curtain Falls on Mysore Paper Mills

With the State government passing an order to completely halt operations at Mysore Paper Mills (MPM), a public sector undertaking at Bhadravati, hopes about the revival of the firm have also faded away.
In the order passed on February 1, Under Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries, directed the Managing Director of MPM to completely stop the operations.

U.S. to Discuss trade, E-com Rules

A delegation of officials led by U.S. Ambassador Kenneth I. Juster will hold talks with Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu to resolve several sore trade points, including the concerns of American CEOs regarding doing business in India and bilateral trade imbalance.
The status of the review of India's eligibility for the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is also likely to come up in the light of recent developments where the U.S. has again threatened to withdraw the export exemptions for India.
Other issues that had particularly incensed American businesses are India's new data localisation rules that force foreign companies to store Indians' data within the country, and rules amending FDI rules in e-commerce that had hurt American giants like Amazon and Walmart.
Trade tensions between the two countries rose last March when U.S. President Donald Trump notified the imposition of higher import tariffs on steel and aluminium, which affected several countries, including India. In retaliation, India announced counter-tariffs on 29 American goods.

Venezuela Turns to India for Oil Exports

Venezuela's oil exports have tapered off and shifted towards India since new U.S. sanctions began January 28 as state-run oil company PDVSA seeks to replace deliveries to the United States and Europe that were disrupted by payment restrictions.
The South American nation is turning its focus to cash-paying buyers, especially in India, its second-largest customer after the United States, amid US sanctions designed to undercut financial support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Sanctions are designed to bar Maduro's access to oil revenue that has helped his government remain in power.

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