General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Dec 07, 2018

RBI to Cut SLR Gradually

The Reserve Bank of India has decided to reduce statutory liquidity ratio, the portion of funds which banks are required to park in treasury bills and other instruments, by 0.25 per cent every quarter beginning January.
The calibrated reduction in statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) will continue till it reaches 18 percent. The current SLR is 19.5 per cent.

Infosys Opens Hub at Hartford

Infosys has opened a technology and innovation hub in Hartford, in Connecticut, and has hired more than 7,000 American workers in the last 18 months.
The Hartford hub will help Infosys work more closely with its clients in the region and serve as the global hub for Infosys' InsurTech and HealthTech efforts.

India to Pay Crude Oil Bill in Rupee

India has signed an agreement with Iran to pay for crude oil it imports from the Persian Gulf nation in rupees.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed following the US letting India and seven other nations to keep buying Iranian oil despite sanctions were reimposed on the Islamic state on November 5.
Indian refiners will make rupee payments in a UCO Bank account of the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC).
Under US sanctions, India can export food grains, medicines and medical devices to Iran.

Bidders for Jaypee Infratech

State-owned NBCC, Kotak Investment, Singapore-based Cube Highways and Suraksha Group have been shortlisted as bidders for debt-laden Jaypee Infratech.
L&T Infrastructure, which was among the five companies that had submitted expression of interest (EOI), was however excluded from the final list, as per the regulatory filing by Jaypee Infratech.

Assistance to Flood-affected States

The Centre approved additional assistance of Rs. 3,719.07 crore to Kerala, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh that were affected by floods, landslides and cyclone over the past few months.
From the National Disaster Response Fund, Rs. 3,048.39 crore will be provided to Kerala, Rs. 131.16 crore to Nagaland and Rs. 539.52 crore to Andhra Pradesh.
The decision was taken in a committee meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Dec 06, 2018

Supplementary Budget Tabled in Uttarakhand Assembly

The Uttarakhand government tabled its supplementary budget of Rs. 2,452.41 crore in the assembly to meet the additional expenditure for the financial year 2018-19.
In an attempt to appease the salaried class and farmers ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the government has allocated a major portion of the budget for revenue expenditure and agriculture sector.
The annual budget with an outlay of Rs. 45,585.09 crore was presented in March this year.
The supplementary budget was presented by Finance Minister Prakash Pant.
Allocations have been made to almost all sectors but the focus is primarily on key sectors such as horticulture, animal husbandry, agriculture, rural development, education and health.

Fifth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Review

The Reserve Bank of India has left the key interest rate or the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% during the fifth bimonthly monetary policy review, which was on expected lines, while maintaining the 'calibrated tightening' stance though it reduced the inflation projection sharply.
All the six members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted in favour of status quo on repo rate while only one member R.H. Dholakia voted for change in the stance to neutral.

Dec 05, 2018

Yes Asset Management Forays into Mutual Fund Business

Private sector lender Yes Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary 'Yes Asset Management' had received SEBI's approval to launch two mutual fund schemes.
Yes Asset Management (India) is the latest Indian company to enter the mutual fund segment. The asset management company will launch two schemes, Yes Liquid Fund and Yes Ultra Short Term Fund.

Kesoram Industries to Spin Off Tyre Unit

B. K. Birla group company Kesoram Industries Ltd. (KIL) will de-merge its tyre business into a separate company.
Post-merger, the resulting company, Birla Tyres Ltd. will be listed on the BSE and the NSE.
KIL is now engaged in the manufacture of cement (Birla Shakti brand) and automotive tyres and tubes (Birla Tyres brand).

India and the UAE Sign Currency Swap Deal

India and the UAE signed two agreements, including one on currency swap, as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held exhaustive discussions with her counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed to step up bilateral cooperation in areas like security, defence, counter-terrorism, trade and energy.
This is the 12th session of the India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting for Economic and Technical Cooperation.
Currency Swap is such a pact between two countries that allows trading in their own currency and payments to import and export trade at pre-determined exchange rate without bringing in a third benchmark currency like the US dollars.

Dec 04, 2018

Qatar Says Will Exit OPEC

According to Saad al-Kaabi, the country's Energy Minister, Qatar is withdrawing from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as of January 2019.
The decision to withdraw from OPEC came after Qatar reviewed ways to enhance its role internationally and plan its long-term strategy.
Oil prices soared by around 5 percent after the United States and China agreed to a 90-day truce in their trade war, and ahead of a meeting this week by OPEC that is expected to result in a supply cut.
At the meeting, the producer group, along with non-OPEC member Russia, is expected to announce cuts aimed at reining in a production overhang that has pulled down crude prices by around a third since October.

Unilever to Acquire GSK Health Food Portfolio

Anglo-Dutch FMCG giant Unilever said that it will acquire health food and drinks portfolio of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in India and over 20 other markets predominantly in Asia for a consideration of 3.1 billion pounds.
As part of the transaction, Unilever's Indian arm, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) will acquire GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd (GSK CH India) via an all-equity merger, valuing the total business of the latter at Rs. 31,700 crore.

Instant Payout Facility Launched

ICICI Securities, along with the BSE, has launched a facility wherein clients of the domestic brokerage entity would be able to receive the pay-out within 30 minutes of selling the shares.
This is much quicker than the current system in which it takes at least two days after the transaction for investors to get the money in their bank account.
The facility, called eATM, is available to all clients of ICICI Securities. The new service would have a cap of Rs. 50,000 per client a day, and would be applicable on about 600 stocks listed on the BSE.

NTPC Crosses Generation Milestone

NTPC has generated 5 trillion units of electricity as on November 30 from its power stations spread across the country since inception.
The power major with an installed capacity of 52,946 MW has 20 coal-based, 7 gas-based, 11 solar PV, 1 hydro, 1 small hydro, 1 wind and 9 subsidiaries/joint venture power stations.

TVS Motor Sales Rise

TVS Motor Company registered a growth of 27% with total sales increasing from 2,51,965 units in November 2017 to 3,19,965 units in November 2018.

Dec 03, 2018

Whatsapp Seeks RBI Nod

Whatsapp chief Chris Daniels has written to the Reserve Bank of India seeking a formal nod to expand payments services to all its 200 million users in India.
The messaging app continues to wait for a regulatory clearance to launch full-fledged payments operations in India. The development comes at a time when competitors such as Google have forged ahead with their payments offerings.

Microsoft Returns to the Top

Microsoft is back at the top of the technology world following an extraordinary comeback to close the gap with Apple, some three years into a transformation of the onetime leader by chief executive Satya Nadella.
Microsoft regained its title as the world's most valuable company when it closed Friday at a higher market value than Apple for the first time since 2010, after a brief move ahead of the iPhone maker earlier in the week.
At Friday's close, Microsoft's market capitalization was $851.2 billion, having tripled in value since Nadella took over in early 2014.
Apple's valuation stood at $847.4 billion, having dropped some 20 percent in the past eight weeks. Not far behind were Amazon ($826 billion) and Google parent Alphabet ($763 billion).
In the 1990s, Microsoft held the crown as the top tech firm and most valuable company as it powered the revolution in personal computers with its Windows operating system.
But in recent years, it appeared headed to obscurity after spectacular failures in mobile computing, while Apple, Google and Amazon saw their fortunes rise.

Russia Nudges Indian Policy Makers to Use Alternative Currencies

To counter US President Donald Trump's economic sanctions, snap trade wars and the dollar's dominance in world trade, Russia is nudging Indian policymakers to explore ways to stop depending on the greenback and conduct trade in alternative currencies.
An underlying reason behind the US's ability to enforce sanctions and its economic agenda on a global scale has to do with the greenback's pre-eminent status as a currency of choice for international trade. When two countries trade goods or services, they will most likely pay each other in dollars, which are then either changed back into local currency or even held in dollar reserves.
In the two-hour discussion witnessed by this correspondent, the Russians proposed to the Indian side if they could think of moving away from the dollar.
India has signed up for massive military purchases from Russia, including S-400 missiles and warships. The first payments for the Rs. 39,000-crore missile deal will be due soon.

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