General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jan 31, 2022

Govt. Extends Term of LIC's Chairman & MD by One Year

The gov¬ern¬ment has extended the LIC chairman's term by one year. The current term of M R Kumar, chairman of LIC, was to end on March 13, 2022. Besides, the government also extended the tenure of one of the managing directors, Raj Kumar, for one year.
With the extension, M. R. Kumar will continue as chairman of LIC till March 2023.
This is the second extension for the LIC chairman. In June 2021, he was given a nine-month extension in a view of LIC's proposed initial public offering towards the end of the current financial year.

Urjit Patel Resigns as Non-executive, Independent Director of Britannia Industries

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel resigned from the post of non-executive and independent director at packaged foods company Britannia Industries Ltd., citing a full-time work assignment starting next month.
Patel was appointed vice president for investment operations in South Asia at the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). His appointment is effective from 1 February.
Patel was the 24th governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

SPMCIL Opens New Bank Note Printing Lines at Nashik and Dewas

Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) set up 'new banknote printing lines' at its Currency Note Press, Nashik and Bank Note Press, Dewas. In India, four printing presses for printing and supply of Banknotes. These are at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, Nasik in Maharashtra (owned by SPMCIL), Mysore in Karnataka, and Salboni in West Bengal (owned by Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL)).
SPMCIL, a Government of India owned Miniratna company, is engaged in the manufacture/production of Currency and Bank Notes, Security Paper, Non-Judicial Stamp Papers, Postal Stamps, Passport, Visa, Cheques, Bond, Warrant, Special Certificates with security features, Security Inks, Circulation & Commemorative Coins, Medallions, Refining of Gold & Silver, and Assay of Precious Metals among others.

Tata Group Choose SBI, BoB and HDFC Bank to Finance Air India's Old Debt

Tata Group chose State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank as preferred bankers for Air India. Tata Group took over Air India from the government. Air India is the largest international carrier out of India with an 18.6% market share. Tata Sons have availed of a Rs. 10,000-crore loan from SBI and a Rs. 5,000-crore loan from BoB. The loan from HDFC Bank is not known yet. The loans are unrated, unsecured, and pegged at 4.25% [interest rate] annually.
Tata Sons-promoted Talace acquired Air India, offering Rs. 18,000 crore that include Rs. 15,300 crore for the carrier's existing debt and Rs. 2,700 crore cash to be paid to the government. The new debt availed by the Tata Group will be used to refinance Air India's debt availed at over 10%.

Jan 30, 2022

Pencilton Launches Teen-Focused Debit and Travel Card

A teen-focused Fintech start-up based in India, Pencilton launched PencilCard, a debit card that is compliant with National Common Mobility Card standards. It was launched in partnership with Transcorp. The National Common Mobility Card was developed by India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in early 2019. It allows the user to pay for travel, toll duties, retail shopping and withdraw money.
PencilCard works for both online and offline payments in addition to its utility as a metro and bus card. It can currently be used for travel on the airport line in Delhi and a KTC bus card in Pune. It will soon be accepted for metro travel in Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai. Also in the works is utilization on BEST buses in Mumbai.
PencilCard is also a Platinum RuPay card that brings additional perks such as free access to all airport lounges in India. Users can activate their card via the Pencilton app for loading money, getting a category-wise spend analysis, blocking or unblocking cards, setting limits, establishing savings goals, saving in a 'digital piggy bank', finishing chores given by parents for bonus pocket money and accessing a variety of other functions.

L&T Bags 'Large' Offshore Contract from ONGC

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said that its wholly-owned arm has bagged a large offshore contract from ONGC for the seventh development phase of their pipeline replacement projects.
This contract, awarded through international competitive bidding, reposes ONGC's confidence in L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE) capabilities and commitment to support ONGC in strategic oil and gas sector, and contribute to country's energy security.
The contract involves engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of 350 km subsea pipelines and related offshore works spread out across country's west coast offshore fields of ONGC.

Indian Oil Extends Director SSV Ramakumar's Tenure

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. announced the extension of tenure of SSV Ramakumar as director, research and development, till 31 July 2023 on the board of the state-owned energy major.
He had joined the Indian Oil board as director in February 2017.
An alumnus of IIT-Roorkee, Ramakumar has more than three decades of experience in research, development and deployment in the downstream hydrocarbons sector, notably in the areas of lubricant technology, refinery process research streams, catalyst development and nanotechnology.

Jan 29, 2022

SBI Gets All Approvals to Set up Bad Bank

Lenders will transfer 15 large ticket stress loans worth Rs. 50,000 crore in the first tranche to the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) by the end of March 2022 for resolution.
By current assessment, lenders have a total of 38 accounts involving aggregate loans of Rs. 83,845 crore, which have been identified for transfer, Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India said.
This is scaled down target to compared to Rs. 2 trillion to be given to NARCL, also called as bad bank.

Pushp Kumar Joshi to be New Chairman and Managing Director of HPCL

Pushp Kumar Joshi was picked by government headhunter PESB to be the new chairman and managing director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), the nation's third largest oil refining and fuel marketing company.
Joshi, who is currently Director - Human Resources at HPCL - was picked after PESB interviewed 10 candidates.
Joshi has been on the board of HPCL for almost a decade now.
Joshi had missed out on being the head of HPCL on previous two occasions - first in August 2013 when Nishi Vasudeva was picked by PESB and again in October 2015 when Surana was selected.

N. Chandrasekaran Likely to Head New Air India Board

The new board of Air India - which was acquired by salt-to software conglomerate Tata Sons is likely to have an eight member body with Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran as the chairman.
This will be the first time that Chandrasekaran will be heading a board of the group's aviation ventures and shows the growing importance of the sector in the group's business plan. Chandrasekaran is not part of the board of Tata's other two airlines- Vistara and AirAsia India.

Jet Airways Appoints Priyapal Singh as its Accountable Manager

Grounded carrier Jet Airways appointed Priyapal Singh as its 'accountable manager', replacing Sudhir Gaur who resigned from the company late last year.
Singh, a squadron leader with IAF who has been associated with Jet Airways and JetLite in various capacities prior to its grounding in April 2019, moved back to Jet, which is now owned by the Murari Lal Jalan-Kalrock consortium, from the Nepal Airlines Corporation.

Jan 28, 2022

L&T Signs MoU with HydrogenPro for Manufacturing Hydrogen Electrolysers in India

Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HydrogenPro AS, a Norway-based electrolyser technology and manufacturing company to tap the emerging Green Hydrogen market.
Under this agreement, L&T and HydrogenPro will jointly work towards setting up of a joint venture in India for Gigawatt-scale manufacturing of alkaline water electrolysers based on HydrogenPro technology for Indian market and other select geographies.

Paytm's Madhur Deora Gets Additional Role as CFO of One97 Communications

Paytm, India's leading digital payments and financial services platform, elevated Madhur Deora to take on the additional responsibility as the CFO of One97 Communications Limited. Currently, Deora holds the role of the company's Group President and CFO.
In December 2021, the company, in an exchange filing, had talked about Deora's additional responsibilities, while a recent MCA filing now shows his appointment as the CFO.
Deora has been associated with the company for five years now. He holds a bachelor's degree of science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Airtel Africa Inducted into London Stock Exchange's FTSE 100 Index

Bharti Airtel's subsidiary Airtel Africa was inducted into the London Stock Exchange's (LSE) FTSE 100 index.
Airtel Africa was listed on LSE in June 2019 and had a market capitalisation of $ 7.5 billion on Wednesday.
This is a significant milestone for Airtel Africa which becomes part of FTSE 100 index in just two and half years of listing. Airtel Africa is a strong player in the continent which has emerged as the next growth frontier globally.

Tata Group Takes over Air India

The process of Air India disinvestment got completed with the government officially handing over the management control of the airlines to Talace Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata Group's holding company.
After a competitive bidding process, the government had on October 8 last year sold Air India to Talace Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata Group's holding company, for Rs. 18,000 crore.
As a part of the deal, the Tata group has also been handed over Air India Express and a 50 percent stake in ground handling arm Air India SATS.
While this will be the first privatisation since 2003-04, Air India will be the third airline brand in the Tata Group's stable, it holds a majority interest in AirAsia India and Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Jan 27, 2022

Allcargo Logistics Appoints V. S. Parthasarathy as Vice-Chairman

Private logistics player Allcargo Logistics announced the appointment of Mahindra Group's former executive board member V. S. Parthasarathy as its vice-chairman with immediate effect.
His role as the company's non-executive non-independent vice-chairman will be to guide, mentor and help drive its transformation along with subsidiaries ECU Worldwide and Gati Limited.
In March last year, Parthasarathy had quit the group after serving it for over 21 years in various capacities.

PMC Bank's Branches Begin Functioning as Unity SFB Outfit

The branches of beleaguered Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) began functioning as branches of Unity Small Finance Bank (Unity SFB).
The Government of India notified the scheme of amalgamation of PMC Bank with Unity Small Finance Bank.
The scheme of amalgamation notified envisages takeover of the assets and liabilities of PMC Bank, including deposits, by the Unity Small Finance Bank in terms of the provisions of the scheme.
Unity SFB, which is a 51:49 joint venture between the Centrum Group and Bharat Pe, is making necessary arrangements to implement the provisions of the scheme.
Unity SFB started its operations in November 2021 after receiving a final nod from the central bank. The promoters of Unity Small Finance Bank along with the joint investor have infused a capital of Rs. 1,105.10 crore in Unity Small Finance Bank as on November 1, 2021.

TCS World's Second most Valuable IT Brand

According to Brand Finance, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) became the second most valued brand in the information technology (IT) services sector globally, while Accenture retained the title of the world's most valuable and strongest IT services brand.
Infosys emerged as the fastest growing IT services brand following 52 per cent brand value growth since last year and 80 per cent since 2020 to $12.8 billion, earning it third spot, the brand valuation consultancy said in its latest Global 500 IT Services Ranking report.
TCS and Infosys have pushed IBM to fourth spot from second. IBM's brand value now stands at $10.6 billion, a decline of 34 per cent from last year and 50 per cent since 2020. The US technology major's brand value has fallen significantly after the divestment of Kyndryl.

NSE IFSC Appoints Rajiv Mehrishi as Chairman of Governing Board

NSE IFSC, NSE's International Exchange in GIFT City, appointed Rajiv Mehrishi as the chairman of its governing board.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) had earlier approved his appointment as Public Interest Director (PID) on the Governing Board of NSE IFSC in December 2021.
Mehrishi, a retired IAS officer, was the 13th Comptroller and Auditor General of India and vice-chairman of the United Nations Panel of External Auditors.
Few of his prior roles include being finance secretary, home secretary and the chief secretary at government of Rajasthan.

Naina Lal Kidwai resigns from Cipla Board

Drug major Cipla said that Naina Lal Kidwai resigned as independent director on its board, with effect from March 31, 2022.
In a letter shared by the Mumbai-based drug firm, the veteran banker noted that she has put in her papers to fulfil several other responsibilities and professional commitments.

Amin Lakhani Elevated as CEO Mindshare, Parthasarathy Mandayam CSO GroupM

GroupM, the media investment group of WPP, announced the appointment of Parthasarathy Mandayam (Maps) as the Chief Strategy Officer – GroupM South Asia and Amin Lakhani was elevated to the role of Chief Executive Officer – Mindshare South Asia, which was earlier led by Maps.
With more than 25 years of experience in the advertising & communication industry, Maps has successfully managed multiple leadership roles in Mindshare – across Data, Analytics, Strategy, Client Leadership and Business Unit leadership.

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