Birla Corp Inaugurates Mukutban Plant, Takes Group Capacity to 20 mn Tonnes
M. P. Birla Group flagship, Birla Corporation, inaugurated a 3.9 million tonne greenfield plant in Mukutban, Maharashtra, taking the total group capacity to 20 million tonnes.
The Mukutban plant is being set up by RCCPL Private Limited (RCCPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Birla Corporation, at an investment of Rs. 2,744 crore, making it the largest greenfield investment in the history of the group.
The plant will be the fourth integrated cement unit of the group and the biggest single line/kiln cement plant in Maharashtra, by capacity. It will be powered by 2 x 20 MW thermal captive power plant, which is based on Air-Cooled Condenser (ACC) technology to minimize water consumption by 90 per cent.
City Union Bank Launches Fitness Watch Debit Card in tie-up with GOQii
City Union Bank, the oldest private sector bank in India, in association with smart-tech-enabled preventive healthcare platform GOQii and powered by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), launched a wearable payment solution called CUB fitness watch debit card.
Customers need to hold this wristwatch in front of the PoS device during payment like tapping the card on PoS. For payments above Rs. 5,000, customers need to tap and enter their PIN. The introductory price of a smartwatch debit card is Rs. 3,499, as compared to an actual cost of Rs. 6,499).
Customers can set limits for their payments using Net / Mobile Banking. Payments made using this Debit Card in a Fitness Watch are safe and secure, the bank said in a statement. For each transaction done using the watch, SMS will be sent to the registered mobile number.
Reserve Bank of India Imposes Penalties on 8 Cooperative Banks
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed penalties on eight cooperative banks for deficiencies in their regulatory compliances.
The eight banks are: The Jammu Central Co-operative Bank Ltd, Jammu and the Jodhpur Nagrik Sahakari Bank, Bhadradri Co-operative Urban Bank, Rajkot Peoples Co-operative Bank, Vasai Janata Sahakari Bank, Mogaveera Co-operative Bank Ltd, Varachha Co-operative Bank Ltd and Associate Co-operative Bank Ltd.
The penalities are based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their respective customers.
Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric Valuation Tops $5 bn
Ola Electric, the ride-hailing firm's electric vehicle (EV) arm, raised over $200 million from Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss and others. The latest round values the company at $5 billion, an increase from its previous valuation of $3 billion.
In October last year, Ola Electric, raised over $200 million led by Falcon Edge, Softbank and others, tripling its valuation to $3 billion. In July 2019, Ola Electric raised $250 million from Masayoshi Son's SoftBank. It was just a two-year-old firm at that time. The investment made the fledgling venture a "unicorn", or a start-up valued at more than $1 billion.
Jan 25, 2022
Paytm, Fullerton Announce Partnership to Scale up Digital Lending to MSMEs
Paytm and non-banking financial company Fullerton India have announced a partnership to expand digital lending to MSMEs and consumers from smaller cities and towns.
Fullerton India and One97 Communications Limited, which owns the brand Paytm, India's leading digital payments and financial services platform, have announced a partnership to provide lending products to merchant partners and consumers. With the partnership, the two established institutions will leverage data-driven insights and wide reach to bring credit to new-to-credit users.
With this partnership, the fintech users will get Paytm Postpaid (buy-now-pay-later) feature on the Paytm platform. Besides, the partnership is set to offer lending products like merchant loans.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Launches Platina Fixed Deposit
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank launched Platina Fixed Deposit, which offers interest of 15 basis points in addition to the regular Ujjivan SFB term deposit rates.
The general FD for 990 days tenure gives 6.75% for general citizens and 7.50% for senior citizens, but Platina FD offers 15 bps over and above these interest rates, as per the company.
However, it comes with certain conditions. The minimum FD amount is Rs. 20 lakh and the maximum amount is less than Rs. 2 crore.
The Platina FD is a non-callable deposit, partial & pre-mature withdrawal is not applicable to this scheme.
The interest payout options can be availed on the monthly, quarterly and also at the end of the maturity period.
The deposit tenure ranges from one year to a maximum of five years.
Jan 24, 2022
Govt. Launches Portal to Share Key Performance Indicators of Coal Sector
The government announced the launch of a portal, 'Koyla Darpan', to share key performance indicators related to the coal sector.
The portal was launched by Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain.
As an initial step, the portal has key performance indicators like coal/ lignite production, coal/ lignite offtake, exploration data, central sector schemes, status of coal stock at thermal power plants, allocation of blocks, monitoring of major coal mines, and coal price.
KMBL Signs MoU with GIFT SEZ
To strengthen the presence in the country's new financial & technology gateway, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited (KMBL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GIFT SEZ Limited (GIFT SEZ), enabling both to work together towards greater enhancement of the financial services eco-system in GIFT IFSC for AIFs and Global Custody Services.
Both Kotak Mahindra Bank and GIFT SEZ (a wholly owned subsidiary company of Gujarat International Finance Tech-City Co. Ltd), will cooperate towards wide-ranging activities to improve customers' overall financial services offerings.
According to the MoU, one area of focus will be to ease market access and cross border activities for the fund management community.
Both KMBL and GIFT SEZ will jointly work on promoting the GIFT IFSC jurisdiction for AIF fund structures, holding seminars and knowledge series, ease of doing business, expansion of financial infrastructure including the custodian activities like setting up of Global Custody services, etc.
PTC India's Independent Director Rakesh Kacker Resigns
Rakesh Kacker, Independent Director, PTC India Ltd resigned from board expressing anguish over serious governance issues at subsidiary PTC India Financial Services Ltd (PFS). Kacker was also independent director on board of PFS till December 31, 2021.
Despite best efforts, the Independent Directors could not convince the management of PTC and PFS to take proper action to run the company.
As a result, the company is now facing serious Governance issues with several defaults of the Companies Act, 2013 and regulation of the Securities & Exchange Board of India. Due to this, the operations of the company also must have been affected, he added.
Jan 23, 2022
IIMK LIVE and Indian Bank ink MoU to Disburse Loans for Start-ups
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode's (IIMK) Business incubator Laboratory for Innovation Venturing and Entrepreneurship (LIVE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Bank to financially support early-stage start-ups. Under the MoU, a start-up funding scheme, 'IndSpring Board' was launched. Under this scheme loans up to Rs. 50 crore would be disbursed to the start-ups.
The start-ups can use the loan amount to meet their operational expenditure and capital expenditure which includes working capital, purchase of fixed assets and other expenses.
The loan amount disbursed to start-ups under the IndSpring Board scheme from IIMK LIVE and Indian Bank can be used to meet a start-up operational expenditure and capital expenditure which includes working capital, purchase of fixed assets and other expenses.
Start-ups selected under this scheme would have to be committed towards working on innovation, development or improvement of products or processes or services, or present a scalable business model with a high potential of employment generation or wealth creation.
Three R&D Projects Approved under India-Israel Tech Innovation Fund
Deliberating on widening the scope of India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F), the two countries approved three joint R&D projects worth $5.5 million and suggested measures to create a broader India-Israel collaborative ecosystem.
The projects are 'Centrally monitored IoT nano-sensors for molecular diagnostics in healthcare and screening applications'; 'NoMoreMos' - a mosquito control biological solution; and 'IoT enabled satellite communication for real-time collection of agriculture and environment data across India'.
Fintech Association Applies to RBI for SRO Role in Digital Lending Space
Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment, or FACE as it is popularly known, has applied to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take on the role of a self-regulatory organisation (SROs) in the digital lending space. This comes after a working group of the central bank, tasked with studying digital lending in the regulated financial sector as well as by unregulated players, recommended creation of SROs, among other things to keep a check on the activities of digital lenders.
Formed in September 2020, FACE is a not-for-profit industry association, intended to drive ethical lending practices among the digital lenders in the country. The organisation has been working closely with the regulator (RBI), industry players, and other stakeholders to address the need of consumer protection and dealing with fringe-elements that hurt consumer trust in the system. Digital lenders such as EarlySalary, Kissht, LoanTap, Cashe, KreditBee, PaySense, StashFIN, CredAvenue, and a few others are members of FACE.
ReNew Power Joins Hands with Fluence to Offer Energy Storage Solutions
ReNew Power formed a Joint Venture (JV) with US headquartered Fluence to form a new entity which will provide energy storage solutions in India. The 50:50 JV will target the country's storage market, which is estimated to grow to 27 GW by 2030.
Managed and operated by an independent management team and board, the JV aims to bring market-leading energy storage technology and global experience to Indian customers by localising and integrating Fluence's energy storage products and packages in India.
The first project the JV will cater to is a 50 MWh battery-based energy storage system (BESS) for ReNew Powers' 300 MW Peak Power Project in Karnataka.
Jan 22, 2022
NCLAT Okays ArcelorMittal Resolution Plan for Odisha Slurry Pipeline Infra
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) approved ArcelorMittal's resolution plan for Odisha Slurry Pipeline Infrastructure (OSPIL) dismissing a raft of appeals including those filed by SREI entities.
OSPIL owns and operates a 253-km slurry pipeline – a critical ancillary unit of Essar Steel, now ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India). In December 2019, ArcelorMittal India Private Ltd's (AMIPL) resolution plan for OSPIL under the insolvency law was approved by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Cuttack bench in March 2020.
Walmart Invites Indian Sellers to Join its US Marketplace
Retail giant Walmart invited select Indian sellers to join Walmart Marketplace, a curated sellers community that serves more than 120 million US shoppers each month.
India is already one of the top sourcing markets for Walmart and the retail major has set an ambitious goal of exporting USD 10 billion from India each year by 2027.
Walmart is seeking new sellers from India as part of a global drive to attract international sellers and expand the Marketplace's product assortment.
Indian Sellers, selected after the process, will be able to take advantage of Walmart Fulfillment Services, which would give them to use Walmart's warehousing and delivery infrastructure in the US, along with platform tools that help them streamline their operations and manage promotions.
SEBI's Saarthi Mobile App
The Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI launched the Saarthi mobile application. The application provides information about security markets. It is highly useful for investors.
The application provides explanation about mutual funds, its working, trading and settlement, KYC (Know Your Customer) processes, developments in the market, etc. Also, the application includes grievance redressal mechanism.
The application uses both Hindi and English. It is available for both iOS and android users. In future, the app will be made available in local languages as well.
Essar Capital Appoints Anil K. Chaudhary as CEO
Essar Capital, the investment arm of Essar Global Fund, appointed Anil Kumar Chaudhary as Chief Executive Officer for the metals & mining business.
Chaudhary was formerly the Chairman and Managing Director of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and was the Chairman of International Coal Ventures (ICVL) and mjunction services.
Chaudhary will be a member of the Executive Committee, and will play a key role in driving the investment strategy and growth in the Metals & Mining Vertical, domestically and globally. He was earlier the President of Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI). Currently, he is the Chairman of Minerals and Metals Committee of PHDCCI.
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