General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - January 2019

Jan 2019

Jul 21, 2023

Cognizant Appoints Six Women Executives as Senior Vice Presidents

Cognizant appointed six women for senior vice president (SVP) roles, which include a mix of promotions and new hires and marked leadership changes under Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ravi Kumar S.
Cognizant has seen leadership changes since Kumar joined as its CEO in January 2023. One of Kumar's key priorities has been to increase Cognizant's diverse talent, including in leadership positions, in addition to focusing on three key imperatives: make the company an employer of choice in the IT services firm industry, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance operational discipline.
The sixwomen appointed as vice presidents were: Elisa de Rocca-Serra, Thea Hayden, Patricia (Trish) Hunter-Dennehy, Sailaja Josyula, Archana Ramanakumar and Sandra Natardonato.

SBI Capital Market Ropes in Rajay Kumar Sinha as MD & CEO

Rajay Kumar Sinha was appointed as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of SBI Capital Markets Limited (SBICAPS).
Earlier, he was in charge of Treasury operations of SBI, managing investment portfolio, money market, equity, private equity & forex operations of the Bank.
Sinha replaced Amitava Chatterjee who moved to SBI, Corporate Centre as Deputy Managing Director, in charge of Commercial Clients Group.
Sinha brings in global markets expertise that will help strengthen SBICAPS' investment banking business in India and overseas.

Japan Second Quad Partner to Sign Semiconductor Pact with India

Japan became the second Quad partner after the United States to sign an agreement with India for the joint development of the semiconductor ecosystem and maintain the resilience of its global supply chain.
The agreement was signed between Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw and Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura in the national capital.
The nations will create an implementation organisation that will work on government-to-government and industry-to-industry cooperation.
With around 100 semiconductor manufacturing plants, Japan is among the top five countries to have a semiconductor ecosystem.

Jul 20, 2023

Finance Ministry Appoints SEBI ED Pramod Rao to IFSCA Board

Finance Ministry appointed Pramod Rao, Executive Director, SEBI, as a Member in the Board of International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA). Rao replaced Sujit Prasad, Executive Director SEBI, who was appointed as a Member (representing SEBI) in IFSCA in July 2020.
Rao took charge as SEBI Executive Director on July 15, 2022. Prior to this assignment at SEBI, Rao, an alumnus of the National Law School of India University, held the position of Group General Counsel at ICICI Bank and provided strategic oversight to the legal function for the ICICI Group.
Earlier, he had served as a Member of the Board of Directors of ICICI Securities Ltd, ICICI Prudential Trust Ltd and ICICI Trusteeship Services Ltd.
The IFSCA is a statutory authority established under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019 with a mandate to develop and regulate the financial products, financial services, and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centres (IFSC). Currently, GIFT City in Gujarat is India's first and only operational IFSC.

SBI to Set Up Trustee Company to Manage CDMDF

State Bank of India will set up a new trustee company as its wholly-owned subsidiary for managing the Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF).
CDMDF will act as a backstop facility for purchase of investment grade corporate debt securities to instill confidence amongst the participants in the corporate bond market during times of stress and to generally enhance secondary market liquidity by creating a permanent institutional framework for activation in times of market stress.
SBI Funds Management Ltd (SBIFML), the asset management company (AMC) of SBI Mutual Fund, has been identified as the investment manager-cum-sponsor of CDMDF.
CDMDF will be launched as a close ended scheme with an initial tenure of 15 years from the date of its initial closing (date on which contribution from all AMCs and specified schemes is received by CDMDF).

PhonePe Insurance Launches Monthly Subscriptions for Health Policies

PhonePe Insurance Broking Services launched health insurance plans that for the first time in India offer monthly subscriptions, a move that can reduce the burden of one-time payments for the citizens amid price pressures.
The health insurance plans, in partnership with leading insurers, are introducing UPI monthly mode of payment.
The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of fintech major PhonePe, has sold more than 5.6 million policies. Its insurance plans have a coverage of up to Rs. 1 crore and allow users to choose any hospital room without limit.

Jul 19, 2023

Neeraj Akhoury New President of Cement Manufacturers' Association

The Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA), the apex body of India's large cement manufacturers, unanimously elected Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director of Shree Cement, as President and Parth Jindal, Managing Director of JSW Cement as vice president. Akhoury took over from K. C. Jhanwar, Managing Director of UltraTech Cement Limited. Members unanimously endorsed the election of the president and vice president of CMA expressing full confidence in the newly elected leadership team.
The Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA) is the apex body of large cement plants in India, representing almost 90% of the total installed cement capacity. CMA was established in 1946 with the objective of promoting the growth and development of the Indian cement industry.
The CMA is a member of the World Cement Association and the Asia Cement Federation. It also has close working relationships with other industry associations and government bodies.

Tamil Nadu Tops NITI Aayog's Export Preparedness Index 2022

Tamil Nadu pipped Maharashtra and Gujarat and emerge as the top state among coastal states in the Niti Aayog's Export Preparedness Index 2022.
Tamil Nadu was followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Kerala in that order in the ranking of coastal states, according to the government think tank's report.
Among hilly/Himalayan states, Uttarakhand ranked at the top position. It was followed by Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in that order.
Haryana topped the chart among the landlocked regions. It was followed by Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The ranking is based on four main pillars: policy, business ecosystem, export ecosystem and export performance.
The index is also aimed at promoting competition among all states (coastal, landlocked, Himalayan and UTs) to bring about favourable policies, ease the regulatory framework, create necessary infrastructure and assist in identifying strategic recommendations for improving export competitiveness.

Jul 18, 2023

CoinDCX Collaborates with Jocata Over Anti-money Laundering Processes

CoinDCX, India's leading crypto company, partnered with Jocata, a leading B2B FinTech and RegTech platform provider for the BFSI industry, to further strengthen its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance processes.
As per reports, this partnership will help CoinDCX leverage Jocata's artificial intelligence-based insights to make faster decisions, thus correctly identifying false negatives.
According to Chainalysis 2022 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, India has emerged as the fourth biggest nation in adopting crypto, receiving $172 billion in crypto value from July 2021 to June 2022.

Credit Suisse Ltd Appoints Daniel Hunziker as Head of Corporate Banking

Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd. announced a change in leadership within its Corporate Clients area. Daniel Hunziker, who currently serves as the Head of Institutional Clients and is a member of the Executive Board, was appointed head of Corporate Clients business, effective immediately, in addition to his current role.
The appointment of Daniel Hunziker came as Andreas Gerber, the current Head of Corporate Banking and a member of the Executive Board at Credit Suisse (Switzerland) will be taking a break for the time being.

HDFC Bank Breaks into $100 Billion Market-cap Club as World's 7th Largest Lender

HDFC Bank, India's largest private sector lender, entered the exclusive global club of companies with a $100 billion market capitalisation following the listing of new shares of HDFC Bank issued to shareholders of parent company HDFC Ltd after the $40 billion reverse merger.
HDFC Bank is now the world's seventh largest lender, beating the likes of Morgan Stanley and Bank of China.
In terms of market cap, HDFC Bank is behind JP Morgan at $438 billion, Bank of America at $232 billion, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at $224 billion, the Agricultural Bank of China at $171 billion, Wells Fargo at $163 billion, and HSBC at $160 billion.

Shantanu Deshpande New MD of Michelin India

French tyre major Michelin appointed Shantanu Deshpande as Managing Director of its Indian operations. He will be based out of Pune.
Across his 23-year tenure with Michelin, Deshpande held various leadership roles in sales and marketing, both in India and in other geographies such as North America, Africa, Middle East and Asia.
He had joined Michelin India in 1999 as an Area Sales Manager.
He was later appointed India Marketing Director in 2007 and in this role, he was instrumental in establishing the company's presence in the country.
From 2012 to 2015, Deshpande served as Vice President Marketing with a Michelin subsidiary in North America.
He was Director Marketing B2B business for Africa, India & Middle East Region from 2015 to 2020.
Since 2020, Shantanu has served as Global Marketing Director for Michelin Group's Urban Business Line based out of Bangkok.
Headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Michelin is present in 175 countries and operates 67 tyre production facilities.

Indian Oil Inks LNG Deals with UAE's Adnoc, France's TotalEnergies

Indian Oil Corporation, the country's top refiner, signed long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals with United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Co Ltd (ADNOC LNG) and France's TotalEnergies.
The two deals were signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Visit to France and UAE. Supplies under the two deals would commence from 2026.
ADNOC LNG would supply up to 1.2 million metric tonnes per year of LNG to IOC for 14 years.
This is the first time that an Indian company has signed a long term LNG import deal with ADNOC.
TotalEnergies would supply 0.8 million metric tonnes per year LNG to IOC under the 10 year deal.

Jul 17, 2023

IRDAI Appoints Tata AIG as Lead Non-life Insurer for Maharashtra

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) selected Tata AIG General Insurance as the lead non-life insurer for the state of Maharashtra.
As lead insurer the company will collaborate with all non-life and health insurance companies in the state to increase insurance penetration.
The regulator developed the concept of a lead insurer to increase insurance penetration in the states in line with its vision of 'Insurance for all by 2047'.
Besides non-life and health insurance companies, Tata AIG will collaborate with IRDAI, and the state government of Maharashtra to create awareness, enhance insurance reach, and improve accessibility at the Gram Panchayat, district, and state levels.
The company will also promote the adoption of flagship government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) in Maharashtra.

India and UAE Sign Historic Memorandum of Understanding on LCS System

In a significant move to strengthen economic ties, India and the United Arab Emirates signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding on the Local Currency Settlement (LCS) system. This groundbreaking agreement, signed between the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of the UAE, aims to revolutionise cross-border transactions between the two nations.
The LCS system allows for the use of the Indian Rupee and UAE Dirham in bilateral trade, marking India's first-ever LCS arrangement. This innovative system is expected to have a transformative impact on transaction costs and processing time while also increasing reliance on local currencies. The agreement came as a significant milestone in the rapidly evolving India-UAE relationship, in line with the Vision Statement unveiled by the two leaders during their virtual summit in February 2022.
Under the LCS system, traders and businesses will have the flexibility to choose the payment currency based on mutual agreement, providing a seamless and efficient mechanism for cross-border transactions. This move is set to reduce dependence on international currencies and further strengthen economic cooperation between India and the UAE. Additionally, the LCS system enables the use of surplus balances in local currencies for investment in various local currency assets, such as corporate bonds, government securities, and equity markets, creating new avenues for growth and collaboration.

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