General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - August 2019

Aug 2019

Feb 01, 2022

PNB Launches Co-branded Credit Cards with Patanjali

Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd launched co-branded contactless credit cards in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The cards are offered on NPCI's RuPay Platform and are available in two variants — PNB RuPay Platinum and PNB RuPay Select.

Tata Group Acquires Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd

Tata Group company, Tata Steel Long Products Ltd (TSLP) acquired Odisha-based Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) for Rs. 12,100 crore. Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) is a steel plant located in Kalinganagar in Odisha and was shut in March 2020 due to continued losses. It has a capacity of 1.1 million tonnes a year. This is the 1st instance of privatisation of a public sector steel manufacturing enterprise in India.
NINL is a joint venture of four central public sector companies — Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and MECON — and Odisha government entities OMC and IPICOL. NINL's plant has been shut since March 2020. The Odisha government has 32.47 per cent stake in NINL through IPICOL and OMC, whereas the MMTC holds the 49.78 per cent share.

Vedanta Ties up Rs. 8000 crore Facility with Union Bank to Take over Syndicated Facility

Vedanta tied up a facility of Rs. 8,000 crore with Union Bank of India to take over a majority of the Syndicated Facility after multiple discussions with potential lenders. During 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vedanta Ltd had tied up a syndicated facility of Rs. 10,000 crore with State Bank of India as the lead bank at a running cost of 10.5 per cent.

Sithraman Presents Union Budget

Budget 2022 was the second paperless Budget of the government and the fourth straight Budget of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The budget has always remained an intriguing subject because of the secrecy that is maintained in the long process of preparing it and also because of the interesting trivia associated with it.
The first Budget was introduced in India on April 7, 1860, when Scottish economist and politician James Wilson from East India Company presented it to the British Crown.
The first Budget of Independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by then finance minister R. K. Shanmukham Chetty.
Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for delivering the longest speech when she spoke for 2 hours and 42 minutes while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 on February 1, 2020. With two pages still remaining, she had to cut short her speech as she felt unwell.

Maharashtra has Highest Number of SC Entrepreneurs

Maharashtra topped India's list in the number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) owned by entrepreneurs from the Scheduled Castes with as many as 96,805 enterprises. Tamil Nadu with 42,997 enterprises and Rajasthan with 38,517 units occupy the second and third slots, according to the data furnished by the Office of the Development Commissioner in the Union Ministry of MSME.
The fourth, fifth and sixth slots belong to Uttar Pradesh (36,913 units), Karnataka (28,803 enterprises) and Punjab (24,503 units) respectively. Generally, the proportion of enterprises owned by Scheduled Caste entrepreneurs in the overall national tally of MSMEs is 6%.

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.

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