General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - June 2020

Jun 2020

Oct 08, 2020

India Leads the World in Real-time Transactions a Day

According to a report, India has become the global leader in real-time financial transactions with 41 million transactions per day, which is more than double that of the last year.
According to the latest report from FIS, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen India doubling its every day real-time transactions at 41 million, which is a leading provider of technology solutions for merchants, banks and capital markets firms globally.
According to the report, six other countries also saw more than doubling of their real-time payment transactions year-over-year, while four saw at least a twofold increase in transaction value.
But in terms of the growth rate, the list is topped by Bahrain with 657 per cent growth, followed by Ghana clipping at 488 per cent, the Philippines growing at 309 per cent, Australia at 214 per cent and Poland at 208 per cent.
India's growth was 213 per cent, handling 41 million transactions a day, according to the report.

HDFC Bank Ties up with Apollo Hospitals

According to Aditya Puri CEO and Managing Director of HDFCV Bank, HDFC Bank tied-up with Apollo Hospitals through which its customers can avail unsecured loans of up to Rs. 40 lakh to pay for medical expenses incurred at the healthcare chain. The loans will be disbursed almost instantly as and when a need for money arises, and the hospital patients who are customers of HDFC Bank will also receive preferential treatment.
Apollo executive vice-chairperson Shobana Kamineni said that HDFC Bank has 65 million customers who can take advantage of this facility. She stressed that while availing health insurance is necessary, it does not cover all aspects despite providing cashless facilities and hence, such a tie-up will help.

Uber Partners Lithium Urban Tech to Onboard 1,000 EVs in India

Ride-hailing major Uber announced a partnership with electric vehicle fleet operator Lithium Urban Technologies to deploy over 1,000 EVs in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.
Uber had already deployed more than 100 such electric vehicles (all sedan), such as Mahindra eVerito and Tata Tigor EV, on its platform.
According to Prabhjeet Singh, president, Uber India and South Asia, after our partnerships with Yulu, Mahindra and SUN Mobility, this is the fourth partnership in this space and Uber will always remain committed to providing smarter mobility, building greener cities and creating healthier lives.
Lithium's charging hubs in the selected cities have the capacity to charge multiple cars and buses simultaneously. While a fast charger can charge a sedan in 90 minutes, a slow charger can do that in 8 to 9 hours.

Union Cabinet Approves Natural Gas Marketing Reforms

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the natural gas marketing reforms. The reforms aim to fix the gas prices in the market through transparent and competitive processes.
E-Bidding Platform: The main objective of the reforms is to provide standard procedure for the sale of Natural Gas in the country. It also aims to provide a transparent and competitive method of discovering market prices through e-bidding.
The reforms permit the associated Gas companies to participate in the building. This in turn will Kindle the competition in the gas market.
Producers will have choice to select a platform
The reforms will give massive push towards gas consumption
The open acreage licensing policy has increased investor driven acreage auction process. Currently, under the reforms, acreages are being allocated only in category 2 and category 3 basins.
Complete marketing and pricing freedom have been provided to domestic gas production companies. This was provided especially to those companies that discovered and developed field plans after February 2019.
The policy will help in bringing uniformity in the bidding process.
It will contribute towards each of doing business.
The reforms will provide a huge boost to the the atma nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan as it will encourage domestic investments in the production of natural gas. On the other hand, it will reduce the gas imports.

Poland Fines Gazprom $7.6 Billion over Pipeline

Polish antitrust authorities have fined Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom USD 7.6 billion (6.5 billion euros) for its role in building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, saying the project hurts Polish consumers and increases Europe's dependence on Russian imports.
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection also fined five other international companies participating in the project a total of USD 61 million (52 million euros).
Poland is strongly opposed to the pipeline, which is in its final stages of construction and is due to transport Russian natural gas across the Baltic Sea bed to Germany and western Europe, bypassing traditional transit routes through Ukraine and Poland.
The authorities said that the pipeline could lead to higher gas prices in Poland, hurting consumers.
The other companies fined are Engie Energy, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall.
The fines amount to 10 per cent of the companies' annual revenue and can be appealed.

Oct 07, 2020

Chargebee Raises $55 million in a Sequence-F Funding

Chennai-based software program firm Chargebee raised $55 million in a Sequence-F funding spherical led by Perception Companions, a world enterprise capital and personal fairness agency investing in high-growth know-how and software program scale-up corporations.
The present spherical of funding consists of participation from present buyers (Steadview Capital and Tiger World), bringing the whole funding raised until date to $105 million.
With this funding, the primary area of investment is to expand product capabilities to serve our enterprise customers, investments in sales and marketing globally and in partnerships with our over 75 global software as a service (SaaS) partners.

KIOCL Achieves Highest Export Turnover in 2019-20

KIOCL Ltd., a public sector undertaking under the Union Ministry of Steel, exported 1.99 million tonnes of pellets worth Rs. 1,574.13 crore, highest since the closure of its Kudremukh captive mine (2005) during 2019-20.
Total exports stood at 84%, up by 31% year-on-year basis, penetrating into Brazil, Middle East, China, European markets etc, thereby improving overall performance of the company all through complete utilisation of sea route.
According to company Chairman and MD M.V. Subba Rao, during the year, the pellet production was 2.375 million tonnes, up by 6% YoY, pellet dispatch was 2.356 million tonnes, up by 7% YoY, revenue from operations was Rs. 2,056.53 crore, up by 2% YoY and profit after tax was Rs. 43.48 crore.
The company has spent Rs. 3.31 crore in 2019-20 towards various corporate social responsibility initiatives in education, sports, drinking water etc.

Services PMI Shows Slump Easing

According to a business survey, the pace of contraction in services sector activity eased considerably in September after the government lifted some COVID-19 restrictions, but demand continued to shrink, prompting firms to cut more jobs.
Signs of stabilisation in services are likely to provide more comfort to policymakers after a sister survey last week showed India's manufacturing expanded at its fastest pace in over eight years, suggesting business conditions were gradually returning to normal in Asia's third-largest economy.
The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) bounced to 49.8 in September from August's 41.8, a touch below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction on a monthly basis.
The services sector accounts for about 55% of India's economy and almost a third of its jobs.

GoI Approves 16 PLI Projects in Electronics Manufacturing Sector

The Centre approved 16 proposals from marquee brands, including makers of Apple devices, under two new flagship schemes, in a move expected to fetch Rs. 11,000-crore additional investments in local electronics manufacturing. In turn, this would imply production worth Rs. 10.5 trillion over the next five years, giving a fillip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India and Atma Nirbhar Bharat schemes.
As per the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, a total of Rs. 6.5 trillion worth of electronic goods will be exported by 2025 under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) plan.
As part of the newly introduced PLI scheme, five applications have been approved from international electronics manufacturing majors Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron (all three makers of Apple products besides other brands), Samsung and Rising Star.
Five proposals from Indian manufacturers — Micromax, Lava, Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics--have also been cleared. These five are estimated to have a potential to manufacture Rs 1.25 trillion worth of handsets in the next five years.

Torrent Gas to Invest Rs. 8,000 cr. in Distribution

Torrent Gas Ltd. will invest Rs. 8,000 crore over the next five years in expanding its city gas operations with a target to set up 500 CNG dispensing pumps by March 2023.
Torrent Gas, the city gas distribution (CGD) arm of Gujarat-based $3-billion Torrent Group, holds a city gas licence for selling compressed natural gas (CNG) to vehicles and piped cooking gas (PNG) to industries and households kitchens in 32 districts across seven states.
Within 18 months of its operations, Torrent Gas has set up 100 CNG pumps.

Oct 06, 2020

Decade-long Oracle-Google Copyright Case Heads to top US Court

A decade-old legal battle between Silicon Valley giants Oracle and Google over software rights moved to the Supreme Court, in a case with enormous implications for copyright in the digital era.
The top court scheduled oral arguments in the case which dates back to a lawsuit filed in 2010 by Oracle seeking billions from Google over its use of Java programming language in its Android mobile operating system.
Two separate jury trials ended with a determination that Google's "software interface" did not unfairly use Java code, saving the internet giant from a possible multibillion-dollar verdict.
But an appeals court in 2018 disagreed, saying the software interface is entitled to copyright protection, prompting Google to take the case to the highest US court.

Nvidia Lays out Plan to Create New Kind of Data Center Chip

Nvidia Corp laid out a multi-year plan to create a new kind of chip for data centers, aimed at siphoning off more functions from its chief rival Intel Corp.
Models with limited features will debut in months, while full-fledged versions are planned within two years, Nvidia said in a press briefing. Server companies such as Dell Technologies and Lenovo Group Ltd plan to integrate them into their machines.
Nvidia chips have long been used to improve video game graphics, but in recent years they have helped to speed up artificial intelligence tasks such as image recognition. The chips typically sit alongside an Intel central processor, offloading some of the computing work.
Nvidia is now seeking to grab more tasks with its proposed series of "data processing unit" chips.

Toyota and Nissan to Seek Reimbursement from UK if Brexit Talks Fail

Japan's two biggest automakers, Toyota and Nissan, will ask Britain to reimburse them for additional custom charges incurred if the UK government fails to reach a Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
The companies - Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd - want payments to cover the additional 10% tax on automobile imports from Britain that the EU would impose should Britain crash out of the EU without an agreement.
Nissan expressed concern about the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit on its business.

Oct 05, 2020

Tata Sons in Talks to Buy AirAsia's 49% in Joint Venture

Tata Sons is reviewing its budget airline joint venture with Malaysia's AirAsia as the latter faces financial challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. The evaluation follows the Malaysian company's reluctance to inject fresh equity into AirAsia India.
The holding company of the Tata Group, which owns 51% in the six-year-old low-cost carrier, is in discussions to buy out the remaining 49% held by AirAsia, said a source in the know. Tata Sons has the first right of refusal for the minority stake owned by AirAsia in the India venture.
AirAsia, which announced its biggest quarterly loss in August, plans to raise $600 million through debt and equity to weather the pandemic even as it evaluates some of its operations outside Malaysia. In recent months, AirAsia's founder and CEO Tony Fernandes said that India is a peripheral market, which it could exit one day. In July, AirAsia's auditor EY had flagged going concern doubts on the company's operations after its current liabilities exceeded assets.
AirAsia, because of its financial difficulties, is not keen on infusing capital into the India JV. It wants the JV to take on debt to run the operations. Tata Sons is forced to consider buying out AirAsia.

SAIL Exploring New Markets to Source Coking Coal

State-run steel maker SAIL is exploring new markets for the sourcing of coking coal with a view to reducing dependence on select countries for the raw material.
According to official data, the country imports about 56 million tonne (MT) of coking coal worth around Rs 72,000 crore. Out of this, about 45 MT is imported from Australia alone, and the remaining from South Africa, Canada and the US.
Domestic steelmakers depend heavily on imported coking coal. For SAIL as well as metallurgical coal (coking coal) is largely procured through imports apart from some domestic sourcing. We are looking at developing new destinations and vendors for sourcing coking coal from the international market to avoid dependence on limited sources.
Raw material security holds significance for the steelmaker which plans to more than double its capacity to 50 MTPA by 2030.

Market Cap of 8 of 10 most Valued Firms Zooms

Eight of the 10 most valued companies added Rs. 1,45,194.57 crore in their total market valuation last week with Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC Bank emerging as leading gainers.
The market valuation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) zoomed Rs. 37,692.7 crore to Rs. 9,46,632.85 crore, emerging as the biggest gainer among the top 10 firms.
HDFC Bank's valuation jumped Rs. 34,425.67 crore to Rs. 6,09,039.90 crore. The market capitalisation of HDFC gained Rs. 25,091.57 crore to Rs. 3,21,430.66 crore.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) added Rs. 15,789.36 crore to Rs. 15,04,587.18 crore and the valuation of ICICI Bank rose by Rs. 14,244.15 crore to reach Rs. 2,54,574.08 crore.
The valuation of Kotak Mahindra Bank went up by Rs. 11,053.88 crore to Rs. 2,58,346 crore and that of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) by Rs. 4,064.73 crore to reach Rs. 4,92,243.78 crore. Infosys added Rs. 2,832.51 crore to Rs. 4,33,480.32 crore.
In contrast, Bharti Airtel's valuation diminished by Rs. 4,009.84 crore to Rs. 2,35,871.02 crore and that of HCL Technologies Limited declined by Rs. 4,002.66 crore to Rs. 2,20,553.13 crore.
In the ranking of top-10 firms, RIL remained at the number one rank followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, Infosys, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and HCL Technologies.

China Accuses India of Discriminatory Trade Measures at the WTO

Beijing has accused New Delhi of discriminatory and restrictive trade measures, pointing to the ban on Chinese apps and curbs on foreign direct investment from the neighbouring country.
During a recent meeting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), China alleged that the measures undermine the transparency, stability and predictability of the Indian market.
China said India banned the use of 234 mobile apps, most of which were developed and operated by Chinese internet companies.
China expressed its concerns about the recent restrictions by the US and India on its mobile applications as 'TikTok and WeChat'.
India, however, hit back saying China had one of the most restrictive digital economy frameworks in the world and should reflect on its own transparency record first and its long-standing reluctance to fully open up to foreign trading services.

Oct 04, 2020

Fair and Transparent Process Followed in MSIP Bid: UIDAI on Charges by Tech Companies

The Aadhaar-issuing body UIDAI has said that its tender for selecting managed services infrastructure provider (MSIP) has been evaluated, ensuring complete "transparency, fairness and equity" in accordance with stipulated norms.
Tech majors IBM, Wipro and Dell had allegedly flagged certain concerns around the evaluation process.
(UIDAI) had floated a tender for contracting a managed services infrastructure provider.
Following a technical evaluation of the bids, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) was given a score of 98 on 100, higher than those awarded to IBM, TCS and Wipro, a source said. According to another source, a Letter of Intent has been issued to HPE for the project.
As per reports, Wipro, IBM and Dell had reached out to the UIDAI a few months back allegedly raising concerns around the evaluation process.
The UIDAI strongly refuted the charges, asserting that the evaluation in the said 'MSIP' Request for Proposal has been done ensuring transparency, fairness and equity in accordance to the CVC guidelines and other applicable rules.

Regional Rural Banks Incur Net Loss of Rs. 2,206 crore in FY20

According to data published by NABARD, Regional rural banks (RRBs) as a group reported a net loss of Rs. 2,206 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, as against Rs. 652-crore net loss in FY19.
During FY 2019-20, 26 RRBs earned a profit of Rs. 2,203 crore, while 19 incurred losses of Rs. 4,409 crore, the data showed.
The data on RRBs, recently published by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), is based on the data uploaded by the RRBs in the Ensure portal.
As on March 31, 2020, there were 45 RRBs functioning in 685 districts of 26 states and three union territories (UTs). These RRBs were sponsored by 15 commercial banks and operating through a network of 21,850 branches.
Gross non-performing assets as a percentage of gross loans outstanding of RRBs marginally declined to 10.4 per cent as on March 31, 2020, from 10.8 per cent as on March 31, 2019, the data showed.
Share of standard, sub-standard, doubtful and loss assets stood at 89.6 per cent, 3.6 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively, as of end-March 2020.

Arabtec Holding PJSC to Enter Liquidation

The Dubai-based construction company that helped build the world's tallest building and other engineering marvels in the United Arab Emirates announced it would enter liquidation, the final step in a long collapse from the country's economic crisis a decade ago hastened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Arabtec Holding PJSC made the announcement after emails circulated among developers suggesting the firm's end had come. Despite trying to claw its way out of the chaos left of the chaos left by Dubai's 2009 financial crisis, the firm ended last year with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and losses.
Arabtec chairman Waleed al-Muhairi said that after years of setbacks, the economic slowdown from the coronavirus pandemic severely hurt the company's projects.
Founded in 1975, Arabtec has built both skyscrapers and the infrastructure needed to pump oil and natural gas in this OPEC-member nation. It helped build the Burj Khalifa, the centerpiece of modern downtown Dubai that at 2,717 feet (828 meters) is the world's tallest building. It also built the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace hotel and a major centerpiece of Dubai's upcoming Expo 2020 world's fair.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

October GK, September GK, August GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services and Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26