General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - August 2020

Aug 2020

Aug 20, 2020

Reliance Retail Acquires Majority Stake in Netmeds

The online pharmacy space is set to become a hotly contested segment with Reliance Industries (RIL) now throwing its hat into the ring. The Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate announced acquisition of a majority equity stake in Chennai-based online pharmacy delivery startup Netmeds (Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd) for a cash consideration of approximately Rs. 620 crore.
This investment represents 60 per cent holding in the equity share capital of Vitalic and 100 per cent direct equity ownership of its subsidiaries - Tresara Health Private Limited, Netmeds Market Place Limited and Dadha Pharma Distribution Pvt. Limited.
RIL's acquisition comes at a time when arch rival Amazon has just started selling pharmaceutical products in Bangalore markets. Also, two other prominent players Medlife and PharmEasy are now heading for a merger to create a have agreed for a merger, to create a large combined entity in the online pharmacy space.

Bharti AXA Life Partners with SBM Bank India

Bharti AXA Life Insurance announced its bancassurance partnership with SBM Bank India.
Under this agreement, the insurer will offer its life insurance products, including protection, health, savings and investment plans, to customers of SBM Private Wealth, the retail banking arm of SBM Bank India.
SBM Bank India, one of the youngest new age banks in the country, has presence in six cities and serves its customers through direct and collaborative networks. The collaboration would offer different life insurance products to SBM Bank's customers in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ramachandrapuram.
Last year, Bharti AXA Life Insurance tied up with Karnataka Bank as its first major bancassurance partnership to distribute its various insurance solutions.

Crisil Downgrades Indian Bank's Tier I Bonds

Rating agency Crisil has downgraded public sector lender Indian Bank's tier I bonds from "AA+" to "AA" due to lower eligible reserves position of the merged bank. Another public sector lender Allahabad Bank merged with Indian Bank from April 01, 2020.
The downgrade in the rating of Tier I bonds (under Basel III) is on account of lower eligible reserves position of the merged bank. Crisil evaluated the adequacy of Indian Bank's eligible reserves to service coupon after adjusting for any medium-term impact of profitability on reserves position in a stress scenario.
The capital adequacy ratio of Chennai-based lender stood at 13.45 per cent with tier I of 10.47 per cent at end of June 2020. Its stock was trading 2.2 per cent higher at Rs. 64.55 per share on BSE.
Crisil has also reaffirmed its 'CRISIL AAA' rating and assigned a 'Negative' outlook to various bonds including tier I (under Basel III), Tier II Bonds (under Basel III). The 'Negative' outlook reflects the potential stress that the bank's asset quality and consequently its profitability may witness due to the challenging macro environment.

Three more Airports to be Leased to Private Firms for 50 Years

TheUnion Cabinet approved the proposal for leasing out airports at Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram through public-private partnership (PPP) for 50 years, as the government sought to open up the aviation sector, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The three airports are part of the six airports won by the Adani Group under a competitive bidding process. The group had in February signed a concession agreement with state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) to manage airports in Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore but approval regarding the other three had been deferred.
Privatisation of airports, development of maintenance repair and overhaul facilities along with freeing up of defence airspace for passenger aircraft have been proposed as the government's relief plan to support the aviation sector amid the pandemic.
Privatisation has been challenged in high courts in Assam and Kerala, but a government official told that there was no order against the process.
Besides, inter-ministerial discussions are also under way for privatisation of six other airports — Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.

Cabinet Expands Lending Limits for Power Discoms

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) relaxed the borrowing limits for the state government-owned power distribution companies (discoms) as a one-time measure. This was done to assist power retailers to clear their dues to generation and transmission companies to help reduce stress in the sector.
Discoms can borrow only up to 25 per cent of their previous year's working capital under the limits stipulated in the UDAY scheme. Borrowing were tied to discoms' operational performance to ensure discipline.
The limit has now been relaxed for a one-time lending. This would help those discoms that have exhausted their borrowing limits.
The liquidity of the power sector is not expected to improve in the short term, as economic activity and power demand will take some time to pick up. There is, thus, an immediate need to infuse liquidity in the power sector for continuation of power supply.

Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd Collaborates with BSE EBIX

Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd collaborated with BSE EBIX Insurance Broking Private Limited (BSE EBIX ) to sell General Insurance products in a fully digital environment using the distribution network of BSE EBIX. The partnership was initiated with the issuance of the recently launched Corona Kavach cover of Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd through certified Point of Sales Persons (PoSPs) of BSE EBIX.
The partnership will enable more people to avail insurance plans and protect themselves and their families from COVID-19.
It is a short-term policy to cover COVID-19 related hospitalization expenses.
It can be purchased on individual or family floater basis for a period of 3.5, 6.5 or 9.5 months.

Aug 19, 2020

DBS Bank Names Prashant Joshi New Managing Director and Head of National Distribution

DBS Bank India appointed Prashant Joshi as Managing Director & Head of National Distribution today. He brings with him close to three decades of experience in the banking sector across consumer, SME and corporate banking with leading banks and financial institutions. He will report to Surojit Shome, Managing Director & CEO of DBS Bank India Limited.
Prashant joins DBS Bank India from IndoStar Capital Finance, where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for setting up the SME and affordable housing finance business. Apart from this, he also managed the Operations & Technology platforms for all businesses.
Prior to IndoStar Capital Finance, Prashant has worked with Deutsche Bank for eight years and was responsible for creating a successful retail banking franchise. He has also created high quality, profitable SME and retail assets businesses at Standard Chartered Bank and IDBI Bank respectively. For the first decade of his career, Prashant worked in project finance and corporate finance at ICICI Limited and Rabo India Finance (a Rabobank subsidiary). He holds a bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Bombay and is a qualified cost accountant. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

New Umbrella Entity for Retail Payments can be for-profit

The Reserve Bank of India released the framework for establishment of a new umbrella entity for retail payments. This entity will be tasked with setting up, managing, and operating new payment systems in the retail space. It may operate as a 'for-profit' organisation.
The entity formed shall be a company incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 2013, and may be a 'for-profit' or a Section 8 Company as may be decided by it.
According to the RBI guidelines, the entity will have minimum paid-up capital of Rs 500 crore, with no single promoter group holding over 40 per cent investment in the capital. Initially, the promoter should have a minimum of Rs. 50 crore at the time of submitting the application.
The promoter/promoter group shareholding may be diluted to a minimum of 25 per cent after 5 years of commencement of business of the umbrella entity, and a minimum net worth of Rs 300 crore be maintained at all times.
Earlier, the central bank had released draft guidelines and invited industry comments. It has now called for applications from interested parties till February 26, 2021.
Based on the framework, payments system operators, as well as payments and technology service providers with three years of experience, are eligible to apply.

Flipkart Signs MoU with IIT Patna for Industry Focused Research

Flipkart signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna to support the industry focused applied research in the fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML).
The aim of thid MoU is to create industry focused applied research to support the reach of e-commerce to more consumers and sellers.
Under this MoU, IIT Patna will undertake joint research activities, writing research papers, organising seminars, internships and mentorship opportunities.
This will establish academic collaborations to help the students and the academia to leverage the flipkarts data and platform knowledge to work on the India Specific e-commerce challenges.
Under this MoU, the research of IIT Patna is aimed to develop robust machine translation techniques for translating the huge amount of user reviews which are written in English to the vernacular languages of India.

ADB Approves USD 1 Billion Package for Rapid Transit System in India

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a USD 1 billion (about Rs. 7,485 crore) loan to support the construction of the modern, high-speed Delhi-Meerut regional rapid transit system, a first of its kind in India.
The transit system project aims to help decongest the city and improve regional connectivity by establishing transit options through densely populated sections of the NCR connecting Delhi to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi accounts for 37 per cent of the population of the national capital region (NCR).
This project will also provide safe, reliable and seamless travel between Delhi and other NCR cities and pave the way for a paradigm shift in mobility across the NCR.
The 82-km Delhi-Meerut regional rapid transit system network is the first of three priority rail corridors in the country's integrated transport network under the NCR regional plan 2021.
This project will finance the construction of railway tracks, station buildings, maintenance facilities and traction and power supply.

Muthoot Finance and Kotak Mahindra General Insurance Tie Up

Muthoot Finance tied up with Kotak Mahindra General Insurance to offer COVID-19 insurance cover of up to Rs. 1 lakh against gold loan. Muthoot Finance Ayush Gold Loan is an exclusive initiative of Muthoot Group through which they will provide complimentary COVID-19 insurance cover to their eligible customers.
This cover however will be available only for the customers availing gold loan under the Super Loan scheme.

Oracle Joins Bid for TikTok's US Operations

As per reports, Oracle Corp. joined some of the investors of TikTok`s Chinese owner, ByteDance, in pursuing a bid for the popular short-video app`s operations in North America, Australia and New Zealand.
The move would represent a strategic departure for Oracle, which caters mostly to corporate customers and generates the bulk of its sales from cloud offerings and software licensing.
Its co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison is one of the few top technology executives to openly support President Donald Trump, who has ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok amid concerns over the safety of the personal data of US consumers.
Oracle is working with some of ByteDance`s investors, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, on making an offer for the TikTok assets that would challenge a rival bid from Microsoft Corp.

Govt. Launches Contest to Develop Tech. Products Using Indigenous Microprocessors

The Ministry of Electronics and IT launched a Rs. 4.3 crore contest for development of technology products using microprocessors developed by IIT Madras and CDAC.
IIT Madras and the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) have developed two microprocessors named SHAKTI (32 bit) and VEGA (64 bit), respectively, using open source architecture which will be made available for the contest.
Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the ''Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge - Innovate Solutions for Aatmanirbhar Bharat'' to provide further impetus to the strong ecosystem of startups, innovation and research in the country.
This is the third technology contest within this fiscal year for development of indigenous technology.
The previous two contests were for development of indigenous video conferencing solutions, as well as apps in various categories.
The contest aims at not only meeting India''s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors but also has the potential to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence and most crucially cutting dependency on imports.
The contest will culminate in June 2021.

Aug 18, 2020

PNB Launches 'DIGITAL APNAYEN', a Campaign to Promote Digital Banking

S. S. Mallikarjuna Rao, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Punjab National Bank (PNB) launched a campaign, 'DIGITAL APNAYEN' to encourage customers to use digital banking channels and participate in the noble cause of donating to PM CARES Fund for COVID-19.
The campaign began in August 2020 and runs till 31st March 2021.
The bank under the campaign will contribute Rs 5 towards the PM CARES Fund on behalf of each customer who conduct the 1st financial transaction to activate the following:
RuPay Debit card either on point of sale (PoS) or e-commerce platform
AePS account through fund transfer, AePS account through BHIM Aadhaar Merchants payment and activation of UPI service
Download and Registration for UPI facility will also be eligible for contribution.

India's Seafood Exports Pegged at 12,89,651 MT in FY 2019-20

India shipped 12,89,651 MT of seafood worth Rs. 46,662.85 crore (USD 6.68 billion) during 2019-20, largely cushioning the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) said. Frozen shrimp remained the major export item in terms of quantity and value followed by frozen fish while the USA and China turned out to be the major importers of India's seafood.
During the FY 2019-20, the export improved in rupee term by 0.16 per cent, but the quantity and US dollar value declined by 7.39 per cent and 0.74 per cent, respectively.
In 2018-19, India had exported 13, 92,559 MT of seafood worth Rs 46,589.37 crore (USD 6,728.50 million).
India managed to export 12,89,651 MT of seafood, despite the sluggish demand in its major export markets caused by the pandemic, whichled to cancellation of several orders, reduced and delayed payments, slowdown of cargo movements and difficulty in getting new orders.

Aug 17, 2020

IHCL Joins Hands with Tata Power for Supply of Solar Energy to Mumbai Hotels

A Hospitality major Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) joined hands with Tata Power for supply of solar energy for its Mumbai hotels as part of strategy to focus on sustainable and cost-efficient business practices.
The company has signed a solar energy power purchase agreement (PPA) with TP Kirnali Solar Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power Company Ltd.
IHCL hotels in Mumbai, namely The Taj Mahal Palace, Taj Lands End and Taj Wellington Mews, will get approximately 60 per cent energy from green source and will reduce nearly 22.9 million kg of carbon dioxide emissions on an annual basis.
This agreement is valid for a period of 25 years.

Japan Suffers its Biggest Economic Slump on Record

The Japanese economy has shrunk at its fastest rate on record as it battles the coronavirus pandemic.
The world's third largest economy saw gross domestic product fall 7.8% in April-June from the previous quarter, or 27.8% on an annualised basis.
Japan was already struggling with low economic growth before the crisis.
The figures released are a stark reminder of the severe financial impact faced by countries around the world.
Japan slipped into recession earlier this year following two successive quarters of economic contraction.
Its latest data for the April to June quarter was the biggest decline since comparable figures became available in 1980 and was slightly bigger than analysts had expected.

NTPC Develops Infrastructure at Rihand Project

To transport fly ash to cement plants located at distance, NTPC Limited has developed infrastructure at Rihand project in Uttar Pradesh.
The development is in line with NTPC's commitment towards 100 per cent utilisation of fly ash from power plants.
As per a statement issued by the PSU under Ministry of Power, the first rake of 59 BOXN type of railway wagons carrying 3450 Metric Tonne (MT) of fly ash was flagged off from NTPC's Rihand Super Thermal Power station for ACC Cement Manufacturing Plant, situated in Tikaria of Uttar Pradesh.
To transfer the first tranche, officials from NTPC Rihand approached East Central Railway along with leading cement producers to commence the supply of fly ash in BOXN wagons covered with tarpaulin.
According to the PSU, the move will enable power plants for upgrading the utilisation of fly ash with the availability of additional material loading avenues for Indian Railways and accessibility of fly ash to the cement plants in an environment-friendly manner at a competitive price.

Aug 16, 2020

Chinese Firms in India Hit by New Import Hurdles

Chinese firms like Xiaomi are facing delays in getting approvals from India's quality control agency for their goods, five industry sources said, as the business environment deteriorates after a clash on their Himalayan border.
Greater scrutiny of Chinese imports follows calls for boycotts from Indian nationalist groups linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party, angered by the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in the border clash in June.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has in recent weeks delayed approvals for mobile phone components and televisions, jeopardising the plans of firms such as Xiaomi as well as Oppo.
The most serious border tension in decades between the Asian giants has already hurt their economic ties and Indian officials expect the damage to get worse.

RBI Board Approves Transfer of Rs. 57,128 crore as Surplus to Government

As per reports, the RBI Board approved the transfer of Rs. 57,128 crore as surplus to the Central government for the accounting year 2019-20.
The decision was taken at the 584th meeting of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India chaired by Governor Shaktikanta Das.
The Board reviewed the current economic situation, continued global as well as domestic challenges, and monetary, regulatory and other measures taken by the RBI to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
Further, the Central Board discussed the proposal of setting up an Innovation Hub.
It also discussed various areas of operations of the bank during the last year, and approved the annual report and accounts of the Reserve Bank for 2019-20.

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