General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2020

Oct 2020

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.

Jan 21, 2022

SIDBI Sanctions Rs. 650-crore Loan to AU SFB and Jana SFB

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has sanctioned Rs. 650 crore to two small finance banks — AU SFB and Jana SFB - to provide funds to finance companies and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).
An amount of Rs. 530 crore was already released to these SFBs.
The financial assistance has been extended out of the Special Liquidity Facility sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India. This liquidity line has been provided to SIDBI to meet the challenges being faced by the MSMEs due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation.

RBI Approves Vinod Rai's Appointment as Independent Chairman of Unity SFB

Vinod Rai, the former comptroller and auditor general of India, was granted approval by the Reserve Bank of India to be appointed as the independent chairman of Unity Small Finance Bank (SFB), a joint venture between Centrum group and Bharat Pe.
Apart from Rai, the SFB appointed Sandip Ghose, an RBI veteran, Basant Seth, the former chairman and managing director of erstwhile Syndicate Bank, and Subhash Kutte, former chairman RBL Bank to its board to guide its journey in becoming a successful digital bank.
Unity SFB started its operations in November last year after receiving a final nod from the central bank.

L&T Technology Services Wins $45 Million EV Deal from US Auto Tier 1

L&T Technology Services, a global pure-play engineering services company was awarded a deal worth $45 million from an automotive Tier 1 company based in the United States to be its strategic engineering partner and provide engineering services for its Electric Vehicle (EV) product portfolio.
LTTS will work with the customer to deliver solutions leveraging its e-mobility technology competence under the terms of the five-year agreement. This will be delivered from LTTS' ER&D centre in Krakow, Poland.
The company plans to have more than 300 engineers working from its Krakow, Poland centre in the next three years as part of its expansion into Eastern Europe.

Jan 20, 2022

Dileep Sanghani is IFFCO Chairman

Dileep Sanghani was elected as the chairman of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO). Since 2019, Sanghani has served as vice-chairman. The elections were called after incumbent chairman Balvinder Singh Nakai died in October of last year.
The elected board of directors of IFFCO unanimously elected Dileep Sanghani as the 17th chairman of the Cooperative.
Dileep Bhai Sanghani is a senior co-operator from Gujarat and he is also the chairman of Gujarat State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd. (GUJCOMASOL), a post he has held since 2017.

Santhosh Viswanathan Appointed as Managing Director - SMG of Intel India

Intel Corporation announced the appointment of Santhosh Viswanathan as Managing Director-Sales, Marketing and Communications Group (SMG) for Intel India.
Viswanathan is Vice President in Intel's Sales, Marketing and Communications Group. He will be responsible for Intel's overall business in India, including driving new revenue opportunities, engaging with the local ecosystem, and strengthening existing customer and partner relationships.
In his prior role, Viswanathan was managing director for Southeast Asia, and Australia/New Zealand in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. In one of his other previous Intel roles, he was the Global Director of Operations for the Regional Sales Group, managing sales operations, strategy & planning for the global sales force.

NSE World's Largest Derivatives Exchange for Third Straight Year

According to the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the National Stock Exchange of India emerged as the world's largest derivatives exchange for the third consecutive year in 2021 in terms of the number of contracts traded.
In addition, the exchange was ranked fourth by the number of trades in cash equities, as per the statistics maintained by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) for 2021.

Hero Electric, Mahindra Group Team up to Manufacture Electric Vehicles

Hero Electric, India's largest electric two-wheeler maker, struck five-year strategic partnership with Mahindra Group, marking the first such deal between an electric vehicle (EV) maker and a traditional internal combustion engine company.
The move comes at a time when EV sales in India have touched a record high.
The partnership will help Hero Electric, which has a close to 36 per cent share in the EV two-wheeler market, to more than double capacity to 1 million units by 2022 and will result in extra revenue for M&M at a time when auto sales have slowed.

Jan 19, 2022

Fashion Retailer Myntra Names Nupur Nagpal as Chief HR Officer

Walmart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra appointed Nupur Nagpal as its chief human resources officer (CHRO) and elevated Raghu Krishnananda who was the chief technology officer, to be its chief technology and product officer (CTPO).
Nupur Nagpal will be responsible for leading the HR roadmap towards building and scaling the organisation as well as enriching Myntra's human capital. Nagpal joins Myntra from Sprinklr, where she was leading the people function for JAPAC markets as VP-HR. Her past experience includes leadership roles with Prione Group of Companies and Amazon in addition to stints with Tata Group, Virgin Mobile, WNS Global Services among others. An HR veteran, Nupur has over 20 years of experience in initiating and delivering organisational change, culture building, and delivering sustained business results across the e-commerce, telecom, and insurance industries.

MobiKwik, Bharat BillPay Tie-up to Launch ClickPay for Bill Payments

Fintech firm MobiKwik collaborated with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) Bharat BillPay to launch ClickPay for its customers. Through ClickPay, MobiKwik customers would be able to pay recurring online bills, such as mobile, gas, water, electricity, DTH, insurance and loan EMIs with ease by eliminating the need to remember individual bill details and due dates.
ClickPay is a two-step payment feature wherein the billers generate a unique payment link within the bill-pay message and send it to the customer allowing them to make payments directly on the payment page.

Vikram Dev Dutt is New CMD of Air India

Senior bureaucrat Vikram Dev Dutt was appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Air India Ltd as part of a senior-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre.
Dutt, a 1993-batch IAS officer of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, is at present Principal Secretary (Tourism) in Delhi government.

SEBI Reduces Timeline for Filing Settlement Application to 60 Days

Markets regulator SEBI cut the timeline for filing settlement applications to just 60 days from the current 180 days in its effort to make the system more efficient.
Currently, a settlement application can be filed within 60 days of the date of receipt of the show-cause notice. However, an additional 120 days can be availed by the applicants in case they pay an additional 25% over the settlement charges.
Now, the regulator has done away with the additional time provision of 120 days, according to a notification.
The move is aimed at rationalising norms on settlement proceedings.

Meta Appoints Meghna Apparao as E-commerce Director for India Market

Meta (formerly Facebook) appointed Meghna Apparao as the Director of e-commerce in India to lead the strategy and solutioning that is focused on the company's e-commerce advertisers.
Apparao's appointment comes on the back of a series of senior leadership recruitments in the past two years, and many in the recent months, across policy, partnerships, and other key verticals, demonstrating the company's expanding charter and commitment to India.
As a part of her role, Apparao will spearhead the company's strategic relationship with the country's leading brands in the e-commerce space, enabling a stronger partnership through Meta platform solutions.
Apparao comes with 20 years of experience in senior sales, marketing, and business strategy roles at companies such as Unilever, Amazon, Godrej, and Licious. Her last assignment was with Licious, where she was the Chief Business Officer.

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