General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - October 2020

Oct 2020

Feb 17, 2021

Amazon Announces its First Electronic Devices Manufacturing Line in India

Amazon said it will begin manufacturing Amazon Devices, including Fire TV sticks, in Chennai later this year in partnership with Foxconn's subsidiary, Cloud Network Technology.
The e-commerce giant claimed that the production line will have an annual capacity of "hundreds of thousands" of units, and will also continuously evaluate manufacturing capacity based on domestic demand for its devices.
- The move, the company said, is in line with its plan to partner with the government's vision of a self-reliant India, or Atmanirbhar Bharat. It reiterated its commitment to invest $1 billion into the country to digitize 10 million small and medium businesses by 2025 and create 1 million additional jobs by then.

RBI Issues Draft Guidelines for Derivatives Trading in Credit Default Swaps

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came out with the draft guidelines for allowing derivatives trading in the credit default swaps (CDS) in over-the-counter (OTC) markets and on recognized stock exchanges in the country.
As per the draft, the debt instruments eligible to be a reference or deliverable obligation in a CDS contract will include commercial papers, certificates of deposit and non-convertible debentures of original maturity up to one year, rated corporate bonds (listed and unlisted) and unrated rupee bonds issued by the special purpose vehicles set up by infrastructure companies.

Gibraltar Tech Buys HCL Arm

UAE-based Gibraltar Technologies (GT) has acquired HCL Infotech Ltd, part of India's HCL Group, for 74.6 million dirhams (about Rs. 147 crore).
As part of the deal, the AI-based digital solutions company will absorb the assets, 800 employees and customer contracts managed by HCL Infotech.
Gilbraltar Technologies hopes to strengthen and grow its service offerings and offer better solutions to customers by combining its 20-year-long experience servicing large government organizations in the Middle East with the organizational capabilities of HCL Infotech.
This acquisition not only unlocks a huge market potential for GT, but also comes as a positive move for the partners, customers, employees and shareholders in the Middle East.

Feb 16, 2021

Hiranandani to Set Up Logistics and Hyperscale Data Centre Park in Bengal

Mumbai-based Hiranandani Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Motors to acquire land from it for a logistics and hyperscale data centre park.
The MoU has been signed for a 100-acre land at Uttarpara, West Bengal, where Hiranandani Group companies will set up an integrated logistics and hyperscale data centre park called Greenbase and Yotta.
Direct investment by the Hiranandani Group in the venture is pegged at Rs. 8,500 crore. The combined investment by the group and its customers is estimated to cross Rs. 10,000 crore.
Greenbase will deliver a modern and self-sustainable ecosystem consisting of 3-million square feet of industrial and warehousing space along with essential utilities and support infrastructure.

Indian Bank Integrates Core Banking Software of Erstwhile Allahabad Bank

State-owned Indian Bank has successfully integrated the software system with the erstwhile Allahabad Bank post the amalgamation.
The bank has successfully completed process of technical migration of CBS/ITMS software of erstwhile Allahabad Bank with CBS/ITMS software of Indian Bank.
The scheme of amalgamation of Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank came into force from April 1, 2020.
Indian Bank carried out the migration process on 13-14 February, and had informed that customers may face some disruption in services.

Ruias'-Promoted Essar to Take Solar Route to Build Power Portfolio

Ruias'-promoted Essar Power is betting on renewable energy to build its generation portfolio. It has firmed up a plan to set up a solar power plant in Madhya Pradesh for supplying to different industries on a third-party basis.
It is also bidding for power purchase agreements (PPAs) being offered by the state government and central public sector undertakings (PSUs). Alongside, it is getting into the business of desalination of water plants that would be fed by renewable power sources. One of the first in its portfolio would be a 87.5 Mw project at Datia in Madhya Pradesh.

TCS Launches Neural Automotive and Industrial Experience Centre in US

IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has launched a Neural Automotive and Industrial Experience Center in Troy, Michigan, to help customers accelerate innovation.
The new centre includes an automotive garage set-up with access to the latest technologies for customers and partners to experiment, co-innovate, build prototypes, and launch solutions in an agile manner.
This is achieved using TCS solutions and accelerators including TCS' Autoscape and TCS' Autonomous Vehicle Development platform, to accelerate the adoption of autonomous, electric, and connected capabilities.

Cairn Oil & Gas Seeks Bids for Sale of Natural Gas from Rajasthan Block

Mining magnate Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd invited bids for the sale of natural gas from its prolific Rajasthan block at rates equivalent to the price of imported LNG from the spot market or Brent oil price.
Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta's oil and gas arm, produces about 3.5 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from its largely oil-bearing block in Rajasthan.
The output is being ramped-up to more than 5 mmscmd.
The company invites Expression of Interest (EoI) from interested parties with proven capabilities and demonstrated presence in the natural gas business to participate in the national competitive e-auction process for the purchase of natural gas produced from our flagship block in Barmer, Rajasthan.

Feb 15, 2021

Singapore-based DBS Bank Plans to Trim India Branches in 2-3 Years

Singapore-based DBS Bank plans to scale down its network of 600 branches in India over the next two-three years as part of rationalisation of operations.
The bank got over 560 branches into its fold when it merged troubled private lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with its Indian subsidiary DBS Bank India in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2020.
The combined deposits of its Indian operations stood at SGD 9 billion and net advances were at SGD 5.6 billion at the end of December 2020.

ONGC Floats Subsidiary to Buy Own Gas

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is forming a new subsidiary for gas business that could be used to bid and buy gas from the firm's own fields.
The board of ONGC at its meeting on February 13 approved the creation of a new wholly-owned subsidiary company for gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) business value chain subject to necessary approvals, according to the firm's third quarter earnings announcement.
The company is being formed with the objective of sourcing, marketing and trading of natural gas, LNG business, Hydrogen enriched CNG (HCNG), gas to power business, bio-energy/ bio-gas/ bio methane/ other biofuels business, etc.
ONGC may use the new subsidiary to buy any new gas that the firm produces from fields such as KG-D5 in the Krishna Godavari basin.

Telsa to Set up Manufacturing Unit in Karnataka

Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa said that electric car manufacturer Tesla will set up its electric car manufacturing unit in the state.
In January, Tesla had registered its subsidiary Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Ltd in Bengaluru.
The company listed Vaibhav Taneja, Venkatrangam Sreeram and David Jon Feinstein as directors of the company. This announcement came after Elon Musk in October 2020 said that the process to bring Tesla cars to India would begin in January 2021.

Canadian Regulator Clears World's First Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund Launch

Canada's main securities' regulator has cleared the launch of the world's first bitcoin exchange traded fund, providing investors greater access to the cryptocurrency that has sparked an explosion in trading interest.
The Ontario Securities Commission has approved the launch of Purpose Bitcoin ETF, Toronto-based asset management company Purpose Investments Inc.
The ETF will be the first in the world to invest directly in physically settled Bitcoin, not derivatives, allowing investors easy and efficient access to the emerging asset class of cryptocurrency.

JSW Cement Digitising its Sales and Marketing Operations

JSW Cement, a part of $12 billion JSW Group, is digitizing its sales & marketing operations.
The move will provide its channel partners ease of doing business by leveraging Artificial Intelligence-based digital interventions.
JSW Cement has partnered with Yalochat, a leading conversational commerce service provider, which enables the company to upsell, transact and provide better service to its customers over messaging apps like WhatsApp.

Feb 14, 2021

Govt. Gives Nod to Several Firms under PLI Scheme for Medical Devices

The government has approved applications from several medical devices manufacturers under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the promotion of domestic manufacturing.
The companies include Siemens Healthcare, Sahajanand Medical Technologies, Nipro India Corporation and Wipro GE Healthcare.
The setting up of these plants will lead to a total committed investment of Rs. 729.63 crore by the companies and employment generation for about 2,304 persons.
The commercial production is projected to commence from April 1, 2022 and the disbursal of production linked incentive by the Government over the five years period would be up to a maximum of Rs. 121 crore per applicant per target segment.

Securing New business among CPPIB's Pre-conditions for SB Energy Deal

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has placed several pre-conditions to acquire Japan's SoftBank Group Corp.'s controlling stake in SB Energy Holdings for an estimated $520 million.
These pre-conditions, also referred to as condition precedents (CPs), include meeting certain project commissioning deadlines, securing new businesses, achieving land possession from the Andhra Pradesh government and reimbursement of safeguard duty for a project in Rajasthan.

NDB to Invest $100 Million into NIIF Fund of Funds

- New Development Bank (NDB), the multilateral development bank established by the BRICS countries, has announced a commitment of $100 million into the NIIF Fund of Funds (FoF). With NDB's investment, the FoF has secured $800 million in commitments. NDB joins the Government of India (GoI), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) as an investor in the FoF.
- This investment marks NDB's first equity investment into India and its first-ever investment into a Fund of Funds.
- The FoF was established in 2018 with the objective to provide home grown Indian private equity fund manager's access to an India-focussed institutional investor that operates at scale.

PhonePe Partners with Axis Bank on UPI Multi-bank Model

Digital payments platform PhonePe announced that it has partnered with Axis Bank on a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) multi-bank model.
The partnership will provide PhonePe users with the option to create and use multiple UPI IDs with Axis Bank's "@axl" handle.
PhonePe will also start acquiring merchants with Axis Bank in addition to its partnership with YES Bank.
PhonePe platform now enables the users to choose between multiple handles for their UPI transactions on the multi-bank model. This partnership with Axis Bank will ensure greater business continuity for both our customers and merchant partners, making their transaction experience seamless.

Feb 13, 2021

Infosys to Invest Additional $1 Million in ideaForge Technology

IT services major Infosys said that it will invest an additional USD 1 million (about Rs 7.2 crore) in ideaForge Technology, a UAV systems manufacturing company.
In 2016, Infosys had announced investing in ideaForge, an Indian start-up focused on unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV solutions (drones).
The company has agreed with ideaForge Technology to invest an additional USD 1 million (earlier, the company had invested USD 1.5 million in 2016) taking the cumulative investment to USD 2.5 million as of date, subject to necessary closing conditions.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of FY21.

Chinese Exports to US Up

With Chinese exports to the US rising substantially during the last quarter of 2020, Asian countries like India are facing a shortage of containers. Besides, freight rates on major routes from India have almost doubled as compared to last year.
During October-December 2020, Chinese exports to the US increased by 19 per cent ($44,828 million) in value terms as compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
China's total exports expanded 13.5 per cent on year-on-year basis in December 2020, compared with an increase of 25.4 per cent in the previous month. The surge made China number one US trade partner in December last year. It had ranked number three in the same month in 2019.

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