Dear Readers, we are providing important current affairs related with Business and economy news for upcoming exams.
Business & Economy News- May to July
2. Mahindra Aerostructures, a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra have bagged a Tier 1 supplier contract to supply airframe parts for Airbus’s AS565 MBe Panther helicopter. With this, Mahindra Aerostructures becomes the first Indian company to receive a direct manufacturing contract from Airbus (European aviation major) as a Tier 1 supplier.
3. India has set up an apparel training centre in Kaduna, Nigeria to support textiles industry of the West African country. This is a first of its kind centre in Nigeria which has been set up by India in partnership with their government.
4. India was placed at 91st position in the recently released 2016 Networked Readiness Index (NRI) by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).Top-ten countries in 2016 NRI: Singapore (1st) while Finland (2nd), Sweden (3rd), Norway (4th), United States (5th), Netherlands (6th), Switzerland (7th), UK (8th), Luxembourg (9th) and Japan (10th).
5. In the recently released bi-annual Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2016 of World Bank Group, India ranked 35th among 160 countries.Top 5 countries in 2016 LPI: Germany (score: 4.23 points), Luxembourg (4.22), Sweden (4.20), Netherlands (4.19) and Singapore (4.14).
6. India was ranked low at 105th position out of 130 countries globally on the 2016 Human Capital Index (HCI), which was recently released in the World Economic Forum (WEF) report.Finland (1st position), Norway (2nd), Switzerland (3rd), Japan (4th), Sweden (5th), New Zealand (6th), Denmark (7th), Netherlands (8th), Canada (9th) and Belgium (10th).
7. Telecom-to-energy conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) and India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) have signed Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement to set up payments bank. As per the agreement, RIL will be the promoter with a 70 per cent equity contribution in the payments bank and SBI as joint venture will have 30 per cent equity contribution.
8. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has inked a MoU with Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) to check misleading advertisements in the food and beverages sector. This partnership between FSSAI and ASCI will put in place a mechanism to monitor misleading advertisements. It will also lead to streamlining advertisements effectively through structured guidelines and appropriate action.
9. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP). The NMEP primarily aims at accelerating the exploration activity in the country through enhanced participation of the private sector.
10. People of United Kingdom (UK) in a historic Brexit referendum have voted in favour of leaving European Union (EU). In the Brexit referendum, the ‘Leave’ side won decisively by securing 51.9% of the total votes overturning ‘Remain’ side which secured 48.1% votes.
11. Union Government approves 100% FDI in Aviation, Defence and e-commerce sectors.
12. India and South Korea have launched a platform ‘Korea Plus’ to promote and facilitate Korean Investments in India. It was launched by the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her South Korean counterpart Joo Hyunghwan in New Delhi.
13. The chief executive of Bharti Group, Sunil Bharti Mittal has been elected chairman of the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC).
14. Private power producer Tata Power Co. Ltd has agreed to acquire renewable energy company Welspun Renewables Energy Pvt. Ltd.
15. The markets regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has put in place a stricter KYC (Know Your Customer) norms and disclosure regime for Participatory Notes (P-Notes). P-Notes are offshore/overseas derivative instruments (ODIs) issued by registered foreign institutional investors (FII) to overseas investors. They provide easier and cost-effective route to foreign investors to invest in Indian markets without directly registering as Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs).
16. The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has signed a MoU with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for facilitating investment in India’s infrastructure.
17. According to recently released BP Statistical Review of World Energy India has surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest oil consumer.
18. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its second bi-monthly monetary policy review for year 2016-17 has maintained status quo in key policy interest rate.
Policy Rates Repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF): unchanged at 6.50 per cent.
Reverse repo rate under the LAF: unchanged at 6.0 per cent.
Marginal standing facility (MSF) rate: 7.00 per cent.
19. India has been ranked second position as per 2016 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) released by London-based business consultancy A T Kearney.
20. India and Morocco have launched the India-Morocco Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IMCCI) in Moroccan capital city Rabat. The IMCCI was jointly launched by visiting Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari and Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane. Hamid Ansari’s visit is the first by an Indian Vice President in 50 years to Morrocco.
21. The Union Government has given its final approval to setting up of National Investment & Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in Kalinganagar, Odisha.
22. Bharti Enterprises founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal (58) was bestowed with 2016 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.
23. The National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has signed a MoU with Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO). The signing of the MoU coincided with the official two days state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran.
24. US personal and consumer technology giant Apple Inc. opened a new Development Office in Hyderabad, Telangana. The office was formally opened by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook who is on official visit to India.
25. HDFC Bank, India’s second-largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has launched SmartUp, a dedicated solution for startups to fulfil all their banking needs. It was launched in association with a Mumbai-based start-up accelerator Zone Startups India (ZSI).
26. State-run power producer NTPC has signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) with state-run miner Coal India Limited (CIL) to revive plants of the Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL). The agreement will pave the way for NTPC to foray into fertilizer sector and revive existing fertilizer plants of FCIL.
27. The Union Government has approved National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, 2016 to promote the IP regime and to encourage innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in India. The first of its king policy in the country seeks to strengthen legislative and legal framework of IPRs, their commercialization and reinforce enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for IPR infringements. The National IPR Policy will endeavour for a “Creative India; Innovative India: रचनात्मक भारत; अभिनव भारत”.
28. India and other 5 countries viz. Canada, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand and China have signed OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in Beijing (China). The multilateral agreement aims at boosting automatic exchange of information on tax issues and developing new tools to tackle the tax evasion.
29. The Union Cabinet has given its approval to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to sign a MoU with Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), Abu Dhabi. The MoU is for mutual co-operation and technical assistance between the two financial regulators of both countries.
30. Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm has launched digital wallet service, named JioMoney Wallet, for Indian consumers. JioMoney is a semi-closed prepaid wallet that aims to enable mobile-based transactions. Using it customers can store money and use it for purchasing goods and services.
31. The Parliament has passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill, 2016. It was first passed in Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha in the month of May, 2016. The code seeks to ensure time-bound settlement of insolvency, faster turnaround of businesses and create a unified data base of serial defaulters.
32. India is ranked ninth in 2015 Crony-Capitalism Index with crony sector wealth accounting for 3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The index was based on new study by The Economist which had used data from a list of the world’s billionaires and their worth published by Forbes. In this study each individual is labelled as crony or not based on the source of their wealth.
33. The Union Government has started the process for issuance of Unique Business Identification Number (UBIN) to enable budding entrepreneurs set up their business without any delays. The drive has been launched by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) under the aegis of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
34. Union Government has approved the proposal of Infosys to set up an IT/ITeS special economic zone (SEZ) in Bengaluru, Karnataka in an area spread over 4 hectares. Decision in this regard was taken by an inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.
35. Bangladesh Government has given its in-principle approval to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power’s first phase of the 3,000 MW LNG-based power plant at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj district
36. The trade body of Indian IT firms NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) has signed a MoU with Social network giant Facebook to build a product design initiative for Indian entrepreneurs.
37. The search engine giant Google has acquired business technology startup Synergyse founded by an Indian-origin entrepreneur Varun Malhotra.
38. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has inked MoU with SAARC Development Fund (SDF) for mutual cooperation and collaboration. The MoU was signed by SIDBI Deputy Managing Director A K Kapur and SDF CEO Sunil Motiwal.
Click here to Download in PDF
Dear Readers, we are providing important current affairs related with Business and economy news for upcoming exams.
Business & Economy News- May to July
2. Mahindra Aerostructures, a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra have bagged a Tier 1 supplier contract to supply airframe parts for Airbus’s AS565 MBe Panther helicopter. With this, Mahindra Aerostructures becomes the first Indian company to receive a direct manufacturing contract from Airbus (European aviation major) as a Tier 1 supplier.
3. India has set up an apparel training centre in Kaduna, Nigeria to support textiles industry of the West African country. This is a first of its kind centre in Nigeria which has been set up by India in partnership with their government.
4. India was placed at 91st position in the recently released 2016 Networked Readiness Index (NRI) by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).Top-ten countries in 2016 NRI: Singapore (1st) while Finland (2nd), Sweden (3rd), Norway (4th), United States (5th), Netherlands (6th), Switzerland (7th), UK (8th), Luxembourg (9th) and Japan (10th).
5. In the recently released bi-annual Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2016 of World Bank Group, India ranked 35th among 160 countries.Top 5 countries in 2016 LPI: Germany (score: 4.23 points), Luxembourg (4.22), Sweden (4.20), Netherlands (4.19) and Singapore (4.14).
6. India was ranked low at 105th position out of 130 countries globally on the 2016 Human Capital Index (HCI), which was recently released in the World Economic Forum (WEF) report.Finland (1st position), Norway (2nd), Switzerland (3rd), Japan (4th), Sweden (5th), New Zealand (6th), Denmark (7th), Netherlands (8th), Canada (9th) and Belgium (10th).
7. Telecom-to-energy conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) and India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) have signed Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement to set up payments bank. As per the agreement, RIL will be the promoter with a 70 per cent equity contribution in the payments bank and SBI as joint venture will have 30 per cent equity contribution.
8. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has inked a MoU with Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) to check misleading advertisements in the food and beverages sector. This partnership between FSSAI and ASCI will put in place a mechanism to monitor misleading advertisements. It will also lead to streamlining advertisements effectively through structured guidelines and appropriate action.
9. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP). The NMEP primarily aims at accelerating the exploration activity in the country through enhanced participation of the private sector.
10. People of United Kingdom (UK) in a historic Brexit referendum have voted in favour of leaving European Union (EU). In the Brexit referendum, the ‘Leave’ side won decisively by securing 51.9% of the total votes overturning ‘Remain’ side which secured 48.1% votes.
11. Union Government approves 100% FDI in Aviation, Defence and e-commerce sectors.
12. India and South Korea have launched a platform ‘Korea Plus’ to promote and facilitate Korean Investments in India. It was launched by the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her South Korean counterpart Joo Hyunghwan in New Delhi.
13. The chief executive of Bharti Group, Sunil Bharti Mittal has been elected chairman of the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC).
14. Private power producer Tata Power Co. Ltd has agreed to acquire renewable energy company Welspun Renewables Energy Pvt. Ltd.
15. The markets regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has put in place a stricter KYC (Know Your Customer) norms and disclosure regime for Participatory Notes (P-Notes). P-Notes are offshore/overseas derivative instruments (ODIs) issued by registered foreign institutional investors (FII) to overseas investors. They provide easier and cost-effective route to foreign investors to invest in Indian markets without directly registering as Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs).
16. The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has signed a MoU with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for facilitating investment in India’s infrastructure.
17. According to recently released BP Statistical Review of World Energy India has surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest oil consumer.
18. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its second bi-monthly monetary policy review for year 2016-17 has maintained status quo in key policy interest rate.
Policy Rates Repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF): unchanged at 6.50 per cent.
Reverse repo rate under the LAF: unchanged at 6.0 per cent.
Marginal standing facility (MSF) rate: 7.00 per cent.
19. India has been ranked second position as per 2016 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) released by London-based business consultancy A T Kearney.
20. India and Morocco have launched the India-Morocco Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IMCCI) in Moroccan capital city Rabat. The IMCCI was jointly launched by visiting Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari and Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane. Hamid Ansari’s visit is the first by an Indian Vice President in 50 years to Morrocco.
21. The Union Government has given its final approval to setting up of National Investment & Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in Kalinganagar, Odisha.
22. Bharti Enterprises founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal (58) was bestowed with 2016 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.
23. The National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has signed a MoU with Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO). The signing of the MoU coincided with the official two days state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran.
24. US personal and consumer technology giant Apple Inc. opened a new Development Office in Hyderabad, Telangana. The office was formally opened by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook who is on official visit to India.
25. HDFC Bank, India’s second-largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has launched SmartUp, a dedicated solution for startups to fulfil all their banking needs. It was launched in association with a Mumbai-based start-up accelerator Zone Startups India (ZSI).
26. State-run power producer NTPC has signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) with state-run miner Coal India Limited (CIL) to revive plants of the Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL). The agreement will pave the way for NTPC to foray into fertilizer sector and revive existing fertilizer plants of FCIL.
27. The Union Government has approved National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, 2016 to promote the IP regime and to encourage innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in India. The first of its king policy in the country seeks to strengthen legislative and legal framework of IPRs, their commercialization and reinforce enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for IPR infringements. The National IPR Policy will endeavour for a “Creative India; Innovative India: रचनात्मक भारत; अभिनव भारत”.
28. India and other 5 countries viz. Canada, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand and China have signed OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in Beijing (China). The multilateral agreement aims at boosting automatic exchange of information on tax issues and developing new tools to tackle the tax evasion.
29. The Union Cabinet has given its approval to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to sign a MoU with Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), Abu Dhabi. The MoU is for mutual co-operation and technical assistance between the two financial regulators of both countries.
30. Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm has launched digital wallet service, named JioMoney Wallet, for Indian consumers. JioMoney is a semi-closed prepaid wallet that aims to enable mobile-based transactions. Using it customers can store money and use it for purchasing goods and services.
31. The Parliament has passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill, 2016. It was first passed in Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha in the month of May, 2016. The code seeks to ensure time-bound settlement of insolvency, faster turnaround of businesses and create a unified data base of serial defaulters.
32. India is ranked ninth in 2015 Crony-Capitalism Index with crony sector wealth accounting for 3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The index was based on new study by The Economist which had used data from a list of the world’s billionaires and their worth published by Forbes. In this study each individual is labelled as crony or not based on the source of their wealth.
33. The Union Government has started the process for issuance of Unique Business Identification Number (UBIN) to enable budding entrepreneurs set up their business without any delays. The drive has been launched by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) under the aegis of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
34. Union Government has approved the proposal of Infosys to set up an IT/ITeS special economic zone (SEZ) in Bengaluru, Karnataka in an area spread over 4 hectares. Decision in this regard was taken by an inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.
35. Bangladesh Government has given its in-principle approval to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power’s first phase of the 3,000 MW LNG-based power plant at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj district
36. The trade body of Indian IT firms NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) has signed a MoU with Social network giant Facebook to build a product design initiative for Indian entrepreneurs.
37. The search engine giant Google has acquired business technology startup Synergyse founded by an Indian-origin entrepreneur Varun Malhotra.
38. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has inked MoU with SAARC Development Fund (SDF) for mutual cooperation and collaboration. The MoU was signed by SIDBI Deputy Managing Director A K Kapur and SDF CEO Sunil Motiwal.
Click here to Download in PDF
