Current Affairs Dec 2015 - Economic

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News 1 - Federal Reserve of US increased the interest rate by 0.25% for the first time since 2006.

The Federal Reserve System on 16 December 2015 increased the interest rate by 0.25 percent. A decision in this regard was approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System chaired by Janet L Yellen. With this, the interest rates in the US are now in the range of 0.25 – 0.50 percent. This is the first rate increase since 2006.

News 2 - NSE launches three new group indices.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has launched three separate indices on three corporate houses of India viz. Tata, Aditya Birla and Mahindra Group. These indices are first of its kind and have been designed to reflect the performance of all the companies belonging to their respective business group.

1) Nifty Tata Group Index: It includes 25 companies across 12 sectors with a total market capitalisation of 7.51 lakh crore rupees. It represents 7.83 per cent of the total market capitalisation of companies listed on the NSE.

2) Nifty Aditya Birla Group Index: It consists of eight companies across seven sectors with the market capitalisation of 2.08 lakh crore rupees. It represents 2.17 per cent of the total market capitalisation of companies listed on the NSE.

3) Nifty Mahindra Group Index: It consists of seven companies with a market capitalisation of about 1.64 lakh crore rupees. It represents 1.71 per cent of the total market capitalisation of companies listed on NSE.

These three indices have been created by the NSE’s group company, India Index Services & Products Ltd (IISL). The company is planning to launch indices on other corporate groups and third-party products based on such indices.

News 3 - IRCTC ties up with Paytm for e-catering payments.

Train passengers will now find it easier to make online payments for the food ordered through e-catering with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) entering into a tie-up with Paytm, a leading payment and e-commerce shopping website.

This e-catering facility allows passengers to order meals while traveling, either online on www.ecatering.irctc.co.in or by making a phone call to 0120-2383892-99 or the toll-free number at 1800-1034-139. They can also choose to do so through an SMS to 139 by giving details of their PNR and seat number.

News 4 - Union Ministry of Finance raised monetary limit for filing appeals in Courts.

The Union Ministry of Finance on 15 December 2015 raised the monetary limit for filing appeals to 10 lakh rupees in Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and 20 lakh rupees in High Courts. With this, the ministry seeks to reduce tax litigation by about 50 percent.

News 5 - Mahindra Group acquired Italian auto design firm Pininfarina.

Tech Mahindra and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, part of the Mahindra Group, on 14 December 2015 acquired Italian car designer Pininfarina SpA for 165 million US dollars in an all-cash deal. Pininfarina is well-known for designing cars for Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce and Cadillac.

For the acquisition of Milan-listed Pininfarina, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra and Mahindra have formed a 60:40 joint venture. The joint venture will acquire 76.06 percent in Pininfarina from its controlling shareholder Pincar Srl at a price of 25.3 million euros.

News 6 - PFRDA switches to PAN for online enrolment under NPS.

Pension fund regulatory body PFRDA has started using PAN instead of Aadhaar for validation of new customers, who can now be registered online under the National Pension System (NPS) scheme. The Aadhaar-based online NPS account facility was started on a pilot basis, but following a Supreme Court judgment on usage of Aadhaar, it had to be discontinued.

News 7 - ICBC to become Tata Group’s strategic banking partner.

Tata Sons Ltd and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) have formed a long-term partnership, under which ICBC will become a strategic banking partner to the Tata group. Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company of $108 billion Tata Group and promoter of Tata companies.

News 8 - CEA Dr. Arvind Subramanian Committee suggests GST rate of 17-18%.

Chief Economic Advisor Dr. Arvind Subramanian led Committee has recommended standard rate for Goods and Services Tax (GST) at 17 to 18 per cent and dropping of the one percent additional tax on inter-state sales. The Committee has submitted its report to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi.

News 9 - Singapore replaced Mauritius as top source of FDI into India.

Singapore replaced Mauritius as top source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India during April-September of 2015-16 financial year.

As per the data, between 15 April and 15 September 2015, the FDI flow stands as below −

However in terms of cumulative inflows between April 2000 and September 2015 Mauritius still leads the investment list.

News 10 - Commemorative coins of Rs 125, Rs 10 released in honour of Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 December 2015 released two commemorative coins of 125 rupees and 10 rupees, as part of the 125th birth anniversary year celebrations of Dr. Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

News 11 - Alibaba agreed to buy 112-year old newspaper South China Morning Post of Hong Kong.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on 11 December 2015 announced that it has agreed to buy the 112-year old English newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition of the Hong Kong's flagship English-language newspaper is the most politically sensitive acquisition by the e-commerce giant till date.

News 12 - Quick Estimates of IIP and Use-Based Index for October 2015 released.

Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Use-Based Index with the base year 2004-05 for the month of October 2015 were released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Main highlights of Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

• IIP for October 2015 stood at 181.3, which is 9.8% higher as compared to the level in October 2014. In September 2015 (month-on-month), IIP growth rate stood at 3.6 percent.

• The cumulative growth for the period of April to October 2015-16 over the corresponding period of the 2014-15 stood at 4.8%.

• The IIP for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for October 2015 stood at 130.0, 188.1 and 201.6 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 4.7%, 10.6% and 9.0% as compared to October 2014.

• The cumulative growth in the three sectors during April-October 2015-16 over the corresponding period of 2014-15 was 2.0%, 5.1% and 5.2% respectively.

• In terms of industries, seventeen (17) out of the twenty two (22) industry groups (as per 2-digit NIC-2004) in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of October 2015 as compared to the October 2014.

News 13 - MSDE and DHI signed MoU for skill development in manufacturing sector.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for skill development in the manufacturing sector was signed on 8 December 2015 between Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI).

The MoU focused on capital goods and automotive sector.

Key highlights of the MoU

• The purpose of the MoU is to create centres of excellence for different manufacturing skills and a multi-location national institute of manufacturing technologies for training education and research by utilizing/upgrading the existing training facilities of Central PSUs such as HMT, BHEL and Instrumentation Ltd. under the DHI.

• The centres of excellence will ensure that a robust national ecosystem for development of skills in the manufacturing sector is created in the country and internationally known best practices in this field are brought in with active participation of countries like Germany.

News 14 - ONGC joined World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 Initiative.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited on 7 December 2015 joined Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 Initiative of the World Bank on the sidelines of Conference of Parties-21 (COP-21) of UNFCCC in Paris.

With this joining, ONGC has become the first oil company from India to join the global initiative that is aimed at curbing routine gas flaring at oil production sites around the world by 2030.

Along with ONGC, 19 other entities endorsed the initiative taking the number of total countries or companies or development institutions to 45, since its inception in April 2015.

Altogether these 45 endorsers represent more than 40 percent of all global gas flaring.

Features of Zero Routine Flaring by 2030

• It encourages oil companies to seek economically viable solutions to eliminate ongoing “legacy” flaring as soon as possible and no later than 2030.

• It will ensure that when oil fields are developed, plans include gas utilization solutions that do not involve routine flaring or venting.

• It will end routine gas flaring that stops millions of tons of CO2 going into the atmosphere every year.

• The initiative, once successful, will contribute to improving the life of the people who live around gas flare sites.

News 15 - Indian economy grew by 7.4% in Q2 of FY 2015-16: CSO.

• CSO on 30 November 2015 announced that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.4 percent in the second quarter (July-September) of 2015-16 financial year compared to the same period during 2014-15. CSO stands for Central Statistical Office and is a part of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

• The high growth rate became a possibility due to 10.6 percent registered by trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting sectors.

• The manufacturing sector also grew by 9.3 percent compared to 7.9 percent in Q2 of FY 2014-15.

• With 7.4 percent growth, India continues be the fastest growing large economy in the world in 2015. Earlier this year, India had overtaken China as the world’s fastest growing major economy in the January-March quarter, growing 7.5 per cent against China’s 7 per cent.

• India further continued the growth momentum in the April-June quarter with 7 percent.

News 16 - Singapore's Changi airport to run Jaipur, Ahmedabad airports.

The Governments of India and Singapore signing an agreement for Singapore airport developer Changi being nominated for taking up the operations and management of two Indian airports, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

The agreement was signed on November 24 during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the island-city state and will see Changi manage the retail space inside the terminal building and car parking space, a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said. The operations of the airport will remain with AAI.

News 17 - Karnataka govt signs EoI with Reitzel Group.

Karnataka delegation, which is touring France to promote ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’ (global investment meet), has signed an Expression of Interest (EoI) agreement with Reitzel Group. As per the EoI, the company is expected to invest 3 million Euros (about Rs. 20 crore) and create about 50 new jobs to the already 200 existing jobs. Reitzel is a Paris-based family-owned company in the agri and food processing industry.

News 18 - RBI extended deadline to exchange pre-2005 notes to 30 June 2016.

The Reserve Bank of India on 23 December 2015 extended the deadline for exchanging pre-2005 currency notes of various denominations by another six months to 30 June 2016.

Earlier on 25 June 2015, the Reserve Bank had set the last date for public to exchange pre-2005 banknotes notes as 31 December 2015.

The Reserve Bank pointed out that it is standard international practice not to have currency notes from multiple series in simultaneous circulation. The Reserve Bank will continue to monitor and review the process so that the public is not inconvenienced in any manner. The post-2005 notes have added security features and will help in curbing the menace of fake currency.

News 19 - Idea became third mobile operator to launch 4G services in India.

Idea Cellular on 23 December 2015 became the third mobile operator in India to launch 4G services in India. Earlier, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India had launched 4G services in India. Idea Cellular launched 4G services across 75 towns.

News 20 - On-demand grocery service PepperTap acquires Jiffstore.

Gurgaon-based on-demand grocery service PepperTap on 21 December 2015 acquired Bengaluru-based hyperlocal grocery delivery startup, Jiffstore in a cash-and-stock deal. However, the deal details were not disclosed.

News 21 - Digital media company Arre acquired Apalya Technologies.

Arre, the digital media brand from UDigital, a venture founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B Saikumar and Ajay Chacko, on 21 December 2015 announced the acquisition of Apalya Technologies. As part of the deal, the cofounders of Apalya, Vamshi Reddy and Shiva Bayyapunedi, will get 2 percent sweat equity in UDigital.

News 22 - Tata Motors listed as the only Indian firm in the top 50 Global R&D spenders.

Tata Motors on 20 December 2015 made it to the Top 50 in the annual Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for 2015.

Prepared by the European Commission, the annual Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for 2015 was topped by the German automaker Volkswagen. In the top five R&D spenders, Volkswagen was followed by Samsung, Microsoft, Intel and Novartis. In terms of the number of companies on the list, India was overall placed at 15th position.

News 23 - CCEA approved investment of 5000 crore rupees into ONGC Videsh.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 22 December 2015 gave its approval for investment of 5000 crore rupees by Oil and Natural Gas Company Limited (ONGC) into the equity share capital of ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) by conversion of existing loan of equivalent amount into equity. With this investment, the equity base of OVL will rise to 15000 crore rupees. All the loan ONGC had given to OVL was at zero interest.

News 24 - RBI created Dedicated Helpline for guiding Start-ups in India on Forex Matters.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 22 December 2015 created a dedicated helpline (Email) for start-ups in India in order to offer assistance on Forex matters to them for undertaking cross-border transactions within the ambit of the regulatory framework. The cross-border transactions of resident Indians are subject to the regulatory regime provided by the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

News 25 - Reliance Jio launched 4G telecom service.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) or Reliance Jio on 27 December 2015 launched 4G telecom service. The service was launched at the Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai to mark the birth anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).

However, at present, it is limited to 85000 employees and their families of the company, while the commercial services are expected to begin by April 2016.

News 26 - Tech Mahindra launched NFC-based wallet MoboMoney.

Tech Mahindra Limited launched India’s first contactless digital payment ecosystem, branded MoboMoney. It is a prepaid wallet issued in the form of an NFC Contactless Tag. It can be used to Tap n Pay on a network of NFC enabled Merchant point of sale, thus allowing customers without an NFC-enabled phone to enjoy the simple tap and pay experience to purchase goods. It allows consumers to load their wallet by paying cash at its 1000+ retail network, helping convert cash into e-cash.

News 27 - Make in India Week’ to start from Feb 13.

The Central Government is organizing “Make in India Week” in Mumbai between February 13-18, 2016. It will be organized by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) along with the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It will have an investors meet for the manufacturing sector under Make in India.

News 28 - Wicked Ride launches utility bike rental service

Wicked Ride, a start-up, has launched its brand ‘Apna Ride’ for utility bike rentals, targeted primarily at budget conscious bike enthusiasts. The service would be initially available at Bengaluru, Mysore and Jaipur and bookings can be done through www.apnaride.com.

Whearas, Wicked Ride would focus on renting high-end luxury bikes like Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Ducati and Royal Enfield, ‘Apna Ride’ would focus on utility motorcycles, electric bikes and scooters.

News 29 - Bharat Petroleum commissioned Crude Distillation unit in Mumbai.

Bharat Petroleum on 28 December 2015 was commissioned a new 6-million tonne Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) at its Mumbai refinery, which will take the capacity of its oldest facility to 12 million tonne per annum.

This new state of the art CDU that came at a cost of 1419 crore rupees is a replacement of old Crude and Vacuum units of the refinery.

News 30 - Report of Vijay Kelkar Committee on Revisiting & Revitalizing PPP Model released.

The Union Ministry of Finance on 28 December 2015 released the report of the Committee on Revisiting and Revitalising Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model. The 9-member committee was headed by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar.

This committee was constituted on 26 May 2015 to review the experience of PPP Policy and suggest measures to improve capacity building in Government for their effective implementation. More importantly, the committee recognized the PPP Model in infrastructure as a valuable instrument to speed up infrastructure development in India.

News 31 - RBI released report of Deepak Mohanty Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion.

The Reserve Bank of India on 28 December 2015 released the Report of the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion. The committee was constituted on 15 July 2015 by the RBI with the objective of working out a medium-term (five year) measurable action plan for financial inclusion. This 14-member committee was headed by RBI Executive Director, Deepak Mohanty.

News 32 - SpiceJet launched travel solutions platform SpiceVacations.com.

SpiceJet on 29 December 2015 launched an end-to-end travel solutions platform, SpiceVacations.com. The platform offers customized travel packages to customers, who can avail various services, while planning their holiday, at no added cost.

News 33 - IMF approved China's Yuan as Elite Reserve Currency.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 30 November 2015 included China's Yuan, also known as Chinese Renmimbi (RMB) into its elite reserve currency basket. Yuan's entry into the basket takes effect from 1 October 2016.

The action was taken after the executive board at IMF completed the regular five-yearly review of the basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Right (SDR). Yuan will be a freely usable currency and will be included in the SDR basket as a fifth currency, along with the US Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen and British Pound.

What is a SDR?

The SDR is an international reserve asset, which the IMF uses to supplement its member countries reserves. The SDR’s value is based on the basket of the four international currencies and SDRs can be exchanged for “freely usable” currencies.

News 34 - Union Government slashed Minimum Export Price of onions to 400 US Dollars per tonne.

Union Government on 11 December 2015 slashed the Minimum Export Price (MEP) of onions to 400 US Dollars per tonne from 700 dollars a tonne. The decision to slash the MEP on Onions was taken at a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

MEP is the rate below which no traders are allowed to export their goods. The rise in MEP restricts exports and improves domestic supply.

News 35 - A portal to help SMEs get bank loans.

A portal called Quickrupee was launched by a Chennai based start-up promoted by Jyotsna and HD Sheriff. The portal can be used by SMEs to get consultation and facilitation on bank loans.

Quickrupee has tied up with 16 bankers (mostly private banks and NBFCs) and another seven are in the pipeline, Jyotsna and HD Sheriff said.

News 36 - Myanmar inaugurated Yangon Stock Exchange.

Myanmar on 9 December 2015 inaugurated a new stock exchange, named Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), with plans for six companies to start trading in March 2016.

Initially, the Yangon Stock Exchange will be open only to Myanmar based companies and investors and will eventually allow foreigners to invest in Myanmar shares.