Economy CA

1. India and Spain have signed an agreement on Mutual Protection of Classified Information. This agreement provides the framework for enhanced cooperation in the defence sector between both countries. Mutual Protection of Classified Information is a primary pact that a country agrees to before embarking on deeper talks on defence cooperation

2. Airtel and China Mobile inks MoU for evolving technologies and equipment procurement memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work jointly on evolving high technologies like 4G, 5G and procuring telecom devices and equipment.

3. Walmart India has appointed Ashwin Mittal as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

4. National Payments Corporation (NPCI) has successfully linked 15 crore Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) accounts with the Aadhaar numbers. NPCI is also nodal agency for all retail payment systems under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

5. Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure has acquired Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering in an all-cash deal.

6. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Limited, India’s largest software services exporter has appointed Aarthi Subramanian as an executive director on the board of directors.

7. Indian Railways on 11 March 2015 inked an MoU with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to raise Rs 1.5 lakh crore for financing the development of its various commercially viable infrastructure projects.

8. Union Government has announced that 5 sick public sector undertakings (PSUs) will be closed. The 5 sick PSU that will be closed include HMT and its three units, Hindustan Shipyard

9. Ashu Suyash has been appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL).

10. Facebook has acquired the shopping search engine TheFind.

11. Wipro, India’s third-largest software services firm has appointed Abid Ali Neemuchwala as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

12. Parliament has passed Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015.

Key highlights of Bill

*allocation of coal mines through a transparent bidding process i.e e-auction.

*e-auction of coal blocks for private companies for captive use and allot mines directly to state and central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

*strong measures for rehabilitation and compensation for displaced persons

*provides for vesting of the right, title and interest over the land and mine infrastructure together with mining leases to successful bidders.

13. Union Cabinet has cleared the black money bill to curb the menace of black money in the country.

Some provisions of bill

*gives powers to tax authorities to track and deal with illegal wealth stashed abroad

*the offences related to black money will be non-compoundable and the offenders will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission

*proposes penalty at the rate of 300 per cent of taxes to be levied on the concealed income and assets, in addition to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.

14. Union Cabinet also gave its nod for signing of an agreement with the US on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The agreement will enable India to acquire information on big foreign transactions and indirectly curb black money stashing.

15. India and Kyrgyzstan on 17 March 2015 signed MoU to strengthen bilateral cooperation on textile and clothing.The MoU seeks to strengthen bilateral cooperation between both nations in the three fields including Textiles and Clothing, Silk and Sericulture and Fashion.

16. India has become the third-largest steel producer in the world by overtaking United States (US) in first two months of year 2015. It was revealed in the Data compiled by World Steel Association (WSA).

I-China, II-Japan.

17. Colin Macdonald has been appointed as Managing Director (MD) of Renault Nissan Automotive India (RNAIPL). RNAIPL is third biggest exporter of cars from India

18. Parliament has passed Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill,

2015.

Highlights of bill:

*bill adds a new 4th schedule in the parent Act to include mining of bauxite, iron ore, limestone and manganese ore as notified minerals.

*changed it for 50 years, as against present 30 years for all minerals other than coal, lignite and atomic minerals. No provision for renewal of mining concessions.

*State governments will grant mining leases and prospecting licence-cum-mining leases along with approval of Union government.

*Union government is permitted to increase the area allowed for mining, instead of granting additional leases as per parent Act.

*District Mineral Foundation (DMF) to be set up in mining areas affected by mining operations to address local area grievances. National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) to be set up for regional and pan-India planning and detailed mine exploration.

19. Indian Railways has launched RuPay pre-paid debit card service for the railway passengers. The service was launched by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in collaboration with the Union Bank of India (UBI) and the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

20. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved guidelines to govern international financial services centres (IFSC). IFSC will be established under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act of 2005

Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT), the first IFSC in Ahmadabad

21. Union Government has approved 17 mega food parks for food processing across the country. It was announced by Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

About Mega Food Park Scheme:

This scheme is based on cluster approach and on hub and spoke model. The scheme aims at facilitating the establishment of a strong food processing industry in the country. It will be backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes collection centres, central processing center (CPC) and cold chain infrastructure.

22. FIPB approves the FDI proposals under approval route. However, those proposals worth

above Rs 1,200 crore are given final approval to the CCEA.

23. Union Government has unveiled new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) to make India an exporting powerhouse in the next five years. The new trade policy will incorporate government ambitious initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India mission, Skill India programme, ease of business in order to boost jobs and take India’s exports to 900 billion dollars by 2020.

Key facts

FTP also takes into consideration e-commerce. Under the new policy, India’s nascent, e-commerce sector would also be extended sops. The new trade policy will be based on two new schemes- Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and Services Exports from India Scheme (SIES). Under these two schemes, government has merged all earlier export promotion schemes. MEIS is for export of specified goods in specified markets with the rate of rewards range from 2 to 5%. SIES is for increasing exports of notified services and the selected services will be rewarded at the rates of 3 to 5%. The new also move towards paperless working. In this regard, a facility has been created to upload documents in exporter/ importer profile in order to avoid need of repeatedly submitting documents

24. Union Government on 31 March 2015 approved amendments to the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) guidelines. The approved amendments seek to enhance financial support to projects in infrastructure sector. Decision in this regard was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Read more at: http://currentaffairs.gktoday.in/category/current-affairs-2015/business-economy-current-affairs/page/107

25. In recently released 2015 FM Global Resilience Index, India has been ranked a low 119 out of 130 countries. Topper-Norway.

The Index measures business resilience of 130 nations. It is based on economic, risk quality and supply chain factors. The higher ranking of country in this index indicates that it is best suited for companies seeking to avoid disruptions in their global supply chain operations

26. Captain Anoop Kumar Sharma has taken over as whole-time director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Essar Shipping Ltd (ESL).

27. Online marketplace Snapdeal on 8 April 2015 acquired India’s fastest growing mobile transaction platform FreeCharge.

28. Sumit Mazumder was elected as the President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2015-16. He is Chairman & Managing Director (MD) of TIL Limited

29. The Union Cabinet on 7 April 2015 approved amendments to the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013 to protect the interests of consumers and curb the malpractices in the real estate sector.

Facts about Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013

Regulates transactions in real estate projects between the promoters and buyers. Establishes state level regulatory authorities called Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs) and tribunals called Real Estate Appellate Tribunals to settle disputes. Promoters and real estate agents must register project details with RERAs who intend to sell any plot, apartment or building. All information for registered projects must be disclosed on website of the RERA. It will include details of promoters, land status, layout plan, schedule of execution and status of various approvals. The bill enforces the contract between the developer and buyer and fast track the mechanism to settle disputes. 50% of the amount collected from buyers for a project must be maintained in a separate bank account and must only be used for construction of that project.

30. India and United States (US) have signed Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) transportation between both countries. It was signed by Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari and Anthony Foxx, US Secretary of Transportation in New Delhi.

31. Union government has allowed pharmaceutical companies to hike rates of 509 essential medicines by 3.84 per cent. The new prices will be effective from 1 April 2015. In this regard, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has issued a notification under Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013 in line with the wholesale price index of 2014.

32. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 April 2015 launched Micro Units Development Re-finance Agency (MUDRA) Bank in New Delhi. MUDRA Bank will act as a regulator for ‘Micro-Finance Institutions’ (MFIs) involved in manufacturing, trading and service activities to promote their growth.MUDRA Bank will provide financing on 3 stages- Shishu, Kishore and Tarun. Shishu is first stage in which loan cover upto Rs 50,000 will be given to a business entity at start of business. Kishore is second stage in which loan cover ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh will be given. Tarun is the third stage in which loan cover up to Rs. 10 lakh will be given.

33. Mobile commerce platform Paytm on 13 March 2015 inked memorandum of understanding MoU with National Centre for Trade Information (NCTI) to promote Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). As per MoU, Paytm will offer a virtual marketplace platform for NCTI members and will extend its services and enable them to sell online.

National Centre for Trade Information (NCTI) provides value added trade information for the benefit of the international trading community, especially Indian MSME’s in the form of Electronic Trading Opportunities, Live Trade Leads.

34. India and France on 11 April 2015 signed 17 agreements in various fields during Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s visit to France. They were signed in presence of Indian PM and his counterpart French President Francois Hollande after they had held wide-ranging talks in Paris.MoU between Larsen and Tubro and AREVA

Pre-engineering agreements (PEA) between NPCIL and Areva

MoU between CNES and ISRO on Megha Tropiques satellite

MOU between ISRO, CNES and ONERA

MoU between Union Sports Ministry and French Ministry of Sports

Railway protocol between Union Railways Ministry and French National Railways (SNCF)

35. Pankaj More on 15 April 2015 was appointed as Technology Head of Wal-Mart India Private Limited. Incumbent CEO: Krish Iyer.

36. Online restaurant guide Zomato on 14 April 2015 acquired MaplePOS, a cloud-based point of sale product for restaurants developed by Delhi based MapleGraph.

37. Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has renamed Tourist Visa on Arrival-Electronic Travel Authorization scheme (TVoA-ETA) to e-Tourist Visa with effect from 15 April 2015.

38. India’s second largest state-owned oil explorer company, Oil India Limited (OIL) has commissioned 54 MW wind energy projects saddled between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

39. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Russian company INTMA to set up a gas-based power project in Kazakhstan.

40. Finnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia on 16 April 2015 announced acquisition of French telecom network firm Alcatel- Lucent.

41. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to export petroleum products to Bangladesh.

42. Online travel services provider MakeMyTrip.com has acquired Mygola, a startup travel guide firm.

43. National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) on 23 April 2015 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with e-commerce giant Snapdeal to roll out digital marketing courses. The MoU aims at helping small and medium enterprises/businesses and artisans who want to take the online route to become entrepreneurs.

44. Online restaurant guide Zomato has acquired United States (US) based online table reservation platform NexTable for undisclosed amount. It is Zomato’s ninth acquisitions since past nine months.

45. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved three highway projects in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra with a total cost of 5,150 crore rupees.

46. French IT services firm Capgemini has announced its plan to acquire US based information technology (IT) outsourcer IGATE for US 4 billion dollars.

47. India has emerged as the fourth largest supplier of generic medicines to the United States.

48. Government has allowed Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), India’s retirement fund body to invest five per cent of its corpus in exchange traded funds i.e. in stock markets.

49. Online marketplace Flipkart has acquired mobile marketing start-up Appiterate in order to strengthen its mobile platform.

50. Real estate portal PropTiger.com has acquired its rival Makaan.com to ramp up its presence in India’s secondary property market. After the acquisition both portals will run separately.

51. Seychelles, an archipelago of 90000 inhabitants became the 161st member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is one of the smallest nations among the WTO members.

The President of Seychelles-James Michel.

WTO Director General (DG) Roberto Azevedo.

52. Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has been adjudged the world’s best airport for the year 2014. In this regard, Airports Council International (ACI) presented the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award to IGIA under the category of handling 25 to 40 million passengers per annum.

53. India and Japan have signed a Five-point action agenda to increase bilateral trade and investment between the two nations.

The five-point agenda includes

Development of selected townships in India as Japanese industrial townships.

Promotion of investment and infrastructure development.

Further development and cooperation in IT sector.

Enhancing cooperation in strategic sectors. Asia-Pacific economic integration.

Japan is the fourth largest foreign direct investment (FDI) contributor to India. It’s major FDI interests is in automobiles, pharmaceuticals and services sectors which accounts for 7.46 per cent of total FDI equity inflows into India.

54. E-commerce solutions provider for fashion and lifestyle products Myntra.com has acquired Bengaluru based mobile app development platform company Native5.

55. Maharashtra government has decided to bring down the crop loss percentage to 33 per cent from existing 50 per cent. The crop loss percentage is crucial in awarding compensation to farmers whose crop is hit by natural calamities.

56. Information technology giant, Microsoft has launched a cloud computing-based offering Edu-Cloud with an aim to Make Learning Fun.

57. Deepak Iyer was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.

58. Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has inked memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-run Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to provide easy finance to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for their growth.

As per the MoU, both signatory parties have jointly created funds to the tune of 200 crore rupees to provide immediate finance to the MSMEs.

59. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the modernised and expanded part of the IISCO Steel Plant in Burnpur near Asansol distrct of West Bengal. IISCO Steel Plant is a fully-owned subsidiary of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and has the largest blast furnace in the country.

60. Sixth edition of National Conference on Nuclear Energy, organized by ASSOCHAM, held in New Delhi. The theme of this edition was Nuclear Energy: a Clean Energy option.

Quick facts India is on course of doubling its nuclear power generation capacity in five years i.e. till 2020 by more than 10,000 MW. At present 3.5% of India’s electricity is generated by Nuclear power plants. In future its share will be less than 10% even if the installed capacity is tripled.

61. Union Cabinet has given its approval to Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The Bill seeks to amend the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 by adding additional provisions that provides for stringent measures against violators in order to curb and check the generation of black money in the country.

62. Union Cabinet gave its approval to 5 per cent disinvestment in National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) and 10 per cent in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). Decision in this regard was taken by Union Cabinet Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

These approvals are part of Union Government’s budgeted target to raise 41,000 crore rupees through strategic stake sales i.e. disinvestment for the current financial year 2015-16.

63. India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for optimum use of weather information and forecast in the power sector.

64. India and Mongolia have decided to elevate their ties to the level of Strategic partnership. In this regard a joint statement was issued after the delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mongolian counterpart Saikhanbileg in Ulaan Baatar.

65. Union Government has allocated 5,000 crore rupees for the growth of Department of AYUSH, that comprises Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy. It was announced by Union Minister of State (MoS) for AYUSH Sripad Naik at a function in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

66. Tech giant Apple has acquired Global Position System (GPS) firm Coherent Navigation to improve its mapping capabilities.

67. International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its recent report titled Act Local, Solve Global: The $5.3 Trillion Energy Subsidy Problem has voiced alarm about energy subsidies across the world. The report has clearly mentioned that the energy subsidies across the world are expected to reach 5.3 trillion dollars in 2015, more than government health spending.

68. Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), a telecom arm of Reliance Industries (RIL) has signed a pact with Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer firm Huawei for sourcing various 4th Generation (4G) devices.

69. UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) Report for Mid update -2015 has projected that India’s economic growth will surpass China’s growth in 2016. The report has projected India’s economy to grow by 7.6 per cent in year 2015 and 7.7 per cent in 2016. While,

it has projected China’s economic growth will be 7 per cent in year 2015 and 6.8 per cent in 2016.

70. Maharashtra Government has decided to allow women employees to work in night shifts. In this regard, state government is going to amend Section 66(1) (c) Factories Act 1948, thus making the way for women employees to work in night shifts.

With this, Maharashtra has joined the list of Indian states that already have allowed women to work in night shifts or are in the process of doing so. They are Rajasthan, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

71. Eminent economist, policy advisor and noted academic Mrinal Datta Chaudhuri passed away in Pune, Maharashtra 19 May 2015.

Awards and Honours: Padma Bhushan (2005) in the field of Trade and Industry.

72. Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and world’s largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal signed a MoU to set up an automotive steel manufacturing facility in India. The MoU was signed by ArcelorMittal Chairman & Chief Executive Lakshmi Niwas Mittal and SAIL Chairman CS Verma in London.

73. Union Cabinet has approved the revival of closed urea unit of Fertilizer Corporation India Limited (FICL) at Sindri in Jharkhand with an investment of 6000 crore rupees. Decision in this regard was taken at Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

74. Union Government has decided to amend Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms for NRIs, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) to increase capital flows into the country.

75. National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) have launched NASSCOM Cyber Security Task Force. The aim of task force is to build India as a global hub for providing cyber security solutions, developing cyber security Research & Development (R&D) plan and develop a skilled workforce of cyber security experts.

76. Union Government has appointed Manoj Mishra as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of state-run National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL).

State-run NFL has five gas-based urea plants across India. They are Nangal & Bathinda in Punjab, Panipat in Haryana and two plants at Vijaipur in District Guna of Madhya Pradesh.

77. Sunil D’Souza was appointed as Managing Director (MD) of India’s home appliances maker Whirlpool.

78. Four Indians have been named in Forbes magazine’s 12th annual list of World’s 100 most powerful women. They are Arundhati Bhattacharya: First woman (and youngest) Chairperson of State Bank of India (SBI) was placed at 30th position. Chanda Kochhar: Managing Director (MD) and CEO of India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank was placed at 35th position. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: Founder, Chairman and MD of Biocon Limited was placed at 85th position. Shobhana Bhartia: Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group was placed at 93rd position. It should be noted she has appeared on the list for the first time.

79. Union government has constituted a 10-member committee to review and revitalise public private partnership (PPP) mode of infrastructure development. The committee will be chaired by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar and submit its report within a period of 3 months from the date of its Constitution.

Background Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech of February 2015 had announced that the PPP mode of infrastructure development has to be revitalized and revisited in which the major issue involved is rebalancing of risk.

80. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 26 May 2015 launched India’s first television channel DD Kisan dedicated to farmers in New Delhi. The 24X7 channel is owned by public service broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) and is dedicated to agriculture and allied sectors.

81. About Monosodium glutamate Monosodium glutamate is a kind of amino acid. It occurs naturally in many agricultural products. Monosodium glutamate is added artificially to packaged food to enhance flavour. Health impact: Large doses of MSG can cause headaches and other feelings of discomfort collectively known as Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.

82. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated the New Bank Note Paper Line unit of 6000 metric ton capacity at Security Paper Mill in Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh.

83. India has joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI). The new global standards has wide in scope and oblige the treaty partners to exchange wide range of financial information from institutions from their country. In order to implement these standards in India necessary legislative changes will be made in section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

84. Bangladesh has granted permission to India’s state-owned insurance group Life insurance Corporation (LIC) to do business in the country.

85. India has slapped anti-dumping duty on imports of certain steel products from three South Asian countries viz China, Malaysia and South Korea. The anti-dumping duty was imposed by Union Finance Ministry on the recommendation of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping Duty (DGAD) to protect domestic producers from below-cost inbound shipments.

86. Adani Power Limited (APL) and Reliance Power Limited of India have signed separate memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

87. The second border haat (rural market) was opened for common people at Kamalasagar in Sipahijala district of Tripura bordering Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh. The haat was jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina by video-conferencing from Dhaka on June 6, 2015.

88. Reserve Bank of Indian has allowed non-resident Indians (NRIs) to invest in chit fund to encourage flow of capital into the country. Decision in this regard was taken after RBI had revised the extant guidelines for subscription to the chit funds in consultation with the government. Henceforth, NRIs on non-repatriation basis will be allowed to invest in chit fund without any ceiling. However, the subscription to the chit funds by NRIs will be mandatorily brought in through normal banking channel, including through an account maintained with a bank in India.

Apart from this decision, RBI also extended the scheme allowing airline companies to raise external commercial borrowings (ECB) for working capital as a permissible end-use under the approval route. Now, the ECB scheme will continue till March 31, 2016.

89. Union Cabinet approved an interest-free loan i.e. soft loan to the tune of 6,000 crore rupees to enable sugar mills pay arrears to farmers. Decision in this regard was taken by Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Apart from this decision cabinet also approved hike in prices of Ethanol. As per this decision, interest on the loan will not be charged for a year but the interest will be borne by the Union government from sugar development fund. The money to be paid as arrears to farmers under this loan will be directed credited in Jan Dhan accounts of farmers.

90. As per recently released report by British Petroleum (BP) Energy Company, United States (US) became the world’s largest oil producer in 2014 surpassing Saudi Arabia. It was reveled in BP Energy Company report tilled Statistical Review of World Energy.

India is self-sufficient and fourth largest in refining capacity with 4.3 million bpd. Top three nations are US (17.79 million bpd), China (14.09 million bpd) and Russia (6.3 million bpd).

91. United States (US) government has opened an investigation against two of the biggest Indian Information Technology (IT) outsourcing companies for possible violations of H1-B visa rules. The two IT giants are Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.

92. World Bank and World Health Organisation (WHO) in their latest report have reported that around 400-million people worldwide lack access to essential health services.

93. China has launched a freight train service between its northeastern city of Harbin and Europe. The 9,820-km-long distance rail route will open new trade options for Chinese goods in the European Market.

94. Domestic e-commerce giant Snapdeal has acquired Gurgaon based mobility solutions company Letsgomo Labs.

95. State owned telecommunications giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has launched free pan India roaming scheme.

96. Maharashtra Government has given nod to new Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) policy. Decision in this regard was taken by State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai.

Presently, Maharashtra ranks second in the country for the exports of IT & ITES after Karnataka. Last two IT policies of state in 2003 and 2009 had played important role to attract investment of 3.24 trillion rupees and had created 465 private and 37 public IT parks along with 748,000 direct jobs.

97. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into the services sector grew by over 46 per cent to 3.25 billion dollars in 2014-15 fiscal. It was revealed by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

Increase in foreign investments will help to improve country’s balance of payments (BoP) situation and strengthen the rupee.

98. Maharashtra has topped in Patent filing in India during year 2013-14. While, the Bengaluru was the top city in IPR filing in the country. It was revealed in recently published annual report of the office of the Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM).

99. Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) has launched ASCIonline, a mobile application in a bid to address misleading advertisements. The application will provide consumers/users platform to report complaint services for misleading advertisements on a mobile apart from ASCI’s online complaint facility. It is India’s first consumer complaint mobile app.

ASCI is a self-regulatory voluntary non-governmental organization (NGO) of the advertising industry in India. Aim- To maintain and enhance the public’s confidence in advertising. It was established in 1985 by three main constituents of advertising industry viz advertisers, advertising agencies and media.

100. Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has notified an order to make Universal Account Number (UAN) mandatory for all its employers. It will be mandatory for all employers covered under the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

101. India has emerged as the third largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) source for United Kingdom (UK) in 2014-15. It was revealed in recently released report Inward Investment Report 2014-15 of UK Trade and Industry (UKTI). This FDI source was based in terms of number of projects i.e. source of inward investment.

102. India has topped in the regional inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in South Asia region during year 2014, accounting for 34 billion US dollars investments. It was revealed in United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD’s) World Investment Report 2015.

103. Union Cabinet has given to 81,459 crore rupees revised estimate for Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project.

Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project on completion will pass through 9 states. They are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

104. Rajasthan has become number one state in the country in terms of total installed capacity of solar energy.

105. India has become most attractive investment destination in world after it was ranked first among 110 countries in a ranking of destinations for attractiveness to foreign investors. The ranking was based on baseline profitability index (BPI) 2015. In this edition of China was placed at the 65th position and US was placed at the 50th.

106. India and United States have signed a series of agreements on health in order to enhance cooperation in health sector. The multiple areas covered under such agreement include cancer research, medical infrastructure development and application of new diagnostic technologies.

107. Union Cabinet has approved setting up of an Online National Agriculture Market that will provide more options to farmers for selling their produce.

In this regard, Union government will also establish an agency to oversee online trading and ensure that transactions take place smoothly. This online agriculture market will also focus on creating godowns and facilitate transportation of the farm produce after the online trade.

108. Two Indian organizations, India Army and Indian Railways are among the world’s biggest employers. It was revealed in a research published by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Both organisations employ around 2.7 million people together

109. Technology major Lenovo has appointed Rahul Agarwal as the Managing Director (MD) of its India operations.

110. Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Narendra Modi approved Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) or PM’s Agriculture Irrigation Scheme. PMKSY is central scheme that aims at providing irrigation facilities to every village in the country by converging ongoing irrigation schemes implemented by various ministries. It will focus on ‘end-to-end solution’ in irrigation supply chain by implementing new programme in a “project mode” with decentralised state-level planning and execution. Budgetary allocation: 1,000 crore rupees for fiscal year 2015-16.

Funding Pattern: Centre- States will be 75: 25 per cent. In case of north-eastern region and hilly states it will be 90:10.

111. Greece has become the first developed nation to default on International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt. It has defaulted on a 1.7 billion dollars payment to IMF. The deadline for debt payment was missed by Greece after Eurozone Finance Ministers refused to extend its bailout. They had refused the bailout after Greece rejected the proposal given International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC). Apart from this, ECB also has frozen its liquidity lifeline to Greek banks.

112. World Bank has approved an additional loan of 650 million dollars for India’s Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project. It was approved in third round of World Bank funding and follows earlier two other loans by the bank for this project.

113. State run telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) launched pre-paid card linked mobile wallet service ‘Speed Pay’.

114. India’s seafood exports touched an all-time high at 33,441 crore rupees during the financial year 2014-15. The data was released by Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).

Among states, Gujarat was ranked at the first place in terms of quantity, while Andhra Pradesh was ranked at first place in terms of value of exports. Kerala ranked at second place, both in terms of quantity and value of exports. United States has continued to be the largest market for Indian seafood products accounting 26.46 per cent share of total exports.

115. India’s biggest auto maker, Tata Motors Limited has appointed Chandrasekaran Ramakrishnan as chief financial officer (CFO) of its automobile group.

116. Mahindra Defence Systems Limited, a subsidiary of Mahindra Group and Airbus Helicopter have inked pact to form a joint venture (JV) company to produce helicopters in India.

117. India and Kazakhstan launched the first exploratory drilling at Satpayev oil block owned by India’s ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Kazakhstan company KazMunaiGaz. It was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakhstan premier Karim Massimov in Astana, Kazakh capital.

118. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prohibited the foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing of tobacco products. In this regard, RBI has issued a notification which prohibits the manufacturing of tobacco products activities such as wholesale cash and carry, retail trading as they fall under the sectoral restrictions

119. ndia and United States have signed inter-governmental agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). It was signed by Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma in New Delhi. The agreement will promote transparency on tax matters and curb offshore tax evasion by exchange of information between the two countries. It is obligatory on signatories to exchange a wide range of financial information among themselves automatically and periodically.

120. eMudhra Limited, a leading certifying firm in the country for digital signatures launched first of its kind eSign services in the country as part of the Digital India Vision. eSign is an online electronic signature service legally valid and secure under the Information Technology Act, 2000. It will facilitate an Aadhaar holder to digitally sign a document within seconds.

About eMudhra eMudhra Limited is a statutory licensed Certifying Authority of India to issue digital signature certificates. Established: in 2008 under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. eMudhra offers variety of other services including Tax filing Services, Digital Signing Solutions, PAN Card Online applications. Digital Certificate Authentication System and Trusted Time Stamping etc. Its clients are corporates, Banks, government organizations, individuals and several small and medium businesses.

121. Union government has appointed Sriram Kalyanaraman as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Housing Bank (NHB) for a period of five years. With this he became the first person from private sector to be appointed as head of a public sector financial institution.

122. About National Housing Bank (NHB) NHB is apex regulator for housing finance sector and a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Established: in 1988 under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987. It is a principal agency to promote housing finance institutions at local and regional levels. It also provides financial and other support to institutions related to this sector. Function: Register, regulate and supervise Housing Finance Company (HFCs) and keep surveillance on them through On-site & Off-site Mechanisms. It also co-ordinates with other Regulators.

123. Healthcare firm Practo has acquired Mumbai based Genii, a technology services start-up focused on product design and development.

124. Rahul Bhatnagar was named as new Managing Director (MD) and chief financial officer (CFO) of Bharti Enterprises.

125. State-run National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has set a target of providing 30,000 crore rupees as credit to farmers for irrigational purpose.

This funding will be in addition to the government’s 50,000 crore rupees of loans to farmers over the next five years (till 2020) under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). Besides, it was also announced that NABARD has been accredited as the national implementation agency for climate change at the rural level by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It should be noted that, NABARD is only the banking entity from South Asia to be shortlisted for the purpose by GEF. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank among others are the 20 such entities which have already been shortlisted.

126. India has in imposed definitive anti-dumping duty of 342.76 dollars per tonne on all phenol imports on imports of Phenol from South Africa. This anti-dumping duty will be valid for a period of five years.

127. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay and Nehru Science Centre have launched a pilot project “Internet for All” in its Mobile Science Exhibition Bus in Mumbai. It was launched under the aegis of the Union Government’s flagship ‘Digital India’ campaign.

128. Ajay Kumar Pandey was appointed as new Managing Director and Group CEO of Gandhinagar based Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).

129. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the creation of an Intra-state Transmission System (ISTS) in 7 states across the country. 7 States are: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh

130. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a committee to prepare a 5 year action plan to spread the reach of financial services across country to unbanked population. The committee will be headed by RBI executive director Deepak Mohanty and comprise total of 14 members

131. Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and US-based aircraft maker Boeing have signed a strategic framework agreement for aerospace and defence manufacturing.

132. Union government has brought 39 more Pharmaceutical drugs under price control as part of its efforts to make medicines affordable in the country.


















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