1. Insurance Bill: House panel for raising foreign investment cap to 49% A Parliamentary Committee today recommended a composite foreign investment cap of 49 per cent in the insurance sector and supported a government Bill to amend the Act. At present, a limit of 26 per cent is allowed only through the FDI route. “The committee recommends that the composite cap of 49 per cent should be inclusive of all forms of foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investments,” said the report tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha had in August appointed a 15-member Select Committee to scrutinise the long pending Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008. The Bill was held up for nearly six years on account of political differences. The panel, headed by Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra, has suggested inclusion of a person from the insurance industry in the Securities Appellate Tribunal as an expert. It has recommended suitable amendment to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act for the inclusion. The panel also recommended that penalties on insurance companies be linked to seriousness of offences committed by them. It has suggested mechanism to ensure that there is minimum scope for subjective interpretation. 2. SBI launched two Composite Indices to track monthly and yearly economic trends The State Bank of India (SBI) launched two indices namely the SBI Monthly Composite Index and the SBI Yearly Composite Index. These indices will primarily track manufacturing and services activity to determine contraction and expansion of the Indian economy. This is the first time that an Indian bank launched a forward-looking economic index. Earlier to determine the economic trends, markets depended upon HSBC India Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) and HSBC India Services Business Activity. The SBI Composite Indices have been developed on the basis of the SBI’s internal loan portfolio, which mirrors the credit demand in the country. 3. WEF released 2013 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index World Economic Forum (WEF) released the 2013 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index. The theme of the 2013 Index is Reducing Barriers to Economic Growth and Job Creation. Out of 140 economies assessed in the 2013 Index, Switzerland topped the list in terms of travel and tourism competitiveness. It is followed by Germany and Austria at second and third place respectively. The other countries in the top ten are: the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Canada, Sweden and Singapore. India has been placed at 65th position in the 2013 Index and is positioned at 11th place in the Asia-Pacific region. African countries namely Nigeria, Chad, Mauritania, Lesotho, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Haiti are positioned last in the index. 4. BHEL commissioned Nyaborongo Hydro Power Plant in Rwanda Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) successfully commissioned a 28 MW Nyaborongo Hydro Electric Project in Rwanda on turnkey basis. Nyaborongo Hydro Electric project • Nyaborongo Hydro Electric project is owned by the Government of Rwanda and has been financed under the Government of India’s Line of Credit. • BHELs scope of work in the contract included turnkey execution for the Nyaborongo hydro power project comprising two hydro generating units of 14 MW each. 5. Veteran Journalist Piratla Venkateswarlu passed away Veteran journalist Piratla Venkateswarlu passed away in Narayanaguda following a brief illness. He was 74. 6. Azim Premji awarded Swiss Ambassadors Award Chairman of Wipro Azim Premji was awarded Swiss Ambassadors Award in Mumbai . He was awarded for inspirational and socially responsible leadership. Switzerland ambassador Linus von Castelmur praised Azim Premji as a beacon of the corporate world who has maintained values such as tolerance, honesty and modesty. 7. Richard Rahul Verma became first Indian-American to be appointed as US Ambassador to India Indian-American Richard Rahul Verma’s nomination as the next US Ambassador to India was confirmed by the US Senate . With this, he became the first Indian-American to be the US Ambassador to India. Verma will replace Nancy Powell who resigned from the post in March 2014 after a damaging row over the treatment of a junior diplomat of India, Devyani Khobragade. 8. RBI to come out with guidelines on refinance The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would shortly come out with guidelines on refinance of existing projects as demanded by the industry, its Deputy Governor S S Mundra said on Wednesday. “There is a demand from the industry for refinance of existing projects. RBI will come out with the guidelines soon,” Mr. Mundra said at a CII interaction here. He said new projects would get the scope for refinance every five years till the economic life of the projects as already declared. “But for existing projects, the guidelines will be out soon,” he said. Sounding a word of caution on big projects having thin equity, Mr. Mundra said, “There are many projects based on thin equity. This is like skating on thin ice.” He said that when economic growth is robust, such projects carry on as many of the ills are taken on stride. 9. India’s second most “up and coming” destination for expats: HSBC India has been ranked as the second most ‘up and coming’ destination – the countries that are getting better as a place to live and work in – for expats after China, says an HSBC survey. According to the Expat Explorer survey commissioned by HSBC Expat, emerging Asian economies are an attractive destination for challenge-seeking and adventurous expats, with 44 per cent of them saying they made the move for a new challenge. “India is likely to develop its industrial sector to catch up on infrastructure development, which will happen with the help of overseas funding. It’s natural to assume that the foreign funding will bring along foreign human expertise,” HSBC India Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management Sanjiv Sud said. Indian economy is consistently growing above 5 per cent every year, and is expected to post a 7.3 per cent growth in 2016, according to HSBC. Expats in China and in India are also the most confident and have a positive outlook on the local economy with 60 per cent of them sharing the feeling that their host country is getting better as a place to live and work, compared to the 32 per cent global average. India attracts highly-skilled expats in the construction and engineering sector (19 per cent). Other sectors where expats in India are well represented are telecommunications and IT (21 per cent), and financial services (10 per cent). 10. WTO rules in India’s favour in steel dispute with US n a major relief to the steel industry, the WTO has ruled against the US which had imposed high duty on imports of certain steel products from India. The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled that the duty imposed by the US on the Indian steel products is “inconsistent” with its Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. However, it also rejected some of the findings of the Geneva-based organisation’s dispute settlement panel which were in India’s favour. The body has also recommended that the US should modify its norms and bring them in line with the WTO’s agreement. After India filed its complaint at the WTO in 2012, the dispute settlement panel of the body in July this year had ruled in India’s favour against the USA’s imposition of higher duties on New Delhi’s steel imports. 11. Snapdeal, Hero MotoCorp tie up to sell two-wheelers online E-commerce major Snapdeal and the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp are tying up to sell the latter’s products online. Snapdeal began sales of Hero MotoCorp’s scooter – Maestro – price starting at ₹46,700 exclusively on its website, coinciding with the ‘Great Online Shopping Festival’ initiated by Google India on Tuesday. The home-grown e-commerce company is already been selling automobiles and two-wheelers with exclusive partnership tie-ups with Mahindra & Mahindra for Scorpio, Centuro motorcycle and Rodeo scooter, and Hero Electric’s scooters since early last year. Snapdeal will sell more brands from HeroCorp’s stable, including its best-selling motorcycles such as Splendor Plus, Passion Pro, Ignitor, Karizma among others. 12. India’s GDP may grow 5-6% in 2015: Moody’s Indian economy is expected to pick up pace in 2015 and grow in the range of 5 to 6 per cent, helped by strong domestic demand, rating agency Moody’s today said. “India will have stronger GDP growth in 2015, which we forecast at 5-6 per cent, up from around 5 per cent in 2014,” Moody’s said in a report titled — 2015 Outlook-Global Credit Conditions. The country, it said, has benefited from a strong domestic demand base and diversified export market that give protection from the effects of a slowing Chinese economy and muted growth in the euro zone and Japan. “Employment and consumption are likely to rise in India, and the fall in global commodity prices will help to lower high inflation in the country,” Moody’s said. As per official estimates, economic growth in the current fiscal ending March 2015 would be between 5.4 and 5.9 per cent. The growth had slumped to sub-5 per cent in the earlier two consecutive fiscals.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:31:39 +0000
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