4. Nabard sets up Chair at IRMA The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Institute of Rural Management-Anand (IRMA) for setting up a Nabard Chair in Agriculture and Rural Development at the institution founded by the late Dr Verghese Kurien, Father of the White Revolution in India. The MoA was signed by Prof. Jeemol Unni, Director, IRMA, and M.V. Ashok, Chief General Manager, Nabard, at Anand on Tuesday. Prof. Rakesh Saxena has been nominated the Nabard Chair Professor at IRMA. The objective of the Chair is to encourage applied and empirical research of a high standard in a bid to promote agriculture and rural development while broadening perceptions and gaining insights into these areas,The Chair Professor at IRMA will collaborate with Nabard on joint activities and engage in policy issues. A lecture series on issues of mutual interest to both IRMA and Nabard is also being considered. 5. CII, Alibaba tie up to provide global platform to Indian SMEs To facilitate greater economic engagement between Indian and Chinese SMEs, Confederation of Indian Industry has signed an MOU with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba to build business-to-business linkages through global online platform. Alibaba and CII will collaborate and develop various trade opportunities and online promotions to facilitate greater economic engagement between Indian and Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). CII Shanghai has signed an MOU with Alibaba to build business-to-business linkages between SMEs from India and the rest of the world through better utilisation of digital services for cross border and domestic trade, Chief Representative of CII Shanghai Madhav Sharma, who signed the agreement at Hangzhou city last week, said today. CII and Alibaba will also work jointly towards providing trainings, promoting Industry clusters for SMEs in some key business sectors. Alibaba will work with CII to run their e-certificates programmes in India, Sharma said. The MoU is a step forward in forging greater partnerships, engagement between Indian and global business especially among SMEs. 6. Twitter buys Indian start-up ZipDial Leading social networking website Twitter has bought Indian mobile marketing start-up ZipDial. It will be first Indian technology product startup to be bought by Twitter. This deal is expected to cost Twitter around $34-35 million (Rs 215 crore). About ZipDial It is Bengaluru based startup, founded in 2011. It is co-founded by Valerie Wagoner, an American origin entrepreneur who graduated from Stanford University. ZipDial’s mobile marketing platform gives information about businesses to users when they place a missed call. This interaction information is useful in areas where people aren’t always connected to the Internet or can access data only through intermittent Wi-Fi networks Its mobile mobile marketing platform has nearly 60 million users, which includes the world’s leading brands and media companies. 7. SEBI ready to raise foreign portfolio investment cap on corporate bonds Foreign portfolio investors might be able to invest even more in the Indian bond market soon, over and above the current ceiling of $51 billion. Capital market regulator SEBI is willing to consider raising this upper limit, given the enthusiasm it has seen in the corporate bond market. Speaking at a conference here organised by ratings agency Crisil, UK Sinha, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), said, We have seen a lot of enthusiasm from foreign portfolio investors in Indian corporate bonds. Exemptions in withholding tax have helped and nearly 60 per cent of the investment limit has now been utilised. So there will be an occasion where this limit can be enhanced. Additionally, he noted that if foreign investors are willing to invest in the domestic debt market, this will help corporates raise money locally. More participation in the corporate bonds market in India by foreigners also implies that Indian companies wont have to go abroad to raise debt financing. They will be able to raise funds here in the rupee itself. However, he said that the Indian corporate bond market still has a long way to go before it can be fully developed. This, in terms of liquidity, enhanced bond holder protection, better disclosures to debenture trustees and encouraging more and continued retail participation in the bond market even when the equity markets perform well.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 08:01:58 +0000
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