1. Economics data at a glance
Tags: Economics/Business
Shallot export (small onion)
- India's export of Shallots has seen a boom with a growth of 487% since 2013. Exports rose from USD 2 Million in April-December 2013 to USD 11.6 Million in April-December 2021.
- Major export destinations during April-December 2021 were Sri Lanka (35.9%), Malaysia (29.4%), Thailand (12%), U A E (7.5%) & Singapore (5.8%).
Pineapple export
- India’s export of Pineapple also rose by almost 100% to USD 3.26 Million during April-December 2021 compared to USD 1.63 Million during April-December 2013.
- Major export destinations for Pineapple during April-December 2021 were UAE (32.2%), Nepal (22.7%), Qatar (16.6%), Maldives (13.2%) & U S A (7.1%).
2. Vedanta to set up a semi conductors plant in India
Tags: Economics/Business
World largest electronic manufacturing company Foxconn will set up a joint venture with Vedanta group, to set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in India . Foxconn is a Taiwanese company.
Vedanta will hold the majority stake in the new company and Anil Aggarwal of Vedanta will be the chairman of the new company.
Vedanta is the first company to announce an investment in the semiconductor space after the government of India announced a production linked incentive scheme for semiconductor and display board production in the country.
The Government of India announced a production linked incentive scheme and committed Rs 76,000 crore for semiconductor production in the next 5-6 years.
The programme aims to incentivise companies/consortiums focused on Silicon Semiconductor Fabs, Display Fabs, Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics / Sensors Fabs, Semiconductor Packaging, Semiconductor Design.
For detail about semiconductor policy kindly click on the link below
Vedanta Group
- It is a multinational company headquartered in London, England.
- Vedanta Limited is an Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, which is the holding company of Vedanta Group.
- It is in the business of Zinc-Lead-Silver, Iron ore, Steel, Copper, Aluminum, Power, Oil and Gas.
- The Chairman of Vedanta group: Anil Aggarwal
3. Bank of Baroda will buy Union Bank stake in India First Life
Tags: Economics/Business
Bank of Baroda has agreed to buy 21%stake of Union Bank of India in the India First Life insurance company .
After acquisition of 21%stake in the Insurance company , the Bank of Baroda stake will rise to 65 %, Union Bank of India will hold 9% and Carmel Point Investments India will have the remaining 26% stake in the company .
For Exams
The headquarters of India First Life Insurance company was set up in 2009 .
Its headquarters : Mumbai
Bank of Baroda
It is the second largest public sector bank after SBI
Headquarters : Vadodara , Gujarat
Dena bank and Vijaya Bank merged with Bank of Baroda 0n 1 April 2019.
Chairman : Hasmukh Adhia
MD and CEO : Sanjiv Chadha
Union Bank of India
It is a public sector bank owned by the Government of India .
Corporation Bank and Andhra Bank merged with Union Bank on 1 April 2020.
Its headquarters : Mumbai, Maharashtra
MD and CEO: Rajkiran Rai G.
4. SEBI fines NSE and its officers in appointment case
Tags: Economics/Business
Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has fined National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, and others for violating securities contract rules in a case related to the appointment of Anand Subramanian as group operating officer and advisor to MD.
The regulator has levied a fine of ₹3 crore on Ramkrishna, ₹2 crore each on the NSE, Narain and Subramanian and ₹6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and chief compliance officer.
SEBI has banned the NSE from launching any new product for a period of six months.
Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016, Narain was the MD and CEO of the exchange from April 1994 till March 2013.
Main Functions of SEBI:
It is the regulator of the Capital markets in India. Stock exchanges like NSE,BSE are part of capital markets in India .
It functions to protect the interest of investor in the capital markets
It works to develop the securities market in India
Current Chairman : Ajay Tyagi
Its headquarters : Mumbai
5. Finance minister launches first colured souvenir coin in India
Tags: Economics/Business
Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sithraman launched the first colour souvenir coin on “Panchtantra” on 11 Feburary 2022 during the 17 th foundation day of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL).
Concept clearing
Coins are issued in India by the government of India under the Coinage act 1906( last amended in 2011).
The Government of India has the right to mint coins of 50 Paise to upto Rs 1000.
The circulation of Coins in the market is done by the Reserve Bank of India. Coins to the Reserve Bank of India are provided by the Government of India .
Coins upto 50 paise are called 'small coins' and coins of Rupee one and above are called 'Rupee Coins'.
The Coins are minted by the Government of India at
Mumbai,
Alipore(Kolkata),
Hyderabad and
NOIDA (UP).
Commemorative Coins
Commemorative coins are released to mark some special events.
Commemorative coins sport a distinct design to talk about the occasion on which they are issued.
They are normally not issued for circulation purposes but for collection purposes Unless the government notifies ,it is not a legal tender .
The first commemorative coin in India was issued in 1964 with the image of Jawaharlal Nehru, to commemorate his birth anniversary.
Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL).
It was set up in 2006 under the administrative control of the Union Finance Ministry. Its headquarters is at New Delhi
SPMCIL was set up by the government of India to bring all its production units engaged in minting of coins, production of security papers and currency notes printing units under one company.
SPMCIL includes the following units
4 Coin minting units , where coins are minted ;
Indian Government Mint Mumbai,
Indian Government Mint Hyderabad (Telangana)
Indian Government Mint Kolkata (West Bengal)
Indian Government Mint Noida (Uttar Pradesh)
Currency Notes Press ,where currency notes are printed:
Currency Notes Press(CNP), Nashik ( Maharashtra)
Bank Note Press(BNP) ,Dewas (Madhya Pradesh)
Security Printing Press
India Security Press (ISP), Nashik (Maharstara) , It is the only organisation in India which prints Passports and other travel documents for the government of India .
Security Printing Press (SPP),Hyderabad (Telangana), It is engaged in the supply of security documents such as postal stationery items,Central excise stamps ,Non-Judicial Stamps,Court Fee Stamps, Indian Postal Orders etc.
Security Paper mill
Security Paper Mill, Narmadapuram ( Madhya Pradesh ) is the only paper mill in the country which produces high quality Bank Note and other Security Papers.
Papers manufactured by this unit are used for printing of currency notes by CNP, Nashik & BNP, Dewas and for Non-Judicial Stamps being printed by ISP, Nashik & SPP, Hyderabad.
6. Ashok Leyland supply 200 trucks to Bangladesh
Tags: Economics/Business
- Chennai based , Indian multinational automobile manufacturer Ashok Leyland will supply 200 trucks to Bangladesh.
- The supply of trucks is part of the $2 billion tied loan provided by the Government of India to Bangladesh.
Tied Loan
- A loan given by a country(lender) to another country(borrower) on the conditions that the loaned money will be used by the borrower to buy goods and services from the lending country .
- It helps the lending country as it creates demands for its goods , creates employment, boosts exports and also gets back the loan amount with some interest.
7. India tops the Global Sales Force Index
Tags: Economics/Business
India scored the highest in the survey amongst 19 countries surveyed by the Salesforce Global Index . The Index surveys the work force and ranks the countries on the basis of readiness of the workers to acquire the digital skill needed by business today and over the next five years .
Among 19 countries, India has the Index's highest digital readiness score at 63 out of 100 . The average global readiness score was 33 out of 100.
The Sales Force Global Index was prepared by San Francisco based American cloud based software company Sales Force.
8. IndiaMART introduces weekly paycheck in India
Tags: Economics/Business
IndiaMART Intermesh has become the first company in India to introduce weekly payrolls for its employees. It is a NOIDA based Indian e-commerce company which provides B2B(Business to Business) and customer to customer sales services online.
Now the company’s employees will be paid every week unlike the general practice in India where the government and companies pay salary to its employees every month .
IndiaMART is following the practices prevalent in US, New Zealand and others where there is weekly or fortnightly payroll system
9. CCI penalty on Tyre manufacturing companies for price manipulation upheld by the Supreme Court
Tags: Economics/Business
The Supreme Court has upheld the Competition Commission of India (CCI) decision to impose a penalty on Major tyre manufacturing companies for price manipulation.
- CCI had imposed a fine of around Rs ₹1,788 crore for cartelisation on Apollo Tyres, MRF, CEAT, Birla Tyres, JK Tyre and Industries and Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA).
- CCI imposed penalties of ₹425.53 crore on Apollo Tyres, ₹622.09 crore on MRF Ltd, ₹252.16 crore on CEAT Ltd, ₹309.95 crore on JK Tyre and ₹178.33 crore on Birla Tyres and a fine of ₹8.4 lakh was imposed on ATMA.
- The tyre companies were found guilty of section 3 of the Competition act 2002, which prohibits anti competitive agreements.
- According to CCI these tyre companies had exchanged price-sensitive data amongst them through the platform of ATMA, and had taken collective decisions on the prices of tyres.
Competition Commission of India Chairman: Dhanendra Kumar.
Headquarters of CCI: New Delhi
10. Railways in Union Budget 2022-23
Tags: Economics/Business
The Railway budget was introduced as a separate budget by the Britishers in 1924 on the recommendation of William Ackworth committee as railways contributed a significant amount to the Indian government revenue and the British had invested considerable amounts in Railways. In 2017 on the recommendation of NITI Aayog the Railway budget was merged with the General Budget.
Financial Highlights
- The Railway Ministry has been allocated Rs 1,40,367.13 crore in the Union Budget 2022-23, which is 27.5% higher than the budgetary allocation of Rs 110,054.64 crores in 2021-22 or 16.9% more than the revised estimate of 120,056.12 crore
- The operating ratio target for railway has been set at 96.68% in 2022-23. In the revised estimate 2021-22 it was 98.93% Operating Ratio in simple terms means the amount spent to earn Rs 100. The lower the Operating ratio the more efficient is the railway
- This year, the Finance Ministry has laid out capital investment worth Rs 2.45 lakh crore from Railways, in which around Rs 1.08 lakh crore will be raised through Extra Budgetary Resources.
- The Finance Minister has also allocated Rs 15,710.44 crore to the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
Dedicated Freight Corridor Indian Railways started Dedicated Freight Corridor project to develop a dedicated rail network which will be used only by freight trains (also called as goods trains) It Includes Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor It is from Ludhiana (Punjab) to Dankuni(West Bengal). It is 1873 Km in length. Western Dedicated Freight Corridor It is from Dadri(Uttar Pradesh ) to JNPT Nhava Sheva(Mumbai) . It is 1504 Km The Government of India has set up Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation owned by Indian Railways and under the Ministry of Railways to implement the Project. |
- In the Budget, Rs 13,335.47 crore has been allocated for track renewal, Rs 2,850 crore for gauge conversion and Rs 12,108 crore for doubling and Rs 25,243 crore has been allocated for new lines.
Revenue Generation
- As per the Budget documents, the Railways expects receipts comprising revenues from passengers, goods etc, to be 2.40 lakh crore in Budgetary Estimates 2022-23 as against Revised Estimates 2021-22 of 2.02 lakh crore.
- It expects passenger revenue of 58,500 Crore in 2022-23, and goods revenue to be about 1,65,000 crore from an ambitious target of 1,475 million tonnes of freight.
Targets for Railways
- 6500 km of routes to be electrified in 2022-23
- 300 km new line to be constructed in 2022-23
- 1700 km existing single line to be doubled in 2022-23
- 2,000 km network will be brought under Kavach — an indigenous Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) developed for safety, in 2022-23. (Kavach is SIL4 (Safety integrity level) certified which means there is the probability of a single error in 10,000 years.)
- 400 new generation Vande Bharat trains with better energy efficiency and ride experience will be developed and manufactured during the next three years. This is in addition to 102 Vande Bharat trains already in the pipeline.
Vande Bharat Trains or Train 18
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- 100 PM GatiShakti Cargo Terminals for multimodal logistics facilities will be developed during the next three years(Multi-modal logistics means the inter linking of various modes of transport like air, road, rail, water for efficient movement of goods from one place to another.)
Other new initiatives
- Postal and Railways networks will be integrated to provide seamless solutions for the movement of parcels.
- Railways will develop ‘One Station - One Product’ concept to carry local products to help local businesses & supply chains.
- Railways will introduce new products and services for small farmers and businesses.
