1. Maharashtra’s first Electronics Manufacturing Cluster to be set up at Ranjangaon, Pune
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance State News
The government of India has approved the first Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Ranjangaon Phase III, near Pune in Maharashtra. This was announced by the Union Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar on 31 October 2022.
The Rs 492.85 crores Greenfield project is being developed by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and the State government’s State Industrial Agency. Government expects investment of over Rs 2000 crore from Indian and multinational companies in the Pune EMC.
The Minister said that these EMCs in India will prove to be the pivot points around which the electronics manufacturing and design ecosystem will flourish. It will help achieve the target of US $300 Billion of electronics manufacturing by 2025/26.
Electronics Manufacturing Cluster scheme
The Electronics Manufacturing Cluster scheme was launched by the government of India in 2012 to make India a global player in the field of Electronics Manufacturing.
The EMC provides for creation of world-class infrastructure for attracting investments in the Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Sector.
2. Government of India extends ban on sugar export to 2022-23 season
Tags: Economy/Finance
The Government of India has extended the ban on exports of sugar including raw, refined and white for one more year starting 31 October 2022 till 31st of October 2023. The sugar season in India is from October to September. As per the notification, the restriction is not applicable to Sugar being exported to the European Union and the USA, This has been done by the government to increase the availability of sugar in India and control its prices.
In the 2021-22 sugar season government has allowed the export of 10 million tonnes of sugar
Sugar in restrictive list
In a notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT),Sugar has been kept in the restricted category and not in Open General License(OGL). It means that sugar can be exported from India with the permission of the government of India . If a commodity is put in the OGL list then it can be freely imported or exported without the need of government permission .
Sugar production and buffer stock
The government of India maintains a buffer stock of around 6 million tonnes .The buffer stock is used by the government to increase the supply of the sugar in the market when its prices shoot up .
According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the total production of sugar in the 2022-23 season is expected to be 41 million tonnes of which 4.5 million tonnes is expected to be diverted for making ethanol. These ethanol are blended with petrol to create biofuels . The consumption of sugars in India is expected to be around 27.5 million tonnes. India is expected to have a surplus of around 9 million tonnes.
Sugar exporters expect the government of India to allow export of the surplus sugar from India as prices of sugar are very high in the international market.
Sugar Export from India
- India is the largest producer and consumer of sugar in the world and second largest exporter of sugar in the world after Brazil.
- In the current 2021-22 season the government has allowed the export of 10 million tonnes of sugar .
- Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka account for nearly 80 percent of the total sugar production in the country.
3. SEBI reduces the face value on debt securities to Rs 1 Lakh
Tags: Economy/Finance
The Capital and Commodity markets regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 28 October 2022, reduced the face value of debt security and non-convertible redeemable preference shares issued on private placement basis to Rs 1 lakh from the current Rs 10 lakh.
The new guidelines will be applicable from 1 January 2023.
According to SEBI this has been done to increase the participation of investors and which will also enhance the liquidity in the corporate bond market.
What is a Debt securities?
Debt securities is a type of financial document which is issued by a company to borrow money from the market .The issuers of the debt securities promise that it will return the money after a certain time period and will also pay mentioned interest on the borrowed money . Some of the examples of the debt securities are bonds, debentures etc.
What is the face value, tenure and coupon rate of a securities?
Face value is the nominal value which is written on the securities issued by a company. For example a company issues a bond of Rs 100 for a period of 5 years and with an interest rate of 10%.
Here the face value of the bond will be Rs 100.
The time period for which it is borrowed is called tenure. Here in the example the tenure of the bond will be 5 years.
Rate of Interest mentioned on the bond is called the coupon rate. In this example the coupon rate is 10%.
What is Public and Private Placement of securities?
There are two options for a company which wants to raise capital from the market by selling its securities (shares, bonds, etc). The company can either go for Public offer or can opt for Private placement of its securities.
Public offer means that the company will have to come out with an Initial Public offerings (IPO). The company has to hire a merchant banker which handles the sale of the company's securities to the general public.
IPO refers to the sale of securities of the company for the first time to the public and after the IPO the company's securities are listed on a stock exchange. Public offering is a time consuming process and also costly for the company.
Private Placement
There is another option for the company. The company can directly approach select investors like Banks, Mutual funds, High Net worth Investors (HNI) and sell the company securities to them. The company does not need to list security on a stock exchange after the private placement.
This method is less time consuming and less costly for the company .
SEBI
Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was set up on 12 April 1988 and it was given statutory status by the SEBI Act 1992 on 30 January 1992.
- It comes under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
- It is the regulator of the Capital market and Commodities market in India.
- The first SEBI chairman was Dr S A Dave (1988-90)
- Madhabi Puri Buch is the current and 10th Chairperson of the SEBI.
- Headquarters: Mumbai
4. India to double the output of crude steel in the next 10 years: PM Modi
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance
Addressing a gathering on the occasion of expansion of ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel plant at Hazira in Surat, Gujarat on 28 October 2022 via video message, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government has set a target to double the production of crude steel from the present 154 million tonnes per annum to 300 MT production capacity in the next 9-10 years.
ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) is a joint venture between Luxembourg based ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel of Japan .
The company is investing Rs 60,000 crores to expand crude steel capacity at its Hazira plant from 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 15 MTPA.
Underlining the growing role of the steel industry in goals of moving towards a developed India by 2047, he said that a strong steel sector leads to a robust infrastructure sector.
Steel and India
India was the largest producer of Sponge Iron in the world in 2021.
India was the second largest consumer of steel in the world in 2021 after China .
India is the second largest producer of crude steel in the world after China .
India has set a target to increase the crude steel production to 300 million tonnes per annum by 2030.
India has set the target to increase per capita steel consumption to the level of 160 Kgs by 2030.
5. Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates new IIFT campus at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance Person in news
Union Finance and Corporate Affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated the new campus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. The campus has been set up with the help of Andhra Pradesh government and it will be temporarily hosted in the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University , Kakinada.
Speaking on the occasion the Union Minister for Commerce and Industries, Consumer Affairs, Food, Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal said that at present, the Indian economy is worth 3.5 trillion US dollars. With continuous efforts Indian economy will reach tenfold in the next 25 years, by 2047, when we mark the 100th year of independence. The development can be achieved by making available expert human resources to the maximum extent.
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)
The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) was established in 1963 as an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry to contribute in the skill building for the external trade sector of India..
It is one of the top business schools of India with a special focus on Trade and Finance.
The Institute was granted “Deemed to be University” status in 2002.
It has campuses at Delhi, Kolkata and Kakinada .
Vice Chancellor : Manoj Pant
6. Elon Musk finally acquires the micro blogging site Twitter
Tags: Economy/Finance International News
South African born American billionaire Elon Musk on 28 October 2022 completed the acquisition of the microblogging site Twitter for $44 billion.
As part of the agreement, the world’s richest man will pay $54.20 per share to common shareholders and will consequently operate the social media giant as a private entity henceforth.
Billionaire and Chief Executive officer (CEO) of Tesla Elon Musk is now the new owner of Twitter and has fired the social media company’s four top executives, including Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde.
The 51-year-old has promised to transform Twitter by loosening the service's content moderation rules, making its algorithm more transparent and nurturing subscription businesses, as well as laying off employees.
Background to the deal
On 14 April 2022 Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44 billion.
On July 8, Musk says he will abandon his offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information on the number of fake accounts.
Twitter sued Musk on July 12 to force him to complete the deal.
A court in Delaware, United States asked Musk to close the deal by 28 October 2022.
Twitter Company
The microblogging site was founded in 2006 in California, United States by Jack Dorsey, Evans Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass.
The social site provides an online microblogging service that distributes short messages of no more than 280 characters—called tweets.
Headquarters of Twitter: San Francisco, California, United States
7. Government of India extends license of Vedanta’s Barmer oil block by 10 years
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance State News
The government of India has extended the production sharing contract license of the Barmer oil block owned by Cairns Oil and Gas, a unit of Vedanta limited, till 14 May 2030. This information was given by the Anil Agarwal owned company in a stock exchange filing on 27 October 2022.The initial licence to explore and produce oil and gas from the Barmer block expired on May 14, 2020.
Barmer oil field
The Barmer block, with 38 discoveries, till date, has a reserve of hydrocarbons of 5.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The block has cumulatively produced more than 700 million barrels of oil in the last decade.
The main oil producing wells have been named by Cairns as Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwarya.
On 21 February 2022, Cairns announced the fresh discovery of oil in the Barmer oil block of Rajasthan the oil well was named as“Durga ''.
Government of India Company ONGC holds a 30% stake in the block while Cairn Oil & Gas, a unit of Vedanta Ltd., is the operator with a 70% stake.
Fact files Oil
- Edwin L. Drake drilled the world's first oil well in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1866,
- The first oil well to be dug in India was at Digboi field in Assam in September 1889-1890 by Assam Railways and Trading Company Limited registered in London.
- In 1901, Asia's first oil refinery was set up at Digboi, Assam. It is still functional and the world's oldest operating refinery.
- The first oil discovery in independent India was made in 1953 in Naharkatia and then in Moran in 1956 both in Upper Assam.
- Within a year of being formed, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) discovered oil at Cambay (Gujarat), the giant Ankleshwar field in the state of Gujarat in 1960, Kalol (Gujarat) in 1961, Lakwa (Assam)in 1964, Geleki(Assam) in 1968.
- However, the biggest discovery of oil in India was made by ONGC in Mumbai High in 1974. It is an offshore oilfield 176 km off the west coast of Mumbai, in the Gulf of Cambay region of India, in about 75 m of water.
Source : Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India)
8. Record horticulture production in 2021-22
Tags: Economy/Finance National News
India's production of horticultural crops consisting of fruits, vegetables, spices and medicinal plants increased to a record 342.3 million tonnes (mt) in the crop year 2021-22 (July-June) as against 334.6 million tonnes recorded in 2020-21.
Important facts
According to the third advance estimate released by the agriculture ministry on October 27, the increase in production over the previous year was due to growth in the cultivation area.
The area under horticultural crops was 28 million hectare in 2021-22 compared to 27.4 million hectare in the previous year.
The horticultural crops production continues to be higher than the foodgrain production.
According to the fourth advance estimate of foodgrain production released in August, India's production of rice, wheat and pulses in the crop year 2021-22 was estimated at a record 315.7 million tonnes.
Vegetable production is estimated to increase by 2.1% to 204.8 million tonnes in 2021-22 as compared to 200.4 million tonnes as per the final estimates for 2020-21.
Onion production is estimated to increase by 17% to 31.2 million tonnes in 2021-22 from 26.6 million tonnes in the previous year.
At the same time, potato production is estimated to decline by 5% to 53.3 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year, from 56.1 million tonnes in 2020-21.
Tomato production is estimated to decline by 4% to 20.3 million tonnes as compared to 21.1 million tonnes as per the final estimates for 2020-21.
The third advance estimate of fruit production is estimated to be 107.2 million tonnes in 2021-22 as compared to 102.5 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year.
Production of Banana is estimated to increase by more than 32.45 million tonnes (2%) in 2021-22 over the previous year, while Mango production is estimated to be 20.3 million tonnes in 2021-22 which is the same level as compared to the previous year.
9. IGI Airport Delhi emerges as the 10th Busiest Airport in the world in 2022
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance
The Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi has emerged as the world's 10th busiest airport in October 2022, improving its ranking compared to the pre-pandemic period.
In its report, aviation analytics firm OAG said Delhi airport has improved its position from 14th place in October 2019, which was the pre-pandemic time.
The rankings by OAG are based on scheduled airline capacity in the current month and compared to the equivalent month in 2019, pre-pandemic.
The world’s top 10 busiest airports 2022 (includes both domestic and International capacity )
- Atlanta International Airport , United States of America
- Dubai International Airport ,United Arab Emirates
- Tokyo Haneda International Airport. Japan
- Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas,United States of America
- Denver International Airport , United States of America
- Heathrow Airport, London , England
- Chicago O'Hare International Airport , United States of America
- Istanbul Airport,Turkiye
- Los Angeles International Airport , United States of America
- Indira Gandhi International Airport ,New Delhi
Busiest International Airport in 2022
No Indian airport has been included in the top 10 busiest International Airport in 2022. The top three busiest international airport are as follows ;
- Dubai airport
- Heathrow Airport,
- Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , Netherlands
10. India- China trade crosses $100 billion during January -September 2022; Chinese Customs data
Tags: Economy/Finance
According to the data released by China's General Administration of Customs, the bilateral trade between India and China has crossed $100 billion during the January - September period of 2022.
The total bilateral trade between the two was USD 103.63 billion, registering a 14.6 percent increase compared to last year during the same period.
China's exports to India climbed to USD 89.66 billion, registering an increase of 31 percent.
However, India's exports in the past nine months stood at USD 13.97 billion, registering a decline of 36.4 percent.
As a result, the total trade deficit went up to over USD 75.69 billion.
Trade data of 2021
In 2021 the total trade between the two countries was over USD 125 billion despite tension between the two countries due to border clashes in the Ladakh region.
Last year, China's exports to India went up by 46.2 percent to USD 97.52 billion while India's exports to China grew by 34.2 percent to USD 28.14 billion.
The trade deficit for India stood at USD 69.38 billion in 2021.
In 2021-22 The United States overtook China to become the largest trading partner of India.
The Government of India data is different from the Chinese as the accounting period in India is from April -March and also the method used by India and China on calculating export and import of goods are different.
