Business & Finance - Current Affairs for July, 2016

US electrical product MNC Intermatic Inc announced a strategic alliance through subsidiary Grassland GMbH with ATML to bring a range of products and provide light as well as temperature control solutions.

• Partnership is in line with government initiative to develop 100 smart cities at USD 1.5 billion with a total outlay of INR 1.4 lakh crore and AMRUT Missions for economic growth and welfare.
• ATML or Advanced Metering Technology Limited headquartered in Noida, UP will be the distribution partner for Grasslin’s range of electrical switch products.
• Partnership creates integrated operations that serve as promotion and distribution outlook for electrical products in the country.
• India is one of the fastest domestic electrical switch markets in the world at INR 1000 crore.

India on 27th July 2016 inked a USD 1 billion deal with Boeing for the acquisition of Poseidon 81 long range surveillance and anti submarine warfare aircraft taking total value of arms contracts with US to over USD 15 billion in the previous decade.

• Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared the big ticket acquisition in June.
• The aircraft packed with radars and weapons will join 8 first such aircrafts inducted by the Navy in 2013-2015 under a USD 2.1 billion deal inked in 2009.
• P-81s have a reach and flexibility to carry out maritime surveillance and be sent to intelligence gathering missions.

Hero Group’s electronics venture Hero Electronix has acquired the Indian business of German firm TES DST Holding Europe Limited. With this, Hero Electronix will now be able to provide technological products for domains such as home automation, avionics and transportation.

• The business has been acquired through Tessolve Semiconductor, in which Hero Electronix acquired a strategic stake in April.
• It is said Hero subsidiary and its parent company plan to invest INR 1000-1200 crore over next 7 years for expansion.

Flipkart owned Myntra has acquired Jabong from Global Fashion Group.

• The amount for which the acquisition has been made was not publicly disclosed and will mark further consolidation in the booming e-commerce industry of India.
• Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in 2014 in a deal estimated at INR 2000 crore.
• It will now have access to a combined base of 15 million monthly active users.
• Acquisition of Jabong further strengthens Flipkart Group’s position as an undisputed leader in the fashion and lifestyle segment of the country.
• Jabong is a leading multi-brand e-store with more than 1500 on trend international high street brands, sports labels, Indian ethnic and designer labels.

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has invested in an e-commerce start up for the first time namely Bengaluru based 10i Commerce Services aimed at empowering traditional small retail stores with technology platform ShopX.

• So far, INR 25-30 crore has been raised by Nilekani who is the sole investor in the startup with a minority stake.
• This is his largest investment in a startup since Sedemac.

Taiwanese smartphone marker HTC has partnered HP to launch Vive branded PCs.

• HTC will acquire the PCs from HP and rebrand them.
• HTC forayed into the VR segment with the launch of Vive headset in 2015.

Verizon is purchasing search engine major Yahoo for USD 4.83 billion marking the close of an era for a company defining the internet.

• This marks the second time in two years Verizon has broadened its digital reach.
• It paid USD 4.4 billion for AOL in 2015.
• It is the largest wireless carrier in the US and is NY based.
• Others in the bidding processes were AT&T and Quicker Loans founder Dan Gilbert as well as buyout firms TPG and Vector Capital Management.

Big data analytics major Teradata has announced the acquisition of London based firm Big Data Partnership to broaden open source analytics services across international marketplaces such as Asia.

• Big Data Partnership broadens the analytics services portfolio of the company.
• Big Data Partnership has expertise in disruptive technologies such as Apache Hadoop and helps clients become data driven and data savvy through data science and latest big data technologies.
• Company will now join Teradata’s Think Big consulting practice to accelerate its expansion of open source consulting services internationally.

E-classified major Quikr has acquired online hiring platform Hiree as part of the aim to tap the white collar job market.

• Hiree counts IT companies and startups among clients and will be merged with job vertical Quikr Jobs and operate out of the latter’s HQ, Quikr confirmed in a statement.
• Combined entity will create a recruitment platform connecting 4 million active candidates with recruiters across the nation.
• Quikr classified platforms is used by 30 million persons per month and is bagged by investors like eBay, Warburg Pincus and Tiger Global Management.

EU’s first regulated bitcoin product, an asset backed exchange traded instrument is set to invest exclusively in the digital currency and begin trading this week on Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany’s Deutsche Boerse.

• Web based currency can be used to send cash instantly across the world, free of charge with no requirement for third party checks.
• It is accepted by major online retailers and used in 200,000 daily transactions.
• It has a highly volatile value peaking at more than USD 1200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.
• Bitcoin ETI will be traded through regulated brokerages across Europe and settlement will be handled through Euroclear and Clearstream rather than shared ledger system blockchain.

Mydala dot com, India’s leading local services marketing platform has joined hands with Viacom 18 as the media partner for Star Trek Beyond, third instalment of the iconic Star Trek Reboot series released in India.

• Mydala is the largest mobile commerce platform in the country with over 6.6 transactions per month and 85 percent of these from mobile platforms.

HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company and Shamrao Vithal Cooperative Bank announced a bancassurance agency partnership.

• The partnership aims at providing non life insurance offerings to bank customers.
• Alliance is an important part of the growth strategy according to HDFC ERFO CEO and MD Ritesh Kumar.
• SVC Bank has 194 branches in 10 states.
• HDFC ERGOGIC is a JV between HDFC Ltd and ERGO International AG from Germany which is part of the Munich Re Group among the largest insurance companies across the globe.
• HDFC has 51 percent stake in the insurance JV.

Direct Benefit Transfers will be linked to Aadhaar towards the close of the current calendar year.

• Government has decided to bring all subsidies and welfare schemes under the DBT net by March 2017.
• DBT programme is a major reform initiative for checking the leakages of welfare funds.
• It was launched on January 1, 2013 with 24 schemes of 8 ministries.
• At present, benefits under 74 schemes and 17 ministries have been reached to targeted people through DBT.
• A DBT cell will also be present in central government ministries and state governments.
• Through DBT all cash benefits are transferred to the beneficiary’s bank account and the DBT mission last year was shifted to Cabinet Secretariat and implementation monitored by PMO.
• Scope of DBT has been expanded to include individual; beneficialness under PAHAL, transfer of LPG subsidy to individual consumers, wages under MGNREGA scheme and the National Social Assistance Programme.
• Ministers have been requested to examine numerous programmes and schemes implemented by them/their attached officers, autonomous agencies, and PSUs.

Southeast Asian ride hailing service Grab has teamed up with Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group to roll out mobile payment platform in the biggest market, going beyond transport

• Partnership will also provide Grab with access to 50 million existing customers in Indonesia.
• This is his first step to launch mobile payment solutions widely in SE Asia .
• Grab’s partnership with Lippo Group to develop universal payments platform will be a step forward for e-money in Indonesia.

Companies can now submit PAN or TAN registration within a single day if they submit digital signature certificate based application thereby ensuring ease of doing business

• Individuals can also get a new Permanent Account Number through Aadhaar based e-signature facility to reduce effective time in allotment.
• Fast tracking the allotment of PAN and Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) to company applicants, digital signature certificate based applications have been introduced on portals of PAN service providers.
• This includes NSDL eGov and UTIITSL.
• As part of the new process, PAN and TAN will be allowed within a single day.
• Seeding of Aadhar in PAN will curb the problem of duplicate PAN.

Hindustan Aeronautics and French partner Safran will soon invest INR 170 crore to acquire defunct state owned company in Goa.

• Acquired company’s land assets will be used as a unit for servicing military helicopter engines.
• HAL and Safran which is an aircraft engine manufacturer said they will form a venture for MRO of helicopter engines used in the nation and other countries.
• 50:50 entity will be placed around October with each partner contributing INR 25 crore as per shareholder agreement.
• New company will acquire the land and assets of Goa Auto Accessories Ltd in Honda, Sattari about 40 km from Panaji in north Goa.

Government has notified rules for the National Company Law Tribunal which replaced the Company Law Board.

• Rules for the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal have been notified by Corporate Affairs Ministry.
• Tribunal and its appellate authority were part of the Companies Act, 2013 whose many provisions came into effect from April 2014.
• NCLT and appellate tribunal were notified by the Ministry on June 1.
• It has been set up at 10 locations including the NCT, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai.
• Infrastructure has been provided at 10 locations apart from taking requisite steps to provide supporting staff.
• Among others, NCLT has powers to delegate inquiry related to proceedings prior to this, securing assistance of a magistrate or collector to take the property’s possession.
• NCLT will improve ease of doing business in the country.

Leading Ayurveda FMCG company Dabur has partnered DRDO to promote sustainable cultivation of high altitude medicinal plants in Ladakh.

• Dabur signed the pact with Defence Institute of High Altitude Research Leh under which both organisations will educate farmers and promote livelihood in the cold desert areas.
• DRDO comes under the ambit of the MoD
• It was established in 1958.

RBI will start monitoring banks in 5 areas pertaining to customer rights. The areas on which the regulator will be conducting surveys and supervision at various banks are - right to privacy, right to fair treatment & transparency, fair and honest dealing, right to suitability and right to grievance redress & compensation.

• The apex bank has asked banks to have board approved plans in place by June 30.
• Charter of customer rights was also placed by the RBI in the public domain sometime back.

The second largest software exporter in India, Infosys has witnessed another exit as global immigration head Vasudeva Nayak resigned on 20th July 2016.

• This is the third top level departure after the exits of Samson David and Anup Upadhyay.
• This exit comes at a time when the USD 150 billion IT industry is tracking the critical issue of immigration in the US election year.
• Infosys has also reported below par numbers, forcing investors to punish the stock.

On demand driver services provider Driverskart has partnered with QuikrServices, services vertical of cross category classified business Quikr to provide on demand driver solutions.

• As per this exclusive tie up, queries in the on demand driver segment for Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai on the Quikr platform will be redirected to DriversKart.
• DriversKart provides mobile app based on demand chauffeur services to help customers hire trusted professional drivers to get driven in the comfort of their own car, sparing them time and effort.
• The co-founder and CEO of DriversKart is Vinit Srivastava.

India’s largest Internet company Flipkart has seen the exits of top managers with two executives Lalit Sarna and Sunil Gopinath leaving the company.

• Sarna was head of the payment product design while Gopinath was the technology lead for the marketplace division.
• This follows the exit of former Chief Product Officer Punit Soni who left the Bengaluru based company in April.
• Flipkart is led by CEO Binny Bansal and has focused on reducing expenses and increasing profits

IT department has signed a contract with L&T Infotech for implementing Project Insight to strengthen non intrusive information driven approach for improving tax compliance.

• The project will be rolled out in three phases and the first phase platform is expected to of live from May 2017
• Integrated platform will play a key role in widening tax base and data mining to track tax evaders.

To foster creativity and innovation, NITI Aayog has signed a two year statement of intent with tech major Intel India to set up first 10 ATLs in the nation.

• This is part of the government’s flagship Atal Innovation Mission.
• For a period of 5 years, USD 15 million will be spent on managing 500 ATLs in schools and communities across the nation.
• The first 10 ATLs will act as exemplars for the remaining 490.

A new partnership between Microsoft and Boeing have been formed for AI enthusiasts.

• Boeing’s digital aviation can be centralised on Azure and analysis of large sets of data from many sources.
• Cortana’s intelligence suite can help airline operators work through inventory more efficiently.
• Smart scheduling is the aim of the partnership.

Hotel rooms aggregator Oyo has announced a tie up with HDFC Bank for its payment solution PayZapp on its consumer app.

• The tie up will enable users to link debit and credit card on PayZapp and use it to book a room at Oyo by making a payment with one click

The agreement is to stream exclusive non-game programming, pushing deeper into sports streaming through a new way to attract users.

• NBA deal follows Twitter’s high profile agreement with the National Football League to stream NFL games this fall.
• Twitter will deliver a live stream of new weekly pre-game show of NBA and another show as well.
• NBA deal highlights CEO Jack Dorsey’s plan to use video to make the microblogging site more engaging and spur user growth.

Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company and parent Sun Pharma have entered into a licensing agreement for Elepsia tablets used in the treatment of epilepsy in the US market for payment of USD 10 million.

• According to the agreement,SPARC will license Elepsia XRTM (Levetiracetam Extended Release Tablets) in a partnership with Sun Pharma.
• Elepsia XRTM was approved by USFDA in March 2015.

Dailyhunt (formerly called Newshunt) an app aggregating local language content has picked up strategic stake in Greynium Information Technology which publishes vernacular portal OneIndia.

• Dailyhunt is backed by Matrix Partners and Sequoia Capital.
• It will acquire 15 percent in OneIndia for around INR 20 crore according to sources.

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is set to purchase British chip designer ARM Holdings PLC for USD 32 billion.

• ARM is a valuable tech company listed in London and is a mobile processing major.
• It has processor and graphics technology used by Samsung, Huaweu and Apple in the in-house designed microchips.
• Deal is the largest for SoftBank and one of the largest in the European technology industry.

Newly launched startup Alterbeat has announced it has been chosen for Cohort 3 of the MaGIC accelerator programme funded by the Malaysian government.

• Alterbeat is the only Indian startup to be chosen for the accelerator programme
• Close to 50 startups were selected from 500 applications across 30 nations.
• Launched in February 2016, Alterbeat is a platform which enables people to pursue hobbies and careers in certain fields
• MAP is an initiative of Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC)
• This is a government agency which boosts startups and entrepreneurial ventures.
• MaGIC Accelerator Program will help to tackle problems across the ASEAN region according to Alterbeat’s CEO.

Country’s coal imports have fallen 5 percent in the first two months of 2016-2017 and the number is expected to reach 160.16 MT in the current fiscal.

• Trend of fall in import of coal has continued in 2016-2017 while for the period April-May 2016-2017, coal imports have lowered by 5 percent as against corresponding period of 2015.
• Import of coal is projected for 2016-2017 by Niti Aayog and is around 160.16 MT.
• Increased production by CIL produced around 80 percent of coal in the nation while the import of fossil fuel has fallen from 217.78 MT in 2014-2015 to 199.88 MT in 2015-2016.
• CIL has a blend of strategies for narrowing the domestic demand supply gap to address medium and short term imperatives and technological as well as HR related issues.

Falling prices of the precious metal in global as well as domestic markets is seen as a contributory factor for the decline. Gold imports were pegged at USD 7.51 billion in April-June 2015. Inbound shipments contracted for the fifth consecutive month in June by 38.5 percent to USD 1.20 billion, as per data released by the Commerce Ministry.

• Contractions in imports helped to lower trade deficit to USD 8.11 billion in the previous month as against USD 10.82 billion in June 2015.
• India is one of the leading gold importers in the world and imports take care of demand of jewellery industry.
• India’s CAD narrowed to 1.3 percent of GDP in Q3 of 2015-2016 as against 1.5 percent in the same period of the previous year, on account of lower trade deficit.
• Government has announced launch of 4 tranche of sovereign gold bond scheme from the day to check the demand for physical gold.
• It has netted 3.1 tonnes of idle household as well as temple gold under the monetisation scheme since November.
• Silver imports too fell to USD 249.39 million in June as against USD 342.37 million in the same month in 2015.
• Shipments of pearls and semi-precious stones displayed a decline of 13.52 percent in June

Yatra Online Inc and Terrapin 3 Acquisition Corporation on 14th July 2016 entered into a definitive agreement for merger.

• Transaction values Yatra at USD 218 million.
• Yatra will also be listed on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol YTRA following completion of this transaction
• Founded in the year 2006, Yatra is one of the fastest growing consumer travel platforms and online travel agents in India with more than 4 million customers.
• It is the most trusted e-commerce travel brand in India and has won three awards at the Ministry of Tourism National Tourism Awards ceremony

Titan company, part of the salt to steel conglomerate TATA Group has invested INR 357 crore for 62% stake in online jewellery retailer Caratlane.

• The acquisition values Caratlane at INR 575 crore.
• Titan which makes watches and jewellery under the Tanishq brand indicating it has picked up a majority stake in Chennai based company.
• Titan will be acquiring 19,142,545 shares and this is the second such deal where a retail player has invested in an e-commerce firm.
• Earlier, Future Group purchased furniture retailer Fabfurnish.

Commerce Ministry has launched an e-marketplace for online purchase of goods and services by numerous central government ministries and departments.

• Move is aimed at creating transparency and streamlining the government procurement of goods and services
• DGS&D haas developed a portal for the purpose.

The foreign exchange reserves fell to USD 361.943 billion in the week to July 8 on account of declining foreign currency assets, according to the RBI.

• Reserves surged by USD 2.374 billion to USD 363.171 billion.
• Foreign currency assets a major component of overall reserves fell by USD 1.218 billion to USD 337. 493 billion.
• RBI data indicated that SDR with IMF was down USD 3.6 million to USD 1.484 billion and the serve position fell by USD 5.9 million to USD 2.389 billion.

Tata Advanced System Limited and Bell Helicopter, a Textron company has on 14th July, 2016 signed an agreement to support Indian aviation and defence modernisation initiatives.

• Agreement was inked with the emphasis on Make in India.
• As per the agreement, TASL and Bell Helicopter will join together to develop commercial and public (including military) rotary wins markets in India in the light utility and reconnaissance segment.

VC investments in startups rebounded in Q2 as the general stock market recovery helped to restore confidence.

• Investors ploughed over USD 15.3 billion into venture backed startups in Q2, a 20.5 % increase over USD 12.7 billion invested in Q1, according to MoneyTree report by PwC and National Venture Capital Association.
• In terms of total dollars, Q2 investments outpaced all but three quarters since 2000.
• In terms of the dot-com boom, there are widespread concerns over valuations and a dormant market for tech IPOs, venture capitalists and institutional investors getting into the market.
• Number of deals were down by 5% falling to 961 from 1011 during Q1

Infosys senior executive Samson David, tasked to spearhead the country’s flagship artificial intelligence platform Mana, has resigned from the company.

• This departure comes a day before Infosys announces closely watched first quarter results.
• David’s exit marks at leat the fifth high level exit with others like Rajiv Bansal, Sanjay Jalona, Gautam Thakkar and Michael Reh also leaving the company.

Canadian spy agency Canadian Security Intelligence Service has joined Twitter with the statement “Now it’s your turn to follow us.”

• Canada’s ruling Liberals ran on an election platform to increase government transparency and oversight of the spy agencies of the nation.

German software giant SAP and Indian School of Business announced a partnership to boost social entrepreneurship ecosystem in the nation.

• The ISB-SAP Social Enterprise Jumpstart will identify five social enterprise startups and provide training, mentoring and access to networks to boost growth.
• Startups will be identified through a nationwide selection process involving SAP, ISB and other experts from the startup ecosystem.

Freecharge, a digital payment platform on 14th July 2016 announced the partnership with bus aggregator platform Shuttle to help 15,000 commuters in Delhi-NCR engage in cashless commuting

LeEco and Qualcomm Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc have formed a partnership to make the smartphone experience more powerful,seamless and convenient for consumers in fields like HD audio and video as well as hi-resolution imaging and gaming.

• Chipmaker Qualcomm Technologies has complemented the LeEco superphones.

RBI has set up a working group to work out a regulatory framework to bolster financial technology and digital banking in India.

• The sub committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council at the meeting held on April 26 had decided to set up a group to look into the issue and report more intricate aspects.
• The mandate is to gauge implications, review and appropriately reorient the regulatory framework and respond to the dynamics of the rapidly evolving fintech scenario.
• Among terms of reference of the working group is to chalk out appropriate regulatory response with a view to re-aligning and reorienting regulatory guidelines and statutory provisions for enhancing financial technology/digital banking associated opportunities.

Gross non-performing loans of banks are nearing peak levels and could be in the range of 8-8.5 percent by March close, 2016 according to domestic rating agency ICRA.

• Banks gross bad loans stood at 7.7 percent as on March 2016 adding asset quality is not expected to improve substantially in the near term.
• Report also said credit growth is likely to be in the range of 11-12 percent in 2016-2017 primarily driven by retail and other smaller ticket loans.
• In the previous fiscal, banks aggregated deposits grew by 6.4 percent as against 10.3 percent in 2014-2015.
• Deposit growth will be in the range of 10-11 percent in the current fiscal.

State Bank of India in the second week of July 2016 has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology Society for Innovation And Entrepreneurship(SINE) to promote innovation by startups in the financial sector.

• Deal also aims to evaluate start ups operating out of SINE or being promoted by SINE for early stage funding with the norms of the bank
• SINE is an IIT-B incubator

Micro-blogging site Twitter and Bloomberg Media have signed a deal to lifestream several media company’s news shows on Twitter platform
Partnership includes streaming rights show along with the network daily stock market coverage.

• Twitter is one of the fastest ways to find out what is happening in global business and financial markets.

NYSE listed technology firm Synnex Corporation has acquired Bengaluru based BPO firm Minacs for USD 420 million in a deal underlining consolidation in the business process management space.

• Buyout also showcases the efforts in the BPM sector to gravitate towards higher end services and capabilities like analytics
• PE firms CX Partners and Capital Square Partners which purchased Minaca from the Aditya Birla Group are exiting the firm.
• This acquisition is Synnex’s second biggest in India.
• In 2013, it had acquired BPO firm IBM Daksh for USD 505 million.

Comcast has launched a USD 4.5 billion 4 part bond on 12th July 2016 to help fund the acquisition of Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation SKG according to the new lead on the deal.

• The USD 700 million 5 year tranche launched Treasuries plus 55bp, the $1.4 billion 10-year at T+85bp, the $1 billion 20-year at T+100bp, and the $1.4 billion 30-year at T+120bp.
• Comcast is a cable TV and internet streaming service.

IDFC Bank, which started banking operations only in October last year, will be acquiring Grama Vidiyal, a Tiruchi-headquartered microfinance institute, in an all cash deal.

• The value of the transaction, however, was not disclosed.
• The MFI will also be a subsidiary for the business correspondent operations of the business.
• This marks the first acquisition of an MFI by a bank in this industry.

Twitter has indicated that it will lifestream CBS news online coverage of Republican and Democratic conventions later this month for the social media outlet.

• People will be able to watch videos of the convention on mobile devices and desktops in the form of political tweets.
• Twitter’s foray into video is a major step taken by this social media outlet.

GoIbibo, one of the largest online hotel booking groups has entered into a partnership with virtual hotel chain in Asia ( the biggest in this continent) NIDA Rooms.

• Deal will allow Goibibo traveler to customise holidays by selecting from over 3500 hotel rooms in Asia from NIDA Rooms.
• NIDA Rooms CEO Kaneswaran Anili indicated they were pleased to be the partner of GoIbibo as more hotel options are provided for Indian travellers to stay in SE Asia.
• Value for money is a key ingredient integrating NIDA Rooms with Goibibo in a constructive way.
• NIDA Rooms has 35000 hotel partnerships with 800 hotels in Malaysia, over 1500 hotels in Thailand, over 1000 hotels in Indonesia and over 200 hotels in Philippines.

RBI has removed the 7 year old restriction on fresh purchase of state owned Punjab National Bank’s shares by foreign investors.

• PNB shares gained over 8 percent after the RBI removed the PSU bank from the caution list and permitted foreign investors to buy shares.
• Scrip later closed 8.21 percent up at INR 127.25.
• Central Bank has notified the aggregate foreign share holding by Foreign Institutional Investors/Registered Foreign Portfolio Investors/Non Resident Indians/Persons of Indian Origin/Foreign Direct Investment/ /American Depository Receipts under Portfolio Investment Scheme have gone below the prescribed threshold caution limit stipulated under the extant FDI policy.
• PNB is India’s multinational banking and financial services company founded in 1894.

Nirma Limited has agreed to acquire Lafarge India’s cement assets for USD 1.4 billion outdoing Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Cement and Piramal Enterprises.

• Lafarge Holcim, the Swiss building materials group created out of the Lafrge-Holcim merger will sell its India business including three plants and two grinding units.
• Nirma, the Ahmedabad based detergents and chemicals maker has a 2 MTPA cement unit.
• Additional capacity will help it to benefit from expected surge in infrastructure construction as India aims to boost spending on the key sector to about 8.1 percent of GDP by 2021-2022, as per the IMF working paper

Ad tech firm Fork Media has entered into a data agreement with Twitter’s enterprise API platform Gnip will enable its social media influencer marketing platform Buzzerati to gain access to Twitter audience data and content performance metrics.

• Buzzerati was launched earlier in 2016 as an influencer recommendation platform enabling brands to target and engage with customers.

Fashion retailer Myntra has said it has acquired Bengaluru based Cubeit for an undisclosed sum to focus on content aggregation on mobile.

• As part of this acquisition, the Cubeit team has been inducted into Myntra making it an acqui-hire.
• Cubeit was founded by Sarthak Jain, Nithinkumar Gadiparthi and Prathamesh Juvatkar in 2014.

Country’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services on 9th July 2016 indicated Non Executive Director Phiroz Vandrevala resigned from the company.

• He relinquished the office of Non-Executive Director of the company on account of personal reasons with effect from July 8, 2016
• He has been a director on the TCS board since September 2007.
• He will continue as Vice Chairman and MD of Diligent, a TCS subsidiary where he is responsible for driving business strategy and operations of the organisation globally.
• He has over 25 years of consulting and leadership experience with TCS

INNOPROM, the largest annual industrial global trade fair of Russia to showcase engineering innovations from across the world will begin on 10th of July in Ekaterinburg.

• India is the partner country for INNOPROM 2016.
• With Industrial Net being the lead theme for the exhibition, this event aims to bring together important components to improve efficiency under one roof.
• A delegation of 110 companies led by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce & Industry, Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman will showcase India’s engineering prowess at the Russian engineering and technology event under the Brand India Engineering Campaign.

National Association of Software and Services Companies launched the first centre of excellence in the country focused on Internet of Things

• Centre of excellence is set up at the NASSCOM startups warehouse in the city
• This Centre of excellence is a joint initiative between DEITY, ERNET and the IT industry body.

Facebook on 7th July 2016 announced an open source and cost effective software defined wireless access platform aimed to improve connectivity in remote parts of the world

• Platform named Open Cellular is designed to improve connectivity as it can be deployed to support communication options from a network in a box to access point supporting everything from 2G to LTE
• System is composed of two subsystems namely general purpose and base band computing with integrated power and housekeeping system and radio frequency with integrated analog front end

Anil Ambani led Reliance Group has named Juergen Hase as the new CEO of IoT or Internet of Thing business

• Hase is a veteran in the telecom industry where he has worked for over 25 years
• He was recently director, IoT M2M at Ooredoo in Qatar

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalkrishnan also the chief mentor of Kochi Startup Village and others are set to launch the world’s first digital incubator for student startups

• Country needs more than one million jobs per month for the next 20 years to sustain and employ youth from new startups if the right environment is created
• Digital Incubator buit over 12 months has received 1000 applications from across India

Hyderabad based startup Aadya Restaurants Dosa Place has acquired Sukashree Agro Food’s retail brand ChennaiChef for a non disclosed amount and own 91 percent in it, according to announcement made on July 6, 2016

• Aadya Restaurants was founded by Ajay Koneru
• It aims to become the McDonalds of South Indian food.

Security software firm Avast Software indicated it would buy Dutch rival AVG Technologies for USD 1.3 billion in cash to expand the presence in the emerging markets

• Avast indicated that it will pay USD 25 per AVG share representing a 33 percent premium to AVG stock’s closing price on 6th July 2016
• Avast provides free and paid software for PCs and mobile devices to businesses and individuals

EXL announced the acquisition of LISS Systems Limited, a London based insurance solution provider

• This is applicable in both life and pensions as well as general insurance sectors
• LISS automates end to end business process ranging from quotes to underwriting to policy issuance
• Customers prefer using digital channels to purchase insurance requiring new business models to deliver superior customer experience
• LISS’s flagship LISSIA platform includes multi channel interfaces, underwriting, workflow engines and document production modules to automate new policy issuance and simplify policy administration
• LISSIA platform is used for traditional and unit linked and investment products
• Launched in 2002, LISSIA supports installation of more than 1 million policies and supports insurers like AIG and Aviva

Search engine major Google has acquired French startup Moodstock with the acquisition announced on the official blog.

• Paris based startup developed image recognition technology for smartphones whose API for developers has been described as Shazam for images.
• Focus is on creating great image recognition tools within Google.

The largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd has inked a wage settlement pact with permanent workers at Gurgaon Plant

• This involves a while of INR 12500 spread over three years
• The three year agreement will be implemented in retrospective effect commencing from August 1, 2015 till July 31, 2018
• Earlier wage settlement was effective from August 1, 2012 to July 31, 2015
• Company’s management and workers union has been reached after months of negotiations
• As per the settlement, permanent workers of the Gurgaon facility have been provided a hike of INR 12,500 over three years

Travel Boutique Online, a travel portal backed by Naspers has acquired strategic equity stake in Devor Camps a chain of branded adventure camps in India

• Travel Boutique Online has more than 19,000 agents and Devor Camps will cross sell each other’s products and offerings
• Devor Camps was founded by Dheeraj Jain along with Chirag Gupta, Aakar Gandhi and Gautam Yadav

Kumar Mangalam Birla led Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail has acquired Indian business of international clothing brand “Forever 21” from Diana Retail Pvt Ltd, the US based company’s local franchise partner for over INR 175 crore or USD 26 million.

• Transaction involved acquisition of the Forever 21 Undertaking of Diana Retail from July 1 through business transfer agreement and not share transfer.
• Consideration for acquisition is USD 26 million
• Forever 21 will form part of the Madura Fashion & Lifestyle division
• Forever 21 is among the fastest growing fashion retailers in the world with a network of more than 700 stores worldwide.

US biotech company Monsanto and Microsoft have come up with a partnership to invest in agricultural technology startups in Brazil.

• Monsanto will join a Brazilian investment fund with up to 300 million reais, managed by Microsoft evaluation new ideas for new digital tools to be applied to agricultural production within the country
• Chosen ideas will receive funding of close to 1.5 million reais, (USD 459,000) for early development.
• Project owners will have to pay the option to pay back the investment after three years or conversion of the money into equity

Hyderabad IT services company Ray Business Technologies Pvt on 4th July has acquired digital education enterprise resource planning ERP product - QuickEdmin-to boost the service offerings

• Raybiztech’s maiden acquisition will deepen its presence in India outside of its largest market in US and Australia

Staffing company TeamLease Services said it will acquire ASAP Info Systems for an enterprise value of INR 67 crore

• The Bengaluru headquartered ASAP Info Systems offer IT staffing solutions to numerous MNCs and domestic companies
• TeamLease financial resources will be financing transactions and is expected to close before the close of August 2016
• TeamLease Services have signed a definitive agreement to this effect
• Transactions will be done through TeamLease wholly owned subsidiary TeamLease Staffing Services Private and subject to customer closing conditions and regulatory approvals
• TeamLease has long serviced IT companies for non IT staffing positions and expects ASAP to help continue the expansion after the current offices are merged
• ASAP Info Systems posted posted revenue of INR 63 crore with EBITDA of around INR 11 crore in 2015-2016

With this acquisition, 1mg is expanding to offer a service for booking imaging tests such as CT Scans, MRIs and X-Rays. Diagnostics is a USD 5-8 billion industry in India making for 25% of the total pharmacy business.

• 1mg currently offers these services across 23 cities is hoping to cover over 30 more cities 2016 with diagnostics and a total contribution of diagnostics in the revenue from 15 to 25 percent
• Medd operates across Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Jaipur
• It was cofounded by IIT Bombay graduates Arpit Kothari and Anurag Mundhada and Carnegie Mellon graduate Era Dwivedi in 2015

Industry body ASSOCHAM has offered to set up a National Data Bank containing information about electronic transactions, used by the government for official purposes like issuance of passports as well as protecting country’s strategic interests.

• Proposal involves creation of a Central Coordination Committee under the guidance of National Security Council Secretariat
• A clear legal framework is required to legitimise the need for creating a National Data Bank of e-information of classified and heritage documents for national archives which can be integrated with national information policy demarcating information into three board categories.
• Data which is non sensitive in nature could be used for scientific economic and development purposes
• It can be used for taking accurate and immediate decisions in large demographies for trend forecasting and recourse in case of civic decisions or exigency by numerous Ministries or Departments of Government of India.
• Industry has noted the current regime of the Big Data Management does not facilitate efficient open sharing and interoperability of government owned data with different inter and intra government agencies
• Need for creating cyber National Data Bank of e-information of classified heritage documents for National Archive with the aim to promote open data sharing and access to GoI owned data for national planning and R&D.

Intex Technologies business head Sanjay Kalirona has exited by putting in his resignation papers. It is currently sitting at the third spot when it comes to smartphone market in India.

• Kalirona’s exit is the latest among all and he will be joining as COO of Zen Mobiles
• Senior executive has worked with IT peripherals of Intex for around 15 years now and in between this long tenure, a year at the Akai mobile phone division.

While UK has remained on the top, India has slipped to 75th place in terms of money held in Swiss banks.

• India was placed in 61st rank in 2015 while it used to rank among the top-50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007
• Country also ranked highest at 37th place in 2004
• According to the latest annual update on Swiss Banks released by Switzerland central bank SNB or Swiss National Bank, total money held by foreign clients from across the globe fell by 4 percent to Swiss franc 1.42 trillion which is around INR 98 lakh crore
• As far as individual countries are concerned, UK counted for the largest chunk of CHF 350 billion or almost 25 percent of the total foreign money with Swiss banks
• US came in second with CHF 196 billion or 14 percent
• Others in the top 10 included Hong Kong, Panama, France and Germany
• Russia was ranked 17th and China 28th while Brazil was 37th

Country’s largest lender, SBI has launched three digital initiatives and aims to print its branch network once its associated have merged.

• SBI can debut on social media by launching the platform called Mingle through which FB and Twitter users can transact business.
• Customers have to register for the service through a simple one time registration process using their account number or ATM Debit card details
• Another initiative is a tie up with Flipkart through which the bank will extend loans to select customers for purchases above INR 5000
• SBI has indicated at present, one million customers can avail this loan
• Another initiative is the SBI Digital Villages which will transform selected villages into safe, healthy and vibrant digital centres
• A total of 21 villages have been covered under this initiative
• SBI will bring more than 6000 branches into its fold once the 5 associates merge

MasterCard, one of the largest payment networks in the world has invested an undisclosed sum in financial technology startup Razorpay.

• India will shape the future of e-commerce through strategic collaboration and innovative technology
• Razorpay is aiming to complement existing MasterCard solutions that are helping merchants of all sizes and markets to accept online payments and grow the business
• Razorpay is backed by investors such as Google investor Ram Shriram and Y Combinator

Trivitron Healthcare has acquired a majority stake in Turkish healthcare firm Bome Sanayi Urunleri Dis. Tic. Ltd. Sti. The cost of acquisition is 5 million euros. It will now have access to Middle East and African Markets for newborn screening kits.

• Trivitron acquired 60 percent stake in Bome Sanayi Urunleri Dis. Tic. Ltd. Sti mainly concerned with the production of in-vitro diagnostic devices
• Bome is one of the first firms in the nation to be involved in production of in vitro diagnostic device

Social networking major Facebook has decided to close Paper which is a news reading app providing customised news spanning politics, technology, food and more.

• Users said the app would no longer function from July 29
• The goal with Paper is to explore immersive, interactive design elements for reading and interacting with content on FB
• Paper is not among the popular apps according to current estimates

German car major BMW announced on July 1st 2016 that it is partnering US computer chip giant Intel and Israeli technology firm Mobileye to develop cars that are self driving

• The three companies are joining hands to bring solutions for rapid and fully automated driving into series production by 2021
• Self driving cars are on the card with automated driving technologies to make travel safer and easier
• Final stage will be driver off or without a human driver inside

HCL Infosystems has developed and designed the Defence Communication Network- the first ti-service communication and IT network of the Indian armed forces.

• The network has been designed and developed in India.
• This is the first ever converged tri-service communication and IT network for the Indian Defence Forces
• Network has been designed and developed in India

Well known telco Airtel has deployed analytics platform Cloudera to gain customer insights. The solution will permit Airtel to enhance consumer experience and leverage customer data to execute omnichannel campaigns.

• With over 256 m Indian customers, customer and network data collected has to be analysed and the implications studied
• According to the company, the aim is to improve better decisions and enhance entire customer lifecycle with customised offerings.

Tax department has notified rules for calculating fair market value or FMV of assets of listed companies to be computed on the basis of formula that takes market cap, book value of liabilities and total number of shares into account in case of listed companies.

• In the case of unlisted companies, FMV is determined by a merchant banker or accountant as per internationally accepted valuation methodology.
• As shares are listed on more than one recognised stock exchange, the price would be computed with reference to the recognised stock exchange which records highest volume of trading in shares during the period considered for determining the price.
• As per the IT act, if any share or interest in a foreign company or entity gets its value from assets mostly located in India, the such share or interest is said to be situated in India.
• Any income arising from transfer of share or interest is deemed to accrue or arise in India.
• Share or interest is said to derive its value considerably from assets located in India, if FMV of assets in India is comprising 50 percent of the FMV of total assets of the company or entity
• Any share or interest is to derived from India if FMV of asset is more than INR 10 crore