Business & Finance - Current Affairs for March, 2017

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Reliance Retail announced launch of a new in-store payment solution that will enable customer payments through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms.

This integration will provide a convenient and seamless payment experience to Reliance Retail customers and will be an added avenue for digital transactions.

Reliance Retail is the first organised retail chain in the country to offer its customers the option of mobile-based UPI app payments at its stores.

This new in-store UPI payment facility is currently live in more than 200 Reliance Retail stores in Mumbai across formats, including Reliance Fresh, Reliance Smart, Reliance Digital, Reliance Trends and Reliance Footprint, among others.

With the fast growing popularity of UPI-payment apps like NPCI's BHIM app, which has seen close to 20 million downloads, this initiative will increase UPI payment acceptance points in retail stores.

It is expected to play a vital role in driving a more cashless future.

The platform is engineered by Bangalore-based Innoviti Payment Solutions, with process support from the Axis Bank.

Reliance Retail: Know More

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Founded: 2008
• Number of employees: 700
• Type of business: Section 8 Company
• Key person: M. Balachandran

The country’s fast-growing e-commerce industry will finally establish its presence at the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

Paytm set to become a member of the self-regulatory voluntary organisation next month.

The move is significant because advertising violations by e-commerce companies, which are big spenders on television, print and digital media, have been on the rise in recent years.

ASCI members include key advertisers from various sectors, such as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), media, auto and telecom.

These spend heavily to stay visible in the marketplace.

However, no e-commerce company is a member of the body yet.

By opting to be a member, companies submit themselves to the ASCI Advertising Code, conveying the message that they wish to be responsible advertisers.

Any violation, upheld by ASCI, puts the onus on the member to abide by the regulator’s decision.

This implies quick modifications to advertisements, which, if not done, could attract stringent action, especially in the case of television ads.

Those who are not ASCI members use it as a lever to not abide by the regulator’s directives, choosing to continue with their original piece of communication.

Paytm’s decision is expected to prompt others to follow suit.

Paytm: Know More

• CEO: Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Dec 2010)
• Founder: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
• Founded: 2010
• Type of site: E-commerce
• Headquarters: Noida, New Delhi

Government of India, on 28^th March 2017, indicated that the use of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin is not authorised by RBI and could lead to anti-money laundering provisions.

RBI has cautioned users, traders and holders of the virtual currency including Bitcoin, regarding the financial, legal and security risks linked with the usage.

The absence of counter parties in usage of virtual currencies including Bitcoins, for illicit and illegal activities in anonymous/pseudonymous systems could subject the users to unintentional breaches of anti-money laundering.

This could be combating the financing of terrorism laws.

The creation of virtual currencies like Bitcoins as a medium of payments is not authorised by any central bank or monetary authority.

No regulatory approval, registration or authorisation is stated to have been obtained by the entities concerned for carrying on such activities.

The RBI had earlier warned that any user, holder, investor and trader dealing with virtual currencies would be doing so at his/her own risk.

Virtual Currencies: Know More

• Bitcoin can be called the new trend setter, as its success has spurred the launch of many other virtual currencies (there are more than 150 cryptocurrencies).
• The currencies inspired by Bitcoin are collectively called altcoins.
• They have tried to present themselves as improvised and modified versions of Bitcoin.
• These currencies are easier to mine.
• They involve greater risk in terms of lesser liquidity, acceptance and value retention.

Amazon.com has agreed to acquire Middle East online retailer Souq.com, the two companies said in a joint statement on 28th March 2017.

The value of the deal was not disclosed.

By becoming part of the Amazon family, they will be able to vastly expand delivery capabilities and customer selection much faster, as well as continue Amazon's great track record of empowering sellers.

The co founder of Souq is Syrian-born entrepreneur Ronaldo Mouchawar.

Souq.com is the Dubai-based company which was started 12 years ago by Mouchawar.

It appears competition was fierce to acquire Souq.com, with the Amazon deal announced just a day after Dubai-based Emaar Malls confirmed offering $800 million to acquire the site.

Founded in 2005 as an auction site, Souq.com has evolved into a retailer and a marketplace for third-party sellers. The company says it attracts more than 24 million unique visits per month.

Souq.com won a major vote of confidence last year and emerged as the highest-valued internet company in the region when it secured $275 million in funding from international investors to support its growth.

At the time, the e-commerce market in the Middle East was growing very fast and expected to reach $20 billion in 2016.

Souq.com attracts over 45 million visits per month.

Amazon Retail

• Amazon has been expanding into areas including cloud computing and streaming video where it is trying to rival Netflix.
• But retail remains at its core.
• Its retail operations have been taking in $26 billion in North America and $14 billion in the rest of the world in the last quarter of 2016.

Axis Bank is set to open its first international finance branch at the International Financial Services Center (IFSC) in Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City.

Leading PSU and private banks have set up their international banking units in the GIFT SEZ, doing business transactions of over USD 1 billion.

Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank are some of these.

Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India.

Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Corporates, SME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses.

Axis Bank: Know More

• Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India.
• Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Corporates, SME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses.
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• CEO: Shikha Sharma
• Chairperson: Dr. Sanjiv Misra (Part Time)

Union Cabinet on 22^nd March 2017 approves the proposal to establish the Fund of Funds of Startups or FFS.

Union Cabinet in 2016 approved the proposal to establish a Fund of Funds for Startups with total corpus of INR 10,000 crore.

AIFs supported by FFS should invest at least twice the amount of contribution received from FFS in Startups.

If the account committed for a startup has not been released before a startup ceases, the balance funding can continue thereafter.

Operating expenses out of the FFS to the extent of 0.50 percent of the commitments made to AIFs and outstanding.

Operating expenses include carrying due diligence, legal and technical appraisal, meeting of Venture Capital Investment Committee etc.

Operating expenses will be debited to fund at the beginning of each half year on April and October 1.

Fund of Funds for Startups was approved by Union Government in 2016.

Fund of Funds for Startups is being managed by SIDBI.

FFS contributes to SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds that may go up to a maximum of 35 percent of the corpus of the AIF concerned.

India's largest ecommerce company Flipkart is acquiring eBay's operations in a deal structured as part of the USD 2 billion capital raising.

This boosts the ecommerce major in its fight for market share on the home turf.

Ebay's Indian unit is a distant sixth in market share after Flipkart, Amazon, Shopclues, Paytm and Snapdeal.
India has a USD 15 billion ecommerce market.

This ebay India unit will get folded into Flipkart as part of the transaction.

Flipkart has closed its USD 1 billion funding from Microsoft, Tencent and eBay.

Round values Flipkart at USD 10 billion.

This is lower than USD 15.1 billion valuation in the previous account but higher than the USD 8 billion valuation expected in the round.

Flipkart has three CEOs at the helm namely Sachin and Binny Bansal and Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

Ebay is a small investor in Snapdeal. It has made unsuccessful attempts to acquire the New Delhi based online retailer.

Ebay was launched in India in 2004. This is ahead of Flipkart's date of inception and the entry of Amazon into Indian markets.

Tencent has backed messaging platform Hike and online medical platform Practo in the past.

Nasdaq based eBay is part of an investment consortium including Microsoft and Tencent.

It will be collectively investing USD 1.5-2 billion in Flipkart.

The market has entered with the acquisition of Bazee.com, has seen eBay lag behind with other e-commerce companies surging ahead.

Combined seller base of eBay, Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong will make this one of the strongest e-commerce entities in India.

Ride sharing app aggregator Lyft has acquired Pune based FinitePaths for an undisclosed amount.

Trail Answers, the app created by FinitePaths will be shut down and cofounders will join the Lyft team.

FinitePaths was set up in November 2015 with the move to leverage technology to enable people to take better decisions.

The app Trail Answers enabled answers to questions using social, contextual and local signals.

The company has been founded by Vinay Kakade and Balaji Raghavan, who worked with Amazon and Google respectively before setting up the firm.

The cofounders will now work with Lyft to help in expanding its infrastructure and services.

Following this acquisition, the company has stopped signing up new users and will shut down the app over the next two weeks.

Lyft: Know More

• Founded: 2012
• CEO: Logan Green (Jun 2012)
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
• Founders: Logan Green, John Zimmer

Ministry of Electronics and IT and Google announced a partnership to make digital payments safer as well as impart digital skill training to artisans and Android training to developers.

The collaboration with Google will be hugely beneficial in harnessing the capabilities of technology for the India growth story.

Google India and MeitY will support the launch of a ‘Digital Payments Security Alliance’ in collaboration with the Data Security Council of India.

The Alliance will bring together several stakeholders from the ecosystem, including banks, fintech companies and the government.

The program will target customers as well as merchants and small businesses.

Google India, which had announced a program to impart digital training to SMBs earlier this year.

It will extend this training in partnership with MeitY to over 100,000 artisans per year across the country.

The training will be delivered by National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology.

Google India will equip the National Institute trainers with training modules and content.

Google India will also provide mobile training labs to reach artisan clusters across India.

Under the collaboration with the Ministry, Google will also extend specially-designed instructor-led training program course curriculum to the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology.

This will in turn train over one lakh developers and students through its network of centres.

MeiTY: Know More

• Website: meity.gov.in
• Formed: 19 July 2016
• Jurisdiction: India
• Headquarters: Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi, India
• Cabinet minister: Ravi Shankar Prasad
• Minister of state: P. P. Choudhary
• Predecessor: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Essar’s Nand Niketan at Hazira (in Surat district, Gujarat) became India’s first private sector township to go cashless.

People here are using the mobile wallet for performing digital transactions.

Mumbai-based tech company The Mobile Wallet/TMW was roped by the township to provide smartphone based application for mastercard-enabled mobile wallets.

So far around 8,000 prepaid cards were issued in the township to the employees, merchants and shop owners operating within its precincts.

An average of INR 2 lakh worth of digital transactions are being executed every day.

TMW: Know More

• The Mobile Wallet Pvt. Ltd. was founded by Mr. Vinay Kalantri and has launched
• The Mobile Wallet, India´s first full service wallet which empowers its users to complete their day to day payments in a simple manner.
• Through the innovative services backed by the best in technology and the highest level of safety, security and reliability, The Mobile WalletPvt. Ltd., offers consumers a special app which will make complex household budgeting a thing of the past

GoI on 20th March 2017 announced the decision to merge Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the State Bank of India to ensure greater banking services outreach to women at a faster pace.

The decision to merge BMB with SBI has been taken in view of advantage of a large network of SBI.

In the 3 years since BMB was set up, women have been granted loans of INR 192 crore by the bank and INR 46,000 crore by SBI.

SBI has a wide range of more than 20,000 branches and the lowest cost of funds among banks.

Of the 200,000 workers, 22% are women. SBI has 126 all women branches across the country. BMB has 7.

This merger will help SBI get paid capital worth INR 1,000 crore lying on the books of BMB.

Bharatiya Mahila Bank had a loan book worth INR 620 crore and deposit base worth INR 927 crore at the end of March 2016.

The government on 23 February indicated 1 April will be the record date for the merger of SBI with five of its associate banks—State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala.

All the shares of these associate banks would cease to exist as individual entities and would stand transferred to SBI.

According to the RBI, all branches of associate banks will now function as branches of SBI.

After the merger with its associate banks, SBI is set to be among the top 50 large banks of the world.

SBI was ranked 52 in the world in terms of assets in 2015 and a merger will see it break into the top 50.

Bharatiya Mahila Bank: Know More

• Industry: Banking, Financial services
• Founded: 2013
• Headquarters: Delhi, India
• Head: S. M. Swathi (ED)
• Products: core banking, credit card, consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, private equity, wealth management
• Owner: Government of India

The U.K.’s Vodafone and Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on March 20, 2017 announced that they have kickstarted a mega merger deal.

Vodafone will own 45.1% of the merged entity, after it transfers about 4.9% to promoters of Idea and/or their affiliates for ?38.74 billion rupees, Idea said.

Idea will have the sole right to appoint the chairman.

Kumarmangalam Birla will be the Chairman of merged Vodafone-Idea entity and both the companies will have equal stakes in the merged entity over a period of time.

The combined market share of both the telcos add up to 43%, making it the largest telecom firm, surpassing Bharti Airtel.

The merger will create an entity with a revenue of around INR 77,500-80,000 crore besides eliminating duplication of spectrum and infrastructure capex, Ind-Ra assesses.

The spectrum of Vodafone India in seven circles and that of Idea in two, whose permits are expiring in 2021-22, is together valued at around INR 12,000 crore as per the last auction price.

These permits are not in common circles, and hence there could be potential spectrum capex synergies between the two companies, the report said.

The Merger Deal: Know More

• Complete business of VIL and VMSL, excluding VIL's investment in Indus Towers, international network assets and IT platforms, to vest in co.
• Once amalgamation of VMSL becomes effective, co shall issue shares of co to VIL equal to 47% of post issue paid-up capital of co.
• Vodafone to own 45.1% of combined co after transferring about 4.9% to promoters of Idea and/or affiliates for INR 38.74 billion in cash
• Board of combined entity will be comprised of 12 directors including 3 directors appointed by each of Vodafone and Aditya Birla Group
• Promoters of Idea, Vodafone have the right to nominate 3 directors each
• Promoters of Idea have the sole right to appoint chairman
• Vodafone has the right to appoint CFO of company
• Appointment of CEO, COO will require approval of promoters of Idea and Vodafone
• Promoters of Idea have right to buy up to 9.5% additional stake from Vodafone under the agreed mechanism with view of equalising shareholdings over time
• Agreement contemplates completion of proposed amalgamation with a period of 24 months
• Till equalisation is achieved, voting rights of additional shares held by Vodafone will be restricted and votes will be exercised jointly
• Idea to give all of its assets including standalone towers with 15.4k tenancies and 11.15% stake in Indus Towers
• Vodafone to give Vodafone India including standalone towers with 15.8k tenancies but excluding 42% stake in Indus Towers
• Vodafone will add 25 billion rupees more net debt than Idea at completion
• Post-closing, combined company will be a JV by Vodafone and accounted for under equity method
• As combined entity will be controlled jointly by Vodafone & Aditya Birla Group, Vodafone will de consolidate Vodafone India immediately

The World Bank Group on March 15, 2017 approved USD 210 million loan to strengthen gram panchayats in West Bengal.

The loan amount will be utilized for implementation of Phase 2 of the West BengalSupport to Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayat Program- ISGPP-2

The ISGPP- II will support 3,342 GPs in the state to utilize untied and discretionary funds provided under the inter-governmental fiscal transfer system.

The program seeks to strengthen local community participation in the financial management, planning and budgeting of projects introduced in rural areas.

During the first phase of the project, performance based block grants were given to 1,000 better performing GPs within 9 districts for investing in priority local infrastructure and service delivery projects.

Till now, 92,000 activities were carried out by GPs under the ISGPP.

Around 54 percent of the activities belonged to the transport sector, and 23 percent in areas concerned with water and sanitation.

The ISGPP-II will accelerate the pace of decentralization to gram panchayats across West Bengal through state wide unified performance based grant allocation system.

To access the PBG, GPs will be assessed on an annual basis through independent Annual Performance Assessment

The APA will be conducted for all 3342 GPs in special performance areas such as project execution, budgeting, planning, service delivery, accounting,financial reporting, auditing, transparency and accountability.

Certain other areas the program focuses on comprise building human resource capacity for enhanced transparency and accountability in local government functioning.

A robust internal audit system will be developed and implemented in gram panchayats.

West Bengal: Know More

• Area: 88,752 km^²Capital: Kolkata
• Population: 90.32 million (2012)
• Official animal: Fishing cat

The Union Finance Ministry has given permission to the Reserve Bank of India to conduct field trials of plastic currency notes of INR 10 denomination.

These notes will be introduced in 5 cities across the country with diverse climatic and geographical conditions.

The procurement of the requisite plastic substrate material has been approved. Plastic INR 10 notes will now be printed.

Benefits of Plastic Currency Notes

• Plastic currency notes were first used by Australia in 1988
• Plastic notes are cleaner than paper and will last longer (around 5 years); these are difficult to counterfeit.
• These notes are now used in more than 20 countries.
• Notes were smaller and stronger than cotton based paper notes.
• They have more security features making them harder to copy.

G20 finance chiefs will fight attacks regardless of origin and there will be promise of cross border cooperation to maintain financial stability.

Resilience of financial services and institutions in G20 jurisdictions against malicious use of ICT technologies including from countries outside the G-20.

Earlier reference for enhanced security requirements for financial services were dropped.

Cyber crime has become a massive priority after the heist on Bangladesh central bank account at the Fed Reserve Bank of NY in 2016.

This theft has exposed the vulnerability of the system. Agreement will be finalised on March 18, after the United States charged 2 intelligence agents from Russia, another G20 member with leading the 2014 theft of 500m Yahoo accounts.

This indictment was the first time US authorities have charged Russian spies for cyber offences.

This includes computer fraud, economic espionage, trade secret thefts and wire fraud.

There were allegations of a Kremlin backed hacking of the 2016 US Presidential election and possible links between Russian figures and the associates of President Trump.

Bandhan Bank Ltd has signed an agreement with Avenues India Pvt Ltd, a payment solutions provider to offer merchants seamless access to Point of Sale and payment gateway products.

With this partnership, merchants have speedier and direct access to PoS machines, competitive financing options and payment gateways.

Additionally, the agreement facilitates that two parties will cooperate and benefit from the networks, customers, techniques, systems and expertise for enhancing consumer experience.

As a fastest growing bank, ways are being explored and means for smart transactions studied.

Online business banking is the backbone of the economy at present. The entire merchant base will get the support of the combining of e-payment gateways.

Bandhan Bank: Know More

• Bandhan Bank presently has 3,546 touch points pan-India.
• It is comprising 828 branches, 2,437 Doorstep Service Centres (DSCs) and 281 ATMs.
• The bank has mobilised deposits worth more than INR 22, 000 crore and its loan book stands at about INR 22,000 crore.
• It has two divisions - general banking and micro banking.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed celebrities to endorse mutual fund products at the industry level.

The purpose is of increasing awareness of mutual funds as a financial product category.

However, such endorsements will be not used as a branding exercise of an asset management company or promoting scheme of a particular mutual fund.

Prior approval of SEBI will be required for issuance of such advertisements which feature celebrities.

SEBI also issued new advertising code that will require fund houses to communicate in a simple manner with the public.

Chinese ICT solutions provider Huawei has been chosen as a platinum member of the OpenStack Foundation, on March 15, 2017.

The OpenStack Foundation promotes the global development, distribution and adoption of the OpenStack cloud operating system.

This is the first time an Asian vendor has become a platinum member of OpenStack Foundation.

Huawei has provided cloud services to contribute to the OpenStack community.

It has cooperated with carriers, such as, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and China Telecom to provide public cloud services for customers and has also developed its own public cloud services.

Huawei: Know More

• Headquarters: Shenzhen, China
• CEO: Ren Zhengfei (1988)
• Founder: Ren Zhengfei
• Founded: 1987, Shenzhen, China
• Parent organization: Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.

US chipmaker Intel is set to purchase Israeli technology firm Mobileye for USD 14 to 15 billion.

The companies are set to announce the acquisition, which is the largest ever for an Israeli hi-tech company.

Mobileye is a top supplier of collision avoidance car sensor systems.

Mobileye and Intel were already collaborating for a project with BMW, which announced a partnership with the two in July 2016 to develop completely autonomous vehicles to the market by 2021.

About Mobileye

• Founded with a mission to reduce vehicle injuries and fatalities.
• Mobileye listed in 2014 on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Its market cap is $10.6 billion.
• Goldman Sachs invested $130 million in the company in 2007.
• CEO: Ziv Aviram (since 2010)
• Founded: 1999
• Headquarters: Jerusalem, Israel
• Founders: Amnon Shashua, Ziv Aviram
• Subsidiaries: Mobileye Technologies Limited, MobilEye Vision Technologies Ltd., Mobileye Inc.

Reliance Capital's long time CEO Sam Ghosh will leave the company w.e.f. March 31, 2017.

He spent 9 years at the financial services arm of the ADAG business conglomerate.

Ghosh had joined the company in April of 2008 as Group CEO of Reliance Capital.

He was elevated to the board in May 2015.

Ghosh will complete his term of office on March 31, 2017.

Reliance Cap is on track to become a CIC or Core Investment Company by March 31, as per RBI guidelines.

Ghosh was a CA from the UK. He played a key role in expanding core businesses during divestment of non-core assets to step up resources.

What is a CIC?

• A CIC-ND-SI is a Non-Banking Financial Company with asset size of INR 100 crore and above
• It is carrying on the business of acquisition of shares and securities
• It holds not less than 90 percent of its net assets in the form of investment in equity shares, preference shares, bonds, debentures, debt or loans in group companies;
• Its investments in the equity shares (including instruments compulsorily convertible into equity shares within a period not exceeding 10 years from the date of issue) in group companies constitutes not less than 60% of its net assets
• It does not trade in its investments in shares, bonds, debentures, debt or loans in group companies except through block sale for the purpose of dilution or disinvestment;
• It does not carry on any other financial activity referred to in Section 45I(c) and 45I(f) of the RBI Act 1934 except investment in bank deposits, money market instruments, government securities, loans to and investments in debt issuances of group companies or guarantees issued on behalf of group companies.
• It accepts public funds

Tech giant Google has announced the acquisition of Kaggle, a start-up that hosts a number of data scientists, for an undisclosed amount at the Cloud Next 2017 conference.

Founded in 2010, Kaggle is home to the world’s largest community of data scientists and machine-learning enthusiasts.

More than 8 lakh data experts use Kaggle to explore, analyse and understand the latest updates in machine learning and data analytics.

Kaggle and Google Cloud will continue to support machine learning training and deployment services while offering the community the ability to store and query large datasets.

Making Google Cloud technology available to our community will allow Google to offer access to powerful infrastructure, scalable training and deployment services and the ability to store and query large data sets.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are other data science and analytics companies.

The German Development Bank (KfW) and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has signed a loan agreement for €200 million.

The agreement is to enhance energy efficiency in India.

EESL will invest these funds in energy efficiency in buildings, households, street lighting, agriculture, water supply and industry.

KfW also signed a funding deal of €500,000 with Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) to maintain solar projects.

EESL: Know More

• Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is the organisation responsible for implementation of Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP).
• It is now called the UJALA scheme.
• Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is a joint venture of state-run power companies.
• It is responsible for implementation of Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP).
• It has reduced the prices of LED bulbs by 75%.

The government has released draft guidelines for transactions carried out through pre-paid instruments like mobile wallets, smart cards and paper vouchers.

Feedback was also sought from numerous stakeholders. The Draft IT (Security of Prepaid Payment Instruments) Rules 2017 has been designed to ensure integrity, security and confidentiality of electronic payments through PPI.

MeitY has formulated draft rules for security of PPI under provisions of IT Act 2000.

Rules entail PPI should ensure end-to-end encryption of data exchange. E-PPI issuers assist customers with regard to security when it comes to PPI.

Each e-PPI issuer will have privacy policy and terms and conditions for use of payments on its website and mobile app. Both should be in simple language to promote easy understanding.

Rules mandate that each PPI company will have privacy policy posted on its website. A Chief Grievance officer whose contact details will have to be prominently displayed on the website, should act within 36 hours and resolve complaints within one month from date of complaint receipt.

A mechanism needs to be established for monitoring, handling and follow-up of cyber incidents and breaches.

On 9^th March 2017, the company has announced Messenger Day works like Snapchat Stories.

It lets you post photos and videos to the profile that disappear after 24 hours. A new roll of thumbnails at the top of the Messenger app will show later posts from those who are friends.

Messenger Day is now available to the app's 1 billion users worldwide.

Messenger Day also opens up a way to monetize the Messenger app. This involves getting people to use the chat bot platform for businesses in the previous year.

Facebook Revenue & Subsidiaries: Know More

• Industry: Internet
• Revenue: US$27.638 billion (2016)
• Operating income: US$12.427 billion (2016)
• Net income: US$10.217 billion (2016)
• Total assets: US$64.961 billion (2016)
• Total equity: US$59.194 billion (2016)
• Employees: 17,048 (December 31, 2016)
• Subsidiaries: Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Oculus VR
• Website: www.facebook.com or www.fb.com

FinMin has agreed in-principle to allow public sector banks to offer stock options to their employees from next fiscal.

This is a move aimed at retaining experienced hands with better incentives.

Employee Stock Option plans (ESOPs) could be given by those banks which have not only earned substantial profit but also made remarkable improvement in managing NPAs.

It will help motivate employees to work towards strengthening the financial status of their banks so that their share value rises.

The percentage of profit can be earmarked for ESOPs is to be worked out.

This is based on the suggestion of Banks Board Bureau (BBB). One of the proposals is to issue shares equivalent to a certain percentage of banks’ net profit to employees which is being examined.

For large banks, the ESOPs could be as much as 5 per cent of profit after tax while for the smaller ones, it could be about 3 per cent but no decision has been taken yet.

Apart from ESOPs, bonuses and other performance-linked packages are also being discussed as suggested by BBB.

ESOPs are common in the private sector, where companies offer stocks to reward and retain key and top-performing employees.

Since the employees stand to benefit from any appreciation in stock price, ESOPs also help in aligning the interests of the employees with those of shareholders.

It can be monetary or non-monetary benefits to make it more attractive for professionals to enter public sector banking space.

PSU Banks in India

• Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are banks where a majority stake (i.e. more than 50%) is held by a government.
• The shares of these banks are listed on stock exchanges.
• There are a total of 27 PSBs in India [21 Nationalized banks and 6 State bank group (SBI + 5 associates) ].
• In 2011, IDBI bank and in 2014 Bharatiya Mahila Bank were nationalized with a minimum capital of INR 500 crore.

China's banking system has outdone Eurozone to become the largest in the world by assets.

China’s increased influence in world finance and its reliance on debt to drive growth since the 2009 global financial crisis were also considered.

Chinese bank assets had hit $33 trillion at the end of 2016, versus $31 trillion of the eurozone, $16 trillion of the US and $7 trillion of Japan.

The value of China’s banking system is more than 3.1 times the size of its annual economic output, compared with 2.8 times for the eurozone and its banks.

China’s GDP had outperformed EU’s economic bloc in 2011 at market exchange rates, but its banking system did not take over the top spot until the end of 2016.

China's GDP: Know More

• GDP (PPP)(2016 estimate)

Total


• $20.853 trillion[12] (1st)
  
  Per capita
  
  
• $15,095[12] (83rd)
• GDP (nominal)(2016 estimate)

Total


• $11.383 trillion(2nd)

Per capita


• $8,239[12] (72nd)
• Gini (2015): 46.2
• HDI (2014): Increase 0.727( 90th)
• Currency: Renminbi (yuan; ¥)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is purchasing the flash storage company for $12.50 a share or about $1 billion.

The deal represents about a 41% premium to Nimble's closing price on March 6, 2017.

This acquisition is exactly aligned with the strategy and capital allocation approach that is laid out.

The focus is on high-growth and higher-margin segments of the market.

HPE is the enterprise information company formed in 2015 after splitting off from the computer and printing company Hewlett-Packard, which renamed as HP Inc.

The deal is expected to close in April.

Nimble Storage is the San Jose, Calif.-based provider of predictive all-flash and hybrid-flash storage solutions.

Flash Storage: Know More

• Flash storage is a fast-growing market and an increasingly important element of today's hybrid IT environment.
• The overall flash market was estimated to be approximately $15 billion in 2016.
• It is expected to be nearly $20 billion by 2020, with the all-flash segment growing at a nearly 17 percent compound annual growth rate 1.

Nimble: Know More


• Nimble was founded in 2007 and has approximately 1,300 employees worldwide.
• The company delivered revenue of $402 million in its most recent fiscal year, up 25 percent year over year.
• Nimble's strong application performance in its entry to midrange flash storage solutions is backed by an intelligent, predictive analytics engine that delivers a simplified customer experience.

Digital streaming service Netflix on March 7, 2017 has partnered with Airtel, Videocon d2h and Vodafone in India as it looks to ramp up its presence in the Indian market.

The US-based firm, which is up against strong competition from rivals like Amazon Prime, HotStar and others in the Indian market, is investing aggressively in local content.

Adding that the growth in consumption has also been driven by free data offering from new-comer Reliance Jio, Netflix is in discussion with many other players in India for partnerships.

Netflix has offices in the US, Amsterdam, London, Singapore and Tokyo.

It has about 94 million users globally, of which 40 million are outside the US.

In December, Netflix had inked a long-term deal with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies to give viewers exclusive access to the Bollywood superstar’s upcoming as well as past films.

Despite the intense competition, the company will focus on improving its content library and continue to have a premium play rather than changing prices.

Netflix, which has gained popularity in India on the back of successful shows like Narcos and The Crown, is also keen on bringing more original programming to consumers.

This will bring content to users across markets without worrying about licensing the content.

The company is also looking at introducing more payment options for Indian users, given the low penetration of credit cards.

Amrita University's Technology Business Incubator (TBI) and its Centre for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks (CCSN) have come together to set up India's first startup hub exclusively for cybersecurity.


The focus areas will include mobile, cloud, cyber-physical systems, digital forensics, cryptography, malware analysis and so on.


The initiative will bring together research, funding and industry on the same platform.

There are more than 4,000 startups in the country today, but less than 100 operate in the field of cybersecurity and build related products.

With wars being fought every minute across the world in cyberspace, cybersecurity has become a strategic national priority.

Cybersecurity Threats: Know More

• Cybersecurity is estimated to be a US $70 billion industry worldwide, with an annual loss of US $400 billion due to cybercrime and threats. This loss is expected to shoot up to US $2 trillion by 2020.
• India witnessed an estimated 50,000 cybersecurity incidents in 2015.
• More than 26,000 websites have been defaced and 91 lakh infected systems have been detected in the country till now.
• 80% of all cybercrimes go unreported.
• Without strong software security and protection techniques, all software-based systems are vulnerable to devastating attacks from hackers and spies.

Symantec on March 6, 2017 released an automated solution to identify and resolve potential exposure to 'Cloudbleed' - a bug that compromised millions of user accounts in cloud applications.

The company has released the solution to current Symantec 'ProxySG' customers.

The solution leverages integrations between its 'CloudSOC Cloud Access Security Broker' (CASB) and the broader Symantec security portfolio.

Discovered on February 17, 'Cloudbleed' is a security bug that leaked data from the content delivery network Cloudflare.

Following the incident, Symantec analysts mapped the vulnerable 'CloudBleed' web URLs to specific cloud applications and 'CloudSOC Audit' identified more than 2,000 applications that were potentially affected by CloudBleed.

As a result, 'CloudSOC Audit' now tracks the CloudBleed vulnerability as an at-risk attribute for cloud applications.

'CloudSOC Audit' tracks intelligence on over 20,000 cloud applications based on 90-plus different risk attributes, now including the 'CloudBleed' vulnerability.

CloudBleed: Know More

• Cloudflare, which is used by more than 5.5 million websites leaked mass amounts of sensitive user information from those sites.
• This is including passwords, private messages, hotel bookings, and more between September 2016 and February 18th of this year.
• The leak has been called ‘Cloudbleed’.
• Security researcher, Tavis Ormandy, discovered the vulnerability, which is the result of a software bug in their code.
• This is technically known as a buffer overrun.

Tech Mahindra, India's fourth biggest software services exporter, will buy US based healthcare IT consulting firm CJS Solutions Group for an enterprise value of US $110 million.

Tech Mahindra, which will acquire CJS through a unit, will make an upfront cash payment of US $89.5 million for the acquisition of 84.7% stake in CJS.

The remaining 15.3% to be acquired over three years, the company said in a statement.

CJS, which operates as the HCI Group, specialises in the implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) software.

Healthcare and life sciences business, which accounts for around 7 pct of Tech Mahindra's revenues, has been a key focus area for the Indian company and the acquisition of CJS will help it consolidate its position, the company said.

Ernst & Young acted as the due diligence advisor to Tech Mahindra while Allen & Company LLC were the financial advisors to HCI Group.

The transaction is expected to close before the end of April.

Tech Mahindra: Know More

• CEO: C. P. Gurnani (24, May 2012)
• Revenue: 4.1 billion USD (March 2016)
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Founder: Anand Mahindra

HDFC Life launched an exclusive data-led group term insurance plan in partnership with ET Money, the Times Internet backed financial services app.

This is the country’s first term insurance plan based on the spend pattern of the users, the private insurer indicated.

This financial planning management app brings insurance at the finger-tips of the discerning new-age generation.

Offered as an ET Money benefit, the group term life insurance plan can be availed exclusively by 1 million users of the ET MONEY app.

One can get a group term life insurance coverage that ranges anywhere from Rs 25-50 lakh and it will be based on spend pattern of the user.

HDFC Life substantiates ET Money's data-led, mobile-first approach and we are excited to work with them closely, the company executives said in a statement.

HDFC: Know More

• CEO : Aditya Puri
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Founded: August 1994, India
• Number of employees: 90,421

State-run gas company GAIL (India) Ltd has signed a time-swap deal with Swiss trader Gunvor to sell some of its U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Indian firm tries to ease the burden of its costly foreign LNG supplies.

It is the first time-swap agreement by GAIL, which is trying to juggle its LNG portfolio to cut costs for price-sensitive Indian customers after a sharp fall in Asian spot prices made its US gas unattractive.

The deal equates to around 5 percent of India's 2015/16 LNG imports and will support a government push to promote use of the cleaner fuel in fertiliser and the power sector.

This is so even as India's local gas production is falling.

Under the agreement, Gunvor will supply 15 cargoes or about 0.8 million tonnes of LNG to GAIL on India's west cost between April and December this year in oil-linked prices on a delivered basis in India.

In return GAIL will sell 10 cargoes or about 0.6 million tonnes next year from Sabine Pass on the U.S. Gulf coast in 2018 at a premium to its pricing formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

The deal, priced at about a 12 percent slope to Brent, means GAIL could get gas from Gunvor at $6.50-$7.00 per million British thermal units (mBtu).

This is competitive with Asian spot prices and much cheaper than the cost of shipping its own U.S. gas to India.

Spot deals (in India) for April deliveries getting finalised at slightly more than $6.50 (mBtu) so GAIL's deal with Gunvor is at a very competitive rates.

GAIL is saddled with long-term contracts to take expensive US gas after embarking on a buying spree between 2011 and 2013 when the fuel was scarce and prices kept rising.

LNG booked by GAIL under a long term deal with Cheniere Energy, which owns the Sabine Pass Liquefaction terminal, will cost 115 percent of Henry Hub prices plus a fixed cost of $3 per mBtu.

At current prices, this equates to a cost of about $8.50 per mBtu on a delivered basis to India.

New Delhi wants to lift the share of cleaner-burning gas in its energy mix to 15 percent in the next three years from about 6.5 percent at present.

GAIL is also in talks with Russia's Gazprom to delay and renegotiate a 20-year gas purchase deal undercut by low spot prices.

GAIL: Know More

• Stands for Gas Authority of India Limited
• It is the largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company in India.
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• CEO: Sh B. C. Tripathi (1 Aug 2009)
• Founded: 1984
• Parent organization: United Nations

South Korean prosecutors charged Samsung Group chief Jay Y. Lee with bribery and embezzlement on 28th March 2017 as the top businesses announced the dismantling of its corporate strategy office.

This is the latest development in the graft scandal that rocked the nation.

48-year-old Lee was arrested on Feb 17, over the alleged role in the corruption scandal involving impeached president Park Geun-hye.

This is a fresh blow for the conglomerate in Asia's 4th largest economy.

Lee, the third generation leader of the tech major chaebol and 4 other executives were charged with bribery and embezzlement.

Charges against Lee include pledging bribery to companies and organizations tied to Park's confidant, Choi Soon-sil to cement control of his business empire.

The charges came ahead of a Constitutional Court ruling on whether to uphold parliament's December impeachment of Park.

That impeachment was triggered by accusations that she colluded with Choi to pressure big businesses, including Samsung, to donate to two foundations set up to back the president's policy initiatives.

The 65-year-old daughter of a former military strongman has had her powers suspended. The Constitutional Court's ruling is expected sometime in March.

In case of impeachment, Park would become the country's first democratically elected president to be thrown out of office.

While a sitting president cannot be indicted, the special prosecutors nevertheless have classified her as a suspect.

They did not disclose specifics of the charges against Lee or other Samsung executives.

Samsung Group, which has denied paying bribes to Park or seeking improper favours from her, declined to comment on the indictment.

Park, Choi and Lee have all denied wrongdoing. Based on the main charges levied against Lee, he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Samsung's corporate strategy office, a key nerve centre responsible for major initiatives such as investment in new businesses, amid accusations by politicians that it was a key organ for illicit lobbying efforts was also shut down.

Composed of around 200 employees hand-picked from various affiliates, the office did not exist as a legal entity but wielded enormous power as the instrument of control for the founding Lee family.

Samsung said the chief executives and boards of the various affiliates such as Samsung Electronics and Samsung C&T Corp would set their own course going forward.

This is a massive change to South Korea's chaebol management style.

A Samsung Group spokeswoman said it had not yet decided how the conglomerate would deal with group-level issues such as coordination among affiliates.

Lee was already moving towards more board-centric management to improve governance.

The executive became a board member of Samsung Electronics last year.

The prosecutors also charged four more at Samsung with offences including bribery and hiding assets overseas - group Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung, President Chang Choong-ki, Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin and Executive Vice President Hwang Sung-soo.

Samsung Group said in its announcement that Choi, Chang and Park had resigned.

Samsung chief Lee is accused of pledging 43 billion won ($38 million) in bribes to a company and organisations backed by President Park's confidant, Choi.

Samsung: Know More

• Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea
• Founder: Lee Byung-chul
• Founded: 1 March 1938, Daegu, South Korea
• Owner: Lee Kun-hee
• Revenue: 305 billion USD (2014)
• Number of employees: 489,000

Satellite telecom firms OneWeb and Intelsat announced plans to merge, and a fresh $1.7 billion investment from Japan's SoftBank to advance an ambitious internet in the sky plan.

The deal aims to create a financially stronger company with the flexibility to aggressively pursue new growth opportunities resulting from the explosion in demand for broadband connectivity for people and devices everywhere.

The merger and new cash infusion aims to accelerate OneWeb's plans for a network of low-Earth orbit satellites to deliver internet to remote areas of the globe.

The OneWeb network, which is slated to begin operating in 2022, would be combined with Intelsat's geostationary orbit satellites.

This is aiming to support an extensive set of mass-market applications, including for consumer broadband, connected cars, and other data services, according to the statement.

SoftBank, which in December announced it was investing $1 billion in OneWeb, on 28th March 2017 agreed to add US$1.7 billion to the combined company, giving it a 39.9% voting stake plus additional nonvoting shares.

The company will be domiciled in Luxembourg, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with manufacturing and other facilities in the United States.

OneWeb founder Greg Wyler, will be executive chairman of the new company.

Intelsat chief executive Stephen Spengler will keep the CEO title at the new company.

SoftBank last year announced its first investment in OneWeb after its chief executive Masayoshi Son met President Donald Trump and pledged to invest $50 billion in the US economy and create 50,000 jobs.

OneWeb intends to launch 684 low-orbit satellites, to cover the entire planet and deliver internet to areas where conventional land systems are not economical.

IntelSat: Know More

• Headquarters: Luxembourg City
• CEO: Stephen Spengler (since 1 Apr 2015)
• Founded: 20 August 1964
• Number of employees: 1,110 (2011)
• Parent organization: INTELSAT LTD

Tata Sons has formally announced that it has reached an agreement with NTT DoCoMo of Japan.

This was its joint venture partner in Tata Teleservices Ltd., for an out-of-court settlement of their dispute.

As per the announcement, TATA Group and NTT DoCoMo have embarked on a joint approach to enable enforcement of the June 22, 2016, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) award.

The two had jointly applied to the Delhi High Court, requesting that it accept their agreed terms of settlement, subject to such further orders as the court sees fit.

The settlement terms, if approved by the Delhi High Court, would clear the way for the US$1.18 billion already deposited by Tata Sons with the Delhi High Court to be paid to NTT DoCoMo.

It would also allow DoCoMo to transfer its shares to Tata Teleservices Limited.

In 2009, DoCoMo acquired 26.5 % stake in Tata Teleservices.

The two also agreed on a clause at that time that allowed the Japanese firm to exit the venture at a pre-determined minimum price.

The Reserve Bank of India, however, felt that such an exit could happen only at fair market value in tune with an amended rule in 2013. Since then, the dispute between the two has become a legal war.

The DoCoMo dispute is the centre of the TATA Sons dispute with Cyrus Mistry.

Online marketplace ShopClues on 28th Feb 2017 said it appointed Harneet Singh as Vice President and Head Marketing.

Singh will oversee marketing strategy and brand building across channels covering online, offline, mobile, digital and strategic alliance partnerships.

Singh joins Shopclues from Zopper, a hyperlocal marketplace for electronics, where he was working as the Chief Business Officer.

ShopClues: Know More

- Founded: July 2011

- CEO: Sanjay Sethi (since Oct 2013)

- Founders: Radhika Aggarwal, Sandeep Aggarwal, Sanjay Sethi