1) Oracle to help Maharashtra govt accelerate smart city programme.
- Oracle and the Maharashtra government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding intended to accelerate the State’s smart city programme.
- According to the MoU, Oracle and the Maharashtra government will create a Center of Excellence in Mumbai. This will serve as a research platform to design, develop and test new capabilities that will deliver better government-to-citizen and government-to-business services.
- Both Oracle and Maharashtra will invest in IT infrastructure, training and skillset resources as well as management of the CoE.
2) Uber, tech incubator T-Hub partner to handhold social impact start-ups.
- US-based cab-hailing firm Uber is going to handhold about 20 `social impact` start-ups.
- The cab aggregator will work with tech start-up incubator T-Hub to provide mentorship and help the start-ups scale up their operations.
- The two entities signed an agreement to conduct the UberEXCHANGE programme.
3) BSE ties up with Twitter to provide live stock updates.
- Investors can now track BSE updates real-time on Twitter by following the official Bombay Stock Exchange account.
- The investors can now get live updates of BSE Sensex levels, stock prices and opening and closing figures of Sensex companies.
4) Cabinet approves Capital Grant to GAIL for development of Gas Infrastructure in Eastern part of the country.
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a viability gap funding/ partial capital grant of Rs. 5,176 crore for GAIL (India) Ltd’s 2,539 km long Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra (JHBDPL) natural gas pipeline.
- The cost of the entire project is Rs. 12,940 crore, which means the capital grant is 40 per cent of the total cost of the project.
- The JHBDPL project will connect the eastern part of the country with the National Gas Grid. It will ensure the availability of clean and eco-friendly fuel to the industrial, commercial, domestic and transport sectors in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.
5) Cabinet approves USOF support to BSNL.
- The Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the proposal to extend subsidy support of Rs. 1,250 crore to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
- The fund will be used as compensation for deficit incurred by BSNL in operating the rural wire-line connections installed prior to April, 1, 2002.
- USOF since its inception in 2002 has been providing subsidy for BSNL for the rural wire line connections installed prior to April 2002. A total of Rs. 8,692 crore has been extended as USOF subsidy support till date.
6) Union Cabinet approves raising Extra Budgetary Resources to augment infrastructure spending.
- Union Cabinet has given its approval to raise Rs. 31,300 crore in FY 2016-17 to augment infrastructure spending.
- Besides, it has also given approval to service principal and interest against the Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) of Rs. 16,300 crore by Union Government for infrastructure spending.
- The EBR is proposed to finance funds to be raised by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
7) ICICI Prudential Life IPO gets subscribed more than 10 times.
- The Initial Public Offer (IPO) of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd a first by an insurance entityreceived a strong response from investors with the offer getting subscribed 10.47 times.
- IPO received bids worth almost Rs. 46,250 crore. The issue size is more than Rs. 6,000 crore. The total offer is for 18.13 crore shares, which includes anchor investment portion of 4.89 crore shares.
8) Flipkart crosses 100 million customers.
- India’s largest online retailer Flipkart company witnessed a strong growth in its customer base to 100 million registered users.
- With this, Flipkart becomes the first company to reach this milestone in a single country outside the United States and China.
- L&T bags $100 million Vietnam ship order.
- Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has landed a $99.7 million contract from Vietnam Border Guard to design, construct and supply high-speed patrol vessels.
- The contract also provides for L&T to transfer design and technology along with supply of equipment and material kits for construction of follow-on vessels at a Vietnam shipyard.
- The high-speed patrol vessels are purpose-built for controlling and protecting sea security and sovereignty, detecting illegal activities such as smuggling, and undertaking search and rescue missions.
9) Aurobindo gets tentative USFDA nod for HIV drug.
- Aurobindo Pharma has received tentative approval from the USFDA to manufacture and market Dolutegravir used for the treatment of HIV, in the U.S. market.
- Dolutegravir 50mg is indicated for the treatment of HIV-1 infection.
10) Wipro Consumer Care buys Chinese FMCG firm.
- Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent shareholding of Zhongshan Ma Er Daily Products Limited, a Chinese Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company.
- Through the buyout the FMCG arm of Wipro Enterprises is looking at strengthening its presence in fast growing South China’s personal care business.
11) Centre names economists to monetary policy committee.
- The Centre named three academics trained in economics as the external appointees on the monetary policy committee (MPC) that will work with the Reserve Bank of India’s three members to decide interest rates.
- The three external members Pami Dua, Chetan Ghate and Ravindra Dholakia - will have a fixed four year term, which is non-renewable.
12) Vodafone Plc invests $7 billion in India unit.
- Vodafone Plc injected Rs. 47,700 crore ($7 billion) into its Indian unit, Vodafone India.
- The equity brought in via foreign direct investment (FDI) is the largest ever FDI infusion in the country.
13) Sebi eases norms for FPIs to trade.
- Sebi relaxed its foreign investment norms in India by allowing foreign portfolio investors to directly trade in corporate bonds without a broker and also hiked the maximum permissible foreign investment limit in stocks exchanges from 5 per cent to 15 per cent.
- Only category I and category II FPIs would be allowed to exercise the option.
- Category I FPI includes government and government related investors such as central banks, governmental agencies, sovereign wealth funds and international or multilateral organisations or agencies.
- Category II FPI are those funds, which are broad based in nature and are well regulated in their home jurisdiction such as mutual funds, investment trusts, insurance companies, university funds and pension funds among others.
14) GST council sets exemption threshold for tax at Rs. 20 lakh.
- Goods & Services Tax (GST) Council has decided that businesses in the north-eastern and hill states with annual turnover below Rs. 10 lakh would be out of the GST net, while the threshold for the exemption in the rest of India would be an annual turnover of Rs. 20 lakh.
15) Sun Pharma signs deal to develop dengue vaccine.
- Sun Pharma, has signed a deal with the Delhi unit of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) to develop a dengue vaccine.
- This would be the first time a vaccine developed entirely in India for a vector-borne disease has been advanced for clinical development in India.
- According to the World Health Organisation, 390 million dengue infections are globally recorded annually, of which 96 million manifest clinically. India has recorded one of the worst outbreaks this year with the Union Health Ministry noting 99,913 dengue cases and 220 deaths in 2015 and 33,310 cases and 20 deaths this year as of September 11.
- Dengue is transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and can be caused by any of four closely-related viruses.
16) SEBI hikes staff quota in public offers to Rs. 5 lakh.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) decided to relax its regulations to enable employees to apply for shares over the Rs. 200,000 limit.
- The application for shares of the value in excess of Rs. 2 lakh shall be considered as application for additional shares and shall be considered only in the event of under-subscription in the employee reservation portion.
- Value of total allotment to an employee under the employee reservation portion, including the additional allotment shall not exceed Rs. 5 lakh.
- Unsubscribed shares available in the employee reservation portion shall be allotted on a proportionate basis to the employees who have applied for the additional shares.
17) Apple buys machine-learning tech start-up TupleJump.
- Apple Inc has acquired TupleJump, a machine- learning technology company based in Hyderabad.
- TupleJump, a three-year-old start-up, focused on a niche data mining and analysis platform. It helps firms in unifying and optimising workflows for data scientists, engineers and analysts, giving a novel approach to data processing and reporting.
18) NHAI sees 50-60% rise in road awards, plans $750 million Green Masala bonds.
- NHAI is looking to raise $750 million via Green Masala bonds, Rs. 25,000 crore from LIC and Rs. 20,000 crore from Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
- NHAI is also exploring to raise funds through infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), possibly with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
19) Cars from Chennai move to Gujarat via coastal route.
- Coastal movement of cars from Chennai has re-commenced with a consignment of 2,000 cars to Kandla on the West Coast.
- Hyundai, Renault and Ford cars were loaded on to roll-on roll-off pure car carrier Dresden, which left Kamarajar Port, to the North of Chennai with automobiles to Kochi and then to Kandla.
- For the first time, on a pilot basis, Hyundai is transhipping cars using coastal shipping.
- Hyundai is trying to innovate its distribution mechanism, and will be in a position to zero in on the best transport option or even take a long-term view on coastal shipping.
20) YouTube Go, Google Station unveiled.
- Google announced a slew of products, such as YouTube Go and Google Station that are specially designed for India.
- Google is working on building products and services for India which can be accessible ``regardless of devices, languages, networks they use``.
- Firm announced extending its initiative to provide Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations in India in partnership with RailTel to include public places such as bus stops and malls.
21) NIIT acquires start-up Perceptron.
- NIIT has acquired city-based start-up Perceptron Learning Solutions.
- The acquisition will bring together complementary technology platforms and capabilities of NIIT and Perceptron, enabling NIIT to further accelerate its digital transformation initiatives.
22) Home-grown Trupay cuts intermediaries.
- Trupay, is creating a home-grown alternative to Visa and MasterCard, allowing banks to do away with the transaction surcharge and longer settlement periods implemented by such payments networks.
- On the customer end, the company’s app does away with the need for a one-time password or the constant topping up of online wallets.
23) Cabinet gives ex-post facto approval for Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana.
- Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) 2003 and VPBY 2014.
- Approval has also been granted for the expenditure incurred on subsidy amount released to Life Insurance Corporation during the period 2003-04 to 2014-15 for VPBY 2003.
- The schemes are implemented through Life Insurance Corporation and the difference between the actual yield earned by LIC on the funds invested under the scheme and the assured return committed by the Government is paid as subsidy to LIC.
24) Cabinet approves Administrative and Financial Sanction towards the implementation of the Project SAKSHAM.
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved `Project SAKSHAM`, a New Indirect Tax Network (Systems Integration) of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
- The total project cost involved is Rs. 2256 crore which will be incurred over a period of seven years.
- The implementation strategy for the project will be to ensure readiness of CBEC`s IT systems by April, 1, 2017, when GST is to be introduced.
25) Cabinet approves financial assistance to retired employees of Bharat Pumps and Compressors Limited, Allahabad.
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal of Department of Heavy Industry for providing financial assistance amounting to Rs. 111.59 crore as Non-Plan loan to Bharat Pumps and Compressors Limited, Allahabad.