1) GST lends more weight to India’s 8% growth projection: S&P.

• India’s GST passage gives us additional conviction around our 8% GDP growth forecast over the next few years - S&P Global Ratings in a report titled `Asia-Pacific steadies while China goes silent`.
• Inflation remains a risk, given the large weights on food, fuel, and other volatile items in the Reserve Bank of India’s target basket.

• Reliance Jio claimed that it has created ``a world record`` by crossing the 16 million subscriber mark in its first month of operations.
• Jio has introduced Aadhaar-based paperless Jio SIM activation across 3,100 cities and towns. This enables the customer to complete the SIM activation process in a matter of minutes, with only his/her Aadhaar number.

• World Economic Forum is opening a San Francisco office to explore policy and regulatory questions surrounding new technologies such as artificial intelligence, automated vehicles and blockchain.
• The goal is to develop policy approaches to address the novel issues raised by new technologies.

4) India now the 12th largest holder of US govt bonds.

• India’s holdings of t he US government bonds touched a high of $123.7 billion in July, making it the 12th largest holder, US Treasury Department`s latest data showed. 
• China and Japan were the top two countries with the largest exposure to American government securities at $1.22 trillion and $1.15 trillion, respectively.
• India added $6 billion in July, as per the data.

• Tata Communications and Skylab, a Singapore-based technology solutions provider, have announced a partnership to help more enterprises adopt the Internet of Things (IoT). 
• Skylab provides advanced data harvesting, processing and delivery solutions to its customers over a scalable platform called Data Logistics Cloud.

• Centre is lo oking to pump in around Rs. 1,000 crore in public sector undertakings (PSUs) through the skill development initiative. 
• Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has reportedly held discussions with the PSUs over deploying 5 lakh apprentices as against 36,000 now. 
• The ministry will pay these companies Rs. 18,000 per apprentice deployed.

• The Centre has decided to reserve for private explorers just 20 blocks out of a total 100 blocks to be allotted under the new mineral exploration policy.
• Centre to allocate 80 mineral blocks to state-owned companies citing lack of exploration firms.
• Thirty blocks are to be allotted to the Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd. (MECL) and the Geological Survey of India (GSI) each, while central public sector firms will be assigned 20 blocks for exploration purposes.

• Indian Oil Corporation plans to lay the nation’s longest LPG pipeline (1,987 km) from Gujarat coast to Gorakhpur in eastern UP.
• 1,987 kilometre pipeline via Kanpur, Varanasi and Lucknow will carry 3.75 million tons of LPG per annum. To meet the growing demands of cooking gas in the country.

• Swiss power and automation technology group ABB has drawn up plans for India to become a fully electric vehicle nation by 2030, including an offer to supply electric buses that can be charged within 15 seconds.
• India has plans to convert around 1.5 lakh diesel buses run by state transport corporations into electric buses in a bid to reduce its Rs. 8 lakh crore annual crude oil import bill and check pollution.
• Buses can be fully charged within five minutes and can help save up to 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions ever year, compared with existing diesel buses.

• India and Russia to form a joint venture agreement to produce the Ka-226T light utility helicopter
• Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will own 50.5 per cent equity stake, and Russian Helicopters and Rosoboronexport will hold the remaining 49.5 per cent equity.
• The Ka-226Ts are to replace the aging Cheetah and Chetak helicopters used by the Indian Army and Air Force.

11) Govt approves Rs. 1,955 crore road link project.

• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved construction of a road link between Sahibganj in Jharkhand to Manihari in Bihar, including a bridge on the Ganges, with an estimated project cost of Rs. 1,955 crore. 
• The total length of the road to be developed is about 22 kms with a concession period of 19 years.

• India received the first parcel of Iranian oil to partly fill its strategic storage in southern India, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd , which imported the very large crude carrier (VLCC).
• India will fill half of the storage with 6 million barrels of Iranian oil while continuing talks with United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for the remainder.

• India will collaborate with Germany for projects worth Rs. 1 trillion to improve and enhance rail connectivity of Indian ports.
• Representatives from Indian Port Rail Corporation Limited and German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG will work out the details.

• Government has decided to use postal network for distribution of subsidized pulses and release more Chana from buffer stock to ensure availability of these commodities at reasonable prices during ongoing festival season.
• The decision was taken in the Inter Ministerial Committee on prices of essential commodities headed by Union Consumer Affairs Secretary, Hem Pande.
• The committee reviewed availability and prices of essential commodities specially pulses and suggested that in the absence of Government outlets in the states postal networks should be export for the distribution.

• Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) beat India’s second largest software exporter Infosys Ltd to become the fifth most valuable company in India by market capitalization.
• Data from BSE showed that ONGC had a market capitalization of Rs. 2.37 trillion, after its shares advanced 1.65%.

• Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCom) has agreed to sell a 51 per cent stake in its nationwide tower assets to Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Group in a Rs. 11,000 crore.
• As part of the deal, the specified assets that include related infrastructure would be transferred from Reliance Infratel Ltd. (RITL) to Brookfield.

• Telangana Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Johnson & Johnson for making the State TB free.

• Air India posted an operational profit of Rs. 105 crore in 2015-16 compared with an operational loss of Rs. 2,636 crore in 2014-15 due to an increase in traffic growth.
• A sharp decline in aviation turbine fuel prices helped it bolster operational profit.

• Amazon unveiled the Global Store, which will offer over four million global products of international brands. 
• The store will enable Indian customers to purchase authentic global products in Indian currency with ease and confidence across various categories such as books, apparel, shoes, watches, office supplies, home, kitchen, sports, trendy fashion accessories and unique brands that are not available in India. 
• Customers will be able to avail of three different delivery options such as Priority Shipping with a transit time of 2-4 days, Expedited Shipping (5–10 days) and the Standard Shipping (9-12 days).

Economy Current Affairs October 4th Week 2016