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BSE to launch countryтАЩs first IPO by a stock exchange

India's second largest domestic stock exchange BSE on Friday said it would hit the market with its initial public offering (IPO) on January 23. 
тЧП    The IPO is expected to be sold in the price band of Rs 800-850 apiece, with existing investors offloading shares worth nearly Rs 1,350 crore through the offer. 
тЧП    BSE has 302 shareholders, including Singapore Exchange and a Citi group unit, who will sell up to 15.4 million shares with a face value of Rs 2 each, the red herring prospectus filed with the market regulator. 
тЧП    The issue will close on January 25. 
тЧП    The Singapore Stock Exchange (4.67 per cent), George Soros-promoted Quantum fund (3.68 lakh shares) and Atticus Mauritius (3.68 per cent) would be among the shareholders who would sell their entire holdings in the exchange. 
тЧП    Deutsche Borse, which holds 4.7 per cent stake in the stock exchange, is not among the selling shareholders. 
тЧП    The Singapore Exchange and Deutsche Borse had acquired 5 per cent stake each in the exchange for a consideration of Rs 200.78 crore each in 2007. 
 

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SpiceJet strikes Rs 1.5 lakh crore deal with Boeing for 205 planes

Placing its largest ever aircraft order, SpiceJet on Friday announced it will buy up to 205 Boeing planes worth $22 billion or Rs 1.5 lakh crore at list price. 
тЧП    The low-cost carrier (LCC) increased its existing order of 55 single aisle B 737-8 by 100 to 155 planes. 
тЧП    An additional 50 planes — mix of wide body and B 737s — have been placed as optional order, taking the total to 205.
тЧП    The 155 planes on firm order will be delivered between 2018 and 2024. The list price of firm order of 100 additional planes placed now is $11billion
тЧП    Asked how the airline will fund this aircraft acquisition, Singh said: "There are several options like sale-and-lease-back and Exim Bank open to us. We will opt for the most economic funding route. There will be no dilution of equity and no debt will be raised in coming years for this order."
тЧП    SpiceJet currently has 32 B-737s and 17 regional jets in its fleet. Singh re-acquired the LCC two years back when it was on the brink of closure.
 

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Union Cabinet approves listing of General Insurance Companies at the stock exchanges

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 18 January 2017 gave its in-principle approval for listing five government-owned General Insurance Companies in stock exchanges. 
тЧП    The approval was given at a cabinet meet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
тЧП    The companies are National Insurance Company, New India Assurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company, United India Insurance Company and General Insurance Corporation of India.
тЧП    The listing will open a way for the companies to raise resources from the capital market to meet their fund requirements. 
тЧП    Shareholding of these PSGICs (Public Sector General Insurance Companies) will be divested from 100 per cent to 75 per cent.
тЧП    This disinvestment process will be carried on as per the existing rules and regulations of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will be followed.

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IMF downgrades IndiaтАЩs GDP growth forecast to 6.6%

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 16 January 2017 released the World Economic Outlook Update 2016 in Washington DC, the USA.
тЧП    The update estimated the global growth at 3.1 percent in 2016. The growth forecast is in line with the October 2016 forecast.
тЧП    With regard to India, the update projected India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 6.6% in 2016-17 against its earlier estimate of 7.6%. For 2017-18, the growth rate is trimmed by 0.4 percentage points.
тЧП    After a lackluster growth in 2016, economic activity is projected to pick up pace in 2017.
тЧП    This forecast is based on the assumption of a changing policy mix under a new administration in the United States and its global spill overs.
тЧП    This projection is consistent with the rise in equity prices and the sizable appreciation of the U.S. dollar since the November 2016 presidential election.

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Reserve Bank Increases ATM Cash Withdrawal Limit To Rs.10,000 A Day

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday decided to increase the cash withdrawal limit from ATMs to Rs 10,000 per day from the present Rs 4,500 with immediate effect.
тЧП    However, there is no change in the weekly withdrawal limits, which stays at Rs 24,000. 
тЧП    The limit on withdrawal from current accounts has been enhanced from the current limit of Rs 50,000 per week to Rs 1,00,000 per week. 
тЧП    This also extends to overdraft and cash credit accounts.
тЧП    From current accounts, the amount that can be collected each week has been doubled to a lakh.
тЧП    Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has pointed to improved tax collections to dismiss reports of economic disruption after the notes ban.
тЧП    The RBI has been criticised for following the government's lead on a landmark decision on currency and for taking a backseat in the days that followed, with Mr Patel missing from briefings that made important announcements on issues like cash limits.
 

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Central government employees to get Rs.9000 minimum pension

The minimum pension has been increased to Rs9,000 per person besides a two-fold hike in ex-gratia amount for central government employees, union minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.
тЧП    Addressing the 29th meeting of the Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (Scova) in the city, he said almost 88% of pension accounts have been seeded to Aadhaar. 
тЧП    There are about 50-55 lakh pensioners in the country, said Singh, minister of state in Prime Minister’s office.
тЧП    He further said that minimum pension has been increased to Rs9,000 per person and ex-gratia amount has been increased from Rs10-15 lakh to Rs25-35 lakh, as per a release issued by personnel ministry.
тЧП    He said the retired employees are a healthy and productive workforce for India and we need to streamline and channelise their energies in a productive direction. 
тЧП    DoP&PW should be reoriented in such a way that pensioners become a part of nation building process.
 

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Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreement signed by CBDT

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) entered into a Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreement (BAPA) on the 13th of January, 2017 with Indian subsidiary of a Japanese trading company. 
тЧП    Recently, the CBDT has also modified an existing Bilateral APA with another Indian subsidiary of a Japanese company to include rollback provisions. 
тЧП    Thus, total three Bilateral APAs are now signed with Indian subsidiaries of Japanese companies all including rollbacks. The total number of bilateral APAs entered into by the CBDT is now eight.
тЧП    The APA Scheme was introduced in the Income-tax Act in 2012 and the “Rollback” provisions were introduced in 2014. 
тЧП    Signing of bilateral APA is an important step towards ascertaining certainty in transfer pricing matters of multinational company cases and dispute resolution. 
тЧП    Under BAPA, certainty in tax treatment is provided for the next 5 years while rollback provides dispute redressal for a maximum of four past years preceding APA years.
тЧП    A BAPA may be preferred by multinational companies since finalisation of the same involves reaching an understanding between the tax administrations of the two countries and for the transfer pricing adjustment done in the hands of the Indian entity, corresponding adjustment is available in the hands of related foreign entity, thereby relieving economic double taxation. 
тЧП    The progress of the APA Scheme strengthens the Government’s mission of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime.  The CBDT expects more BAPAs to be concluded and signed in the near future.
 

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World Bank cuts India's growth forecast to 7%

The World Bank has lowered its growth forecast for India to 7 per cent from 7.6 per cent in 2016-17.
тЧП    The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects January 2017 report added that the Indian economy is subsequently set to recover its growth momentum, with growth rising to 7.6 per cent in FY18 and further strengthening to 7.8 per cent in FY20.
тЧП    Weak industrial production and manufacturing and services purchasing managers’ indexes (PMI), further suggest a set back to activity in the fourth quarter of FY2017.
тЧП    This was further accentuated by other economic factors, the report added, leading to a slump in the entire year’s growth rate.
тЧП    The report, however, noted that four key reforms in India in 2016 could help growth rebound.

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Core sector growth slows to 4.9% in November


The eight core industries recorded a year-on-year growth in output of 4.9 per cent in November 2016, slower than the previous two months - that is, a 6.6 per cent increase in October and 5.01 per cent in September.
тЧП    Output in electricity and coal posted healthy growth rates of 10.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively in November as against 2.85 per cent and (-) 1.5 per cent respectively in October 2016, according to government data released on Monday. 
тЧП    In November 2015, electricity and coal production posted a growth of 5.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively.
тЧП    The 10.2 per cent growth in output of electricity in November is the highest since 14.68 per cent in April 2016. 
тЧП    The eight core industries comprise close to 37.9 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and electricity has the maximum weight (of 10.32 per cent) among the eight sectors. 

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Aadhaar Pay launched by Government

The Union Government on 25 December 2016 launched the Aadhaar Payment App with an aim to simplify the digital transactions. This app will do away with the need of carrying plastic cards and the point of sale machines.
тЧП    It will also do away with the additional fee payments for service providing card companies such as Mastercard or Visa.
тЧП    There are two sides to this Aadhaar Payment app, one is the consumer app and the other is the merchant app.
тЧП    On the consumer front, the app is just like any mobile wallet which will be used to transfer money.
тЧП    While, merchants will require two things to use this app, one is an Android smartphone and second is a fingerprint scanner.
тЧП    This app can also be used by a person to make payments without any phone.
тЧП    The app was developed by IDFC Bank along with UIDAI and National Payments Corporation of India. 

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