Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 18 and 19 August 2020

1. RRVL acquires majority stake in Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiaries

• Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) has acquired majority stake in Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiaries.
• The stake has been acquired for Rs 620 crore. After the investment, RRVL’s holding in the equity share capital of Vitalic is nearly 60%.
• Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiaries such as Tresara Health Private Ltd, Netmeds Market Place Ltd and Dadha Pharma Distribution Pvt Ltd are known as Netmeds.
• Pradeep Dadha is the Founder & CEO of Netmeds. It is a licensed e-pharma portal offering medicines and other health products.
• Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) is Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)’s wholly-owned subsidiary.

2. Title sponsorship rights for IPL 2020 won by Dream 11

• The title sponsorship rights for IPL 2020 have been won by Dream 11 for Rs 222 crore.
• Dream 11 has replaced Chinese mobile phone company Vivo, whose title sponsorship deal was suspended by BCCI.
• Formal announcement for Dream 11 has not yet been made by BCCI. The chairman of the IPL Governing Council, Brijesh Patel, has said that Dream 11 remained the top bidder.
• Other companies such as Byju’s and Unacademy have also submitted bids for title sponsorship rights.
• IPL 2020 will be organized in UAE from September 19 to November 10.
• Dream 11:
  • It is a fantasy gaming platform and had been associate sponsor of IPL for last two years.
  • Dream 11 comes under Dream Sports India. Dream Sports India is a sports technology company. FanCode and Dream X are brands of Dream sports India.
  • Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth have founded Dream Sports in 2008.
• Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI):
  • BCCI was formed in 1928 and is headquartered in Mumbai (Wankhede Stadium).
  • BCCI is an association of state cricket associations and national governing body for cricket in India.
  • Saurabh Ganguly is the current President of BCCI and Jay Shah is its secretary.

3. NFRA’s Asset Quality Review (AQR) Report  

• National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has released Asset Quality Review (AQR) Report of the work of BSR and Associates LLP.
• The report is based on NFRA’s review of work done by BSR and Associates LLP, which was joint auditor of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) for 2017-18.
• The report has been released on 17 August 2020. It finds deficiencies in audit of IL&FS done by BSR and Associates.
• The report says that BSR and associates was having business relationship with IL&FS. So, it was ineligible for appointment as statutory auditor of IL&FS.     
• Earlier, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) has faced a debt of Rs 90,000 crore and was taken over by government of India.  
• National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA): Established on 01st October 2018, NFRA supervises the work of auditors, establishes and enforces standards of accounting and auditing. Its chairperson is Rangachari Sridharan.

4. RBI invites applications for pan-India Umbrella Entity for Retail Payments

• RBI has invited applications for pan-India Umbrella Entity for Retail Payments till February 26, 2021 and released framework for setting up of pan-India Umbrella Entity for Retail Payments.
• RBI has fixed minimum paid-up capital for umbrella entity at Rs 500 crore and investment of single promoter in capital of the entity at 40%.
• Only entities owned by resident Indian citizens are eligible to apply. They should have three years’ experience in the payments ecosystem as either of the following:
  • Payment System Operator (PSO) 
  • Payment Service Provider (PSP)
  • Technology Service Provider (TSP) 
• The umbrella entity will operate clearing and settlement systems for participating banks and non-banks, further strengthen the retail payments ecosystem in India and interact with the NPCI operated systems.
• Final authorisation for setting up umbrella entity will be issued by Board for Supervision and Regulation of the Payment and Settlement.
• National Payments Corporation of India is the only umbrella organisation operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. It was formed in 2008.

5. Aadhaar authentication based digital savings account launched by Fino Payments Bank

• Aadhaar authentication based digital savings account has been launched by Fino Payments Bank.
• The account is named as Jan Bachat Khata (JBK) and is targeted at low-income households. It is also targeted at beneficiaries of government’s direct benefit transfer.
• The account can be opened through Aadhaar-based eKYC mode. It does not require minimum account balance and comes with no debit card, ATM and SMS charges.
• Fino Payments Bank was launched in 2017 by Fino Paytech Limited.

6. Retrofitted eLCV launched by Etrio

• Retrofitted electric light commercial vehicle (eLCV) has been launched by electric vehicle start-up, Etrio.
• Etrio selects vehicles and removes internal combustion parts. Then, the vehicle goes through mechanical and electrical retrofitment processes.
• The eLCV has Lithium ion battery and Etrio Track, a telematics app. It has been tested by companies such as LetsTransport, Ikea, BigBasket, and Mahindra Logistics.
• Etrio was an Electric Vehicle (EV) company founded in 2017. Deepak MV is its CEO and Cofounder.

7. Upskilling-as-a-Service (UaaS) platform launched

• Upskilling-as-a-Service (UaaS) platform has been launched by Tech Mahindra Limited, a subsidiary company of Mahindra Group.
• UaaS platform is for developing skills of 60,000 employees on emerging technologies such as 5G, big data and robotic process automation.
• The platform has been developed by Tech Mahindra for faster skill development and to fulfil workforce needs of the organization.
• Tech Mahindra Limited is Pune-headquartered subsidiary of Mahindra Group. Its CEO is C.P. Gurmani.

8. Ten Korean start-ups selected for Startup Accelerator 2020 market access programme

• Ten Korean start-ups have been selected for Startup Accelerator 2020 market access programme.
• The start-ups have been selected by T-Hub in association with South Korea’s SME and start-up agency, KOSME.
• The names of some selected start-ups are One Beauty Korea, A-virtual LabSD and EYELIKETM.
• Startup Accelerator 2020 market access programme will be executed by Hyderabad-based T-Hub.
• T-Hub:
  • It was formed in November 2015. It is start-up incubator. It is headquartered in Hyderabad.
  • It is a public private partnership involving Telangana government, International Institute of Information Technology, Indian School of Business and National Academy of Legal Studies and Research and private sector.  All the three institutes are located in Hyderabad.

9. Safe Workplace, a return-to-work solution launched

• Safe Workplace, a return-to-work solution has been launched by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a Mumbai-headquartered subsidiary of Tata Group.
• Safe Workplace helps global enterprises quickly change into a workplace that is safe, secure and productive.
• Safe Workplace designs and creates a workplace command centre by using existing enterprise platforms.
• TCS is a subsidiary of Tata Group. It is headquartered in Mumbai. Its CEO is Rajesh Gopinathan.

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