Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 6 and 7 November 2020

By PendulumEdu | Last Modified: 07 Nov 2020 22:12 PM IST

Main Headlines:

1. Modi and Conte sign 15 agreements and adopt Action Plan for 2020-25

PM Modi and PM of Italy Giuseppe Conte have signed 15 agreements and adopted Action Plan for 2020-25.
Action Plan has been adopted for setting up priorities, strategic goals and mechanisms for 2020-25.
PM Modi and PM of Italy also said that two countries are committed to work closely on development-oriented global agenda for their respective G20 Presidencies (India in 2022 and Italy in 2021).
A virtual bilateral summit was held between India and Italy. Earlier, Italy has let India hold G20 summit in 2022 when India completes 75 years of its independence.
Italian Trade Agency and Invest India signed an agreement to promote investment. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA, Italy and NIIF, India signed an agreement to promote co-financing.
Before the summit, High-Level Economic Dialogue was held between CEOs of Indian and Italian companies on October 28, 2020, and ministerial interaction was held on November 2, 2020.
Italy is ranked at 5^th place among India’s largest trading partners in EU. Germany, Belgium, UK and France are in the first four places. In 2019, bilateral trade between India and Italy stood at 9.52 billion Euros.

Italian company Snam and Greenko have signed an agreement for developing a hydrogen value chain in India.
The agreement will help Snam and Greenko in collaborating on the study of hydrogen production methods from renewable sources.
It will also help them in collaborating on the design of hydrogen-ready infrastructure and on applications in industry and transport such as Fuel Cell electric vehicles.
Hydrogen can be used as a feedstock, fuel and also for storing energy. Interest in Green Hydrogen (Green-H₂) is increasing globally.
Green Hydrogen (Green-H₂) is generated by electrolysis of water with the help of electricity produced from renewable sources.
Japan’s ORIX Corporation had recently agreed to invest at least $980 million for acquiring a stake in Greenko Energy Holdings.

Centre of Excellence for Vegetable and Flowers has been inaugurated at Regional Agricultural Research Station in Ambalavayal village of Kerala’s Wayanad district.
Under the Indo-Dutch joint action plan, Netherlands government is providing technological support for Centre of Excellence for Vegetable and Flowers.
Agriculture Department, State Horticultural Mission and Kerala Agricultural University is implementing the project.
Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) will provide Rs 7 crore and Kerala Government will provide Rs 6 crore under Rebuild Kerala Initiative.
Centre will have a post-harvest technology centre and will be a State-level demonstration centre for open precision farming for seasonal flowers and vegetables cultivation and seed production. It also has a Tissue Culture Laboratory.
Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH):
- It is a centrally sponsored scheme. It is being implemented since 2014-15.
- National Horticulture Mission (NHM) is a sub-scheme under it.
- Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States (HMNEH), National Bamboo Mission (NBM), National Horticulture Board (NHB), Coconut Development Board (CDB) and Central Institute for Horticulture (CIH) are implementing other sub-schemes under MIDH.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has placed a 30% limit on volume for all Third Party App Providers (TPAPs).
The limit will be effective from January 1, 2021. UPI has reached 200 crore (2 billion) transactions a month.
The 30% limit will be calculated as per the total volume of transactions in UPI during the last three months.
NPCI has given existing TPAPs time of two years from January 2021 for compliance with order.
Recently, S&P Global Market Intelligence has released a report to show that over two-thirds of UPI transactions in 2019 were handled by Google Pay and PhonePe-led UPI payment apps.
NPCI has also approved WhatsApp to gradually ‘go live’ on UPI, starting with a maximum registered user base of 20 million in UPI.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI):
- It was formed in 2008 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
- It is a “Not for Profit” Company headquartered in Mumbai.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) will set up three data centres in Hyderabad.
AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region with three Availability Zones (AZs) in Hyderabad will be the second data centre in India and 11^th in Asia.
It will start operations by mid-2022. ₹20,761 crore will be invested in it. It opened the Mumbai data centre (AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region) in 2016.
Earlier, NITI Aayog has partnered with AWS to establish Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC).

Dr. M.S Sahoo committee has submitted its report and recommended 90 days maximum time for approval of resolution scheme under proposed pre-packaged insolvency regime.
Currently, the maximum limit under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is 330 days.
Committee headed by Dr. M.S Sahoo, chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), has also said that pre-pack insolvency will not take authority of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) or dilute the balance.
Defaulting promoters disqualified by Section 29A of IBC will not get access to the proposed pre-packaged insolvency regime.
Government will decide on the implementation of the pre-pack mechanism through an ordinance or amendment to IBC.
The concept of the Swiss challenger is another proposed concept. Swiss challenger can challenge the existing offer with a better offer and submit it to NCLT.
Through the pre-pack regime in India, promoters will get an option to match the Swiss challenger’s offer.
In pre-packaged insolvency, a buyer negotiates the resolution of the company’s business before the appointment of insolvency professional.