Insider trading: Insider trading refers to trading of shares by an ‘insider’ based on unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI). It involves buying or selling shares of a listed company using information that can materially impact the stock price, but has not been made public yet. Highly discouraged by SEBI.
SAGE initiative: MoSJE launched(Seniorcare Aging Growth Engine) initiative and SAGE portal for elderly persons. It will be a “one-stop access” of elderly care products and services by credible start-ups.
The Silver (ageing) Economy is dedicated to the elderly in societies. As its name suggests, the Silver Economy is not a “market” but a cross “economy”.The population ageing process is real and impacts every market and industry.
Renewable energy:
According to an IEA report, 70% of the energy investment will be towards renewable energy.
About 30% of the new vehicle sales in India will be electric by 2030, the International Energy Agency said in its latest global EV outlook, but mostly dominated by two wheelers and three wheelers. Only 3% of allocated funds under FAME2 have been used for just 30k vehicles.
Biofuel:
The National Policy on Biofuels 2018, released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set a blending target of 20% for ethanol in petrol (currently it is 8%) and of 5% for biodiesel blending in diesel by 2030.
Under a scheme, the OMCs — Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — will pay biodiesel producers ₹51 per litre in the first year, ₹52.7 per litre in the second, and ₹54.5 per litre in the third year. The oil companies will also bear the cost of transportation and GST for the first year. The FSSAI collaborate with restaurants to come onboard for giving up RUCO.
Supersonic planes:
Usually, supersonic planes can travel at the speed of around 900 kmph, twice the speed of normal aircraft.The technology for supersonic flights is actually over 70 years old, but only recently has been used for commercial flying, because its cost is extremely high.
Housing Finance companies:
RBI has mandated Risk-Based Internal Audit (RBAI) framework for deposit taking HFCs and non deposit taking HFCs of asset size above Rs 5000 crores, all UCB of asset above 500 crores.
APMC/eNAM (implemented by SFAC):
The e-NAM website data shows that 1,000 mandis (14 per cent) across 18 States and 3 Union Territories are integrated.
Food subsidy:
India’s GDP: India entered a technical recession in first half of the year. TR is when the country faces downfall for two consecutive quarters.
GVA from trade, hotels, transport, communication and broadcasting-related services recorded
-18.2%, followed by construction (-8.6%), mining and quarrying (-8.5%) and manufacturing (-7.2%).
Agriculture grew at 3.6% and electricity, gas, water supply at 1.9%
Data collection has been impacted.
World Bank:
South Asia risks hidden debt financial crisis. This is due to excessive reliance for funds on State- owned banks and enterprises, in addition to public-private partnerships.
Microfinance institutions:
RBI has suggested a common definition of microfinance loans for all regulated entities, it has not fixed any ceiling on interest rates.
Microfinance loans should mean collateral-free loans to households with annual household income of Rs 1,25,000 and Rs 2,00,000 for rural and urban/semi urban areas, respectively.
MSME
Rare Earth metals: US,China are competing for a set of 17 lustrous metals in periodic table.
UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) estimated the “impact of severe droughts on India’s GDP to be about 2-5% per annum
FDI-
CSR: Industry seeks to inclusion of spends on jabs, staff welfare in CSR.
India is the first country in the world to mandate CSR spending along with a framework to identify potential CSR activities.
Companies with a minimum net worth of Rs 500 crore, turnover of Rs 1,000 crore, or net profit of Rs 5 crore are required to spend at least 2 per cent of their average profit for the previous three years on CSR activities every year in India.
Companies are not permitted to count expenditure incurred exclusively for the welfare of employees as part of their mandatory CSR expenditure under current CSR norms.
Injeti Srinivas committee was formed to review the existing framework and formulate a roadmap for future implementation of CSR.
Recommendation:Give relaxation to from the CSR provision to the companies which have not completed three years. Companies having CSR amount below Rs 50 lakh, should not be obligated to form CSR committee. The company should be obliged to provide detailed reporting on CSR spending where capital assets are being created. Reporting and disclosure of CSR should be strengthened with respects to selection of projects, location, implementing agencies etc. Activities under schedule VII to be made tax deductible. CSR Exchange portal is a platform where all information related to CSR is reported by companies which should be made public. The committee further suggests to leverage it so that IAs, contributers and beneficiaries can interact. Ministry should prepare annual CSR Survey on CSR spending by companies, trends and gap areas.The applicability of Business Responsibility Report (BRR) to be extended to top 1000 companies. Reporting and disclosure of CSR should be strengthened. The unspent amount along with the interest earned on it should be spent within 3-5 financial years depending upon the nature of the project. As per the companies Amendment act 2019, it should be transferred to a separate account which shall be used within 3 years.
Taxation:The Income Tax Department notified a threshold for Significant Economic Presence (SEP). This will come into effect from April 1, 2022.The thresholds shall be two crore rupees. Most of the companies having SEP in India are from US.
