G.K Updates

Finance & Banking

Merger of BNP Paribas (BNPP) Mutual Fund and the Baroda (BOB) Mutual Fund

CCI approves merger of the BNP Paribas (BNPP) Mutual Fund and the Baroda (BOB) Mutual Fund, under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.

• The Parties propose to amalgamate (i) BOB Asset Management Company (AMC) into BNPP AMC; and (ii) BNPP Trustee Company (TC) into BOB TC.

• After the merger BNPP AMC and BOB TC will be the surviving entities.

• BNPP AMC is the dedicated AMC for BNPP Mutual Fund and acts as the investment manager of BNPP Mutual Fund. BNPP AMC is also a registered as Portfolio Manager under SEBI Regulations. It provides portfolio management services and advisory activities. BNPP TC is the trustee company of BNPP Mutual Fund.

Economy

Moody’s cuts India’s growth forecast to 5.6%

Moody’s Investors Service slashed India’s economic growth forecast to 5.6% for 2019 according to its report, ‘Global Macro Outlook 2020-21.

• Earlier GDP forecast was 6.2% for this fiscal year.

• It also downgraded India’s outlook to negative from stable.

• The GDP forecast for 2020 and 2021 is 6 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively

Economy

Wholesale inflation eases to 0.16 per cent in October

Wholesale prices based inflation was 0.16 per cent in October, as against 0.33 per cent in September.

• For manufactured products, the wholesale inflation was at (-) 0.84 per cent in October 2019. However, retail inflation for the month hit a 16-month high of 4.62 per cent due to soaring prices of food articles, including fruits and vegetables.

National News

Brazilian President to be Republic Day chief guest

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in 2020.

• Modi met Mr. Bolsonaro on the sidelines of the 11th BRICS Summit.

• The two leaders held “fruitful talks” to strengthen bilateral ties. The Brazilian President informed Mr. Modi that a large business delegation would accompany him to India.

National News

Noted mathematician Vashishtha Singh no more

Noted mathematician Vashishtha Narayan Singh died at a government hospital in Patna. He was 77.

• Singh, who had worked in the NASA in the U.S. and IITs in India, was suffering from schizophrenia for a long time.

• The Bihar government has announced a full State funeral for the mathematician. Born into a poor family in Basantpur village of Bihar’s Bhojpur district on April 2, 1942, Singh had done his matriculation from Netarhat Residential School and his graduation from Patna Science College where he met American Professor John L. Kelley, who invited him to the U.S. for research. In 1963, he completed his PhD on “on cycle vector space theory” from the University of California and worked at NASA. After returning to India he worked as an Associate Professor in IIT-Kanpur and Kharagpur. He was fond of reading books on mathematics and playing the flute.

International News

Bangladesh tops business bribery risk in South Asia

Bangladesh has the highest business bribery risk among South Asian countries, according to the Trace Bribery Matrix which releases annual ranking for 200 countries.

• The Matrix evaluates countries under four parameters which are business interaction with the government, anti-bribery deterrence, transparency and civil society oversight.

• Bangladesh has been placed at 178 position among 200 countries in terms of business bribery risk. It has been on the high risk country list of Trace Bribery Matrix since 2014 when the first matrix was released.

• India and Pakistan are in the 78th and 153rd position, respectively.

• In South Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the bribery risk is 'high'. Bhutan has the lowest risk of bribery on the index in South Asia as it is placed at 52 in the ranking.

• Overall, according to this year's TRACE Matrix data, Somalia, South Sudan, North Korea, Yemen and Venezuela presented the highest risk of bribe demands. New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland presented the lowest bribery risk.

• TRACE is a US based organisation which provides ranking to various countries in terms of the risk of bribery companies face in doing business in those countries.

Facts of the Day(Important Days)

National Co-operative Week: 14- 20 November

The 66th National Cooperative Week 2019 will be celebrated from 14th of November to 20th of November.

• The National Co-operative Union of India has organised this year’s Cooperative Week, which aims to highlight the contribution of co-operatives to the Indian economy.
• This year’s theme of the National Cooperative Week was“Role of Cooperatives in India”.
• The National Co-operative Week is celebrated every year across India to increase public awareness about the sector. The celebrations start from 14 November, the birthday of Pandit Nehru, India's first Prime Minister.