BANKING
Mumbai-headquartered
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd on Tuesday rolled out its financial inclusion programme
across 75 milk cooperative societies of Amul in West Bengal.
Called “Kotak
Samridhi”, the initiative was rolled out across the districts of Burdwan and
Hooghly.
It will see
direct transfer of money to farmers' prepaid cards for their daily produce. The
money transfer process will take place within the same day.
Earlier, the
payment cycle would be of three days.
“Approximately,
8,000 farmers supplying milk to Amul through these cooperative will benefit
through the programme,” Tushar Trivedi, Executive Vice President & Head
Branch Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said.
According to
him, Kotak has tied up with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) for
using their RuPay platform for issuing the prepaid cards.
Farmers need not
necessarily have a bank account with Kotak Mahindra to obtain payments.
However,
cooperative societies need to have accounts with the bank.
Replicating the
model
Kotak, which
began the pilot project on financial inclusion here in the State in August this
year, will now roll out a similar scheme for Amul in Gujarat.
Roll out is
expected to happen in two months time (around February).
Over three lakh
dairy farmers across 1,200 cooperative societies in the State will be part of
the programme.
“In Gujarat,
roll out will happen in a phased manner,” Trivedi said.
Kotak is also
talking to other cooperative societies in Haryana and Punjab for extending the
roll out to wheat and paddy.
Talks are,
however, in a nascent stage.
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
JPMorgan Chase
& Co, which is pushing to simplify operations on its $2.46 trillion balance
sheet, has put up for sale its Global Special Opportunities Group, an
Asia-based unit that makes investments in mid-sized companies, according to a
person familiar with the matter.
The group
employs about 35 people and tends to take stakes in loans that rank low in the
capital structures of companies smaller than the large multi-national
corporations the bank usually courts for international business, the person
said declining to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on
the record. The bank is marketing the unit to private equity funds and
credit-oriented hedge funds that make similar investments.
The unit is
focused on real estate, impaired assets and principal finance and has expertise
in distressed debt, according to a page on JPMorgan's website. It has its home
office in Hong Kong.
The decision to
sell the unit was reported earlier on Monday by the Financial Times.
JPMorgan, the
biggest U.S. bank by assets, has been moving this year to unload ancillary
businesses, or "hobbies," as CEO Jamie Dimon sometimes calls them.
JPMorgan is
selling its physical commodities business after concluding its prospects were
too dim in light of how much it complicated the relationship with regulators.
It is also spinning off One Equity Partners, its private equity business, and
has said it will quit making student loans.
The bank
announced its drive to simplify after coming under pressure from regulators and
politicians for its size amid questions about whether it can safely manage its
diverse operations. Last year, the company lost more than $6.2 billion when a
derivatives trading strategy went out of control in London.
RETAIL
British retailer
Tesco is set to partner Tata-owned Trent to set up the first multi-brand retail
venture with foreign equity since overseas investors were allowed over a year
ago.
Sources said
that the joint venture is planning to invest around $110 million (around Rs 700
crore) initially to set up stores in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The partners
are expected to formally approach the Foreign Investment Promotion Board over
the next few days. The department of industrial policy and promotion has
already received the proposal, a senior government official said.
" We
welcome the decision of TESCO to invest in India. We welcome this development
and on our part assure them all support for expedited clearances. To begin
with, they propose to establish their stores in Maharashtra and Karnataka. We
hope that this will mark a new beginning in transforming India's retail
industry. I am sure that the other global leaders will also look at investing
in India," commerce and industry minister said in a statement.
Neither Trent
nor Tesco could be reached for comment. While several foreign players such
asWalmart and Carrefour have shown interest, none of them have made much
progress.
The government
currently allows 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and has imposed
conditions such as mandatory local sourcing and investment in back-end
infrastructure for allowing foreign players in the business.
Reliance Retail
has entered into a partnership with Samsung to manage its after-sales service,
a precursor to the Mukesh Ambani-owned firm's bigger plan to form similar
alliances with almost all top electronic, computer and phone makers to become
the country's largest one-stop consumer electronics installation, maintenance
and service venture. The deal between Samsung and Reliance resQ is the first
such pact that the Indian company has signed, with a pilot having begun in
Pune. Reliance resQ is envisaged as another of the group's big consumer facing
businesses alongside retail and will play a crucial role when Reliance launches
nationwide 4G mobile services, said a person aware of the plan. This is part of
Reliance's strategy of becoming the conduit for the vast range of service
contracts a home needs — from electronic items, kitchen appliances to phones,
computers and laptops, he said.
"However,
it will not be easy," this person said. "It is a people-driven
industry where Reliance has to constantly skill and re-skill technicians and
keep them motivated," he said. Nearly 2,000 people are already working at
Reliance resQ and the company wants to raise the headcount to 10,000 in two
years.
Reliance is
trying to emulate US electronics retail giant Best Buy's Geek Squad that
customers call for tech support and services irrespective of where they bought
a product, said the person cited above.
SUPPLY
CHAIN
AIAG announced
that it secured an agreement from multiple automakers to utilize a communal
platform to map the automotive supply chain. With support fromGeneral Motors,
Chrysler Group and Toyota, according to AIAG, it is creating the first
web-based industry database for identifying the physical movement of finished
goods, parts and materials through the supply chain. The database, planned for
launch in early 2014, is to initially map supplier shipments into the United
States.
“The first
casualty of globalization has been transparency,” said J. Scot Sharland,
executive director of AIAG. “For the first time in the history of the auto
industry, we have collaboration among key automakers to take the first big step
toward creating a centralized supplier data platform for greater visibility
into the global supply chain. Led by these three early adopters, we’re
launching with a system that puts command and control of the data into the
suppliers’ hands and is driven by a federal border security initiative.”
The first
generation of the AIAG platform, named Supply Safe–Supplier Security
Assessment, maps shipments via the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism
(C-TPAT) certification program. C-TPAT is a federal government program by the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection through the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security. It allows companies shipping goods and materials into the United
States to become certified as a low-risk security threat, which provides the
benefit of faster-moving cargo through U.S. customs checkpoints. The frequency
of truck and shipping container inspections decreases by a factor of five for
C-TPAT-certified companies, and the expedited processing helps the auto
industry improve the speed at which parts and material arrive at end
destination points.
__________________________________________________________________
Source of
Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 23rd Dec 2013
We welcome your
suggestions in improving this information updating service.
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Best wishes
Compilation
Sabita Sahu
Sabita Sahu
Junior Librarian
Concept, Layout and Editing
Syamaghana Mohanty
Chief Librarian
Information and Documentation Division,
Chanakya Central Library
Asian School of Business Management
Shiksha Vihar Bhola,
Barang Khurda Road, Chandaka
Bhubaneswar-754012
Tel:0674-2374832, 2374833
E-mail:library@asbm.ac.in, chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in
Sabita Sahu :Junior Librarian and Syamaghana Mohanty : Chief Librarian, Knowledge and Information Services Unit, Chanakya Central Library, Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar. chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in ; www.asbm.ac.in
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