Merger of IDFC and IDFC First Bank

Reserve Bank of India has given its nod for the reverse merger of IDFC Ltd with its banking subsidiary IDFC First Bank on 27 DEcenber 2023. The boards of IDFC First Bank and IDFC have approved the reverse merger in July 2023. As part of the composite scheme of amalgamation, IDFC FHCL would first merge with IDFC and then IDFC into IDFC First Bank Ltd. Under the proposed reverse merger scheme, an IDFC shareholder will get 155 shares for every 100 shares she/he holds in the bank. Both stocks have a face value of Rs 10 each.
 

Fintech firm InCred has turned unicorn

♦ Fintech firm InCred has turned unicorn after raising $60 million in a funding round from new and existing investors on 25 December 20223. InCred has been valued at $1.04 billion and has become the second company to gain unicorn status this year after Zepto. 
 

World Bank

♦ According to a report by the World Bank, India has topped the list of remittance recipient countries in the world.  

♦ Indian received USD 125 billion in remittances in 2023.

♦ The World Bank's latest Migration and Development Brief indicates a continued growth in remittance flows to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in 2023.

♦ Mexico and China stand in second and third place with a remittance inflow of $67 billion and $50 billion respectively.

♦ Remittances to LMICs grew by an estimated 3.8% in 2023, totaling USD 669 billion.

♦ In South Asia, remittance flows to India experienced notable growth, contributing to the region's overall positive trend. South Asia witnessed a 7.2% increase in remittances in 2023.

Rating agency ICRA

♦ Rating agency ICRA was revised its forecast for India’s FY2024 GDP growth to 6.5 percent from 6.2 percent.

♦ Earlier this month, the RBI had revised upwards its GDP estimate to 7 percent from 6.5 percent.

♦ The ICRA Business Activity Monitor reported an uptick in year-on-year (YoY) growth to 11.3 per cent in October-November FY24 (+10.3 per cent in October-November FY23) from 9.5 per cent in Q2 FY24 (+12.2 per cent in Q2 FY23), suggesting that the growth momentum remained strong in the first two months of the ongoing quarter.

♦ As many as eight of the 14 available indicators witnessed an uptick in their YoY performance in October-November FY24 relative to Q2 FY2024.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

♦ The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have jointly launched a programme 'Tax Inspectors Without Borders' (TIWB) in Saint Lucia on 14th December 2023. 

♦ India has been chosen as the Partner Administration and will provide Tax Experts for this programme. 

♦ This programme is expected to be of 12-18 months’ duration in which India, in collaboration with the TIWB Secretariat and support of the UNDP Country Office, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. 

♦ It aims to aid Saint Lucia in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical knowledge and skills to its tax administration, and through sharing of best practices. 

♦ This programme is the seventh TIWB programme which India has supported by providing Tax Experts.

State Bank of India

♦ State Bank of India (SBI) signed a 70 million euro (about Rs. 630 crore) Line of Credit (LoC) with the German Development Bank KfW on 14 December 2023.

♦ The agreement was signed at the bank's IFSC Gift City Branch in Ahmedabad.

♦ This LoC aims to support Solar Photovoltaics (PV) projects in India. 

The Asian Development Bank

♦ The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised India’s growth forecast to 6.7 percent for the current financial year 2023-24 from its earlier projection of 6.3 percent.

♦ ABD released ‘Asian Development Outlook December 2023’ on 13 December 2023.

♦ The report said India’s growth also accelerated to 7.1 percent in the first three quarters of the calendar year, driven by strong industrial production and investment. ADB’s growth forecast for FY25 is unchanged at 6.7 percent.

Top 100 Under 30 Entrepreneurs Watchlist 2023

♦ Hurun India released its 'Top 100 Under 30 Entrepreneurs Watchlist 2023' on 13 December 2023.

♦ Quick commerce start-up Zepto’s co-founder Kaivalya Vohra (21) is the youngest in this list.

♦ He is followed by Zepto’s other co-founder Aadit Palicha (22).

♦ Devanshi Kejriwal (27) of Skillmatics is the youngest woman in the list that features five women. 

♦ SaaS (software as a service) leads the way with 19 entrepreneurs in the list, and this is followed by fintech and edtech with 11 entities each.

♦ Bengaluru leads with 10 entrepreneurial groups, followed by Mumbai (9) and New Delhi (8).

Life Insurance Corporation of India

♦ According to the S&P Global Market Intelligence, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the fourth largest insurer in the world with a total reserves of $503.7 billion. The ranking is based on the life and accident & health reserves of companies for the year 2022. Allianz SE (Germany) secured the top spot with reserves amounting to $750.20 billion. China Life Insurance Company (China) is in the second position with reserves totaling $616.90 billion. Nippon Life Insurance Company (Japan) got the third position with reserves reaching $536.80 billion.
 

Nifty 50 Net Total Return Index

NSE Indices Limited launched a new variant of the Nifty 50 index named the Nifty 50 Net Total Return (NTR) Index on 5 December 2023.

♦ The Nifty 50 Net Total Return index aims to measure the performance of the Nifty 50 index considering that the cash dividends and the gains from bonus issues are reinvested in the Nifty 50 index after applying relevant withholding tax and capital gains tax respectively.

♦ With the launch of these new indices the Nifty 50 index has three variants - Nifty 50 Price Return (PR), Nifty 50 Total Return (TR), and Nifty 50 Net Total Return (NTR). These are all will be available for each of the two currencies - Indian Rupee (INR) and US Dollar (USD).

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November

♦ The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November, 2023 is Rs.1,67,929 crore out of which CGST is Rs.30,420 crore, SGST is Rs.38,226 crore, IGST is Rs.87,009 crore and cess is Rs.12,274 crore. This is the fastest uptick in tax collections so far in 2023-24, surpassing the 10-month high growth of 13.4% recorded in October. The revenues for the month of November, 2023 are 15% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year.