Worlds 100 Most Influential Companies

♦ Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Tata Group have been named among the World’s 100 ‘Most Influential Companies’ by TIME magazine. RIL was placed in TIME’s list of 100 World’s Most Influential Companies of 2024 under the ‘Titans’ category. It is one of the five categories under which the companies were divided. The remaining four categories are Leaders, Disrupters, Innovators, and Pioneers. 

♦ This is the second time Reliance Industries has made it to the TIME 100 list, making it the only Indian company to be recognised twice. Prior to this, Jio Platforms was included in the inaugural TIME 100 Most Influential Companies List of 2021.

♦ Tata Group, on the other hand, was listed in ‘Titan’s’ category. Another Indian company that was named in the list is Serum Institute which was placed under ‘Pioneers’ category.

Asian Development Bank

♦ Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed USD 2.6 billion (about Rs 21,500 crore) in sovereign lending to India in 2023 for various projects. The fund is aimed to strengthen urban development, support industrial corridor development, promote power sector reforms, build India's climate resilience, and enhance connectivity.

♦ ADB also extended USD 23.53 million in technical assistance and USD 4.1 million in grants under the sovereign portfolio.

♦ In addition, ADB committed over USD 1 billion for private sector projects during the past year, the Manila-based multi-lateral development bank said in a statement.
 

Smartphone exports

♦ Smartphones have become the fourth-largest export item from India, with a 42% growth to US$ 15.6 billion in FY24. India started tracking smartphone exports separately from April 2022.

♦ According to commerce department data, the spike in smartphone exports was driven by a 158 percent increase in shipments to the US at $5.6 billion, followed by the United Arab Emirates ($2.6 billion), the Netherlands ($1.2 billion), and the UK ($1.1 billion). The value of mobile devices produced in India for both export and domestic markets in FY24 soared to Rs 4.1 trillion ($49.16 billion).

♦ This represents an increase of at least 17% compared to the previous year (2022-23), as per preliminary estimates by the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), which represents most of the mobile companies in the country.

National Stock Exchange

♦ The market capitalization of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) exceeded USD 5 trillion (Rs.416.57 lakh crore) on 23 May 2024, coinciding with the Nifty 50 index reaching a record high of 22,993.60. 

♦ The journey of market capitalisation of listed companies from USD 2 trillion (July 2017) to USD 3 trillion (May 2021), USD 3 trillion to USD 4 trillion (December 2023).

♦ The top five companies by market capitalisation on the exchange are Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel

World Economic Forums Travel Tourism Development Index 2024

♦ India ranked 39th position in the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024. India also ranks the highest in South Asia among the lower-middle-income economies. Earlier, India was ranked 54th in 2021 published index.

♦ This index was compiled in collaboration with the UK-based University of Surrey.

♦ While US topped the list followed by Spain, Japan, France and Australia.

♦ This index analysed the travel and tourism sectors of 119 countries around a range of factors and policies.

♦ Germany was ranked 6th, followed by the UK, China, Italy and Switzerland in the top ten.

Moodys Ratings said the Indian economy

♦ Moody’s Ratings said the Indian economy is expected to grow at 6.6 percent in the current financial year 2024-25.

♦ The global rating agency for the next financial year 2025-26 pegged India’s growth at 6.2 percent. 

♦ The Indian economy is estimated to have expanded 8 percent in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

♦ India’s economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22, respectively.

The 12 Public Sector Banks (PBCs)

♦ The 12 Public Sector Banks (PBCs) cumulative profit recorded Rs.1,41,203 crore in FY 2023-24. In 2022-23 PBCs earned a net profit of Rs.1,04,649 crore. 

♦ Out of the total profit of Rs.141,203 crore earned during the FY24, market leader State Bank of India (SBI) alone contributed over 40 percent of the total earnings, as per the published numbers on exchanges. SBI earned a profit of Rs.61,077 crore 22 percent higher than the previous financial year (Rs.50,232 crore).

♦ In percentage terms Punjab National Bank had the highest net profit growth with 228 percent to Rs.8,245 crore, followed by Union Bank of India with a 62 percent rise to Rs.13,649 crore and Central Bank of India with a 61 percent increase to Rs.2,549 crore.

♦ Among the banks which recorded over 50 percent jump in net profit included Bank of India with a 57 percent growth to Rs.6,318 crore while Bank of Maharashtra with a 56 percent rise to Rs.4,055 crore and India Bank recorded a 53 percent improvement to Rs.8,063 crore.

♦ Punjab & Sind Bank reported a 55 percent decline in annual net profit, dropping from Rs.1,313 crore in 2022-23 to Rs.595 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2024.

Index of Industrial Production

♦ The government announced the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) data for March 2024 on May 10. The IIP growth rates for the month of March 2024 over the corresponding period of previous year is 4.9 percent. The growth rates of the three sectors, Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity for the month of March 2024 over March 2023 are 1.2 percent, 5.2 percent and 8.6 percent respectively. 

♦ Within the manufacturing sector, the growth rate of the top three positive contributors to the growth of IIP for the month of March 2024 are – “Manufacture of basic metals” (7.7%), “Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products” (16.7%), and “Manufacture of other transport equipment” (25.4%).

♦ The cumulative growth rate for the period of April-March 2023-24 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 5.8 percent. The cumulative growth rates of the three sectors, Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity for the period of April-March 2023-24 over the corresponding period of the previous year are 7.5 percent, 5.5 percent and 7.1 percent respectively.
 

India-Ghana Joint Trade Committee (JTC)

♦ The 4th session of the India-Ghana Joint Trade Committee (JTC) was held in Accra (Ghana). India and Ghana agreed to operationalize the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Ghana’s Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS) within six months.

♦ The two countries also explored the possibility of signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on Digital Transformation Solutions and the local currency settlement system.

♦Ghana is a key trading partner for India in the African region, with bilateral trade amounting to USD 2.87 billion in 2022-23.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra)

♦ India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) upgraded its GDP growth forecast for 2024-25 to 7.1% from 6.5%.

♦ The improved growth outlook is supported by several factors, including sustained government capital expenditure, deleveraged corporate and banking sector balance sheets, and the emerging private corporate capital expenditure cycle.

♦ The agency said it expects the growth in private final consumption expenditure to jump to 7 per cent in FY25, up from 3 per cent in FY24, and added that this will be a three-year high.

Girish Chandra Murmu,

♦ Girish Chandra Murmu, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Toyam Raya, Auditor General of Nepal.

♦ The agreement aims to enhance collaboration and exchange of expertise in the field of auditing between the two countries’ Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs). 

NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL)

♦ NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has signed an agreement with the Bank of Namibia (BoN) to support the institution in developing an instant payment system like the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for Namibia.

♦ This partnership marks NPCI’s first-ever collaboration with a central bank to deploy the UPI stack in an international market.

♦ The collaboration is aimed at developing real-time person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions in Namibia. The agreement aims at improving accessibility, affordability, connectivity with both domestic and international payment networks, and interoperability of payments.