Current Affairs Update

1. Mahindra & Mahindra Tie Up with Corporation Bank
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M;) and its joint venture company, Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. (MNAL), has signed two MoUs with Corporation Bank for vehicle finance. Corporation Bank will be a preferred financier for the entire range of M&M; and MNAL vehicles, encompassing utility vehicles, pick ups, three wheelers, passenger cars and Commercial Vehicles.
Note: Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. (MNAL) is a 51:49 Joint Venture between Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M;) and Navistar Inc. USA. MNAL manufactures the entire spectrum of commercial vehicles ranging from 3.5 – 49 tons GVW/GCW. These products are developed to suit Indian conditions and will set new levels of reliability, efficiency and customer experience in the commercial vehicle industry. Apart from a joint venture to manufacture trucks and buses, in November 2007, Navistar signed a second joint venture agreement with Mahindra & Mahindra, Ltd., this one focused on producing diesel engines for Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles in India.

2.India Winning the Series in New Zealand
After a long wait of 41-years, the Men in Blue finally claimed a test series in New Zealand. Indian opener Gautam Ghamhir was declared man of the match. After vistory in New Zealand, India has achieved 3rd Position in ICC ODI rankings.

3. India has 23rd least Friendly Tax climate
While India still maintains a relatively low rank of 23rd least friendly tax climate in this year’s Tax Misery Index, topped by France with harshest taxes across the world, it is ranked at top in terms of increase in its tax misery score, a collective measure of maximum corporate, personal, social security and sales tax rates. The index assesses whether a jurisdiction’s tax policy attracts or repels capital and talent by calculating its Misery score. Jurisdictions at the top of the index with high scores impose the harshest taxes, while the most tax friendly are at the bottom.

The index, an annual global ranking compiled by the Asian edition of US business magazine Forbes, ranks the countries in terms of their tax climate harshness.

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong have trumped other economies to retain the friendliest tax climate, as per the 2009 Tax Misery & Reform Index.

4. LIC contract to ElectraCard Services
ElectraCard Services (ECS), India’s leading electronic payment solutions provider, has been awarded the contract for end to end processing of LIC Credit Cards, by Corporation Bank. The bank will issue white label credit cards on behalf of LIC Cards Services Limited, a company owned by LIC of India as per agreement entered into and the cards will be launched soon, stated a press release. LIC of India, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, plans to leverage its ready database of 235 million policyholders to issue these cards in the first phase of rollout. It also plans to launch a facility to pay LIC premiums using the credit card. ECS will handle complete processing of the credit cards right from applications, card and accounts, transactions, billing, statements, payments, dispute resolution, and general ledger. ECS will also provide additional services in the form of a 24×7 help line to assist LIC card holders, as well as generate SMS and email alerts. ECS will provide the entire infrastructure and manpower required for such operations and will manage all relationships with 3rd party service providers that are engaged within this line of processing services.

5. Swapanali Yadav
Swapnali Yadav, the 8 year old from Mumbai participated and successfully completed the 19th International Swim across the Gulf Of Mesiniakos from Koroni-Kalamata, a distance of 30km, in 11 hours 10 minutes. The next youngest competitor was 22yrs old. Her next target is to become the youngest to swim across the legendary English Channel. The record books indicate that the youngest swimmer to cross the channel is Thomas Gregory at the age of 11yrs and 330days. Mihir Sen, a long distance swimming legend, was the first Indian to swim across the channel in 1958.

6. DRDO Nishant
The DRDO Nishant is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by India’s ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) a branch of DRDO for the Indian Armed Forces. The Nishant UAV is primarily tasked with intelligence gathering over enemy territory and also for recce, surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, damage assessment, ELINT and SIGINT. The UAV has an Endurance of 4 hrs & 30min. Nishant has completed development Phase and User Trials.
The 380 kg Nishant UAV requires rail-launching from a hydro-pneumatic launcher and recovered by a Parachute System. Launches at a velocity of 45 m/s are carried out in 0.6 seconds with 100 kW power and subsequent launches can be carried out in intervals of 20 minutes. The Mobile Hydro-Pneumatic Launcher (MHPL) system mounted on a Tatra truck weighs 14,000 kg and boasts of a life cycle of 1000 launches before requiring overhaul. Nishant is one of the few UAVs in the world in its weight-class capable of being catapult-launched and recovered by using parachute, thus eliminating the need for a runway as in case of conventional take-off and landing with wheels.
source : wikipedia
7. Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal to Ratan Tata
The prestigious Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial & Social Peace was conferred on Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Chairman, the Tata Group of Companies. The Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal was instituted by XLRI in 1966. Previous recipients of the Medal include respected names from diverse fields such as J. R. D. Tata, Arvind Mafatlal, Holck-Larsen, Rajmohan Gandhi, P. N. Bhagwati, V. Kurien and M. S. Banga. Mr. Ratan Tata has already been conferred with the XLRI Honorary Fellow Award.
A legend Called Ratan Tata: Some Other awards and Honours

1. On the occasion of India’s 58th Republic Day on 26 January 2000, Ratan Tata was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest decoration that may be awarded to a civilian.

2. On 26 January 2008, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian decoration.

3. He was one of the recipients of the NASSCOM Global Leadership Awards 2008 given away at a ceremony on February 14, 2008 in Mumbai. Ratan Tata accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 on behalf of the Tata Family.

4. In March 2006, Tata was honoured by Cornell University as the 26th Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, considered the highest honor the university awards to distinguished individuals from the corporate sector.

5. He recently received an honorary doctorate from the London School of Economics and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

6. He was listed among the 25 most powerful people in business named by Fortune Magazine in November 2007.

7. In May 2008, Mr. Tata made it to the Time Magazine’s 2008 list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People. Tata was hailed for unveiling his tiny Rs. One lakh car ‘Nano’.

8. On 29th August 2008, the Government of Singapore conferred Honorary Citizenship on Ratan Tata, in recognition of his abiding business relationship with the island nation and his contribution to the growth of high-tech sectors in Singapore. Ratan Tata is the first Indian to receive this honour.

8. Kalpen Suresh Modi
Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), best-known by his professional name, Kal Penn, is an American film and television actor, and is the incoming Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Barack Obama administration. On April 8, 2009 Penn announced that he would join the Obama White House as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. This necessitated that his character Lawrence Kutner was written out of the TV series House.

9. Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim) and ICICI Bank
The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim) and ICICI Bank Limited acting through its Hong Kong Branch (ICICI Bank) signed a loan agreement for USD 98 million under the Two- step Buyer Credit (Export Credit) arrangement. ICICI Bank is the first Indian Bank to have entered into this arrangement with China Exim. The agreement was signed by Mr.Zhu Xinqiang, Assistant President, China Exim and Mr.Sudhir Dole, Senior General Manager & Regional Head- Asia, ICICI Bank. This agreement was signed in Beijing on March 19, 2009.

Source: icicibank.com

10. Japan now top M&A; market in Asia-Pacific
Mergermarket says Japan now top M&A; market in Asia-Pacific. Japan Has Overtaken China This Quarter as the Most Active Country in Asia-Pacific in the first quarter of 2009 as the most active country in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in five years. Japanese M&A; accounts for 28% of the number of Asia-Pacific deals, while Chinese activity makes up 25%, according to “mergermarket”, the independent M&A; intelligence provider.

11. PowerGrid
India’s central transmission utility PowerGrid Corporation has tied up 75% of the Rs 55,000-crore capex for laying inter-regional transmission capacity of 37,800 mw by 2012. Moreover, the company has received the Centre’s approval for raising an additional $1 billion from multilateral organisations such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the notification for which was issued recently. Of the Rs 55,000 crore, nearly Rs 16,000 crore will come from internal accruals and Rs 39,000 crore through domestic and international borrowings and also through suppliers’ credit. Besides, the state-run firm has proposed a capex of Rs 12,000 crore for 2009-10 against Rs 8,095 crore in 2008-09.

source: Business standard