Apollo Tyres, an Indian tyre manufacturer, announced a 3year regional partnership with the popular football team - Manchester United. The agreement was signed between the Chairman of Apollo Tyres Ltd and Manchester United Group Managing Director. The partnership will make Apollo Tyres the official tyre partner of Manchester United in India and the U.K. 

Non-performing asset is a buzzing term in Indian economy, especially in Indian banking industry for a while. According to Wikipedia, NPA is a financial term used by banking industry that refers to loans that are in verge of default. Once the borrower has failed to make interest or principal payments for 90 days the loan is considered to be a non-performing asset. Non-performing assets are problematic for financial and banking institutions since they depend on interest payments for income. Also unfavorable pressure from the economy like economic depression can lead to a sharp increase in non-performing loans and often results in massive write-downs.

Raghuram Govind Rajan, India's chief economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance, will take up the mantle of governorship in the RBI from 2013 September 5. The current incumbent, D Subbarao will demit his office on 2013 September 4. Raghuram Govind Rajan is going to be the 23rd governor of India's the central bank since May 19, 1975 when N C Sengupata had assumed the responsibility. Dr Raghuram Govind Rajan has worked extensively in the field of economics across the world.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 2nd August, has approved creation of the Special National Investment Fund for the specific objective of meeting the minimum public shareholding of 10 percent requirement in the following six Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). 

The Reserve Bank of India in its June mid quarter monetary policy review left its key policy (repo) rate unchanged at 7.25 percent in line with expectation. Cash reserve ratio (CRR) remained at 4 percent. The fear of inflation ghost primarily prompted the central bank to maintain status quo. Repo is the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank. CRR is the portion of deposits that banks are mandated to keep with RBI. The headline wholesale price index (WPI) inflation stood at 4.7 percent, a 42-month low as against 4.89 percent in April. Similarly, retail inflation or consumer price index (CPI) also softened from 9.39 percent in April to 9.30 percent in May.

Following is the text of the Statement made by Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance in a Press Conference. “There has been some volatility in financial markets in the last few days. The Government, the RBI, and SEBI are watching market developments and each one will take actions as warranted. The exchange rate has depreciated about 5.5% since January 1, 2013 at par with Korea, Turkey and Brazil and much less than South Africa.

Continuing with the reforms momentum, the cabinet approved allowing 49% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in insurance. It cleared all amendments of the insurance bill. The government wants to build on the positive sentiment created by its reforms burst while sending out a clear message that it is doing all it can to arrest the deceleration in growth that has been forecast by a stream of forecasters. Last week, the Asian Development Bank cut its growth estimate for this year to 5.6 per cent from 7 per cent earlier. "Unless we go for 49 per cent, we will not have the kind of capital required to underpin the growth of insurance industry," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority ( Irda) Chairman J Hari Narayana said on the sidelines of a CII event in Delhi.

Government of India decided to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) from Pakistan in a move to boost bilateral economic relations. "The government of India has reviewed the policy...and decided to permit a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan to make investments in India, under the government route, in sectors/activities other than defence, space and atomic energy," an official statement said. To address the security concerns, foreign direct investment proposals from Pakistan would be routed through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). Recently the government has allowed investments from Bangladesh under the FIPB route.

A consortium of Aluminium producer Nalco, steel major SAIL and Hindustan Copper have been shortlisted by the Afghan Government for developing its gold and copper mines. The consortium will submit a bid for developing gold and copper deposits in Afghanistan this month. Two private Indian firms — Monnet Ispat & Energy and Jindal Steel & Power — have also been shortlisted by the Afghan Government for the copper and gold mines. The two firms had been invited to join the consortium of state-owned entities, so that a single Indian bid could be put up. Last yearIn 2011, a consortium of Indian private and public sector companies from the steel and mining sector, AFISCO, had successfully bid for developing Hajigak mines in Afganistan, which is considered to have 1.28 billion tonnes of iron ore. Currently, it is in the process of finalising an agreement with the Afghanistan Government, which includes development of Hajigak mines and constructing a steel plant.

A new service tax regime, based on a negative list of exempted services came into effect from July 1st. With this, all services — except the 38 activities put on the negative list — came under the tax at the increased rate of 12 per cent, as announced in the Union budget.

Earlier, service tax was levied on 119 services based on a positive list. The switch-over to a negative list-based approach is aimed at aligning the indirect taxation system to the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, which is sought to be introduced to unify the levies of the Centre and the States into a composite system.

New Major FDIs
Coco Cola and home furnishing major IKEA approached the government with a proposal to invest $5 billion and  1.5 billion euro respectively in the Indian market. Coca Cola would invest $5 billion between now and 2020 on various activities, including setting up of new bottling plants. Last week, home furnishing major IKEA approached the government with a proposal to invest 1.5 billion euro to set up 25 stores in the country. The country's foreign direct investment (FDI) declined by 41 per cent to $1.85 billion in April as compared to the same period in the previous fiscal.

RBI mid-quarter policy review : Key rates unchanged
In the mid-quarter policy review, RBI kept the key rates such as repo rate, reverse repo and CRR unchanged.  The RBI reasoned that further reduction in the policy interest rate at this juncture could exacerbate inflationary pressures. Factors other than interest rates are contributing more significantly to the growth and investment slowdown. The economy is facing challenges on the growth-inflation front. GDP growth has moderated to a nine-year low of 5.3 per cent in the January-March 2012 period; the index of industrial production increased by just 0.1 per cent in April; and wholesale price index inflation has inched up from 7.2 per cent in April to 7.6 per cent in May, driven mainly by food and fuel prices. While growth in 2011-12 has moderated significantly, headline inflation remains above levels consistent with sustainable growth. Importantly, retail inflation is also on an uptrend, said the RBI.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined as the way companies integrate social, environmental, and economic concerns into their values and operations in a transparent and accountable manner.  The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. In recent years CSR is increasingly becoming a part of a large number of companies. It is becoming an important activity for businesses throughout the globe. Basically, CSR means that a company's business model should be socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. By socially responsible it means that the company's activities should benefit the society and by environmentally sustainable it means that the activities of the company should not harm the environment.