Daily Financial News Analysis – 23rd Jan’20

Table of Contents

GIMS

Government Instant Messaging Service
Government is in the process of setting up its own instant messaging service for mobile phones.
Aim: to improve confidentiality in official communications.
Expected roll out: later this year
Central government offices and departments + state governments can use it
Developed by: National Informatics Centre (NIC)
The app (GIMS) has been developed for both Android and iOS platforms and at present beta testing is going on.
A total of 17 government organisations including ministry of external affairs (MEA), ministry of home affairs (MHA), CBI, MeitY, Navy and railways are participating in the testing.
Currently, there are around 6,600 users who have generated close to 20 lakh messages.
States like Odisha and Gujarat are also participating in the beta testing.

Soon, various ministries and departments may gift only tribal items to dignitaries at official functions and festivals like Diwali.
To promote tribal products and culture prominent ad gurus will be hired
Piyush Goyal led inter-ministerial meeting: rope in large retail chains for marketing organic produce, tribal artefacts, garments and cuisines, in consultations with industry bodies like CII, Ficci and Assocham.
To start with, around 100 items will be identified for “targetted promotion”, both within and outside the country.
The Bureau of Indian Standards and Quality Council of India would develop international standards for such products to help improve their global reach.
The government is also looking at infrastructure required for testing and certification of these products, develop tariff codes and set up tribal clusters for promotion.
The move follows a directive by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who chaired a key meeting on January 7 on tribal affairs – to the commerce and industry ministry to steer the initiative to boost both exports as well as domestic consumption of tribal products.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Mr Bezos worsened after Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Bezos owns the Washington Post.
Mr Bezos’s phone was hacked after he received a WhatsApp message in May 2018 that was sent from the crown prince’s personal account.
An investigation into the data breach reportedly found that the billionaire’s phone began secretly sharing huge amounts of data after he received the encrypted video file.
It could also undermine efforts by “MBS” – as the crown prince is known – to lure more western investors to Saudi Arabia.
United Nations experts on Wednesday called for an immediate investigation.

India expressed interest in raising the import of crude oil from Brazil.
India is looking at diversifying its import basket beyond the highly volatile Middle East region.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met visiting the Brazilian Minister for Mines and Energy Bento Albuqueroque to review cooperation between the two countries.
India imports 84 per cent of its oil needs
Two-thirds of its import come from the Middle East with Iraq and Saudi Arabia being the top suppliers.

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has two exploration blocks in Brazil – BC-10 and BM Seal-4 and is looking at monetizing discoveries made there.
Pradhan said during the meeting the agreements/MoUs to be signed in the bioenergy and oil & gas sector during the Summit level meeting with the visiting Brazilian President were also reviewed.
India is targeting to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol & 5% bio-diesel blending capacity by 2030.

Cabinet approved the model memorandum of understanding (MoU) for unilateral or bilateral recognition of certificates of competency of seafarers.
This will will help Indian seafarers find opportunities on ships under the flag of other countries.
The MoU has been approved pursuant to Regulation 1/10 of International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) of Seafarers, 1978, to be signed between the Directorate General of Shipping and its counterparts in foreign countries, with the approval of the ministers of shipping and external affairs.

India will come out with a National Statistical Business Register.
Itwill have data on all business enterprises in the country collated based on the results of the ongoing seventh economic census.
The register will have a district-wise list of all business enterprises and establishments engaged in production or distribution of goods or services, and it will be updated regularly.
Many states have begun the process of preparing their own business register.

State-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) is the second-largest oil and gas producer of our country.
OIL: it has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its earlier order that had broadened the definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) for telecommunications companies to include non-core operations.
OIL has so far received demand notices for the period between 2007-08 and 2018-19 amounting to over Rs 48,000 crore including licence fee, penalties and interest.