Economy & Banking Current Affairs October 2015 (Part 3)

Corporate Current Affairs

Reliance and EDIC Signed Pact to Manufacture Defence Equipment

• Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence Limited has signed a strategic pact with UAE’s Emirates Defence Industries Company (EDIC) on September 28, 2015 to collaborate in the sector, especially in maintenance, repair and overhaul category.
• The two companies have agreed to jointly explore the opportunity for manufacturing and building capabilities in defence vehicles, aviation and associated areas, defence equipment and armament manufacturing, defence electronics, commercial and naval ships besides Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of military equipment and platforms.
• Reliance Defence Limited (RDL), established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL), has 11 subsidiaries in niche segments of the sector. EDIC is the premier integrated national defence services and manufacturing platform from the UAE.

Read Also – Defence & Security Current Affairs October 2015.

Google Announced to Provide Wi-Fi at 400 Indian Railway Stations

• On the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Google headquarter at USA, and in line with his Digital India initiative, Google announced a new project on September 28, 2015 to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi in 400 train stations across India.
• Internet can accessible to one crore passengers at 100 busiest railway stations in India by the end of 2016 and will later expand it to 300 other stations.
• To set-up public Wi-Fi hotspots, Google is working with the Indian Railways and RailTel, a governrhent-owned provider of telecommunications infrastructure to the railways.
• In the past year, 100 million people in India started using the Internet for the first time. But what’s really astounding is the fact that there are still nearly one billion people in India who aren’t online. With the completion of this project, it will be one of the largest public Wi-Fi projects in the world.

Uninor Re-branded Itself as ‘Telenor’ in India

• Telecom operator ‘Uninor’ has announced that it is changing its brand name to ‘Telenor’, the name of its parent firm on September 24, 2015. The company is also spending Rs 100 crore on repositioning itself as the most affordable service provider in India.
• It has changed its tagline to Ab life full paisa vasool from ‘Sabse Sasta’. In its new incarnation in India Telenor has taken customer-centric approach through initiatives like compensation for call drops.
• Telenor India has permit for seven service areas but operates in six circles i.e., Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh East and West.
• The Norway-based firm, Telenor, entered India through a joint venture with Unitech Wireless, which was branded as Uninor. Unitech has now completely exited from the operations and last year, the Telenor group increased its stake in the Indian entity to 100%.

Reliance Defence Signed Pact with Abu Dhabi Ship Building

• Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence Limited (RDL) has signed an MoU with Abu Dhabi Ship Building on September 7, 2015 to set-up a strategic partnership for construction of naval ships, including frigates and destroyers to address the demands of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), over the next 10 years.
• The agreement could also see ADSB delivering maintenance, repair, overhaul and refit services to the vessels, in line with regional requirements. Reliance Group is likely to use its newly acquired ship-building facilities at Pipavav for implementation of this collaboration.
• The MoU signing follows the joint statement issued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to UAE on August 18, 2015 that highlighted “cooperation and manufacture of defence equipment in India”.

OVL Signed Agreement with CSJC Vankorneft

• ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) signed an agreement on September 4, 2015 to buy a 15% stake in CSJC Vankorneft, a company organised under the law of the Russian Federation, and the owner of the Vankor field and North Vankor license.
• The OVL will get two seats on the Board of Directors of Vankor, a subsidiary of Rosneft that operates the Vankor field. The 15% stake Vankor oil field will give OVL about 3.5 million metric tonnes of oil a year of its total 2.5 billion recoverable reserves barrels. Rosneft will retain full control of infrastructure of the Vankor cluster.
• This deal is the fourth-biggest acquisition by ONGC Videsh. It had earlier paid $ 4.125 billion in 2013 for a 16% stake in Mozambique’s offshore Rovuma Area. The two largest acquisitions it has made were both in Russia, in 2001 and 2009.

Visit Current-Affairs.org for latest current affairs, previous year question papers, free online quiz for SSC and others, Study material and lot more.