CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR 26TH OCTOBER 2015

CORPORATE AFFAIRS, E-COMMERCE, TECHNOLOGY AND CARS

1. Fairfax India Holdings Corporation has decided to restrict its voting rights in financial services firm IIFL holdings to 25 percent, even if it acquires more shares after open offer.
2. NITI Aayog Panel says that India's Business Environment is unfriendly to both corporate investment and innovation.
3. Handset Vendor Lava would invest Rs 500 Crores to set up manufacturing plant in Tirupati. It will also invest Rs 2,165 Crores in Noida and Tirupati units to generate capacity of 18 million devices per month by 2021.
4. Mumbai based Sunteck Realty plans to invest Rs 1000 Crores in the next two years for acquiring distressed assets and entering joint development agreements to increase its portfolio.
5. Air Costa, awaiting the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation's approval to fly pan-India, is in talks with various investors for raising funds.
6. Krypton valued at $400 million.
7. Google will take a minority stake in Beijing based artificial intelligence firm Mobvoi as a part of a $75 million fund raising round as the US search giant tries to rebuild its presence in China. The Google led series C fund raising values Mobvoi at $300 million.
8. Singapore based workforce planning analytics software start-up HRBoss has raised an investment round worth $2 million.
9. Mobile wallet company MobiKwik plans to raise $50-100 million in the next few months to fund its expansion across online and offline platforms.
10. SRS Cinemas will infuse Rs 45-60 Crores seed investments to set up new properties in the urban and semi-urban areas of South and East zones of the country with a special focus on tier 3 and tier 4 cities.
11. Government owned BSNL and MTNL have started discussion with private telecom companies to share spectrum.
12. Maserati North America Inc is recalling some of its 2014 Quattroporte GTS V8 sedans because of the potential for an engine compartment fire or stalling in the $141500 luxury sedans capable of speeds as much as 190 miles per hour.
13. Goldman Sachs expects Indian E-Commerce to reach $103 billion by FY20.
14. Online hotel aggregators Oyo Rooms is in talks to raise $400 million and Zo Rooms is in talks to raise $200 millions of funds.
15. Flipkart the country's largest online retailer and marketplace sold more than $200 million of worth mobile phones during 5 day Big Billion Day Sale with most consumers demanding 4G backed devices.
16. Jeweller Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri plans to increase its retail space from 93,000 sq.feet  to 150,000 sq.feet in two-three years through the franchisee route.
17. Volkswagen will freeze managerial promotions next year at its VW division as a part of savings drive to help meet more than 30 billion Euros of costs arising from the diesel emissions tests scandal.
18. 2 trillion public posts on facebook all of which are now searchable.
19. Nippon Life Insurance is set to acquire another 23% of Reliance Life Insurance for Rs2,500 Crores to increase its stake in the Joint Venture with Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital to 49%.
20. On demand shipping startup Parcelled has raised $ 50 million in its latest round of funding led by logistics company Delhivery.
21. Storied healthcare entrepreneur G S K Velu is starting a family office with an initial corpus of Rs 500 Crores for early stage and growth capital investments.
22. Amazon will open a diwali store on its US and UK websites this year.

    

ECONOMY, POLITICS, CRIMES, SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

1. China may cut its GDP growth target to 6.5% from 7% in its next 5 year plan from coming year.
2. The Andhra Pradesh government has reduced excise duty and value added tax on lower category liquor to make these affordable to the masses.
3. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu called for a fight against corruption at the grass root level while flagging off a marathon in the city to sensitise people on the issue.
4. The Income Tax Department will roll out next weeks its 'pilot' project to conduct scrutiny assessment in an e-enviornment when they begin sending queries through e-mail to 500 select tax payers without calling them to offices.
5. October 28 and November 1 will see the third and fourth phase of the Bihar Assembly Elections.
6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asks citizens to deposit gold in banks for nation's economic prosperity. The gold monetization scheme will be launched before Dhanteras.
7. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission and other Khadi promoting institutions have developed wheels with more spindles that can run on solar power.
8. Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee urged the people of Bihar to vote for Nitish Kumar.
9. PM Narendra Modi kept the I-Day promise by announcing that there will be no interviews for all Central Government posts belonging to the Group B, C and D categories from January 2016 to prevent middlemen from exploiting vacancies by guarantying them jobs in lieu of money.
10. The CBI has unearthed lapses on the part of IDBI bank officials who were instrumental in the sanctioning the Rs 950 Crores loan to Vijay Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
11. The Madras High Court has suggested castration of child sex offenders.
12. Gangster Ravi Pujari has allegedly issued death threats to two karnataka ministers  over murder of Bajrang Dal activist Prashant Poojary.
13. The Maharashtra Government has acquired a staggering 1.92 lakh hectares of land over 15 years. Irrigation projects accounted for 76% of the land while industry accounted for 14%.
14. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research launched 'BGR-34', the first scientifically validated ayurvedic drug for management of type-II diabetes.
15. Forensic Reports have revealed four names in the suicide note of builder suresh parmar.
16. Many B-school aspirants get CAT centres outside Mumbai.
17. 25% student info on SARAL are yet to be verified.
18. Vartika Singh finished second runner up at the Miss Grand International 2015 Pageant held in Bangkok.
19. To put an end to rising cases of non-performing assets in banks and loans to undeserving entities, the government has now made it mandatory for all financial institutions to obtain an affidavit from auditors who sign balance sheet of companies applying for advances.
20. Pakistani Novelist Kanza Javed, denied Visa to take part in the Kumaon Lit Fest, launched her novel ' Ashes, Wine and Dust ' over Skype from her home in Lahore.
21. The Reserve Bank of India has turned down the proposal from government to allow upto 100% FDI in banks.