Endeavor Careers Choicest Blogs: Weekly Current Affairs: March 2023, Week 03

Welcome to the Endeavor Editors’ Weekly Current Affairs Choicest Blog series. Get a weekly roundup – of news from business, economy, markets, policy, and more. A quick capsule format news summary and update to keep you abreast with all the latest current affairs.

1) International News and Global Economy

The US recognizes McMahon Line as the international boundary between China, India

“At a time when China continues to pose grave and gathering threats to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, it is critical for the United States to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our strategic partners in the region, especially India,” Senator Bill Hagerty, who, along with Senator Jeff Merkley introduced a resolution in the Senate, said. “This bipartisan resolution expresses the Senate’s support for unequivocally recognizing the state of Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India, condemning China’s military aggression to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control, and further enhancing the US-India strategic partnership and the Quad in support of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” he said on Tuesday. The resolution, which comes following the biggest clash between the Republic of India and China in the Eastern Sector along the Line of Actual Control in six years, reaffirms that the United States recognizes the McMahon Line as the international boundary between China and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

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US recognizes McMahon Line as the international boundary between India and China: What does it mean

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International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes

The International Criminal Court said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in the abductions of children from Ukraine. The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations. The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.

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International criminal court issues arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin

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Slovakia and Poland to send Ukraine MiG fighter jets in major shift; China’s Xi to visit Russia next week

Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Russia early next week, China’s Foreign Ministry announced, in a trip that would be the leader’s first trip to Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. In a major shift, Poland announced it would be sending four of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, something that Kyiv has been pleading for since the war began. It will be the first delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine from any NATO ally. Slovakia followed suit one day later, pledging to send 13 of its MiG jets to Ukraine, though they are not all said to be currently operational.

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Poland Becomes First NATO Nation To Pledge Fighter Jets To Ukraine

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China Simulates Ballistic Missile Attack On US; Predicts Hwasong-15 ICBM Can Strike Columbia In Just 33 Minutes

Beijing-based defense scientists claim to have simulated a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile attack on the continental United States. The team opined that if the American missile defense network failed to intercept it, the North Korean missile could strike the center US in 1,997 seconds, or almost 33 minutes, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Similar studies by Chinese researchers had typically avoided mentioning specific nations or regions, especially when the results were publicized. This report came when North Korea launched another Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), its fourth in a week, amid joint naval drills underway between the United States and South Korea. The missile traveled nearly 1,000 kilometers before landing in the waters of Japan.

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China cuts banks’ reserve ratio for the first time in 2023 to support recovery

China’s central bank said on Friday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the first time this year to help keep liquidity ample and support a nascent economic recovery. Chinese leaders have pledged to step up support for the world’s second-largest economy, which is gradually rebounding from a pandemic-induced slump after virus curbs were abruptly lifted in December. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks, except those that have implemented a 5% reserve ratio, by 25 basis points (bps), effective March 27.

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Moody’s retains ‘negative’ outlook on China’s banks amid challenges of emerging from Covid-zero

Rating agency Moody’s said Wednesday it maintained a “negative” outlook on China’s banking sector as a result of a drawn-out recovery after Beijing’s Covid controls ended. China’s economy missed a national growth target in 2022 due to the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant and a prolonged slump in the massive real estate sector. While Beijing ended its stringent Covid controls in early December, the economic rebound so far has remained muted. “The challenging adjustment to the exit from zero-COVID, for both borrowers and lenders, will weigh on banks’ asset quality and profitability over the next 12-18 months,” Moody’s said in a note Wednesday.

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OECD raises 2023 global GDP growth forecast to 2.6%

The OECD raised its global economic growth forecast on Friday as inflation eases and China emerges from Covid restrictions but warned of vulnerabilities as seen in the US bank sector turmoil. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said it now expects the global economy to grow by 2.6 percent this year compared to 2.2 percent in its previous forecast in November. But it remains under the 3.2-percent expansion seen in 2022, the Paris-based OECD said in its updated economic outlook titled “A Fragile Recovery.”

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2) India

India Shouldn’t Be Concerned Over China-Brokered Iran-Saudi Deal: Envoy

The China-brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to revive diplomatic ties should not be a matter of concern for India as the pact would provide regional stability and would be beneficial for New Delhi’s interests as well, Iranian ambassador Iraj Elahi said on Friday. Under the deal, Iran and Saudi Arabia last week announced the full-fledged restoration of their diplomatic relations, seven years after severing the ties following a bitter row. “I think it (the agreement) should not be a concern for India. It would be of benefit to India since it would help and intensify the stability and peace in the Persian Gulf region,” the envoy told a group of journalists. “So it would be of benefit to India despite what has been done at the mediation of China,” he said. The surprise announcement of the deal had taken the diplomatic circles in New Delhi by surprise. Elahi said peace and stability in the Gulf region would benefit the Indian diaspora as well, besides resulting in greater economic engagement that would include India’s trade ties with various countries in the region.

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PM Modi and Sheikh Hasina to jointly inaugurate India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline on March 18

Prime Minister Narendra and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, will inaugurate the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline on March 18 via video conference. This is the first cross-border energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh, built at an estimated cost of Rs 377 crore, of which the Bangladesh portion of the pipeline was built at the cost of approx. Rs 285 crore, has been borne by the Govt of India under grant assistance, read Prime Minister’s Office press release. The Pipeline has the capacity to transport 1 Million Metric Ton Per Annum (MMTPA) of High-Speed Diesel (HSD). It will supply High-Speed Diesel initially to seven districts in northern Bangladesh.

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3) Economy

India’s GDP to grow at 6% in FY24, inflation will moderate to 5%: CRISIL report

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to grow at 6 percent in 2024 fiscal amid a challenging global macroeconomic environment, Crisil Ratings said in a report. This growth rate is lower than the Reserve Bank of India’s forecast of 6.4 percent growth and the Economic Survey’s projection of 6.5 percent. “We expect India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth to touch 6 percent in fiscal 2024, compared with 7 percent estimated by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) for fiscal 2023,” the rating agency said in its report. The agency has attributed three reasons for this 100-basis point deceleration in the FY24 GDP estimate. First, the slowing world economy due to aggressive rate hikes by major central banks will create downside risks to the country’s growth. Domestic demand, therefore, will have to do the heavy lifting next fiscal. Second, the full impact of rate hikes by the RBI will be visible in the next fiscal as monetary moves typically affect growth with a lag of 3-4 quarters. And third, the tricky geopolitical situation implies that the country will continue to reckon with volatility in crude and commodity prices.

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4) Markets, Banking, and Finance

Major US banks inject $30 billion to rescue First Republic Bank

Large U.S. banks injected $30 billion in deposits into First Republic Bank on Thursday, swooping in to rescue the lender caught up in a widening crisis triggered by the collapse of two other mid-size U.S. lenders over the past week. Banking stocks globally have been battered since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last week due to bond-related losses that piled up when interest rates surged last year, raising questions about what else might be lurking in the wider banking system. Within days, the market turmoil had ensnared Swiss lender Credit Suisse, forcing it to borrow up to $54 billion from Switzerland’s central bank to shore up liquidity.

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Credit Suisse erupts into full-blown crisis as rivals back away

The long-brewing troubles at Credit Suisse Group AG exploded into a full-blown crisis Wednesday as its stock and bonds cratered, and some of the world’s biggest banks raced to shield their finances from the potential fallout. The stock fell as much as 31%, hitting record lows, and prices on its benchmark bonds sank to levels that indicate the Swiss lender is in deep financial stress — something rarely, if ever, seen at a major global bank since the throes of the 2008 crisis. Meanwhile, banks that trade with Credit Suisse snapped up contracts, known as credit-default swaps, that will compensate them if the crisis deepens.

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Over $1 billion startup money exposed to SVB, here’s what MoS IT is doing

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has taken up the issue of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failure with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Minister of State for Electronics and IT has pitched for fine-tuning the Indian banking system according to the requirements of startups. According to Chandrasekhar, deposits amounting to almost $1 billion belonging to Indian startups were with the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The failure of the US-based bank, which was a crucial source of funding for startups, has sent shockwaves across the global financial system. Chandrasekhar stated during a Twitter live session that over $200 million of the startups’ deposits have been transferred to GIFT City bank. He also said that there were deposits close to $1 billion in SVB that were attributable to Indian startups.

For details, visit here.

5) Business

Iconic Campa Cola Brand To Be Relaunched By Reliance - All You Need To Know

Reliance Consumer Products Ltd (RCPL), the fast-moving consumer goods arm of Reliance Retail, acquired a 50 percent stake in Gujarat-based carbonated soft drinks and juice maker Sosyo Hajoori Beverages Pvt Ltd in the month of January this year. Meanwhile, in September last year, they acquired the Campa drinks brand for Rs. 22 crores reportedly from Pure Drinks Group. Pure Drinks was originally the sole distributor of Coca-Cola from 1949 to 1970. They then launched their own brand Campa Cola and soon became the market leader in the segment. With two bottling plants in Mumbai and Delhi, Campa Cola became highly successful and even launched the Campa Orange brand. However, in the ’90s, the brand fizzled out and lost out to stiff foreign competition. Reliance is confident that the 50-year-old heritage Campa Cola brand will be cherished by elders and youngsters alike. Five different pack sizes will be offered under the Campa range: a 200ml immediate consumption pack, 500ml and 600ml on-the-go sharing packs, and 1,000ml and 2,000ml home packs. They also revealed that the cold beverage portfolio would initially be available in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and will be rolled out across the country in stages.

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TCS names new CEO-designate K Krithivasan. Know all about him

India’s largest IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has named its new CEO-designate after managing director and CEO Rajesh Gopinathan resigned four years ahead of the completion of his tenure. The company has named its president and head of global financial services business, Krithi Krithivasan as the CEO-designate, effective March 16. Krithivasan will take over as the CEO and managing director in the next financial year, subject to shareholders’ approval.

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Airtel comes up with an unlimited 5G data offer to step up the battle versus Reliance Jio

Bharti Airtel today launched an unlimited data offering for its fifth-generation, or 5G, telecom service users, stepping up the battle against Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio. The telecom operator, in an exchange filing, said it is removing the capping on data usage across all existing plans. “All postpaid customers and those prepaid customers with a data plan of Rs. 239 and above will be able to avail of the offer,” Airtel said. This comes days after India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio launched a new set of postpaid family and individual plans with unlimited 5G data, WiFi calling, OTT subscription benefits, and international roaming.

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6) Technology

China’s ChatGPT rival, Baidu Ernie is off to a rough start

Following on the heels of GPT-4’s buzzy debut and the announcement of Microsoft 365’s AI makeover, Baidu, China’s search engine giant, introduced its Ernie Bot. Since ChatGPT blew the world away, Baidu has been widely considered the closest Chinese candidate to build an equivalent to the OpenAI chatbot. Naturally, Ernie’s launch was much anticipated. On Thursday, Baidu CEO Robin Li gave a one-hour presentation on Ernie that only offered a small glimpse into the chatbot. The jury is still out on what Ernie can do and how it actually works. For now, Ernie is only available for testing through invitation, and others need to get on a waitlist. TechCrunch hasn’t tried it yet, so it’s unfair to draw any conclusions about Ernie’s capability.

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TikTok confirms the U.S. has threatened a ban if Chinese parent ByteDance doesn’t sell a stake

Washington asked TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest its stake in the short video app or face a possible ban in the U.S., CNBC has confirmed. TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told Reuters that the company had recently heard from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The committee told ByteDance to sell its shares in TikTok, or the app could face a U.S. ban. Oberwetter or the U.S. Treasury Department was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. The U.S. has a number of concerns about TikTok and has maintained the app presents a national security risk. Washington is concerned that American user data on TikTok could fall into the hands of the Chinese government, due to a law in China that compels firms to hand over information to Beijing if they are requested to do so. TikTok has repeatedly stated that U.S. user data is not stored in China, where those laws apply. Washington is also concerned that TikTok could be used to influence operations by China.

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PhonePe racks up an additional $200 million from Walmart in an ongoing fundraiser

Digital payments major, PhonePe on Friday said it has picked up an additional $200 million in primary capital from its parent Walmart. The fund infusion is part of its ongoing $1 billion financing round. The round is being raised at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion, making PhonePe the most valuable fintech in the country, surpassing payment services provider, Razorpay, which was last valued at $7.5 billion. This is the third tranche of PhonePe’s fundraising, as it fully separated its ownership from domestic e-commerce major Flipkart earlier in December last year. With this fresh capital, PhonePe has raised $650 million as a part of its recent fundraising. It had picked up $100 million in primary capital from fintech backer Ribbit Capital, TVS Capital Funds (TCF), and New York-based investment firm Tiger Global in February this year.

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Stripe nearly halves valuation to $50 billion following a $6.5 billion raise

Digital payments processor Stripe, which raised $6.5 billion from venture capital giants Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and others, said on Wednesday it was valued at $50 billion in its latest funding round, with its valuation nearly halved from its previous fundraising, amid a tough economic environment. New investors such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek also participated in the round, which raked in $6.5 billion in proceeds for Stripe. Stripe’s capital raise constitutes what is commonly known as a down round, where the latest funding fetches a lower valuation for the company than its previous fundraising.

For details, visit here.

7) Politics

Karnataka BJP ticket tumult rages: ‘Bommai may not get one,’ says MP; BSY yatra halted

Amid the intensifying battle for tickets within the ruling BJP for the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka, former chief minister BS Yediyurappa was forced to call off the Vijaya Sankalpa Yatra at Mudigere in the Chikkamagaluru district Thursday due to party workers’ protest against the sitting MLA MP Kumaraswamy. A day earlier, BJP MP GM Siddeshwara spoke of the uncertainty of allotment of tickets for party leaders, including even CM Basavaraj Bommai. Yediyurappa, who is also a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board, had gone to Mudigere for a roadshow as part of the Yatra, one of the four ongoing election yatras in the state.

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8) Sports

USA Stripped as Co-host of 2024 T20 World Cup | Exclusive

The USA has been stripped of the right to co-host the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup alongside the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). News18 CricketNext sent ICC an email asking if the USA is still the host. The story will be updated once ICC responds. An ICC release back in April 2022 confirmed the USA and West Indies’ direct qualification for the 2024 T20 World Cup as joint hosts. It was a historic moment for the USA, which is still trying to establish a cricket culture in its sporting ecosystem despite being the first country to be accorded the status of an associate member of the ICC decades ago.

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Babar Azam breaks Chris Gayle’s world record and goes past Virat Kohli with a blazing knock to take Peshawar in the PSL final

Babar Azam became the fastest cricketer to reach 9000 runs in T20s. He broke Chris Gayle’s record. Babar took 245 innings compared to Gayle’s 249. The second on the list is Virat Kohli, who completed 9000 T20 runs in 271 innings. Babar scored at a strike rate of 164 and hit 10 boundaries in his fluent knock. This was Babar’s fifth half-century in this PSL. The knock made the talismanic right-hander the fastest cricketer to reach 9000 runs in T20s.

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9) Opinion

Kashmir’s jihadist movement is disintegrating, but missteps by India can give it a new lease on life

The largest jihadist group in Kashmir, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, is short of weapons, hemorrhaging cadre, and failing to draw new recruits. Too often in the past, though, the failure to address youth alienation and political grievances has given Kashmiri Islamists opportunities to revive. India needs to make sure it doesn’t repeat old mistakes.

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What China-brokered deal between Iran & Saudi Arabia means for India & why it’s significant

In this edition of #ThePrintDebates, ThePrint’s Senior Consulting Editor, Jyoti Malhotra, spoke to India’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Talmiz Ahmad, and India’s former ambassador to Iran and UAE K C Singh, on the significance of the China-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran and what impact it could have on India.

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How prepared is the Indian banking sector to prevent a collapse like SVB?

The Silicon Valley Bank collapse has brought the banking regulator to the fore. In this episode of #MacroSutra, Economist Radhika Pandey and #ThePrint Economy Editor TCA Sharad Raghavan discuss whether Indian banking regulation can prevent such a collapse from happening here.

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10) Weekly special

How BharatPe floundered a $100M banking opportunity

Shortly after BharatPe scored an in-principle banking license—a significant prize even for entrenched entities—the payments startup saw its valuation vault threefold to $2.85 billion. That jump had to do with more than just the license. As BharatPe teamed up with Centrum Financial Services to bid for troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, a crucial sub-plot was to create a subsidiary focused on the lucrative banking technology infrastructure market. The genesis for the fintech startup and the non-bank financial company coming together was to build a digital-first bank, with BharatPe bringing its tech prowess and the Jaspal Bindra-led Centrum Group handling the operations and compliance heavy-lifting. The subsidiary’s first client would be the resulting joint venture entity, named Unity Small Finance Bank (SFB), in which BharatPe has a 49% stake. The idea was to upgrade the core digital banking infrastructure for Unity SFB and eventually other clients as well, kick-starting a potential $100-million opportunity in annual revenues, according to a former senior executive at BharatPe. Early last year, though, the Tiger Global-backed startup got embroiled in a series of controversies involving its pugnacious co-founder and former CEO Ashneer Grover, including charges of financial mishandling. Several founding members and senior executives exited the company, inevitably delaying progress on the new tech plans. Eventually, in February this year, it emerged that Unity SFB had signed up M2P Fintech to upgrade its core banking system, leaving BharatPe in the lurch.

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With that, we come to the end of our Weekly Current Affairs March 2023 -Week 3. We hope you have liked it. Write your feedback in the comments below, and let us know if there is anything else you would like us to cover.

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