the Oracle Placement News Bulletin : 2018-19

July Edition | Edition 1

On this issue: Business Focus HR Digest
Key Highlights of Budget 2019
Probable GD Topics related to budget
• Electric Vehicles in India
• India: towards a 5 trillion Economy,
• Agriculture in India: Farmer Distress, Suicides, Rural Distress.
• Water Security in India: Chennai Crisis, River-water sharing issues between states
• Public Sector Banks and NPAs

10-point Vision for the decade

• Building Team India with Jan Bhagidari: Minimum Government Maximum Governance
• Achieving green Mother Earth and Blue Skies through a pollution-free India
• Making Digital India reach every sector of the economy
• Launching Gaganyan, Chandrayan, other Space and Satellite programmes
• Building physical and social infrastructure: Social Infrastructure includes Assets include schools, universities, hospi
tals, prisons and community housing
• Water, water management, clean rivers
• Blue Economy
• Self-sufficiency and export of food-grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables
• Achieving a healthy society via Ayushman Bharat, well-nourished women & children, safety of citizens
• Emphasis on MSMEs, Start-ups, defence manufacturing, automobiles, electronics, fabs and batteries, and medical devic-
es under Make in India
Measures to enhance the sources of capital for infrastructure financing:
• Credit Guarantee Enhancement Corporation to be set up in 2019-2020
• Action plan to be put in place to deepen the market for long term bonds with focus on infrastructure
• Proposed transfer/sale of investments by FIIs/FPIs (in debt securities issued by IDF-NBFCs) to any domestic investor
within the specified lock-in period
Measures to deepen bond markets:
• Stock exchanges to be enabled to allow AA rated bonds as collaterals
• User-friendliness of trading platforms for corporate bonds to be reviewed
• SEBI to consider raising the threshold for minimum public shareholding in the listed companies from 25% to 35%
• Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for Foreign Portfolio Investors to be made more investor friendly
• Government to supplement efforts by RBI to get retail investors to invest in government treasury bills and securities,
with further institutional development using stock exchanges
Direct Taxes
• Tax rate reduced to 25% for companies with annual turnover up to Rs. 400 crore
• Surcharge increased on individuals having taxable income from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 5 crore and Rs. 5 crore and above
• India’s Ease of Doing Business ranking under the category of ‘paying taxes’ jumped from 172 in 2017 to 121 in the 2019
• Direct tax revenue increased by over 78% in past 5 years to Rs. 11.37 lakh crore
Boost to Electric Vehicles
• Additional income tax deduction of Rs. 1.5 lakh on interest paid on electric vehicle loans
• Customs duty exempted on certain parts of electric vehicles

Measures related to PSBs:

• Rs. 70,000 crore proposed to be provided to PSBs to boost credit
• PSBs to leverage technology, offering online personal loans and doorstep banking, and enabling customers of one PSBs
to access services across all PSBs
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 the Oracle Placement News Bulletin : 2018-19
July Edition | Edition 1
On this issue: Business Focus HR Digest
• Steps to be initiated to empower accountholders to have control over deposit of cash by others in their accounts
• Reforms to be undertaken to strengthen governance in PSBs
Grameen Bharat / Rural India
• Ujjwala Yojana and Saubhagya Yojana have transformed the lives of every rural family, dramatically improving ease of
their living
• Electricity and clean cooking facility to all willing rural families by 2022
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) aims to achieve "Housing for All" by 2022:
• Eligible beneficiaries to be provided 1.95 crore houses with amenities like toilets, electricity and LPG connections during
its second phase (2019-20 to 2021-22)
Scheme of Fund for Upgradation and Regeneration of Traditional Industries’ (SFURTI)
• Common Facility Centres (CFCs) to be setup to facilitate cluster based development for making traditional industries
more productive, profitable and capable for generating sustained employment opportunities
• 100 new clusters to be setup during 2019-20 with special focus on Bamboo, Honey and Khadi, enabling 50,000 artisans
to join the economic value chain
Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship’ (ASPIRE) consolidated.
• 80 Livelihood Business Incubators (LBIs) and 20 Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) to be setup in 2019-20
• 75,000 entrepreneurs to be skilled in agro-rural industry sectors
• Private entrepreneurships to be supported in driving value-addition to farmers’ produce from the field and for those
from allied activities
• Dairying through cooperatives to be encouraged by creating infrastructure for cattle feed manufacturing, milk procure-
ment, processing & marketing
• 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organizations to be formed, to ensure economies of scale for farmers
• Government to work with State Governments to allow farmers to benefit from e-NAM
• Zero Budget Farming in which few states’ farmers are already being trained to be replicated in other states
India’s water security
• New Jal Shakti Mantralaya to look at the management of our water resources and water supply in an integrated and
holistic manner
• Jal Jeevan Mission to achieve Har Ghar Jal (piped water supply) to all rural households by 2024
• To focus on integrated demand and supply side management of water at the local level
• Convergence with other Central and State Government Schemes to achieve its objectives
• 1592 critical and over exploited Blocks spread across 256 District being identified for the Jal Shakti Abhiyan
• Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund can be used for this purpose
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
• 9.6 crore toilets constructed since Oct 2, 2014
• More than 5.6 lakh villages have become Open Defecation Free (ODF)
• Swachh Bharat Mission to be expanded to undertake sustainable solid waste management in every village
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan,
• Over two crore rural Indians made digitally literate
• Internet connectivity in local bodies in every Panchayat under Bharat-Net to bridge rural-urban divide
• Universal Obligation Fund under a PPP arrangement to be utilized for speeding up Bharat-Net
Youth
• New National Education Policy to be brought which proposes
• Major changes in both school and higher education
• Better Governance systems
• Greater focus on research and innovation
• National Research Foundation (NRF) proposed
• To fund, coordinate and promote research in the country
• To assimilate independent research grants given by various Ministries

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 the Oracle Placement News Bulletin : 2018-19
July Edition | Edition 1
On this issue: Business
BusinessFocus
Focus HR Digest
• Khelo India Scheme to be expanded with all necessary financial support
• National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under Khelo India, to popularize
sports at all levels
• To prepare youth for overseas jobs, focus to be increased on globally valued skill-sets including language training,
AI, IoT, Big Data, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality and Robotics
• Set of four labour codes proposed, to streamline multiple labour laws to standardize and streamline registration
and filing of returns
• A television program proposed exclusively for and by start-ups, within the DD bouquet of channels
• Stand-Up India Scheme to be continued for the period of 2020-25. The Banks to provide financial assistance for
demand-based businesses

Roadmap for future

• Simplification of procedures
• Incentivizing performance
• Red-tape reduction
• Making the best use of technology
• Accelerating mega programmes and services initiated and delivered so far

African bonds are sought out in the Global Hunt for yield

• Current State of Financial Markets is such that there are scanty returns from Govt debt across the globe
• Foreign Investors are looking for an above - average yield and hence turning to countries like Africa
• As the outlook for world economy worsens, better it gets for African bonds
• For these investors, credit quality does not seem like a big concern. African Euro-Bonds are not com-
pletely divorced from the global financial markets. When its risk off globally, they sell-off. When its risk
on globally, they rally well
• However, the African Govt have not flocked to the market to benefit from current demand. African Issu-
ance account for about 10% of total Dollar and Eurobond issues by Emerging markets.
(Risk on environment: When the stocks overperform the bonds in the market
Risk off Environment: When the stocks underperform the bonds in the market)

US Fed gave Emerging market a strong reason to lower interest rates

• It signaled that the Fed is going to lower borrowing costs for the first time in a decade
• This is supportive of higher – yielding currencies, as it will allow developing countries to ease policy with-
out causing exodus of capital
• As the Fed had been increasing the rates continuously, the developing countries could not reduce their
rates as it could trigger exodus of funds
• With this indication, developing countries can bolster their slow-moving economies, subduing inflation
and simmering trade tensions that are hurting investment and manufacturing activities by rates cuts and
policy easing
• Countries like India, Philippines, Russia, Malaysia, Chile etc. have lowered their rates in the recent
months. Many other developing countries would also join in the bandwagon
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 the Oracle Placement News Bulletin : 2018-19
July Edition | Edition 1
On this issue: Business
BusinessFocus
Focus HR Digest
Blockchain in the news

In the wake of developments where nations and corporates are slowly embracing the emergence of block-
chain technology rather than shying away from it, the United States Committee of Commerce, Science and
Transportation approved the Blockchain Promotion Act. The bill moves the U.S. closer to a blockchain defini-
tion at the federal level and establishes a blockchain working group within the Department of Commerce.
The working group would be created in a manner than considers the interests of not only the government
institutes but private players as well, especially considering the interests of manufacturers, suppliers, soft-
ware providers, service providers, vendors and experts who would be the ultimate beneficiaries of a fully
functional blockchain.

On a technology perspective, Samsung recently quoted that one of its 3 priorities as a part of its 10 year fo-
cus would be on Block Chain along with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and 6G. The firm has shown resolve
to not only develop in-house blockchain capabilities but also shown an intention to invest and work with
companies building up these nascent technologies. The firm has already made significant strides into the
blockchain ecosystem with Nexledger, its blockchain platform for enterprises and business.
Back home, tech giant Wipro recently stated that it has developed a blockchain-based solution proto-
type, in partnership with enterprise software firm R3, that will power digital currency transactions for banks
in Thailand. The prototype aims to enable digital currency for interbank settlements for a consortium con-
sisting of the Bank of Thailand and eight commercial banks in Thailand. The project which is an initiative of
the Bank of Thailand seeks to enhance the technological preparedness of Thailand’s financial sector for em-
bracing new technologies and digitization.

IBM to sell Lotus Notes/Domino business to HCL for $1.8B

In a bid to streamline its business portfolio, IBM has decided to sell the final components from its 1995 ac-
quisition of Lotus to the Indian firm HCL for $1.8 Billion; the selling price stands at a sharp decline from the
$3.5 Billion that IBM payed back in the day. With the development platform out of its control, and in need of
cash after spending $34 billion for Red Hat, perhaps IBM simply decided that it no longer made sense to
keep any part of these product lines in-house. For HCL however, the purchase made enormous sense consid-
ering the large-scale deployment of these products, which would give them the opportunity to gain access to
thousands of global enterprises across a wide range of industries.
The move to sell out the solutions, underlines a deeper emerging trend amongst large international
corporations, that of shifting focus towards the cloud platform. This can be easily seen with IBM selling of
some of its marquee products to embrace private and hybrid cloud deployments, and giants like Microsoft
and Amazon already going all out with their offerings of Azure and AWS respectively.

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 the Oracle Placement News Bulletin : 2018-19
July Edition | Edition 1
On this issue: Business Focus HR Digest
Simplification and codification of labour laws
All labour laws in the country, including those related to social security of workers, wages, occupational safe-
ty, health, working conditions and industrial relations will be codified and consolidated in the following four
labour codes:
• Occupational safety, health and working conditions code
• Wages bill code
• Social security code
• Industrial relations code
Following the commitment to simplify the labour codes in the country, the union cabinet has cleared the
wages bill code and the occupational safety, heath and working conditions code recently, post seeking con-
sensus. The cabinet is yet to seek consensus of the trade unions on the industrial relations code. The salient
features of each of the four labour codes are as follows:

Occupational safety, health and working conditions code

This code seeks to ensure regular and mandatory medical examinations for all workers, timely and proce-
dure driven issue of appointment letters, ensuring safety of women workers by framing rules for women
working in night shifts.
Wages bill code
This code seeks to include more number of workers under the minimum wage act by increasing the cap im-
posed by the act. It seeks to ensure a minimum guaranteed wage varying as per the geographical demands
of different states. This will ensure that states do not set minimum wages below those prescribed by the
centre.
Social security code
The code aims to reframe the existing social security architecture by replacing as many as 15 laws with a sin-
gle but Integrated labour code. The laws to be replaced include the Employees’ Provident Fund ,
the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, and the Payment of Gratuity Act,
1972.
Industrial relations code
This code is yet to be scrutinized by the labour unions and has yet not been cleared by the cabinet. This code
will effect changes to the rights of the workers such as changing and simplifying rules on hiring and dismissal
of workers. This also seeks to bring changes to the terms and conditions of contract jobs and fixed term em-
ployment being sought in different industries operating in the country. This code also seeks to modify the
rules related to seeking prior government permission to effect layoffs, retrenchment and closure by increas-
ing the prior cap of hundred workers to three hundred workers, beyond which the organisation will be ex-
pected to seek the government’s approval. This move has been vociferously opposed by the organised la-
bour unions in the nation.
As a direct consequence of these labour codes, the growth rate of firms employing more than a hundred
workers have grown substantially, specially in states like Rajasthan. The cabinet is thus expected by the
workers organisation to conduct a cross-state analysis of labour movements and increase in employment
before implementing these codes.