Business Current Affairs

gktoday 12 years ago 2 min read

Jaxtr Inc., founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Yogesh Patel, has announced the launch of JaxtrSMS, a cross-platform, open-texting application to send SMSs to anyone in the world for free.

Reserve Bank of India deregulated non-resident external (NRE) deposits on 16 December 2011 allowing banks to offer higher interest rates to dollar-denominated accounts. Reserve Bank freed the rates on non-resident external accounts, offering interest as high as 9.6% per annum.

Following RBI’s deregulation five Indian banks, including HDFC Bank and Yes Bank on 23 December 2011 raised their interest rates on such deposits in order to lure foreign money.
The Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges have agreed to merge in 2013 to create the world’s third-biggest bourse with listed stocks worth around $3.6 trillion. The combined value of stocks listed on exchanges would trail only NYSE Euronext at $12 trillion and NASDAQ OMX Group Inc at nearly $4 trillion.

Ravi Ruia decided to step down as Chairman of the London-listed Essar Energy

Ravi Ruia decided on 21 December 2011 to step down as chairman of the London-listed Essar Energy after a trial court admitted a criminal chargesheet filed by the investigating agency. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheeted three Essar Group honchos, including Ravi Ruia, alleging violation of telecom industry guidelines.

Prashant Ruia, presently the vice chairman, will take over as interim chairman while Ravi Ruia will continue as a director of Essar Energy.

Adidas, the German sportswear and equipment maker, is set to launch a shoe costing one dollar a pair in India. The shoe will be sold in villages through a distribution network.

British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, James Murdoch re-elected as Chairman of the Group

British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC chairman James Murdoch was re-elected on 29 November 2011 in the company’s annual general meeting. He was re-elected to the position of chairman though he faced a powerful protest vote from the satellite-TV company’s independent shareholders. News Corp., run by James’s father, Rupert Murdoch, owns 39.1% of BSkyB.

British Sky Broadcasting Group comprises film and television production as well as newspaper publishing and other activities.
California-based mobile video service provider, Vuclip, has launched India’s first independent mobile movie portal — Starlight Cinema. This would offer users the options of watching shortened feature films, movie clips, songs, reviews and trailers.