Tamil Nadu signs MoUs worth over Rs 15,000 crore to generate 47,000 jobs

Tamil Nadu has marked 17 notice of understandings (MOUs) worth Rs 15,128 crore to create 47,150 employments in the state.
Daimler India, Salcomp and different organizations would put over Rs 15,000 crore in Tamil Nadu.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicle would contribute Rs 2,277 crore and create 400 employments.
The proposed venture will be towards organization's proposed brownfield extension at organization's Oragadam office close to Chennai.
Other significant auto task will be by BYD India. The organization will contribute Rs 50 crore to produce electric vehicles. The proposed office will come at Sriperumbudur and will create employments for 130 individuals.
Mahindra Origins will contribute Rs 46 crore.
Finland-based Salcomp has marked MoU to contribute Rs 1,300 crore, which will make 10,000 occupations. The organization has obtained significant segment of Nokia's office at Sriperumbudur, close to Chennai, which was shut because of personal duty contest. In 2019, the organization had marked a MoU worth Rs 500 crore with the Tamil Nadu Government.
Japan-based Polymatech Electronics will contribute Rs 900 crore to make semiconductor chips.
Chennai Power Generation Ltd, an India-UK co-activity, will contribute around Rs 3,000 crore to set up a 750 uber watt (MW) power plant, which will be founded on sustainable power source.
Taiwan-based Chung Jye Company alongside Aston Shoes Pvt Ltd will contribute around Rs 350 crore which would create 25,000 employments to manufacure footwears.
Lai Investment Manager Pvt Ltd (Logos) would contribute Rs 400 crore to set up a modern park in Kanchipuram region.

Other than the abovementioned, the State Government marked MoUs for different sustainable power source ventures.

Tamil Nadu adds more new entry level jobs despite slowdown in auto sector

International News
Despite a slowdown in the automobile sector, which has led to production cuts in factories in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu has added new jobs, in the 18-21 years category, and has emerged as the second largest generator of employment after Karnataka.
During the year 2018-19, Karnataka ranked first in new payroll addition with 265,827 people coming under the ambit of EPFO, as compared to 260,699 people from Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra continued to see the largest net new payroll addition in this period. Maharashtra saw a net new payroll addition of 531,060 in 2018-19 and the number stood at 2,44,166 in the April to July, 2019, period.
According to data released by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in September, 2019, net new payroll addition, in the age group of 18 to 21 years, in Tamil Nadu during July, 2019, was 44,311. During the period from April to July, the total net new payroll addition was 150,835, compared to 127,731 net payroll addition in Karnataka during the same period.
A senior official of the state government said that since Tamil Nadu was the second largest economy in the country and number one in terms of number of factories and workers, the growth in terms of new employment creation was on expected lines.

 "In 2019, we have seen a slew of investments coming in. Out of the many Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed during the Global Investors Meet, foundation stones of around 37 projects have been laid and work on these projects has begun. In the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) space, around 2,300 units have started production. A lot of investment has also come in apart from that committed under the MoUs. There has been an increase in terms of investment and growth," said the official....READ MORE

Tamil Nadu trader bodies again plan to boycott Pepsi and Coca-Cola

Company News

The trader’ bodies in Tamil Nadu are again planning to boycott Pepsi and Coca-Cola, asking its members to replace them with local drinks and packaged products.

They had earlier announced a boycott against these multinational companies (MNCs) in 2017.
But the MNCs overcame that and continued to sell their products throughout the state.

Leaders of the Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peramaippu and the Federation of Tamil Nadu Traders' Association say the products from the MNCs are becoming a threat to the Indian traders.
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola refused to comment on the move.


 The soft drink market in Tamil Nadu is around 500,000 crates per day, with each crate having 24 bottles, and almost 80 per cent of it is by PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, say sources.

From Lok Sabha Phase-2 voting to RIL Q4 numbers, top events today

Current Affairs
Before you start your day, take a look at the major events in the country that are likely to make headlines:
Lok Sabha Phase-2 voting
Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi are among the 1,600-odd contestants in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in 95 seats Thursday across 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry.

Thirty eight of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls besides 18 assembly constituencies. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling will also be held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Elections will also be held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha.

RIL FY19Q4 numbers

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries will report its March quarter earnings today. is expected to report weak refining earnings though its retail and petrochemical businesses are expected to partially offset the weakness in its March quarter results.

RBL Bank and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company will also announce their FY19Q4 results on Thursday.

RBI Minutes of the Meeting


 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will release minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held earlier this month which led to a policy rate cut.

Ban on TikTok app would harm free speech, China's Bytedance tells SC

Current Affairs

An Indian court's call for a ban on the popular video app TikTok will hurt free speech rights, China's Bytedance Technology Co has said in a request for the Supreme Court to quash the directive.
Bytedance is one of the world's most valuable start-ups and its TikTok app lets users create and share short videos with special effects. It has become popular in rural India, where most of a population of 1.3 billion lives.

TikTok, whose video-only interface makes it easier to use than platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, has been downloaded more than 240 million times in India, says app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

A ban "amounts to curtailing of the rights of the citizens of India...who have been using the platform everyday to express themselves and create content," the company said in a court filing reviewed by Reuters, asking for the order to be quashed.

The company's Monday filing is not public and has not previously been reported. The Supreme Court has set next Monday for a hearing.

Bytedance did not respond to a request for comment. India's information technology ministry also did not respond.

Last week, a court in Tamil Nadu asked the federal government to ban TikTok, saying it encouraged pornography and made child users vulnerable to sexual predators.

TikTok's inappropriate content was a dangerous aspect of the app, it added.


 Jokes, clips and footage related to India's movie industry dominate the platform, along with videos in which young people, sometimes scantily clad, lip-sync and dance to music...Read More

Bank of Maharashtra to auction Videocon-backed unit's assets in Tamil Nadu

Companies News

State-owned Bank of Maharashtra has put on sale the assets of Unity Appliances Ltd, a unit backed by Videocon Industries, at SIPCOT industrial estate in Shivaganga, Tamil Nadu, for defaulting on payments.

The outstanding dues of the unit are over Rs 153 crore, plus interest, from January 5, 2018. Unity is involved in manufacturing of air conditioners and refrigerators.

Videocon and its promoter Venugopal Dhoot are guarantors to Unity Appliances, according to an auction notice placed by Pune-based Bank of Maharashtra.

The electronic auction for land and machinery is slated for March 30, 2019 with a reserve price of Rs 42.34 crore for land and Rs 72.82 crore for plant and machinery.

The Videocon group is among 40 large defaulters identified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) first for insolvency proceedings. The group's core businesses are consumer electronics and oil and gas exploration.

The lenders are auctioning the electronics business estimated to be worth $2 billion.


 The subsidiaries of Videocon Industries are into manufacturing, sale and distribution of consumer goods. Some of the units referred to NCLT include Value Industries, Trend Electronics, KAIL, Millennium Appliances India, Applicomp India, Sky Appliances, Techno Electronics, Century Appliances, PE Electronics, Next Retail, Evans Fraser & Co and Videocon International Electronics.

Madras HC judge installs CCTV in his chamber; wants govts offices to follow

Current Affairs:

Quoting Mahathma Gandhi's dictum of practice is better than preaching, a Madras High Court judge ordered installation of CCTV camera in his chamber while recommending it for offices of all higher Tamil Nadu government officials to tackle sexual harassment at work places.

Justice S M Subramaniam directed the court registry to install the CCTV camera in his chamber within two weeks, while disposing of petitions from IPS officer S Murugan and a woman police superintendent who had made sexual harassment charges against the senior police official.
In his order, the judge referred to Gandhiji's quote "An Ounce of Practice is worth more than tons of preaching."

He gave the go ahead for a probe by an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and the CB-CID which had registered an FIR on the woman officer's complaint.

Justice Subramaniam recommended to the state Chief Secretary installation of CCTV cameras inside the official chambers and office rooms of all the higher officials in order to avoid all such allegations or complaints against higher officials and to safeguard the interest of women employees from sexual harassment.


 The judge tasked the state Chief Secretary to initiate action against the IPS officer under the service rules which it said was necessary under the facts and circumstances of the case.