Business Events Which Made Headlines In 2012

The year 2012 has witnessed few of the important business events that had made headlines across the world. In one hand where Supreme Court cancelled 122 second generation licenses, on other hand BMW launched its Mini Cooper making India its 100th market. We have summed up such business events that made headlines of the year 2012, as listed by NDTV.

1. Kodak Files for Bankruptcy on January 19

The photography pioneer Eastman Kodak had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections after it failed to commercialize its digital cameras, a technology invented by Kodak. Unable to attract buyers for its treasure of 1,100 digital imaging patents Kodak was running out of cash. In November 2011, it acclaimed that if the patents were not sold, it will soon run out of cash.

2. 122 2G Licenses Cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2

On February 2 the much awaited 2G spectrum case results were declared by the Supreme Court. The 122 second generation (2G) spectrum licenses issued at A. Raja’s time were cancelled by the Supreme Court out of which 88 were canceled as they didn’t meet the criteria. The decision was considered as a big blow to the congress led- UPA government.

3. GAAR Introduced In the Union Budget for Fiscal Year 2013 on March 16

This year there was uproar against the General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) was announced by former Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. GAAR is a set of rules that will enable the tax officials to see if any foreign entity through any Indian resident, directly or indirectly was setting up companies in different countries to check their taxation. Income tax exemption prior to individual tax payers was also raised.

4. BMW Launches Mini in India on April 6

The country’s largest luxury car manufacturer BMW India Private Limited launched the legendary luxurious car Mini Cooper in India which is also the 100th market of the car. Though BMW had planned to launch the car in the year 2009 but the market conditions didn’t allow doing so. Finally in 2012 Mini Cooper was launched which starts 25 lakhs onwards.

5. Maruti Suzuki Launches Ertiga on April 12

The car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki unveiled the industries’ first multipurpose utility car Ertiga in India. The car is priced between 5.89 to 8.45 lakhs. Both petrol and diesel versions of the car are available. The car portrays Suzuki’s ability to bring altogether style, compactness and fuel efficiency into utility vehicles. The car was purposefully designed for Indian families that are always active and stays connected.

6. U.S. Whistleblower Accuses Infosys of Visa Fraud on April 13

Jay Palmer, accused of the visa misuse case sated on an U.S. television channel that IT giant Infosys brings in Indian workers to U.S. in an illegal manner. Jay palmer works as a consultant for Infosys. Though the acquisition was dismissed by a U.S. court and Palmer was asked to pay harassment charges to Infosys.

7. RBI Cuts Repo Rate by 50 Basis Points on April 17

“Unexpected”, this was the term used in a positive manner by the market analysts when Reserve bank of India decided to cut the repo rate by sharp 50 basis points in its yearly policy for 2012-2013. Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) India Senior Economist Arun Singh said, "The RBI in an unexpected move cut the repo rate by a 50 bps points citing concerns of growth slowing down below its post-crisis trend rate" as quoted by The Economic times.

8. India's Economic Outlook Negative: stated Standard & Poor’s on April 25

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has put India’s economic outlook to negative from stable. Spotting slow progress on India’s monetary and economic situation it was assumed that investment and economic growth have slowed up. The agency also added that it observed minimal economic reforms and this could lead to fall in gross domestic product growth to 5.3 percent in 2012-13.

9. GAAR Deferred for 2013-14on May 7

Investors were relieved this year after the than Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee delayed the general anti –avoidance rule, GAAR. It was decided that GAAR provision will be applicable to financial year income of 2013-2014 and in the following years. He also added that the provision that puts onus on the tax payers who claim that there has been no avoidance will be removed by the government, but it will be only for tax officials.

10. No “Likes” for Facebook on May 18

The year 2012 doesn’t seem to be acclamatory for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  The decision of avoiding trading hordes for long has turned out to be a big mistake for Mark leaving him with no option but to take Facebook public. But unfortunately it couldn’t fetch too many “shares” as the price offered was 11 percent higher than the initial offering and raised the price by $45.

11. Highest Petrol Price Hike from May 23

The highest petrol price hike was spotted this year by 6.28 per letter. This was the highest hike ever and the general people had to suffer the most. The prices were hiked twice by the oil firms by 5 per litre in 2011 when prices were increased in Delhi from 58.37 per liter to 63.37 per liter.

12. Maruti Lockout from June 14

A month long lockout was announced by India’s largest car manufacturer Maruti in its Manesar plant in Haryana this year. The reason behind was a fight between a supervisor and a worker that got bigger leading to the death of senior HR executive Awanish Kumar Dev. Around 90 people got injured along with property damages in the plant.

13. IKEA Announces Plans To Invest 10,500 crore in India on June 22

Swedish giant furniture brand IKEA’s 10, 500 crore investment plan received a green signal from India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) this year. IKEA approached the finance minister to start 25 stores of the brand across the country. All it needs is final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to start the 

14. Renault Launches Duster on July 4

One more name was added to the list of sports utility vehicles, SUV in India. Renault, the French auto manufacturer launched its mid-sized SUV “Duster” this year in India. The price ranges from 7.19 lakhs to 11.29 lakhs with a perspective to increase volume in the Indian Market. Within a month the company received 10, 000 orders prior to the launch, Forcing Renault to gear up its production.

15. Sahara buys New York's Plaza Hotel on July 30

The majority stake of the 105 years old Plaza Hotel of New York is owned by Indian multinational Sahara India Priwar. Sahara bought the stake worth $570 million from Israeli real estate company El Ad US Holding Inc. The deal will provide Sahara India Pariwar a 75 percent interest in the Plaza Hotel with adjoining retail space.

16. India Blacks Out On Consecutive Days - July 30, 31

It has all the elements that make a beautiful disaster story. The two consecutive power cuts in India completely jumbled up the economic and social system in India. Over 370 million people in seven states including Delhi faced power cut for several hours. The crisis rose when the northern grid collapsed on 30th July. On 31 July the eastern and north-eastern grids also collapsed dragging 19 more states into the blackout.

17. India Gets Its Costliest SUV, Evade, at 8.5 crore - August 22

The India auto market witnessed introduction of many luxury cars over the years, but EVADE no doubt ranks number one. Conquest Vehicles Inc introduced the EVADE that is the first unarmored SUV in India. The luxury car is priced 8.5 crores including all duties that makes EVADE the costliest SUV in the Indian market.

18. Supreme Court Orders Sahara to Refund 24,000 Crore to Investors on August 31

The Indian conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar was ordered by Supreme Court to payback 24, 000 crore that the company raised from the market after Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI said it had violated rules and regulations. The Supreme Court ordered to make an immediate payment of 5, 120 Cr and pay the rest of the amount in two installments of by February 2013.

19. Kaushik Basu Takes Over As Chief Economist at World Bank on September 5

One more Indian name joined the list of world glory when Kaushik Basu, Cornell University professor was selected as the chief economist and new vice president of World Bank. While on leave from the Cornwell Basu was the chief economic advisor of the Finance Ministry.

20. Air India gets its first Dreamliner on September 8

Air India passengers will have nice dreams when they sleep on Air India flights from now onwards as Air India's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner reached the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Air India has been waiting long to add this next generation air plain to their list. The Dreamliner started from the Charleston factory in South Carolina in the U.S. and it took 15 hours to reach Delhi.

21. Government On A Reform Roll on September 15

To prove that it is shedding off its old policies, the government allowed 51 percent FDI, i.e, Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail this year. This means that deep discount stores will be available in India set up by the foreign super market.

22. Kingfisher Lockout on September 29

The year 2012 didn’t seem to be pleasant for Kingfisher airlines. On September 29 the engineers first went on strike and the pilots also followed them the next day. Civil aviation regulator, DGCA suspended the flying license of the airline and asked it to be present in front of DGCA before December 31st stating it is ready to start operating again.

23. Vikram Pandit Resigns as Citigroup CEO on October 16

Just after the Citigroup announced their third-quarter earnings stronger then expected, two of the big heads of the bank resigned surprisingly. Vikram Pandit resigned as the CEO of Citigroup and was taken over by Michael L. Corbat, head of the bank’s Middle Eastern division. Along with Mr.Pandit Mr. John P Heavens, Citi’s president also resigned.

24. Mahindra Drives Ssangyong to India with Rexton

October 17

Finally auto manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra’s waiting was over after it launched the Rexton in India this year. The company has been waiting to bring Ssang Yong into India since 20011 after it started controlling stake of the company. The price for Rexton has been fixed at 17.67 lakhs.

25. Starbucks Opens Its First Store In India on October 19

After spreading the aroma all over the world, Starbucks finally opened its first café in India this year. Starbucks joined hands with Tata Global Beverages and entered India through a 50-50 joint venture and the café is named as Tata Starbucks Limited. The café is inaugurated in Mumbai and soon there are plans to have other outlets across the country.

26. Rajat Gupta Sentenced on October 24

Rajat Gupta, the Fallen Wall Street tycoon was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and $5 million penalty by a U.S. district court judge. The judge called his trading crimes “a terrible breach of trust” and “disgusting”. The District Court Judge Jed Rakoff also ordered Rajat Gupta to dole out a year of supervised released after the prison period ends.

27. Diageo-United Spirits Ink Deal on November 9

This is something usually we do not see in takeover situations that both the stock of the acquiring and the company bought boosts up together. But that’s what happened when Diageo Plc took control of 53.4 percent stake of United Spirits owned by Vijay Mallya which is worth 11, 166 crores.

28. Government Auctions 2G Spectrum on November 12

The 2G spectrum auction was not up to the expectation of the government. Mere 9, 407 crore were fetched out of 40, 000 crore. The auction ended after 15 rounds of bidding according to the orders of the Supreme Court.

 

29. Second Recession Strikes Euro Zone on November 15

The debt crisis of the Euro zone dragged the bloc into recession first time since 2009 instead of maximum growth in Germany and France. Data showed that the Gross Domestic Product of euro zone euro zone slipped off by 0.1 percent in July to September period.