2012

The year 2012 has been a memorable year for the Global Financial Market and the Global Economy. Some of the key happenings taking place across the globe including Indian economy are enlisted below:

1) Euro zone slips into second recession

The 17-country euro zone fell back into recession for the first time in three years. Eurozone contracted by 0.1 per cent in the July to September period from the quarter before. The reason for the contraction was identified as the falling demand in the countries like Netherlands and Germany.

2) Supreme Court Cancels 122 2G License in India which was given during A.Raja reign

Honorable Supreme Court of India cancels 122 licenses given to the companies, during the 2G auction held during the ministry of A.Raja which resulted in one of the largest scam in India, the 2G Scam.

3) Government auctions 2G Spectrum

After the Supreme Court cancelled the 122 licenses issued previously, the GoI conducted the auction of second-generation (2G) GSM spectrum fetching just Rs 9,407 Crore which is less than the quarter as expected by the Government. Nearly half of the blocks remained unsold at the end of the auction.

4) Diageo-United Spirits ink deal

Diageo Plc, the world’s biggest spirits maker entered into a deal with United Spirits to acquire a controlling 53.4% stake in Vijay Mallya-promoted United Spirits. The deal was closed for Rs 11,166 Crore where in it was decided Dr. Mallya will continue to be the Chairman of United Spirits. The deal will take off in two phase:

• Diageo will acquire a 27.4 per cent stake in United Spirits for Rs 5,725.4 Crore from UB Holdings and through preferential share issues
• Diageo will launch the mandatory buyback offer to acquire an additional 26 per cent stake.

5) Rajat Gupta Sentenced

Indo-American Wall Street titan and philanthropist Rajat Gupta was sentenced to two years in prison for his insider trading which was called a “disgusting” and “a terrible breach of trust” crime. Also a fine of $5 million USD was imposed on Mr. Gupta for leaking Goldman Sachs’ boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager over the past four years.

6) Starbucks opened its first store in India

Coffee giant Starbucks inaugurated its first store in India in a historic building in southern Mumbai. Seattle-based company sought to grow in its market and started its operation in India as a 50-50 joint venture with Tata Global Beverages. The new entity is named as the Tata Starbucks Ltd.

7) Kingfisher Lockout

One of the most talked about happening in the Indian economy. Debt ridden Kingfisher airlines, had to shut down its operations, when its engineers and pilot went on strike for the non payment of salary for over 6 months. The airline was forced to declare a lockout and grounded its fleet of 10 planes which is yet to be resumed till date. Following this, the flying license of the airlines was suspended by the civil aviation regulator, DGCA. For resuming the services, the company needs to submit a revival plan to the debtors, employees and aviation minister so as to get a green signal. The Company also needs to show its preparedness of its staff to operate flights, the airline’s capacity to pay for the operations and all safety measures, before flying again.

8) Government on a Reform Roll

The GoI allowed 51 per cent foreign direct investment or FDI in multi-brand retail thus allowing foreign super market chains to set up deep-discount stores in India. Also the GoI relaxed rules to allow foreign airlines to invest up to 49 per cent in Indian carriers.

9) India Blacks out on consecutive days

The Indian territory witnessed massive outage on two days after the collapse of power grids. 370 million people in Seven States and the National Capital, Delhi were without power on the first day which later increased to 19 states being in complete blackout. The crisis was caused after three grids – the northern, eastern and north-eastern tripped in the nation leading to blackout.

10) Facebook goes public on Nasdaq, lukewarm debut

Social networking site Facebook went public, but didn’t get many ‘likes’. The company recorded one of the most highly subscribed IPO, but the shares of the company fizzled on the listing day during the first trading hours erasing early gains of as much as 18 per cent. The No. 1 online social network raised as much as $18.4 billion in one of the biggest IPOs in US history.

11) GAAR introduced in the Union Budget for fiscal year 2013, which was later put on hold

The then Finance Minister of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee introduced GAAR – the General Anti Avoidance Rules, which is a set of stringent laws targeting tax evaders, partly by stopping Indian companies and investors from routing investments through Mauritius or other tax havens for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes.

12) Kodak files for Bankruptcy

Photography icon Eastman Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it sought to boost its cash position and stay in business. The company declared bankruptcy move, when it failed to find a buyer for its 1,100 digital imaging patents which would have fetched the company billions.