MUMBAI, Oct 27: The Reserve Bank on Tuesday asked all lending institutions, including non-banking financial companies, to ensure that the scheme of waiver of interest on interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore for the six-month moratorium period is implemented by November 5, as decided by the government.
Last Friday, the government had announced the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts.
The lending institutions have been asked to complete the exercise of crediting the amount in the accounts of borrowers by November 5.
Housing loans, education loans, credit card dues, auto loans, MSME loans, consumer durable loans and consumption loans are covered under the scheme.
The scheme mandates ex-gratia payment to certain categories of borrowers by way of crediting the difference between simple interest and compound interest for the period between March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020 by respective lending institutions.
“All lending institutions are advised to be guided by the provisions of the Scheme and take necessary action within the stipulated timeline,” the RBI said in a notification.
In a tweet, office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said “RBI advises all lending institutions to be guided by the provisions of the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest & simple interest for 6 months to borrowers in specified loan accounts & take necessary action within the stipulated timeline”.
The finance ministry had issued the operational guidelines on October 23, in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s direction to implement the interest waiver scheme.
The apex court on October 14, directed the Centre to implement “as soon as possible” interest waiver on loans of up to Rs 2 crore under the RBI moratorium scheme in view of the COVID-19 pandemic saying the common man’s Diwali is in the government’s hands.
As per the scheme, the lending institutions shall credit the difference between compound interest and simple interest with regard to the eligible borrowers in respective accounts for the said period irrespective of whether the borrower fully or partially availed the moratorium on repayment of loan announced by the RBI on March 27, 2020.
The scheme is also applicable on those who have not availed the moratorium scheme and continued with the repayment of loans.
The lending institutions after crediting the amount will claim the reimbursement from the central government.
The RBI had announced a moratorium on repayment of debt for six months beginning March 1, 2020 to help businesses and individuals tide over the financial problems on account of disruption in normal business activities. (PTI)

Mumbai, Oct 27: EV maker Kinetic Green is looking to set up a manufacturing facility for electric golf carts besides a battery swapping unit at an investment of Rs 1,750 crore in Andhra Pradesh, a top company official said.
Kinetic Green Energy  & Power Solutions, which is a part of the Pune-based Kinetic Group, had in February 2018 announced  setting up of a joint venture with Tonino Lamborghini in India for design and manufacture of premium segment golf carts and other electric off-road vehicles.
“We are exploring the possibility of setting up a unit in SEZ for the golf cart project. It is in the proposal phase. It is a combination of a unit in SEZ  and we are also looking at investment in setting up battery swapping (infrastructure) to promote electric three-wheelers irrespective of the brand,”  Kinetic Green founder and CEO Sulajja Firodia Motwani told PTI in an interaction.
She said the company has submitted a proposal to the Andhra Pradesh government, and it is awaiting the government’s response.
Motwani said the two projects– setting up a manufacturing facility for electric golf carts and a battery swapping unit — entail an investment of Rs 1,750 crore.
“For Lamborghini , we are looking to set up a plant in SEZ because that will allow us to have an attractive export opportunity,” she said adding that separately,  the company is looking at setting up a battery swapping unit for three-wheelers.
“We are looking at these opportunities as part of our proposal,” Motwani added.
She said Andhra Pradesh  is the largest three-wheeler market in the country but only for the high-speed three-wheelers.
“There is no e-rickshaw market there.  So, if you have to penetrate in the high-speed market you have to have battery swapping (facility)  because then the vehicle becomes very attractive.”
Kinetic Green plans to  set up the battery swapping infrastructure in the key cities of Andhra Pradesh  so that three-wheelers can be sold in a large number, Motwani said.
“The network that we are looking at is not only for our three- wheelers but  for any  brand,” he added. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Oct 27: Mumbai-based video-making platform InVideo on Tuesday said it has raised around Rs 110 crore in series A round of funding led by Sequoia Capital India.
The round also saw participation from Tiger Global, Hummingbird, RTP Global and Base, the company said.
“This fresh capital injection will allow us to continue our mission to build a world-class technology solution, expand at scale and help more individuals and businesses create unique videos that fit their needs in the easiest way possible,” InVideo CEO and co-founder Sanket Shah said in a statement.
InVideo was launched in April 2019 by Shah and Harsh Vakharia.
The platform claims to have over 8 lakh users from more than 150 countries who have created videos in over 75 languages.
“We believe the global SaaS companies of tomorrow are going to be built from India. And with their stellar product, design and tech capabilities, InVideo is well-placed to become the platform of choice for video creation in a potentially USD 10 billion (about Rs 73,700 crore) market,” Sequoia Capital India LLP, vice president, Prateek Sharma said. (PTI)

New Delhi, Oct 27: The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) benefits for 2019-20 at the earliest.
All our members are reeling under the financial stress as it has become difficult for them to manage anymore and survive without any earnings in the past 7 months, IATO said in a letter to the PM.
“For 2019-20, SEIS has not been announced by the government during this difficult time, whereas our members have already spent the funds for marketing, promotions to compete with our neighbouring countries, anticipating that SEIS will be given to tour operators,” IATO President Pronab Sarkar said.
Without the support of SEIS benefits, tour operators shall not be able to perform and compete with their neighbouring countries and attract more foreign tourists to India, he added.
“May we, therefore, request your good office that our following request may kindly be considered on priority to help the tourism industry — To announce the SEIS scrips for 2019-20 at the earliest, and to increase SEIS scrips percentage from seven per cent to 10 per cent for the tour operators/travel agents,” the letter said.
SEIS benefits are being given to the tourism industry based on their foreign exchange earnings under the Foreign Trade Policy. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Oct 27: Scientists have confirmed, for the first time, the presence of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon, a discovery which indicates that water molecules may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to the cold, shadowed places as previously thought.
Using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the researchers, including those from the University of Hawaii in the US, detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater — one of the largest craters visible from the Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.
While earlier studies of the Moon’s surface, including those conducted during the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 mission, detected some form of hydrogen, the NASA scientists said these were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH).
Data from the current study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, revealed that the Clavius Crater region has water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million — roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water — trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface.
As a comparison, the researchers said the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil.
“Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration. But we didn’t know how much, if any, was actually water molecules — like we drink every day — or something more like drain cleaner,” said Casey Honniball, the lead author of the study from the University of Hawaii.
Despite the small amounts, they said the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface.
“We had indications that H2O — the familiar water we know — might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon. Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Whether the water SOFIA found is easily accessible for use as a resource remains to be determined, the researchers added.
According to the scientists, SOFIA offered a new means of looking at the Moon, flying at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet.
They said the modified Boeing 747SP jetliner with a 106-inch diameter telescope reaches above 99 per cent of the water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere to get a clearer view of radiation from the universe in the infrared wavelength.
Using its Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), the researchers said SOFIA was able to pick up the specific wavelength unique to water molecules and discovered a relatively surprising concentration in the sunny Clavius Crater.
“Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space. Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there,” Honniball said.
The scientists believe several forces could be at play in the delivery or creation of this water.
One possibility they said could be from micrometeorites raining down on the lunar surface, carrying small amounts of water, which may deposit the water on the lunar surface upon impact.
The researchers hypothesised that there may also be a two-step process whereby the Sun’s solar wind delivers hydrogen to the lunar surface and causes a chemical reaction with oxygen-bearing minerals in the soil to create hydroxyl.
Meanwhile, they said radiation from the bombardment of micrometeorites could be transforming that hydroxyl into water.
Commenting on how the water was stored on the lunar surface, the scientists noted that the water could be trapped into tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form out of the high heat created by micrometeorite impacts.
Another possibility is that the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight –potentially making it a bit more accessible than water trapped in beadlike structures, they noted in a statement.
“It was, in fact, the first time SOFIA has looked at the Moon, and we weren’t even completely sure if we would get reliable data, but questions about the Moon’s water compelled us to try,” said Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the US.
“It’s incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observations,” Rangwala added. (PTI)