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- The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has announced a reduction in the timeline for the announcement of Initial Public Offering (IPO) prices.
- The timeline for announcing IPOs has been reduced from 5 days to 2 days.
- The minimum anchor investor size has been reduced to Rs.2 crore from the existing Rs.10 crore.
- For Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs), foreign and domestic entities will be able to hold shares of up to 15%. (Up until now, only a few investors were allowed to hold 15% stake in exchanges and depositories.)
Paul Polman to succeed Sunil Mittal as ICC Chairman
- Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, will step down as Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
- Mittal will be succeeded by Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever.
- Mittal will assume the role of ICC Honorary Chair from July 1, 2018.
- Also, Ajay Banga, President and CEO of MasterCard, has been appointed as the next ICC First Vice-Chair.
Kota sets record as 2 lakh people perform yoga
- The Gujarat city of Kota received a Guinness World Record as nearly 2 lakh people performed yoga on the occasion of International Yoga Day.
- The previous record was of 55,524 people performing yoga, which was set in 2017 in Mysore.
- The yogic session was presided over by Baba Ramdev.
Gujarat launches wind-solar hybrid power policy
- In order to make optimum utilisation of the land and grid, the Gujarat government has announced wind-solar hybrid power policy.
- As per the policy, the developers of existing solar projects will be able to use the same land for setting up wind and solar power units.
- The electricity generated from these hybrid projects will be exempted from energy charges.
- The policy provides 50% concession for cross-subsidy surcharge.
- For captive users, the hybrid projects will have a complete waiver on cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge.
- Gujarat currently generates more than 5,500 MW through wind power and 1,600 MW through solar power.
Microsoft acquires education video start-up Flipgrid
- Microsoft has purchased Flipgrid, which is a start-up that deals with educational software.
- Flipgrid has 20 million users all over the world, including teachers, students and parents.
- Flipgrid will now be completely free for schools. Previously, the service cost $1,000 each year per school.
- The three-year-old start-up company raised $17 million in venture funding.
- The acquisition comes one-and-a-half years after Microsoft announced a partnership with Flipgrid.