Where and when will the 31st CII Partnership Summit be held?

The correct answer is USD 863 billion last year and a USD 1 trillion target. The Commerce and Industry Minister gave both figures at the curtain raiser of the 31st CII Partnership Summit and pointed out that moving from one to the other means growth of close to 16 per cent, in a year when world trade is expected to grow only about 2.5 to 3 per cent and the global economy is likely to expand by less than 3 per cent. Options A, C and D use figures that were not stated. The Minister also stressed that the target was not set by government alone but by the country’s enterprises, among them 63 million MSMEs, large and small industry, global capability centres and roughly 250,000 startups, and he expressed confidence that India would keep growing at more than 7 per cent.

The correct answer is USD 30 trillion. The Minister said the economy, which is around USD 4 trillion at present, has the potential to grow to that size by 2047, the hundredth year of independence and the year set for the goal of a developed India. Options A, B and D are round figures that were not used. The same speech is worth revising for its other dates and numbers: the Prime Minister completing 25 years as a head of government, counted from his term as Chief Minister of Gujarat beginning on 7 October 2001 and continuing as Prime Minister from 26 May 2014; and the statement, recalled from the India Mobile Congress, that Digital India has saved the country more than Rs. 5 lakh crore, or over USD 55 billion, across the past 12 years. Candidates should also remember the five T’s of Technology, Trust, Trade, Talent and Tradition.

The correct answer is VINCI S.A. The acquirer is a company incorporated under the laws of France and is ultimately controlled by VINCI S.A. through VINCI Highways and VINCI Concessions. VINCI is a global player in concessions, energy and construction with operations in a large number of countries. The targets are special purpose vehicles that operate specific stretches of national highway in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat, together with a company that supplies them operation and maintenance as well as engineering, procurement and construction services. Option B is the private equity firm behind a different approval of the same day, the nutraceuticals transaction. Option C manages the pension fund behind the hospitality transaction. Option D is named only as a plausible infrastructure investor and is not the parent described in the approval.

The correct answer is 58.47 per cent. JSW Projects Limited, an unlisted company of the JSW Group based in Mumbai, holds that share of the equity in BMM Ispat Limited at present, and the proposed combination is meant to convert this majority interest into full ownership by amalgamating BMM into JSW Steel Limited. The stated aim is to improve operational, financial and organisational efficiency through economies of scale, pooling of resources and rationalisation of capital, since BMM is already integrated into the group supply chain through sales and purchases within the group. The other options are ordinary shareholding thresholds that often appear in company law questions, but none of them is the figure stated for this transaction. BMM itself runs an integrated steel plant of about one million tonnes a year in Karnataka.

The correct answer is the Competition Commission of India. It is the statutory authority that examines proposed combinations, meaning mergers, amalgamations and acquisitions above the prescribed thresholds, to see whether they would cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India, and it cleared this internal restructuring of the JSW Group along with three other combinations the same day. Option A, the securities market regulator, oversees stock exchanges, listed companies, mutual funds and market intermediaries, and takeover disclosures, but it does not grant combination approvals of this kind. Option C is the central bank and regulates banks, payment systems and monetary policy, and would come in only where a bank or a non-banking financial company is involved. Option D deals with insolvency resolution and liquidation under the insolvency code, which is not what this transaction is.