BNP Paribas Cardif has sold 5 crore shares of which life insurance company for Rs 2,889 crore?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut its repo rate under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) by 25 basis points to 6.0% in its first bi-monthly policy statement of the current financial year FY20, with immediate effect. The move will cheer markets and investors and is the second consecutive rate cut by the RBI. It has also maintained the policy stance neutral and lowered the retail inflation and GDP forecasts. This is the second consecutive rate cut from RBI under new Governor Shaktikanta Das, after a rate cut in February 2019.

State-owned Allahabad Bank announced a reduction in benchmark lending rate by 0.05 percentage points across various tenors. The marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) for a one-year loan has been reduced to 8.60% from 8.65% effective May 14. Most of the loans including housing loans are benchmarked against MCLR for one year.

National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved merger of private sector lender IndusInd Bank with Bharat Financial Inclusion (BFIL), a microfinance company. Last year, IndusInd Bank received 'No Objection' from Reserve Bank of India, National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange As per the report, the merger is expected to complete within 2-4 weeks. IndusInd Bank Ltd's share price is currently at Rs1,686.85, up by Rs32.25 or 1.95%, from its previous close of Rs1,654.60 on the BSE. The current market cap of the company is Rs 99,750.17crores.

Fincare Small Finance Bank (SFB) honoured with the prestigious Celent Model Bank 2019 Award in Financial Inclusion category, for 'Redesigning Lending to Reach Small Businesses'. The award recognizes LAP (Loans against Property) D.Lite, which is a tab-based solution designed and developed in-house by Fincare SFB for instant underwriting of loans against property targeted at micro and small enterprises. The Award was announced on its 12th anniversary in 2019 and was organized by Celent in New York. The other banks to receive the award in other categories were Bank of America, CIBC, Fidor Bank, HSBC, Rabobank, and Santander.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its in-principle approval to Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd for acquiring 9.9 per cent stake in Bandhan Bank following the Gruh Finance deal. Gruh Finance, the affordable housing finance arm of HDFC Ltd, was taken over by Bandhan Bank in a share-swap deal in January. After the deal was announced, HDFC made an application to the RBI for holding shares in Bandhan Bank. Recently RBI gave its approval to HDFC to acquire the shareholding of up to 9.9 per cent of the paid-up capital of Bandhan Bank upon the effective date of the scheme of amalgamation.

India's first Fintech (Financial technology) start-up enabling payments via interoperable UPI(Unified Payments Interface) QR (Quick Response) codes, BharatPe notified its venture into merchant services by launching a new app UPI Bahi Khata that allows merchants to keep a track of their cash/credit (Udhar) sales customer wise, to request the accounts receivable from customers through SMS (Short Message Service) payment links or through WhatsApp and to record accounts that are payable to suppliers. The newly launched app also helps the merchants to network and collaborate with other BharatQR merchants near them to expand their businesses. The major features on BharatPe app for merchants are: UPI Khata (Ledger), Managing Supplier Bills, Cashback, Settlements and Refer and Earn.

Quikr has acquired Bengaluru-based secondhand goods marketplace Zefo, for INR 200 Crore to strengthen the sales of its pre-owned goods business. With this pre-owned product's market in India will reach USD 12-15 billion in the year 2020. Normally a pre-owned product's price can be as low as 30-60 percent of a new one. Zefo is an online marketplace for selling refurbished TVs, mobile phones and furniture.

India's education technology startup 'Dost Education' has bagged a $25,000 Next Billion Edtech Prize 2019. Two other startups, Ubongo (Tanzania) and PraxiLabs (Egypt), also won the award. Dost Education was awarded for its ability to empower parents to take charge of their child's early education by creating short, friendly audio content that is sent to them via their mobile phones. Because of this app low-income families need no longer send their children to primary school behind and without a chance to catch up.

Budget carrier Spicejet announced the signing of an initial pact for code share partnership with Gulf carrier Emirates on 22 April 2019. The partnership will allow the opening of new routes and destinations for passengers of the two airlines. Code-sharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless travel to destinations where it has no presence.

Microsoft has reached a valuation of one trillion dollars for the first time after posting an increase in profits. It makes the software giant only the third publicly-traded company in history to reach the threshold after Apple and Amazon passed it in 2018. Microsoft's current valuation also means that it has again taken over Apple as the world's most valuable company.