Government to merge three PSBs, Amazon may soon sell insurance, and more top news

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Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will merge to create the country's third-largest lender. The amalgamation – aimed at strengthening the state-run banks and shoring up their lending ability – will result in an entity with a total business of more than ?14.82 lakh crore. Banking secretary Rajeev Kumar said employee interest would be protected in the exercise, just as SBI’s merger with five associate banks was done without any job losses. Mint recently reported that India was weighing consolidating Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Central Bank of India to check rising bad loans.

Amazon could soon be selling insurance in India. Citing RoC filings, BloombergQuint reports that the e-commerce behemoth wants to start with life, health and general insurance policies even though it’s yet to seek sector regulator IRDAI’s nod. Amazon already has an indirect exposure to the segment – earlier this year, it led a $12 million round in digital insurance startup Acko. Rival Flipkart has also sought IRDAI’s approval to sell life and health covers while Paytm already has a corporate agency licence. India’s insurance industry is expected to hit $280 billion by 2020, according to an Assocham-APAS report.

MLAs who are 5th-12th pass are better off than their more qualified counterparts with an average annual income of over ?31 lakh, shows a report by Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch. The sweet spot? 8th pass, where it goes as high as ?90 lakh. In comparison, legislators who are graduate and above make merely ?21 lakh on average. The report further shows that Karnataka has the richest MLAs in the country with an average income over ?1 crore compared to about ?25 lakh for the rest of the country.

OYO, Cure.Fit and Dunzo are some of the most sought-after startups in India. Which startups are commanding the attention and working hours of top talent? The LinkedIn Top Startups list ranks the young companies transforming their industries and attracting the best of the best. Using the billions of actions created by LinkedIn’s 575 million members, the list examines jobseeker interest, employee growth and other factors to determine the nation’s 25 hottest startups. See the full list and learn more about the methodology here.

The Supreme Court has stayed the ban on drugs such as Saridon, Piriton and Dart, and allowed their sale by chemists. The drugs were part of the 328 fixed-dose combinations banned by the health ministry on September 7. The ministry’s action followed a report from the DTAB, the country's top drug advisory body, which said the FDCs offered no therapeutic value and might instead pose a health risk. India has about 2,000 FDCs, compared with just over 500 in the US. 

Idea of the Day: The role of modern corporations is changing, says CNBC editor-in-chief Nikhil Deogun.

“The most successful value-creating organisations are also thinking about how to be successful in society. The employees and customers of corporations are pushing organisations to look at how they do business, where they do business and what value they create.”

What's your take on today’s stories? Share your thoughts in the comments.

— Abhigyan Chand and Mandar M Bakre/Share this using #DailyRundown

This article was updated. From earlier: The first private passenger has signed up for a SpaceX flight around the moon.