Excellence by Saikat Sir: 08/25/20

Central government extended the validity of expiring driving licenses and motor vehicle documents till December 31 in the wake of coronavirus crisis.
This is the third such extension after the earlier advisories on March 30 and June 9.
“Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to extend the validity of Fitness, Permits, Licenses, Registration or other documents under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 till the 31st of December 2020,” a release from the ministry stated.
“The Ministry had earlier issued advisories on 30th March and 9th June this year regarding extension of validity of the documents related to Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989. It was advised that the validity of Fitness, Permit (all types), License, Registration or any other concerned document(s) may be treated to be valid till 30th of September 2020,” the statement added.

Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Minister of Shipping and MSME: Nitin Jairam Gadkari
Constituency: Nagpur, Maharashtra

Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture (CMIA) has partnered with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to establish Covid-19 help desk to facilitate Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The help desk will provide various information on government safety guidelines, regulatory norms and government Covid-19 response schemes and support measures.
‘Covid-19 help desk will support MSMEs through in-person and phone consultation. It will offer advisory services on scaling operations and bridging the skill gap. It will also facilitate linkages to financial institutions and government departments,” stated CMAI.
The helpdesk will facilitate the recruitment of skilled workforce requirements based on the demand of MSMEs in partnership with state skill development missions and other relevant government departments/support agencies.
”The help desk will host regular webinars, consultation and interactive sessions for MSMEs to address and alleviate the Covid-19 related business challenges, clarify their queries, promotion of the business, financial guidance with necessary linkage to get support from the government and other stakeholders,” the statement added.
The help desk will be active till January 2021. MSMEs are requested to reach out to CMIA for their relevant jobs and apprenticeship opportunities available with the industries with skill requirements, location, qualification, experience etc and challenges faced by MSMEs.

India and Uzbekistan co-chaired the first National Coordination Committee meeting, wherein they held “fruitful” discussions on issues of bilateral interests such as Line of Credit (LoC) projects, trade and investment.
The meeting was co-chaired by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Uzbekistan Deputy Prime Minister Sardor Umurzakov.
India and Uzbekistan have a modest bilateral trade turnover of over USD 300 million. Pharmaceuticals is a major area of both trade and investment by India. Medical tourism to India has increased sharply in the recent past.
Notable Indian investments in Uzbekistan have been made by Indian companies in the fields of pharmaceuticals, amusement parks, automobile components and hospitality industry. A Joint Centre for Information Technology was set up in 2006 and upgraded in 2014.
An IT Park in Tashkent, established with Indian assistance, was inaugurated in July last year.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has introduced a dedicated debt and credit guarantee product, ‘Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee Program for Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC)-Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs)’, to ensure unhindered flow of credit to the last mile in rural areas hit by the pandemic.
The program entails providing partial guarantee on pooled loans extended to small and mid-sized MFIs.
Pooled Loan Issuance (PLI) structure provides the lending bank adequate comfort through partial credit protection, reduces cost of capital as the rating of the loans get notched up, and helps lenders meet priority sector goals.
Average size of500 crore of assets under management) that operate in rural hinterlands and serve farmers, traders, rural businesses and households.
Nabard has collaborated with Vivriti Capital, a technology-led credit platform, as the structurer for the facility.
Vivriti Capital manages and runs CredAvenueTM, a marketplace for enterprise debt, which enables enterprises to raise debt from loan, bond and securitisation markets.
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has tied up with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank and Vivritti to provide Rs 25000 crore funding support to low income households.

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