Daily Current Affairs April 25 2023

CURRENT AFFAIRS : BANKING & FINANCE

InPrime Finserv Officially Recognized as Non-Banking Financial Company from Reserve Bank of India

• InPrime Finserv, a financial services start-up catering to the informal economy, has obtained a Certificate of Registration (COR) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
• With this license, InPrime joins an exclusive group of startups that have received approval from the RBI to build a lending business.
• The company plans to commence operations in Bangalore in the coming months and gradually expand its presence in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, playing a significant role in promoting financial inclusion in India.

About InPrime Finserv :

• Headquarters : Bangalore, Karnataka
• Co-founder & CEO : Rajat Singh
• InPrime Finserv is a brand owned by STK Credit Private Limited, a NBFC.

Mission :

• To “Redefine the way informal customers access formal finance.”
• It is focused on providing financial services to the “Prime” segment of India’s informal economy, which consists of around 50 million households with an annual credit need of Rs. 5 Lakh Crores.
• Additionally, InPrime plans to empower customers holistically by providing multiple repayment channels and a gamified financial and digital literacy program to promote self-service.

RBI provides 3 year relaxation of HDFC bank to meet PSL              

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given a relaxation of 3 years for HDFC Bank to comply with the priority sector lending norms (PSL) following its merger with HDFC Ltd (HDFC).
• However, RBI refused to make any exceptions on cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) requirements.
• Under the PSL norms, commercial banks are required to devote over 40% of their overall advances to areas marked as priority sectors for the emancipation of certain marginalized sections of society, whereas a non-bank lender like HDFC does not have to comply with such mandates.
• CRR is the percentage of deposits that a commercial bank like HDFC Bank has to park with the central bank for which it does not earn any interest, while SLR is a percentage of deposits that are mandated to be invested in government securities.

About RBI :

• Established : 1 April 1935
• Headquarters : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• Governor : Shaktikanta Das
• Deputy governors : Mahesh Kumar Jain, M. Rajeshwar Rao, Michael Patra and T. Rabi Shankar

About HDFC Bank Ltd :

• Founded : August 1994
• Headquarters : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• MD & CEO : Sashidhar Jagdishan
• Tagline : We Understand Your World

Union Bank of India secures 1st Rank in EASE reforms

• For the first time, Union Bank of India (UBI), secured 1st rank as per the report on Enhanced Access & Service Excellence (EASE) Reforms Index for Q3 FY 2022-23 published by Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

Key Highlights :

• EASE is an initiative by the DFS (GOI) as part of the PSB Reforms Agenda.
• It is currently under its fifth iteration which focuses on Enhanced Digital experience, Data – driven, Integrated and Inclusive Banking.
• The performance of PSBs is measured on five themes under EASE 5.0, in which, Union Bank of India has set the benchmark under the four themes e., “Digitally – enabled customer offerings”, ‘Big data and analytics’, ‘Modern Technology Capabilities’ and “Employee development and Governance” by securing 1st rank amongst PSBs.

About UBI :

• Founded : 11 November 1919
• Headquarters : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• MD & CEO : A. Manimekhalai
• Tagline : Good People to Bank with

Canara Bank partnered with Reserve Bank of India innovation hub

• Canara Bank, in collaboration with Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), has launched the “Digitalised Submission of Form 15G/15H” as one of customer friendly services adding to our pursuit of “Customer Delight“.
• Form 15G (Individual and HUF) and Form 15H (Individual-Senior Citizen) are self-declaration forms that an individual submits to the bank requesting not to deduct TDS on interest income as their income is below the basic exemption limit.
• For this, providing Permanent Account Number (PAN) is compulsory.
• RBIH (Reserve Bank Innovation Hub) identified the problem, consulted several Banks for potential solutions and then conceptualised and created a blueprint to address the above issue.

About Canara Bank :

• Founded : 1910 (Nationalised in 1969)
• Headquarters : Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• MD & CEO : K Satyanarayana Raju
• Tagline : Together we can

Mastercard partners with India’s M1xchange to roll out digital invoice discounting for farmers

• Mastercard announced its collaboration with M1xchange to offer a digital invoice discounting solution to farmers, farmer producer organizations (FPOs), and agri-Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through Farm Pass, its cutting-edge agritech platform.
• The solution is the first of its kind for the agriculture sector & will help lenders in underwriting credit offerings through the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS).
• Farm Pass is part of Mastercard’s broader Community Pass platform.

Key Highlights :

• As part of the collaboration, M1xchange, an RBI-approved facilitator for discounting and sale of receivables to banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), will bring on board its vast network of agri-businesses and lenders.
• This solution will allow farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to directly connect with buyers, negotiate the best price for their produce, and get paid faster.

About M1xchange :

• Headquarters : Gurugram, Haryana
• Chief Executive Officer : Sundeep Mohindru

About Mastercard :

• Founded : 1966
• Headquarters : New York, U.S
• CEO : Michael Miebach

ICICI Bank Introduces EMI Facility for UPI Payments by scanning QR code   

• ICICI Bank has introduced equated monthly instalment (EMI) facility for Unified Payment Interface (UPI) payments made by scanning QR code.
• This first-of-its-kind facility enhances affordability of lakhs of the bank’s customers as they can now instantly buy products or services just by scanning the required merchant QR code at a store and making payments in EMIs.

Key Highlights :

• Customers eligible for PayLater, the bank’s ‘buy now, pay later’ service can avail of the EMI facility in a seamless manner.
• The facility can be availed across a host of categories such as electronics, groceries, fashion apparels, travel and hotel bookings.
• Customers can pay a transaction amount above Rs 10,000 in instalments in 3, 6 or 9 months.
• ICICI Bank introduced PayLater facility in 2018 to enable customers to buy small ticket items immediately in a digital and paperless manner.

About ICICI Bank Ltd :

• Founded : 5 January 1994
• Headquarters : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• MD & CEO : Sandeep Bakhshi
• Tagline : Hum Hai na khayal apka

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL NEWS

Jakson Green developing green hydrogen refuelling station in New Delhi

• Jakson Green announced that the company is developing a Green Hydrogen fuelling station at Badarpur, New Delhi f or a major power company in India.
• The fuelling station is expected to produce 260 kg of green hydrogen per day at a pressure of 350 bar that will be utilised to fuel up to five intercity FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle) buses.
• The project is expected to aid the recently launched National Hydrogen Mission & significantly contribute towards propelling India’s low carbon quotient/journey.

PM praises “Abhilekh patal” a portal with over 1 Crore Pages of Historical Records of the National Archives

• The Prime Minister of India praised “Abhilekh Patal” a portal with over 1 Crore Pages of Historical Records of the National Archives.
• Abhilekh Patal is a full-featured web portal to access the National Archives of India’s reference media and its digitized collections through the Internet.
• Abhilekh is a Sanskrit term used in India for records since ancient times and Patalis a Sanskrit word meaning a board, platform, or surface.
• A combination of both these words has been adopted as an acronym for Portal for Access to Archives and Learning.
• It was established on 11 March 1891 at Calcutta (Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department, it is the biggest archival repository in South Asia.
• It is the repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and is holding them in trust for the use of record creators and general users.
• It is Located at the heart of New Delhi.

Ministry of Civil Aviation Launches UDAN 5.0

• Following the four successful rounds of bidding, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched the 5th round of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) to further enhance the connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country and achieve last mile connectivity.
• This round of UDAN focuses on Category-2 (20-80 seats) and Category-3 (>80 seats).
• The earlier stage length cap of 600 km is waived off and there is no restriction on the distance between the origin and destination of the flight.
• Viability gap funding (VGF) to be provided will be capped a t 600 km stage length for both Priority and Non-Priority areas which was earlier capped at 500 km.
• No predetermined routes would be offered.
• Only Network and Individual Route Proposal proposed by airlines will be considered.
• The airlines would be required to submit an action/business plan after 2 months from the issuance of LoA wherein they submit their aircraft acquisition plan/availability of aircraft, crew, slots, etc. at the time of the Technical Proposal.
• Exclusivity will be withdrawn if the average quarterly PLF is higher than 75% for four continuous quarters, to prevent exploitation of the monopoly on a route.
• 25% of the Performance Guarantee to be encashed for each month of delay up to 4 months, to further incentivize quick operationalization.
• Airlines would be required to commence operations within 4 months of the award of the route.
• Earlier this deadline was 6 months.
• This new & stronger version of the scheme will raise the momentum, connecting new routes, and bring us closer to the target of operationalizing 1000 routes & 50 additional airports, heliports, and water aerodromes in the near future. अब उड़ेगा देश का हर आम नागरिक!”
• It was launched as a Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 2016, to provide affordable, economically viable and profitable air travel on regional routes to the common man even in small towns.

MPLADS: Rs 1,500 crore remains non-disbursed in FY23

• Nearly two weeks after the launch of the Sakshi portal for digitising the fund flow architecture in the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), data provided by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in Parliament earlier this month shows that more than a third of the Rs 3,965 crore budgeted under MPLADS for 2022-23 (FY23) remain non-disbursed.
• MoSPI, informed that until March 30, only Rs 2,387 crore had been disbursed (60 per cent).
• Gujarat (35.7 per cent), Kerala (37.2 per cent), Tamil Nadu (38.9 per cent), Haryana (41.3 per cent), and Himachal Pradesh (48.6 per cent) have disbursed less than half the amount sanctioned to their parliamentarians.
• Under the MPLAD scheme, all elected and nominated members of both Houses of Parliament are provided with Rs 5 crore annually to recommend works of developmental nature with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets in their constituencies.
• Earlier, the scheme was made non-operational from April 2020 through November 2021 due to the pandemic and funds to the tune of Rs 6,320 crore were placed at the disposal of the Ministry of Finance for managing the health and the adverse impacts of the pandemic.
• It was partially restored in November 2021.
• FY23 was the first year of its full operation after 2019-20.

Shri Tomar launches Seed Traceability portal and mobile app

• Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched the SATHI Portal and Mobile App.
• The Seed Traceability, Authentication and Holistic Inventory (SATHI) portal is a Centralized Online System designed to deal with the challenges of seed production, quality seed identification and seed certification.
• It has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on the theme of ‘Uttam Beej – Samriddh Kisan.
• There will be a QR code under this system, through which the seeds can be traced.
• It will ensure a quality assurance system, and identify the source of seed in the seed production chain.
• The system will consist of integrated 7 verticals of the seed chain – Research Organisation, Seed Certification, Seed Licensing, Seed Catalogue, Dealer to Farmer Sales, Farmer Registration and Seed DBT.
• Seeds with valid certification can only be sold by valid licensed dealers to centrally registered farmers who will receive a subsidy through DBT directly into their pre-validated bank accounts.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : STATE NEWS

Tamil Nadu Assembly passes Bill to extend daily work hours from 8 to 12 for factory workers  

• The Tamil Nadu (TN) Legislative Assembly, passed a bill amending the Factories Act, 1948, which extends the daily working hours from 8 to 12 hours for factory workers.
• The Factories (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Bill, 2023 was tabled on April 12, 2023 & faced severe criticism from many quarters.
• Workers can now choose to work for 12-hour daily shifts and they will be entitled to a four-day work week, with three days off.
• ‘The remaining three days will be paid leave and the existing rules on leave, overtime, pay etc. will not change.
• By way of the amendment made to the Factories Act, 1948, section 65A is inserted into the Act, which enables the state government to exempt any factory or group of factories from sections 51 (weekly hours), 52 (weekly holidays), 54 (daily hours), 55 (intervals for rest), 56 (spread over), and 59 (prohibition of overlapping shifts) of the Factories Act.
• In May 2020, as many as 10 states – Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Assam, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh had proposed tweaking labour laws during the pandemic, revising the working hours to 12 hours.
• The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government had also issued an order increasing the daily working hours from 8 hours to 12, but withdrew it in May 2020.

About Tamil Nadu :

• Governor: R. N. Ravi
• Chief minister: M. K. Stalin
• Capital: Chennai
• Dance : Bharatnatyam, Karakattam
• National Park : Mudumalai National Park, Mukurthi National Park, Guindy National Park, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park
• Wildlife Sanctuaries : Kalakad Wildlife sanctuary, Karikili Bird Sanctuary, Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary
• Tiger Reserve : Anamalai Tiger Reserve
• Biosphere Reserve : Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve

CURRENT AFFAIRS : APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

Oliver Dowden sworn in as new United Kingdom’s deputy prime minister

• The British government named Oliver Dowden as deputy prime minister (PM) replacing Dominic Raab who resigned earlier in the day following a report into claims he bullied colleagues.
• Dominic Raab’s resignation marks the 3rd dramatic Cabinet departure from Rishi Sunak’s government even though Sunak has been PM for under 6 months.
• In the same announcement, lawmaker Alex Chalk was appointed new justice minister, a position which was previously held by Dominic Raab.

About Oliver Dowden :

• He served in the Boris Johnson government as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2019 to 2020 and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2020 to 2021.
• In the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, he was moved to the posts of Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party
• Currently he serves as cabinet office minister in Rishi Sunak’s government.

About UK :

• Prime Minister : Rishi Sunak
• Capital : London
• Currency : Pound sterling

Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh appointed as 8th Chief Justice of Tripura High Court

• Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, Judge of the Jharkhand High Court (HC), was sworn-in as the 8th Chief Justice (CJ) of the Tripura High Court.
• Governor Shri Satyadeo Narain Arya administered the oath of office to Justice Singh at a function at the Raj Bhavan.
• The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice Y. Chandrachud recommended the name of Justice Singh for the post.
• The Tripura HC was set up in March, 2013 along with the full-fledged High Courts in Meghalaya and Manipur.
• All the northeastern states, excluding Sikkim, were earlier under the Gauhati High Court.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS

Wing Commander Deepika Misra becomes 1st woman IAF officer to get Gallantry Award

• Wing Commander Deepika Mishra made history by becoming the first female officer in the Indian Air Force to be honoured with a gallantry award.
• In 2022, Deepika was among the awardees announced for the Vayu Seva Medal for Gallantry on Independence Day.
• On April 20, 2023, the medal has been conferred on Deepika by Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari at an investiture ceremony held in New Delhi.

About Deepika Mishra

• In August 2021, Deepika Mishra was deployed to conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in response to flash floods in northern Madhya Pradesh.
• She was the first and only responder to reach the affected area and saved the lives of 47 people.
• IAF chief presented the award to two IAF officers were awarded Yudh Seva Medal, 13 officers, and air warriors received Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry), 13 officers Vayu Sena Medal and 30 Vishisht Seva Medal.
• The IAF chief awarded a total of 58 personnel with gallantry awards, of which 57 are from the IAF and the remainder from the Indian army.

PM GatiShakti national master plan wins award for excellence in public administration

• PM Gati Shakti’s national master plan initiative received the award for excellence in public administration.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the award for excellence in public administration to PM Gati Shakti national master plan initiative.
• This award is conferred for excellence in public administration for the effective implementation of priority programmes.
• This award was instituted to recognise the extraordinary and innovative work done by districts and organisations of the central and state governments for people’s welfare.
• This initiative of Ministry of Commerce a nd Industry has received the award in innovation category.
• A GIS enabled national master plan digital platform has also been developed.
• Data related to land records, ports, forest, schools, railway stations, water bodies, telecom towers, and highways are available on the portal of this initiative.
• PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan was launched in October 2021.
• It was launched for the integrated and planned development of critical infrastructure projects to reduce logistics costs.
• It will help in developing infrastructure in different fields including transport and productivity.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOUS AND AGREEMENT

CSIR signs an Umbrella MoU with OIL India

• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi and Oil India Ltd. (OIL), a Navaratna NOC inked an umbrella Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pursue technological partnership in select domains across the Energy value chain.
• This will be a collaborative arrangement between labs of CSIR and OIL.
• The objective of the MoU is to facilitate collaboration for pursuing research in advanced technologies for energy security.
• Oil India Limited is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.
• Headquarters: Noida, Dr. Ranjit Rath- Chairman & Managing Director.

Mitsubishi Electric to set up $222-million AC manufacturing plant in Chennai

• Mitsubishi Electric India has signed an agreement with Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai Ltd, a joint venture between Mahindra World City Developers and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, to set up an air-conditioners and compressors manufacturing plant at Origins by Mahindra, Chennai.
• The electric and electronic equipment manufacturing company will invest around $222 million (about ₹1,819 crore) in the facility spread over 52 acres.
• According to a regulatory filing by Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd, the plant will be operational by October 2025.
• Kazuhiko Tamura is a Managing Director of Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt Ltd.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING AND INDEX

India climbs 6 places on World Bank index to 38 among 139 countries

• India has improved its ranking in the World Bank’s Logistic Performance Index 2023 by six places, owing to significant investments in both soft and hard infrastructure as well as technology, which has led to an improvement in the country’s port performance.
• Singapore and Finland are the most efficient and highest-ranked LPI countries.
• India’s ranking: According to the report, India’s rank in the index of 139 countries has risen to 38 from 44 in 2018.
• International shipments: In 2023, India’s ranking for international shipments improved significantly, moving up from 44 in 2018 to 22.
• Logistics competence and equality: The country also climbed four places to rank 48 in logistics competence and equality.
• Timeline: In terms of timelines, India saw a significant improvement, moving up 17 places in the rankings.
• Tracking and tracing: Additionally, India improved three places in tracking and tracing, now ranking at 38.
• The LPI 2023 allows for comparisons across 139 countries.
• The 2023 LPI for the first time measures the speed of trade with indicators derived from big datasets tracking shipments.
• India’s logistics sector is estimated to account for about 14.4% of the GDP. The unorganized sector amounts to over 90% of the logistics sector.
• The GOI proclaimed PM Gati Shakti’s initiative, a National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity, in October 2021, which will lessen the logistics cost and work as an economic booster by 2024-25.
• The 7th edition of Connecting to Compete, the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) report, comes after three years amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

TCS tops LinkedIn’s 2023 Top Companies India list showcasing best places to work

• Tata Consultancy Services has emerged as the top company in a list, which showcases the best places to work and grow careers, for 2023.
• TCS is followed by Amazon (2) and Morgan Stanley (3) in the ‘2023 Top Companies India’ list prepared by LinkedIn.
• There has been a shift from tech companies, which dominated the list last year, with companies across financial services, oil and gas, professional services, manufacturing and gaming featuring in this year’s list.
• A vast majority of the companies, that is 10 out of 25 comp anies are from the financial services/ banking/ fintech space, including companies such as Macquarie Group (5), HDFC Bank (11), Mastercard (12), and Yubi (14).
• The 2023 Top Companies India list is based on LinkedIn’s data to rank companies on eight pillars that have been shown to lead to career progression, including ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, educational background and employee presence in the country.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : OBITUARIES

Former Odisha MP & 3 Time MLA Trilochan Kanungo Passed away

• Veteran politician and former Jagatsinghpur Member of Parliament (MP) Trilochan Kanungo passed away at the age of 83 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

About Trilochan Kanungo :

• Trilochan Kanungo was born on 24 November 1940 in Cuttack, Odisha.
• He was elected to the Odisha Assembly in 1971, 1974 and
• In 1999, he was elected from the Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha seat on a BJD ticket.
• He served as Chairman of Cuttack municipality (1979-80 and 1992-95).
• He was also chairman of the second Odisha Finance Commission.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS

World Malaria Day 2022: April 25

• World Malaria Day is observed on April 25 all over the world.
• World Malaria Day will reinforce the Global Fund Investment (GFI) using the theme advance quality, building resilience, and ending malaria.
• That effort is echoed in this year’s theme: “Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement.”
• World Malaria Day which was first held in 2008 developed from Africa Malaria Day an event that had been observed since 2001 by African governments.
• The observance served as a time to assess progress towards goals aimed at controlling malaria and reducing its mortality in African countries.
• In 2007 at the 60th session of the World Health Assembly by the World Health Organization it was proposed that Africa Malaria day be changed to World Malaria Day to recognize the existence of malaria in countries worldwide and to bring greater awareness to the global fight against the malaria disease

Daily CA One- Liner: April 25

• InPrime Finserv, a financial services start-up catering to the informal economy, has obtained a Certificate of Registration (COR) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given relaxation of 3 years for HDFC Bank to comply with the priority sector lending norms (PSL) following its merger with HDFC Ltd (HDFC).
• For the first time, Union Bank of India (UBI), secured 1st rank as per the report on Enhanced Access & Service Excellence (EASE) Reforms Index for Q3 FY 2022-23 published by Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
• Canara Bank, in collaboration with Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), has launched the “Digitalised Submission of Form 15G/15H” as one of customer friendly services adding to our pursuit of “Customer Delight“.
• Mastercard announced its collaboration with M1xchange to offer a digital invoice discounting solution to farmers, farmer producer organizations (FPOs), and agri-Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through Farm Pass, its cutting-edge agritech platform.
• ICICI Bank has introduced equated monthly instalment (EMI) facility for Unifief Payment Interface (UPI) payments made by scanning QR code.
• The Tamil Nadu (TN) Legislative Assembly, passed a bill amending the Factories Act, 1948, which extends the daily working hours from 8 to 12 hours for factory workers.
• The British government named Oliver Dowden as deputy prime minister (PM) replacing Dominic Raab who resigned earlier in the day following a report into claims he bullied colleagues.
• Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, Judge of the Jharkhand High Court (HC), was sworn-in as the 8th Chief Justice (CJ) of the Tripura High Court.
• Jakson Green announced that the company is developing a Green Hydrogen fuelling station at Badarpur, New Delhi f or a major power company in India
• The Prime Minister of India praised “Abhilekh Patal” a portal with over 1 Crore Pages of Historical Records of the National Archives
• Following the four successful rounds of bidding, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched the 5th round of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) to further enhance the connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country and achieve last mile connectivity
• Nearly two weeks after the launch of the Sakshi portal for digitising the fund flow architecture in the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), data provided by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in Parliament earlier this month shows that more than a third of the Rs 3,965 crore budgeted under MPLADS for 2022-23 (FY23) remain non-disbursed
• Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shri Narendra Sin gh Tomar launched the SATHI Portal and Mobile App
• Wing Commander Deepika Mishra made history by becoming the first female officer in the Indian Air Force to be honored with a gallantry award
• PM Gati Shakti’s national master plan initiative received the award for excellence in public administration
• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi and Oil India Ltd. (OIL), a Navaratna NOC inked an umbrella Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pursue technological partnership in select domains across the Energy value chain
• Mitsubishi Electric India has signed an agreement with Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai Ltd, a joint venture between Mahindra World City Developers and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, to set up an air-conditioners and compressors manufacturing plant at Origins by Mahindra, Chennai
• India has improved its ranking in the World Bank’s Logistic Performance Index 2023 by six places, owing to significant investments in both soft and hard infrastructure as well as technology, which has led to an improvement in the country’s port performance
• Tata Consultancy Services has emerged as the top company in a list, which showcases the best places to work and grow careers, for 2023
• Veteran politician and former Jagatsinghpur Member of Parliment (MP) Trilochan Kanungo passed away at the age of 83 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
• World Malaria Day is observed on April 25 all over the world