NATIONAL NEWS

‘Kanya Shikhsa Pravesh Utsav’ Campaign

• On 07 March 2022, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), in partnership with the Ministry of Education and United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), launched a campaign ‘Kanya Shikhsa Pravesh Utsav’.
• It is an initiative to bring back out of school adolescent girls in India to the formal education or skilling system.
• The campaign has been launched with the objective of enhancing enrolment and exisitence of girls between 11-14 years of age in school.
• The initiative intends to build on the existing schemes and programmes like Schemes for Adolescent Girls (SAG), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) and National Education Policy (NEP) to work on a comprehensive system for out of school girls.
• It is celebrated as a part International Women’s Day, which is on 08 March 2022.

NIESBUD Signs an MoU with Ministry of Rural Development

• National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
• It is an agreement to develop a sustainable model for promoting entrepreneurship at the grass roots by initiating the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP).
• SVEP is a sub-component of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Ministry of Rural Development.
• It aims to support entrepreneurs in rural areas to set-up enterprises at the village-level in non-agricultural sectors.
• This will support creating an innovative ecosystem, accelerating economic and social gains at the community level.
• Under the partnership rural entrepreneurs will be able to access banking systems for receiving financial support for starting their enterprises, including support from MUDRA bank.
• The beneficiaries of the project are from the Self-Help Group (SHG) ecosystem of DAY-NRLM and the scheme supports both existing enterprises and new enterprises.

Donate-a-Pension Programme

• On 07 March 2022, the government of India launched the Donate-a-Pension programme.

• Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Ministry of Labour & Employment ( MoL&E), has launched the programme for people to contribute to the pension fund to their support staff.
• It is an initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM) pension scheme where citizens can donate the premium contribution of their immediate support staff including domestic workers, drivers and helpers.
• Under the programme, workers in the unorganised sector with the age group of 18 to 40 years can register themselves and donation amount for a year is minimum of Rs. 660 and maximum up to Rs. 2400 depending on their age.
• The minimum donation period is one year.
• PM-SYM was launched in 2019, a voluntary and contributory pension scheme to ensure protecion for unorganized workers, whose monthly income is below Rs. 15,000.

Sagar Parikrama

• The Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala inaugurated the ‘Sagar Parikrama’ to know the problems of Coastal Fishermen community in Gujarat.

• It will focus on sustainable balance between the utilization of marine fisheries resources for food security of the nation and livelihoods of coastal fisher communities and protection of marine ecosystems.

• The initiative looks at the scope of seafood exports as the country has a coastline of 8118 kms.
• It covers 9 maritime states and 4 union territories.
• The first leg of ‘Sagar Parikrama’ shall begin from Gujarat.

HANSA-NG - India’s First Indigenous Flying Trainer

• India’s first indigenous flying trainer 'HANSA-NG', has successfully completed the sea-level trials at Puducherry from February 19 to March 5, 2022.

• It was designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL).

• The aircraft was flown from Bengaluru to Puducherry covering a distance of 140 nautical miles in 1.5 hours at a cruising speed of 155 km/hr.
• According to NAL, HANSA-NG is one of the most advanced flying trainers powered by Rotax Digital Control Engine and it is designed to meet the Indian flying club needs.
• It is an ideal aircraft for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL) due to its low cost and low fuel consumption.

BSE Joins Hands with Tamil Nadu's M-TIPB

• Indian Stock exchange Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has announced to collaborate with the MSME Trade and Investment Promotion Bureau (M-TIPB), Government of Tamil Nadu to promote awareness among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of the state about the benefits of listing.

• BSE will provide the capacity building and soft support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tamil Nadu for fulfilling listing requirements.

• Through the collaboration, Tamil Nadu SMEs will get an opportunity to raise funds through Initial Public Offerings (IPO) by listing in the BSE SME platform.
• The BSE will also appoint a nodal person as single point contact in Tamil Nadu for providing end-to-end solution.

BANKING

Airtel Partners with Axis Bank

• Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank partnered to launch ‘Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card’ to offer benefits such as cashbacks, special discounts, digital vouchers.

• Under the partnership, the companies will provide pre-approved instant loans, ‘buy now pay later’ offerings and other services.

• The collaboration will provide Axis Bank support to penetrate deeper into tier 2 and 3 markets.
• This partnership will also cover future collaboration on cyber security, data and cloud centres.
• The credit card will be available for eligible Airtel customers through the Airtel Thanks app.

About Axis Bank:

• HQ: Mumbai, Maharashtra.

• MD & CEO: Amitabh Chaudhry.

Insolvency regulator IBBI Signs MoU with IBA

• Insolvency regulator Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on capacity building for financial creditors on topics related to insolvency, bankruptcy and related subjects.

• It is signed to improve how creditors, key players in turning around distressed businesses, perform their functions during bankruptcy proceedings.

• The MoU was signed at an event focusing on ‘committee of creditors: An Institution of Public Faith’ organized by IBBI, State Bank of India and IBA at New Delhi.

About IBBI:

• HQ: New Delhi, Delhi.

• Chairman: Ravi Mital.

RBI Chooses Intellect Design Arena

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI), announced to choose Intellect Design Arena Ltd, a cloud-native, multi-product FinTech company to implement the upgraded version of the Cloud-Native Intellect Quantum Core Banking solution to power the next stage of their digital transformation agenda.

• Intellect continues to be the trusted partner for the Central Banking Transformation at Reserve Bank of India.
• The entire central banking operation of RBI is currently supported by Intellect’s Quantum Central Banking Solution, popularly called as e-Kuber in RBI, Government of India and in the Indian Financial Systems.
• The next generation Intellect Quantum solution is built on API first, cloud-native and cloud agnostic microservices architecture supported by a rich set of packaged business components.

About Intellect Design Arena:

• HQ: Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

• MD: Arun Jain.

SPORTS

Mohali Test: India beat Sri Lanka

• India defeated Sri Lanka in the first test match at Mohali by an innings and 222 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the 2 match test series.

• Ravindra Jadeja was announced man of the match for his all-round performance.

•  He scored 175 runs and took nine wickets across both innings.

AWARDS & PRIZES

Ispat Rajbhasha Award & Ispat Rajbhasha Prerna Award

• Ispat Rajbhasha Award for 2018-19 and 2020-21 and Ispat Rajbhasha Prerna Award for 2019-20 was presented in the meeting of the Hindi Advisory (Salahakar) Committee of the Ministry of Steel held in Madurai

• National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. (NMDC), Country’s largest Iron Ore producer, a CPSE under Ministry of Steel received 1st prize in the Ispat Rajbhasha Award for 2018-19 and 2020-21 and the Ispat Rajbhasha Prerna Award for 2019-20.

• Sumit Deb, Chairman and Managing Director, NMDC received the award from Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, Union Minister of Steel.
• MOIL Limited, a Mini Ratna state owned manganese ore mining company received the Ispat Rajbhasha Samman Award for the year 2018-19 and 2019-20.
• Mukund Choudhary, Chairman and Managing Director of MOIL, received the award.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

ex-Ujjivan Small Finance Bank CEO Nitin Chugh as DMD

• State Bank of India (SBI) has appointed former Ujjivan Small Finance Bank CEO Nitin Chugh as Deputy Managing Director (DMD) to drive digital banking operations.
• He has been appointed for a period of three years term.
• Nitin Chugh would be responsible for envisioning, developing, and executing of bank’s digital banking strategy and business plan for imparting digital knowledge in a constructive, empowering, and collaborative way according to the public notice by SBI.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Women’s Day

• International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on 08 March.
• The theme of this year 2022 is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.
• It is celebrated to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women.
• The day was first observed in the year 1911. The United Nations began celebrating the day in the International Women’s Year 1975.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

A New Book by Amitava Kumar

• Journalist Amitava Kumar authored a new book titled ‘The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal’.

• The book has been published by HarperCollins India.

• The Blue Book is a journal of the pandemic. The author has used watercolour drawings and words to depict the experience of the pandemic both individual and collective.

OBITUARY

Former Australian Cricketer Rodney William Marsh

• Rodney William was an Australian professional cricketer passed away in Adelaide Australia due to cardiac arrest. He was 74.

• He played as a wicketkeeper for the Australian national team.
• Perth-born Marsh made his international debut in 1970 against England. He held a world-record of 355 Test dismissals, 95 off the bowling of legendary paceman Dennis Lillee.