12th-14th May, 2023

1. India’s Home Minister Amit Shah launched the “world’s first liquid nano DAP (Di-Ammonia Phosphate) fertiliser”.
2. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a Central public sector enterprise of the Ministry of Railways, has been granted Navratna status.
3. India has extended the timeline of repayment of $1 billion credit line for Sri Lanka till 2024 for providing the much-needed back-up funds to pay for essential imports.
4. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin, 50% villages have achieved the ODF Plus status under phase II of the Mission.
5. Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani launched the Centre’s flagship programme ‘Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi’ to focus on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) at Anganwadis across the country.
6. Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways has launched ‘Harit Sagar’ (Green Port) Guidelines to meet the larger vision of achieving Zero Carbon Emission Goal.
7. Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud launched ‘E-filing 2.0’ to allow filing of cases electronically round the clock.
8. World Bank has approved an $82 million loan for The Animal Health System Support for One Health Program for adopting global best practices for animal health management to prevent, detect, and respond to endemic zoonotic, transboundary, and emerging infectious diseases.
9. Indian Semiconductor Mission has signed an MoU with Purdue University for capacity building, research and development, and industry participation.
10. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited India to hold a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
11. Assam has launched the ‘Ayushman Asom – Mukhya Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana’ for providing health insurance scheme of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for offering cashless medical treatment.
12. Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao has launched Geeta Karmikula Bima scheme for extending an insurance cover of Rs.5 lakh to toddy tappers, similar to the existing Rythu Bima scheme for farmers.
13. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma launched ‘Digitizing Asom’ for digitization of rare Assamese journals and books published between 1813 and 1970 for public use.
14. Kerala has launched the Kerala Institutional Ranking Framework (KIRF), modelled on the lines of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), to assess the quality of higher education institutions in the State.
15. The 35th edition of India-Thailand Coordinated Patrol (Indo-Thai CORPAT) between the Indian Navy and the Royal Thai Navy was conducted along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Andaman Sea.
16. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has signed an MOU between Art of Living at Dr B.R Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.
17. Ministry of Ayush and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have signed an MOU to promote and collaborate on integrative health research.
18. Asian Development Bank organized its 56th Annual Meeting in Incheon, South Korea.
19. Department of Consumer Affairs and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action have signed the new work plan for 2023 during the 9th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on quality infrastructure.
20. Redington Ltd, a major distributor of IT hardware, has partnered with SBI for facilitating solar loans of up to Rs 5 crore at interest rates linked to rates that the bank charges its best customers.
21. Razorpay has announced to join the ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce)
22. NPCI International Payments has partnered with digital payments infrastructure provider PPRO to facilitate global e-commerce payments through
23. Top 10 companies as per the market capitalisation on both exchanges (BSE and NSE) as of May 16, 2023 –
24. RBI has lifted limitations on individuals creating interest-earning Foreign Currency Accounts (FCA) to make India’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) more appealing.
25. All India Bank Employees Association – the largest bank union in the country – will set up ‘bank clinics’ to redress grievances of customers with their banks.
26. Agritech firm Unnati’s subsidiary Ora Finance has received a license to operate an NBFC from RBI.
27. RBL Bank has gone live with ‘Direct Tax Collections’ on behalf of the Government of India through the new Tax Information Network (TIN) portal.
28. SEBI has allowed stock exchanges to extend direct market access facility to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) for participation in Exchange Traded Commodity Derivatives (ETCDs).
29. Ministry of Finance has notified those businesses with a turnover of ₹5 crore or more will be required to adopt e-invoicing from August 1, 2023, as against the current threshold of ₹10 crore.
30. State-owned Bank of Baroda has launched electronic bank guarantee (e-BG) on its BarodaINSTA platform, in partnership with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL).
31. Razorpay’s neobank arm RazorpayX launched ESCROW+ solution to help merchants handle money transfers smoothly.
32. Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a premium banking programme, Privy League, aimed at high-net-worth individuals.
33. Profectus Capital has received the Certificate of Registration (CoR) from the RBI to provide factoring services to MSMEs under the Factoring Regulations Act, 2011.
34. RBI has announced that certain fees/ charges levied by ‘Authorised Persons’ on International Debit Cards, Store Value Cards, among others, and payable in India have to be denominated and settled in Rupees
35. Vodafone Group Plc (based in UK) has announced Margherita Della Valle as its new CEO.
36. Wesley W Simina has been elected as the 10th president of Federated States of Micronesia.
37. National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), a quasi-sovereign wealth fund, has appointed Rajiv Dhar as interim managing director and CEO.
38. April 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work; Theme – A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work
39. May 12 – International Nurses Day; Theme – Our Nurses. Our Future.
40. An environmental non-profit organisation called The Green Organisation in the UK presented the Green World Award 2023 to recognise, honour, and promote the best practices for the environment all over the world.
41. 68th Hyundai Filmfare Awards 2023 have been announced.
42. Indian American Neeli Bendapudi, the president of Penn State University, will be receiving the American Immigration Council’s 2023 Immigrant Achievement Award.
43. Indian team has 17 medals (all by girls) at the Moscow Wushu Stars Championship 2023.
44. China’s Lin Dan and Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei have been elected to the 2023 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Hall of Fame.
45. N. Gopalakrishnan, founder of the Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage (IISH) and former scientist at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has passed away.
46. Antonio Carbajal (Mexican football player) has passed away. He was nicknamed as ‘Tota’.

National News

1. India’s Home Minister Amit Shah launched the “world’s first liquid nano DAP (Di-Ammonia Phosphate) fertiliser”.
   • Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) has manufactured the Liquid DAP.
   • One 500 ml bottle of liquid DAP contains 8% of Nitrogen and 16% of Phosphorus. It can easily replace a 50 kg bag of traditional DAP.
   • IFFCO is expected to manufacture 18 crore bottles of nano DAP by 2025-2026, which will reduce the consumption of 90 lakh tonnes of traditional DAP.
   • IFFCO has manufacturing facilities in Kalol, Kandla in Gujarat, and Paradeep in Orissa to produce nano DAP fertilisers.
     Source: WION
2. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a Central public sector enterprise of the Ministry of Railways, has been granted Navratna status.
   • RVNL was incorporated in 2003. RVNL has an authorized share capital of Rs. 3000 crore and a paid-up share capital of Rs. 2085 crore.
     Source: LiveMint
3. India has extended the timeline of repayment of $1 billion credit line for Sri Lanka till 2024 for providing the much-needed back-up funds to pay for essential imports.
   • The credit line is part of the $4 billion emergency assistance that was extended by India during Sri Lanka’s peak crisis time in 2022 and was scheduled to end in March.
   • Sri Lanka has also received a $3 billion bailout package from the IMF in March 2023. The bailout was secured on the back of the financial assurances given by India, China, and Japan to IMF.
     Source: Business Today
4. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin, 50% villages have achieved the ODF Plus status under phase II of the Mission.
   • An ODF Plus village is one which has sustained its Open Defecation Free (ODF) status along with implementing either solid or liquid waste management systems.
   • As on date, more than 2.96 lakh villages have declared themselves ODF Plus, which is a significant step towards achieving the SBM-G phase II goals by 2024-25.
   • Top performing states in terms of percentage of ODF Plus villages are –
     • Larger States – Telangana (100%), Karnataka (99.5%), Tamil Nadu (97.8%) & Uttar Pradesh (95.2%)
     • Smaller States – Goa (95.3%) and Sikkim (69.2%)
     • UTs – Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra Nagar Haveli & Daman Diu and Lakshadweep (100% ODF Plus Model villages)
   • Rs 52,137 crore has been allocated under the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen in the Union Budget 2023-24.
     Source: PIB

5. Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani launched the Centre’s flagship programme ‘Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi’ to focus on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) at Anganwadis across the country.
   • The ministry has allocated Rs 600 crore for the training of anganwadi workers to implement the ECCE.
   • The National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) has been roped in for the training of Anganwadi workers.
     Source: Indian Express

6. Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways has launched ‘Harit Sagar’ (Green Port) Guidelines to meet the larger vision of achieving Zero Carbon Emission Goal.
   • Major ports were also conferred ‘Sagar Shreshtha Samman’ for their all-time best performance during 2022-23.
   • Best Absolute Performance Award: Deendayal Port, Kandla (for handling highest cargo of 137.56 MMT).
   • Award for achieving major milestone in Turn Around Time: Jawaharlal Nehru Port.
   • Performance shield on Ship Berth Day Output: Paradip Port.
   • Award for pre-berthing detention time: Kamarajar Port.
   • Performance shield in turn-around-time (non-container port) award: Cochin Port
   • Award for best incremental performance: Paradip Port for attaining the highest cargo growth rate of 16.56% last year
   • Best Ship Berth Day Output: Mormugao Port
   • Best Pre-Berthing Detention time: Kamarajar Port
   • Award for the best port: Paradip Port.
     • It was conferred for overall annual performance based upon cargo handling, average turnaround time, ship birthday output, and idle time at berth, operating ratio, pre berthing detention.

     Source: PIB

7. Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud launched ‘E-filing 2.0’ to allow filing of cases electronically round the clock.
   • The chief justice also inaugurated an ‘e-Sewa Kendra’ on the Supreme Court’s
     Source: The Print
8. World Bank has approved an $82 million loan for The Animal Health System Support for One Health Program for adopting global best practices for animal health management to prevent, detect, and respond to endemic zoonotic, transboundary, and emerging infectious diseases.
   • The loan has a maturity of 11.5 years with a grace period of 4.5 years.
     Source: World Bank
9. Indian Semiconductor Mission has signed an MoU with Purdue University for capacity building, research and development, and industry participation.
   Source: Economic Times
10. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited India to hold a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
    • The Israeli minister will also attend the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) India-Israel Business Forum.
      Source: LiveMint

State News

1. Assam has launched the ‘Ayushman Asom – Mukhya Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana’ for providing health insurance scheme of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for offering cashless medical treatment.
   • Ayushman Asom – Mukhya Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana shall initially be covering approximately 26 lakh beneficiary families which shall in phases go up to 32 lakh families.
     Source: ANI

2. Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao has launched Geeta Karmikula Bima scheme for extending an insurance cover of 5 lakh to toddy tappers, similar to the existing Rythu Bima scheme for farmers.

3. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma launched ‘Digitizing Asom’ for digitization of rare Assamese journals and books published between 1813 and 1970 for public use.
   Source: ANI
4. Kerala has launched the Kerala Institutional Ranking Framework (KIRF), modelled on the lines of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), to assess the quality of higher education institutions in the State.
   • KIRF will rank participating universities, colleges in the categories of overall, universities, colleges, engineering, management, architecture, medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, law, and teacher education.
   • Parameters – Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Knowledge Dissemination and Research Excellence (KDRE), Graduation Outcome (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI)
     • These components are also followed by NIRF.
   • The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking system created by the Ministry of Education in 2015 to evaluate higher education institutions across India.
     Source: India Today

Defence News

1. The 35th edition of India-Thailand Coordinated Patrol (Indo-Thai CORPAT) between the Indian Navy and the Royal Thai Navy was conducted along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Andaman Sea.
   • INS Kesari and His Thai Majesty’s Ship (HTMS) Saiburi participated in the CORPAT.
     Source: PIB

Memorandum of Understanding

1. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has signed an MOU between Art of Living at Dr B.R Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.
   • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been implementing National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) to curb the menace of drug demand.
     Source: PIB

2. Ministry of Ayush and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have signed an MOU to promote and collaborate on integrative health research.
   • This MoU will enable both parties to jointly establish Ayush-ICMR Centers for Advanced Research in Integrative Health at all AIIMS with co-funding.
     Source: PIB

International News

1. Asian Development Bank organized its 56th Annual Meeting in Incheon, South Korea.
   • ADB launched the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP), a landmark program to tackle climate change.
   • IF-CAP’s initial partners are Denmark, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
   • IF-CAP financing will contribute to ADB’s raised ambition for $100 billion from its own resources for climate change for 2019–2030.
   • ADB will provide the funding to countries for tackling climate change for the Asia-Pacific region with a model of ‘$1 in, $5 out’.
   • The countries will be able to raise loans of up to $15 billion as against the initial contribution of $3 billion in guarantees.
     Source: ADB

Banking and Economy

1. Department of Consumer Affairs and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action have signed the new work plan for 2023 during the 9th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on quality infrastructure.
   • This year’s Annual Meeting marks the 10th anniversary of the Working Group.
     Source: LiveMint
2. Redington Ltd, a major distributor of IT hardware, has partnered with SBI for facilitating solar loans of up to Rs 5 crore at interest rates linked to rates that the bank charges its best customers.
   • The interest rates for these solar loans ranges between 9.5% and 10%.
     Source: Hindu Business Line
3. Razorpay has announced to join the ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce)
   • It becomes the First Payment Gateway to launch a Payment Reconciliation Service for buyers, sellers, and logistic partners on ONDC, and provide them with an integrated single view of all their transactions.
     Source: Razorpay
4. NPCI International Payments has partnered with digital payments infrastructure provider PPRO to facilitate global e-commerce payments through
   • Through this, consumers can shop online worldwide and make cross-border purchases in rupees, safely using UPI.
   • The e-commerce market is expected to reach an estimated $111 billion next year and almost double to $200 billion by 2026.
     Source: Hindu Business Line
5. Top 10 companies as per the market capitalisation on both exchanges (BSE and NSE) as of May 16, 2023 –

• ITC has pushed Infosys to be at the 6th position. [no need to remember the amount of market capitalisation]

Source: Moneycontrol

6. RBI has lifted limitations on individuals creating interest-earning Foreign Currency Accounts (FCA) to make India’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) more appealing.
   • RBI has abolished the requirement that any funds remaining idle in the FCA account for up to 15 days be repatriated.
   • RBI authorised resident individuals to send remittances to IFSCs established in India under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) in February 2021. However, the payments were only to be used for investments in IFSC securities.
     Source: Business world
7. All India Bank Employees Association – the largest bank union in the country – will set up ‘bank clinics’ to redress grievances of customers with their banks.
   • AIBEA general secretary – C H Venkatachalam
     Source: Times of India
8. Agritech firm Unnati’s subsidiary Ora Finance has received a license to operate an NBFC from RBI.
   Source: Hindu Business Line
9. RBL Bank has gone live with ‘Direct Tax Collections’ on behalf of the Government of India through the new Tax Information Network (TIN) portal.
   • In 2021, RBL Bank received approval for conducting banking business for the Central and State Governments.
   • The Bank already offers customs duty collections through a direct interface via ICEGATE.

10. SEBI has allowed stock exchanges to extend direct market access facility to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) for participation in Exchange Traded Commodity Derivatives (ETCDs).
    • The new provision would come into force with immediate effect.
    • Direct Market Access (DMA) facilitates the clients of a broker to directly access the exchange trading system through the broker’s infrastructure to place orders without manual intervention by the broker.
      Source: Economic Times
11. Ministry of Finance has notified those businesses with a turnover of ₹5 crore or more will be required to adopt e-invoicing from August 1, 2023, as against the current threshold of ₹10 crore.
    Source: Hindu Business Line
12. State-owned Bank of Baroda has launched electronic bank guarantee (e-BG) on its BarodaINSTA platform, in partnership with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL).
    • NeSL is India’s first and only Information Utility and is regulated by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) under the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).
      Source: Economic Times
13. Razorpay’s neobank arm RazorpayX launched ESCROW+ solution to help merchants handle money transfers smoothly.
    • RazorpayX has onboarded Axis Trustee Services as the Escrow trustee.
      Source: Financial Express

14. Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a premium banking programme, Privy League, aimed at high-net-worth individuals.
    • The program will offer Premium Metal Debit Card for the Privy League black tier, and Signature LED Debit Card for Privy League Platinum tier.
    • The Signature LED Debit Card is India’s first LED card.
      Source: Times of India
15. Profectus Capital has received the Certificate of Registration (CoR) from the RBI to provide factoring services to MSMEs under the Factoring Regulations Act, 2011.
    Source: Economic Times
16. RBI has announced that certain fees/ charges levied by ‘Authorised Persons’ on International Debit Cards, Store Value Cards, among others, and payable in India have to be denominated and settled in Rupees
    • Authorised Persons include banks authorised to deal in foreign exchange, full-fledged money changers, etc. under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.
      Source: Hindu Business Line

Appointments

1. Vodafone Group Plc (based in UK) has announced Margherita Della Valle as its new CEO.
   • Vodafone Idea CEO – Akshaya Moondra
     Source: WION
2. Wesley W Simina has been elected as the 10th president of Federated States of Micronesia.

3. National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), a quasi-sovereign wealth fund, has appointed Rajiv Dhar as interim managing director and CEO.

Source: Moneycontrol

Important Days

1. April 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work; Theme – A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work
   Source: UN
2. May 12 – International Nurses Day; Theme – Our Nurses. Our Future.

Source: International Council of Nurses and ICN

Awards

1. An environmental non-profit organisation called The Green Organisation in the UK presented the Green World Award 2023 to recognise, honour, and promote the best practices for the environment all over the world.
   • Green World Champion of Champions is Grupo Ambipar-Brazil for their project Sustainable BioCapsules – Transforming Waste into Trees.
   • Indian organizations have won three awards, which are

2. 68th Hyundai Filmfare Awards 2023 have been announced.

3. Indian American Neeli Bendapudi, the president of Penn State University, will be receiving the American Immigration Council’s 2023 Immigrant Achievement Award.
   Source: HT

Sports

1. Indian team has 17 medals (all by girls) at the Moscow Wushu Stars Championship 2023.
   • The girls bagged 10 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in the junior girls, sub-junior girls and senior girls’ categories across Sanda (Fight) and Taolu in Moscow.
     Source: PIB
2. China’s Lin Dan and Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei have been elected to the 2023 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Hall of Fame.
   • BWF HQ – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
     Source: Hindu Sportstar

Miscellaneous

1. Gopalakrishnan, founder of the Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage (IISH) and former scientist at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has passed away.
   Source: The Hindu
2. Antonio Carbajal (Mexican football player) has passed away. He was nicknamed as ‘Tota’.
   • He was the first footballer to play in five World Cups.
     Source: The Hindu

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