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ambitiousbaba.com Online Test Series

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https://ambitiousbaba.com/

https://test.ambitiousbaba.com/


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Index

No. of Chapter Topic Name

Appointment (National, International)

Awards (National, International)

Government Scheme/ campaign

Summit/ Conference

Partnership/ Agreement

Ranking Index

Mergers and Acquisitions

Loan

App/Website/Portal

Important MoU

GDP Forecasting

Current Affairs (National) In Short

Current Affairs (International)

Banking & Financial

Committee

Defence News

Sports News

Book and Author

Important Day

Science

Obituary




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Chapter 1: Appointment (National, International)

(National)

Organization Person

Director-General (Head) of Defence Intelligence

Agency

GAV Reddy

[Succeeded Lt Gen KJS Dhillon]

(Update 2 Feb)

Director General of National Institute of Electronics &

Information Technology (NIELIT)

Madan Mohan Tripathi

(Update 3 Feb)

Brand Ambassador of Games24x7’s ‘RummyCircle’ Hrithik Roshan

(Update 3 Feb)

26th Controller General of Accounts (CGA)

Sonali Singh

[Succeeded Deepak Das]

(Update 4 Feb)

Chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of

India (IBBI)

Ravi Mittal

[Replaced Navrang Saini]

(Update 4 Feb)

Director of Defence Research and Development

Laboratory (DRDL)

GA Srinivasa Murthy

(Update 5 Feb)

Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC)

M Jagadesh Kumar

[Succeeded D P Singh]

(Update 6 Feb)

Managing Director of IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation) Rahul Bhatia

(Update 6 Feb)

1st woman Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru

University (JNU)

Santishree Pandit

[Replaced M Jagadesh Kumar]

(Update 7 Feb)

Resigned as non-executive and independent director

of Britannia Industries Limited

Urjit Patel

(Update 7 Feb)

Director of the National Council of Educational

Research and Training (NCERT)

Dinesh Prasad Saklani

[replaced Hrushikesh Senapaty]

(Update 8 Feb)

Brand Ambassador of Bata India Disha Patani

(Update 8 Feb)

Brand ambassador of Uttarakhand Akshay Kumar

(Update 8 Feb)

Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Power

System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO)

S R Narasimhan

(Update 8 Feb)

Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) S Unnikrishnan Nair

[succeeded S Somanath]




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(Update 9 Feb)

Brand ambassador of MediBuddy Amitabh Bachchan

(Update 9 Feb)

Secretary in Department of Financial Services (DFS) in

the Ministry of Finance

Sanjay Malhotra

[succeeded Debashish Panda]

(Update 10 Feb)

Chairman of Pfizer India

Pradip Shah

[Replaced RA Shah]

(Update 10 Feb)

Chairman of Staff Selection Commission (SSC) S. Kishore

(Update 11 Feb)

Brand Ambassador and investor of Krishi Network Pankaj Tripathi

(Update 12 Feb)

Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Munishwar Nath Bhandari

(Update 13 Feb)

Chairman of Tata Sons Natarajan Chandrasekaran

(Update 13 Feb)

President of Institute of Chartered Accountants of

India (ICAI)

Debashis Mitra

(Update 14 Feb)

Vice President of Institute of Chartered Accountants

of India (ICAI)

Aniket Sunil Talati

(Update 14 Feb)

Resigned as Chairman and member of High Powered

Committee (HPC) for Char Dham project, appointed

by Supreme Court

Ravi Chopra

(Update 15 Feb)

Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary

Education (CBSE)

Vineet Joshi

[Replaced IAS Manoj Ahuja]

(Update 16 Feb)

Chairperson of the Committee of Administrators to

run the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI)

Gita Mittal

(Update 16 Feb)

Brand Ambassador of Gaming app A23 Shah Rukh Khan

(Update 17 Feb)

India's first national maritime security coordinator G Ashok Kumar

(Update 17 Feb)

Brand Ambassador of Khadi & handicrafts of Bihar Manoj Tiwari

(Update 18 Feb)

Director of Institute of Economic Growth

Chetan Ghate

[succeeded Ajit Mishra]

(Update 19 Feb)

Brand ambassador of Adidas Manika Batra

(Update 20 Feb)




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Director of Central Board of Reserve Bank of India Sanjay Malhotra

(Update 22 Feb)

Director on the central board of directors of State

Bank of India (SBI)

Sanjay Malhotra

(Update 22 Feb)

Brand Ambassadors of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’

scheme for Gurugram District of Haryana

Chess Players Tanishka Kotia &

Riddhika Kotia

(Update 22 Feb)

Member of Central Advisory Board on Culture (CABC)

by Ministry of Culture

Sudha Raghunathan

(Update 22 Feb)

Chief Financial Officer of Jet Airways Vipula Gunatilleka

(Update 23 Feb)

President & CEO of Honda Cars India

Takuya Tsumura

[Replaced Gaku Nakanishi]

(Update 23 Feb)

Chairman of International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) KN Raghavan

(Update 23 Feb)

Full-time member of Economic Advisory Council to

the Prime Minister (EAC-PM)

Sanjeev Sanyal

(Update 24 Feb)

Brand ambassador of Dish TV India Limited’s DTH

brand D2H

Rishabh Pant

(Update 25 Feb)

Non-executive Chairman of Hindustan Unilever Ltd

(HUL)

Nitin Paranjpe

(Update 26 Feb)

Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL)

Sanjiv Mehta

(Update 26 Feb)

Re-appointed as MD & CEO of IDBI Bank Rakesh Sharma

(Update 26 Feb)

National e-Governance Division (NeGD) chief Abhishek Singh

(Update 27 Feb)

Elected to the Board of Directors of the National

Cooperative Dairy Federation of India

KS Mani

(Update 27 Feb)

First woman chairperson of Securities and Exchange

Board of India (SEBI)

Madhabi Puri Buch

[Replaced Ajay Tyagi]

(Update 28 Feb)

India's Badminton Doubles Coach Tan Kim Her

(Update 28 Feb)




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(International)

Organization / Country Person

Re-elected as Portugal’s Prime Minister

Antonio Costa

(Update 3 Feb)

About Portugal:

• Capital: Lisbon

• Currency: Euro

• President: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

Governor of Norway central bank

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg

(Update 5 Feb)

Re-elected as President of Germany

Frank-Walter Steinmeier

(Update 14 Feb)

About Germany:

• Capital: Berlin

• Currency: Euro

• President: Frank-Walter Steinmeier

• Chancellor: Olaf Scholz

MD & Chairman of Rockefeller

International

Ruchir Sharma

(Update 14 Feb)

President of Burkina Faso

Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba

(Update 15 Feb)

About Burkina Faso:

• Capital: Ouagadougou

• Currency: West African CFA franc

• President: Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba

Re-elected as Chair of International

Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’

Commission

Emma Terho of Finland

(Update 21 Feb)

First Vice-Chair & second Vice-Chair of

International Olympic Committee (IOC)

Athletes’ Commission

Seung Min Ryu of Republic of Korea & Sarah

Walker of New Zealand

(Update 21 Feb)




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Chapter 2: Awards (National, International)

(National)

Award Person/Organization Purpose/ Field

Digital

Transformation

Award (DX

2021 Award)

Karnataka Bank

in recognition of the “innovative” best

practice ‘KBL VIKAAS’, by the Confederation of

Indian Industry (CII) for Best Practice in Digital

Transformation.

KBL VIKAAS, is a digital service launched by

Karnataka Bank in 2017, to provide a better

digital experience to customers including Asset &

Liability products & enhanced customer services.

18th Late

Madhavrao

Limaye Award

in the category

of Karyakram

Khaasdar

(Efficient

Member of

Parliament) for

the year 2020-

21

Nitin Gadkari

Given by Nashik Public Library, Sarvajanik

Vachanalay .

Earlier, the award was given to Karyaksham

Aamdaar, an efficient Member of Legislative

Assembly (MLA) from Maharashtra.

The award has been instituted in the memory of

Limaye by his daughter Dr Shobha Nerlikar.

The award consists of Rs 50,000 in cash, and a

memento.

Business

Standard

Banker of the

Year 2020-21

Sandeep Bakhshi

(MD & CEO of ICICI Bank)

for turning around the private sector lender and

changing the perception about it during his

tenure of the past three and a half years.

The unanimous decision was taken by a high-

profile jury of five, chaired by former Reserve

Bank of India deputy governor S S Mundra.

Other members were Keki Mistry; Anil Singhvi,; P

S Jayakumar; and A Balasubram.

17th Annual

Banking

Technology

Awards 2020-

21

Karnataka Bank

Karnataka Bank has bagged three awards at

the 17th Annual Banking Technology

Conference and Awards: 2020-21 Next Gen

Banking.

The awards have been instituted by Indian

Banks’ Association (IBA). The bank has won the

awards under categories: Best Technology Bank

of the Year; Best Fintech Adoption; and Best

Use of AI/ML & Data Analytics.

"Most

Dependable

Public Sector

Coal India Ltd

CIL received this honor at the “Energy Meet and

Excellence Award” function organized by

Industry Chamber “ASSOCHAM” in Kolkata. CIL




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Company in

India” award

is a Maharatna company of the Government of

India.

Ramanujan

Prize for Young

Mathematicians

for 2021

Neena Gupta

She received the award for her outstanding work

in affine algebraic geometry and commutative

algebra.

This prize is awarded annually to researcher from

a developing country funded by Dept of Science

and Technology (DST) in association with ICTP

(International Centre for Theoretical

Physics) and International Mathematical Union

(IMU).

Presidential

Colours

4 parachute battalions at

Parachute Regiment

Training Centre in

Bengaluru

Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane has

presented Presidential Colours to four parachute

battalions at Parachute Regiment Training

Centre in Bengaluru.

The four battalions are the 11 Para (Special

Forces), 21 Para (Special Forces), 23 Para, and

29 Para battalions.

The award of President’s Colours or

the ‘Nishan’ is one of the highest honours

bestowed upon a military unit in recognition of

its exceptional service to the nation, both during

the war and in peace.

(International)

Award Person/Organization Purpose/ Field

World Games

Athlete of the Year

2021 Award

PR Sreejesh

He became the first Indian man and only

the second Indian to receive the accolade. In

2020, Indian women's hockey captain Rani

Rampal became the first Indian to win the

honour.

ICC Spirit of

Cricket Award 2021 Daryl Mitchell

for his gesture of refusing to take a single in the

high-pressure 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Semi-Finals against England at the Sheikh Zayed

Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

He has become the 4th New Zealand player

to win the award after Daniel Vettori,

Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson.

Laureus World

Breakthrough of

the Year Award

2022

Neeraj Chopra

(nominated)

The other 5 nominees are Daniil Medvedev

(Australian Open runner-up), Emma

Raducanu (British tennis star), Pedri

(Barcelona and Spain footballer), Yulimar




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Rojas (Venezuelan athlete) and Ariarne

Titmus (Australian swimmer).

‘World’s Longest

Highway Tunnel

above 10,000 feet’

by World Book of

Records

Atal Tunnel

Atal tunnel is a Highway tunnel built under

Rohtang Pass in eastern Pir Panjal

Himalayan range on Leh-Manali Highway.

It is the longest highway single-tube tunnel

above 10,000 feet in the world with length of

about 9.02 km

World Book of Records, UK is

an organization that catalogues, verifies

extraordinary records with authentic

certification around the globe.

15th ESPNcricinfo

‘Test Batting

Award’ for 2021

Rishabh Pant

For scoring 89 not out, helped India to win

the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2021 by (2-1)

and shattered Australia’s unbeaten record at

Gabba after 32 years.

15th

ESPNcricinfo

‘Captain of the

Year’ for 2021

Kane Williamson

(New Zealand)

15th

ESPNcricinfo

‘Test Bowling

Award’ for 2021

Kyle Jamieson

(New Zealand)

for his 5 wickets leaving just 31 runs, which

helped New Zealand in becoming the first

World Test champions (2019-2021).

Hilal-e-Pakistan

honour Bill Gates

It is the second highest civilian honour in

the country. He has been awarded for his

efforts to help eradicate polio in Pakistan.

Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2022: Complete winners

list The Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2022 was held on 20 February

in Mumbai and the best performances from last year were honoured in the event this time.

This year Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2022 celebrated the opulence of

Indian Cinema and also commemorated the 75 years of Independence or Azadi ka Amrit

Mahotsav.

Film of the Year Award Pushpa: The Rise

Best Film Award Shershaah

Best Actor Award Ranveer Singh for film 83

Best Actress Award Kriti Sanon for film Mimi

Outstanding Contribution to Films Asha Parekh

Critics Best Actor Award Sidharth Malhotra

Critics Best Actress Award Kiara Advani

Best Actor in Supporting Role Award Satish Kaushik for film Kaagaz




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Best Actress in Supporting Role Award Lara Dutta for film Bell-Bottom

Best Actor in Negative Role Award Aayush Sharma for film Antim: The Final Truth

People’s Choice Best Actor Award Abhimanyu Dasani

People’s Choice Best Actress Award Radhika Madan

Best Debut Award Ahan Shetty for film Tadap

Best Playback Singer Male Award Vishal Mishra

Best Playback Singer Female Award Kanika Kapoor

Critics Best Film Award Sardar Udham Singh

Best Director Award Ken Ghosh for film State of Siege: Temple Attack

Best Cinematographer Award Jayakrishna Gummadi for film Haseena Dilruba

Best International Feature Film Award Another Round

Best Short Film Award Pauli

Best Actor in Web Series Award Manoj Bajpayee for The Family Man 2

Best Actress in Web Series Award Raveena Tandon for Aranyak

Best Web Series Award Candy

Best Actor in Television Series Award Shaheer Sheikh for Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi

Best Actress in Television Series Award Shraddha Arya for Kundali Bhagya

Television Series of the Year Award Anupama

Most Promising Actor in Television

Series Award Dheeraj Dhoopar for Kundali Bhagya

Most Promising Actress in Television

Series Award Rupali Ganguly for Anupama

Chapter 3: Government Scheme/ campaign

SCHEME PURPOSE

“Clean Andhra Pradesh

(CLAP)- Jagananna

Swachha Sankalpam

Programme

(Andhra Pradesh)

Government started CLAP programme for cleaning rural areas,

improving sanitation conditions and waste management with public

participation.

Under the campaign, rural households are advised not to dispose of

garbage on streets and instead hand it over to garbage collector.

Since the launch of the mission in October, 22 per cent of households

gave their garbage to the garbage collector. By January, this figure

has reached 61 per cent. The government aims to achieve 100 per

cent rural household garbage collection by October 2022.

Financial assistance

scheme “Rajiv Gandhi

Grameen Bhumiheen

Krishi Mazdoor Nyay

Yojana”

(Chhattisgarh)

Chhattisgarh became first state in the country to provide direct

financial assistance to rural landless agriculture labourers.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched the “Rajiv Gandhi Grameen

Bhumiheen Krishi Mazdoor Nyay Yojana”, financial assistance scheme

of the Chhattisgarh government for landless labourers of rural areas

of Chhattisgarh.

This is the first-of-its-kind scheme in India for which the state

government had made a provision of Rs 200 crore in the budget for




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the financial year 2021-22. He also launched the “Rajiv Yuva Mitan

Club’scheme” at the function and provided financial assistance of Rs

25000 to its beneficiaries.

Under the financial assistance scheme Rajiv Gandhi Grameen

Bhumiheen Krishi Mazdoor Nyay Yojana, financial assistance of Rs

6000 per year in 3 installments will be provided to the registered

labourers in rural areas who do not possess agricultural land. Around

3.55 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme received Rs 2,000 each in their

bank accounts as the first instalment under the plan.

The Rajiv Yuva Mitan Club’ scheme aims to connect young people of

Chhattisgarh with creative works, developing leadership skills and

making them aware of their social responsibilities. Under the scheme,

13,269 clubs will be formed in panchayats and urban civic bodies

The young people aged between 15 to 40 years will take part in

these clubs.

‘Paray Shikshalaya’,

open-air classroom

programme

(West Bengal)

West Bengal government has launched an open-air classroom

programme Paray Shikshalaya (Neighbourhood Schools) for primary

and pre-primary students.

Under the ‘Paray Shikshalaya’ project, primary and pre-primary students

of government schools will be taught in open spaces. The state

government will also provide mid-day meals to the students of ‘Paray

Shikshalaya’.

The para teachers and primary school teachers would be part of this

project. They will provide elementary education to children of Class 1-5.

Intensified Mission

Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0

(Health Ministry)

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has virtually

launched intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 to protect

children and pregnant women from severe diseases.

It will be conducted in 416 districts across 33 states/UTs. It will be

implemented in three rounds, beginning from 7th February 2022.

Second round will start from 7th March 2022, and third round from 4th

April 2022.

First round will cover 11 states: Assam, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, J&K,

Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim,

Tripura and Chhattisgarh.

IT/ITeS policy

(Gujarat)

Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel has announced

new IT/ITeS policy for the next five years.

IT/ITeS policy will provide financial incentives up to Rs 200 crore to

the entities willing to incur capital expenditures. It will also generate

employment about 1 lakh youths.

It also seeks to increase IT-ITeS exports from current Rs 3000 crores

annually to 25,000 crores over the next five years. Its operative period

will start from the day of notification to 31st March 2027.




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‘Take a Break’ campaign

(Instagram)

Instagram has launched ‘Take a Break’ campaign that will alert users

scrolling on Instagram to periodically take breaks from the platform

and focus on other things.

It has been launched by Instagram in India and various other

countries. The campaign will also alert users of the new inclusion with a

notification.

It was first launched in US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand,

Australia. User can spend a certain amount of time on app after they

joined campaign.

‘JIVA Programme’

(NABARD)

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

launched the ‘JIVA programme’ to promote natural farming under its

existing watershed and wadi programmes in 11 states.

Aim: To effectively implement the principles of agroecology long-term

sustainability and transform the pre-existing social and natural capital

towards efficient farming.

JIVA is an agroecology-based programme, an amalgamation of

several projects under the watershed programme of NABARD and will

be implemented in 11 states covering five agro-ecological zones,

which are in ecologically fragile and rain-fed areas.

The JIVA programme will be implemented with investment of Rs

50,000 per hectare.

“SMILE: Support for

Marginalised

Individuals for

Livelihood and

Enterprise” scheme

(Dept of Social Justice

& Empowerment)

Department of Social Justice & Empowerment has launched the

“SMILE: Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and

Enterprise” scheme in New Delhi.

The scheme has been designed for providing welfare measures to

Transgender community and people engaged in begging.

The schemes include two central sector sub-schemes: Comprehensive

Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons &

Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of

Begging.

Ministry has allocated Rs. 365 Crore for the scheme for the financial

year 2021-22 to 2025-26.

“Kunsnyom scheme”

(LAHDC, Leh)

Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh has

launched Kunsnyoms scheme for differently-abled persons.

Kunsnyoms = Equal for All, Fair for All and aims inclusive and

accessible Ladakh. Under this, Leh Hill council is providing assistive

devices, technologies to needy people at 90 percent subsidy.

Under the scheme, 28 tri-scooters, battery-run wheelchair, walking

aids and other aids required for special needs of the individuals has

been distributed.

‘New India Literacy

Programme’

(Union Government)

The Union Government approved a new scheme “New India Literacy

Programme"(NILP) which is also known as “Nav Bharat Literacy




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Program” during the FYs 2022-2027 to cover all the aspects of adult

education and also to align with national education policy 2020.

The scheme will cover non-literates of the age of 15 years and above

in the country. Now, Government has replaced the term “Adult

Education (प्रौढ़ शिक्षा)” as ‘Education for All’ in the country.

It will be implemented through volunteerism through online mode.

The total estimation of NILP is Rs.1037.90 crore, in which the Central

government and State government share Rs 700 crore and Rs 337.90

crore respectively.

‘Waste to Wealth

Creation’ programme in

West Bengal

(SIDBI)

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched

the ‘Waste to Wealth Creation’ programme for women in the

Sundarbans in West Bengal.

In this, the women will make ornaments and showpieces from the fish

scales. SIDBI will extend benefits to 50 women indirectly generating

revenues from alternate livelihoods.

Under this programme, Later, these women are expected to become a

trainer for replicating and disseminating the knowledge among

other aspirants. This is a part of mission Swavalamban of SIDBI that

aims to support artisans to become sustainable.

New Biotechnology

Policy for 2022-27

(Gujarat)

Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel has announced New Biotechnology

Policy for the year 2022-27, aimed to achieve Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Under this policy, strategic projects, mega and large projects are

eligible for special packages. This will attract new investment through

anchor units and existing industries and create new employment

opportunities in the state.

The MSMEs with a capital investment of less than 200 crore rupees

will be given maximum assistance of 40 crore rupees.

Similarly, the mega and large projects with a capital investment of

more than 200 crore rupees and special projects like ecosystem

empowerment, emerging technologies in challenging areas and

strategic importance will be assisted up to 25 percent of the total

capital expenditure up to a maximum limit of 200 crore rupees.

Scheme for Economic

Empowerment for

DNTs, (SEED)

(Social Justice Ministry)

Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr Virendra

Kumar has launched a central sector scheme named the Scheme for

Economic Empowerment for DNTs, (SEED) at Dr Ambedkar

International Centre, New Delhi.

The total financial outlay for SEED Scheme is approximately Rs 200

crores to be spent over a period of 5 years starting Financial Year

2021-22 to 2025-26.

It is an umbrella scheme for the empowerment and welfare of the

most deprived and economically weaker Indian communities’ viz.

De-notified Tribes (DNTs), Nomadic Tribes (NTs) and Semi

Nomadic Tribes (SNTs).




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It will be implemented by the Development and Welfare Board for

DNTs, SNTs &NTs (DWBDNCs) along with the Ministry of Rural

Development (MoRD), National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)

and National Health Authority (NHA).

Doorstep crop

insurance distribution

drive 'Meri Policy Mere

Hath' under PMFBY

(Central government)

With the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) entering the

seventh year of implementation in the upcoming Kharif season, the

government has announced to launch a doorstep distribution

drive 'Meri Policy Mere Hath' to deliver crop insurance policies to

farmers.

The doorstep campaign aims to ensure all farmers are well aware and

equipped with all information on their policies, land records, the

process of claim and grievance redressal under the Pradhan Mantri

Fasal Bima Yojana.

The campaign will be launched in all implementing states in the

upcoming Kharif season. PMFBY was launched in February 2016.

“Project Arohan”

(Assam)

The government of Assam is set to launch a 4-year mentorship

programme “Project Arohan”, to mentor the students of Assam and

to hone their skills.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam, met with Anita

Rajan, Chief Executive officer of Tata STRIVE, the skill development

initiative of Tata Trusts, to seek cooperation for Project Arohan.

Export Incentive

Scheme

(Jammu and Kashmir

government)

Under this scheme, incentive of 10 per cent of the total volume of GI

certified Handicrafts and Handloom products exported to any

country, with maximum reimbursement up to ₹5 crore, shall be

provided to eligible exporters registered with Department of Handicrafts

and Handloom.

Schemes by Central government whose timeline has been extended or

continued:

SCHEME PURPOSE

Scheme for Assistance

to National Sports

Federations

(Rs.1575 crore)

The government has approved the continuation of the Scheme of

Assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs) with an outlay of

Rs.1575 crore for the 15th Finance Commission Cycle 2021-22 to

2025-26.

The Scheme of Assistance to NSFs is the flagship Central Sector Scheme

(CSS), that provides financial support to the Ministry of Youth Affairs

and Sports. It is the main source of funding for the preparation of

national teams for all major national, international competitions.

Funding will be used by National Sports Federations to conduct

national coaching camps and provide training of international standards

to athletes.




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Indian Footwear and

Leather Development

Programme (IFLDP)

(Rs. 1700 crores)

Union Cabinet approved Indian Footwear and Leather Development

Programme (IFLDP), erstwhile IFLADP, for continuation from 2021-22

with a financial outlay of Rs. 1700 crores till 31st March 2026 or till

further review, whichever is earlier.

Aim: To develop infrastructure for the leather sector, address

environmental concerns specific to the leather sector, facilitate

additional investments, employment generation and increase in

production.

The programme has a direct benefit towards quality employment

generation especially for women, skill development, decent work,

making the industry more environment friendly and prompting a

sustainable production system.

Rashtriya Yuva

Sashaktikaran

Karyakram (RYSK)

(Rs. 2,710 crores)

The Central Government has decided to continue the Scheme of

“Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram” (RYSK) for another 5 years

from 2021 -22 to 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs. 2,710.65 crore.

Aim; To develop the personality and leadership qualities of the youth and

to engage them in nation building activities.

Beneficiaries of this scheme are the youth in the age-group of 15 to 29

years (according to the definition of ‘youth’ in the National Youth Policy,

2014).

Scheme of

Modernization of State

Police Forces (MPF

Scheme)

(Rs 26,275 crores)

The Government has approved the continuation of the Scheme of

Modernization of State Police Forces (MPF Scheme) for five years

from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Total Central financial outlay for five years is Rs. 26,275 crores. The

scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)

since 1969-70.

Initiatives to modernize and improve the functioning of Police Forces of

States and Union Territories is started by Home Minister Amit Shah.

MPF is an umbrella scheme that comprises all relevant sub-schemes for

modernization and improvement. Scheme for modernization of state

police forces has Central outlay of Rs 4,846 crores.

Capacity Development

Scheme

(Rs. 3,179 crores)

The Union Cabinet approved for the continuation of the Capacity

Development (CD) scheme of Ministry of Statistics & Programme

Implementation (MoSPI) till 31st March 2026 or further review,

whichever is earlier with an outlay of Rs. 3,179 crores approved during

15th Finance Commission.

The scheme comprises the main scheme, capacity development and

two sub schemes viz. support for statistical strengthening (SSS) and

economic census (EC).

The CD scheme is an ongoing central sector scheme (CSS) of the

Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) with an

overall objective to augment infrastructural, technical and manpower

resources for enabling availability of credible and timely official statistics.




16 | P a g e

The CD scheme contains all statistical and data management

activities of MoSPI that generates and maintains the official statistical

system of India. The scheme also facilitates evidence-based decision

making and for policy planning by the government.

Rashtriya Uchchatar

Shiksha Abhiyan

(RUSA) scheme

(Rs. 12,929.16 crores)

The Ministry of Education has approved the continuation of Rashtriya

Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme till 31st March 2026 with

an expenditure of 12,929.16 crore rupees. The new phase of the scheme

would support around 1,600 projects.

Out of Rs 12,929.16 crores of expenditure, the centre will share Rs

8,120.97 crores and the state will share Rs 4,808.19 crores.

The new phase of the scheme has been designed to implement some of

the recommendations of the New Education Policy (NEP).

Under the new phase of the scheme, State Governments will support

Gender inclusion, Equity Initiatives, Enhances employability through

vocationalisation and skill upgradation.

National Means-cum-

Merit Scholarship

Scheme

(Rs 1,827 crores)

Centre has approved continuation of Central Sector National Means-

cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) for a period of five years

from 2021-22 to 2025-2, with a financial outlay of Rs 1,827 crores.

Income ceiling for the scheme has been increased from Rs 1.5 lakh per

annum to Rs 3.5 lakh per annum. It was launched in 2008-09.

Aim: to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically

weaker sections.

Umbrella Scheme of

‘Border Infrastructure

and Management

(BIM)

(Rs 13,020 crores)

Central Government approved the continuation of the Central Sector

Umbrella Scheme of ‘Border Infrastructure and Management

(BIM)’ over the 15th Finance Commission Cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-

26, at a cost of Rs 13,020 crore.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is responsible for the

improvement of BIM. This continuation will strengthen the border

infrastructure for improving border management, policing and

guarding the borders.

The BIM scheme will help in the creation of infrastructure such as

construction of border fence, border flood lights, technological solutions,

border roads and Border Outposts (BOPs)/Company Operating Bases

(COBs) to secure the Indo-Pakistan, Indo-Bangladesh, Indo-China, Indo-

Nepal, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Myanmar borders.

PM CARES for Children

scheme

The PM Cares for Children Scheme has been extended by the Ministry

of Women and Child Development of the Government of India

till February 28, 2022.

Previously, the scheme was applicable till December 31, 2021. A letter

has been written in this respect to all Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries,

Women and Child Development, Social Justice & Empowerment

Departments of all States and UTs, with a copy to all District

Magistrates/District Collectors.




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To be eligible for the scheme, the child must be under the age of 18 at

the time of their parents’ death, to be considered eligible for payments

under this plan. Those who are eligible can now be registered in the PM

CARES for Children Scheme until February 28, 2022 via the website.

The PM CARES for Children Scheme on May 29, 2021 was announced

by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for the children

who have lost the parents or legal guardians, adoptive parents, or

surviving parents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic onset on March

11, 2020.

The scheme intends to assist these children by providing them the long-

term comprehensive care and protection, through a convergent strategy,

gap financing for education and health, a monthly stipend begins at the

age of 18, and prepare them for self-sufficiency with financial assistance

of lump sum payment of Rs. 10 lakhs once they reach the age of 23.

Immigration Visa

Foreigners

Registration Tracking

(IVFRT) Scheme

(Rs 1,364.88 crores)

The Centre has approved the continuation of Immigration Visa

Foreigners Registration Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme till March 31, 2026

with a period of five years which starts from April 1, 2021 and its

financial outlay is Rs 1,364.88 crores.

In order to Modernize and upgrade the Immigration services,

“Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT)”

has been identified and included as one of the MMPs to be undertaken

by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the National e-Governance

Plan (NeGP).

The aim is to provide a secure and integrated service delivery

framework that facilitates legitimate travellers by strengthening national

security.

The main objective for the continuation of IVFRT is the modernization

and up-gradation of Immigration and Visa services.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan

SAMPADA Yojana

(PMKSY)

(Rs 4,600 crores)

Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY), a flagship scheme

of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries has been extended for a

period of 2021-2022 to 2025-2026 (till March 2026).

The government of India (GoI) has allocated Rs 4600 crores for the

scheme. The GoI launched the Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing

and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters(SAMPADA) in 2017

with an allocation of Rs 6000 crore.

In August 2017, the scheme was renamed as PMKSY, incorporating

several ongoing schemes of the MoFPI like Integrated Cold Chain and

Value Addition Infrastructure, Food Safety and Quality Assurance

Infrastructure, Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters, Creation /

Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities and

Operation Greens.




18 | P a g e

Chapter 4: Summit/ Conference

Summit/Conference Location About

11th meeting of India-

Oman Joint Military

Cooperation Committee

New Delhi

The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Ajay

Kumar and Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Ali AL

Zaabi, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Defence of

Oman.

The JMCC is the highest forum of engagement

between India and Oman in the field of defence. It evaluates

and provides guidance to the overall framework of defence

exchanges between the two sides.

NITI Aayog’s Fintech

Open Summit Virtual mode

NITI Aayog, in collaboration with PhonePe, AWS and

EY has organized a three-week virtual summit,

titled ‘Fintech Open’ to showcase importance of fintech

industry. The summit will be held from 7 to 28 February.

The summit was inaugurated by Union Minister for

Railways, Communications, and Electronics and

IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw in the presence of NITI Aayog Vice-

Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar.

21st The Energy and

Resources Institute

(TERI)’s World

Sustainable

Development Summit

(WSDS) 2022

Virtual mode

The annual flagship event held virtually from 16th - 18th

February 2022.

PM Narendra Modi has delivered the inaugural address

at the summit virtually. Environment ministers from nearly a

dozen countries took part in the event which had delegates

from ~131 countries.

Theme of the event: ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a

Sustainable and Equitable Future’.

Chapter 5: Partnership/ Agreement

Partnership/ Agreement Aim

Vedanta tied up ₹8000 crores

facility with Union Bank of

India

Vedanta Ltd has tied up a facility of Rs 8,000 crores

(replacement facility) with Union Bank of India at 7.75% to

take over majority of the syndicated facility after discussions with

lenders. During 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vedanta Ltd

had tied up a syndicated facility of ₹10Kcr with State Bank of

India as the lead bank at a running cost of 10.5 per cent.

SBI partnered with Tata Power

Solar Systems

for financing solar power projects in the Ballard Estate in

Mumbai. SBI has launched a dedicated centralized processing

cell named ‘Surya Shakti Cell’ with the objective of

strengthening the existing financing arrangement for solar power

projects. The Surya Shakti Cell will process all the loan




19 | P a g e

applications for Solar Projects from across India by Tata

Power Solar Systems Ltd (max capacity of up to 1 MW).

SBI signed an MoU with Indira

Gandhi Centre for the Arts

(IGNCA) and National

Culture Fund (NCF) of

Ministry of Culture

for Development of Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre for Design

(ABCD) at Red Fort, in Delhi.

The ABCD project will be implemented by IGNCA, through

ministry’s NCF fund. SBI will sponsor the project under CSR

(Corporate social responsibility) with a contribution of Rs. 10

crores.

Karnataka signed MoU with

Ather Energy and Electric

Supply Companies (ESCOMs)

to establish 1000 fast-charging stations for electric 2-wheeler

Ather Energy will provide free-charging services for electric

vehicle (EV) two-wheelers. ESCOMs will be the nodal agency

to provide the technical support and government agencies will

coordinate with the ESCOMs to share their available spaces

for the charging stations.

LIC tied up with Policybazaar

to digitally offer a wide range of Life Insurance and investment

products to its customers across India. This is LIC’s first

association with a private insurance aggregator, which has

mainly relied on its 1.33 million agents for distributing products.

Aim: To facilitate seamless digital distribution of life insurance

products and boost financial inclusion across India.

Kotak General Insurance

partnered with CARS24

to provide motor insurance services to used car buyers. Under

the partnership, used car buyers from Cars24 will be directly

provided with Kotak General Insurance’s comprehensive

motor insurance plans. The partnership will provide a

trustworthy and faster way to avail motor insurance with a fully

digital insurance process.

Airtel Payments Bank

partnered with ICICI Lombard

General Insurance

to offer Cyber Insurance Solutions to customers.

The cyber insurance solution from ICICI Lombard provides

financial protection to customers against potential financial

fraud relating to banking, credit or debit card; identity theft;

phishing or email spoofing, and more.

Kerala signed an MoU with

Social Alpha’s Energy Lab –

“Clean Energy International

Incubation Centre (CEIIC)”

to support innovative and clean energy technology

programmes in Kerala.

The Government of Kerala signed this agreement through

Kerala Development & Innovation Strategy

Council (KDISC) and Energy Management Centre (EMC).

The EMC Kerala represents the Power Department agencies

including the Kerala State Electricity Board, Electrical

Inspectorate and ANERT (Agency for New and Renewable

Energy Research and Technology).

Sonata Software partnered

with Microsoft

for launch of ‘Microsoft Cloud for Retail’.

The company has been a partner with Microsoft for over three

decades. The ‘Microsoft Cloud for Retail’ collaboration is

expected to further strengthen the relationship. Sonata




20 | P a g e

Software delivers solutions for retailers world-wide, leveraging

world-class IPs, in-house migration and modernisation tools.

Amazon India signed MoU

with Karnataka State Rural

Livelihood Promotion

Society (KSRLPS)

to support the growth of women entrepreneurs.

Amazon India will launch ‘Sanjeevini-KSRLPS’ in its platform and

extend benefits of the ‘Saheli’ Programme to train and empower

thousands of rural women entrepreneurs and also provide online

access to a wider market for their products.

United Nation Environment

Programme (UNEP) signed

MoU with Maharashtra

to support its ‘Majhi Vasundhara’ campaign.

It is an initiative towards sustainable use of energy and

environmental development. The literal meaning of ‘Majhi

Vasundhara’ is ‘My Earth’. It is an initiative of the Environment

and Climate Change Department, Government of

Maharashtra.

AIM, NITI Aayog, & USAID

announced partnership

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and U.S. Agency

for International Development (USAID) have announced a new

partnership under Sustainable Access to Markets and

Resources for Innovative Delivery of Healthcare (SAMRIDH)

initiative.

It will improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for

vulnerable populations in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, rural and

tribal regions.

Larsen & Toubro Limited

(L&T) signed MoU with

Microsoft India

to develop a regulated sector-focused cloud offering to

empower customers with the best-of-breed cloud computing and

infrastructure service.

Aim: To modernise traditional data centres to potentially hybrid

cloud architecture.

Under this MoU, L&T and Microsoft India will set up a joint

governance group to define future platform designs,

investments, and commercial/business models to service the

regulated sectors’ emerging technology requirements

RBL Bank partnered with

Creditas Solutions

for its SaaS (software as a service)-based ‘Neo

Collections’ platform to automate loan collections.

This platform, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and

Machine Learning (ML) technology, is a Do It Yourself (DIY)

debt management platform that helps customers to monitor,

manage and pay their dues.

Telangana government

signed MoU with British

Council

to renew the partnership in education, English and arts.

Aim: To facilitate research between institutions and assist to

expand higher education globally, to offer global opportunities

for the youth of Telangana.

Under the extended 3-year MoU, the British Council has also

signed an agreement with the Research and Innovation Circle

of Hyderabad (RICH) to work closely to engineer new




21 | P a g e

partnerships between universities, research institutions and

centres of excellence in the UK and in Telangana.

THDCIL signed agreement

with Rajasthan

to build 10,000-megawatt (MW) solar power projects entailing

an investment of Rs 10,000 crore in Rajasthan.

"THDC India Limited (THDCIL) signed the letter of intent (LoI)

of 10,000 MW in Rajasthan with an estimated investment of Rs

40,000 crore for the establishment of renewable energy parks/

projects of 10,000 MW. This will contribute towards the RE

capacity addition target of 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

SBI partnered with NSE

Academy

to launch five online courses to promote financial literacy

courses through NSE Knowledge Hub platform, an online

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform.

Aim: To provide a deeper understanding of different aspects of

banking to banking professionals, students and other learners.

Courses curated by SBI are “Banking Fundamentals”, “MSME

Lending in a Nutshell”, “Electronic Payment System in India”,

“Priority Sector Lending Norms”, “NRI Business & Compliance”.

HDFC Ergo General

Insurance partnered with Visa

to offer curated insurance covers for Visa’s Platinum card

holders for select public sector banks.

The policy will offer fraud insurance cover for an amount up

to Rs 1 lakh to all Visa Platinum Credit & Debit Cards of

participating issuers.

Aditya Birla Health Insurance

signed bancassurance

agreement with Utkarsh SFB

for the distribution of health insurance products across India

through the Bank’s network.

Through the agreement, the health insurance plans of ABHICL

will be available for purchase to more than 2.7 million

customers of the Bank across 642 branches in 214 districts spread

across 19 states and 2 Union Territories in India.

Paisabazaar partnered with

RBL bank

to offer ‘Paisa on Demand’ (PoD), a credit card that will be

exclusively available on the Paisabazaar platform. The credit card

from RBL Bank will be lifetime free with a digital onboarding

process.

Aim: To build products that offer integrated services for the large

under-served segments across India.

Vedanta tied up with Foxconn

The Indian mining major Vedanta has tied up with Taiwanese

electronics manufacturing company, Hon Hai Technology

Group (better known as Foxconn) to form a joint venture (JV)

for manufacturing semiconductors in India. Anil Agarwal, the non-

executive Chairman of Vedanta, will be the Chairman of the JV

company.

This is the first JV in the electronics manufacturing sector after the

government announced a Rs 76,000 crore production-linked

incentive (PLI) scheme for semiconductor and display




22 | P a g e

manufacturing, to create an ecosystem of local production of

semiconductors in India.

Kotak Mahindra Bank tied up

with Ezetap

to provide integrated Point of Sale (PoS) solutions across 4,000

locations in India.

The initiative will strengthen the bank’s presence in the digital

payments market space. The partnership will enable it to scale

up its PoS product base across merchant segments, including

retail enterprises and government customers.

Bank of Baroda signed MoU

with Assam Rifles

to provide the ‘Baroda Central Forces Salary

Package (BCFSP)’ to all personnel of the Assam Rifles, both

serving and retired.

BoB will offer services such as free unlimited transactions at all

Bank ATMs, free remittance services like National Electronic

Fund Transfer (NEFT)/ Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)

online or through branch, free debit card, free unlimited demand

draft facilities, 50% discount on locker rentals, 100% waiver on

Demat annual maintenance charges and 75% waiver on issuance

charges for Gift and Travel cards.

SIDBI partnered with Bihar

government

to develop the state’s MSME ecosystem. It signed two MoUs with

the Industries Department, Govt of Bihar and Bihar Industrial

Area Development Authority (BIADA).

Under the MoU it will deploy Project Management Units (PMU)

in making necessary interventions for facilitating the development

of the MSME ecosystem. SIDBI is the principal financial

institution for MSME development in the country. Bihar is

the 14th state of India with which SIDBI has partnered to

strengthen MSME.

Twitter partnered with Paytm

to improve the support for its ‘Tips’ feature in India.

With this partnership, Twitter users will be able to use the

payments facility of Paytm, including its Paytm digital wallet,

Paytm Postpaid (buy-now-pay-later service), debit and credit

cards, and net banking.

Fisdom joined hands with

Bank of Maharashtra

to offer wealth management products and services to over 29

million customers of the bank.

This partnership is to distribute the wealth products and

services through the bank’s network of more than 2,000

branches and its digital platforms, including the mobile banking

app and internet banking.

BSE Ebix Insurance Broking

Pvt. Ltd partnered with LIC

insurance broker agreement for the distribution of Life

Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) products.

Aim: To offer customer centric solutions backed by technological

innovations and best in class services.




23 | P a g e

Under this agreement, BSE Ebix will offer their clients insurance

products offered by LIC such as Life and Health, using its

omni-channel digital presence.

TransUnion CIBIL partnered

with FICCI

to launch a nationwide Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

(MSME) consumer education program to support MSME’s

across India to get awareness about credit management, CIBIL

Rank and commercial credit information.

The objective of the programme is to empower MSME’s with

knowledge on how to build a good credit history and CIBIL

Rank to avail easier and faster access to finance.

Tata Power collaborated with

Germany-based RWE

Renewable GmbH

to explore potential for a joint development of offshore wind

projects in India. A corresponding MoU has been signed

between Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd and RWE

Renewables GmbH, one of the world's leaders in offshore wind.

The MoU between Tata Power Renewable

Energy and RWE becomes significant in the light of the Central

govt’s announcement of achieving 30GW of offshore wind

installations by 2030.

Kerala Startup Mission

partnered with Google

During the ‘Huddle Global 2022’, Kerala Startup

Mission (KSUM) collaborated with Google to launch Google for

Startups Accelerator, India to attach native startups with the

worldwide startups and to leverage Google’s programme which

comprises mentorship and coaching of startup groups to assist

scale up their options.

The third edition of the 2 days ‘Huddle Global 2022’

organised by KSUM was inaugurated by Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan. Paul Ravindranath, will head Google for

Startups Accelerator, India.

Mastercard partnered with SBI

Payments

Mastercard, as an extension of its flagship campaign ‘Team

Cashless India’ along with SBI Payments partnered with the

Auto Rickshaw Association in Lucknow, All Assam’s Restaurant

Association (AARA) in Guwahati, local shopkeepers, and Boat

Union in Varanasi to boost the digital payments infrastructure.

In Guwahati, Mastercard collaborates with All Assam’s

Restaurant Association (AARA) in line with the Government’s

‘Digital Northeast Vision 2022’ which equips restaurant and

hotel owners with a safe, seamless, secure mode of payment to

consumers.

In Lucknow, Mastercard partnered with local transport bodies,

including the Auto Rickshaw Association, to enable more than

700 auto-rickshaw drivers to accept digital payments.

In Varanasi, Mastercard partnered with the Boat Union to

encourage over 1,000 members to accept digital payments from




24 | P a g e

tourists and also local shopkeepers committed to digital

payments which has increased tourism.

Adani Group tied up with

Canada’s Nasdaq-listed Ballard

Power Systems

to evaluate a joint investment case for the commercialisation of

hydrogen fuel cells in mobility and industrial applications in

India.

Adani Group partners with Ballard to create a shared fuel cell

ecosystem in India. Under this MoU, Adani Group and Ballard

will examine the options to cooperate, including potential

collaboration for fuel cell manufacturing in India.

The efforts taken under this MoU will be coordinated by Adani

New Industries Ltd (ANIL), the newly formed subsidiary of

Adani Enterprises. ANIL is focused on the generation of green

hydrogen, green electricity generation, manufacture of

electrolysers and wind turbines.

HDFC Bank collaborated with

Indore Clean Energy Private

Limited (ICEPL)

to fund the conversion process of 550 tonnes/day of Municipal

Solid Waste (MSW) into Compressed Biogas at the Gobar-

Dhan plant, the largest Bio-CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) plant

in Asia located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

This is the largest waste to energy project funded by HDFC

Bank under its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)

commitments to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change

and make the bank carbon neutral by 2031-2032.

ICEPL is promoted by Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF), which

is the largest climate impact fund in India with investors like

National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) & Government

of UK.

World Economic Forum

signed MoU with NIUA

to collaborate on ‘Sustainable Cities India program’.

Sustainable Cities India program enable cities to decarbonize in

systematic and sustainable way that will reduce emissions and

deliver resilient and equitable urban ecosystems.

EaseMyTrip partnered with

Toffee Insurance

to offer a first-of-its-kind, free-of-charge, full refund medical

policy that provides the additional travel flexibility for

customers.

Through the free of charge policy, the customers will get a

complete refund including the money deducted by airlines.

The policy can be claimed by uploading a doctor’s prescription

citing the medical illness.

Toffee Insurance will manage all travel insurance products for

EaseMyTrip customer’s cancelling flight bookings caused due

to medical emergencies.

International Air Transport

Association (IATA) joined

hands with Standard

Chartered Bank

to launch its new payment platform “IATA Pay” for the Indian

airline industry to enable instant airline payment.

IATA Pay in India is based on Standard

Chartered’s Straight2Bank Pay. Straight2Bank Pay is a multiple




25 | P a g e

payment options mode, made through a single global

connectivity.

NHPC inked pact with HDFC

Bank

to securitise return on equity (RoE) of its 540-MegaWatt (3 X

180 MegaWatt) Chamera-I Power Plant in Himachal Pradesh

for 10 years.

The facility agreement is in compliance with the Regulation 30 of

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) (Listing

Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.

The amount of securitization facility has arrived Rs. 1,016.39

crore at 5.24% per annum and the discounting rate is linked

with 3 months Treasury bills (T-Bills).

Chamera-I Power Plant (3 x 180 MW) is an underground

powerhouse with an installed capacity of 540 MW houses 3 units

of 180 MW capacity each designed which generates 1664.56

million units of hydropower from river Ravi in Chamba district of

Himachal Pradesh.

South Indian Bank entered

into Bancassurance partnership

with Star Health and Allied

Insurance

to provide innovative health insurance products for the

SIB’s ~6.5 million customers spread over 923 branches across

India. The SIB’s customers can avail benefits of Star Health’s retail

insurance products and group affinity products through the

SIB’s distribution channels.

Vedanta signed an MoU with

The Energy and Resources

Institute (TERI)

Vedanta has signed an MoU with TERI at the WSDS 2022 to

‘Sustainable Use of Resources for a Resilient Planet through

Transformative Actions’ and improve its environmental, social, and

governance (ESG) goals.

Vedanta plans to invest around Rs 200 crore over the next

five to 10 years on R&D (Research and Development) and

sustainability initiatives to promote and build a sustainable

ecosystem.

Chapter 6: Ranking Index

Index Index released by India’s Rank 1st Rank

Report on Most valued

insurance brand

globally

London-based Brand

Finance

10th: Life Insurance

Corporation

strongest and the

largest brand in the

country with a

valuation of $8.656

billion (around Rs

64,722 crore).

Also, LIC is ranked 3rd in

brand strength

globally after Poste

Italiane, Italy and Mapfre,

Spain.

India Press Freedom

Report, 2021

Rights and Risks

Analysis Group

Top states in attacks on

journalists in 2021:




26 | P a g e

1. J&K

2. Uttar Pradesh

3. Madhya Pradesh

4. Tripura

5. Delhi Bihar

Global Digital Skills

Index 2022 Salesforce

India leads in Digital

Skills Readiness

Bloomberg Billionaires

Index Bloomberg

Asia’s Richest

Person: Gautam

Adani ($88.5

billion)

2nd: Mukesh

Ambani’s $87.9

billion

8th February, 2022

World’s richest person:

1st: Elon Musk ($235 Billion)

2nd : Jeff Bezos ($183 Billion)

3rd: Bernard Arnault ($168

Billion)

10th: Gautam Adani ($88.5

billion)

TomTom Traffic Index

Ranking 2021 TomTom

Most-congested city in the

world in 2021:

1st: Istanbul, Turkey

2nd: Moscow

5th: Mumbai

10th: Bengaluru

11th: New Delhi

21st: Pune

Democracy Index 2021 The Economist

Intelligence Unit India ranked 46th

1st: Norway

2nd: New Zealand

3rd: Finland

4th: Sweden

5th: Iceland

6th: Denmark

7th: Ireland

8th: Taiwan

9th: Australia

10th: Switzerland

Bottom 3:

• North Korea

• Afghanistan

• Myanmar

Global

Entrepreneurship

Monitor 2021/2022

report

India ranked 4th in

Ease of Starting

Business

1st: Saudi Arabia

2nd: Netherlands

3rd: Sweden




27 | P a g e

9th USGBC top 10

ranking of Countries

outside of US for

Leadership in Energy

and Environmental

Design (LEED) in 2021

US Green Building

Council (USGBC) India ranked 3rd

1st: China

2nd: Canada

‘Deloitte 2022 CxO

Sustainability Report:

The Disconnect

Between Ambition and

Impact’

Deloitte Touche

Tohmatsu Limited

(DTTL)

Indian businesses

ranked 5th

10th International

Intellectual Property

Index, ‘Compete for

Tomorrow’ (IIP Index

2022)

Global Innovation

Policy Centre (GIPC) of

United States

Chambers of

Commerce (USCC)

India ranked 43rd

The top 5 countries:

• Rank 1: United States

of America

• Rank 2: United

Kingdom

• Rank 3: Germany

• Rank 4: Sweden

• Rank 5: France

Crisil Report: LIC 3rd strongest and 10th most valuable insurance brand globally offers the

highest Return on Equity (RoE) at 82%

• According to the report of CRISIL, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), India’s

largest IPO (Initial Public offering)-bound national insurer and 3rd strongest insurance

brand globally, offers the highest Return on Equity (RoE) at 82% amongst all its global

peers.

• According to a brand valuation report by London-based Brand Finance, LIC is India’s

strongest and the largest brand in the country with a valuation of $8.656 billion

(around Rs 64,722 crore).

• With this, it also becomes the third-strongest insurance brand globally after Poste

Italiane of Italy, and Mapfre of Spain at 1st and 2nd rank respectively. It is also the world’s

10th most valuable insurance brand.

• LIC’s market share is highest among the globe i.e., 64.1% or with a gross written

premium (GWP) of $56.405 billion.

Chapter 7: Mergers and Acquisitions

Merger Company About

Sony Group Corp bought

US game developer

‘Bungie’ Inc

for $3.6 billion to bolster its stable of game-making studios. The

deal announced by Sony Interactive Entertainment is the third

significant video-game acquisition this month,

following Microsoft Corp.’s purchase of Activision Blizzard




28 | P a g e

Inc. for $69 billion two weeks ago and Take-Two Interactive Corp.

snagging mobile game leader Zynga Inc. on Jan 10.

ICICI Bank raised stake in

IICC at GIFT IFSC City to

9.9%

ICICI Bank Limited has bought additional stake in India

International Clearing Corporation (IICC) at International

Financial Services centre (IFSC) in Gujarat International Finance

Tec-City (GIFT City), Gujarat for Rs 4.43 crore, raising to 9.90%.

Around 44,262,356 equity shares at Rs. 1 per share were allotted to

ICICI Bank on 2nd February 2022 for a cash consideration of Rs

44.3 million (Rs 4.43 crore).

After this investment, ICICI Bank’s shareholding increased from

7.61 % to 9.90 % of the equity share capital of IICC.

IICC is the 1st international clearing corporation set up at GIFT IFSC,

Gujarat in September 2016.

Razorpay acquired

Malaysian fintech startup

“Curlec”

It valued the company between $19-20 million.

Razorpay expects to complete the full acquisition in the next one-

and-a-half years. The Kuala Lumpur-based, Curlec builds

solutions for recurring payments for businesses. This marks

Razorpay’s fourth acquisition overall and its first in the international

markets.

Reliance New Energy

Limited (RNEL) bought

additional 10.37% stake in

Sterling & Wilson

Renewable Energy Limited

(SWREL)

for Rs. 738 crores from its promoters.

The promoters include Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private

Limited (1.53 crore equity shares of SWREL) and Khurshed

Daruvala (42.86 lakh equity shares of SWREL).

After the acquisition, RNEL holds 40.00% of the total paid-up

equity share capital of SWREL which is an aggregate of 19667750

equity shares of face value of INR 1 each.

Axis Bank bought

Citigroup’s India retail

banking business

in a transaction that could be valued at about $2.5 billion.

An agreement for the consumer unit may be announced as soon

as the next few weeks and is contingent on approval from

the Reserve Bank of India. The deal would include a cash

component of less than $2 billion, accounting for the consumer

business’s liabilities.

Bank of Baroda acquired

Union Bank's 21% stake in

IndiaFirst Life Insurance

It is a joint venture between Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of

India and Carmel Point Investments. At present, the shareholding

in IFIC is BoB holds 44%, Carmel Point Investments India holds

26% and UBI holds 30%. The acquisition is pursuant to a ‘Right of

First Offer’ made by UBI to the existing shareholders of IndiaFirst

Life, to divest 21% of its stake in IndiaFirst Life.

Jio Platforms acquired 25%

stake in US-based deep-

tech startup TWO

Platforms

for $15 million

Two Platforms is an artificial reality company that focuses on

building interactive and immersive AI experiences.

The two companies have joined hands to fast track the adoption of

new technologies and build disruptive technologies such as AI,

metaverse and mixed realities. The platform was founded by




29 | P a g e

Indian-origin computer scientist & former Samsung Technology

and Advanced Research president and CEO Pranav Mistry.

ICICI Bank bought 9.49%

stake in Verve Financial

Services

for a cash investment of INR 19.99 crore in the equity shares of

VFSPL. VFSPL operates ‘Indiafilings’ platform, it provides various

services like incorporation, trademark, tax filings, compliance,

payroll management and other business services to MSMEs,

corporates and entrepreneurs.

The investment agreement is expected to be completed by the end

of March 2022. Later, ICICI Bank will hold a 9.49% stake (on a

fully diluted basis) in VFSPL through acquisition of 2,29,600

equity shares. For the acquisition of shareholding below 10%,

the regulatory approval is not required under Companies Act

1956.

LIC acquired additional

stake of 0.085% in Capri

Global Capital

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has acquired 0.085%

additional stakes of Capri Global Capital Ltd (CGCL) through

market purchase and increased its stake in CGCL from 4.959% to

5.044%.

CGCL is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) listed on the

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange

(NSE).

Bharti Airtel acquired 4.7%

stake from Vodafone in

Indus Towers

The two companies signed an agreement on the condition that

Vodafone will use the proceeds to invest in Vodafone Idea (Vi)

and the latter will clear its pending dues with Indus Towers.

With the acquisition, Airtel’s shareholding in Indus Towers will

increase to 46.4 %. Vodafone holds a 28.1 % stake in the

company at present and its shareholding will reduce to 21 %.

Kirloskar Ferrous

Industries Ltd acquired

stakes in ISMT

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the

acquisition of stakes in ISMT Limited by Kirloskar Ferrous

Industries Limited, a flagship company of Kirloskar Group.

The Proposed Combination is notifiable under Section 5(a) of the

Competition Act, 2002.

Under the proposed combination, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries

proposes to acquire sole control of the ISMT, pursuant to the

subscription of preferential allotment, equity shares as per the

terms of the Securities Subscription Agreement (SSA) dated 25th

November 2021, and an open offer to acquire up to 25.05% of the

Emerging Voting Capital of the ISMT, as per the SEBI (Substantial

Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011.

Under this combination, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries seeks to acquire

up to 51.25% of the EmergingVoting Capital of the ISMT and will

acquire up to 76.3% of the Emerging Voting Capital of the ISMT.




30 | P a g e

SBI, BoB, PNB, UBI, BoM and Canara Bank acquired stake in IDRCL

State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Union Bank of

India (UBI), Canara Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) announced the subscription to the

shares of India Debt Resolution Company Ltd (IDRCL).

The Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and public Financial Institutions (FIs) will hold a maximum of

49% stake in IDRCL and the remaining will be with Private sector lenders.

PSBs will maintain 51% ownership in National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL)

and the remaining will be with Private sector lenders.

IDRCL is a service company or an operational entity, which will manage assets and loop in-

market professionals and turnaround experts. The Banks will further reduce their stake in IDRCL.

Bank

Equity

Stake

acquired

Subscription to the shares

Stake to be

reduced by

March 31,

2022

State Bank of India 12.30% 99,000 shares of Rs 10 each 5%

Punjab National

Bank 11.18% 99,000 shares of Rs 10 each 5%

Union Bank of

India 12.30% 99,000 shares of Rs 10 each 10%

Canara Bank 14.90% 1.20 lakh shares of Rs 10 each 5%

Bank of

Maharashtra 6.21% 50,000 shares of Rs 10 each 4%

Bank of Baroda 12.30% 99,000 shares of Rs 10 each 9.90%

Chapter 8: Loan

Organization/Bank Loan

Amount Purpose

EXIM Bank $500 million

EXIM Bank of India and the Sri Lankan

Government signed a $500 million Line of Credit.

India’s support for fuel imports — by Sri Lanka from

India — through the LoC, is in response to Lanka’s

urgent requirement.




31 | P a g e

Aim: to help Sri Lanka cope with its current fuel

shortages, amid one of the worst economic meltdowns

facing Sri Lanka.

Asian Development

Bank (ADB) USD 4.6 billion

As per the data officially released by the ADB, it

provided a record USD 4.6 billion in sovereign

lending to India in 2021.

This included USD 1.8 billion towards coronavirus

disease (COVID-19) pandemic response.

The USD 4.6 billion was committed by ADB for 17

loans. The USD 1.8 billion COVID-19-related

assistance included USD 1.5 billion for vaccine

procurement and USD 300 million to strengthen

primary health care in urban areas and the country’s

future pandemic preparedness.

The agency extended a USD 2.2-billion support for 12

state projects, committed to its geographically

balanced programming. The ADB's India

portfolio comprised 69 projects worth USD 15.5

billion as of 31st December 2021.

World Bank $115 million

(INR 869 crore)

Government of India, the state govt

of Karnataka and Odisha signed loan agreement for

implementation of “Rejuvenating Watersheds for

Agricultural Resilience through Innovative

Development” (REWARD) Project.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and

Development (IBRD), lending arm of World Bank

Group financing will support the $115 million loan and

has a maturity of 15 years, including a grace period

of 4.5 years.

Karnataka with $60 million, Odisha with $49 million,

and the remaining $6 million will be for the central

government’s Department of Land Resources.

Asian Development

Bank (ADB)

USD 68 million

(INR 434 crore)

IIFL Home Finance Limited signed a loan

agreement to provide the financial support for

affordable green housing for lower-income women

borrowers in India.

The funding pattern includes up to USD 58 million

direct loan by the ADB and a USD 10 million

concessional loan by the Canadian Climate Fund for

the Private Sector (CFPS) in Asia.

Under the ADB’s loan, 80% will be lended to women

borrowers or co-borrowers and 20% will be allocated




32 | P a g e

to financing mortgages for green certified homes for

low-income households.

Japan International

Cooperation Agency

(JICA)

Rs 1,000 crores

JICA approved the tender for cleaning up rivers Mula,

Mutha and Mula-Mutha (confluence of both rivers) of

Pune Municipal Corporation area.

The project will cost around Rs 1,000 crores for

pollution abatement of rivers. The Mula and Mutha

are the most polluted city Pune, which later meets

Krishna River in Western Ghats and finally empties into

the Bay of Bengal.

Aim: To improve the water quality by augmenting

sewage collection systems, sewage treatment

facilities and improving sanitation in Pune Municipal

Corporation area.

Chapter 9: App/Website/Portal

App/

Website/Portal/Card

Company /

Department Purpose

Co-branded

contactless credit

cards

Punjab National Bank

(PNB) & Patanjali

Ayurved Limited &

National Payments

Corporation of India

(NPCI)

The co-branded credit cards are offered on NPCI’s

RuPay Platform and are available in two variants

– PNB RuPay Platinum and PNB RuPay Select.

Both the co-branded cards offer a hassle-free credit

service to purchase day-to-day Patanjali

products, along with cash backs, loyalty points.

PNB RuPay Platinum and PNB RuPay Select

cardholders will receive a welcome bonus of 300

reward points on activation.

Platinum and Select cards come with attractive

insurance cover of ₹2 lakh and ₹10 lakh,

respectively for Accidental Death and Personal Total

Disability. Platinum Card offers a credit limit of

₹25,000 to ₹5 lakh and Select Card ₹50,000 to

₹10 lakh.

Artificial

Intelligence (AI)

powered voice bot

Edelweiss General

Insurance

for automated registration of motor claims. It is

powered by Yellow. ai platform.

The end-to-end AI Voice Bot is the first of its

kind services in the General Insurance industry

in India. Initially it is introduced for garage owners and

will be extended to all customers in upcoming months.

“Nanna Shale Nanna

Koduge” app

Department of

Primary & Secondary

launched to help in addressing infrastructure

needs of government schools, optimal use of




33 | P a g e

(Meaning ‘My

School, My

contribution’ app)

Education in

Karnataka

hearing aids, shortage of teachers, and utilisation of

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.

Under the programme, an investment of Rs 875

crore will be required, wherein Rs 200,000 will be

dedicated to each school. Department seeks to

develop at least 100 schools by 2024-25

academic year.

1st of its kind Quick

Response (QR)

code-based

mechanism to

certify and label

handmade carpets

of J&K

J&K governor

With the QR-based application, customers can

check and verify authenticity and other requisite

details of carpets produced in Jammu and

Kashmir.

He also felicitated UT’s awardees of Handicrafts

& Handloom. J&K Handicrafts are repositories of

India’s creative traditions that are serving as a

cultural expression.

Quit Tobacco App World Health

Organization

to help people quit tobacco use in all forms

including smokeless and other related products.

It is a first-of-its-kind app which helps users

identify the triggers, set their targets, manage

cravings, and stay focused on quitting tobacco. It

was launched during WHO’s year-long ‘Commit to

quit’ tobacco control campaign.

‘Smart Card Arms

License’ and

“Shastra Mobile

Application”

Delhi Police

On the occasion of 75th Anniversary of Delhi

Police (16th February 2022), Home Minister Amit

Shah launched the Delhi Police’s “Smart Card

Arms License” and “Shastra Mobile Application”.

Delhi Police introduced ‘Smart Card Arms License’

to provide techno-friendly digital services to the

citizens of Delhi. Delhi Police has become India’s

first security force to introduce the ‘Smart Card

Arms License’, replacing the arms license booklet.

The smart card and the Shastra app were designed

and developed in coordination with the National

e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of

Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).

The smart card has inherent security features

which include an 18-digit unique identification

number. Smart Card Arms License will be

integrated with the ‘e-Beat book’ through

the ‘Shastra mobile app’ for effective policing.

Night Navigation

Mobile App for ferry

services in rivers

Assam

Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa

Sarma launched India’s first Night Navigation

mobile application for ferry services on the

Brahmaputra River in Guwahati, Assam.




34 | P a g e

It was developed by the State Transport

Department in association with K Raju, the

principal scientist of IIT Madras.

The CM also launched ten Aadhar-based

contactless services of the State Transport

Department to make public service delivery time

efficient and budget friendly. The CM also launched

an e-ticketing system for Dhubri and Silchar ferry

services.

An MoU was also signed between the Common

Service Centres (CSCs) under the Ministry of

Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)

and State Transport Department to provide

online services at the panchayat level.

‘KISAN’ mobile app IIT Roorkee

for regional farmers of Haridwar, Uttarakhand

The Indian Institute of

technology Roorkee organized a regional farmers’

awareness programme as part of the ‘Gramin

Krishi Mausam Sewa’ (GKMS) project and

launched KISAN mobile application for the

farmers. The app will provide agro-

meteorological services to the farmers.

The Agro-meteorological Advisory Services are

offered jointly by the AMFU (Agromet Field Unit

Roorkee) IIT Roorkee and the India

Meteorological Department (IMD).

The app was developed by Dr. Khushboo Mirza,

Senior Scientist, Regional Remote Sensing Centre

(RRSC), National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC),

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), New

Delhi under the guidance of Dr. C S Jha,

Outstanding Scientist and Chief General Manager at

RRSC, NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad.

Pradhan Mantri

Awaas Yojana-

Gramin (PMAYG)

Dashboard

Union Minister for

Rural Development

and Panchayati Raj

Giriraj Singh

for stringent monitoring of the implementation of

the scheme.

It will be used by the Stakeholders of PMAYG for

monitoring and managerial purpose. It will

provide complete transparency in the

implementation of the scheme and should reach

from the Sarpanchs of villages to the Members of

Parliament of constituencies.

Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G)

was rolled out in April 2016, with the objective of

providing “Housing to All” by 2024. The scheme




35 | P a g e

seeks to complete 2.95 crore PMAY-G houses with

all basic amenities. As of now, a total of 1.73

crores PMAY-G houses have been completed out

of allocated cumulative target of 2.62 crore

houses.

Ombudsperson app

for smooth

functioning of

MNREGA scheme

Minister of Rural

Development and

Panchayati Raj, Giriraj

Singh

It will facilitate hassle free reporting,

categorization of grievances and disposal of

complaints by Ombudsperson. It will also ensure

tracking and timely passing of awards by

Ombudsperson.

The app will ensure transparency and

accountability in the ecosystem of MNREGA.

Ombudsperson can also easily upload quarterly and

annual reports on the website through the app.

Union MSME RuPay

Credit Card

Union Bank of India

in association with

the National

Payments

Corporation of India

(NPCI)

for meeting business-related operational expenses

of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

This Card comes with interest-free credit for up

to 50 days. The dedicated card for MSMEs is

available to eligible borrowers of the Union Bank of

India. It also offers EMI facility for the customers

on their business-related purchases.

On this card, MSME customers will get accidental

insurance coverage of up to Rs 10 lakh. They will

also get domestic airport lounge access of 2 per

quarter and other rewards.

Chapter 10: Important MoU

MoU Between which

Countries/Company About

MoU for construction

of motorable Bridge

over the Mahakali

River in Dharchula

under Indian grant

assistance

India and Nepal

The project will enhance cross-border

connectivity between the Sudurpaschim

province of Nepal and the Uttarakhand state

of India across the Mahakali River where close

people-to-people links exist between

communities on both sides of the border.

MoU to procure 420

broad gauge wagons

from India

Bangladesh Railway and

Hindustan Engineering

and Industries Limited

(HEIL)

The total cost of the agreement is ~Tk 231

crore (Tk – Bangladeshi Taka) (~ Rs 200

crore). At present, the BR has a total of 3,221

wagons which includes 918 tank wagons, 1030

covered wagons and 1273 open wagons.

MoU on tourism

cooperation India and Australia

It will be instrumental in increasing tourists’

arrival from this important source market.

Under the MoU, three meeting of Joint




36 | P a g e

Working Group Meeting on tourism between

India and Australia were conducted.

MoU for Transforming

sheep farming sector

in the J&K

J&K Government and

New Zealand

Aim: To improve farmer’s remuneration, transfer

of technology in research and development,

marketing and value addition of sheep products

of J&K.

MoU to hand over

wheat to Afghanistan

India and UN’s World

Food Programme

for the distribution of 50,000 MT of wheat that

it has committed to sending Kandahar,

Afghanistan as part of a humanitarian

assistance.

According to the MoU, the wheat will be taken

through Pakistan to the Afghan border

crossing and handed over to WFP officials in

Kandahar beginning February 22.

Comprehensive

Economic Partnership

Agreement (CEPA)

India and UAE

It will cover goods, services and digital trade,

among others, that will allow 90% of the

country's exports a duty-free access to the

Emirates.

Roadmap on Blue

Economy and Ocean

Governance

India and France

India and France have signed roadmap to

enhance their bilateral exchanges on the blue

economy and ocean governance.

This tie-up will help to explore the potential

for collaboration in marine science research

for a better understanding of oceans, and

ensure that ocean remains a global common, a

space of freedom and trade, based on the rule

of law.

To set up a joint task

force on “proposal to

construct a

hydropower project”

India & Nepal

The task force will have maximum three

members from both the countries. Agreement

was signed at the 9th meeting of Nepal-India

Energy Secretary-Level Joint Steering

Committee in Kathmandu.

They agreed to increase the capacity of energy

being imported and exported using interstate

400 KV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission

line. This 400 KV transmission line will span

over 140 kilometres, of which 20 kilometres will

be in Nepal while remaining 120 km will be in

Indian territory.

Arun-3 Hydro Electric project is a 900 MW

run-of-river project, located on Arun River in

Eastern Nepal. Government of Nepal and Sutlej

Jal Vikas Nigam (SJVN) Limited had signed a

memorandum of understanding for the project




37 | P a g e

in 2008 to execute on Build Own Operate and

Transfer (BOOT) basis for a period of 30 years,

which also include five years of construction

period.

Bilateral Swap

Arrangement of up to

$75 billion

Japan and India

The Bank of Japan, acting as agent for

the Minister of Finance of Japan, and

the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed the

Amendment and Restatement Agreement of the

BSA. BSA is a two-way arrangement where both

authorities can swap their local currencies in

exchange for the US Dollar.

Chapter 12: Current Affairs (National) In Short

Spituk Gustor Festival celebrated in Ladakh

Spituk Gustor Festival, a two-day annual

celebration of Ladakhi culture and traditional

heritage celebrated on 30th & 31st January

2022 in Leh and Ladakh Union Territory. On

the same day, the Geluk Pa Order of Tibetan

Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa

(1357-1419) is also commemorated, an

annual winter festival that aims at increasing

brotherhood and friendship among believers.

It is a celebration of peace and prosperity that

is celebrated at the Spituk Monastery in Leh

and Ladakh UT. The two-day festival is

observed during the 28th and 29th days of

the 11th month of the Tibetan Calendar.

India’s first geological park will be built in

Lamheta, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh

The Geological Survey of

India (GSI), Ministry of Mines, approved the

setting up of India’s first geological park

at Lamheta village, on the banks of the

Narmada River in Jabalpur, Madhya

Pradesh. The GSI has sanction Rs. 1.30

crore for the formation of Geopark in 5

acres of land at the Lamheta village which is

located 20 km away from the Jabalpur district

headquarters. The estimated cost of this

project is Rs 35 crore and any additional

funds can be sanctioned if required.

This geopark to be formed in MP is already in

the United Nations Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) geo-

heritage tentative list for the conservation

of the natural heritage. In 1828, the 1st

dinosaur fossil was collected from the

Lameta Bed by Indian Civil Service (ICS)

officer William Sleeman.

MP will also establish a science centre at the

cost of Rs 15.20 crore, shared by the Centre

and the state (Rs 8.65 crore will be financed

by state government and remaining Rs

6.55 crore will be provided by National

Science Museum, Kolkata) at Bhedaghat,

Jabalpur, MP that is known for white marble

rock formations and also a famous tourist

hotspot.

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer unveiled its

elections mascot named ‘Shera’

Chief Electoral Officer’s office of

Punjab unveiled its election mascot, “Shera”

(Lion). It aims to increase voter awareness,

participation and promote ethical voting in




38 | P a g e

the Punjab Assembly polls that is scheduled

on 20 February 2022. The mascot “Shera”,

depicting a lion. It represents the rich

cultural heritage of Punjab. It is promoted

under the Systematic Voters Education and

Electoral Participation (SVEEP) project of

Election Commission of India (ECI). SVEEP

project was started in 2009, as the flagship

program of the ECI for voter education.

Gandhi Mandiram, Smruthi Vanam built at

Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh

Social activists have built a temple

for Mahatma Gandhi and freedom

fighters’ Smrithi Vanam at the Municipal

Park in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh.

Statues of freedom fighters and social

activists were erected in the park with the

help of donors. Arrangements have been

made to unveil the Gandhi temple as well

as Smrithi Vanam on the eve of Gandhiji’s

death anniversary

Torgya Festival celebrated in Arunachal

Pradesh at Tawang Monastery

The three days long Torgya Festival of

the Monpa tribal community of Arunachal

Pradesh is celebrated at Tawang Monastery,

Arunachal Pradesh. This year is the ‘Dungyur

Torgya’ festival, which marks special occasion

as every 3rd year, the festival is organised on

a broader level with the name Dungyur

Festival during which Dalai Lama offers

blessings (also known as Tse-Boom) to

other lamas by sending Feb Jum which is a

holy item to be used in rituals.

Tata Sky rebranded itself as 'Tata Play'

Tata Sky (founded in 2006) has dropped the

‘sky’ brand name and rechristened itself as

'Tata Play'.One of the largest Direct to

Home (DTH) platforms has joined hands

with Netflix to offer new OTT (over the top)

content-centric channel packs as well. 'Tata

Sky' is a joint venture between the Tata

Sons (60%) and The Walt Disney

Company (30%), with Temasek Holdings,

Singapore (10%).

Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat &

Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in UP listed as

India’s 48th & 49th Ramsar sites

Khijadia Wildlife

Sanctuary in Gujarat and Bakhira Wildlife

Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh were declared as

two new Ramsar sites (Wetlands of

International Importance). With this, the

total number of Ramsar sites in India goes

up to 49. Khijadiya, which is part of

the Central Asian Flyway, has become the

4th wetland of Gujarat to get the Ramsar

tag. Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary, a

freshwater marsh in the Sant Kabir Nagar

district. It is the largest natural floodplain

wetland of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Read More

Mandu Festival celebrated in Dhar District

of Madhya Pradesh

Mandu Festival is annually celebrated in

Madhya Pradesh, organised by the Madhya

Pradesh Tourism Board. The festival is also

dedicated to the Hindu God Ganesha.

Mandu festival is celebrated in Mandu,

Ujjain and Indore. Mandu or Mandavgad is

an ancient city in the present-day Mandav

area of the Dhar district. The Mandu Festival

has been celebrated from 30th December

2021 to 3rd January 2022. The 5-day festival

is celebrated in collaboration with the district

administration by Ustad Alauddin Khan

Music and Art Academy (Bhopal).

HPCL launched Non-Fuel Retail Store

‘HaPpyShop’



https://ambitiousbaba.com/new-ramsar-sites-for-india-on-world-wetlands-day/


39 | P a g e

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

(HPCL) has marked its foray into the non-

fuel retailing sector by inaugurating its

Retail Store under the brand

name HaPpyShop, to make available the

products of daily need to its customers at

their convenience. The first retail store was

launched by HPCL in September 2021 in

Mumbai at Company’s Retail Outlet located

at Nepean Sea Road.

Giving it a further push, the company has

announced the opening of two more

Convenience Stores of ‘HaPpyShop’ on

January 31, 2022. The two new stores are

located at Company’s Auto Care Centre,

Bandra West in Mumbai, & Millennium

Retail Outlet in Visakhapatnam. In addition

to this, HPCL has launched the platform in a

purely online format by opening the Online

Store at Madurai. HPCL is also marketing

branded packaged drinking water at its

Retail Outlets across the country under the

name ‘Paani@Club HP’.

Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram

declared as India’s first OECM site

Aravalli Biodiversity Park situated in

Gurugram, Haryana, has been declared

as India’s first OECM (Other Effective Area-

based Conservation Measures) site on

World Wetlands Day (February 2, 2022).

The OCEM tag is given by International

Union for Conservation of Nature

(IUCN) to those areas that are not protected

but support rich biodiversity. The tag

designates the area as a biodiversity hotspot

on international map. It is spread across 390

acres and has semi-arid vegetation.

Maharashtra topped the list of newly

recognized startups and unicorns

As per the recently presented Economic

Survey 2021-22, Maharashtra tops the list

of newly recognized startups and unicorns.

Maharashtra recognized 11,308 of total

14,000 startups that began operations in the

current financial year. Out of 44 Unicorn

companies, 11 are based in the state.

Maharashtra also ranks 2nd on Niti Aayog’s

Innovation Index 2020.

India's 1st project of mixing hydrogen into

natural gas started by GAIL in Indore,

Madhya Pradesh

Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has

started India’s first project of mixing

hydrogen into the natural gas system at

Indore, Madhya Pradesh (MP). The

hydrogen blended natural gas will be

supplied to Avantika Gas Limited, one of

GAIL’s Joint Venture (JV) companies with

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited

(HPCL) in Indore, MP. India has committed to

achieving net-zero carbon emissions by

2070. The government plans to raise the

share of natural gas in the primary energy

basket to 15 percent by 2030 from the

current 6.2 percent.

Uttar Pradesh selected as best tableau

among states/UTs at R-Day parade 2022

Uttar Pradesh’s tableau, based on theme

‘One District One Product and Kashi

Vishwanath Dham’, was adjudged the best

among 12 States and Union Territories at

this year’s Republic Day parade, while the

Ministry of Education and Ministry of Civil

Aviation were declared joint winners among

the Ministries and departments.

The marching contingent of the Navy was

adjudged the best among the Services,

while the Central Industrial Security Force

(CISF) was named the best among the




40 | P a g e

Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and

auxiliary forces.

The second place went to Karnataka for its

tableau based on ‘Cradle of Traditional

Handicrafts’. The third position went to

Meghalaya for its tableau on ‘Meghalaya’s

50 years of Statehood and its tribute to

women-led cooperative societies & SHGs’.

The theme of the tableau of Ministry of

Education and Ministry of Skill

Development & Entrepreneurship was

‘National Education Policy’, while that of the

Ministry of Civil Aviation was based on

‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik’.

Maharashtra took first place in the best state

tableau under people’s choice awards.

PM Modi inaugurated 'Statue of Equality’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to

the nation the ‘Statue of Equality’ in

Hyderabad. The 216-feet tall Statue of

Equality commemorates the 11th-

century Bhakti Saint Sri Ramanujacharya,

who promoted the idea of equality in all

aspects of living including faith, caste and

creed. The Statue is made of 'panchaloha', a

combination of five metals: gold, silver,

copper, brass, and zinc. It is among one of

the tallest metallic statues in sitting position,

in the world. The statue has been

conceptualised by Chinna Jeeyar Swami of

Sri Ramanujacharya Ashram.

Centre approved renaming of three places

in Madhya Pradesh

The government of India (GoI) has

approved the renaming of 3 places in

Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad Nagar as

“Narmadapuram”, Shivpuri as

“Kundeshwar Dham” and Babai as

“Makhan Nagar”.

In 2021, the government of MP led by Shivraj

Singh Chouhan has proposed the renaming

of the 3 places in Madhya Pradesh. The

approval for the renaming was granted by

the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The

Hoshangabad Nagar named after Hoshang

Shah, the first formally appointed Sultan

of the Malwa Sultanate of Central India was

renamed as Narmadapuram. Babai has been

renamed after the renowned journalist and

poet Makhanlal Chaturvedi. Makhanlal

Chaturvedi was born in Babai, MP. The

government has named a national university

of journalism and communication at

Bhopal after Makhanlal in 1992.

Surat will become the first station to be

ready for India’s 1st Bullet Train

Surat, Gujarat is set to become the first

station for India’s upcoming Bullet Train

Project. The upcoming station in Surat will

become the 1st station to be ready b/w

Ahmedabad – Mumbai Bullet Train route

for India’s 1st futuristic High Speed Rail

project, Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed

Rail (MAHSR) Corridor. The MAHSR corridor

will cover 12 stations: Surat, Vadodara,

Anand, Ahmedabad, Sabarmati, Bilimora,

Bharuch, Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar,

Vapi stations. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad

Bullet Train will run on Japanese Shinkansen

Technology. National High Speed Rail

Corporation Ltd. (NHSRCL) is the

implementing agency for the project.

PM Modi kickstarted 50th Anniversary

Celebrations of ICRISAT, Hyderabad

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has

inaugurated the 50th Anniversary

celebrations of the International Crops

Research Institute for the Semi-Arid

Tropics (ICRISAT) in Patancheru,

Hyderabad. During the occasion, PM also




41 | P a g e

inaugurated two research facilities of

ICRISAT, which were Climate Change

Research Facility on Plant Protection and

Rapid Generation Advancement Facility.

Kanchoth festival celebrated in Jammu and

Kashmir

The ancient festival of Kanchoth is annually

celebrated, mainly by the Nag followers,

during the Shukla Paksha of Magh month

which usually falls in January or

February. The festival is celebrated with

religious fervour across the Chenab valley

region of Jammu and Kashmir

(J&K). The 3-day festival is celebrated by

married women who pray for the long life of

their husbands. Kanchoth or Gauri Tritya is

widely celebrated in hilly kishtwar, Ramban

and Doda of Jammu province. The

India’s 1st biomass-based hydrogen plant

will be inaugurated in Madhya Pradesh

India’s first commercial-scale biomass-

based hydrogen plant will soon be

inaugurated at Khandwa district of Madhya

Pradesh. The plant will produce one tonne of

hydrogen, from 30 tonnes of biomass

feedstock on daily basis. It is being

established by a joint venture of Watomo

Energies Ltd and Biezel Green Energy. The

technology used by the plant is ‘Thermally

accelerated anaerobic digestion (TAD)

reactor’ that can produce hydrogen, methane

and biochar from biomass.

J&K became first Union Territory to be

integrated with NSWS

Jammu & Kashmir became the first Union

Territory to integrate with the National

Single Window System (NSWS) which

marks a major leap in Ease of Doing

Business (EoDB) in the UT. Lieutenant

Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha launched the

J&K Single Window Clearance System

integrated with NSWS in the presence of

Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary,

Government of J&K, Sumita Dawra, Additional

Secretary, Department for Promotion of

Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ranjan

Thakur, Principal Secretary Industries &

Commerce, Government of J&K. NSWS is

linked with India Industrial Land

Bank (IILB) which hosts 45 industrial parks

of J&K that will help Investors to discover

available land parcels in J&K.

India will replace diesel by renewable

energy in agriculture by 2024

Union Power Minister R K Singh has

announced that India will achieve zero-

diesel use in agriculture and replace fossil

fuel with renewable energy by 2024. For

this, states should develop action plan to

achieve the assigned targets and specific

agency dedicated for energy efficiency and

conservation. This initiative is a part of

government’s commitment to increase the

share of non-fossil fuels by 2030 and

become a net zero emitter by 2070.

Maru Mahotsav or Jaisalmer Desert

Festival celebrated in Rajasthan

The renowned Jaisalmer Desert Festival,

also known as Maru Mahotsav of the Golden

City started from 13 to 16 February 2022 at

Pokaran village in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Rajasthan Minority Affairs Minister, Shale

Mohammad flagged off the event. The

festival is celebrated amidst the beautiful

dunes of the Thar Desert in the Sam dunes

(42 kilometers from Jaisalmer). It is a four day

long annual event started with a colorful

grand procession followed by Miss Pokaran

and Mister Pokran competitions. Regional




42 | P a g e

folk dances such as Kalbelia, Kachhi Ghodi,

Gair will be performed.

Nitin Gadkari inaugurated 14.5 km long

rail-cum-road-bridge over Ganga River in

Bihar

The Union Minister of Road Transport and

Highways, Nitin Gadkari and Bihar Chief

Minister Nitish Kumar jointly inaugurated the

14.5 km long rail-cum-road-bridge over

Ganga River at Munger, Bihar. It has been

constructed on NH 333B at the cost of Rs

696 crores. It will get rid of traffic jams, fuel

will be saved and traffic will accelerate, along

with reducing cost.

Govt sanctioned Rs 24 crores for cleaning

Gomati River to boost Indo-Bangla

waterway project

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and

Waterways has sanctioned Rs 24.53

crore for cleaning Gomati, a transboundary

river between India and Bangladesh, and

setting up 10 jetties for a waterway project

to boost Indo-Bangla Waterway Project. 10

floating jetties will be constructed from

Udaipur in Gomati district, Tripura to

Sonamura, Tripura. Inland Waterways

Authority of India will help the local

administration for the strategic project.

Out of 93-kilometres proposed waterway

from Sonamura in Tripura’s Sepahijala district

to Daudkandi in Bangladesh, around 15.5-

km stretch requires cleaning. Out of 15.5 km

of river, only 1.5-km stretch is in India and

the other 14-km is in Bangladesh. A

permanent jetty would come up near

Srimantapur Land Customs Station

in Sonamura, Tripura with an estimated cost

of Rs 5.04 crore.

Dabur India became India’s first 100%

Plastic Waste Neutral FMCG Company

Dabur India Limited (Dabur), one of India’s

leading Fast-moving consumer goods

(FMCG) companies, announced that the

company has become India’s 1st 100%

Plastic Waste Neutral company. Dabur is

the first FMCG company to achieve this

feat. Dabur collects, processes and recycles

the same amount of plastic waste that is

sold in its product packaging in a year, as a

result of this the company has become a

‘Plastic Waste Neutral company’.

Rajasthan topped solar electrification under

Saubhagya Scheme

Under the Saubhagya

scheme, Rajasthan has the maximum

number of households electrified through

the solar-based standalone system. In hill

states of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and

the Union Territory of Jammu and

Kashmir had nil beneficiaries under the

initiative. Under the Saubhagya

Scheme, 2.817 crore households were

electrified up to March 31 last year,

including 4.16 lakh through solar-based

standalone systems.

Under the Saubhagya scheme, as many

as 1,23,682 households were electrified

through the solar-based standalone system

in Rajasthan, followed by Chhattisgarh

(65,373), Uttar Pradesh (53,234), Assam

(50,754), Bihar (39,100), Maharashtra

(30,538), Odisha (13,735), Madhya Pradesh

(12,651), Power Minister R K Singh told

the Lok Sabha.

The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar

Yojana – ‘Saubhagya’ scheme scheme was

launched on 25th September 2017 to

achieve universal household electrification

covering every village and every district in the

country. Scheme outlay is 16,320 crore




43 | P a g e

including Gross Budgetary Support of

12,320 crores.

Govt sanctioned Rs 2.26 crores for

Medaram Jatara Festival of Telangana

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government

of India, has allocated Rs. 2.26

Crores for Medaram Jatara 2022 Festival in

Telangana. In 2022, the festival is being

held from February 16 to 19, 2022.

Medaram Jatara is the second-largest fair in

India, after the Kumbh Mela. Medaram

Jatara is conducted in honour of the

Goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma. It

was declared a State Festival in 1998.

The four-day tribal festival is celebrated

once in two years in the month of

“Magha” (February) on the full moon day,

in Medaram Village of Mulugu district in

Telangana. The festival is organised by the

second-largest Tribal Community of

Telangana, the Koya tribe, in collaboration

with the Tribal Welfare Department,

Government of Telangana.

Telangana flagged off first-ever all-women

officers sailing expedition

Telangana Governor Tamilisai

Sounderarajan has flagged off historic first-

ever all-women officers offshore sailing

expedition of Indian Army between Chennai

Vizag Chennai at Chennai Port Trust.

Governor praised Indian Army for opening

its doors to women and the enhanced role

and respect that they command to this day.

Union Cabinet approved setting up of

secretariat for India’s G20 Presidency

Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister of

India Narendra Modi approved the setting

up of a G20 Secretariat and its reporting

structures. India is all set to hold the

Presidency of the G20 (Group of Twenty)

from December 1, 2022 to November 30,

2023. This Secretariat, functional till February

2024, will be responsible for the

implementation of overall policy decisions

and affairs needed for India’s G20

Presidency. India to host the 2023 G20

Summit in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

It will be guided by an Apex

Committee headed by the PM, and

comprising the Finance Minister, Home

Minister, External Affairs Minister, and G20

Sherpa (Union Minister Piyush Vedprakash

Goyal, Ministry of Commerce & Industry;

Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Consumer

Affairs, Food and Public Distribution).

A Coordination Committee will also be set

up to oversee all G20 preparations and

report to the Apex Committee.

Centre sanctioned construction of 60,000

homes under PMAY(U) in 5 states

Central Government of India gave approval

to the project proposals for the construction

of more than 60,000 houses in 5

states including Andhra Pradesh,

Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka

and Rajasthan under the Pradhan Mantri

Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U), during the

58th meeting of Central Sanctioning and

Monitoring Committee (CSMC). The

meeting discussed the issues pertaining to

grounding and construction of houses in

different States under different verticals of

PMAY(U).

At Present, the total number of sanctioned

houses under PMAY(U) stand at 114.04

Lakhs, of which around 93.25 Lakh have

been grounded for construction and around

54.78 Lakh are completed and delivered to

the beneficiaries. The total investment under




44 | P a g e

the Mission is INR 7.52 Lakh crore, with INR

1.87 Lakh Crore as direct assistance from the

Central Government. So far, Central

Assistance amounting to INR 1.21 Lakh

Crore has already been released.

Govt estimated record food grains

production of over 316.06 MT for 2021-22

In the Second Advance Estimates of

production of major crops for the year

2021-22 released by the Ministry of

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

(MoAF&W), India’s estimated foodgrains

production is 316.06 million tonnes.

It is higher by 5.32 million tonnes than the

production of foodgrains during 2020-21.

The production during 2021-22 is also

higher by 25.35 million tonnes than

the previous five years (2016-17 to 2020-21)

average production of foodgrains.

The estimates show the foodgrains output in

2021-22 is expected to be 6 million tonnes

(MT) which is nearly 2% more than the

overall production of 310 MT in previous

year.

PM Modi inaugurated 550-tonne capacity

Bio-CNG plant “Gobar-Dhan” in Indore

PM Modi inaugurated Asia’s largest 550-

tonne capacity 'Gobar-Dhan' Bio-CNG

plant in Indore. It is based on the concept

of waste-to-wealth innovation. The

municipal solid waste based Gobar-Dhan

plant is in line with PM's vision of

creating “garbage-free cities” under

the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0.

The Gobar-Dhan plant will have the capacity

to treat 550 tonnes of segregated wet

organic waste and produce around 17,000

kg CNG and 100 tonnes of organic

compost per day. It will produce CNG with

96% pure methane gas.

This ‘lighthouse plant’ has been set up under

the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model,

by Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and

Indo Enviro Integrated Solutions Limited

(IEISL).

India’s 1st Water Taxi Service inaugurated

in Mumbai, Maharashtra

India’s 1st water taxi service to enable

faster connectivity between Mumbai and

Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra was virtually

inaugurated by the union

minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Ministry of

Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

The Water Taxi services will commence from

the Domestic Cruise Terminal (DCT) and will

also connect nearby locations at Nerul,

Belapur, Elephanta island and JNPT.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav

Thackeray inaugurated the newly

constructed Belapur jetty which is built at a

cost of Rs 8.37 crores. It was funded in the

50-50 model under the Sagarmala scheme

of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and

Waterways.

India’s 1st Biosafety Level-3 containment

mobile laboratory launched in Maharashtra

Union Minister of State for Health and Family

Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar has

inaugurated India’s first Biosafety level-3

containment mobile laboratory in Nashik,

Maharashtra. The mobile laboratory will

help to investigate newly emerging and re-

emerging viral infections, by specially

trained scientists from ICMR. The newly

launched lab will be able to access remote

and forested areas of the country, to

investigate outbreaks using samples from

humans and animal sources.




45 | P a g e

ICMR and Klenzaids joined hands to design

and build India's first Mobile BSL-3 enhanced

laboratory. Built at a cost of about ₹25

crores, the BSL-3 enhanced laboratory is a

self-sufficient unit, which has every system

and equipment essential for full standalone

operation.

Khajuraho Dance Festival began in Madhya

Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad

organizes the Khajuraho Dance Festival, a

one-week classical dance festival held

annually beside the Khajuraho temples

located in the Chhatarpur district of

Madhya Pradesh. This festival takes place

from 20th to 26th February 2022. With

performances by some of the top

practitioners in the field, this festival

celebrates the diversity of Indian classical

dance genres such as Bharathanatyam,

Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, and

Manipuri. Recently, modern Indian dance has

been included.

This year’s Khajuraho Dance Festival is the

48th edition of this festival. In this festival,

the Madhya Pradesh State Rupankar Kala

Award and National Kalidas Award for

dance will be presented to the various artists.

PM Modi inaugurated ‘Kisan Drone Yatra’

and flagged off 100 ‘Kisan Drones’ to

spray pesticides in farms

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated

the ‘Kisan Drone Yatra’, an initiative

by Garuda Aerospace Pvt Ltd and flagged

off 100 ‘Kisan Drones’ in various cities and

towns across India to spray pesticides in

farms across the states of India. This is a

special initiative aimed to support the

farmers across India. The 100 Kisan Drones

were set off in 100 villages in 16 states

across India which includes Uttar Pradesh,

Punjab and Goa.

Security Printing and Minting Corporation

of India Delhi headquarters declared a

prohibited place

Home Ministry has declared Delhi

headquarters of Security Printing and

Minting Corporation of India Ltd.

(SPMCIL) as a ‘prohibited place’ under

Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

This prevents the entry of unauthorized

persons into it. It is the only currency and

bank notes manufacturer of India, that

printed new series of notes of denomination

₹2,000 and ₹500 in 2016. SPMCIL is a

government printing and minting agency,

which was incorporated in 2006.

Minister of State for Culture released

signature tune of ‘Vande Bharatam’

composed by Ricky Kej and Bickram Ghosh

Minister of State for Culture & External

Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi has released

signature tune for ‘Vande Bharatam’. The

tune is composed by Grammy Award winner

Ricky Kej and Oscar contender Bickram

Ghosh. It was produced for Vande

Bharatam, Nritya Utsav of Ministry of

Culture presented at Rajpath, New Delhi for

Republic Day event 2022.

Indian Railways & BHEL commissioned

India’s 1st solar photovoltaic plant of 1.7

MW at Bina, MP

Indian Railways and Bharat Heavy

Electricals Limited (BHEL), has successfully

commissioned India’s first Solar

Photovoltaic Plant of 1.7-MegaWatt at

Bina, Madhya Pradesh. The solar plant will

be directly connected to the overhead

traction system and will produce

approximately 25 lakh units of energy




46 | P a g e

annually. The plant has 5800 solar modules,

mounted on 145 sets of modular mounting

structure. Aim: The installation of the solar

plants is to achieve conversion of Indian

Railways to ‘Net Zero’ Carbon Emission and

‘Go Green’ by 2030.

Delhi Cabinet approved India’s first’ e-

waste eco-park

The Delhi Cabinet has approved to set up

India’s first of its kind ‘electronic-waste

eco-park’. It has also agreed to devise ‘Delhi

Film Policy 2022’, as a thrust to promote

tourism. The electronic waste eco-friendly

park is to be built on 20 acres of land in

Delhi. Nearly, 2 lakh tonnes of e-waste are

thrown by Delhi every year. This eco-park

will recycle, refurbish and dismantle e-waste

in a scientific and a safe way.

The Delhi Film Policy 2022 is to promote

tourism in Delhi, making the National

Capital- a Brand. It will also make it a hub for

modern film-making, meeting European

Standards. The government is to create an ‘e-

Film Clearance Portal’ and provide an aid of

Rs 3 crores for film production. It has also

decided to incentivize hiring locals in the

cinema industry.

MSME Technology Centre with an outlay

of Rs 200 crores to be set up in Sindhudurg

Union Minister for Micro, Small & Medium

Enterprises (MSME), Narayan Rane has

announced the establishment of MSME-

Technology Centre with an outlay of Rs. 200

Crore, in Sindhudurg, Maharashtra. The

MSME-Technology Centre will provide the

best of technology, incubation as well as

advisory support to the industry, especially

MSMEs, to enhance their competitiveness and

provide skilling services for the employed and

unemployed youth of the area to enhance

their employability.

BSES Yamuna Power Limited

commissioned India’s 1st smart managed

EV charging station in New Delhi

BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), a

subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure

commissioned India’s first ‘Smart Managed

EV (Electric Vehicle) Charging Station’ in

New Delhi. The project is supported by

Nordic Innovation, an organization

promoted by the governments of Nordic

countries, and executed by Fortum Charge &

Drive. The management and operation of

Smart EV Charging Stations will be under

BYPL.

It has the capacity to charge five EVs

simultaneously and the charging station can

be integrated with BYPL’s SCADA system. It

is located at BYPL’s 11 kV substation

building in Mayur Vihar Extension Phase-I

in New Delhi.

Tamil Nadu overtook Karnataka to become

top state in overall installed renewable

capacity

According to the Ministry of New and

Renewable Energy (MoNRE), Tamil Nadu

has achieved the first position in overall

installed renewable energy capacity in India

surpassing Karnataka. In recent years, Tamil

Nadu has increased its capacity

across solar and wind segments to regain

its top position against Karnataka.

As of 31st January 2022, Tamil Nadu’s total

installed renewable capacity stood

at 15,914 MegaWatt (MW) as compared

to Karnataka’s total clean energy capacity

of 15,795 MW.

Rajasthan and Gujarat added the highest

renewable capacity (4.8 GW and 2.4 GW




47 | P a g e

respectively) in the current fiscal year till

31st January 2022.

Cochin International Airport to become

power-positive with new solar plant

The Cochin International Airport Limited

(CIAL), the world's first airport fully

powered by solar energy, is to become

power-positive with the commissioning of its

12 MWp solar power

plant near Payyannur in Kannur district

of Kerala. CIAL's solar plants together

generate two lakh units of power a day

whereas the daily consumption of power in

the airport stands at 1.6 lakh units. The

airport became the first in the world

in 2015 to be fully powered by solar energy.

India elected for chairmanship of

International Rubber Study Group

India has been elected for

the Chairmanship of the International

Rubber Study Group (IRSG), a Singapore

based inter-governmental organisation of

natural rubber and synthetic

rubber producing and consuming countries.

India succeeds Cote’d Ivoire as the chairman

of IRSG. KN Raghavan, Executive Director of

Indian Rubber Board and the Head of the

Indian delegation to IRSG will officiate as

the Chairman of IRSG for the next 2

years. Macquarie Bank Limited, Singapore

has joined the IRSG Panel of Associates.

NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe

launched Fintech Open Hackathon

NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe will

launch the Fintech Open Hackathon. The

Hackathon will provide an opportunity

for innovators, digital creators and

developers from all over India to think, ideate

and code.

It aims to showcase path-breaking solutions

for the Fintech Ecosystem. The last date to

register for the event is 23rd February and

the deadline to submit the final entries is on

25th February this year. The winners of the

Hackathon will be announced on the 28th

of February.

Chapter 13: Current Affairs (International)

Dubai will launch World’s first Hydrogen-

powered Flying Boat ‘The Jet’

THE JET ZeroEmission announced the

launch of the World’s first hydrogen

powered flying boat ‘THE JET’ in Dubai,

United Arab Emirates. THE JET will have its

inaugural flight during the COP28, which is

scheduled to be held in Dubai, UAE in 2023.

This announcement comes as a result of the

agreement signed between Swiss startup

THE JET ZeroEmission, UAE-based Zenith

Marine Services and US-based DWYN to

manufacture and operate ‘The Jet’ in Dubai.

Samsung surpassed Intel to become World’s

top semiconductor company in 2021

South Korean electronics manufacturing

giant, Samsung Electronics surpassed U.S

chipmaker Intel to become the world’s

leading chipmaker by revenue in

2021, according to a report released by

research firm Counterpoint Technology

Market Research. Memory vendors

continued to lead the industry with SK Hynix

and Micron taking the third and fourth

positions, followed by IC design vendors,

including Qualcomm and NVIDIA. The year

saw 19% YoY revenue growth.




48 | P a g e

India will help Sri Lanka in launching a

‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’

modelled on the Aadhaar card

India has agreed to provide grant to Sri

Lanka to implement ‘Unitary Digital

Identity framework’, apparently modelled

on Aadhaar card. It will be categorized as a

national level programme. This will provide

personal identity verification device based

on biometric data, digital tool that can

represent identities of individuals in

cyberspace, and identification of individual

identities that can be accurately verified in

digital and physical environments.

Israel became first country to allow drones

in civilian airspace

Israel becomes the first-ever country to

allow drone flights in civilian airspace. The

certification was issued to the Hermes

Starliner unmanned system by the

Israeli Civil Aviation Authority, and was

manufactured and developed by Elbit

Systems, an Israeli defense electronics

company.

India blocked 54 Chinese mobile apps over

security threat and privacy risks

The Ministry of Electronics and

Information Technology issued interim

directions to ban 54 mobile

applications of Chinese origin. India has

banned a total of 321 Chinese apps since

May-June 2020. The ban was

recommended by the Ministry of Home

Affairs (MHA), as these apps pose a threat to

India’s security. The 54 apps allegedly

obtain various critical permissions and

collect sensitive user data.

The banned apps include Garena Free Fire;

Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD; Rise of

Kingdoms: Lost Crusade; Viva Video Editor;

Tencent Xriver among others. MeitY had

banned the apps under Section 69A of

the Information Technology Act 2000

which empowers to issue directions for

blocking for public access of any information

through any computer resource. Read more

here

Nepal will become 1st country to deploy

India's UPI platform

NPCI announced that, Nepal will be the first

country to adopt India's UPI system. This

will play a pivotal role in transforming the

digital economy of the neighboring

country. NPCI International Payments

Ltd, the international arm of NPCI, has joined

hands with Gateway Payments Service

(GPS) and Manam Infotech to provide the

services in Nepal. GPS is the authorised

payment system operator in Nepal. Manam

Infotech will deploy Unified Payments

Interface (UPI) in Nepal.

JPMorgan became world’s first bank to set

up shop in the metaverse

The largest bank in the US JPMorgan has

become the world’s first bank to set up

shop in the metaverse. JPMorgan has

opened a lounge in the blockchain-based

world Decentraland. Users can create their

virtual avatars, build virtual spaces and

roam in the lounge christened ‘Onyx

Lounge’ after its suit of Ethereum-based

services. The lounge also features a digital

image of the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon.

Metaverse is a virtual universe where users

can do multiple activities like socializing,

shopping, or even attending events through

their avatar. Augmented Reality (AR) and

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are becoming

more pocket-friendly, and both technologies



https://ambitiousbaba.com/chinese-apps-have-been-banned-by-the-government/

https://ambitiousbaba.com/chinese-apps-have-been-banned-by-the-government/


49 | P a g e

have together contributed to a significantly

enhanced user experience.

Global trade rose 25% to hit record high of

$28.5 trillion in 2021, according to

UNCTAD

United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD) has published

the Global Trade Update which shows that

in 2021, world trade in goods remained

strong and trade in services finally returned

to its pre-COVID-19 levels. Overall, the value

of global trade reached a record level of

$28.5 trillion in 2021. That’s an increase of

25% on 2020 and 13% higher compared to

2019. Meanwhile, trade in services rose

by $50 billion to reach $1.6 trillion, just

above pre-pandemic levels.

France announced military withdrawal from

Mali after nearly ten years

French president Emmanuel Macron has

announced that France and

its European partners will start the military

withdrawal from Mali after nearly ten years

fighting a jihadist insurgency. France first

deployed troops against jihadists in Mali in

2013 under the Socialist president François

Hollande. The decision has been taken due to

a breakdown in France’s relations with the

ruling junta government in the country. The

heart of this military operation will be shifted

from Mali to Niger.

Russian President Putin divided Ukraine

into 3 countries

Russian President Vladimir Putin on

February 21, 2022 recognised the

independence of separatist regions in

eastern Ukraine – Donetsk and Luhansk.

Putin’s announcement paved the way for

Russia to openly send troops and weapons

to the long-running conflict pitting

Ukrainian forces against Moscow-backed

rebels. Russian-backed rebels have been

fighting Ukrainian troops in Donetsk and

Luhansk since 2014, with regular violence

despite a ceasefire agreement.

Reliance Jio will launch India-Asia-Xpress

(IAX) undersea cable system in Maldives

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a

subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)

will introduce its next generation multi-terabit

India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable

system in Hulhumale, Maldives in

collaboration with Ocean Connect Maldives.

The new subsea cable system will connect the

Maldives, Hulhumale directly with world’s

major internet hubs in India and Singapore.

Another subsea cable system India-Europe-

Xpress (IEX) is also built by RJIL that

connects Mumbai and Milan.

India will set up its first IIT outside the

country in UAE

The Indian Institute of Technology will

establish its first branch outside India in

the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of

the India-UAE trade deal

signed. The Comprehensive Economic

Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed

between the UAE and India will usher in a

new phase of joint strategic cooperation in all

sectors. The two nations will also set up an

India-UAE cultural council to facilitate and

promote cultural projects, cross-cultural

exchanges and exhibitions.

The two countries and realising the need to

establish world-class institutions that

encourage and support innovation and

technological progress, the leaders agreed

to establish an Indian Institute of

Technology in the United Arab Emirates.




50 | P a g e

Chapter 14: Banking & Financial

Government collected Rs 1.38 lakh crores

as GST of January 2022

The monthly GST collections in January

2022 crossed Rs 1.30 lakh crore for the

fourth time in the history of GST. The

collections in January 2022 till 3 pm on 31

January 2022 was at Rs 1,38,394

crore. January 2022 collections were 15 per

cent higher than collections in the same

month last year and 25 per cent higher

than the GST revenues in January 2020.

Of the Rs 1,38,394 crore, CGST accounted

for Rs 24,674 crore, SGST Rs 32,016 crore,

IGST Rs 72,030 crore (including Rs 35,181

crore collected on import of goods) and

compensation cess accounted for Rs 9,674

crore (including Rs 517 crore collected on

import of goods).

Tata Group chose SBI, BoB & HDFC Bank to

finance Air India’s old debt

Tata Group has chosen State Bank of India,

Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank as

preferred bankers for Air India. Recently Tata

Group has taken over Air India from the

government. Air India is the largest

international carrier out of India with

an 18.6% market share. Tata Sons have

availed of a Rs 10,000-crore loan from SBI

and a Rs 5,000-crore loan from BoB.

Tata Sons-promoted Talace has acquired Air

India, offering Rs 18,000 crore that include

Rs 15,300 crore for the carrier’s existing

debt and Rs 2,700 crore cash to be paid to

the government.

Center setting up National Land

Monetisation Corporation

The government is setting up the National

Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC) to

carry out the monetization of the land and

other non-core assets. Initial authorized

share capital of NLMC will be ₹5000 crores

and subscribed share capital of ₹150 crores.

Banks will transfer 15 NPA accounts worth

Rs 50,000 crores to NARCL in FY22

As per SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar

Khara, National Asset Reconstruction

Company Ltd (NARCL) or bad bank and

India Debt Resolution Company Ltd

(IDRCL) are ready to commence operations.

A total of 38 NPA accounts worth Rs 82,845

crore have been identified to be transferred

to NARCL initially. In the Phase I, 15

stressed assets (i.e. Non-Performing Asset

accounts) worth Rs 50,000 crore will be

transferred to NARCL in the current financial

year. Public Sector Banks have taken a

majority stake in NARCL, IDRCL will be

majorly owned by private sector banks.

RBI cancelled licence of Maharashtra-

based Independence Co-operative Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has

cancelled the licence of Independence Co-

operative Bank Ltd in Maharashtra's

Nashik city. Consequently, the bank ceases

to carry on banking business, with effect

from the close of business on February 03,

2022.

The bank does not have adequate capital

and earning prospects. As such, it does not

comply with the provisions of Section 11(1)

and Section 22 (3) (d) read with Section 56

of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.




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India’s unemployment rate in January

2022 stood at 6.57%: CMIE Report

The unemployment rate in India in January

2022 fell sharply to 6.57%, according to the

data from the economic think-tank,

the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy

(CMIE). This is the lowest rate witnessed

since March 2021.

While unemployment in urban India stood

at 8.16 per cent in January, in rural areas it

was the lowest at 5.84 per cent. In

December 2021, the unemployment rate

rose to a four-month high of 7.91%,

compared to 6.97% in November.

Telangana recorded the lowest

unemployment rate in January at 0.7% in

January 2022, followed by Gujarat

(1.2%), Meghalaya (1.5%), Odisha (1.8%)

and Karnataka (2.9%). Haryana witnessed

the highest unemployment rate of 23.4% in

January 2022, followed by Rajasthan (18.9%),

Tripura (17.1%), Jammu & Kashmir (15%)

and Delhi (14.1%).

Government has done a Switch Operation

of Rs. 1,19,701 crores

The Government of India (GOI) has done a

conversion switch transaction of its

securities with the Reserve Bank of

India (RBI) on January 28, 2022 for an

amount of Rs. 1,19,701 crores (face value).

The transaction involved buying back

securities that are being matured in FY

2022-23, FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25 from

the RBI and also issuing fresh securities for

equivalent market value, to make the

transaction cash neutral. The transactions

were carried out using Financial Benchmarks

India Private Limited (FBIL) prices as on

January 28, 2022.

Axis Mutual Fund launched Axis Crisil SDL

2027 Debt Index Fund

Axis Mutual Fund has launched Axis Crisil

SDL 2027 Debt Index Fund. It is a target

maturity scheme with benchmark maturity

of 31 May 2027.

The new scheme will track the Crisil IBX SDL

Index - May 2027 and the portfolio is

designed to invest predominantly in a

portfolio of state development loans (SDLs)

maturing between 1 December 2026 and

31 May 2027. The index will be managed

by Crisil Indices Ltd.

PM CARES Fund got ₹10,990 crore since its

inception in FY 2020-21; spent ₹3,976

crore during 2020-21

The total corpus under the PM CARES

Funds in 2020-21 was Rs 10,990.17 crore,

while Rs 3,976.17 crore was spent from the

fund in 2020-21, according to the latest

audited statement of PM CARES Funds.

As on March 31, 2021, the Fund had an

unspent balance of Rs 7,013.99 crore. The

government has used a part of the money

to buy medical equipment, including

ventilators, to boost the battle against the

COVID-19 and has also provided relief to

migrants. The highest amount was spent on

Procurement of 6.6 crore doses of COVID-

19 vaccine i.e., Rs 1,392.82 crore.

The Fund was established on March 27,

2020. PM CARES fund is a dedicated

national fund with the primary objective of

dealing with any kind of emergency or

distress situation like posed by the COVID-

19 pandemic. Prime Minister is the ex-

officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund.

RBI extended restrictions on Karnataka’s

Millath Co-Operative Bank till May 7




52 | P a g e

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended

the restrictions on Millath Co-Operative

Bank, Devangere, Karnataka by another

three months, from February 8 2022 to May

7, 2022.

As per the directions issued first on May 10,

2019, withdrawals were capped at Rs 1,000

from any account. The directions have been

periodically extended till now without

major change. RBI has passed these

restrictions, in the exercise of its powers

conferred on it by sub-section (1) of Section

35A and Section 56 of the Banking

Regulation Act 1949.

RBI emerged as the 2nd largest buyer of

Gold among world’s central banks in 2021

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has emerged as

the second-largest buyer of Gold among

Central Banks of the world in 2021. RBI

bought record 77.5 metric tonnes in

2021 taking its total gold reserve to 754.1

tonnes at the end of December 2021. Highest

buyer of Gold in 2021 is the Central Bank of

Thailand (Bank of Thailand) and bought 90

metric tonnes of gold. As per World Gold

Council website’s Goldhub, India’s official

gold reserves is ninth largest in the world.

RBI reopened Voluntary Retention Route

with investment limit of ₹2,50,000 crores

The Reserve Bank of India had introduced

the Voluntary Retention Route (VRR) for

investments by Foreign Portfolio Investors

(FPIs) in debts in 2019 with an investment

limit of Rs. 1,50,000 crores. Out of this,

around Rs. 1,49,995 crores have been

availed so far in three tranches. Now RBI has

increased this investment limit in VRR

from Rs. 1,50,000 crores to Rs. 2,50,000

crores.

This increased limit shall be open for

allotment from April 1, 2022. The investment

limit available for fresh allotment shall

accordingly be Rs 1,04,800 crore (net of

extant allotments and adjustments); and shall

be allotted under the VRR–Combined

category. The minimum retention period shall

be three years. Investment limits shall be

available ‘on tap’ and allotted on a ‘first-

come, first-served basis. The ‘tap’ shall be

kept open till the limit is fully allotted.

Comscore Report: Paytm has highest

penetration in digital payments

In accordance with the Comscore report,

Paytm has the highest digital payments

with over 45% penetration in Fintech.

Paytm is followed by Google Pay (mobile

App) at 43% penetration (reach as

percentage of total digital population). Paytm

got listed on the stock exchange in

November 2021.

Yes Bank launched Agri Infinity program

Yes Bank has announced the launch of an

annual startup enabler program, Yes Bank

Agri Infinity. It seeks to co-develop digital

financial solutions for the food and

agriculture ecosystem.

Finance Ministry granted Rs 1154.90 crores

for Urban Local Bodies of AP, Bihar,

Gujarat, & Sikkim

Department of Expenditure, Ministry of

Finance has released an amount of Rs

1154.90 crore to four states Andhra

Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and Sikkim for

providing grants to Urban Local Bodies.

These grants released are meant for Non-

Million Plus cities including Cantonment

Boards. The 15th Finance Commission in its




53 | P a g e

report for 2021-22 to 2025-26 has divided

Urban Local Bodies into two categories.

These are Million-Plus urban

agglomerations and cities excluding Delhi

and Srinagar, and all other cities and towns

with less than one million population. The

15th Finance Commission has recommended

separate grants for them. Out of the total

grants recommended by the Commission for

Non-Million Plus cities, 40% is a basic

grant and the remaining 60% is a tied

grant.

CBI booked Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard

Limited for India’s biggest–ever case of

bank fraud of ₹22,842 crores

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has

booked ABG Shipyard for alleged Rs 22,842

crores financial fraud, which is the biggest

bank fraud case ever registered. Company

was engaged in diversion of funds,

misappropriation, criminal breach of trust.

ABG Shipyard is the flagship entity of ABG

Group. It has cheated a consortium of 28

banks and financial institutions of Rs. 22,842

crores. This is the biggest bank fraud case

ever registered by the CBI. The case pertained

to funds gotten and misused during the

2012-17 period. FIR has been filed in

which Rishi Agarwal (CMD of ABG

Shipyard) has also been booked.

This consortium was led by ICICI Bank. Of this,

ABG Shipyard owes Rs. 7,089 crores to ICICI

Bank, Rs. 3,639 crores to IDBI Bank, Rs. 2,925

crores to State Bank, Rs. 1,614 crores to Bank

of Baroda, and Rs. 1,244 crores to Punjab

National Bank, among others.

MoSPI projected GDP deflator forecast for

FY23 at 3-3.5%

The Ministry of statistics and programme

implementation (MoSPI) projected India’s

gross domestic product (GDP) deflator for

FY23 at 3 to 3.5%. The Government’s own

projection on real GDP growth for FY23 is

at 7.6-8.1% and the union budget

projected nominal GDP growth rate to

be 11.1% for FY23. GDP Projection in the

Budget is based on advance estimates of

‘National Statistical Office’ (NSO).

Economic Survey 2021-22 projected a real

GDP growth rate of 8-8.5 percent in FY23.

RBI projected India’s real GDP growth of

7.8 percent in FY23 and retail inflation of

4.5 percent for FY23. GDP deflator, or

implicit price deflator, is a measure of

inflation and is the difference between

nominal GDP and real GDP.

Retail inflation rose to 6.01% in January,

just above RBI's upper limit

India's retail inflation, as measured by the

consumer price index (CPI), accelerated to

6.01% in the month of January, breaching

the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tolerance

band of 6%, albeit marginally. The surge in

inflation print was driven by higher

consumer goods and telecom prices along

with a comparatively low rate a year ago.

Inflation, as measured by the consumer price

index (CPI) was 5.66% in the preceding

month of December. The Central bank's

monetary policy has been given the

mandate to maintain annual inflation at

4% until March 31, 2026, with an upper

tolerance of 6% and a lower tolerance of

2%.

Wholesale price-based inflation declines to

12.96% in January

India's wholesale inflation eased to 12.96 %

in January from 13.56 % in the previous




54 | P a g e

month. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

based inflation has declined consistently in

recent months. It fell from 14.87 % in

November 2021 to 13.56 % in December

2021 and further to 12.96 % in January

2022. However, inflation still remains at an

elevated level and is a matter of concern for

economic policymakers.

"The high rate of inflation in January 2022 is

primarily due to rise in prices of mineral

oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, basic

metals, chemicals, and chemical products,

food articles etc as compared the

corresponding month of the previous year".

Wholesale food inflation hardened during the

month of January. The rate of inflation

based on WPI Food Index increased

marginally from 9.24 % in December 2021 to

9.55 % in January, 2022. Prices of Minerals

rose by 11.08 % and non-food articles

became costlier by 0.37 % in January 2022

as compared to December 2021.

RBI extended deadline for NBFCs to meet

new NPA upgradation norms till

September 2022

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the

deadline for non-banking financial

companies (NBFCs) to comply with

new Non-Performing Assets (NPAs)

classification norms (the norms are issued

by RBI in November 2021) to September

2022 from the earlier deadline of March 2022.

As per the ‘Prudential norms on Income

Recognition, Asset Classification and

Provisioning pertaining to Advances –

Clarifications’, which was issued by RBI on

November 15, 2021, the loan accounts that

are classified as NPAs could be upgraded

as ‘standard’ asset only if entire arrears of

interest and principal are paid by the

borrower.

Currently, RBI has clarified that, the definition

of ‘out of order’ as applicable to all loan

products being offered as an OD facility,

including those not meant for business

purposes and/or which entail interest

repayments as the only credits. The ‘90 days

period’ for determination of ‘out of order’

status of a Cash credit/Overdraft (CC/OD)

account should be inclusive of the day for

which the day-end process is being run.

Standard Chartered Bank launched

interest-only home loan facility

Standard Chartered Bank India has

launched the ‘interest-only home

loan’ facility for completed residential

properties where borrowers can pay only the

interest without principal deduction during

a limited period.

This facility is available to both new and

existing clients of Standard Chartered

Bank. The facility is available for a loan

amount ranging from Rs 35 lakh to Rs 3.5

crore with the maximum tenure of 30

years for salaried individuals and 25 years for

self-employed individuals.

SEBI made separation of chairperson & MD,

CEO roles voluntary

Securities and Exchange Board of India

(SEBI) board has decided to make provision

for separation of the roles of chairperson

and MD, CEO as ‘voluntary’ against

‘mandatory’ earlier. The market regulator

had in June 2017 set up a committee on

corporate governance under Uday Kotak

with a view to seek recommendations to

further enhance corporate governance

norms for listed companies.

One of the recommendations that the

Committee came out with was the separation

of the roles of chairperson and MD/CEO of




55 | P a g e

listed companies. This was proposed to

provide a better and more balanced

governance structure by enabling more

effective and objective supervision of the

management.

The SEBI board, in its meeting in March 2018

approved the proposal for the top 500-

listed entities. Later the deadline for

compliance was extended by two years in

January 2020.

IndusInd Bank empanelled by SFAC to

facilitate digital transactions on e-NAM

portal

IndusInd Bank has been empanelled by the

Small Farmers Agri- Business Consortium

(SFAC) to facilitate digital collection and

settlement services on National Agriculture

Market (e-NAM) portal.

Induslnd Bank will be directly integrated with

e-NAM platform to provide safe and hassle-

free payments, clearing and settlement

services to the farmers and traders. As of

January 2022, there are over 1.7 crore

farmers and more than 1.8 lakh traders who

are registered on eNAM and have

benefitted from the digital marketplace.

Centre reduced agri-cess on Crude Palm

Oil from 7.5% To 5%

Government of India has reduced agri-cess

for crude palm oil (CPO) from 7.5% to

5% with effect from 12th February

2022. Following the reduction of the agri-

cess, the import tax gap between CPO and

Refined Palm Oil has increased to 8.25%.

This will benefit the domestic edible oil

refiners and also check the prices of cooking

oils. The GoI has also extended the current

basic rate of import duty of 0% on CPO,

crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil

till 30 September 2022. The 12.5% import

duty on refined palm oils, 17.5% on refined

soyabean oil, and 17.5% on refined

sunflower oil will continue in effect until

September 30, 2022.

RBI cancelled licence of Maharashtra’s

Mantha Urban Cooperative Bank

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled

the licence of Mantha Urban Cooperative

Bank Ltd., Mantha, District Jalna,

Maharashtra. In this regard, the bank ceases

to carry on banking business w.e.f.

February 16, 2022 to safeguard the interests

of its depositors.

The apex bank also prohibited the

cooperative bank from conducting the

business of ‘banking’ which includes

acceptance of deposits and repayment of

deposits as defined in Section 5(b) read with

Section 56 of the Banking Regulation (BR)

Act, 1949 with immediate effect. The bank

does not have adequate capital and earning

prospects. It does not comply with the

provisions of section 11(1) and section 22 (3)

(d) read with section 56 of the BR, 1949.

Paytm Payments Bank signed up as

acquiring partner for e-RUPI service

Paytm Payments Bank Limited announced

that it is an official acquiring partner for ‘e-

RUPI vouchers’, which will be accessible at

offline stores across India. The PPBL has also

partnered with ‘One97 Communications

Limited’ (OCL) which owns Paytm for

improving its strong merchant base. Paytm’s

merchants will be able to collect payments

through e-RUPI by scanning the voucher,

and entering the amount to be paid directly

into their bank accounts.

e-RUPI, a Government of India’s (GOI)

initiative is a cashless and contactless




56 | P a g e

prepaid voucher – based digital payment

solution through which, the users could send

e-RUPI e-Voucher/coupon in the form of

SMS-string or QR code (instead of Money) to

the beneficiaries’ mobile. The vouchers were

developed by the National Payments

Corporation of India (NPCI) on its Unified

Payments Interface (UPI) platform.

SBI Life Insurance to reclassify BNP Paribas

Cardif as non-promoter

SBI Life Insurance Company (SBI Life) said

its promoter BNP Paribas Cardif, holding 0.2

per cent share capital, has requested to be

reclassified as a public shareholder. The

company has received request from BNP

Paribas Cardif, one of the promoters of the

company, holding 0.20 per cent of the paid-

up share capital of the company, for

reclassifying its shareholding in the

company from the promoter and promoter

group category to public category.

As per SEBI guidelines, a promoter or

promoter group seeking reclassification

should not hold more than 10 per cent of

the voting rights in the company.

India’s fuel demand expected to grow at

5.5% in FY23

According to the estimates released by the

Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell,

under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural

gas, India’s fuel demand is likely to

grow 5.5 percent in FY23. According to

government estimates India’s fuel

consumption (especially oil demand) in FY23

could rise to 214.5 million tons (MT) from

the revised estimates of 203.3 MT for FY22.

In 2019-20, India had consumed 214.1 MT of

petroleum products such as petrol, diesel

and LPG. FY22 (April-December 2021):

Demand for petroleum products grew by 4.9

percent in FY22 (April-December 2021). Fuel

consumption was 148.3 MT during the same

period.

GoI celebrated 3rd anniversary of PM-

KISAN, over Rs 1.80 lakh crores transferred

directly into farmers accounts

24th February 2022, marks the 3rd

anniversary of Pradhan Mantri Kisan

Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme. It was

launched on 24th February in 2019 by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi at Gorakhpur, Uttar

Pradesh.

About 11.78 crore farmers as of February

22, 2022, have been benefitted under the PM

Kisan scheme. The amount worth Rs. 1.82

lakh crore have been disbursed to eligible

beneficiaries across India in various intervals.

During the current Covid 19 epidemic

period, Rs. 1.29 lakh crore has been

released.

PM-KISAN is a centre sectored scheme which

was launched on 24th February 2019 to

substitute monetary needs of landholding

farmers. The monetary benefit of Rs 6000/-

per year in three equal instalments, every

four-month, 3 times a year, it is transferred

into the bank accounts of the families of the

farmers across the country through Direct

Benefit Transfer or DBT mode.

The scheme was in the starting meant for

small and marginal farmers having

landholding upto 2 hectares but then the

scope of the scheme was extended to

cover all landholding farmers with effect

from 01.06.2019.

Government of India has allocated Rs 68,000

Crore for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan

Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) in the Union

Budget 2022-23, which is just 4.6 per cent

higher than the Budget Estimates of Rs




57 | P a g e

65,000 crore for 2021-22 and only 0.74 per

cent higher than the revised estimates of Rs

67,500 crore for the current financial year

(FY22).

RBI directed NBFCs to implement core

financial services solution by September

2025

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed certain

Non-Banking Financial

Companies (NBFCs) to mandatorily

implement ‘Core Financial Services Solution

(CFSS)’ by 30th September 2025.

In October 2021, RBI introduced the ‘Scale

Based Regulation’ (SBR) framework for

NBFCs and mandated NBFCs with 10 and

more branches to adopt Core Banking

Solution with effect from October 01, 2022.

As per the framework, currently RBI has

directed the NBFCs – Middle Layer and

NBFCs – Upper Layer with 10 and more

‘fixed point service delivery units’ as on 1st

October 2022 to implement CFSS (similar to

the Core Banking Solution (CBS) adopted by

banks) on or before September 30, 2025.

NBFC – Upper Layer should implement CFSS

at least in 70 % of ‘fixed point service delivery

units’ on or before September 30, 2024. The

implementation of CFSS is not mandatory in

NBFC – Base Layer and NBFC – Middle and

Upper Layers with fewer than 10 fixed point

service delivery units.

SEBI extended deadline for client-level

segregation of funds

Securities and Exchange Board of India

(SEBI) extended the deadline for the

implementation of Client Level Segregation

of Funds and Monitoring of Collateral at

Stock Brokers to May 2, 2022 from February

28, 2022.

The guidelines on client-level segregation

were notified in 2021 by SEBI amid

instances of misuse of client collateral by

brokers. This is the second time SEBI has

extended the deadline for these rules.

Earlier, it was supposed to be implemented

from December 1, 2021.

The new rules for segregating and monitoring

are aimed at further strengthening the

protection of client collateral from misuse

by Trading Member (TM) or Clearing

Member (CM) and default of such

members and other clients.

TM and CM have to report disaggregated

information (segment-wise and asset type-

wise break-up) of each client collateral.

Besides, CM will be required to maintain at

least 50% of the total collateral in the form of

cash or cash equivalents (futures and

options, currency, and commodities)

with Clearing Corporations (CCs).

Ideal Finance rebranded itself to Mahindra

Ideal Finance Ltd

Ideal Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of Mahindra

and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd,

announced to rebrand its company

as Mahindra Ideal Finance Ltd (MIFL).The

purpose of the renaming is to make MIFL

into one of the leading licensed finance

companies (LFC) in Sri Lanka. Mahindra

Ideal Finance Ltd (MIFL) is a joint venture of

Mahindra Finance and Ideal Group.

New Development Bank will be the 1st

multilateral agency to open office in Gift

City

New Development Bank (NDB) will

become first multilateral agency to open

an office in Gujarat International Finance

Tech (GIFT) City. NDB has received approval

for the same and will open the office in May




58 | P a g e

2022 in GIFT City. NDB announced Director

General position for India Regional

Office and will be responsible for origination-

implementation of operations in India.

NDB also expects to partner with the newly

launched National Bank for Financing

Infrastructure and

Development (NBFID) to support crucial

infrastructure projects in India.

NDB was set up in 2014 by BRICS countries

(Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa)

and started operations in 2015 at Shanghai,

China (headquarters) with the objective of

mobilising resources for infrastructure and

sustainable development projects in the

BRICS as well as other emerging markets.

RBI cancelled CoR of PC Financial Services

operating ‘Cashbean’ app

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cancelled the

certificate of registration (CoR) issued

to PC Financial Services Private Limited,

Delhi due to increase in complaints against

usurious rate of interest and unfair

recovery practices being followed by several

digital lenders. The action was taken under

Section 45-IA (6) (iv) of the Reserve Bank

of India Act, 1934. The PC Financial Services

Private Limited used to carry out its lending

operations through an app

called Cashbean.

It is the first instance when such regulatory

action taken against an entity. It is now

debarred from transacting the business of a

Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFI)

under RBI Act, 1934. Earlier the Directorate

of Enforcement (ED) seized bank gateway

funds worth Rs 288 crore belonging to PC

Financial Services vide three seizure orders

issued under the provisions of the Foreign

Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

FDI equity inflows dip 16% during Apr-Dec

2021 to $43.17 bn: DPIIT data

According to data from the Department for

Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

(DPIIT), during April-December 2021,

India’s Foreign direct investment (FDI)

equity inflows contracted by 16% to USD

43.17 billion.

During the same time period the previous

year, inflows stood at USD 51.47 billion.

Total FDI inflows (reinvested earnings,

equity inflows, and other capital) totalled USD

60.34 billion in the first nine months of this

fiscal year, compared to USD 67.5 billion the

previous year. During April-December 2021

period, with investments of USD 11.7

billion, Singapore came out on top. US

with USD 7.52 billion, Mauritius with

investments of USD 6.58 billion, Cayman

Islands with USD 2.74 billion, Netherlands

with USD 2.66 billion, and the UK with USD

1.44 billion followed Singapore.

The highest inflows were in the hardware

and computer software sector with USD

10.25 billion during the nine-month period

of this fiscal year. The automobile industry

with USD 5.96 billion stood second and it

was followed by the services sector with

USD 5.35 billion, construction (infrastructure)

activities with inflows of USD 1.6 billion, and

pharma with inflows of USD 1.2 billion.

RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee kept key interest rates unchanged for the

10th consecutive time




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On February 10, 2022, RBI’s Monetary Policy

Committee (MPC) kept key interest rates

unchanged. It retained the accommodative

stance in its first policy after Union Budget

2022.

MPC kept the repo rate unchanged

at 4% for the 10th consecutive time while

maintaining an ‘accommodative stance’ as

long as necessary. The reverse repo rate will

continue to be 3.35 %.

The central bank had last revised the policy

rate on May 22, 2020, in an off-policy cycle

to perk up demand by cutting the interest

rate to a historic low.

Reserve Bank of India conducted the 6th and

the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)

meeting for 2021-22 between February 8-

10, 2022. The next meeting of the MPC is

scheduled during April 6-8, 2022.

RBI has also projected the real GDP growth

for 2022-23 at 7.8% with 17.2 percent at Q1;

7.0 percent at Q2; 4.3 percent at Q3; and 4.5

percent at Q4. For the current fiscal year, RBI

projected real GDP growth of 9.2% and

expects that it will take the economy above

the pre-pandemic level.

For the current fiscal year, RBI retained its

retail inflation projection at 5.3%. The CPI

inflation projection for FY23 is at 4.5% with

4.9 percent at Q1 ,5.0 percent at Q2, 4.0

percent at Q3, and 4.2 percent at Q4. MPC

has been given the mandate to maintain

annual inflation at 4% until March 31,

2026, with an upper tolerance of 6% and

lower tolerance of 2%.

Currently, RBI has proposed to increase the

limit on amount for e-RUPI vouchers issued

by Governments to Rs 1,00,000 per voucher

and allow use of the voucher multiple times

(until the amount of the voucher is

completely redeemed).

Repo Rate 4.00%

Reverse Repo Rate 3.35%

Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate 4.25%

Bank Rate 4.25%

Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) 4.00%

Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) 18.00%

Union Budget 2022-23 presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman

On 1st February 2022, Finance Minister

Nirmala Sitharaman presented her fourth

Budget in Parliament.

A digital-first approach took priority as the

finance minister announced proposal to

launch Digital currency by the RBI, and

setting up of a Digital University.

Expansions under PM Gati Shakti project

were also emphasised upon with National

Highways to be expanded by 25,000 km in

next fiscal. This is the second consecutive

year that a paperless budget was presented.

Read more here.



https://ambitiousbaba.com/union-budget-2022-highlights/


60 | P a g e

Important Point

FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s 4th Budget

speech

GDP growth in 2021-23 expected to be

9.2%, says Nirmala Sitharaman

PLI in 14 sectors for aatmanirbhar bharat to

create 6 million jobs

Budget seeks to set tone for the ‘Amrit kaal’

of the next 25 years

Farm procurement value for FY23 to be Rs

2.37 trillion

HKen-Betwa river link project to be taken

at cost of Rs 44,000 cr to benefit 900,000

farmers

Rs 2 trillion outay for MSMEs

38 mn households to get piped water

75 digital banking systems in 75 districts by

scheduled commercial banks

Contracts for implementation of multimodal

logistics parks at 4 locations to be awarded in

2022-23 in PPP Mode

IIIT-B to provide support to healthcare

infrastructurem

Divestment target for FY23 seen at Rs 65,000

crore.

India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to

be the highest among all large economies.

60 lakh new jobs to be created under the

productivity linked incentive scheme in 14

PLI Schemes have the potential to create

an additional production of Rs 30 lakh

Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up

to India @100, the budget provides impetus

for growth along four priorities:

Focus areas of Budget

PM GatiShakti

Inclusive Development

Productivity Enhancement & Investment,

Sunrise opportunities, Energy Transition, and

Climate Action.

Financing of investments

PM GatiShakti

The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti

are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass

Transport, Waterways and Logistics

Infrastructure.

PM GatiShkati National Master Plan

The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master

Plan will encompass the seven engines for

economic transformation, seamless

multimodal connectivity and logistics

The projects pertaining to these 7 engines in

the National Infrastructure Pipeline will be

aligned with PM GatiShakti framework.

Road Transport

National Highways Network to be expanded

by 25000 Km in 2022-23.




61 | P a g e

Rs 20000 Crore to be mobilized for National

Highways Network

Multimodal Logistics Parks

Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode

in 2022-23 for implementation of Multimodal

Logistics Parks at four

Railways

One Station One Product concept to help

local businesses & supply

2000 Km of railway network to be brought

under Kavach, the indigenous world class

technology and capacity augmentation in

2022-23.

400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to

be manufactured during the next three

100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for

multimodal logistics to be developed during

the next three

Parvatmala

National Ropeways Development Program,

Parvatmala to be taken up on PPP mode.

Contracts to be awarded in 2022-23 for 8

ropeway projects of 60 Km length.

Inclusive Development

Agriculture

2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63

crore farmers for procurement of wheat and

paddy.

Chemical free Natural farming to be

promoted throughout the Initial focus is on

farmer’s lands in 5 Km wide corridors along

river Ganga.

NABARD to facilitate fund with blended

capital to finance startups for agriculture &

rural

‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment,

digitization of land records, spraying of

insecticides and

Ken Betwa project

1400 crore outlay for implementation of the

Ken – Betwa link project.

9.8 lakh hectares of farmers’ lands to receive

irrigation benefits by Ken-Betwa link project.

MSME

Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals

to be

130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit

under Emergency Credit Linked Guarantee

Scheme (ECLGS)

ECLGS to be extended up to March

Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be

expanded by Rs 50000 Crore to total cover

of Rs 5 Lakh Crore.

Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro

and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under

the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and

Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

Raising and Accelerating MSME

performance (RAMP) programme with

outlay of Rs 6000 Crore to be rolled out.

Skill Development

Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and

Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be

launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill

or upskill through on-line




62 | P a g e

Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone

Shakti’ and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS).

Education

‘One class-One TV channel’ programme of

PM eVIDYA to be expanded to 200 TV

Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to be set up to

promote critical thinking skills and simulated

learning

High-quality e-content will be developed for

delivery through Digital

Digital University for world-class quality

universal education with personalised

learning experience to be

Health

An open platform for National Digital

Health Ecosystem to be rolled out.

‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’

for quality mental health counselling and care

services to be

A network of 23 tele-mental health

centres of excellence will be set up, with

NIMHANS being the nodal centre and

International Institute of Information

Technology- Bangalore (IIITB) providing

technology

Saksham Anganwadi

Integrated benefits to women and children

through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya,

Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

Two lakh anganwadis to be upgraded to

Saksham

Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal

60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore

households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal

se Jal.

Housing for All

48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80

lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas

Yojana.

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative

for North-East Region (PM-DevINE)

New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund

infrastructure and social development

projects in the North-East.

An initial allocation of 1,500 crore made to

enable livelihood activities for youth and

women under the scheme.

Vibrant Villages Programme

Vibrant Villages Programme for development

of Border villages with sparse population,

limited connectivity and infrastructure on the

northern border.

Banking

100 per cent of 5 lakh post offices to come

on the core banking system.

Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75

Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75

districts.

e-Passport

e-Passports with embedded chip and

futuristic technology to be rolled

Urban Planning

Modernization of building byelaws, Town

Planning Schemes (TPS), and Transit Oriented

Development (TOD) will be




63 | P a g e

Battery swapping policy to be brought out for

setting up charging stations at scale in urban

Land Records Management

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number for

IT-based management of land

Accelerated Corporate Exit

Centre for Processing Accelerated

Corporate Exit (C-PACE) to be established

for speedy winding-up of

AVGC Promotion Task Force

An animation, visual effects, gaming, and

comic (AVGC) promotion task force to be

set-up to realize the potential of this sector.

Telecom Sector

Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be

launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G

as part of the Production Linked Incentive

Export Promotion

Special Economic Zones Act to be replaced

with a new legislation to enable States to

become partners in ‘Development of

Enterprise and Service Hubs’.

AtmaNirbharta in Defence:

68% of capital procurement budget

earmarked for domestic industry in 2022-

23, up from 58% in 2021-22.

Defence R&D to be opened up for industry,

startups and academia with 25% of defence

R&D budget earmarked.

Independent nodal umbrella body to be set

up for meeting testing and certification

Sunrise Opportunities

Government contribution to be provided for

R&D in Sunrise Opportunities like Artificial

Intelligence, Geospatial Systems and Drones,

Semiconductor and its eco-system, Space

Economy, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals,

Green Energy, and Clean Mobility

Energy Transition and Climate Action:

Additional allocation of 19,500 crore for

Production Linked Incentive for

manufacture of high efficiency solar

modules to meet the goal of 280 GW of

installed solar power by 2030.

Five to seven per cent biomass pellets to

be co-fired in thermal power plants:

CO2 savings of 38 MMT annually,

Extra income to farmers and job opportunities

to locals,

Help avoid stubble burning in agriculture

Four pilot projects to be set up for coal

gasification and conversion of coal into

chemicals for the industry

Financial support to farmers belonging to

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who

want to take up agro-forestry.

Financing of investments

Public Capital Investment:

Public investment to continue to pump-prime

private investment and demand in 2022-23.

Outlay for capital expenditure stepped up

sharply by 4% to Rs. 7.50 lakh crore in

2022-23 from Rs. 5.54 lakh crore in the

current year.

Outlay in 2022-23 to be 9% of GDP.




64 | P a g e

‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of Central

Government estimated at 10.68 lakh crore in

2022-23, which is about 4.1% of GDP.

GIFT-IFSC

World-class foreign universities and

institutions to be allowed in the GIFT

An International Arbitration Centre to be

set up for timely settlement of disputes under

international jurisprudence.

Mobilising Resources

Data Centres and Energy Storage

Systems to be given infrastructure

Venture Capital and Private Equity invested

more than Rs. 5 lakh crore last year facilitating

one of the largest start-up and growth

ecosystem. Measures to be taken to help

scale up this investment.

Blended funds to be promoted for sunrise

sectors.

Sovereign Green Bonds to be issued for

mobilizing resources for green

Digital Rupee

Introduction of Digital Rupee by the

Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.

Providing Greater Fiscal Space to States

Enhanced outlay for ‘Scheme for Financial

Assistance to States for Capital

Investment’:

From 10,000 crore in Budget Estimates to Rs.

15,000 crore in Revised Estimates for

current year

Allocation of 1 lakh crore in 2022-23 to

assist the states in catalysing overall

investments in the economy: fifty-year

interest free loans, over and above normal

borrowings

In 2022-23, States will be allowed a fiscal

deficit of 4% of GSDP, of which 0.5% will

be tied to power sector reforms

Fiscal Management

Budget Estimates 2021-22: 34.83 lakh crore

Revised Estimates 2021-22: 37.70 lakh crore

Total expenditure in 2022-23 estimated at Rs.

39.45 lakh crore

Total receipts other than borrowings in

2022-23 estimated at Rs. 84 lakh crore

Fiscal deficit in current year: 9% of GDP

(against 6.8% in Budget Estimates)

Fiscal deficit in 2022-23 estimated at 6.4% of

GDP

DIRECT TAXES

To take forward the policy of stable and

predictable tax regime:

Vision to establish a trustworthy tax regime.

To further simplify tax system and reduce

Introducing new ‘Updated return’

Provision to file an Updated Return on

payment of additional tax.

Will enable the assessee to declare income

missed out

Can be filed within two years from the end

of the relevant assessment

Cooperative societies




65 | P a g e

Alternate Minimum Tax paid by cooperatives

brought down from 5 per cent to 15 per

cent.

To provide a level playing field between

cooperative societies and

Surcharge on cooperative societies reduced

from 12 per cent to 7 per cent for those

having total income of more than Rs 1 crore

and up to Rs 10 crores.

Tax relief to persons with disability

Payment of annuity and lump sum amount

from insurance scheme to be allowed to

differently abled dependent during the

lifetime of parents/guardians, i.e., on parents/

guardian attaining the age of 60

Parity in National Pension Scheme

Contribution

Tax deduction limit increased from 10 per

cent to 14 per cent on employer’s

contribution to the NPS account of State

Government employees.

Brings them at par with central government

Would help in enhancing social security

Incentives for Start-ups

Period of incorporation extended by one

year, up to 31.03.2023 for eligible start-ups

to avail tax

Previously the period of incorporation valid

up to 03.2022.

Incentives under concessional tax regime

Last date for commencement of

manufacturing or production under section

115BAB extended by one year e. from

31st March, 2023 to 31st March, 2024.

Scheme for taxation of virtual digital

assets

Specific tax regime for virtual digital assets

Any income from transfer of any virtual digital

asset to be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent.

No deduction in respect of any expenditure

or allowance to be allowed while computing

such income except cost of acquisition.

Loss from transfer of virtual digital asset

cannot be set off against any other income.

To capture the transaction details, TDS to be

provided on payment made in relation to

transfer of virtual digital asset at the rate of 1

per cent of such consideration above a

monetary

Gift of virtual digital asset also to be taxed in

the hands of the

Litigation Management

In cases where question of law is identical to

the one pending in High Court or Supreme

Court, the filing of appeal by the

department shall be deferred till such

question of law is decided by the court.

To greatly help in reducing repeated litigation

between taxpayers and the

Tax incentives to IFSC

Subject to specified conditions, the following

to be exempt from tax

Income of a non-resident from offshore

derivative instruments.

Income from over the counter derivatives

issued by an offshore banking




66 | P a g e

Income from royalty and interest on account

of lease of

Income received from portfolio management

services in

Rationalization of Surcharge

Surcharge on AOPs (consortium formed to

execute a contract) capped at 15 per

Done to reduce the disparity in surcharge

between individual companies and

Surcharge on long term capital gains arising

on transfer of any type of assets capped at 15

per

To give a boost to the start up

Health and Education Cess

Any surcharge or cess on income and

profits not allowable as business

Deterrence against tax-evasion

No set off, of any loss to be allowed against

undisclosed income detected during search

and survey

Rationalizing TDS Provisions

Benefits passed on to agents as business

promotion strategy taxable in hands of

agents.

Tax deduction provided to person giving

benefits, if the aggregate value of such

benefits exceeds Rs 20,000 during the

financial

INDIRECT TAXES

Remarkable progress in GST

GST revenues are buoyant despite the

pandemic – Taxpayers deserve applause for

this

Special Economic Zones

Customs Administration of SEZs to be fully IT

driven and function on the Customs

National Portal – shall be implemented by

30th September 2022.

Customs Reforms and duty rate changes

Faceless Customs has been fully During

Covid-19 pandemic, Customs formations have

done exceptional frontline work against all

odds displaying agility and purpose.

Project imports and capital goods

Gradually phasing out of the concessional

rates in capital goods and project imports;

and applying a moderate tariff of 5 percent –

conducive to the growth of domestic sector

and ‘Make in India’.

Certain exemptions for advanced machineries

that are not manufactured within the country

shall

A few exemptions introduced on inputs, like

specialised castings, ball screw and linear

motion guide – to encourage domestic

manufacturing of capital

Review of customs exemptions and tariff

simplification

More than 350 exemption entries

proposed to be gradually phased out, like

exemption on certain agricultural produce,

chemicals, fabrics, medical devices, & drugs

and medicines for which sufficient domestic

capacity

Simplifying the Customs rate and tariff

structure particularly for sectors like

chemicals, textiles and metals and minimise




67 | P a g e

disputes; Removal of exemption on items

which are or can be manufactured in India

and providing concessional duties on raw

material that go into manufacturing of

intermediate products – in line with the

objective of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar

Bharat’.

Sector specific proposals Electronics

Customs duty rates to be calibrated to

provide a graded rate structure – to facilitate

domestic manufacturing of wearable devices,

hearable devices and electronic smart

Duty concessions to parts of transformer of

mobile phone chargers and camera lens of

mobile camera module and certain other

items – To enable domestic manufacturing of

high growth electronic

Gems and Jewellery

Customs duty on cut and polished diamonds

and gemstones being reduced to 5 per cent;

Nil customs duty to simply sawn diamond –

To give a boost to the Gems and Jewellery

sector

A simplified regulatory framework to be

implemented by June this year – To facilitate

export of jewellery through e-commerce.

Customs duty of at least Rs 400 per Kg to be

paid on imitation jewellery import – To

disincentivise import of undervalued imitation

jewellery.

Chemicals

Customs duty on certain critical chemicals

namely methanol, acetic acid and heavy feed

stocks for petroleum refining being reduced;

Duty is being raised on sodium cyanide for

which adequate domestic capacity exists –

This will help in enhancing domestic value

MSME

Customs duty on umbrellas being raised to 20

per cent. Exemption to parts of umbrellas

being

Exemption being rationalised on implements

and tools for agri-sector which are

manufactured in India

Customs duty exemption given to steel scrap

last year extended for another year to provide

relief to MSME secondary steel producers

Certain Anti- dumping and CVD on stainless

steel and coated steel flat products, bars of

alloy steel and high-speed steel are being

revoked – to tackle prevailing high prices of

metal in larger public

Exports

To incentivise exports, exemptions being

provided on items such as embellishment,

trimming, fasteners, buttons, zipper, lining

material, specified leather, furniture fittings

and packaging

Duty being reduced on certain inputs

required for shrimp aquaculture – to

promote its

Tariff measure to encourage blending of

fuel

Unblended fuel to attract an additional

differential excise duty of Rs 2/ litre from

the 1st of October 2022 – to encourage

blending of fuel.




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Chapter 15: Committee

Committee Headed by Purpose

SEBI restructured a

High-Power

Advisory

Committee on

Settlement Orders

and Compounding

of Offences

Jai Narayan Patel

The committee was earlier headed by Vijay C Daga,

retired judge of the High Court of Bombay and now it

will be chaired by Jai Narayan Patel, former chief

justice of Calcutta High Court. The panel will work as

per SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) Regulations, 2018.

SEBI has listed M S Sahoo, a former chairperson at

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India,

and Poornima Advani, ex-chairperson of National

Commission for Women, as new members of advisory

committee. PK Malhotra, former law secretary in the

Ministry of Law & Justice will continue as a member of

the committee.

In January 2022, SEBI has amended the SEBI

(Settlement Proceedings) Regulations, 2018, called

the SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) (Amendment)

Regulations, 2022 where an alleged wrongdoer can

settle a pending case with the regulator without

admission or denial of guilt by paying a settlement fee.

According to the amendment, the timeline for filing

settlement applications has been reduced to 60

days from the current 180 days. Further, the period for

submission of revised settlement terms form, after the

Internal Committee (IC), has been rationalised to 15

days which will be from the date of the IC meeting.

The current rule allows 10 days plus additional 20

days.

SEBI restructured

Advisory

Committee on

Investor Protection

and Education Fund

(IPEF)

G Mahalingam

It is an eight-member committee.

In 2013, the committee was established by the SEBI

to find out ways and means to best utilize the investor

protection and education fund. Earlier the committee

was headed by Abraham Koshy, former professor of

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A),

Gujarat.

The committee is mandated to recommend investor

education and protection activities for utilization of the

SEBI IPEF.

Members of Committee: Vijay Kumar Venkataraman,

Mrin Agarwal, A Balasubramanian, M G Parameswaran,

GP Garg, N Hariharan and Jayanta Jash.

Ken-Betwa link

Project Authority, Pankaj Kumar

The Central Government has constituted a Special

Purpose Vehicle (SPV) i.e., Ken-Betwa Link Project




69 | P a g e

and 20-member

National Steering

Committee

Authority (KBLPA) for the implementation of the

Ken-Betwa interlinking of rivers (ILRs) project. The

SPV will be headed by a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of

additional secretary rank.

It also formed a 20-member National Steering

Committee (SC) which will monitor the

implementation. The committee will be chaired by the

Secretary (Currently- Pankaj Kumar), Ministry of Jal

Shakti.

The river Betwa or Betravati which is also called river

Vetrawati in Sanskrit one of the major river basins of

Madhya Pradesh (MP). It is a tributary of the

Yamuna. It rises in the Vindhya Range just north of

Hoshangabad in MP and flows north-east through MP

and Orchha to UP.

Alternative

Investment Policy

Advisory

Committee (AIPAC),

reconstituted by

SEBI

Nagavara Ramarao

Narayana Murthy

The committee has now 20 members.

The committee advises SEBI on a range of issues that

impact further development of the Alternative

Investment Fund (AIF) industry, and startup

ecosystem in India. It also advises SEBI on issues which

need to be taken up with other regulators for

development of the AIF.

It will advise SEBI on any hurdles that might hinder the

development of the alternative investment industry

under its purview.

Constituted by SEBI in 2015 with 22 members, the

panel has submitted three reports on the AIF.

Chapter 16: Defence News

Indian Navy’s 5th Scorpene-class

submarine ‘Vagir’ commenced first sea

trial

Indian Navy’s new submarine INS Vagir, the

fifth of six French-designed Scorpene-class

made-in-India submarine (Kalvari-class),

commenced its first sea trial on 1, February

2022. The submarine was launched

in November 2020 from the Kanhoji Angre

Wet Basin of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders

Limited (MDL), Mumbai, Maharashtra.

The submarine-designated "Yard 11879"

during its construction by Mazagon Dock

Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in collaboration

with the Naval Group of France will be

named 'Vagir' after it is commissioned into

service. The submarine was named after INS

Vagir, a Russian Vela-class submarine that

served in the Navy from 1973 to 2001.

BDL signed contract for supply of Konkurs

anti-tank missiles for Indian Army

Bharat Dynamics Ltd signed a contract

worth ₹3,131.82 crores for the manufacture




70 | P a g e

and supply of Konkurs-M anti-tank missiles

for the Indian Army.

BDL will manufacture and supply Konkurs

anti-tank missiles to the Indian Army.

Konkurs - M is a second generation,

mechanized infantry anti-tank guided missile,

to destroy armored vehicle equipped with

explosive reactive armour. It has a range

between 75 to 4000 metres.

BDL is also offering Man Portable Anti-Tank

Guided Missiles, Nag, Milan-2T and

Amogha, for exports. BDL signed a license

agreement with a Russian Original

Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). This

contract will be executed in three years.

RPF launched “Operation AAHT” to curb

human trafficking

Railway Protection Force (RPF) has launched

a nationwide operation to curb human

trafficking. As part of “Operation

AAHT”, special teams will be deployed on all

long-distance trains/routes with a focus on

rescuing victims, particularly women and

children, from the clutches of traffickers.

Goa Shipyard delivered 5th vessel of CGOPV

Project named ICGS ‘Saksham’

India’s Goa Shipyard Ltd delivered the 5th

and final vessel of the five Coast Guard

Offshore Patrol Vehicle (CGOPV)

Project ahead of contractual schedule. The

vessel was named ICGS ‘Saksham’. All the 5

vessels have been delivered before time to

the Indian Coast Guard.

The contract for 5 CGOPVs was signed by

GSL with the Ministry of Defence on 26

August 2016. All the five CGOPVs will be the

most advanced patrol vessels in service with

the coast guard.

IAF to showcase LCA Tejas at Singapore Air

Show 2022

Indian Air Force will showcase Tejas light

combat aircraft (LCA) at the four-day

Singapore Air Show 2022. LCA Tejas will

display low level aerobatics to showcase its

superior handling characteristics and

maneuverability.

The 44-member contingents of Indian Air

Force (IAF) will participate in the Show-2022.

The IAF will showcase its indigenous Tejas

MK-I ac during the event. It will also interact

with counterparts from RSAF (Royal

Singapore Air Force) & other participating

contingents. Singapore Air Show is

scheduled to be held from February 15 to

18, 2022. It is a biennial event for the Global

Aviation Industry to showcase their products.

Israeli Defence Forces successfully tested

C-Dome missile defense system

Israel has successfully tested naval

configuration of the Iron Dome missile

defense system, C-Dome. C-Dome system is

a naval version of Iron Dome, which has been

used to shoot down rockets fired from the

Gaza Strip for the past decade. It is developed

by Israel Missile Defense Organization.

DRDO successfully tested India’s 1st

Quantum Key Distribution Technology in

Uttar Pradesh

The Defence Research and Development

Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for

the 1st time successfully demonstrated

India’s indigenous technology, Quantum

Key Distribution (QKD) link

between Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh

and Vindhyachal, UP, a distance of more

than 100 kilometres.




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It is developed by the Centre for Artificial

Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR),

Bengaluru, and Mumbai-based DRDO

Young Scientists’ Laboratory– Quantum

Technology (DYSL-QT). With this success,

the country has demonstrated indigenous

technology of secure key transfer for

bootstrapping military grade

communication security key hierarchy.

MoD signed Rs 1075 crores contract with

BEL for retro-modification of Commander

Sight of Battle Tanks T-90

Acquisition Wing of the Ministry of

Defence (MoD) has signed a contract for Rs

1075 crores with Bharat Electronics

Limited (BEL) for retro-modification of

Commander Sight of Battle Tanks-T-90.

Retro-modification will be carried out in 957

T-90 tanks of Indian Army. It will provide

further boost to ‘Make in India’ initiative of

the government.

T-90’s present Image Converter (IC) tube-

based sight for night viewing will be replaced

with the advanced Mid Wave Thermal

Image (MWIR) based sight which is jointly

designed and developed by DRDO (Defence

Research and Development Organisation) and

BEL. This modification is based on the

requirement by the Indian Army.

Defence Exercise Between About

‘Cope South 22’ US-Bangladesh

The air forces of Bangladesh and the US will

conduct a joint air exercise between Feb 20-25.

Bilateral tactical airlift exercise ‘Cope South 22’ will

be conducted at BAF Kurmitola Cantonment, Dhaka,

and Operating Location-Alpha, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

Eastern Bridge-VI

exercise India & Oman

Indian Air Force (IAF) and Royal Air Force of

Oman (RAFO) have organized bilateral air exercise

titled as ‘Eastern Bridge-VI’ at Air Force Station

Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

It is being held from 21st to 25th February 2022. It

was held for the first time in 2009.

Milan-2022 Indian Navy

Indian Navy's multilateral exercise ‘Milan-

2022’ has been organized in Visakhapatnam,

Andhra Pradesh.

It will be conducted over a duration of nine days in

two phases with the harbour phase scheduled from

February 25 and the Sea Phase from 1st March to

4th March.

It is a biennial multilateral naval exercise incepted

by Indian Navy in 1995 at the Andaman and

Nicobar Command. More than 40 countries are

participating in Milan 22.

Theme: 'Camaraderie - Cohesion - Collaboration'.

'Exercise Cobra

Warrior 22' UK

Indian Air Force will participate in multi-nation air

exercise titled as 'Exercise Cobra Warrior 22' at




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Waddington, UK. It will be held from 6th to 27th

March 2022.

IAF Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will

participate in the exercise along with fighter aircraft

of UK and other Air Forces. Cobra Warrior is

the largest annual exercises conducted by UK's

Royal Air Force.

India will be participating in the exercise for the

first time. Other countries participating are the

United Kingdom, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria.

‘DHARMA

GUARDIAN-2022’ India-Japan

The third edition of the joint military exercise “EX

DHARMA GUARDIAN-2022” between India and

Japan will be conducted from 27 February to 10

March 2022, at Belagavi (Belgaum), Karnataka.

The 15th Battalion the Maratha Light Infantry

Regiment of the Indian Army and 30th Infantry

Regiment of Japanese Ground Self Defence

Forces (JGSDF) are participating in this 12 days long

joint exercise. It is an annual military training event,

being conducted in India since 2018.

Chapter 17: Sports News

Magnus Carlsen won the Tata Steel

Masters chess 2022

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen won the Tata

Steel Masters chess 2022 after beating

Fabiano Caruana. Indian Grandmaster Vidit

Gujrathi lost to Shakhriyar

Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the 12th and

penultimate round of the tournament.

Chennai Super Kings became India's 1st

unicorn sports enterprise

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have become

the first-ever sports Unicorn in the country

to have a market share of Rs 7,600 crores

and its share in the grey market trading in the

Rs 210-225 price band.

CSK is four-time Indian Premier League

(IPL) winners. MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super

Kings (CSK) defeated mighty Kolkata Knight

Riders last year to win their record-

extending fourth IPL title in Dubai. The

market value of Chennai Super Kings has

become higher than that of its parent

entity India Cements. On January 29, 2022,

India Cements’ market cap stood at Rs 6,869

crores.

Mithali Raj secured 2nd rank in ICC

Women's ODI Player Rankings for batters

India's One-day international skipper Mithali

Raj has risen one spot to second in the ICC

Women's ODI Player Rankings for batters.

Mithali has displaced South African batter

Lizelle Lee, who is now third on the list with

731 points. Alyssa Healy (Australia)

secured first position in the ranking.

India opener Smriti Mandhana, who was

recently named 'ICC women's Cricketer

of the Year for 2021', continues to maintain




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her sixth spot. In ODI All Rounder Ranking

of ICC, Indian cricketer Deepti

Sharma secured fourth rank and Ellyse

Perry from Australia secured first. In the

team ranking, India is currently at the 4th

place.

ICC Women ODI ranking:

Ranking Player Team

1 Alyssa Healy (Australia) Australia

2 Mithali Raj (India) South Africa

3 Lizelle Lee (South Africa) England

India won fifth U-19 World Cup title, beat

England by 4 wickets in final

India defeated England by four wickets to

clinch a record-extending fifth U-19 World

Cup title at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium,

Antigua.

India added the fifth title to their collection,

having previously won the trophy in 2000,

2008, 2012, 2018. Yash Dhull becomes the

fifth Indian captain to win the title

after Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Unmukt

Chand and Prithvi Shaw.

India’s Raj Angad Bawa was

announced Player of the Match of the ICC

Under19 World Cup 2022 Final between

India and England. The Indian all-rounder

picked 5/31, the best bowling figures for any

final in the history of the championship and

also scored crucial 35 runs with the bat to

help his team in its 4-wicket win. South

Africa’s Dewald Brevis was named Player of

the Series for his record-breaking showing.

International Olympic Committee

approved inclusion of Surfing,

Skateboarding & Sport Climbing in 2028

Olympics at Los Angeles

The International Olympic Committee

(IOC) approved a proposal to include

Surfing, Skateboarding and Sport Climbing

for the 2028 Summer Olympics Games that

will be organized in Los Angeles (LA),

United States (US).

The 2028 Summer Olympics are officially

known as the Games of the XXXIV

Olympiad, or Los Angeles 2028 is a

forthcoming event scheduled to take place

from July 21 - August 6, 2028, in Los

Angeles, California, US. The 2024 Summer

Olympics games will be organized in Paris,

France. With this Paris becomes only the

second city to host 3 Summer Olympic

games.

Surfing, Skateboarding and Sport Climbing

had made their Olympic debut in Tokyo

Olympics 2021 and will also be included in

the “additional” list for Paris in 2024.

Boxing, weightlifting and modern

pentathlon also have the chance to be

included in upcoming Olympics games.

World's third-largest cricket stadium’s

foundation stone laid in Jaipur

World's third-largest cricket stadium is

going to be built in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Chief

Minister Ashok Gehlot and BCCI

president Sourav Ganguly laid the

foundation stone of the project virtually. It

will be the second-largest cricket stadium

in India and the third-largest in the world.

It would seat 75,000 spectators.




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China won AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022

Football Tournament

China PR (People’s

Republic) defeated South Korea (Korea

Republic), 3-2, to win the AFC Women`s

Asian Cup India 2022 final title at the D.Y.

Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. This is the

record-extending 9th AFC Women`s Asian

Cup title won by China. India is hosting the

20th edition of the football AFC Women’s

Asian Cup India 2022 from January 20, 2022,

to February 06, 2022.

China now qualifying for the 2023 FIFA

Women’s World Cup to be held in Australia

and New Zealand.

Ahmedabad IPL team to be called Gujarat

Titans

Ahmedabad’s IPL franchise, which is

owned by CVC Capital, has been

named Gujarat Titans, ahead of the Indian

Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction.

The team has roped-in Hardik Pandya as

their captain, Ashish Nehra as the head

coach of the team and Vikram Solanki as the

director. It has also signed Afghanistan

spinner Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill.

Gujarat Titans is debuting in the 15th season

of the IPL. Prior to this in January 2022,

Lucknow’s IPL team was renamed as

Lucknow Super Giants by its owner RPSG

Group.

Indian Railways will set up country’s biggest

Wrestling Academy

Ministry of Railways has approved to set up

a state-of-art wrestling academy in Indian

Railways, at Kishanganj, Delhi. The wrestling

academy will be the biggest in India and

equipped with advanced training facilities to

promote the sports of wrestling in the

country. The project will be set up at an

estimated cost of Rs 30.76 crores.

Keegan Petersen, Heather Knight declared

ICC players of the month for January 2022

South Africa’s Test sensation Keegan

Petersen and England women’s team

captain Heather Knight were voted ICC

Players of the Month for January 2022.

In the men’s category, South African

batter Keegan Petersen was a sensation

during the home Test series against India. He

ended the series as the highest run-scorer

with 276 runs and was named the Player of

the Series.

Chelsea won first FIFA Club World Cup by

defeating Brazil’s Palmeiras

English professional football club Chelsea

won the first FIFA Club World Cup by

defeating Brazil’s Palmeiras in extra-time in

the final in Abu Dhabi. Chelsea defeated

South American counterparts in the final

at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium by 2-1. The

winner came from the penalty spot in the

117th minute.

Bihar’s Sakibul Gani became 1st player to

hit triple ton on first-class debut

Bihar’s Sakibul Gani become the first player

in the history of the game to score a triple

century on his first-class debut. He

scored 341 off 405 balls, hitting 56 fours and

two sixes, in the Plate Group Ranji

Trophy fixture against Mizoram at

the Jadavpur University Campus ground in

Kolkata.

Mumbai will host International Olympic

Committee session in 2023




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Mumbai has been officially elected as the

host for the 2023 International Olympic

Committee (IOC) session, which could

possibly see the election for the host

country for the 2030 Winter Olympics and

sports programme for LA 2028 Olympic

Games.

An IOC session is the annual meeting of the

members of the IOC, comprising 101 voting

members and 45 honorary members. Nita

Ambani is the representative of India on

this committee. India will be hosting this

prestigious IOC meeting for the first time

since 1983, in what is set to be the start of a

new era of engagement between India’s

youthful population and the Olympic

Movement.

Winter Olympics Games 2022 concluded;

Norway topped the medal tally

The closing ceremony of the 2022 Beijing

Winter Olympic Games was held on

February 20, 2022, at National Stadium

(known as the Bird’s Nest) in Beijing. The

Games featured a record 109 events across

15 disciplines in 7 sports. The venues of the

Games were distributed across three zones-

Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

Norway has topped the medal table for the

second successive Winter Olympics, winning a

total of 37 medals, including 16 golds. This

is a new record for the most amount of gold

medals won at a single Winter Olympics.

Germany finished second with 27 medals

overall, while the host nation China finished

third with 15 medals.

The Indian team at the game was

represented by one male alpine skier, Arif

Khan. He was the country’s flagbearer

during the opening ceremony, meanwhile, a

volunteer was the flagbearer during the

closing ceremony. India could not win any

medal at the games.

The Presidency of the Games was formally

handed over to Milan and Cortina

d’Ampezzo, in Italy, to host the 2026

Winter Olympics.

16-year-old R Praggnanandhaa defeated

world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at Airthings

Masters

16-year-old Indian Grandmaster R

Praggnanandhaa has defeated world

champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway in

the eighth round of Airthings Masters

rapid online Chess competition.

Prior to this, Indian registered solitary win

versus Levon Aronian along with recording 2

draws and 4 defeats. He has become 3rd

Indian to beat Carlsen after Viswanathan

Anand and P Harikrishna. Airthings

Masters rapid online Chess competition is

a 16-player online rapid chess tournament.

Mirabai Chanu won gold in Singapore,

qualified for CWG in 55kg weight category

Star Indian Weightlifter Mirabai

Chanu qualified for the 2022

Commonwealth Games in the 55 kg weight

category by clinching the gold in the

Singapore Weightlifting International. She

lifted a total 91 kg (86kg+105kg) to stand

on top of the podium. Mirabai Chanu has

also qualified for the CWG in the 49kg

weight category on the basis of her

Commonwealth rankings.

Carlos Alcaraz became youngest ATP 500

winner by winning men’s singles title in

Rio Open 2022

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz Garfia has won the

Men’s Singles title at the 2022 Rio Open,




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defeating Diego Schwartzman of Argentina,

and became the youngest to clinch an ATP

500 title. The 2022 Rio Open was held from

14th February to 20th February 2022 at

Jockey Club Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil.

This is Carlos Alcaraz’s first ever Association

of Tennis Professionals (ATP) 500 trophy

and he has become the youngest ATP 500

Winner.

2022 Rio Open. Fabio Fognini and Simone

Bolelli of Italy won the 2022 Rio Open

Doubles title defeating Jamie Murray (the

United Kingdom) and Bruno Soares (Brazil).

Rafael Nadal won Mexican Open title 2022

Spain’s Rafael Nadal has won singles title

of Mexican Open 2022 (Acapulco title),

defeating British number one Cameron

Norrie by 6-4 and 6-4. This is 91st ATP title

of his career and the third title of the

season. This is the 4th time that Rafael

Nadal has won Mexican Open title, after

winning the previous ones in 2005, 2013 and

2020.

Men’s double title winner of Mexican Open

2022 are Feliciano Lopez (Spain) and

Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece).

Pooja Jatyan became 1st Indian to win a

silver in individual section of Para Archery

World Championships

Para-archer Pooja Jatyan scripted history as

she became the first Indian to win a silver

in an individual section of the Para World

Championships in Dubai, UAE. Pooja lost to

Italy’s Patrilli Vincenza in the final to be

content with the silver medal. India ended its

campaign with two silver medals, a first for

the country.

The compound mixed pair of Shyam Sundar

Swamy and Jyoti Baliyan had earlier opened

India’s account by winning a silver medal.

Chapter 18: Book and Author

Book Author

"Fearless Governance’

Kiran Bedi

launched by Indra Nooyi and Prof

Debashis Chatterjee

India’s 1st-ever season style book titled ‘The Class

of 2006: Sneak Peek into the Misadventures of the

Great Indian Engineering Life’

Akash Kansal

Released by R. Madhavan

‘India, That is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation,

Constitution’ J Sai Deepak

‘Golden Boy Neeraj Chopra’ Navdeep Singh Gill

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s graphic novel ‘Atharva’:

The Origin’ Ramesh Thamilmani

“India-Africa Relations: Changing Horizons” Rajiv Kumar Bhatia

“Atal Bihari Vajpayee” Sagarika Ghose

‘How to Prevent the Next Pandemic’ Bill Gates

Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace

and Reinvented War’ Samuel Moyn




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“Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for

All of Us” Ro Khanna

“A History of Sriniketan: Rabindranath Tagore’s

Pioneering Work in Rural Construction” Uma Das Gupta

‘The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the

Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley’ Jimmy Soni

‘A Nation To Protect’

Priyam Gandhi Mody

launched by Union Health Minister

Mansukh Mandaviya

‘The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and

the Destinies of Nations’ Anirudh Suri

Chapter 19: Important Day

Date Day Theme/Importance

1 February Indian Coast Guard Raising Day ICG celebrated its 46th Raising Day on 1

February, 2022.

1-7 February NPCI UPI safety and awareness

week

Whole month of February will be UPI

Safety and Awareness Month.

1-7 February World Interfaith Harmony Week

World Interfaith Harmony Week is an

annual event observed during the first week

of February, after General Assembly

designation in 2010.

2 February World Wetlands Day Theme 2022: Wetlands Action for People

and Nature

2 February Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness

Day

4 February World Cancer Day Theme 2022: “Close the Care Gap”

4 February International Day of Human

Fraternity

The Day is a part of the ‘World Interfaith

Harmony Week’, observed during the first

week of February, as proclaimed by UN

General Assembly in 2010.

6 February

International Day of Zero

Tolerance for Female Genital

Mutilation

Theme 2022: "Accelerating Investment to

End Female Genital Mutilation."

8 February 2022

(Second day of

the second week

of February)

Safer Internet Day Theme 2022: ‘Together for a better

internet’

10 February World Pulses Day Theme 2021: “Pulses to empower youth in

achieving sustainable agrifood systems”.




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10 February National Deworming Day

The NDD is a Bi-annual round of

deworming. Annually the 10th February and

10th August are observed as the National

Deworming Day (NDD).

11 February International Day of Women

and Girls in Science

Theme 2022: “Equity, Diversity, and

Inclusion: Water Unites Us”

11 February World Unani Day

to mark the birth anniversary of “Hakim Ajmal

Khan”, an eminent Indian Unani physician.

The theme for the international conference of

2022 is ‘Diet and Nutrition in Unani Medicine

for good health and well-being’.

11 February FICCI CASCADE’s ‘Anti-

Smuggling Day’

FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and

Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the

Economy (CASCADE) has taken the initiative

to launch Anti-Smuggling Day, which will

be marked on 11 February every year. The

inaugural Anti-Smuggling Day was

observed on February 11, 2022.

12 February National Productivity Day

National Productivity Council will be

celebrating productivity week across the

nation from 12-18 February.

Theme 2022: “Self Reliance Through

Productivity."

13 February National Women’s Day

to commemorate the birth anniversary

of Sarojini Naidu. This year Nation

celebrates her 143rd birth anniversary.

13 February World Radio Day

Theme 2022: ‘Radio and Trust‘.

Sub-themes 2022:

Trust in radio journalism

Trust and accessibility

Trust and viability of radio stations

13 February

2022

Agricultural Products Export

Development Authority (APEDA)

36th Foundation Day

14 February

2022 (Second

Monday of

February)

International Epilepsy Day

15 February International Childhood Cancer

Day

The 3-year campaign for ICCD 2021-2023

called, ‘Tree of Life’

Theme 2022: ‘Better Survival’ is achievable

#throughyourhands

15 February Bihar Shahid Diwas Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish

Kumar announced that, February 15 would




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now be commemorated as “Shahid Diwas”,

in the honour of 34 freedom fighters who

were killed by police 90 years ago, in

Tarapur town in Munger district of Bihar.

19 February

2022

(Third Saturday

of February)

World Pangolin Day

19 February Soil Health Card Day

to commemorate the launch of the Soil

Health Card (SHC) Scheme, and create

awareness about the benefits of the

scheme.

20 February Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh

Foundation Day

20 February World Day of Social Justice Theme 2022: Achieving Social Justice

through Formal Employment

21 February International Mother Language

Day

Theme 2022: “Using technology for

multilingual learning: Challenges and

opportunities”.

22 February World Thinking Day & World

Scout Day

World Thinking Day Theme 2022: Our

World: Our Equal Future: The Environment

and Gender Equality

24 February Central Excise Day

The day is being celebrated to honour the

service of the Central Board of Excise and

Custom (CBEC) to the country. The day is

celebrated to commemorate the legislation

of the Central Excise and Salt act on 24

February 1944.

27 February World NGO Day

27 February Polio National Immunization

Day 2022

In 2022, the Government of India has

organised the Polio National Immunization

Day 2022 (also known as ‘’Polio

Ravivar”) on February 27, 2022, to give two

drops of oral polio vaccine (OPV) to every

child in the country under the age of five.

27 February National Protein Day Theme 2022: ‘Food Futurism‘.

28 February National Science Day

to mark the discovery of the Raman Effect

by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara

Venkata Raman. On February 28, 1928, he

discovered the Raman Effect, for which he

was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

topic in 1930.




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Theme 2022: ‘Integrated Approach in S&T

for Sustainable Future’.

28 February

2022 (last day of

February)

Rare Disease Day Theme 2022: “Share Your Colors.”

30 January 2022 Anti-Untouchability Day

Government of Tamil Nadu observed the

day to mark the death anniversary of

Mahatma Gandhi.

Chapter 20: Science

Global Center of Excellence in Affordable

and Clean Energy launched in IIT Dharwad

A Global Center of Excellence in Affordable

and Clean Energy has been launched at

the IIT Dharwad, Karnataka. The center is

supported by the Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) donation

from Honeywell Hometown Solutions India

Foundation (HHSIF). The first phase of the

CSR project with HHSIF is to establish

equipment for the GCoE-ACE mainly as skill

development, fabrication, and R&D

equipment.

IISc, Bengaluru commissioned

supercomputer ‘Param Pravega’ having

supercomputing capacity of 3.3 petaflops

Indian Institute of Science (IISc),

Bengaluru has installed and commissioned

one of the most powerful supercomputers

in India, ‘Param Pravega’. Param Pravega is

the largest supercomputer in an Indian

academic institution. Param Pravega has a

total Supercomputing capacity of 3.3

petaflops (1 petaflop equals a quadrillion, or

1015 operations per second).

The supercomputer has been designed

by Centre for Development of Advanced

Computing (C-DAC) under National

Supercomputing Mission (NSM), a joint

initiative of the Department of Science and

Technology (DST) and Ministry of

Electronics and Information Technology

(MeitY), and implemented by C-DAC and

IISc.

IIT Hyderabad will set up Suzuki

Innovation Centre on its campus

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

(IITH) and Suzuki Motor Corporation

signed a three-year contract to start Suzuki

Innovation Centre (SIC) with the vision of

"creating innovations for India and Japan" by

way of providing a platform for exchange of

knowledge between the two organizations.

SIC will be operated as a platform for open

innovation among Industries, Academia,

and Startups and the Centre will also

support skill development and exchange of

human resources between India and Japan.

IIT-Hyderabad launched India’s first AI-

based job platform for persons with

disabilities named “Swarajability”

The Indian Institute of Technology,

Hyderabad (IIT-Hyderabad) has launched

the beta version of ‘Swarajability’, a job

portal powered by AI that helps people with

disabilities acquire relevant skills and find

jobs.

The institute has developed the platform in

association with Youth4Jobs, Visual Quest




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and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. The project

is funded by Kotak Mahindra Bank, while

IIT-H provided AI expertise, Visual Quest

developed the platform, and Youth4Jobs

provided skilling services.

IIT Madras established Inter-disciplinary

Water Management & Policy Centre

IIT Madras has established an Inter-

disciplinary Water Management & Policy

Centre to solve water problems in India.

Called ‘AquaMAP,’ the Centre is being

established with support from IIT Madras

Alumni. This Centre will provide smart

solutions for challenging water problems

by designing scalable models by leveraging

innovative technologies.

ISRO decommissioned INSAT-4B through

11 Re-orbiting manoeuvres after 14-year

service

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

has decommissioned the INSAT-4B, an

Indian communications satellite that forms

part of the Indian National Satellite System

on 24th January 2022 through 11 re-orbiting

manoeuvres that pushed the satellite into

the desired orbit mandated by the IADC

space debris mitigation guidelines.

The finally achieved orbit is

about 340km above geostationary (GEO)

altitude in perfect compliance with IADC

guidelines for space debris mitigation of GEO

objects. The decommissioning of the satellite

was to comply with the United Nations (UN)

and the Inter-Agency Space Debris

Coordination Committee (IADC)

recommended space debris mitigation.

ISRO successfully launched earth

observation satellite ‘EOS-04’

ISRO has successfully launched its Earth

Observation Satellite ‘EOS-4’ and two other

tech demonstrator and scientific satellites

from Satish Dhawan Space Centre,

Sriharikota. EOS-04, INSPIREsat-1 and

INST-2TD were injected successfully into a

sun-synchronous polar orbit by PSLV-C52.

Jio announced JV with SES to provide

satellite-based broadband services

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)’s Jio Platform

Ltd has announced the joint venture

with Société Européenne des

Satellites (SES), a Luxembourg firm, to offer

satellite-based broadband communication

in India.

It is a multi-year capacity purchase

agreement, purchase of gateways and

equipment with a total value of circa USD

100 million. Under this, Jio Platforms has

formed joint venture with SES, named as Jio

Space Technology.

Under the partnership, Jio will offer next

generation affordable and scalable

broadband services in India leveraging

satellite technology.It will leverage SES-12,

SES’s high-throughput GEO satellite serving

India, and O3b mPOWER, SES’s next-

generation MEO constellation to increase

access to digital services and applications.

Under the joint venture, JPL owns 51% and

SES owns 49%. This venture will use multi-

orbit space networks that are a combination

of geostationary (GEO) and medium earth

orbit (MEO) satellite constellations.

Airtel joined SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable

consortium to scale up high-speed

network

Bharti Airtel has joined the SEA-ME-WE-

6 undersea cable consortium to scale up its




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high-speed global network capacity to

serve India’s fast growing digital economy.

The 19,200 Rkm SEA-ME-WE-6 will

connect Singapore and France, and will be

amongst the largest undersea cable

systems globally. Through SEA-ME-WE-6,

Airtel will add 100 TBps capacity to its

global network. Airtel will land the SEA-

ME-WE-6 cable system in India at new

landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai.

IBM launched new Cybersecurity Hub in

Bengaluru to address cyberattack

International Business Machines (IBM) has

announced to launch new cybersecurity hub

based in India, to address growing threat of

cyberattacks in Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

IBM Security Command Center will be

located at IBM office in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

This new cyber security hub is one of the only

two such centres of IBM globally, other one is

located in US.

Canada approved world's 1st plant-derived

COVID-19 vaccine

Canada became the first country in the world

that has authorized the use of a plant-based

COVID-19 vaccine. Covifenz is the name

given to this vaccine. Canada agreed to buy

20 million doses of this plant-based

vaccine, with an option to purchase 56

million additional doses.

The two-dose vaccine of Medicago Inc. (a

biopharma company owned by Mitsubishi

Chemical and Philip Morris), can be given

to adults who are aged between 18 to 64,

but little data is available on the shots

received by people aged 65 and above.

Chapter 21: Obituary

Person About

Rupinder Singh Suri Senior advocate & Additional Solicitor General

Amitabh Dayal Actor & filmmaker

Ramesh Deo Veteran actor and Producer

Christos Sartzetakis Former President of Greece, jurist and judge of the

Supreme Court

Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar India’s nightingale, playback singer

Chandupatla Janga Reddy Former BJP Lok Sabha MP from Telangana

(1st Lok Sabha MP for the BJP from south India)

Padma Shri Ibrahim Nabisaheb Sutar ‘Kabir of Karnataka’, social worker

R Rajamohan Astronomer, who led the 1st asteroid discoveries in

independent India

Praveen Kumar Sobti Mahabharat’s actor who played Bheem, and athlete

Rahul Bajaj Former Chairman of Bajaj Group & Industrialist

Luc Montagnier

Nobel winning virologist who co-discovered HIV

(Nobel Prize in medicine with colleague Francoise

Barr-Sinoussi in 2008)




83 | P a g e

Bappi Lahiri Legendary Singer-composer

Chennaveera Kanavi Kannada writer and poet

Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Renowned Bengali singer

Surajit Sengupta Former Indian footballer

Ravish Tiwari Senior journalist with ET and a reputed political

reporter and editor

Shakuntala Choudhury Gandhian leader and eminent social worker

Mekapati Goutham Reddy Andhra Pradesh Industries Minister

KPAC Lalitha Noted Malayalam actress

Hemananda Biswal Odisha’s 1st tribal Chief Minister

Sonny Ramadhin Legendary West Indies spinner

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