Sushmita Shukla, an Indian-origin veteran of the insurance industry, has been appointed as First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, making her the second-ranking officer at the prominent institution.

 

* The appointment was approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the New York Fed said in a statement Thursday(8th Dec 2022).

 

* Shukla, 54, has been appointed by the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, effective March 2023.

 

* As First Vice President, Shukla, who has an MBA from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mumbai, will be the New York Fed’s second-ranking officer.

 

* Shukla said in the statement that she is honoured to have the opportunity to work for a mission-driven organisation like the New York Fed..

Source : Mint

In the midst of Europe's extraordinary crisis precipitated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, European Commission President "Ursula von der Leyen" topped Forbes' list of the world's 100 most powerful women in 2022. Since 2004, the American business magazine Forbes has published a list of the world's 100 most powerful women.

 

1. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, who is ranked 36, is on the list for the fourth time in a row.

 

2. Roshini Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCLTech, has been ranked 53rd.

 

3. Madhabi Puri Buch, Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), is ranked 54th on the list.

 

4. Soma Mondal, Chairperson of the Steel Authority of India, is ranked 67.

 

5. Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited is ranked 72.

 

6. Falguni Sanjay Nayar, the founder and CEO of the beauty and lifestyle retail company Nykaa, is ranked 89th..

Source : Hindustan Times

Razorpay, India’s Leading Full-Stack Payments and Banking Platform for Businesses today. With the aim to further strengthen digital payments and boost India’s credit penetration, the platform announced its readiness to support Credit Card Transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

With this launch, Razorpay becomes India’s First PG to support Credit Cards on UPI. Today, customers of HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank and Indian Bank will be the first to enjoy the benefits of this innovation. 

 

This offering is in line with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest innovation in the digital space. Now, with RuPay credit cards being enabled on UPI, Razorpay merchants can begin accepting credit card payments on UPI, with minimal changes to their existing setup.

This disruption, which shares Razorpay’s focus on catering to the ever-evolving needs of merchants and delivering greater convenience, is made possible in partnership with Axis bank.

 

At present, UPI enables customers to make transactions through their bank accounts. However, linking credit cards with UPI will ensure that customers will no longer have to carry their credit cards with them at all times for payments.

Approximately 250 million Indians use UPI for their day-to-day transactions, and nearly 50 million users have one or more credit cards. The financial regulator’s move is set to offer customers the best of both worlds – the seamless payment experience of UPI with the benefits of short-term credit and the rewards of cards..

Source : Indian Express

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, and Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur on Tuesday(6th Dec 2022) inaugurated India’s first Drone Skilling and Training Virtual E-Learning Platform in Chennai.

 

* Thakur also launched the first of 1000 planned Drone Centre of Excellence at Garuda Aerospace’s Manufacturing unit in Chennai, and also flagged off Garuda Aerospace’s Drone Yatra, ‘Operation 777’ – meant to educate and demonstrate the efficacy of drones for different agricultural uses across 777 districts in India, an official release said.

 

* “I am extremely delighted to flag off Garuda Aerospace’s Drone Yatra and inaugurate the first Virtual E-Learning platform. I was also amazed to walk through the most advanced and well-equipped manufacturing facility. I can see the vision that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji had, and what the youth of the country is achieving day by day,” Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said while flagging off the Drone Yatra at Agni College of Technology, Chennai.

 

 

* “As we advance, India will require at least 1 lakh drone pilots in 2023, becoming the drone skill hub. ‘Kisan drone’ – drones meant for farming use, is the beginning of the new age developments in the agricultural sector. This will not only impact farmers but also create employment for various others. Garuda Aerospace has given and shall also give thousands of youths an opportunity to grow and make a change,” he said.

 

* Around 2000 students were also present at the event, while over 10,000 students joined the programme virtually from 1000 colleges from 500 districts across India.

 

* Minister Anurag Singh Thakur also witnessed the power of drones in a demonstration and had a brief chat with the team of experts on its benefits. To gain hands-on experience, and understand functionality and technology, he also flew a drone after a quick crash course.

 

* Minister Anurag Singh Thakur also distributed RPTO Certificates to 75 youth who successfully completed drone training and 10 Garuda Aerospace drones to young entrepreneurs who have decided to become drone service providers.

 

* “We are privileged to have our Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur at Garuda Aerospace continuously pushing the bar to help our farmers with effective farming techniques with the help of drone flag off our drone yatra – Operation 777.

* Our drone yatra will help farmers understand more about the technology and give them a better perspective on growing crops. We believe drones are truly revolutionary for our agricultural ecosystem,” Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, of Garuda Aerospace..

Source : The Print

The United Nations COP15 World Conference on Nature begins on Wednesday, 7 December 2022, in Montreal, Canada.

 

Coming on the heels of the recently held 27th Conference of Parties, environmental experts have begun publishing proposals on important agendas that they suggest should be taken into consideration during the conference.

 

What is COP15? It is a UN Biodiversity Conference that will bring together 196 countries that ratified the UN Convention on Biological Diversity which was originally signed in 1996.

 

What is the goal? The goal of this conference is to create a framework to aid countries in environmental conservation and the protection of biodiversity.

 

The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) will address the loss of biodiversity and actions that need to be taken to reverse this problem.

 

Who is hosting? The conference will be hosted by China, despite the fact that the location of the summit is Canada. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in China, the UN decided to relocate the venue for the Summit..

Source : The Quint

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, organized an opening ceremony for the International Year of Millets – 2023 (IYM2023) in Rome, Italy.

* An Indian delegation led by "Sushri Shobha Karandlaje", Minister of State, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare along with Smt. Shubha Thakur, Joint Secretary (Crops), DA&FW and other senior officials were present at the opening ceremony. During the event, India’s ceremonial message by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was conveyed by Sushri Shobha Karandlaje.

 

* Sushri Shobha Karandlaje conveyed PM Modi’s compliments to the United Nations for declaring the Year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. PM, through his message, thanked the global community for supporting India’s proposal to mark the International Year of Millets (IYM). 

 

* It was mentioned that Millets are good for the consumer, cultivator and climate. Millets are nutritious and can be cultivated in semi-arid zones besides consuming less water for irrigation. There is need for diversity on our land and our dining tables. Raising awareness to create ‘Millet Mindfulness’ is an important part of this movement.

 

* Sushri Shobha Karandlaje, in her speech, said nations need to collaborate to develop a sustainable future, and millets will play a pivotal role in the process. There is an opportunity to contribute to the future well-being of mankind by bringing back ancient food grains through IYM.

* India will steer the IYM2023 celebrations worldwide and organise campaigns to promote the cultivation and consumption of Millets, both in India and abroad during the next year.

 

* Sushri Shobha Karandlaje said the IYM2023 will lead India towards Food and Nutritional Security. Millets are considered 'Smart Food' as they are easy to cultivate, mostly organic and contains high nutritional value, she said. 

 

* With PM Modi’s vision of “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” (The World is One Family), the IYM2023 celebration is an opportunity for India to promote Nutri-cereal Millets globally and place them in the world's 'food map'..

Source : PIB

The Third Global Ministerial Conference on Anti-microbial Resistance concluded in Oman 25th Nov 2022, with the issue of The Muscat Manifesto, which aims to accelerate One Health actions on antimicrobial resistance to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

 

The participants, who included more than 30 ministers and representatives of more than 40 countries from around the world in the fields of human, animal and environmental health, adopted the Muscat Manifesto  to commit to working towards achieving three goals.

 

The first of these is to reduce the total amount of antimicrobials used in the agri-food system by at least 30-50 percent from the current level by 2030. This ambitious goal seeks to stimulate solid political action at the national and global levels and unify efforts and commitment. The scope of this target will allow countries the flexibility to adapt it to their contexts, priorities and resources available, to reduce the need for antimicrobials and strengthen animal health and safety systems.

 

The second objective is that antimicrobials of medical importance for human medicine will not be used permanently in animals for non-veterinary medical purposes or in crop production and agri-food systems for non-phytosanitary purposes.

 

The third goal is to ensure that antibiotics included in the Access group make up at least  60 percent of total antibiotic consumption in humans by 2030.

 

The Muscat Manifesto declaration called on the four-way alliance formed by the United Nations, made up of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)..

Source : FM.GOV.OM

The government of India has invested over Rs 5,000 crore in the SBICAP Ventures-backed SWAMIH Investment Fund I, set up under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing(SWAMIH) Projects, taking its final close to Rs 15,530 crore.

* This is amongst the biggest corpus raised by any funds in India in the last few years.

 

* This project aims to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed, brownfield and RERA registered residential projects.

 

* It is sponsored by the finance ministry, and managed by SBICap Ventures Ltd..

Source : Economic Times

K V Shaji has been named Chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). He formerly served as NABARD’s Deputy Managing Director (DMD) till May 21, 2020.

He is an agricultural graduate with a PGDM in Public Policy from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad.

 

He spent 26 years in various roles at Canara Bank. In Canara Bank’s corporate office, he was in charge of strategy, planning, and business development. He also played a role in the merger of Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank.

 

He previously worked for the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Kerala Gramin Bank, the country’s largest regional rural bank. From 2013 until 2017, he served as the Chairman of Kerala Grameen Bank. Shaji KV is a Thiruvananthapuram native.

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar officiated as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday(7th Dec 2022) as the winter session of the Parliament commences.

* The winter session of Parliament which, started today, will continue till December 29, 2022. The session was delayed by a month due to the Gujarat election schedule.

* Some of the bills slated for introduction in the winter session of Parliament are the Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2022.

* The Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill seeks to incorporate certain aspects of the Madrid Registration System. The Madrid system of International Registration for Marks provides a one-stop solution to enterprises for registering their trade-marks and protecting their brands in multiple countries.

 

* The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, seeks to amend the parent Act to make some of the procedures simplified in order to be more accessible to maximum stakeholders..

Source : Times of India