The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched the City Beauty Competition portal, inviting all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across India to participate in the competition via an online process. The competition is aimed at recognizing and encouraging the transformational efforts made by cities and wards across India to create beautiful, innovative, and inclusive public spaces. The competition will be judged based on five broad pillars, accessibility, amenities, activities, aesthetics, and ecology. The selected wards will be felicitated at the city and state levels and under four categories: waterfronts, green spaces, tourist/heritage spaces, and market/commercial places. The last date for participating in the City Beauty Competition is July 15, 2023.
The 7th edition of India and United Kingdom (UK) bilateral training exercise Ajeya Warrior 2023 began at Salisbury Plains, UK. The exercise aims to build positive military relations and to promote the ability to operate together while undertaking company-level sub-conventional operations in urban and semi-urban environments. The military exercise is held in cooperation between the Indian Army and the British Army and will further improve the bilateral relations between the two nations.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data on Sectoral Deployment of bank Credit-March 2023, scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) reported a robust credit growth of 15.4% in FY23 as compared to the 9.7% in FY22. The growth was driven by loans to the services sector, personal loans, and agriculture and allied activities. The data for the same was collected by RBI from 40 select SCBs accounting for about 93% of the total non-food credit deployed by all SCBs.
India’s largest grain commerce platform, Arya.ag, has partnered with Shivalik Small Finance Bank (SFB) to lend farmers and Farmers Producers Organisations through offering loans via Shivalik SFB under warehouse receipt finance. The collaboration aims to promote equitable growth in agriculture and offer more opportunities for the smallest stakeholders to access financial resources and drive positive change in the agriculture industry. The partnership will focus on small and underserved segments through the delivery of digitally focused, affordable products and differentiated customer experience.
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual Report 2022, Pakistan received loans of USD 5.58 billion, making it the largest recipient of ADB-funded programs/projects in 2022. The ADB has disbursed a total of over USD 31.8 billion to 40 countries in 2022. The impact of extreme floods in Pakistan that affected 33 million people was also highlighted in the report. To address this issue, the ADB committed USD 3.7 billion from the program in 2022, which includes essential food assistance for people in need, particularly women and girls in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
NLC India Limited (NLCIL), a central public sector undertaking (CPSU) under the Ministry of Coal, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Nature Conservancy Centre India (TNC India) to collaborate on research work pertaining to the repurposing of mined-out lands for setting up of Renewable Energy (RE) projects. The collaboration aims to build on India’s CoP-26 pledge to transition to a low-carbon economy and focus on increased use of renewable energy sources.
Dr. Mishri Bhatt, a Sanskrit scholar, received the Young Humanitarian Award for 2023. He was honored for his contribution to the conservation and promotion of the Sanskrit language and culture. He is also the founder of the Bhatt Foundation, which works towards the revival and promotion of ancient Indian languages and literature.