On 14 December 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution at its seventy-seventh session to proclaim 30 March as International Day of Zero Waste day. It highlights both the importance of bolstering waste management globally and the need to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Promoting zero-waste initiatives through this international day can help advance all the goals and targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including Sustainable Development Goal 11 and Sustainable Development Goal 12. These goals address all forms of waste, including food loss and waste, natural resource extraction and electronic waste.
Pankaj Dwivedi has taken charge as an Executive Director at Union Bank of India (UBI).
Following his appointment, the bank now has four Executive Directors (EDs). Besides Dwivedi, the other EDs are – Nitesh Ranjan, Ramasubramanian S and Sanjay Rudra. A Manimekhalai is helming the bank as MD & CEO.
Bank of India said it has received an order from the Income Tax Department, Assessment Unit, pertaining to AY 2018-19, in which a penalty of ₹564.44 crore has been imposed on various disallowances made. In an exchange filing, said it is in the process of filing an appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax, National Faceless Appeal Centre against the said order.
India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by 140 million dollars to touch its all-time high of 642.631 billion dollars during the week ended on the 22nd of March. The data released by the Reserve Bank of India said, this is the fifth consecutive week of a jump in the overall reserves. Gold reserves increased by 347 million dollars to 51.487 billion dollars during the week
The foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, decreased by 123 million dollars to 568.264 billion dollars. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
State-owned Bank of India said its board has given approval to raise Rs 10,000 crore through long-term infra bonds to fund infrastructure projects. The fund would be raised in 2024-25, BoI said in regulatory filing. These bonds help in building roads, bridges, airports, power plants, and telecommunications networks etc & addressing the infrastructure deficit of the country.
Shares of smallcap firm Savita Oil Technologies soared 10 per cent to Rs 454 in intra-day trade as data revealed SBI Mutual Fund (MF) bought nearly 3 per cent stake in the specialty petroleum company via a block deal. Among non-promoter public shareholders, HDFC Mutual fund (via HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund) held 7.4 per cent stake in Savita Oil.
China has launched a new batch of Yunhai-2 meteorological satellites likely for use by its military. The satellites were likely released into a series of orbits following a series of burns by the YZ-3 upper stage. The launch follows a similar mission from 2018 which saw a first group of six Yunhai-2 satellites put into orbit by a Long March 2D and YZ-3 combination.
These satellites are described only briefly as to be used mainly for atmospheric environment detection, space environment monitoring, disaster prevention and reduction, and scientific experiments. The launch of the Yunhai-2 (02) satellites is China’s 13th orbital mission of 2024. China is aiming to launch around 100 times across 2024, with around 70 to be conducted by CASC.
In India, higher educated young people are more likely to be unemployed than those without any schooling, according to the International Labour Organization.
The jobless rate for graduates was 29.1%, almost nine times higher than the 3.4% for those who can't read or write, a new ILO report on India's labor market showed.
The unemployment rate for young people with secondary or higher education was six times higher at 18.4%. While the share of young unemployed Indians - aged 15-29 - dropped to 82.9% in 2022 from 88.6% in 2000, the share of educated youths climbed to 65.7% from 54.2% in the period, the ILO figures show.
NTPC said it has inked a pact with a Japanese agency for sourcing foreign currency loans of USD 200 million (JPY 30 billion or around Rs 1,650 crore). Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a government policy-based financial institution, will provide 60 per cent of the facility amount and the balance amount will be provided by other commercial banks under JBIC.
The agreements have been signed for a JPY 15 billion loan each for NTPC Ltd and NTPC Renewables Energy Ltd (NREL).
The facility has been extended under JBIC's initiative entitled 'Global action for Reconciling Economic growth and Environment preservation' ("GREEN") for projects which ensure the conservation of the global environment.