The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is celebrating its 65th Raising Day on May 07, 2024. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a road construction executive
force, partly integral to and in support of the Army. It started operations in May
1960 with just two projects-Project Tusker (renamed Project Vartak) in the east
and Project Beacon in the west.
In 2023-24, the BRO completed a total of 125 infrastructure projects worth Rs 3,611 crore. This includes the construction of Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh on Balipara-Chardwar-Tawang Road. The BRO will soon commence the construction on 4.10-km long Shinkun La Tunnel. Once done, this tunnel will become the world’s highest tunnel at 15,800 ft bypassing Mila Tunnel in China
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of additional shares in Sikkim Urja Limited (formerly Teesta Urja Limited) by Greenko Energies Private Limited.
Sikkim Urja Ltd is a special purpose vehicle incorporated for the purpose of the implementation of the 1,200 megawatt hydropower project in North Sikkim.
Greenko Energies is a limited liability company incorporated in India. It is an (indirectly) wholly-owned subsidiary of Greenko Mauritius. Greenko Mauritius is wholly-owned by Greenko Energy Holdings (GEH), a company incorporated in Mauritius, which is the holding company of the Greenko group of companies.
Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) India announced that it has signed a pact with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), GIFT City, Gandhinagar, to promote GIFT IFSC as a 'Global Finance Hub'. FPSB India and IFSCA aim to enhance the financial market ecosystem and nurture skilled professionals for GIFT City's expanding financial workforce.
Both organisations will jointly organise international and domestic events to raise awareness and establish GIFT IFSC as a 'Global Finance Hub', the statement added.
Some key highlights of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) include talent pipeline support, ecosystem development, promotional activities and research collaboration.
Setu, a leading Indian fintech company and part of the Pine Labs Group, unveiled Sesame, India’s first Large Language Model (LLM) specifically designed for the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector. Developed in collaboration with indigenous AI research firm Sarvam AI, the company said this marks a "ChatGPT moment" in financial services.
Sesame leverages the rich data ecosystem enabled by India's digital infrastructure to power various features. These include improved credit underwriting, fraud detection, loan monitoring, upsell or cross-sell, and personal finance advisory. Setu and Sarvam AI have together created Sesame to be both domain- and region-specific by training it on custom data relevant to BFSI.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Go Digit General Insurance for non-disclosure of a change in the conversion ratio of compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS). The company had not furnished the full particulars of the revision to the regulator, violating Section 26 of the Insurance Act.
The insurance regulator had earlier issued a show cause notice after noticing that Go Digit had changed its conversion ratio of 63,00,000 CCPS issued by Go Digit Infoworks Services Pvt Ltd (GDISPL), the parent company of the general insurer, to FAL Corporation, owned by Fairfax Group. It was changed from "1 CCPS for 2.324 equity shares" to "2.324 CCPS for each equity share.
Previously, Irdai had rejected the conversion of CCPS into shares because it would have resulted in GDISPL, the holding company of Digit Insurance, becoming a subsidiary of the Fairfax group, which is not allowed by regulations.
In March, Go Digit General Insurer received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise funds worth Rs 1,250 crore through an initial public offering (IPO), which will be used to augment the company’s capital base, maintain solvency levels, and fulfil general corporate purposes.
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG), said it has invested ₹1,300 crore in its wholly-owned subsidiary SMFG India Credit Co. Ltd./SMICC (formerly Fullerton India Credit Co. Ltd.) via rights issue to fuel growth.
GetVantage, a start-up providing revenue-based finance (RBF) to emerging businesses, has secured a non-banking financial company (NBFC) license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), becoming the first RBF and alternative funding platform in the country to do so. GetGrowth Capital, the NBFC arm of GetVantage will manage the lending operations.
GetVantage, which is backed by investors including Chiratae Ventures, Varanium, InCred, DMI, and Japanese Investors like Sony and DI, will capitalise the NBFC with Rs 50 crore and aims to raise a cumulative amount of Rs 200 crore to scale its lending operations.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank said that Reserve bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Sanjeev Nautiyal as the managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank for the period of 3 years with effect from 1 July 2024.
He will join the Bank much prior to his taking charge as the MD&CEO and be designated as the President in the interim.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank was established as a non banking financial services company in the year 2005 with the mission to provide a full range of financial services to the economically poor who were not adequately served by financial institutions.
DBS Bank India has been recognised as a 'Best Employer' 2023 by Kincentric for the fourth consecutive year. The award acknowledges organisations with exceptional employee experiences and a strong culture of engagement.
In 2023, DBS Bank India established a gender-agnostic Leadership Diversity Council as the apex governing body for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agenda
The Kincentric Best Employers study is one of the most respected annual studies with a robust evaluation methodology designed to understand alignment across business objectives, people processes, and employee experience.
Fship, a tech-driven logistics platform, has partnered with India Post, a government-operated postal service. This collaboration aims to benefit direct-to-consumer (D2C) start-ups, small and medium businesses (SMBs), and MSMEs across India by enhancing last-mile delivery services for e-commerce products.
By partnering with India Post, Fship aims to expands its reach nationwide, including in remote areas where India Post is the exclusive courier service. The Indian logistics market is set to grow at 8.8 percent annually to reach $484.43 billion by 2029, while the e-commerce market is expected to hit $18.81 trillion by the same year, with a 15.80 percent CAGR.
Sebi came out with a framework for administration and supervision of research analysts and investment advisers, whereby a stock exchange can be authorised to oversee and manage such entities. Sebi said a stock exchange should be granted recognition as RAASB (Research Analyst Administration and Supervisory Body) and IAASB (Investmt Adviser Administration and Supervisory Body
To be recognised as a RAASB and IAASB, a stock exchange must have been operational for at least 15 years, possess a net worth of at least Rs 200 crore, need to have nationwide terminals and investor service centres in 20 cities and provide a grievance redressal mechanism, including online dispute resolution.
RAASB and IAASB need to constitute an internal committee to oversee the activities of administration and supervision of research analysts (RAs) and investment advisers (IAs).
Sebi said that RAASB/IAASB have specific responsibilities, including registration, enforcement, and disciplinary actions.
India is finally set to have a made-in-India microcontroller chip powering electronic devices. Mindgrove Technologies, incubated by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation and IIT Madras Incubation Cell, and supported by Peak XV Partners, has launched Secure IoT, India’s debut high-performance SoC (system on chip).
A system-on-chip (SoC) combines many electronic parts into one chip, like a mini-computer. It goes into the printed circuit board (PCB) and is used in various devices, making them smaller and more efficient. With Secure IoT, Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) can integrate an Indian SoC into their products and help reduce the cost of their feature-rich devices.
Reporters Without Borders (RWB), also known as Reporters sans frontières (RSF) in French, is an international non-profit organisation that strives to protect the right to freedom of information. The organisation has consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the International Organisation of the Francophonie.
India has been ranked 159 – two ranks above last year – in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). It had ranked 161 in 2023. Additionally, it also highlights the challenges that journalists face, thereby promoting the freedom of the press and encouraging governments to take action to protect journalists and their work.
The top 10 countries with the best press freedom 2024:
Rank Country Global Score
1 Norway 91.89
2 Denmark 89.6
3 Sweden 88.32
4 Netherlands 87.73
5 Finland 86.55
6 Estonia 86.44
7 Portugal 85.9
8 Ireland 85.59
9 Switzerland 84.01
10 Germany 83.84
World Press Freedom Index 2024: The top 10 countries with the worst press freedom
Rank Country Global Score
180 Eritrea 16.64
179 Syria 17.41
178 Afghanistan 19.09
177 North Korea 20.66
176 Iran 21.3
175 Turkmenistan 22.01
174 Vietnam 22.31
173 Bahrain 23.21
172 China 23.36
171 Myanmar 24.41
By resolution of 22 November 2004, the UN General Assembly declared 8–9 May as a time of remembrance and reconciliation while recognizing that Member States may have individual days of victory. The resolution urges 'Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and individuals' to pay tribute to the victims of World War II.
