The Reserve Bank of India and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping will create a platform to enable instant cross-border retail payments, with the domestic central bank working with individual member states to set up the systems.
The platform is expected to go live by 2026.
In a statement, RBI said it has joined the Project Nexus, a multilateral international initiative to enable instant cross-border retail payments by interlinking domestic fast payments systems (FPSs).
An agreement to this effect was signed by BIS and central banks of the founding countries -- Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Bank of Thailand (BOT), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) -- and RBI on Sunday in Basel, Switzerland.
Indonesia, which has been involved from the early stages, continues to be involved as a special observer.
Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani on Monday assumed the charge as the Vice Chief of Army Staff.
Before this, Lt General Raja was tenanting the appointment of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Central Command based at Lucknow.
The General Officer was commissioned into The Garhwal Rifles in December 1985. He graduated from the prestigious National Defence Academy.
The International Sports Press Association (AIPS) established World Sports Journalists Day on July 2, commemorating the formation day of AIPS as an organisation in 1994 during the Summer Olympics in Paris.
This day is marked to honour the outstanding work of journalists in the field of sports journalism.
India’s Jyothi Yarraji won Gold medal in the Women’s 100m Hurdles at the National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Panchkula.
Jyothi won with a timing of 13.06 seconds. While in Men’s 110m Hurdles, Tejas Shirse won the Gold medal with a timing of 13.54 seconds. Both Jyothi and Tejas are most likely to qualify for Paris Olympics via World rankings.
Every year on July 1, National Postal Worker Day is commemorated to recognise the contributions of all individuals within the postal service, from clerks and drivers transporting letters to distant locations, to delivery partners.
India has achieved a significant milestone in military technology with the development and certification of SEBEX 2, a cutting-edge explosive formulation.
Certified by the Indian Navy, SEBEX 2 marks a leap forward in explosive power, boasting a TNT equivalence of 2.01.
This places it among the most potent non-nuclear explosives globally, aimed at revolutionizing various munitions without compromising on weight.
Developed by Economic Explosives Limited (EEL) under the Make in India initiative, SEBEX 2 utilizes a high-melting explosive (HMX) composition.
Developed by Economic Explosives Limited (EEL) under the Make in India initiative, SEBEX 2 utilizes a high-melting explosive (HMX) composition. This formulation significantly enhances the lethality of warheads, aerial bombs, artillery shells, and other munitions.
As of June 27, 2024, Borneo elephants are classified as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List due to a significant decline in their population and habitat. Only about 1,000 individuals remain, with 400 being breeding adults. Over 60% of their forest habitat has been lost in the last four decades due to logging and commercial oil palm plantations.
Borneo elephants, found in Sabah (Malaysia) and Kalimantan (Indonesia), are a unique subspecies of Asian elephants, known scientifically as Elephas maximus borneensis. They are distinguished by their smaller size and genetic distinctiveness from other elephant populations.
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh launched two Geoportals namely ‘Bhuvan Panchayat (Ver. 4.0) Portal” for rural land records management and “National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM Ver. 5.0)” developed by Indian Space research Organization (ISRO) .
These latest geospatial tools are meant for visualisation and planning to provide high resolution satellite imagery of 1:10K scale for different locations across the entire country.
The Indian Army got its 30th Chief in Upendra Dwivedi as Manoj Pande superannuated on 30 June. Pande handed over the command of the Indian Army to General Upendra Dwivedi, who took over his new appointment today. The 30th Chief of the Indian Army, who hails from the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles regiment.
State Bank of India (SBI) has launched “MSME -Sahaj”, a web-based digital business loans solution for MSMEs’ (micro, small and medium enterprises) invoice financing.
With the new web-based solution, the Bank’s customers can avail finance against their Goods and Service Tax (GST) registered sales invoices of up to ₹1 lakh in less than 15 minutes.
The purpose of the product is to provide “on tap” short-term credit for working capital needs to MSME units who are part of the GST regime
India received $120 billion in remittances in 2023, which is almost twice as $66 billion received by Mexico during the same period, the World Bank said in a report.China ($50 billion), the Philippines ($39 billion), and Pakistan ($27 billion) figure in top five countries' list of remittances recipients as released by the World Bank.
SEBI has increased the limit for the basic service demat account to Rs 10 lakhs from the current Rs 2 lakhs to encourage small investors to participate in the securities market. The new guidelines will be effective from September 1, 2024, per the SEBI’s circular.
This move is expected to support the growth of demat accounts, although the rate of increase may be gradual. The basic service demat account (BSDA) is a simplified version of a regular demat account. SEBI introduced this facility in 2012 to reduce the demat charges for investors with small portfolios and to promote their financial inclusion.
Bandhan Bank has announced that it has launched a facility to collect direct taxes online from its customers and non-customers across India.
The Bank is now live for collecting Direct Taxes through the TIN 2.0 Income Tax platform. As an Agency Bank appointed by the RBI, Bandhan Bank also accepts offline payments of direct taxes through over 1700 bank branches.
Bank of India (BOI) has received multiple awards in recognition of its outstanding performance in various aspects of banking and financial inclusion.
BOI has been felicitated with the Atal Pension Yojana Annual Award for FY2023-24 by PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Awards) for the second consecutive year.
Additionally, the Bank has been awarded the APY Ultimate Champions Cup while three of its branches have been recognized among the top five branches across India.