The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) launched its new initiative BHARATI on the sidelines of the “Food & Beverages Sector Stakeholders Meeting” chaired by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal.
BHARATI, which stands for Bharat’s Hub for Agritech, Resilience, Advancement and Incubation for Export Enablement, has been designed to empower 100 agri-food and agri-tech startups, accelerate their journey, promote innovation and create new export opportunities for young entrepreneurs.
Conceived as APEDA’s vision to achieve $50 billion in agri-food exports for its Scheduled Products by 2030, the initiative marks a significant step to strengthen India’s agricultural and processed food exports.
Starting in September 2025, the inaugural pilot cohort will empower 100 startups, including high-value agri-food producers, technology-driven service providers and innovators. The BHARATI initiative is structured to complement and enhance industry and government-led incubation programmes in the agriculture, food and food processing sectors.
It seeks to drive innovation in high-value categories such as GI-tagged agri-products, organic foods, superfoods, novel processed Indian agri-foods, livestock products and AYUSH products.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the Bihar Rajya Jeevika Nidhi Saakh Sahkari Sangh Limited. The objective of establishing the Jeevika Nidhi is to provide easy access to funds at affordable interest rates to community members associated with Jeevika. All registered cluster-level federations of Jeevika will become the members of the Society.
All registered cluster-level federations of Jeevika will become the members of the Society. For the operation of this institution, the Government of Bihar as well as the Central government will contribute funds.
Entrepreneurship has flourished among women associated with Jeevika’s self-help groups over the years,
leading to the establishment of numerous small enterprises and producer companies in rural areas. However, women entrepreneurs have often been compelled to depend on microfinance institutions charging high interest rates of 18%–24%.
The Jeevika Nidhi has been conceived as an alternative financial system to reduce dependence on MFIs and ensure the timely availability of larger loan amounts at lower interest rates.
The system will operate entirely on a digital platform, ensuring faster and more transparent fund transfers directly into the bank accounts of Jeevika Didis.
To facilitate this, 12,000 community cadres are being equipped with tablets.
This initiative is expected to strengthen entrepreneurship development among rural women and accelerate the growth of community-led enterprises. Around 20 lakh women from across the state of Bihar will witness this event.
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the ‘Semicon India - 2025’, aimed at catalysing India’s Semiconductor ecosystem, at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi.
Semicon India - 2025 is a three-day Conference, from 2nd to 4th September, will focus on advancing a robust, resilient, and sustainable semiconductor ecosystem in India.
It features sessions on the progress of the Semicon India Programme, semiconductor fab and advanced packaging projects, infrastructure readiness, smart manufacturing, innovations in R&D and artificial intelligence, investment opportunities, state-level policy implementation, among others.
Additionally, the event will highlight initiatives under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme, the growth of the startup ecosystem, international cooperation, and the future roadmap for India’s semiconductor sector.
Over 20,750 attendees will participate including more than 2,500 delegates from over 48 countries, over 150 speakers, including over 50 global leaders, and more than 350 exhibitors. It will also include 6 countries Round Table discussions, country pavilions and dedicated pavilions for Workforce Development & Start-Ups among others.
The 14th edition of the India - Thailand joint military Exercise MAITREE-XIV commenced with a grand opening ceremony at Joint Training Node (JTN), Umroi, Meghalaya. The exercise is being conducted from 1st to 14th September 2025.
The bilateral exercise is part of the ongoing military-to-military exchange programme between the two countries and aims to enhance cooperation, interoperability and mutual understanding between the Indian Army and Royal Thai Army. The 13th edition of the exercise was held at Fort Vachiraprakan in Tak Province, Thailand.
The Indian Army contingent comprising 120 personnel, is being represented by a Battalion of the Madras Regiment. The Royal Thai Army contingent comprising 53 personnel is represented by the 1st Infantry Battalion, 14th Infantry Brigade.
Exercise MAITREE, instituted in 2006, is one of the important joint training exercises between India and Thailand.
The Coconut Development Board (CDB) has celebrated the World Coconut Day by launching its newly revised schemes and presenting the Export Excellence Awards at the Adlux Convention Centre, Angamaly in Kerala.
The Government has introduced many schemes for the development of coconut cultivation and industry and the financial assistance under various schemes of the Board has been increased manifold. He urged the farmers to utilise the opportunity in increasing production and productivity of coconut.
Kerala was in the forefront in area under coconut cultivation, production and productivity. But the state lags behind now and we need to work more for regaining our lost glory.
Union Minister of Textiles Shri Giriraj Singh launched Kapas Kisan app, a new mobile application developed by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), under the Ministry of Textiles, to facilitate seamless procurement of cotton from Farmers under the Minimum Support Price scheme.
The New mobile App empowers farmers with self-registration, slot booking and payment tracking. This app provides facility of payment tracking by farmers - bringing greater transparency, convenience and speed to the cotton procurement process.
Key features of the App includes that the farmers can securely register themselves for selling cotton under MSP,
digital scheduling at designated procurement centres to reduce waiting time and crowding, real-time status updates on quality assessment, accepted quantities, payment processing and user-friendly interface with support for multiple Indian languages.
Tamil Nadu signed 23 agreements with various companies in Düsseldorf, Germany, to get investments worth Rs 3,819 crore and to potentially create 9,070 jobs, said the state government.
Chief Minister M K Stalin witnessed the signing of the agreements at the Tamil Nadu Rising Germany Investment Conclave, which was held as part of his week-long tour of Europe.
As many as three agreements were signed earlier as part of the conclave: Knorr-Bremse (investment of Rs 2,000 crore that will create 3,500 jobs), Nordex Group (Rs 1000 crore; 2,500 jobs), and ebm-papst (Rs 201 crore; 250 jobs). Total German investments committed during Stalin’s visit to Germany amount to Rs 7,020 crore and are expected to create 15,320 jobs.
Several German companies in Tamil Nadu agreed to reinvest and expand operations, underscoring their faith in the state’s “unmatched industrial ecosystem”, said the statement.
IndiaBonds, a Sebi-registered broker and licensed online bond platform provider, on Tuesday said it has entered into a strategic alliance with Upstox to enable retail investors to avail a wide range of bond investments on the brokerage platform.
Bonds are a fixed-income investment instrument offering regular, passive returns to investors looking for stability and steady growth in their portfolios.
Through this integration, Upstox's over 1.3 crore retail investors can now access IndiaBonds' offerings on its platform, boosting retail participation in Indian bond markets.
All transactions will be executed on IndiaBonds in compliance with Sebi's Online Bond Platform Providers norms and regulatory framework.
Shrini Viswanath, Co-Founder of Upstox.
Vishal Goenka, Co-Founder of IndiaBonds.com
The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has raised $500 million through dollar bonds from international investors at the tightest-ever spreads over US Treasuries. This comes after India’s sovereign rating was upgraded a few weeks ago by international rating agency Standard & Poor’s to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’.
The final pricing guidance for SBI’s five-year dollar bond was set at 75 basis points (bps) above the five-year US Treasury yield, translating into a coupon rate of 4.5 per cent. This is tighter than the T+82 bps at which the state-owned lender raised $500 million in November 2024.
The initial pricing guidance was T+105 bps over the US Treasury yield, but SBI managed to compress the spreads by 30 bps to bring the final pricing to T+75 bps, said sources aware of the development.
The order book for the issuance exceeded $1.1 billion across 85 accounts. The notes are expected to carry final ratings of ‘BBB’ and ‘BBB-’ from S&P and Fitch, respectively.
Earlier, in January 2024, SBI had raised $600 million from global investors by selling five-year paper at T+117 bps over US Treasuries.
Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, chairman of SBI
Fintech major PhonePe has rolled out a Loans against Mutual Funds (LAMF) product on its platform in partnership with DSP Finance, a non-banking financial company backed by the DSP Group.
The product offers users a secured credit limit of up to Rs 2 crore. Customers are required to pledge their mutual fund units as collateral.
Their portfolios remain invested, and systematic investment plans (SIPs) can continue without interruption.
Unlike traditional loans, there are no monthly principal repayments or equated monthly instalments (EMIs), since users only need to pay interest on the amount they withdraw, it added.
Users must complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process before availing themselves of the product.
PhonePe has more than 640 million registered users and over 45 million registered merchants.
At present, PhonePe’s portfolio includes the distribution of financial products such as insurance, lending and wealth, alongside consumer tech businesses.
Kohima, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Aizawl, Gangtok, Itanagar and Mumbai have emerged as the safest cities in the country for women, while Patna, Jaipur, Faridabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Srinagar and Ranchi were ranked the lowest, according to the National Annual Report and Index on Women’s Safety (NARI) 2025.
The nationwide index released, based on a survey of 12,770 women across 31 cities, placed the national safety score at 65%, categorising cities as “much above”, “above”, “below” or “much below” this benchmark.
Kohima and other top-ranked cities were associated with stronger gender equity, civic participation, policing and women-friendly infrastructure.
The Competition Commission of India has approved the acquisition of certain share capital and voting rights of YES Bank by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
The proposed combination relates to the acquisition of share capital and votingrights of YES Bank by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).
SMBC, a Japan-based commercial bank, is a wholly-owned subsidiary and a core operating entity of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. SMBC is a foreign bank in India, with branches in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and an offshore branch in GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
YES Bank, a public listed company, is a private sector bank engaged in providing a range of banking and financial services. It is a full-service bank offering a wide array of products, services and technology-driven digital offerings, catering to retail, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises as well as corporate clients.
