Today's Topics

   •  Banking/Finance
   •  India
   •  Appointments
   •  Sports


Banking/Finance –



IFC to invest $50 m in YES Bank’s Green Bonds

  • International Finance Corporation (IFC), Washington, plans to invest up to $50 million in Green Bonds to be issued by YES Bank.
  • In addition, IFC will also give a $50-million long-term financing line to the private sector bank for on lending to women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises.  In a project report, IFC said the financing will flow to target customers of YES Bank in different parts of India.




Ranjan Dhawan given additional charge as MD & CEO of Bank of Baroda


  • The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has entrusted Ranjan Dhawan, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda (BoB), additional charge of the Managing Director & CEO of the public sector bank for a period of three months.
  • Dhawan took additional charge as MD & CEO of BoB on February 27. The appointment is for a period of three months with effect from the date of issue of the Cabinet’s order (February 26, 2014) or till the date of appointment of regular incumbent or till further orders, whichever is the earliest.



World Bank Approves USD 500 Mn Loan for Indian MSMEs

  • World Bank today approved USD 500 million loan for its MSME Growth Innovation and Inclusive Finance Project to improve access to finance for Indian small and medium enterprises in manufacturing and services sector.
  • The Project will support MSMEs through direct financing by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) across three components. These include support to startup debt financing and risk capital as well as support to service and manufacturing sector financing models.



Wipro partners World Economic Forum for quantifying cyber risk

  • Country’s third largest software services firm Wipro has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to develop a cyber value-at-risk (VAR) framework that will allow organisations to assess threat landscape, the nature of assets needed protection and quality of defences.
  • As per the Forum’s estimates, if the sophistication of attacks keeps ahead of defensive capabilities, the resultant new cyber regulations and restrictive policies could hurt innovation by about $3 trillion by 2020.
  • Consequently, business leaders and policy makers have highlighted the need for a framework that would aid them in making better cyber security decisions, Wipro said in a statement.




Ola acquires TaxiForSure for $200 million


  • Ola on Monday acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million in a cash and equity deal, signaling consolidation in the $11 billion taxi industry.
  • Ola and TaxiForSure will continue to operate as separate entities.
  • Ola has been funded by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital and most recently, Softbank, over its four rounds of fund-raising. Investors in TaxiForSure are Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.
  • Ola, which is already the market leader in the personal transportation space with over 1-lakh vehicles on its platform. TaxiForSure is currently in 47 cities with over 15,000 vehicles registered on its platform.




India –



Defence Acquisition Council approved buying of 38 Pilatus trainer aircraft for Indian Air Force

  • Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on 28 February 2015 approved buying of 38 more Pilatus trainer aircraft from Switzerland at a cost of 1500 crore rupees. These trainer aircraft will train Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilots.
  • Besides, DAC appointed Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) as the lead agency to build 12 Mine Counter Measure Vessel (MCMV) for the Navy. The decision was taken by DAC meeting chaired by Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.



K.K. Sharma to Be the Next Chief Secretary of Delhi

  • Senior IAS officer K K Sharma will be the next Chief Secretary of Delhi, a choice that is also acceptable to the AAP government.
  • Home Minister Rajnath Singh today approved the appointment of Sharma, currently serving as Chief Secretary of Delhi, to be the Delhi government's top bureaucrat, a Home Ministry spokesperson said.
  • The proposal for the appointment of Sharma, a 1983 batch Union Territory cadre IAS officer, to the top bureaucratic post in the city government was as per rules, he said.



Citizenship Bill Passed by the Lok Sabha

  • A Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, one of the six items on which government had issued ordinances, was today passed by the Lok Sabha.
  • The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2015 seeks to remove disparity between Persons of Indian Origin cardholders and Overseas Citizens of India cardholders.




Appointments –



Jagmohan Dalmiya unanimously elected as President of BCCI


  • Jagmohan Dalmiya on 2 March 2015 was unanimously elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at Annual General meeting held in Chennai.
  • Besides, five Vice Presidents were also elected. They are Andhra's Gokaraju Gangaraju (south zone), Assam's Goutam Roy (east), ML Nehru of Jammu and Kashmir (north zone), CK Khanna (Delhi, central zone) and TC Matthews (Kerala, west zone).



Arun Singh named new Indian Ambassador to US, to take charge after PM Modi's visit to France


  • India has named Arun Singh, currently its Ambassador to France, as its next top envoy to the US and has send an agrement in this regard to the American government.
  • A 1979-batch IFS officer, Singh will be replacing S Jaishankar, who was appointed as Foreign Secretary on January 28 this year. According to officials, government was looking at Mohan Kumar, Indian Ambassador to Bahrain as a possible replacement of Singh.
  • India has already sent an agrement to the US government naming Singh as its next Ambassador and was awaiting a response from the Obama administration.



Ficci ropes in Arvind Virmani as Economic Mentor


  • Noted economist, Arvind Virmani, who served as the country’s Chief Economic Advisor and Principal Advisor in the Planning Commission, will now mentor Ficci’s public policy & economic work.
  • With his illustrious career as an advisor to Government of India at the highest levels, including as Principal Advisor, Planning Commission and Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Virmani brings with him rich and invaluable experience that would help Ficci strengthen its work in the area of economic and public policy, he added.



Baldev Sharma appointed as chairman of National Book Trust

  • The government on Monday appointed former Panchajanya editor Baldev Sharma as the new chairman of the National Book Trust, cutting short the term of incumbent A. Sethumadhavan — better known by his pen name `Sethu’ — by six months.
  • Officially, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) was filling a vacancy that fell open on February 25. According to sources, Mr. Sethumadhavan had been called to the Ministry on February 25 and told by a joint secretary to put in his papers as the government wanted to appoint someone else in his position.



Sports –


Rafael Nadal of Spain won the Argentina Tennis Open

  • Spanish tennis ace, Rafael Nadal on 2 March 2015 won the Argentina Open title of Tennis. In the summit clash, Nadal defeated Juan Monaco of Argentina in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 in Buenos Aires.
  • This was the 65th career title for Nadal. As a result, Nadal moved onto fifth place in the Open era all-time list led by Jimmy Connors of the US who had won 109 titles.



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