Debjani Ghosh takes charge as new MAIT President
- Information technology hardware industry body, MAIT (the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology) has appointed Debjani Ghosh, vice-president sales and marketing group and managing director of Intel Corporation, South Asia, as the new President.
- She is the first woman President of MAIT in its 32 years of history. She succeeds Amar Babu, chief operation officer at Lenovo, Asia Pacific and chairman, Lenovo India.
- Ghosh played a key role in setting up Intel’s education programme for the Asia Pacific region. Apart from MAIT, she also chairs the IT Committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
India to surpass China’s population by 2022
- India will surpass China to become the most populous nation in the world by 2022, six years sooner than previously forecast, and the country is projected to retain the top spot till 2100, the UN has said.
- The ‘World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision’ launched at the UN Headquarters in New York projected that within seven years, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China.
United-Nations
- Currently, the population of China is approximately 1. 38 billion compared with 1.31 billion in India. Around and after 2022, India’s population is projected to continue growing for several decades to 1.5 billion in 2030 and 1.7 billion in 2050, while the population of China is expected to remain fairly constant until the 2030s, after which it is expected to slightly decrease.
- According to the forecast issued in 2013, India was expected to surpass China’s population by 2028 but the latest report predicts that India will overtake its Asian rival six years early by 2022.
- India’s life expectancy at birth will also improve over the next decades, growing from 71.7 years in 2025-2030 to 75.9 years in 2045-2050 and 84.6 years in 2095-2100.
- The report said during 2015-2050, half of the world’s population growth is expected to be concentrated in nine countries – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, US, Indonesia and Uganda – listed according to the size of their contribution to the total growth.
Govt clears seven FDI proposals worth Rs 981.15 cr
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)- Government has cleared seven foreign direct investment proposals. The proposals worth 981.15 crore rupees have been cleared by the Finance Ministry following recommendations by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, FIPB.
- Hathway Cable and Data Com Ltd have got approval for increasing foreign investment limit for Foreign Institutional Investors, FIIs and Foreign Portfolio Investors, FPIs, among others.
- Hyderabad-based Celon Laboratories too has got permission for downstream investment in a brown field pharma company. The investment has been estimated at Rs 16 crore.
- Cyprus-based Lalea Trading, related to real estate, has been granted permission for repatriation of investment. The clearance will lead to FDI outflow of about Rs 23.27 crore.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) offers a single window clearance for applications on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India that are under the approval route. The sectors under automatic route do not require any prior approval from FIPB and are subject to only sectoral laws.
Govt to extend e-Tourist Visa facility to China, Hong Kong & Macau
- With the inclusion of these countries and territories the total number of countries and territories covered under the e-Tourist Visa scheme will go up from 74 to 77.
E-Tourist Visa scheme launched by the Government in November last year will be extended to more countries in a phased manner. Under this scheme, tourists with e-Tourist Visas can arrive at nine designated airports in Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai & Trivandrum. Since the launch of the scheme, about two lakh e-Tourist Visas have been issued to nationals of different countries.
Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) launches mobile banking app for ‘Kotak Bharat’ ‘un-banked’ regions
Kotak Bharat
- Seeking to provide mobile banking services to customers in the remotest of regions, Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) launched a mobile banking app ‘Kotak Bharat’ which requires no internet connectivity.
- The ‘inclusive digital banking’ app is primarily targetted to benefit customers in the under-banked and un-banked regions, who can access its services in their preferred language.
- It is currently available in Hindi and English. The app would also be available in Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada in about a month, followed by other Indian languages.
- The app is Android-based. It works on the existing SMS banking keyword process platform. The customers could download the app on their registered mobile number without any separate registration process.
- Besides, the app facilitates other value added propositions, including recharging mobile/DTH services, linking Aadhaar number to the account, finding Kotak ATMs & branches, applying for Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana etc.
Kalyani group ties up with Rafael to make Spike missiles
- In a move that will further deepen India-Israel strategic cooperation, Rafael of Israel and India’s Kalyani Group are forming a manufacturing Joint Venture (JV) to produce Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) in India and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) will be the system integrator, informed sources told The Hindu.
- India’s Kalyani Group and Israel’s Rafael have partnered to produce Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) in India.
- In this regard both the entities have formed a manufacturing Joint Venture (JV) and this move is considered to deepen India-Israel strategic cooperation.
- The manufacturing JV will be as per the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) guidelines which means that the 51% ownership stake in JV will hold by the Kalyani Group.
- The FDI deal was worth 3,200 crore rupees and comprises order of 300 plus launchers and 8,000 plus Spike ATGM missiles.
Spike is a third generation, fire-and-forget, man-portable, anti-tank missile. In all, about 40,000 missiles are required to equip the Army’s 382 infantry battalions and 44 mechanised regiments.Designed and developed by Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
