Topic: Banking System
1. Canara Bank has entered into partnership with Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) Kerala to launch skill loans.
- Students pursuing skill training programmes of ASAP Kerala can take loans from ₹5,000 to ₹1.5 lakh.
- Students who are pursuing skill training programmes offered by Central or State government-recognised agencies can also take skill loans.
- The loans can be taken by the students of those agencies which conduct National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) or National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) courses.
- The skill loans will be provided to students without any collateral. They will have a repayment period of 3 to 7 years.
- Canara Bank:
- It was founded in July 1906. It is headquartered in Bengaluru.
- Lingam Venkat Prabhakar is its CEO.
- Recently, the government has merged Syndicate bank with Canara bank.
Topic: Reports and Indices
2. Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) increased to 57.9 in April 2022.
- It stood at 53.6 in March. Services PMI in April 2022 has shown fastest increase since November 2022.
- Services sector contributes 54% of Gross Value Added (GVA) of economy of India.
- S&P Global compiles Services PMI. Services PMI is compiled from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 400 service sector companies.
- Consumer (excluding retail), transport, information, communication, finance, insurance, real estate, and business services are covered.
Topic: Infrastructure and Energy
3. The number of Sagarmala projects increased to 1,537 and capital expenditure outlay increased to ₹6.5 trillion.
- The number of Sagarmala projects was earlier 802 at the investment of ₹5.48 trillion.
- The investment target for Sagarmala projects has been increased by Rs 1 trillion to Rs 6.5 trillion.
- 735 projects have been added new following a meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee.
- As per Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, government will carry out 567 projects worth ₹58,700 crore.
- Government will take these projects for the development of coastal districts across the country.
- Rest 168 projects worth ₹41,300 crore are mainly for improving connectivity.
- 202 projects worth Rs 99,281 crore have been completed till now.
- Over 200 projects worth Rs 2.12 trillion will be completed in coming 2 years.
- Sagarmala:
- It is a port-led development programme. It was launched in March 2015.
- Its objective is to achieve port modernization & new port development, port connectivity enhancement, port-led industrialization and coastal community development.
Topic: Appointments
4. RBI has approved appointment of M Narayanan as part-time Chairman of the City Union Bank.
- The appointment has been approved for the period of two years with effect from May 4, 2022.
- Narayanan became independent director in the Board of the City Union Bank on May 3, 2016.
- Narayanan replaces R Mohan as part-time Chairman of the City Union Bank.
- City Union Bank is an Indian bank headquartered in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. It is a Private Sector Bank.
Topic: Banking System
5. Indian Banks’ Association has said that banks have started work to operationalize 75 DBUs in 75 Districts by July 2022.
- The banks that have started work include all the Public Sector Banks, ten Private Banks and one Small Finance Bank.
- In Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister announced that 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) will be set up in 75 districts to commemorate 75 years of independence.
- In its guidelines for DBUs, RBI has allowed Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) with past digital banking experience to open DBUs in Tier 1 to Tier 6 centres.
- DBUs of banks will be treated as Banking Outlets (BOs). A DBU is a specialised fixed point business unit/hub.
- It has certain minimum digital infrastructure for delivery of digital banking products and services.
Topic: Corporates/Companies
6. BPCL Kochi Refinery has won IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Award – 2021.
- BPCL Kochi Refinery won the award in the Manufacturing Category.
- IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Award (RBNQA) was started by IMC Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Mumbai, in 1996.
- It gives special recognition to performance excellence in Indian organizations.
- BPCL Kochi Refinery is located in Kochi, Kerala. In terms of production capacity, it is largest public sector refinery in India.
Topic: Miscellaneous
7. Inaugural session of JITO Connect 2022 virtually addressed by PM Modi.
- JITO Connect 2022 is a three-day global summit that is being organized from May 6-8 by Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO) in Pune.
- The theme of this summit is ‘Together Towards Tomorrow’.
- On this occasion, Prime Minister gave a new dimension to the word EARTH.
- E means environment where one should encourage the practices that protect the environment.
- A means agriculture and natural farming, farming technology and food processing sector.
- R means recycling and focusing on the circular economy.
- T means technology for all and H means health care.
- Jain International Trade Organisation is a global body connecting Jains worldwide.
Topic: Appointments
8. Archana Gulati has been appointed as India public policy head by Google.
- She worked as a joint secretary of digital communications at NITI Aayog till March 2021.
- She also worked as a senior official at Competition Commission of India between 2014 and 2016.
- Last year, Rajiv Aggarwal was hired by Meta Platforms Inc as its head of policy.
- In 2019, Anand Jha joined Walmart as India public policy officer.
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