Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah E-Launches Onboarding of Cooperatives On GeM Portal
On August 9, 2022, Union Minister Amit Shah, Ministry of Cooperation, e-launched the onboarding of cooperatives on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal in New Delhi, Delhi. The programme was organized by the Ministry of Cooperation, the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), and GeM.
A total of 589 cooperatives have been selected as being eligible for onboarding on GeM.
Significance
i. On August 9, 2022, another historic day in India took place, especially for the cooperative sector, as cooperative societies in India were granted access to GeM.
ii.According to the Gandhian principles embodied in the Indian Constitution’s Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP),Article 43 states that: The State shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an individual or co-operative basis in rural areas.
Key Developments in the Cooperative Sector
i. On June 1, 2022, the Union Cabinet approved the decision allowing cooperatives to be registered as buyers on the GeM platform.
ii.All qualified cooperatives with a turnover and deposits of Rs. 100 crore would be able to place orders on the GeM portal in the first phase.
About the Ministry of Cooperation:
Union Minister – Amit Shah (Gandhi Nagar Constituency, Gujarat)
Paytm Partners with Piramal Finance to Offer Loans
Paytm has partnered with Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited(PCHFL) for expanding the distribution of merchant loans to the small cities and towns of India.
Merchants can avail loans of up to Rs. 10 lakh with a tenure of 6 months to 24 months.
Process to avail loan:
i.Merchants can avail loan by tapping the ‘Business Loan’ icon on the Paytm for Business App home screen.
ii.Merchants can give consent to give Know Your Customer (KYC) details from the CKYC to complete the loan application process after selecting the loan amount, total payable, daily instalment and tenure.
iii.Personal details like Permanent Account Number (PAN), date of birth, email address will be confirmed and later credit score will be checked for loan eligibility and KYC details will be verified.
iv.After the verification process, the loan amount will be disbursed instantly to the merchant account.
About Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited(PCHFL):
Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited, (formerly known as Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited), a wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Limited and is registered as a housing finance company with National Housing Bank (NHB) and engaged in various financial services businesses.
Managing Director – Jairam Sridharan
Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
SIDBI & ONDC Ink MoU to Accelerate E-Commerce for Small Industries; Microsoft Joins ONDC to Launch E-Commerce App for IndiaSmall Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), a pioneering initiative to democratize India’s e-commerce ecosystem, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to coordinate the operations of institutions involved in related endeavours.
The collaboration aims to transform the landscape of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by integrating them into the ONDC network and accelerating their participation in e-commerce.
Microsoft has joined the ONDC platform as the first significant technology company, with the intention of introducing social e-commerce to the Indian market.
Further, it will launch a shopping app in India that would be accessible via the ONDC network and enable customers to discover the best price offered by retailers and sellers.
ONDC is an open protocol network that will allow any network-enabled application to identify and engage in local commerce across categories such as mobility, grocery, food ordering and delivery, hotel booking, and travel, among others.
It is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI).
About Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI):
CMD – Sivasubramanian Ramann
Establishment – 1990
SBI Formalises Policy to Finance Makers of Lab-Grown Diamonds
State Bank of India (SBI) is the first Indian lender to frame a policy to fund lab-grown diamonds which are replicas of the natural diamond stones.
Recently factories are being established in Surat, Gujarat to produce lab-grown diamonds and many diamond houses are being relocated from Mumbai, Maharashtra to southern Gujarat.
The policy would be largely term loans for machinery import and a part would be disbursed as working capital.
Key Highlights:
i.These lab-grown diamonds are priced at 30-40 percent lower than the natural or earth-mined diamonds.
ii.SBI’s Diamond Bourse branch, the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, Maharashtra and the Commercial branch in Surat, Gujarat have been identified for the business.
iii.The SBIs guidelines on funding to produce lab-grown diamond houses include practices like treating non-fund limits on par with funded limits, critically examining the dependency on single buyer as percentage of annual sales, obtaining business credit report on overseas buyers from agencies like Dun & Bradstreet, and maintaining balance-sheet of buyers.
About the lab-grown Diamonds:
i.The lab-grown Diamonds were 1st produced by General Electric in the 1950s by the synthetic diamond technology that involves recreating the pressure and temperature existing in the bowels of the earth in a lab.
ii.Since the local production capacity for lab-grown stones is not available, Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the apex industry body imported USD 358.3 million worth unpolished lab-grown diamonds in April and June 2022.
HDFC Bank Inks Pact with TReDs Platform M1xchange
Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Bank has partnered with M1xchange promoted by Mynd Solutions Private Limited in the Trade receivables Discounting System (TReDs) platform with an aim to provide more liquidity to small businesses at competitive interest rates.
About the partnership:
i.HDFC Bank will benefit with shorter turn-around time and lower administrative costs in booking additional new-to-bank (NTB) corporate buyer relationships.
ii.TReDS system is a discounting platform that is regulated by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) enables Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to auction their trade receivables online and borrow funds from the financial institutions which offer loan at the lowest rate of interest.
About M1xchange:
M1xchange TReDS is a digital marketplace to sell the receivables to banks and Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) set up under the approval of RBI to facilitate the discounting of invoices and bills of exchange across India.
RBI has given approval for M1xchange under the Payment and Settlement System (PSS) Act 2007.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Sundeep Mohindru
Establishment – 2017
Headquarters – Gurugram, Haryana
Manisha Kalyan & Sunil Chhetri named 2021-22 AIFF Footballers of the Year
Indian Men’s Football Team(The Blue Tigers) captain Sunil Chhetri was named the 2021-2022 All India Football Federation (AIFF) Men’s Footballer of the Year for the seventh time. In the Women’s Category, Manisha Kalyan bagged her maiden award for the 2021-22 season.
Highlights:
i.Sunil Chhetri and Manisha Kalyan were nominated as the winners by their respective national team coaches Igor Stimac and Thomas Dennerby.
ii.In other awards, Martina Thokchom was named the 2021-22 Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year, and Vikram Partap Singh was named 2021-22 Men’s Emerging Footballer of the Year.
Sunil Chhetri:
i.He won the AIFF Men’s Footballer of the Year for the first time in 2007 and went on to win the award in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018–19 seasons.
ii.He has scored 84 goals for India in 129 appearances and became the third highest goal scorer among active international football players only behind Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo (117) and Argentina’s Lionel Messi (86).
He is also the Player of the Tournament in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup 2021.
iii.He also plays as a forward and captain of Indian Super League(ISL) club – Bengaluru FC.
Manisha Kalyan:
i.It was her first Women’s Footballer of the Year award.
ii.She also plays as a midfielder for Cypriot First Division club Apollon.she is set to become the first Indian to play in the Union of European Football Associations(UEFA) Women’s Champions League
iii.She has previously won the AIFF Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year in 2020–21 season
Other AIFF Awards 2021-2022:
Kerala’s Sangeetha Abhayan won the World Women Entrepreneurs’ Award 2022 by JCIHK
Kerala’s based entrepreneur Sangeetha Abhayan, Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of eweworld.com(Shakthiewe Pvt. Ltd), has won the World Women Entrepreneurs’ Award 2022 instituted by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong (JCIHK) at a virtual event held at Hong Kong.
She was awarded for her handloom and handicrafts startup’s performance in tune with the United Nations(UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
i.Sangeetha Abhayan was selected from more than 225 female entrepreneurs from across the world for creating social changes and financial stability among women entrepreneurs.
Note: eweworld.com, founded in 2017, is based out of Kasaragod, Kerala.
About Sangeetha Abhayan & her Company:
i.Sangeetha’s online platform named ‘eWe’ (Empowering Women Entrepreneurs), topped among the competitors for its adherence to UN’s sustainable development goals that aim at curbing climate changes as well.
iii.The company was groomed by Mizone Incubation Centre under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM). KSUM provided eWe scale-up grant and seed fund in the initial phase.
iv.Currently, the platform is engaged in lending novel designs to clothes allied to the traditional Kannur handloom and Payyanur Khadi.
About Junior Chamber International Hong Kong (JCIHK):
i.Junior Chamber International Hong Kong (JCIHK)(formerly named as Hong Kong Junior Chamber).
ii.The purpose of Junior Chamber is to provide development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change.
National President– Senator Karen Yeung
Headquarters- Hong Kong
Indian American Aarya Walvekar crowned Miss India USA 2022
Indian American Aarya Walvekar from Virginia, The United States of America(USA) has been crowned Miss India USA 2022 at the annual beauty pageant held in New Jersey, USA.
The 2022 pageant marks the 40th anniversary of the Miss India USA, the longest-running Indian pageant outside of India.
74 contestants representing 30 US states participated in three different pageants – Miss India USA, Mrs India USA and Miss Teen India USA.
Akshi Jain from Washington was crowned Mrs India USA 2022 and Tanvi Grover from New York was crowned Miss Teen India USA 2022.
Highlights: XXII Commonwealth Games or Birmingham 2022 Held from July 28, 2022 to August 8, 2022
The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games (CWG) or Birmingham 2022 was held at Birmingham, England (United Kingdom) from July 28 to August 8, 2022. It was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Games were declared open by Charles, Prince of Wales.
i.England hosted this event for the 3rd time after London 1934 and Manchester 2002.
ii.The UK hosted this for the 7th time after London and Manchester, Cardiff 1958, Edinburgh 1970 and 1986 and Glasgow 2014.