Mudra Yojna

Microfinance

Microfinance institutions have provided credit to people at the bottom of the pyramid, with no collateral

MUDRA Scheme: Microfinance and the success of Mudra

Business Standard

Against the backdrop of Parliament witnessing poor productivity due to disruptions, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday called for accountability of lawmakers and said people would force them to think why they were sent to Parliament.
He also said that for any democracy to succeed, expression and dialogue must go hand in hand with great responsibility on both sides.
Dhankhar is the Rajya Sabha's ex-officio chairman.
Calling for accountability among parliamentarians, he said, "... Make no mistake, I am referring to parliamentarians. People have learned to take disorder as order. There is no sense of revulsion."
Hopefully, people will write and their thoughts will move, the vice-president said, according to an official statement.
"People will force you to think, why did you go there (Parliament)?" he said.
Addressing awardees of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Awards - 2024, the vice-president said agriculture was the spine of rural development.
"Unless agriculture develops, the 

Jagdeep Dhankar, jagdeep, Vice President, VP

India has the potential to be a key producer of sustainable aviation fuel by utilising its ethanol supplies and availability of lipids feedstocks like non-edible industrial oils, according to a senior official at the global airlines' grouping IATA.
With decarbonisation in focus, efforts are being made to reduce emissions and over the years, Indian carriers have operated some flights with a blend of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and traditional Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF).
Hemant Mistry, Director of Net Zero Transition at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said the ecosystem for SAF has developed but there is more work to be done.
"There are some very good opportunities for India right now. One is in terms of SAF feedstocks like agricultural waste... there is a growing understanding on what to do for SAF production. We are talking to a number of companies to understand how we can collaborate... oil companies," Mistry told PTI in a recent interview in Geneva.
The .

aviation fuel, SAF

The death toll from stampedes during two Christmas charity events in Nigeria has increased from 13 to 32, police said Sunday. The victims, including at least four children, collapsed during crowd surges as people grew desperate for food items while the country grapples with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
The dead included 22 people in southeastern Anambra state's Okija town, where a philanthropist on Saturday organised a food distribution, local police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga said. Ten others died in the capital, Abuja, during a church-organised similar charity event.
Police said they were investigating the two incidents, only days after another stampede in which several children were killed.
Africa's most populous country is seeing a growing trend by local organisations, churches and individuals to organise charity events ahead of Christmas to ease economic hardship caused by a cost-of-living crisis.
Witnesses of the Abuja stampede told The Associated Press the

Nigeria stampedes

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday questioned the sincerity of the Congress' protests over the alleged "disrespect" to B R Ambedkar in Parliament, saying the party that ignored and undermined his struggle for the country is engaged in "politics of pure deception and selfishness".
She also hit out at the BJP, alleging the ruling party and the Congress are cut from the same cloth when it comes to taking Ambedkar's name for vote bank politics.
"In reality, saints, gurus and great men born in the Bahujan Samaj including Baba Saheb got full respect and honour only when there was a BSP government, which these casteist parties cannot digest," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said in a series of posts on X.
After the showdown inside and outside parliament during the winter session, the Congress has said it will hold protest marches against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, whom it has accused of "insulting" Ambedkar with his remarks last Tuesday, and observe a weeklong campaig

Mayawati

The government has decided to infuse Rs 500 crore capital in state-owned IFCI to improve its financial health ahead of the company's proposed restructuring and consolidation into a group.
With the infusion, the government of India's holding in the company is expected to further increase from existing 71.72 per cent as on September 2024.
The capital infusion plan for IFCI was approved through the passage of the first Supplementary Demand for Grants for 2024-25 in Lok Sabha last week.
The Supplementary Demand for Grants for 2024-25 made an allocation for an additional amount of Rs 499.99 crore for 'Subscription to the Share Capital of Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI).
"Taking into account savings of Rs 50.07 crore available in the same section of the grant, the remaining amount of Rs 449.92 crore will be met from surrender of savings available in the capital section of Demand No.30-DEA and it will not entail any additional cash outgo," the Supplementary Demand for Grant

Once again, IFCI is in the eye of a storm

GST Council addresses disaster levy, clarifies tax exemptions, and revises ITC norms, while deferring insurance premium GST cut and key rate rationalisation decisions

GST council meeting

After two weeks of buying, FPIs turned net sellers in Indian equities this week, with a net withdrawal of Rs 976 crore amid a strengthening US dollar and steady rise in US 10-year bond yields, impacting investor sentiment.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) began the week on a positive note, investing Rs 3,126 crore in equities during the first two trading sessions (December 16-20).
However, the trend reversed in the latter half of the week, with FPIs offloading equities worth over Rs 4,102 crore in the subsequent three sessions. This resulted in an overall net outflow of Rs 976 crore during the week, data from National Securities Depository Limited showed.
Despite this short-term reversal, the broader December trend remains positive. FPIs have infused Rs 21,789 crore into Indian equities so far this month, reflecting continued confidence in India's economic growth potential and its resilient markets.
FPIs adopted a cautious approach due to the US Fed meeting and uncertainty about 

Foreign portfolio investor exodus: Financial sector bears the brunt, FPI

Fundraising via IPOs in India hit another landmark as economic growth, favourable market conditions and improvements in the regulatory framework helped companies raise a record Rs 1.6 lakh crore in 2024, while the pipeline for the next year holds out bigger promise.
This exceptional year not only reflected the confidence of issuers but also highlighted investors' eagerness to seize listing-day gains or back companies with strong long-term growth potential.
The year was marked by Hyundai Motor India's historic IPO, the largest in the country's history, which raised Rs 27,870 crore.
Companies of varying market capitalisations -- large, mid, and small -- tapped into the IPO route in 2024, with the average issue size rising significantly from Rs 867 crore in 2023 to over Rs 1,700 crore in 2024.
The exceptional vibrancy of the IPO market was evident, with December alone seeing at least 15 launches.
"Rising retail participation, strong domestic inflows and active participation by FPIs (

ipo market listing share market

The accumulated losses of state public sector enterprises (PSEs) rose from Rs 3,953.70 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 4,778.70 crore in 2022-23, while the profit earned by 13 SPSEs stood at Rs 20.21 crore as on September 30, 2023, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on finances tabled in the Assembly on Saturday.
The net worth of nine out of these 14 PSEs has been completely eroded by losses and their worth was (-) Rs 1,932 crore against an equity investment of Rs 2,085.59 crore, while three PSEs have outstanding government loans amounting Rs 3,132 crore, the report said.
Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board topped the list of loss making enterprises with accumulated losses of Rs 1,809.61 crore, followed by Himachal Pradesh Road Corporation at Rs 1707.12 crore, HP Power Corporation at Rs 552 crore, Himachal Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation at Rs 395.91 crore, HP Financial Corporation at Rs 180.97 crore, State Forest Corporation at Rs 113.04 crore, HPM

The Centre may overshoot the Rs 56,260 crore target for dividend receipts from central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs) set for FY25 and is likely to end up getting around Rs 65,000 crore this financial year, according to a senior government officia

A 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia, who has been living in Germany since 2006, is the prime suspect in the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, which killed five people

Germany police

Investors' wealth eroded by Rs 9.65 lakh crore in four days of sharp decline in the equity market where the BSE benchmark Sensex tanked 2,915 points.
In the past four days, the BSE benchmark slumped 2,915.07 points or 3.54 per cent.
Falling for the fourth day running on Thursday, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex tanked 964.15 points or 1.20 per cent to settle at 79,218.05. During the day, the blue-chip index cracked 1,162.12 points or 1.44 per cent to 79,020.08.
Tracking the weak trend in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 9,65,935.96 crore to Rs 4,49,76,402.63 crore (USD 5.29 trillion) in four days.
"Markets were plundered tracking negative global cues as benchmark indices slipped below their psychological levels on broad-based selling after the US Fed's hawkish stance raised concerns over further rate cuts next year. Rising US bond yields has pushed global currencies, including the rupee to new lows while renewed foreign fund outflows from domes

stocks brokers, markets, sensex, nifty, stock market

This week, eight contestants are nominated in the Bigg Boss 18 house. Avinash Mishra is the Time God for this week. If you want to save your favourite contestants, here's how to go about it

Bigg Boss Season 18

According to reports from Australia's Channel 7, Kohli seemed visibly upset by the presence of cameras aimed at his family, particularly his wife, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma.

Virat Kohli angry video

Winter vacations 2024 for the months of December, January and February 2025 have been announced across many states in India, know the state-wise schedule

Winter vacations

Shortly after announcing plans to offer its caf service as a separate app, Zepto has elevated Shashank Shekhar Sharma as the CXO of Zepto Cafe, effective December 2024.
Sharma, who has been building Zepto Cafe since its inception, will oversee Caf operations, footprint expansion, equipment procurement, quality control, and the end-to-end customer experience of Zepto Caf, a company statement said.
Previously serving as Business Head at Zepto Cafe, Sharma will continue to report to Zepto President Vinay Dhanani.
"After 2 years of deep work, iteration, and disciplined scaling, Zepto Caf is now at 30K+ orders/day and what we believe to be clear customer product-market-fit and solid unit economics.
"This excellent execution was only possible because of the leadership of Shashank Shekhar Sharma, who worked tirelessly with his team to turn Zepto Caf from a fringe idea to what could be the next revolution in food QSR in India," Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha said in a LinkedIn post

Zepto

The latest Economic Survey said, India has to find the right balance between importing goods from China and importing capital (FDI) from China

How policymakers are split over attracting Chinese investment into India

Congress calls FIR against Rahul Gandhi over Parliament scuffle a 'badge of honour', alleging BJP's vendetta and diversionary tactics to counter his protest against Amit Shah's Ambedkar remarks

Rahul Gandhi, Rahul, congress leader

The Banning of Unregulated Lending Activities Bill calls for the CBI to handle probes in cases spanning multiple states or UTs

The Centre, in collaboration with states, has proposed to classify unregulated lending as a cognizable and non-bailable offence, with penalties including imprisonment of up to 10 years. The finance ministry has invited feedback by February 13 from st

The I-T department probes Rs 7,500 crore spent on lavish weddings, targeting Jaipur planners and fake billing networks linked to foreign destination events and cash transactions

weddings, marriage

The official further noted that this year's Budget consultations are particularly significant due to the political outcomes of recent state elections

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Jiji Mammen

Jiji Mammen

Microfinance and the success of Mudra

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V-P Dhankar calls for accountability of MPs over Parliament disruptions

India holds potential to produce sustainable aviation fuel: IATA official

Stampedes at Christmas charity events in Nigeria leave at least 32 dead

Cong doing politics of deception over 'disrespect' to Ambedkar: Mayawati

Govt to infuse Rs 500 cr capital in IFCI to improve financial health

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55th GST Council takes key decisions, defers rate cuts on insurance premium

FPIs pull out Rs 976 crore from Indian equities amid rising dollar

IPO boom: Record Rs 1.6 trn raised in 2024; bigger gains expected in 2025

Losses of Himachal's 30 PSEs rose from Rs 3,953 cr to Rs 4,778 cr: CAG

Who is the Saudi-born suspect behind Germany Christmas market attack?