8th April 2015

>>Sumit Mazumder was elected as the President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2015-16.

• He is Chairman & Managing Director (MD) of TIL Limited. He will succeed Ajay Shriram, Chairman of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd.
• Shobana Kamineni was elected as Vice-President of CII for the year 2015-16. Presently, she is Executive Vice-Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited (AHEL).

>>Online marketplace Snapdeal acquired India’s fastest growing mobile transaction platform FreeCharge.

• With this acquisition, Snapdeal has become India’s largest mobile commerce firm with 40 million users and the largest mobile transactions base for any company. Now Snapdeal can offer wide range of services and products including financial services, mobile recharge and utility payments to its growing user base.

>>The Prime Minister Narendra Modi  launched the Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) Yojana .

• He also gave the assurance that the Centre, State governments, banks and insurance companies would do their utmost to provide relief to the farmers.
• Mr. Modi said banks had been asked to restructure loans of farmers hit by unseasonal rain and insurance companies had been advised to pro-actively settle claims.

MUDRA bank launched

• He also launched the MUDRA bank with a corpus of Rs. 20,000 crore and credit guarantee of Rs. 3,000 crore.
• The bank will be responsible for refinancing micro-finance institutions in the business of lending to small entities.
• MUDRA will be set up through a statutory enactment. It will be responsible for developing and refinancing all micro-finance institutions (MFIs) which are in the business of lending to micro and small business entities engaged in manufacturing, trading and service activities.
• It will also partner with State and regional-level coordinators to provide finance to last-mile financiers of small and micro business enterprises.
• Its proposed role includes laying down policy guidelines for micro enterprise financing business, registration, accreditation and rating of MFI entities.
• The agency will also lay down responsible financing practices to ward off over-indebtedness and ensure proper client protection principles and methods of recovery, according to an official release.
• These measures are targeted towards mainstreaming young, educated or skilled workers and entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs.

>>Gujarat won the Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 cricket trophy for the tournament season 2014-15.

>>India  is hosting the fifth meeting of the SAARC health ministers in New Delhi on April 8 to deliberate on key issues including HIV/AIDS, prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases, besides strengthening collaborations among the nations.

• The April 8 meeting will be chaired by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, and attended by health ministers of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

• The meetings, to be chaired by India, will deliberate and provide guidance and a roadmap for strengthening collaboration among SAARC countries on a number of issues and challenges faced by these countries.

• Some of the prominent health issues to be discussed include prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, disease surveillance network, health infrastructure, human resources for health, immunisation for vaccine preventable diseases, HIV/AIDS, mental health, improving access to medicines and antimicrobial resistance, etc.

• They apprised the Prime Minister of the deliberations during their meeting here today, including their intent to make the entire SAARC region polio-free.

• The health ministers will also discuss the 'Delhi Declaration' affirming their commitment to work together in identified areas and further strengthen health collaboration with agreed roadmap and timelines.

• This gains importance given the fact that SAARC countries, comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, account for nearly a quarter of the world population.

>> Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  today embarked on a three-nation tour of France, Germany and Canada during which talks will be held on a range of issues including investments in technology,civil nuclear and defence.

• France  will be the first destination of his nine-day tour. During his stay in Paris, Modi will hold talks with President Francois Hollande and meet business leaders. The focus of talks will be civil nuclear, defence and trade.

• A highlight of the four-day stay in France will be a boat ride by Modi and Hollande, which is being described as 'naav pe charcha' (chat on boat). Earlier, Modi has had 'chai pe charcha' (chat over tea) with foreign leaders, including President Barack Obama  during his visit here in January.

• In France, the Prime Minister will also visit the World War-I memorial and pay tributes to about 10,000 Indians who lost their lives while fighting alongside France.
• He will also visit UNESCO headquarters, Airbus facility and French space agency office.
• India is hoping that French companies will participate in the 'Make in India' programme initiated by Modi.
• From France, Modi will travel to Germany where again business and technology will be the focus with intent of attracting participation in 'Make in India'.
• He will first visit the Hannover Fair where India is a partner country this year. About 400 Indian companies are participating in the fair which will see the presence of about 100-120 Indian CEOs besides about 3000 German delegates.