- Muthoot Finance will raise $550 Million US Dollars by selling bonds to international investors to expand its gold loan business. If offshore secondary market trades are to be trusted then these bonds are expected to yield at least 1% less than its maiden offshore sale last October. The secondary market indicates that these bonds may yield in the range of 4-5%.
- Under the PM – Kisan Scheme the government provides Rs. 6,000 a year to small and marginal farmers. The government has so far spent about Rs. 55,000 crore out of a budget of Rs. 75,000 crore, covering around 9 crore farmers as against a target of 14.5 crores under the program. This is because some of the states haven’t provided the actual data and no one verifies the records properly.
- On 19th February, ICICI Bank announced the launch of the fourth edition of the ‘ICICI Appathon’ which is a virtual challenge for start-ups to create next-generation products and solutions. The start-ups develop unique products by using over 250 APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) hosted on the Bank’s API Banking portal. Participants need to envision innovative solutions around a diverse set of APIs in categories like lending, payments, retail & corporate banking, trade.
- The international price for food has risen with reference to its base period in 2002 – 2004 which was at 100 points at that time. It was at 185.8 points in January 2014, which is the highest till date, and as of January 2020, it is at 182.5 points, which although is lower than 2014 but is still substantially higher.
- A proposal has been given to the central government for the payment of an interim dividend of Rs. 37,000 crore for 2019-20 and a decision regarding this may be taken in the next board meeting. In order to stop exchequers from getting interim dividends, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will synchronize its financial accounting year with the Central Government. The decision was taken in a meeting held among the members of the central board of the RBI.
- Among the 15 documents that were rejected by the Guwahati High Court some are voter lists of four years, a parent’s NRC clearance, land revenue payment receipts, certificates from the village headman attesting to permanent residency and marriage, ration card, PAN card and bank passbook.
- At the 13th COP Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat the report of State of India’s Bird 2020 was released which contained the data of birds in India. The assessment was made of 867 birds.
- 19th February is observed as the Soil Health Card Day, on this day the government collects samples of soil from villages and distributes the Soil Health Cards to the farmers to aware them of the health of their soil. It further provides information regarding the use of natural fertilizers.
- The State Board of Wildlife which is headed by the Chief Minister of Kerala Shri Pinarayi Vijayan decided to convert the 148 sq. km buffer zone in the Silent Valley National Park as the new Bhavani Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary has been the home to some of the rare species of odonates like the dragonflies and the damselflies. It is rich with lush green forests and amazing wildlife species.
- Parag Rao is the current Payment Business & Marketing Head of the Housing Finance Development Corporation (HDFC). HDFC Bank and SAP Concur’s expense management solution will be targeted at 5,000 of the bank’s largest corporate clients in the next three years, the government’s zero-MDR (merchant discount rate) notification will have only a short-term adverse impact on players in the payments acceptance business.
