- Two Indo-British teams win ₹7-crore Newton Prize
Two Indo-British teams of scientists – one which developed a portable device to monitor maternal health and another that worked on producing solar energy more efficiently won the first ever Newton Award.
At a function in New Delhi, both teams were awarded £200,000 or Rs 1.7 crore to fund further research. It was the first ever award under the Newton Fund.
- Assam signs MoUs with Singapore for skilling state’s youth
Assam government has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) and Terms of Reference (ToR) with Singapore for skilling youth of the state.
The MoU and ToR for North East Skills Centre (NESC) was signed between Skill, Employment and Entrepreneurship Department, of Assam government and ITE Education Service, Singapore in the presence of Foreign Affairs Minister of Singapore Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal .
An MoU for Guwahati City Greening was inked between the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority and Singapore Corporation Enterprise.
- India slips 21 places on WEF Gender Gap index
India slipped 21 places on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index to 108, behind neighbours China and Bangladesh, primarily due to less participation of women in the economy and low wages.
Moreover, India’s latest ranking is 10 notches lower than its reading in 2006 when the WEF started measuring the gender gap.
According to the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2017, India has closed 67 per cent of its gender gap, less than many of its international peers, and some of its neighbours like Bangladesh ranked 47th while China was placed at 100th.
- PM to inaugurate World Food India 2017
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will inaugurate World Food India 2017 on 3rd November 2017 from Vigyan Bhavan New Delhi.
WFI is the most anticipated international mega food event, as India welcomes to host biggest ever congregation of global investors and business leaders of major food companies from 3-5 November in New Delhi.
This is the first time that India is hosting such an event for the Food processing sector.World Food India platform will strengthen India’s position as a Global Food Factory and is a positive step towards making the Country Food Secure.
- Asia Index launches S&P BSE 100 ESG Index
Asia Index Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE, has launched an environmental, social and governance (ESG) index to measure the exposure to securities meeting sustainability investing criteria.
The S&P BSE 100 ESG Index, which uses the S&P BSE 100 as its universe, excludes all tobacco producing companies, as well as companies with tobacco sales greater than 10 per cent.
It also excludes all companies producing controversial weapons and all companies at or below the bottom 5 per cent of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) score.
- November, 01 2017: National Stress Awareness Day
National Stress Awareness Day observed as on November 1 of every year, which aims to raise awareness of the effects of psychological stress in the workplace and the coping strategies and resources available to address it.
Stress Awareness Day was established by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) to help provide information on stress, and strategies on how to address it for both companies and individuals.
- HDFC Bank to set up SmartUp Zones across country
Private sector HDFC Bank has announced that it will launch SmartUp Zones in 30 cities, aimed at serving entrepreneurs.
The SmartUp Zones will be launched in over 65 branches of the bank in these cities, including tier II and III locations that have emerged as start-up hubs.
Last year, the bank had launched a ‘first-of-its-kind’ banking solutions for start-ups leading to the launch of the SmartUp Zone.
In Chennai, the Smartup Zone will be set up in HDFC’s Nungambakkam branch to serve 1,000 city based start-ups. They will have specially trained staff offering tailor-made banking and advisory solutions to entrepreneurs.
- ICICI Bank launches voice-based international remittance service
ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank by consolidated assets, has launched voice-based international remittance service on its Money2India application.
This would enable a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) customer of ICICI Bank to send money to any bank in India via just a simple voice command to Apple’s virtual voice assistant, Siri, on his/her Apple iPhone/iPad.
A first-of-its-kind cross border remittance service by a bank in the country, it improves customer’s convenience significantly as it replaces a five step process, which was required to initiate a remittance to India earlier.
ICICI Bank is the first bank in the country to leverage on Apple’s virtual voice assistant to enable cross border remittances.
- Indo – Kazakhstan Joint Exercise “PRABAL DOSTYK 2017” Begins
A fourteen day joint training exercise “PRABAL DOSTYK – 2017” between the Indian Army and the Kazakhstan Army commenced with the Opening Ceremony at Bakloh, Himachal Pradesh.
The joint exercise is aimed at enhancing the military ties between the two countries as also at achieving interoperability between the two armies.
The training contingents comprise of platoon strength from the 11th Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army and a similar strength of the Kazakhstan Army.
- Dubai-based Bin Zayed group inks pact with Telangana
The Dubai-based Bin Zayed group has proposed to invest about ₹12,500 crore in the infrastructure sector in Telangana.
A memorandum of understanding was inked in Dubai in the presence of Sheikh Bin Zayed Ali, Chairman of the Group, and Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary and Resident Commissioner in New Delhi for the Telangana government.
According to the group, the progress made by the State in the last three years after the State formation and its infrastructure prompted them to consider making investments.
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