State-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) on Tuesday said that it has recorded its highest-ever annual loan sanctions and disbursements in fiscal 2023-24. The company has sanctioned loans amounting to Rs 37,354 crore and disbursed loans worth Rs 25,089 crore during the fiscal year 2023-24, an IREDA statement said.

According to the statement, this has led to a significant growth of 26.71 per cent in the loan book, which now stands at Rs 59,650 crore compared to Rs 47,076 crore a year ago.

The annual loan sanctions grew 14.63 per cent to Rs 37,354 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 32,587 crore in 2022-23.

Sandeep Jain, an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur and an auto-component manufacturer, has been elected as the President of the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) for the term 2024-25. His appointment was unanimously approved during a meeting of the Central Executive Committee held in New Delhi, marking a significant transition from his prior role as the Vice President of FISME.

The organization conducts annual elections to elect one third of its Central Executive Committee members, who then choose the President for the upcoming year. Jain succeeds Prashant Patel, a manufacturer of Dyes and Chemicals with operations in Ahmedabad and Surat.

Atul Mehra, joint MD of JM Financial, has been appointed the managing director and chief executive officer at rival investment bank Axis Capital, in one of the biggest transitions in recent years in the world of Indian deal-makers.

The proposed move was first reported by Moneycontrol on January 20.

"Atul will be overseeing both the Investment Banking and Institutional Equities businesses of Axis Capital," an official announcement on April 1 said.

Over 60 products from across India, including the famous Banaras Thandai, have been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. This is the first time such a large number of GI tags have been given at a go, a senior official from the Geographical Indications registry said. He also said that more States were coming forward and filing applications to get a GI tag for some of their traditional and historic products.

Six traditional crafts from Assam — Asharikandi terracotta craft, Pani Meteka craft, Sarthebari metal craft, Jaapi (bamboo headgear of rural Assam), Mishing handloom products, and the Bihu dhol — have bagged the GI tag.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has rolled out the 'One Vehicle, One FASTag' initiative starting from Monday, April 1, 2024.

This initiative of NHAI aims to discourage the use of a single FASTag for multiple vehicles or linking multiple FASTags to one vehicle.

NHAI decided to launch this initiative due to recent reports of multiple FASTags being issued for the same vehicle and issuance of FASTags without completing the mandatory KYC process, violating the guidelines set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today was sworn in for his third term as President. Sisi had won the Presidential election with 89.6 percent of the vote in December last year. He is set to remain president until 2030. In a statement, Sisi vowed to remain faithful to the interest of the people of the country. As Egypt has battled a deep economic crisis with the help of billions in overseas loans and investments, he pledged to build a modern and democratic state.

Artificial Intelligence is doing wonders. From turning text prompts to images with Dall.E to turning them into entire videos with Sora, some of AI’s latest achievements push the envelope of plausibility. But not everyone is worried about just generating content, some innovators are using the technology to create great companions. The “intelligent and kind” chatbot Pi from Inflection AI is one of them.

Now, Hume, a New York-based research lab and technology company, has introduced what can be called the ‘first conversational AI with emotional intelligence’.

The private sector and the defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) contributed around 60% and 40%, respectively, toward exports

India’s defence exports grew 32.5% this fiscal and crossed the ₹21,000-crore mark for the first time as the country remains focussed on boosting the indigenous defence manufacturing ecosystem as well as military exports, the defence ministry said on Monday.

“Defence exports have touched a record ₹21,083 crore (approx. US$ 2.63 billion) in the Financial Year (FY) 2023-24, a growth of 32.5% over the last fiscal when the figure was ₹15,920 crore. The recent figures indicate that the defence exports have grown 31 times in the last 10 years as compared to FY 2013-14,” the ministry said in a statement.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) rolled out an upgraded iteration of its complaint redressal system, SEBI Complaint Redress System (SCORES 2.0), on April 1.

“The new version of SCORES strengthens the investor complaint redress mechanism in the securities market by making the process more efficient through auto-routing, auto-escalation, monitoring by the ‘Designated Bodies and reduction of timelines," SEBI said in a release.

The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) has joined hands with HP India to introduce ‘HP Future Impact Leaders - IICA Certified Environmental – Social - Governance (ESG) Professional Programme’.

This initiative aims to promote sustainability and empower corporate social responsibility (CSR) professionals to emerge as leaders in navigating the intricacies of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks.

Under this programme, HP India in collaboration with IICA will offer 100 per cent scholarships to 75 candidates, enabling them to pursue advanced education in ESG without financial barriers.

Through this partnership, HP India and IICA aim to impart quality education on ESG to deserving candidates to enable them to be the change makers of tomorrow.