The National Small Industries Corporation Limited, NSIC today signed an MoU with Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for the year 2019-20. The MoU envisages provision of enhanced services by NSIC under its marketing, financial, technology and other support services schemes for MSMEs in the country. 

The Corporation projects to increase revenue from operation by 22 per cent from two thousand 540 crore rupees in the year 2018-19 to three thousand 100 crore rupees in the year 2019-20. The Corporation also plans to enhance its activities in the areas of imparting entrepreneurship and skill development training by targeting 45 per cent growth in the number of trainees.

Sri Lanka has signed a tripartite agreement with India and Japan for development of eastern terminal of Colombo port. The Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) was signed in Colombo today by Sri Lankan ports minister Sagala Ratnayake, Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu and a Japanese representative. As per the agreement, Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) will hold 51 per cent majority stake in the port development while Japan and India will have combined stake of 49 per cent. 

The three governments have decided to work out details at joint working group meetings and advance their cooperation towards early commencement of work and operation of the terminal. SLPA said the joint project reflects the longstanding goodwill and cooperation among the three countries. It said Sri Lanka, Japan and India will work together for further development of the Colombo Port and contribute to further regional prosperity and stability of global trading networks.  

The deal is significant as over 70% of India’s transhipment business is handled at Colombo ports. One of the terminals is controlled by Chinese company and there was a long-pending proposal to handover the development of Eastern terminal to an Indian company. The deal is part of Memorandum of economic cooperation signed between India and Sri Lanka in 2017.

The Trump administration on Tuesday removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners, citing certain developments and steps being taken by New Delhi addressing some of its major concerns. Switzerland is the other nation that has been removed from the list. However, the list includes China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam among others.

India has been removed from the list after it met only one out of three criteria, necessary for inclusion on the monitoring list, — a significant bilateral surplus with the US — for two consecutive reports , the Treasury Department said in its latest semi-annual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major trading partners of the US sent to the Congress.

After purchasing foreign exchange on net in 2017, the central bank steadily sold reserves for most of 2018, with net sales of foreign exchange reaching 1.7 per cent of GDP over the year, it said. India maintains ample reserves according to the IMF metrics for reserve adequacy, it said.

India has moved up one place to rank as the world's 43rd most competitive economy on the back of its robust economic growth, a large labour force and its huge market size, while Singapore has toppled the US to grab the top position, a global study showed Tuesday. Singapore has moved up to the top, from the third position last year, while the US has slipped to the third place in the 2019 edition of the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings. Hong Kong SAR has held onto its second place, helped by a benign tax and business policy environment and access to business finance.

Economists regard competitiveness as vital for the long-term health of a country's economy as it empowers businesses to achieve sustainable growth, generates jobs and, ultimately, enhance the welfare of citizens. The IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, established in 1989, incorporate 235 indicators from each of the 63 ranked economies to evaluate their ability to foster an environment where enterprises can achieve sustainable growth, generate jobs and increase welfare for its citizens.

In cricket, India defeated Bangladesh by a massive margin of 95 runs in the second and final warm-up game of the ICC World Cup at Cardiff in England today. Chasing the victory target of 360 runs, Bangladesh were bundled out for 264 runs with 3 balls to spare. 

Mushfiqur Rahim's 90 and Liton Das's 73 were not enough to overhaul the mammoth Indian target. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 3 wickets each for India. 

Earlier, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 113 off 78 balls and K L Rahul's 108 off 99 balls helped India to post a huge total of 359 runs for 7 in stipulated 50 overs. For Bangladesh, Rubel Hossain and Shakib Al Hasan claimed two wickets each.

President of Oscar Academy, John Bailey today e-launched the Hindi translation of an Academy Publication, "Digital Dilemma", at a function in Delhi. During his speech, Mr Bailey said that the translation of the Academy publication into Hindi is important in order to reach out to film fraternity in India. He said there are many challenges thrown by the technological changes in the film storage medium and this book will help film makers in understanding and planning the storage of born-digital material. 

National Film Archive of India had signed an MoU with the Academy to translate the publication into Hindi so that it can benefit various stakeholders in the country. The Academy works towards the goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures.

To facilitate high-value fund transfers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced an extension of timings for customer transactions through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) by one and half hours from 4:30 PM to 06 PM. 

In a notification, issued from Mumbai yesterday, RBI said that new timing will be effective from 1st June. 

The RTGS is an online fund transfer system, supported by the RBI, which enables money transaction on a real-time basis. 

The minimum amount for the transaction under this system is Rs 2 lakh. There is no upper limit on the value of funds that can be transferred via the RTGS system.

In Arunachal Pradesh, the first BJP government in the state with absolute majority will take oath today.

BJP had won an impressive 41 seats in the 60-seat house in the Assembly elections creating history.

Pema Khandu will be sworn-in for the second term as the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh today.  

In the swearing-in ceremony organized at the Dorjee Khandu state convention hall in Itanagar, Mr. Khandu and his council of Ministers will take the oath of office and secrecy.

The oath will be administered by Governor Dr. BD Mishra. In the new Khandu cabinet this time couple of new faces are also expected to be included.

Earlier on Monday Mr. Khandu was elected unanimously as the leader of the BJP legislature party at it's meeting held in Itanagar. 

In Odisha, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo and the Chief Minister-designate Naveen Patnaik will take oath as the chief minister of the state for the fifth time in a row today.

Along with him, a twenty-member council of ministers will also take oath in a swearing-in ceremony at the IDCO exhibition ground in Bhubaneswar at 10:30 AM.

Our correspondent reports that Governor Prof. Ganeshi Lal will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Mr. Patnaik and his council of ministers.

Naveen Patnaik’s new ministry is a mix of experienced and newly-elected legislatures.

Out of the 11 cabinet and nine state rank ministers, ten new legislators have been included this time in the council of ministers. Six are among the legislators who retained their ministerial berths.

The former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has been nominated as the country's parliamentary speaker and is set to be sworn in Tuesday, a party official said.

Nasheed was unanimously chosen to head the People's Majlis, or the parliament, by his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) which won a near three quarter majority in the 87-member assembly in April.

"He is unanimously chosen as the Speaker," a party official told AFP. "He will be sworn in at the inaugural session of the new parliament elected at the historic April vote."

Nasheed -- who until six months ago was still in exile -- has vowed to use his party's thumping mandate to usher in a new era of stability and democracy in the Maldives.

The MDP's closest rivals, the Jamhooree Party and Progressive Party of the Maldives, both won five seats. Two minor parties and independents secured 12 seats among them.