1) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Wins Best Actress for Sarbjit at IFFA Australia
Bollywood Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has won the best actress award at the International Film Festival and Awards of Australia (IFFAA) for her movie Sarabjit.
Directed by Omung Kumar, Sarabjit was the biopic on Sarabjit Singh who was an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan and was sentenced to death.
He was attacked by inmates at a prison in Lahore in April 2013 and died a few days later.
The film starring Aishwarya and Randeep Hooda showcased his journey inside the jail and his sister’s unending fight to free him.
Aishwarya played the role of Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur.
2) China overtakes eurozone as world’s biggest bank system
According to the Financial Times shows latest analysis, China’s banking system has overtaken the b to become the world’s biggest by assets.
China’s GDP surpassed the EU’s in 2011 at market exchange rates, but its banking system did not take over the top spot until 2016.
The value of China’s banking system is more than 3.1 times the size of the country’s annual economic output, compared with 2.8 times for the eurozone and its banks
3) Union Cabinet approves MoU between India and UAE in field of Energy Efficiency Services
Union Cabinet has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to provide various services in the field of energy management and conservation.
The MoU was signed between the National Productivity Council (NPC), an autonomous body under the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Al Etihad Energy Services UAE.
Under the MoU, the NPC will provide the following services: (i) Energy Assessment Services (ii) Training & Certification of Energy Auditors (iii) Demand Side Management. Meanwhile, Al Etihad ES will provide (i) Customer Support with UAE Government and Private owned organizations in the UAE (ii) Local support for Field Auditing Professionals (iii) local support for Training & Certification of Energy Auditors (iv) Support related to Demand Side Management of industries.
The MoU will enable NPC avail high value opportunities such as energy building and develop institutional mechanism in area of energy efficiency in Dubai and other GCC member countries. It will provide recognition and exposure to further build NPC’s capacities and competencies in rapidly changing international business scenario. T
he MoU will be precedent for NPC’s engagements with other International collaboration partners and will enhance its visibility in arena.
4) International Women's Day being observed
•International Women's Day is observed globally on 8th March every year. It is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
•The theme of International Women's Day (IWD) 2017 campaign is 'Be Bold For Change'. IWD has been observed since in the early 1900's - a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
•IWD is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action - whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, it has been occurring for well over a century and continue's to grow from strength to strength.
5) OPPO wins Indian cricket team sponsorship rights for five years
•The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced that mobile manufacturing company Oppo Mobiles India Private Limited will be the new team sponsor of the Indian cricket team from April 1, 2017 for a period of five years.
•The team sponsorship rights include the the title of official team sponsor and the right to display a commercial logo in the kits of the India men's, women's, A and Under-19 teams.
•The existing rights holders Star India had last month ended its four-year association with the BCCI when it announced that it was not going to bid for the apparel sponsorship again.
6) Aadhaar pay infrastructure launched by IDFC Bank
IDFC Bank has become the first bank to launch the biometric-based payment system
Aadhaar Pay through its network.
The bank aims to onboard anywhere between 50,000-75,000 merchant to the Aadhaar pay module in the next two years with a total target of touching 1,00,000 merchants over the next 36 months or three years.
Rajiv Lall, founder MD and CEO, of IDFC Bank said Aadhaar Pay makes cashless transactions possible even for those who do not have mobile phones, and only requires the merchant to have a mobile phone. "All one needs is to get the bank account number linked with Aadhaar. Basic banking services will come to those who even do not have basic mobile phones," he said.
Lall, however, did not disclose the total number of investment that the bank will put in place to get the infrastructure ready. IDFC Bank will bear the cost of the biometric device which can be attached to the smartphones and will be provided to the merchants. The device currently costs around Rs 2,500 and the total cost of the device for 1,00,000 merchants will come to around Rs 25 crore only. "The returns for the banks will also be in terms of new customer additions through the merchants who will adopt Aadhaar Pay," said Lall.
He added that merchants will also have the opportunity to become banking correspondents and can open bank accounts, accept payments and also withdraw cash on behalf of people.
Before this official launch, IDFC Bank piloted the project across 16 states.
Speaking at the launch event, Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog said IDFC Bank has set the trend by launching Aadhaar Pay, which can be accessed by those who don't have smartphones or even feature phones. "Many of banks should follow its lead,, if they don't technology will make them redundant," said Kant.
ET had reported in February that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on December 30 that Aadhaar Pay would be launched soon and that it would revolutionise the payment ecosystem. Aadhaar Pay will be introduced in the country first with five banks, including Syndicate Bank, IndusInd Bank, and IDFC Bank. Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank are also in the process of launching it at the earliest.
Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, ministry of electronics and IT said, "Let me emphasise that its not just the launch of another app, its a paradigm shift." She added that the "Aadhaar moment" in digital payments has arrived. "It will enable merchants to have a credit history which may enable them to get cheaper loans," said Sundararajan.
ET had reported that government is mulling a proposal to provide an incentive of 0.25 per cent on the value of a transaction - capped at Rs 10 - made on the biometric-based payment system Aadhaar Pay and UPI platform BHIM. The incentive is aimed at encouraging banks to onboard merchants for the new payments ecosystem and build the requisite infrastructure.
Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) added that it is only a matter of time when the new system becomes ubiquitious like Aadhaar. "Earlier it was unthinkable that we will have Aadhaar for 112 crore people, but we achieved it. Even to a computer scientist like me it seemed like science fiction, but we have done it," he added.
