1) Madhya Pradesh government, DMRC inked pact to supply power from Rewa project
•Madhya Pradesh government has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to supply 24 per cent of electricity generated from the Rewa ultra mega solar project to be set up in the state.
•The rest of the power will be supplied to the state. Rewa Ultra Mega Solar (RUMS) project is a joint venture of Solar Energy Corporation of India and MP Urja Vikas Nigam, wherein both parties have 50 per cent stake.
2) First Made in India industrial robot- BRABO
•TAL Manufacturing Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors has launched India’s first industrial-articulated robot and it goes by the name “BRABO”.
•The robot is indigenously developed for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in India. This is the first time that an industrial robot has been conceptualized, designed and manufactured in India. BRABO is meant to complement the human workforce and perform repetitive, high volume, dangerous and time-consuming tasks from raw material handling to packaging of finished products.
3) 'One Part Woman' wins Sahitya Akademi Award for translation of Mathorubhagan
•The English translation of writer Perumal Murugan’s novel Mathorubhagan (One Part Woman) has won the Sahitya Akademi’s award for translation in English 2016.
•The translation was done by Aniruddhan Vasudevan and the book was published by Penguin. The prize in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cash component of Rs 50,000 would be presented at a ceremony in June, 2017.
4) Vinay Shah, appointed as new MD & CEO of LIC Housing Finance
•Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has appointed Vinay Shah as the new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Director of its mortgage loan arm and listed entity LIC Housing Finance.
•He comes in place of Sunita Sharma after Government had elevated her to Managing Director of LIC. Prior to joining LIC Housing Finance, Sah was Executive Director–Marketing/Product Development with LIC of India.
5) RBI caps bank exposure to REITs, InvITs at 10%
•The RBI permitted banks to invest up to 10% of the unit capital of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) or Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs).
•The banks’ exposure to REITs/InvITs will be within the overall ceiling of 20% of the net worth permitted for direct investments in shares, convertible bonds/ debentures, units of equity-oriented mutual funds and Venture Capital Funds (VCFs). The move was aimed to help revive the cash-starved infrastructure sector.
6) World economy to grow at 3.5 per cent in 2017: IMF
•The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected a marginally higher than expected growth for the world economy at 3.5 per cent in 2017.
•IMF projected the world economy to grow at a pace of 3.5 percent in 2017, up from 3.1 percent in 2016, and 3.6 per cent in 2018. The IMF's new projection for 2017 is marginally higher than what they expected in its last update. This improvement comes primarily from good economic news for Europe and Asia, and within Asia, notably for China and Japan.
