August Current Affairs Online Model Test

Ustad Hussain Sayeeduddin Dagar (78), maestro and custodian of the venerable Dhrupad tradition of Hindustani classical music, has passed away in Pune, Maharashtra on July 30, 2017. He was known affectionately to his legions of disciples and admirers as ‘Saeed Bhai’. He was born in Alwar in Rajasthan in 1939 and was a part of the Dagar family of musicians. He represented the 19th generation of Dagar Tradition. Dhrupad – a Sanskrit portmanteau of Dhruva (immovable) and Pad (verse) has its roots since ancient times, mentioned as early as the 3rd Century B.C. in the Natyashastra.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recently announced that the 2024 Summer Olympics will be hosted by Paris in France, which is scheduled to be held from August 8-18. Beside this, the IOC has also announced that the 2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to be hosted by Los Angeles (United States). Both the decisions will be ratified at the 131st IOC Conference in Lima, Peru on September 13, 2017. The IOC decision means that Los Angeles will become a three-time Olympic city, after hosting the 1932 and 1984 Games – and Paris, which held the Games in 1900 and 1924, will host a centenary celebration in 2024.

The world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge “Europaweg (or Europe Bridge)” has recently opened in Randa, Switzerland. It measures 1,620 feet long and rises as high as 278 feet above the Grabengufer ravine. The bridge connects a hiking trail through the Alps between Zermatt and Graechen.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s 3rd bi-monthly monetary policy statement for year 2016-17, the policy repo rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) has reduced by 25 basis points from 6.25% to 6.0% with immediate effect. This move is expected to lower EMIs for home, auto and personal loans. This is the first rate cut since October 2016 and the interest rate is now at 6-year low. In line with record low retail inflation, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 5.75%, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.25%. The RBI Governor headed, six member Monetary Policy Committee also decided to keep the policy stance neutral in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index inflation of 4%.

Dr. Sanjaya Baru has been named as the new secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He will assume the charge from September 1, 2017 and will succeed A Didar Singh.

The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is observed every year from August 1st to 7th to focus attention on the important aspect of promotion and support of breastfeeding. The 2017 theme is “Sustaining Breastfeeding Together”. To intensify the efforts for promotion of breastfeeding in India, the Union Health Ministry has initiated a nationwide programme called “MAA-Mother’s Absolute Affection’’ to bring undiluted focus on promotion of breastfeeding and provision of services towards supporting breastfeeding, along with ongoing efforts of routine health systems. In addition, “National Guidelines on Lactation Management Centres in Public Health Facilities” have been recently released to facilitate establishment of lactation management centres for ensuring that the sick and pre-term babies are fed with safe human breast milk.

The Indian Army has developed a mobile application ‘Humraaz’ through which serving soldiers can track details like postings and promotions. Through the ‘Humraaz’ app, soldiers can also view their monthly salary slips and the Form 16 and also download them. For security reasons, the installation of the application has been linked to verification of Aadhaar details. The Aadhaar details will be verified with the Army database over National Information Centre (NIC) cloud and he will get a one-time-password on his registered mobile number. Thus, to enable usage of this mobile application, the latest mobile number of individuals should be linked to his Aadhaar number. The mobile app has been developed in-house by the Army and will be launched in the second week of August for prompt communication of information to junior commissioner officers and other personnels.

The 15th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of BIMSTEC countries will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal from August 10-11, 2017. From India, the Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will represent India in the meeting and will hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of the members countries. During the BIMSTEC meeting, progress on several programmes will be discussed.

Robert Hard (91), who portrayed the role of Minister of Magic ‘Cornelius Fudge’ in four of the ‘Harry Potter’ films, has passed away in London, England on August 3, 2017. He was also known for his many portrayals of Winston Churchill and as the irascible vet Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small. His voice performance as Robin Hood in Tale Spinners For Children, an LP from the 1960s, is considered one of the best Robin Hood renditions.

The Microsoft India has tied up with the state of Telangana to use its artificial intelligence-based MINE platform to screen children for eye problems and prevent avoidable blindness. The Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE) is an artificial intelligence platform to reduce avoidable blindness. With this tied up, Telangana has become the first Indian state to deploy artificial intelligence for eyecare screening.

India has recently signed a $329 million loan agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for Gujarat Rural Roads Project. The objective of the project is to improve the rural road connectivity and accessibility to more than one thousand villages in all the 33 districts of the state benefiting about 80 lakh people. The project will also benefit the service providers such as public transport operators, educational institutions, hospitals, local markets and traders.

India’s first helicopter-taxi (heli-taxi) service will be started in Bengaluru, Karnataka for those who cannot afford to spend time battling traffic to travel across the city. The Kempegowda International Airport will become the first airport in India to have this facility. The service will be operated by Thumby Aviation Private Limited and is expected to take off within three months. Initially, the helicopter service will be operated between Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and the Electronics City area. The travel time will be cut down to 15 minutes instead of the two hours taken by road.

The researchers at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru have developed a low-cost highly sensitive nanometre-scale carbon monoxide sensor by employing an innovative fabrication technique. It is known that Carbon Monoxide (CO) can have adverse effects on the health of people exposed to it. Thus, it becomes necessary to have good, low-cost carbon-monoxide sensors. Typically, a sensor would be a thin, current carrying plate whose resistance changes on exposure to carbon monoxide. This in turn changes the value of the current flowing through it. This change when measured indicates the level of carbon monoxide in the air. The research is published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Google India has launched Android Skill Development programme to impart mobile development training on the Android and Web platform and to improve the quality of mobile app development ecosystem in India. The NSDC is a public-private partnership enterprise under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Under the initiative, NSDC will introduce a specific course with the scope to train developers to create applications for the mobile platform that can be used on smartphone and tablets running on the Android operating system. The NSDC and Google India will also work together to focus on up-skilling Android trainers under the programme.

The Parliamentary Panel headed by Maj. General (Retired) B C Khanduri has recently tabled its report in Parliament. In the report, the panel has recommended the 100% pension to widow of deceased soldier so that she can take care of her family. The report stated that after the death of a soldier, the pension of the spouse comes down to 60% of his pension. The committee feels that after the death of a soldier, the spouse usually faces severe problems due to the loss of the breadwinner. The committee also recommended that liberalized and special family pensions to be exempted from income tax for the widows of war like counter insurgency situations or on the line of control as is being given to disabled soldiers. The panel also supported the demand of Defence Forces representative should be included in the Central Pay Commission to address the grievances in respect of pay and allowances and their issues.

Real Madrid, a professional football club of Spain, has won the 2017 UEFA Super Cup football tournament by defeating Manchester United in the final by 2-1 at the Philip II Arena in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 8, 2017. It is their 4th UEFA Super Cup title.

Bollywood actor Sitaram Panchal (54), who was best known for his acts in Bandit Queen and Peepli Live, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on August 10, 2017. During his lifetime, Panchal worked in films like Peepli Live, Pan Singh Tomar, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Slumdog Millionaire, Jolly LLB 2, etc.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Google India has launched Android Skill Development programme to impart mobile development training on the Android and Web platform and to improve the quality of mobile app development ecosystem in India. The NSDC is a public-private partnership enterprise under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Under the initiative, NSDC will introduce a specific course with the scope to train developers to create applications for the mobile platform that can be used on smartphone and tablets running on the Android operating system. The NSDC and Google India will also work together to focus on up-skilling Android trainers under the programme.

ISRO will soon launch a full-fledged niche Earth observation (EO) satellite called the Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HySIS) by using a critical chip it has developed. The purpose of the HySIS satellite is to enable distinct identification of objects from about 600 km in space. The Vis-NIR Hyperspectral payload of HySIS satellite is a hyperspectral imaging sensor operating in the visible and near infrared regions of the electronmagnetic spectrum. The Hyperspectral (or hyspex imaging) is said to enable distinct identification of objects, materials or processes on Earth by reading the spectrum for each pixel of a scene from space.

Veteran journalist T J S George has been chosen for the first Kesari Media Award, instituted by the Kesari Memorial Journalist Trust (KMJT). The award consists of a purse of Rs 50,000, citation and a statuette designed by renowned artist Bhatathiri. The award would be given away at a function in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, which is scheduled to be held on August 13, 2017.

Indian Shooter Maheshwari Chauhan has won a bronze at the 7th Asian Shotgun Championship to earn India’s first women’s skeet individual medal in Astana, Kazakhstanon on August 11, 2017. Before that, Maheshwari also led India to the team silver alongside compatriots Rashmmi Rathore and Saniya Sheikh in the tournament. Besides Maheshwari , Indian shooter Ankur Mittal clinched the individual as well as the team gold medal in men’s double trap in the championship. And, Kynan Chenai from Hyderabad won a bronze in men’s trap event as well as also won bronze in mixed team trap event with partner Shreyasi Singh in the championship. Now, India’s tally stands at two gold, silver and three bronze medals.

Milkha Singh, the legendary athlete, has been appointed as the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for physical activity in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR). As goodwill ambassador, he will promote WHO SEAR’s Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) prevention and control action plan which seeks to reduce the level of insufficient physical activity by 10% and NCDs by 25% by 2025. Milkha Singh, also known as ‘the Flying Sikh’, is a Padma Shri awardee and had won medals in athletics in Commonwealth and Asian games.

The Government of India will soon launch a new sub-scheme named “Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY)” as part of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). Initially, AGEY will be implemented in 250 Blocks in the country on pilot basis with each Block provided upto 6 vehicles to operate the transport services. The Self Help Groups (SHGs) under DAY-NRLM will operate road transport service in backward areas. This will help to provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services to connect remote villages with key services and amenities (such as access to markets, education and health) for the overall economic development of backward rural areas. This will also provide an additional avenue of livelihood for SHGs.

The Indian duo of Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Rashmmi Rathore has won a gold medal in the skeet mixed team event at the 7th Asian Championship Shotgun in Astana, Kazakhstan on August 13, 2017. With this, India finished the championship with a total of 8 medals. Earlier, Ankur Mittal had won a gold in the men’s double trap and had also helped India bag the team gold in the event. Kynan Chenai won a bronze in the men’s trap and also partnered Shreyasi Singh to claim the trap mixed team bronze. Maheshwari Chauhan clinched a bronze in the women’s skeet, along with team silver in the event before the men’s skeet team picked up another bronze. The results will serve as good encouragement for the 2017 Shotgun World Championships in Moscow, which is scheduled to start from August 30.

India’s first-ever railways disaster management centre is expected to come up near Bengaluru, Karnataka by 2018 and will be used to replicate train accidents to improve rescue operation efforts. It will also have a virtual reality centre for analyzing railway accidents. The focus is on imparting state-of-the-art training on rescue, medical relief and rolling stock restoration techniques in a classroom and also using various simulated teaching aids. Though, it is the practical reproduction of accidents on site and the ensuing rescue operations that are being touted as the big ticket venture.

Italy will host a summit of G7 Interior Ministers centered on security issues, which is scheduled to be held in October 2017. The meeting is being organised at the request of Italy’s G-7 partners- Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. Currently, Italy holds the rotating helm of the G-7 industrialised nations.

Preethi Srinivasan, the former State under-19 cricket captain, has bestowed with the 2017 Kalpana Chawla Award for courage and daring enterprise from Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami during the 71st Independence Day celebrations at Fort St. George in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Beside her, the Government of Tamil Nadu has also awarded S.P. Thyagarajan with the APJ Abdul Kalam award for discovering a patented drug to treat hepatitis B.

India’s first museum on the Partition of the Indian Sub-continent will soon open in Amritsar, Punjab, which focuses on stories and display memorabilia of survivors. The museum will include newspaper clippings and donated personal items meant to tell the story of how the region’s struggle for freedom from colonial rule turned into one of its most violent episodes, as communal clashes left hundreds of thousands of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs dead and another 15 million displaced from their ancestral homes. It will also have ‘The Gallery of Hope’, where visitors can scribble messages of love and peace. Tickets are priced low at Rs10 for Indians and Rs150 for foreigners.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has launched the “Harit Diwali, Swasth Diwali” campaign to celebrate pollution-free diwali. Diwali is an integral part of our rich tradition and a festival that embodies joy and happiness. In recent times, the pattern of celebration has changed somewhat and has got associated with excessive bursting of crackers, which contributes significantly to air and noise pollution. As a result, there has been a significant impact on the environment and health of the people. Thus, as a part of the campaign, the Environment Ministry will undertake various activities to create awareness among various stakeholders and encourage people to participate in combating air pollution.

Sohail Mahmoodm, the senior diplomat, has taken charge as the new Pakistan’s high commissioner to India. He succeeded Abdul Basit. The High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi is the diplomatic mission of Pakistan in India. Prior to this, Mahmood served as Pakistan’s ambassador in Turkey.

Tata Power has become the first power utility to introduce a QR code based bill payments system in India. The QR code linked to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be printed on the electricity bills. The customers can scan the QR code with BHIM app or any other UPI linked bank app and pay their bills without any hassle. The bill details will be displayed on the app, post which the customer can authorise the payment within a few seconds and his bill will be paid instantaneously. Some of the advantages of QR code service are that the consumer need not visit any Tata Power bill collection/ customer relation centre or any other payment avenues and can make the payment from the comfort of his home/office or on-the-go. The Tata Power Company Limited is an Indian electric utility company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra and is part of the Tata Group.

Rahul Doshi (12), an Indian-origin boy, has been crowned as the UK’s ‘Child Genius’ in a popular television quiz competition, after answering all questions correctly. He won the Channel 4 show ‘Child Genius’ by beating his nine-year-old opponent – Ronan by 10-4 in the programme’s finale on August 20, 2017. In the final, Rahul impressed with knowledge of his chosen subject – Edward Jenner’s medical innovation and methodology in 18th Century England. He clinched the title by answering a question on 19th Century artists William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. He has an IQ of 162, which is believed to be higher than the likes of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, and qualifies him to be a member of Mensa club – the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world.

MK Damodaran (77), the veteran lawyer and former Advocate General of Kerala, has passed away in Kochi, Kerala. He was one of the most popular figures at the Kerala High Court and was well known for defending the Naxalites during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. He was expert in both criminal and civil cases and was jailed during the Emergency period 1975-77.

Para Athlete Devendra Jhajharia and Hockey player Sardar Singh have been selected for the 2017 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara, Women Cricketer Harmanpreet Kaur and shooter P. N. Prakash are among the 17 sportsmen who will be given Arjuna Awards for their outstanding performance. Seven persons have been chosen for Dronacharya Awards for producing medal winners at prestigious International sports events. They include late Dr. R. Gandhi in Athletics, Brij Bhushan Mohanty in Boxing and P.A. Raphel in the field of hockey. Dhyan Chand Award will be given to Bhupender Singh in Athletics, Syed Shahid Hakim in Football and Sumarai Tete in Hockey for their life time contribution to sports development.The awardees will receive their awards from the President Ram Nath Kovind in a special function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29, 2017.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Union Ministry of Health has inked a pact with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) to collaborate on vaccine research and development. With this partnership, India will commit an annual contribution of $5,00,000 to IVI and joins Sweden and South Korea as financially contributing signatories to IVI. In addition, ICMR will be focussed on research and development of vaccines combatting various infectious diseases. As per official statement, the IVI has 35 signatory countries and India officially became a signatory in 2012. The IVI is an international nonprofit organization i.e. devoted to developing and introducing new and improved vaccine to protect the people, especially children, against deadly infectious diseases. The headquarters of IVI is located in Seoul, South Korea. The ICMR is the apex body in the country for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.

Rishang Keishing (96), the former Manipur Chief Minister and a member of the first Lok Sabha, has passed away in Imphal, Manipur on August 23, 2017. The veteran Congress leader and a Naga served as the chief minister of Manipur from 1980 to 1988 and from 1994 to 1997. The Manipur government has declared that all government offices and educational institutions will be closed on August 24 as mark of respect to Keishing.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in New Delhi to jointly conduct capacity building exercises in the fields of broadcasting and telecommunications regulation. The agreement would help both regulators to work closely in enhancing mutual cooperation and bilateral relations in telecom and broadcasting regulation. The agreement will facilitate exchange of information and regulatory best practices in the fields of broadcasting and telecommunications, including new and emerging areas.

Microsoft has launched its ‘Project Brainwave’ deep learning acceleration platform for real-time artificial intelligence (AI). With the help of ultra-low latency, the system processes requests as fast as it receives them. The ‘Project Brainwave’ uses the massive Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) infrastructure that Microsoft has been deploying over the past few years. The real-time AI is becoming increasingly important as cloud infrastructures process live data streams, whether they be search queries, videos, sensor streams, or interactions with users.

The Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR) is located in Latehar District of Jharkhand and covers an area of 1,129.93 square kilometres. Apart from tigers and elephants, leopards, gaurs, sambars and wild dogs live in the reserve. It forms part of Betla National Park and Palamau Wildlife Sanctuary.

The book “I Do What I Do” has been authored by Rahguram Rajan, the former RBI governor. This book conveys what it was like to be at the helm of RBI in those turbulent but exciting times. Rajan explains economic concepts in a readily accessible way. Equally, he addresses key issues that are not in any banking manual but essential to growth: the need for tolerance and respect to assure India’s economic progress, for instance, or the connection between political freedom and prosperity. The book is published by HarperCollins India and will be launched in Chennai on 4th September 2017, exactly a year after Rajan quit as RBI governor.

According to 2017 report by the United Nations World Tourism (UNWTO), the island of Tuvalu was the least visited country in 2016. Only 2,000 people ventured to the South Pacific paradise of Tuvalu in 2016. The latest report reveals that there are 15 least-visited countries globally. Kiribati is the 2nd least visited country, followed by Sao Tome and Principe, Montserrat, Comoros, Djibouti, San Marino, Timor-Leste, Liechtenstein, Sierra Leone, Anguilla, Moldova, Bangladesh, Bhutan and French Guiana.

The Kerala government has recently launched a new ‘E-Waste Disposal’ scheme in its state schools with an aim to process the electronic waste in the IT labs, offices and stores. Through this scheme, over 1 crore kilogram of e-waste from over 10,000 schools and offices will be scientifically recycle, and the funds earned through this e-waste disposal will be used to buy new computers for the same institutions. The E-waste includes old monitors, mouses, keyboards and UPS, among other things that have been lying unused since 2000 in the state. The programme is a joint initiative of Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), formerly IT@School project and Clean Kerala Company.

Justice Dipak Misra has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of India (CJI) and will have tenure of nearly 13 months. He succeeded Chief Justice J S Khehar. Justice Misra was enrolled as an Advocate in 1977 and practiced in Constitutional, Civil, Criminal, Revenue, Service and Sales Tax matters in the Orissa High Court and the Service Tribunal. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996 and became permanent Judge in December, 1997. He also served as the Chief Justice of Patna and Delhi High Courts. In 2011, Justice Misra was elevated as a Judge in the Supreme Court.

Dhruv Garg, an Indian-origin boy from Wokingham in south east England, in the United Kingdom (UK) has got the highest possible score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test that placed him in the top 1% people in the world who achieved this feat. Garg, who goes to Reading School, a grammar in Berkshire, has also been developing an app to combat social isolation by helping lonely people meet up. The app connects people who live in the same area who want to meet new people. Mensa is believed to be the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. Membership is open to anyone who can demonstrate an IQ in the top two per cent of the population, measured by a recognised or approved IQ testing process.

The Spice Digital Limited (SDL) has received the final licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to process bill payments as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) in the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). The BBPS is a RBI conceptualised system driven by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It is a one-stop payment platform for all bills providing an interoperable and accessible “Anytime Anywhere” bill payment service to all customers across India with certainty, reliability and safety of transactions. The headquarters of the Spice Digital is located at Noida in National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCR). The company provides Telco Solutions, Value Added Services (MVAS), Enterprise Solutions, Financial technology, GSP and Digital transformation products and services. It is a subsidiary of listed entity S Mobility, which has diversified interests in telecom space.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Xiamen in China’s Fujian province to attend the 9th BRICS summit, which will be held from September 3-5, 2017. Subsequently, the Prime Minister will pay a State visit to Myanmar from September 5th to 7th. This will be Prime Minister Modi’s first bilateral State visit to Myanmar. During the visit, Prime Minister will hold discussions with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on matters of mutual interest and also call on President U Htin Kyaw. Apart from his engagements in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, Mr Modi will visit Yangon and Bagan.

The Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) has become the world’s first derivatives exchange to launch diamond futures contract. Initially, the contracts are launched in size of 1 carat with compulsory delivery. This will create an entirely new market for the diamond players where sellers can deliver their certified diamonds to different buyers.The launch will also lead to efficient price discovery based on demand and supply and a nationwide market participation. Till date, over 100 members and around 4,000 clients have registered with the exchange. The exchange will offer a fair, transparent and nationwide market, bringing in large market participation into diamond trade. It will result in efficient price discovery and provide an effective hedging platform for all stakeholders. The new exchange will be able to make a meaningful contribution towards further development of commodity markets.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched the world’s first IAEA Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) bank at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP) in Oskemen, Kazakhstan. The $150 million facility will help ensure a steady supply of low enriched uranium for countries’ nuclear power programmes. The bank is owned and managed by IAEA. It is the first of its kind LEU bank not to be under control of any individual country. The IAEA LEU Bank will be a physical reserve of up to 90 metric tons of low enriched uranium suitable to make fuel for a typical light water reactor, the most widely used type of nuclear power reactor worldwide. The LEU Bank will serve as a last-resort mechanism to provide confidence to countries that they will be able to obtain LEU for the manufacture of fuel for nuclear power plants in the event of an unforeseen, non-commercial disruption to their supplies. The LEU can be used to make enough nuclear fuel to power a large city for three years.

Gobindobhog rice from Burdwan district of West Bengal has recently got the Geographical Indication (GI) status. As a result of getting the GI tag, rice from other regions or rice of other varieties cannot be branded as ‘Gobindobhog’. Hence, the marketability of the rice would be strengthened, for the local, national and international markets. The region of Burdwan (now divided into the districts of east and west Burdwan) is known as the rice bowl of Bengal. This variety of rice is primarily cultivated in east Burdwan district – in the southern basin of the Damodar river in the Raina 1, Raina 2 and Khandaghosh blocks. The south Damodar belt has been the traditional area of Gobindobhog rice cultivation. The rice has several advantages. It is cultivated late and therefore not much affected by rains. It is less prone to pests as well. The productivity per area is high and farmers get better prices for Gobindobhog rice.

The Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd., has been included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934. With this, Ujjivan SFB has attained the status of a Scheduled Bank. This status will enhance the market acceptability of the bank in its effort to garner institutional deposits at a competitive price and participate more actively in the inter-bank market. It also opens the door for issuing Certificates of Deposits (CDs), which will be an important source of funding. Currently, Ujjivan SFB has 65 full-fledged brick and mortar branches in eight states and two Union Territories. It plans to convert 160 existing branches and 29 new Unbanked Rural Centres (URCs) by the end of FY 2017-18 and the remaining branches will be converted over a period of two years in line with RBI approval. The headquarters of Ujjivan SFB is located in Bengaluru.