1. Bharatiya Mahila Bank inks MoUs with LIC, New India Assurance
- i. Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd has entered into MoUs with New India Assurance Company Ltd and Life Insurance Corporation of India to provide insurance cover to its accountholders.
- ii. The insurance covers are being provided under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Suraksha Bima Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Jeevanjyoti Bima Yojana schemes respectively.
- iii. The insurance option is voluntary and comes at a premium of Rs. 12 for the PM Jan Suraksha Bima Yojana and Rs. 330 for the PM Jeevanjyoti Bima Yojana.
- iv. The age eligibility under the former is 18-70 years and under the latter 18-50 years. The enrolment period under the schemes will be from June 1, 2015, to August 31, 2015.
- i. Former Governor of Assam and three-time Chief Minister of Odisha Janaki Ballav Patnaik passed away in a private hospital at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
- ii. He was born in Puri district on January 3, 1927. He was Chief Minister of Odisha from 1980 to 1989 and again from 1995 to 1999.
- iii. He was also the Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly from 2004 to 2009.
- iv. Mr. Patnaik, who started his career as a journalist, was a Sanskrit scholar and wrote several books.
- i. An Egyptian criminal court sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsy to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012.
- ii. The case stems from violence outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Morsy’s supporters attacked opposition protesters, sparking clashes that killed at least 10 people.
- iii. 12 Brotherhood leaders and supporters, including Mohammed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian, also were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
- i. Chennai-based local listing services provider Sulekha.com has raised Rs. 175 crore from the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore-GIC and Norwest Venture Partners.
- ii. The Chennai-based company has about 50 lakh businesses listed on its platform.
- iii. Satya Prabhakar is the Founder and CEO of Sulekha.com.
- i. Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to unveil a $46 billion infrastructure spending plan in Pakistan that is a centerpiece of Beijing’s ambitions to open new trade and transport routes across Asia and challenge the U.S. as the dominant regional power.
- ii. The plan will be known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.
- iii. China sees a historic opportunity to redraw the geopolitical map by succeeding where the U.S. has largely failed.
- iv. A cornerstone of the project will be to develop the Pakistani port of Gwadar, a warm-water port run by the Chinese on the doorstep of the Middle East.
- i. With an aim of monitoring implementation of various ongoing projects including Rail Budget proposals, railways today launched E-Samiksha, an online monitoring mechanism.
- ii. Now each and every project implementation can be monitored on real-time basis, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here after launching the system.
- iii. Designed by NIC, the software is currently being used by Cabinet Secretariat, PMO and other Ministries for monitoring progress implementation of various programmes and follow-up of meetings.
- iv. Apart from budget-related projects, the E-Samiksha can also be used for monitoring the infrastructure target and board meeting follow-up.
- i. A Japanese magnetic levitation train has broken its own world speed record, hitting 603km/h (374mph) in a test run near Mount Fuji.
- ii. The train beat the 590km/h speed it had set last week in another test.
- iii. Japan is known for its shinkansen that run on steel rails, but has been investing in maglev technology which it is hoping to sell overseas.
- iv. Central Japan Railway (JR Central), which owns the trains, wants to introduce the service between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya by 2027.