India placed __________ in the world's most innovative countries according to the Bloomberg 2019 Innovative Index.

The Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian has been included as the member of the Advisory Council to the 15th Finance Commission headed by N.K. Singh. The Advisory Council now has 12 members after inclusion of Chief Economic Adviser Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian. Other members include Dr. D.K. Srivastava, Dr. Indira Rajaraman, Dr. Arvind Virmani, Dr. Surjit S. Bhalla, Dr. Sanjeev Gupta, Prof. Pinaki Chakraborty, Sajjid Chinoy, Neelkanth Mishra, Prachi Mishra, Dr. M. Govinda Rao, and Dr. Omkar Goswami. The 15th Finance Commission was constituted in November 2017. The role of Commission is to give recommendations for devolution of taxes and other fiscal matters to the central government for 5 years, commencing from April 1, 2020.

25 years old Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia became the first Indian wrestler to fight at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden. He won the gold medal at the 65kg men's freestyle wrestling at the recent Asian Championships. He is the first Indian wrestler to be invited by the American governing body and will take part in the "Grapple at the Garden - Beat the Streets" fight night, which will be held on 6th May 2019. He also won eight gold medals from his previous nine international tournaments including last year's Commonwealth and Asian Games and presently holds World No.1 title in the 65-kg weight category.

The World Sparrow Day (WSD) is observed every year on 20th of March to protect these little birds and conserve their houses. The house sparrow is on the verge of extinction. The 2019 theme "I Love Sparrows" is inspired by hope that more and more will celebrate the relationship between People and Sparrows. The initiative was started by Nature Forever Society (NFS) of India, founded by Mohammed Dilawar, an Indian conservationist. He started his work helping the house sparrow in Nashik. He was also named one of the "Heroes of the Environment" for 2008 by Time for his efforts. The idea of marking WSD came up during an informal discussion at the NFS's office. The idea was to earmark a day for the house sparrow to convey the message of conservation of the house sparrow and other common birds and also mark a day of celebration to appreciate the beauty of the common biodiversity which is taken so much for granted.

According to a recent Asian Development Bank's (ADB) report titled 'Asian Development Outlook 2019: Strengthening Disaster Resilience', around 26 trillion dollars from 2016 to 2030, or 1.7 trillion dollars investment needed per year to build disaster-resilient infrastructure in Asia. Asian Development Outlook 2019.This is because Developing economies across Asia are among the most vulnerable to natural disasters and have suffered damages of around 644 billion dollars since 2000.Of these, approx 507 billion dollars wasted for weather-related hazards while the remaining 137 billion dollars wasted for geophysical hazards.

The English translation of writer Perumal Murugan's novel Mathorubhagan (One Part Woman) has won the Sahitya Akademi's award for translation in English. The translation was done by Aniruddhan Vasudevan and the book was published by Penguin.

Baahubali actor Prabhas have featured in the Most Influential Young Indians Artistes list by GQ India magazine. GQ (formerly Gentlemen's Quarterly) is an international monthly men's magazine based in New York City. It includes Young Indians from a diverse section of professions varying from business,media food and drinks, entertainment, sports and real estate among others.

IDBI Bank has launched 'NRI-Insta Online' account opening process for NRIs residing in Financial Action Task Force (FATF)member countries to open an account in the Bank without visiting the branch or submitting paper documents such as physical documents as well as KYC proofs. This online facility is available in IDBI Bank's website. FATF is an inter-governmental body founded in 1989, which devices policy and sets standards to promote successful implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other similarthreats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Flipkart-owned fashion e-commerce platform Myntra announced that it had appointed celebrity couple Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma as its first brand ambassadors. Myntra has launched the integrated campaign called 'Go Myntra-la-la' which will be promoted across television, print, digital and outdoor.

According to a report by The Economic Times, India's Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would tighten rules on opening and operating current accounts of corporate borrowers to prevent the diversion of funds. sRBI had notified that the banks with collection accounts will have to transfer funds to the current account and the current accounts could be opened only with the lead bank of a lending association. The rules would be applicable to corporates who have borrowed and used credit facilities of more than Rs 50 crore from the banking system.