Which economic corridor was excluded from the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) recently?

India's National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has recently announced for Rs. 700 crore project funds for equity investments in agriculture and rural start-ups. NABARD was used to contribute to other funds but it is for the first time when NABARD launched its own funds. This project was launched by Nabventures, an auxiliary unit of NABARD. NABARD proposed amount of Rs 500 crore with an option to retain over-subscriptions of Rs 200 crore. Company names it green-shoe option. With this initiative NABARD will assist those start-ups who are engaged in agriculture and rural areas' development.

The Intellectual Property Rights cell (IPR cell) of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has been selected for the National Intellectual Property Award 2019 for its contributions in best facilitation for registration of Geographical Indications and promotion of registered GI in the country. This award comprising prize money of Rs 1 lakh and will be presented in a function to be held in New Delhi on 26th April, World Intellectual Property Day 2019. The award was constituted by the Indian Intellectual Property Office under the central ministry of industry and commerce to confer the persons and organizations working in the field of patents, trademarks and Geographical Indications (GI).

The last known female member of Yangtze giant softshell turtle, 90 years old, died in Suzhou Zoo, China. Now, there are only three left in the world. The Wildlife Conservations Society (WCS) declares the Yangtze giant softshell turtle the world's most critically endangered turtle species. One male Yangtze giant softshell turtle lives in Suzhou Zoo and the other two in Vietnam.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) inked an agreement with Mumbai-based Prin. L N Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research in order to support startups engaged in the export sector. Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), FIEO launched a post graduate programme in foreign trade management (PGP-FTM) at Mumbai. The main aim of this industry-academia partnership is to attract new entrepreneurs in exports to bridge the gap of availability of qualified skilled manpower in Exim trade. The programme consist of general management principles, export-import procedures, and international marketing concepts and the duration of the programme will be 11 months. The programme will be offered in 2 batches.

Common Service Centre's (CSC) e-Governance Services India Limited, a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Electronics & IT, has tied up with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur to upscale 'Unnat Bharat Abhiyan'. 'Unnat Bharat Abhiyan' is an initiative of the Ministry of HRD. It aims to find solutions to accelerate sustainable growth in rural India. Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, IIT-Kanpur has brought together 15 leading higher education institutions from Uttar Pradesh. These institutions have agreed to work with CSC for the development of villages under the scheme.

India's Haj Quota has been increased by about 25,000, raising the number to 2 lakh from 1.75 lakh by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave the assurance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a meeting in February. This will help the huge number of pilgrim of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihar to embark pilgrimage this year. Also, total 2,340 Muslim women from India will go for Haj without 'Mehram' or male companion. This year, the GST on Haj pilgrimage has been reduced from 18 percent to 5 percent which will ensure that about Rs 113 crore will be saved by pilgrims during the 2019 Haj.

WHO (World Health organization) collaborated with the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) to eliminate industrially produced trans fat (iTFA) from food supply worldwide by 2023. Trans fat-intake leads to coronary heart disease, due to which globally 5,00,000 deaths occur every year. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO had a meeting with the IFBA representatives, that included CEOs (chief executive officers) from around 12 companies comprising IFBA. The meeting stressed on the steps that are needed to be taken to eliminate industrial trans fats, decrease salt, sugar and saturated fats in processed foods. Decision was taken by the IFBA members to make sure that the amount of industrial trans fat in their products does not go beyond 2 gram of iTFA per 100 gram fat/oil globally by 2023. This aligns with the WHO's mission of its REPLACE action package, developed and launched in 2018.

UN labour agency International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its recent report titled "The Safety and the Health at the Heart of the Future of Work- Building on 100 years of Experience" termed Bhopal Gas Tragedy as one of the world's 'major industrial accident' which killed more than 15,000 people due to the result of at least 30 tons of highly toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas leak in Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal in 1984. In the report, ILO has reported that more than 600,000 workers were affected due to leak of toxic gas from Union Carbide plant.Other major industrial accident after 1919 which ILO talked about in its report is Chernobyl nuclear disaster of Ukraine in 1986, Fukushima nuclear disasters of Japan in 2011 and Rana Plaza building collapse of Bangladesh in 2013.

SEBI in his guidelines titled "Guidelines for Determination of Allotment and Trading Lot Size for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs)" has reduced the minimum subscription requirement as well as defined trading lots for REITs and InvITs.For determining the allotment in an initial offer and follow on public offers, REITs have to offer their units in lots worth at least Rs 50,000 and in case of InvITs, the minimum value of a single lot should be Rs 1 lakh.The allotment to any investor shall be made in the multiples of a lot.For initial listing in case of REITs and InvITs, a trading lot should be of 100 units and for follow on public offers, each lot shall consists of such number of units in its trading lot as it had at the time of initial offer. Moreover, SEBI has also increased leverage limit for InvITs from 49 percent to 70 percent.

The world's largest airplane called 'Roc' weighing nearly 2,26,800 kilograms with a 385-foot wingspan took its first ever flight in Mojave, California. Built by Stratolaunch, it's designed to launch rockets into orbit from the air. The plane is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage and is designed to fly to an altitude of 35,000 feet. The aircraft is so big its wing span is longer than a football field, or about 1.5 times that of an Airbus A380. It hit a top speed of 304 kilometers per hour (189 mph) and reached an altitude of 17,000 feet, or 5,182 meters.