Which international development finance institution, has predicted 1.7 trillion dollars is required to build disaster-resilient infrastructure in Asia?

United Nations (UN) owes India USD 38 million, the highest it has to pay to any country, for the peacekeeping operations as of March 2019. In a report on improving the financial situation of the world body, as of March 31, 2019, the total amount payable to troop- and police-contributing countries with respect to active peacekeeping missions was USD 265 million. Of this, the UN owes USD 38 million to India, followed by Rwanda (USD 31 million), Pakistan (USD 28 million), Bangladesh (USD 25 million) and Nepal (USD 23 million). The arrears to troop- and police-contributing (TCCs/PCCs) countries could increase to USD 588 million by June 2019 "in the worst-case scenario".

Syndicate Bank and BEML Limited (Bharat Earth Movers Limited) have signed an agreement for financing Earth Moving and Construction Equipment which is manufactured by BEML. Also, it will facilitate the availability of loans and address the growing demand for higher capacity equipment in the Mining Industry.Under this agreement, the customers will be provided loans in the range of Rs 20 Lakh to Rs 300 Lakh and preferential pricing by Syndicate Bank. Also, Syndicate Bank and BEML expect to book business worth Rs.100 crore by March 2020.

Artificial Intelligence based HR solutions provider, Talocity will provide Yes Bank its touchless technology in hiring process for Yes bank. This is done to enhance the hiring process with unbiased HR outcomes and to attain high-quality talent. In the process of recruitment, candidates are interviewed by an AI bot on a one-way video platform. Talocity's machine learning and AI capabilities will create personality report of each job applicant. This creates a unique evaluation platform which is effective without any human involvement and helpful in large volume hiring.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notified that Exim Bank has proffered soft loans worth 266.6$ million to Rwanda for various projects. The funding for the projects has been done in 3 distinct tranches. The projects are for supporting agricultural projects; for the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs); for financing road projects in Rwanda. Exim Bank, according to the agreement will provide $100 million to finance the development of 2 SEZs, as well as for the expansion of the Kigali SEZ in Rwanda.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has turned down IDBI Bank's proposal to change its name following the transfer of a controlling 51% stake to LIC, insurance behemoth, from the government of India. The board of IDBI Bank had, last month, sought the RBI's approval for a change in the name of the lender to either LIC IDBI Bank or LIC Bank following the takeover by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). However, RBI did not elaborate on the reasons for denial by the regulator for changing the name.

The Reserve Bank set the average base rate to be charged from borrowers by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) at 9.21% for the first quarter of the next fiscal (April-June). The regulator in February 2014 had issued directions to NBFC-MFIs regarding pricing of credit.

Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) stated that it will charge customers for UPI transactions starting 1st of May 2019. For each Kotak Bank account, the first 30 UPI fund transfers will be free after which a charge will be levied on all fund transfers from the bank account. This will be applicable across all platforms, including Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay or Truecaller Pay among others. The bank will charge Rs 2.50 per transaction for an amount value below or equal to Rs 1,000, and Rs 5 per transaction will be levied for a payment value above Rs 1,000.

Global card payments brand Mastercard has announced its plan of investing $1 billion in India operations over the period of next 5 years. About $350 million of the total amount would be invested in setting up a local payments processing center as per the Reserve Bank of India's mandate to store all payments data locally. The rest of the investment will go towards existing services and expanding capacity among others. This is the first such processing center of the company outside of the US and could provide service markets such as Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has divested its entire stake in National Housing Bank (NHB) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for Rs 1,450 crore and Rs 20 crore, respectively. The move is part of ending the cross-holding in regulatory institutions and follows the recommendation of second Narasimham committee report of October 2001 and the RBI's own discussion paper on the same entitled 'Harmonizing the role and operations of development financial institutions and banks. The current change in the capital structure of both these financial institutions was brought in by the government through amendments to the Nabard Act of 1981 and the NHB Act of 1987 which were notified on January 19, 2018 and March 29, 2018, respectively. With this, the Government of India (GoI) now holds 100% stake in both these financial institutions.

SBI Card raised Rs. 700 crore from various financial institutions including its parent SBI (State Bank of India) in the 2nd half of FY19 (Financial Year) to grow above the industry average. SBI Cards and Payment Services Pvt. Ltd (SBI Card) raised Rs. 100 crore from ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd, Rs. 250 crore from State Bank of India and Rs. 50 crore each from Canara Bank and Axis Bank by issuing NCDs (Non Convertible Debentures) at 9.15% coupon. SBI Card also raised additional Rs. 250 crore from Axis Bank through a coupon of 9.55%. The Rs. 700 crore fundraise is part of SBI Card's plan to raise Rs. 1,500 crore in a few tranches.