India and ADB Sign $175 Million Loan Agreement

The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $175 million loan agreement to support construction of high voltage transmission systems to evacuate power generated from new mega solar parks to the interstate grid, and improve reliability of the national grid system. The loan will be given to the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) and will include subprojects in various locations in India. As an innovative feature, the project is designed to adopt the country systems on both safeguards and procurement at the agency level. This will be the ADB’s first breakthrough of the country system’s application to a specific project.

ADB says India growth to accelerate to 7.4% in 2017-18

 

India’s economic growth will accelerate to 7.4% during 2017-18, and go up further to 7.6% in the next fiscal, as the impact of demonestisation fades and as reforms pick up pace, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on 6th April 2017. With more than 7% growth, ADB said India will continue to outpace China and other nations in Asia.

S.P. Bala Subramanyam and Hema Malini bag NTR awards

The Andhra Pradesh government has announced NTR National Film Award to renowned singer S.P. Bala Subramanyam for 2012 and to Hindi film actor Hema Malini for 2013. The NTR award carries a cash award of Rs. 5 lakh and a citation. The State government revived the presentation of four prestigious awards instituted in the name of eminent film personalities– NTR, B.N. Reddy, Nagireddy and Chakrapani (all national ) and Raghupathi Venkaiah Film Award after a gap of five years.

PV Sindhu clinch India Open World Superseries title

 

PV Sindhu beats Spanish Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the final of the Yonex India Open World Superseries to clinch maiden title.

Finance Bill gets presidential assent

President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the Finance Bill 2017 to give effect to provisions like bar on cash transactions above Rs 2 lakh and compulsory quoting of Aadhaar for filing tax returns. With this, the provisions of the Finance Bill come into effect from 1st April 2017.