Current Affair

50 years of bank nationalization

Fifty years after bank nationalisation, banking is still seen as an enterprise driven by social purpose and political considerations-not depositors’ interests. This needs to change. Yashwant Sinha sought to lower the government’s equity in banks to 33 per cent. That he reckoned would enable banks to raise fresh capital without any major dilution of management control.

Source : Indian Express

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‘Hand Made in India’ project

Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) will now look to develop entrepreneurial competencies in about 5,000 weavers, artisans and traders to promote hand-made art.

‘Hand Made in India’ project to turn artisans into entrepreneurs - the project will be implemented in three years and in the first phase, it has been extended to six centres. These handloom clusters include
- Bhuj and Surendranagar in  Gujarat;
- Bargarh in Odisha;
- Kamrup in Assam;
- Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, and
- Salem in Tamil Nadu.

Source : Business Line

Urban Haats:

It is an initiative of the Ministry of Textiles of the Government of India.

The objective of the scheme “Infrastructure and Technology Support” is to setup a permanent marketing infrastructure in big towns/ metropolitan cities to provide direct marketing facilities to the handicrafts artisans/handloom weavers.

The scheme is implemented throughState Handicrafts/Handlooms Development Corporations/Tourism Development Corporations/ Urban Local Bodies with sufficient financial resources and organizational capacity to implement the project.

The financial ceiling for Urban Haat is Rs. 300 lakh for each unit. 80% of the admissible amount is borne by the Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) and 20% contributed by the implementing agency.