• Tata Capital, the financial services subsidiary of Tata Group, has announced the launch of ‘Swift Insta Personal Loan’ (SIPL) on Whatsapp where the existing customers can easily apply loans and receive sanctions for personal loans using the company’s chatbot TIA on Whatsapp.

• The company launched TIA in whatsapp recently as a service platform dealing with an array of requests, including providing EMI details or updating customer records, where the medium connected well with the customers.

• Now, with the introduction of SIPL on whatsapp, it allows to service and sanction loans all on a single platform.

• At present, the platform will be available in a comprehensive manner offering only personal loans.

• The platform will be further expanded to other loan categories as well, the company mentioned in an official release.

• Vedanta announced its tie up for a long term syndicated loan facility for Rs.10000 crore with State bank of India(SBI) as facility agent and SBICAP Trustee Company limited (SBICTCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Market Limited(SBICAP) as the security trustee with door to door tenor of 7 years.

• Syndicated loan is a loan offered by a group of lenders to provide credit to a large borrower.

• As a lender State Bank of India(SBI) has committed Rs.5000 crore.

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited has introduced an Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered voice chatbot, “LiGo”, on Google Assistant.

• This will enable the company’s policyholders to address their queries by simple voice commands. It provides an easy to use and convenient service touch-point for customers.

• Expanding the functionalities of LiGo to Google Assistant is part of the company’s strategy to be on platforms that customers prefer and to offer them an immersive experience.

• The customers by activating ‘Google Assistant’ on their Android smartphones and speaking out their policy number or registered phone number, they can instantly access the information about their policies.

• ICICI Bank has launched ‘Home Utsav’, a virtual property exhibition that digitally showcases real estate projects by renowned developers from key cities across the country.

• The exhibition is available for everyone, including ICICI Bank’s customers and those who are not customers of the Bank.

• It offers them enhanced convenience, as they can simply browse through these projects online, from the comfort of their home and office.

• They can also avail exclusive offers such as attractive interest rates, special processing fees and digital sanction of loans, on buying a property through this exhibition.

• Apex body on data protection in India, set up by NASSCOM, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), along with PayPal India released a report titled ‘Fraud & Risk Management in Digital Payments’.

• The report suggests to safeguard payments for consumers, MSMEs, businesses, as the e-commerce market in India and UPI transactions are growing manifold during the recent times. It also discussed about the threats in the payment ecosystem and its prevention.

• The Government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) received the nod from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to form its Crop Insurance Firm Andhra Pradesh General Insurance Company (APGIC).

• Andhra Pradesh is among the few states like Bihar, West Bengal that has chosen to have their own crop insurance schemes.

• Andhra Pradesh General Insurance Company (APGIC) will run the state’s own YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme.

• The authorised share capital of the company is Rs 101 Crores divided into 10.10 Crore equity shares of Rs 10 each.

• To provide convenient and affordable options of Federal Bank Debit Cards through Innoviti Point of Sale (POS) terminals, the Federal Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd (Innoviti) have entered into a partnership.

• The partnership will offer Equated Monthly Installments (EMIs) options to over 7.5 million Federal Bank Debit Card holders at over 70,000 Innoviti POS terminals across 1000 cities.

• The partnership is in view of COVID-19 crisis as people are cautious about their spending and still will need affordable options in essential categories such as healthcare, education and IT (computers and laptops).

• Through this partnership customers can access the credit, which can be repaid in convenient Equated Monthly Installments(EMIs) through their Federal Bank Debit Card, particularly in smaller Tier 2/Tier 3 towns.

• India will receive an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of an amount of JPY50 billion (approx. Rs. 3,500 crore) from the government of Japan.

• Japan has committed the loan for the COVID-19 Crisis Emergency Response Support in order to fight the COVID-19 crisis.

• The ODA loan will support India’s efforts in its fight against COVID-19. It will also assist the country to prepare the health system to handle future epidemics. It will also increase the resilience of India’s health systems against infectious diseases.

• Japanese government has also committed Grant Assistance of an amount of JPY 1 billion (approx. Rs. 70 crore) for offering medical equipment to bolster the public health and medical system in India.

• As per the official data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) India’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2020-21 from that in the same quarter last financial year.

• This was mainly on account of limited economic activity in the country during the quarter amid lockdowns to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

• This is the first instance of an economic contraction for the country in at least four decades, and also the first GDP decline since India began publishing quarterly numbers in 1996.

• 2nd metro rail project supported by the EIB in Uttar Pradesh(UP), following the €450 million investment in Lucknow metro rail system.

• Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (UPMRC) is the promoter-Financial intermediary for this project.

• €650 million(Rs 5,551.99 crore) investment is the 5th investment of EIB in green infrastructure and connectivity in India i:e Bhopal, Pune, Bangalore and Lucknow.

• This investment will boost GOI and its Urban Development “Smart Cities Mission”, as Kanpur is one of the first 100 targeted Smart Cities in the country.

• The project will also help India to achieve few UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely: SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 11 (sustainable cities) and SDG 5 (gender equality).