• India ranked 20th among the 100 countries in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021 by Startup Blink.

• The country was in the 17th spot in 2019 and slid six spots down in 2020 and stood at 23.

• Like last year, the US, the UK, Israel, Canada and Germany are in the top five spots.

• The report has a score for each location, which is calculated as the sum of three parameters — quantity, quality and business environment.

• Axis Bank has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate its digital transformation programme.

• Axis bank and AWS signed a multi-year agreement, under which the bank will use AWS to build a portfolio of new digital financial services and modernise core banking applications.

• Axis Bank has deployed over 25 mission-critical applications on AWS, including a Buy Now Pay Later product and a new loan management system to support it, Account Aggregator, Video-Know Your Customer, and WhatsApp banking.

• Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private sector bank.

• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank has partnered with digital lender LoanTap to provide personal loans to salaried professionals.

• This move comes as part of Ujjivan’s Small Finance Bank’s API banking initiative.

• Through this initiative over 150 APIs will be made available, which in turn will offer fast and secure tie-ups for the purposes of digital lending, digital liabilities and payments to fintechs.

• This move also serves a dual purpose of extending the bank’s financial services to a larger array of customers through LoanTap’s platform, which will make these activities smoother and more convenient for their salaried class customers who are seeking loans.

• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank offers personal loans ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh with a maximum tenure of 48 months on LoanTap’s platform

• In Chess, Abhimanyu Mishra made history by becoming the youngest chess Grandmaster, breaking the record of 12 years and seven months set by Sergey Karjakin in 2002.

• Abhimanyu reached the milestone in 12 years, four months, and 25 days.

• The 12-year-old player from New Jersey scored his third GM norm in Budapest, having already crossed the required 2500 ELO rating barrier.

• He went on to defeat 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca, securing a performance rating higher than 2600 over nine rounds, which constitutes a GM norm.

• The government’s flagship programme- Digital India has completed six years on 1^st July 2021.

• The vision of Digital India programme is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched this ambitious programme on 1st July ,2015.

• The Digital India journey in the past 6 years has centred around empowerment, inclusion, and digital transformation. It has positively impacted all aspects of the lives of Indian citizens through Aadhaar, Direct Benefit Transfer, Common Services Centres, DigiLocker and mobile-based UMANG services.

• Through Aadhaar, the Government has provided digital identity to 129 crore residents of the country with 99 per cent coverage of adult population.

• India ranked 20th among the 100 countries in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021 by Startup Blink.

• The country was in the 17th spot in 2019 and slid six spots down in 2020 and stood at 23.

• Like last year, the US, the UK, Israel, Canada and Germany are in the top five spots.

• The report has a score for each location, which is calculated as the sum of three parameters — quantity, quality and business environment.

• The Centre has granted a one-year extension to Amitabh Kant (1980 IAS), CEO of NITI Aayog till June 2022.

• He played an instrumental role in initiatives such as Make in India, Start-up India, Incredible India and "God's Own Country" initiatives.

• He has also been piloting the Union government’s ease of doing business initiative.

• He was appointed as the CEO of the public policy think tank in 2016.

• NITI Aayog Est. in 1st January 2015.

• The Reserve Bank it has imposed penalties on four co-operative banks for contravention of certain regulatory directions.

• A penalty Rs 112.50 lakh has been imposed on Hyderabad-based Andhra Pradesh Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank, Rs 62.50 lakh on The Ahmedabad Mercantile Co-operative Bank, Rs 37.50 lakh on SVC Co-operative Bank, Mumbai; and Rs 25 lakh on Saraswat Cooperative Bank, Mumbai.

• The penalty on Andhra Pradesh Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank was for non-compliance with directions issued by RBI contained in Master Directions on 'Interest Rate on Deposits' and 'Know Your Customer'.

• The Ahmedabad Mercantile Co-operative Bank has been penalised for violation of norms contained in Master Directions on 'Interest Rate on Deposits'.

• India is ranked 10th in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 (GCI) released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

• It is a United Nations (UN) agency for information and communication technologies (ICT).

• India jumps 37 places from 47th in the previous ranking.

• The GCI is a composite index produced, analysed and published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

• The US is ranked first, followed by the UK.

• China ranked 33rd and Pakistan at 79th place.

• India's Rahi Sarnobat won gold medal in women's 25 metres pistol event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Osijek, Croatia.

• Rahi shot 39 out of 50 in the 25m pistol final to win the first gold for India in the ongoing World Cup.

• The silver went to France's Mathilde Lamolle, who scored 31 in the final.

• In the in the women's 25m pistol event she along with Chinki Yadav and Manu Bhaker won the team gold medal.

• India successfully test-fired a brand new missile in its most ambitious Agni series from a defense facility off Odisha coast.

• The first test of the new generation nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni Prime was conducted from the launching complex IV of Abdul Kalam Island. 

• Indigenously developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the missile met all mission objectives.

• Agni P is the latest and most advanced variant of the Agni class of missiles.

• It is a canisterised missile with a range capability between 1000 km and 2000 km.

• Every year, countries across the globe celebrate International Day of the Tropics on 29th June.

• The day intends to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of the Tropics.

• The Tropics are a region of the Earth that fall between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.

• Tropical regions are home to around 95 per cent of the world's mangrove forests by area and 99 per cent of mangrove species.

• They also house around 54 per cent of the renewable water resources and biodiversity in the region is also much greater at 80 per cent.

• Noted journalist P. Sainath has been selected as one of the three recipients of the Fukuoka Prize for 2021.

• Mr. Sainath will receive the ‘Grand Prize’ of the Fukuoka Prize while the Academic Prize and the Prize for Arts and Culture will go to Prof. Kishimoto Mio of Japan and filmmaker Prabda Yoon of Thailand respectively.

• The Fukuoka Prize is given annually to distinguished people to foster and increase awareness of Asian cultures, and to create a broad framework of exchange and mutual learning among the Asian people.

• The Grand Prize has earlier been awarded to Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh, historian Romila Thapar, and sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan. Eleven Indians have received the Fukuoka Prize so far.

• The Narendra Modi Government extended its flagship employment scheme - the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana till 31 March 2022.

• The scheme was earlier open till 30 June 2021.

• The announcement was made by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a press conference.

• This was one of the 8 relief measures announced by the FM. 

• The relief measures were announced amid the second coronavirus wave.

• Indian Naval Ship Tabar commenced her prolonged deployment on June 13.

• It will visit a number of ports in Africa and Europe till the end of September.

• It will also participate in a number of joint exercises with friendly navies.

• The ship will transit across the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea while making port calls at Djibouti, Egypt, Italy, France, UK, Russia, Netherlands, Morocco, and Arctic Council countries like Sweden and Norway.

• During port visits, the ship is scheduled to participate in bilateral exercises like Ex Konkan with UK Royal Navy, Ex Varuna with French Navy, and Ex Indra with Russian Federation Navy, to strengthen military relations, develop interoperability, and project long-range sustenance.

• National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) executive director, Meenesh Shah has been assigned the additional charge of the post of Chairman of NDDB.

• He Varsha Joshi whose tenure ended on May 31.

• Shah had taken over the post for a period of six months with effect from June 1.

• Shah is a member secretary of the Indian National Committee (INC) of the International Dairy Federation (IDF).

• International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has constituted a committee to examine global best practices in ship financing and leasing.

• This Committee will also identify opportunities and devise a roadmap to enable such activities.

• The committee will be chaired by former Senior Economic Advisor, Vandana Aggarwal.

• India is strategically located on the world’s shipping routes and has a large coastline of over seven thousand 500 kilometres.

• India also has 12 major and over 200 minor ports.

• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has expanded the definition of small and medium sized companies (SMCs) by raising their turnover and borrowing limits.

• The move is to simplify accounting processes and lessen compliance burden for small firms.

• According to the new definition, an SMC is an unlisted company, which are not banks, financial institutions or insurance firms with sales of up to Rs 250 crore and borrowings up to Rs 50 crore.

• Earlier, companies with sales of Rs 50 crore and borrowings of Rs 10 crore under the general accounting standards were qualified to be called SMC.

• The Companies (Accounting Standards) Rules, 2021, will be effective from April 1, 2021.

• Odisha govt and UN World Food Programme (WFP) have joined hands to improve household food and nutritional security by strengthening livelihood initiatives.

• This was done reaching thousands of state-supported Women's Self-Help Groups (WSHGs).

• The partnership for achieving nutritional security in Odisha focused on empowerment, livelihood and incomes of women.

• This collaboration will support Women's Self-Help Groups (WSHGs) by providing technical assistance and capacity development, directly contributing to long-term food security and developing a replicable model.

• State Bank of India (SBI) has announced Aarogyam Healthcare Business Loan.

• Under this facility the entire healthcare ecosystem such as hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic centres etc can avail loans of up to ₹100 crore repayable in 10 years.

• The loan can be availed either as term loan to support expansion/modernisation or as working capital facilities such as cash credit, bank guarantee/letter of credit.

• In metro centres, loans can be availed up to ₹100 crore, tier I & urban centres up to ₹20 crore and in tier II to tier VI centres up to ₹10 crore.