* Kerala’s first tribal novelist and short story writer, Narayan has been passed away at the age of 82 in Kochi due to age-related ailments and had tested Covid positive.

* He was born in the Malayaraya community in Kadayathur hills in Thodupuzha taluk in 1940.

* His debut novel, 'Kocharethi' published in 1998, was selected for the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in 1999.

* The novel has been translated to English, Hindi and south Indian languages.

* Ratan Tata has backed Goodfellows, a senior companionship startup (undisclosed amount) that provides companionship services to senior citizens.

* The startup is designed to pair senior citizens with young graduates to form meaningful friendships.

* The company offers a freemium subscription model in which the first month is free only to understand the concept without actually going through it.

* The second month onward, the user has to pay a small subscription fee.

* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Electronics and Information Technology Secretary of India, Alkesh Kumar Sharma to a panel of 10 eminent experts on internet governance.

* The panel includes: Vint Cerf, Hatem Dowidar, Lise Fuhr, Maria Fernanda Garza, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Maria Ressa, Karoline Edtstadler, Gbenga Sesan, Lan Xue.

* Agenda: To deal with strategic and urgent issues of the Internet and provide solution

• The Delhi High Court has passed an order to constitute a 3-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run daily affairs of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

• Agenda: To prepare the new constitution of IOA as per the Sports Code and the court rulings, and prepare the electoral roll in order to hold fresh elections.

• The CoA will be assisted by three sportspersons — Abhinav Bindra (Shooter), Anju Bobby George (former long jumper) and L Bombayla Devi (archer).

• The State Bank of India (SBI) has announced the launch of its first "state-of-the-art" dedicated branch for start-ups in India to facilitate and support them.

• The branch has been launched by SBI chairman Dinesh Khara, and is located in Koramangala, Bangalore (Silicon Valley of India).

• After Bengaluru, the second and third branches will be launched in Gurgaon and Hyderabad respectively.

• The branch has also entered into MOUs with the government of Karnataka initiatives.

• Axis Bank has signed an MoU with Food Corporation of India (FCI) to provide “Ultima Salary Package” with exclusive benefits & features to all its employees.

• Features of Ultima salary Package:

• Personal Accidental cover: up to Rs.20 lakhs

• Additional Education Grant: upto Rs. 8 lakhs

• Total Permanent Disability Cover benefit: up to Rs. 20 lakhs

• Permanent Partial disability: up to Rs.20 lakhs

• Air Accident cover of Rs. 1 Crore

• The Railway Protection Force (RPF) launched a pan-India operation known as Operation Yatri Suraksha to provide round-the-clock security to passengers.

• It facilities surveillance through CCTV, checking on active criminals, presence of a person at different stations to reduce crime.

• The RPF has launched a month-long pan-India drive against criminals who loot passengers in July 2022.

• The RPF caught 365 suspects who were handed over to the concerned GRPs for legal action.

• Bank of Baroda (BoB) has launched the ‘Baroda Tiranga Deposit Scheme’, a special retail term deposit product that offers interest rates of 5.75% for 444 days and 6% for 555 days.

• This scheme is applicable on retail deposits below ₹2 crore and remain in force till December 31, 2022.

• Senior citizens will earn an additional interest rate of 0.50%, while non-callable deposits will get 0.15% extra.

• BoB Headquarters: Alkapuri, Vadodara; CEO: Sanjiv Chadha

• Yes Bank has announced its partnership with SellerApp (a seller-centric intelligence platform) to adopt Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC).

• This partnership will help them to expand their digital commerce footprint.

• ONDC is a strategic initiative of the Indian government with an aim to democratize the entire digital commerce space.

• The network is also being built as an alternative to e-tailers like Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon in the Indian eCommerce market.

• Sikkim Chief Minister, P S Tamang has launched two welfare schemes for women - ‘Vatsalya Yojana’ and ‘Aama Yojana’.

• Vatsalya Yojana:

• An aid of Rs 3 lakh will be provided to childless women for in vitro fertilization treatment.

• The amount will be given in two phases (Rs 1 lakh in the first and Rs two lakh in the last phase).

• Aama Yojana:

• All unemployed mothers in the state will receive Rs 20,000 annually.

• Amount will be deposited in their bank accounts.