• Food Processing minister Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated a mega food park (MFP) at Phagwara in Kapurthala district of Punjab that will benefit 25,000 farmers and create 5,000 jobs.

• This MFP built at project cost of Rs 107.83 crores and spread over 55 acres of land is expected to benefit about 25000 farmers.

• Till date, 37 MFPs have been sanctioned and 20 have already started functioning.

• The New Development Bank (NDB), headquartered in Shanghai, has approved a US$500 million loan fund for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project to further improve the public transport system and ease the national capital area.

• Crowding took a step forward. The Ministry of Urban Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the National Capital Region Transportation Corporation (NCRTC) and multilateral banks signed loan agreements.

• These funds will be used to finance rolling stock, signalling systems, operating structures, operating personnel's residences, train control and telecommunications systems.

• The loan term of the New Development Bank is 25 years and the grace period is 8 years.

• The GOI has sanctioned a loan amount for the development of micro-irrigation projects in Tamil Nadu.

• In this regards, GOI has sanctioned a loan of Rs 3,971 crores at a subsidised interest rate under micro-irrigation Fund (MIF).

• The MIF is created by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for implementing micro-irrigation projects.

• In FY 2019-20, GOI created MIF with a Corpus of Rs 5,000 crores with an aim to provide subsidized loan for Indian states for increasing their coverage of micro-irrigation.

• The World Bank has inked USD 120 million project with the Government of India and the Government of Meghalaya, which will help to improve and modernize the transport sector of Meghalaya.

• The loan has been sanctioned for the Meghalaya Integrated Transport Project (MITP).

• This will improve about 300 km of strategic road segments and stand-alone bridges by using innovative, climate resilient, and nature-based solutions and eventually help Meghalaya to harness its vast growth potential for high-value agriculture and tourism.

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd on Monday announced the acquisition of Postbank Systems AG, the technology services unit of Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG.

• The transaction is expected to be completed by the year-end, subject to regulatory approvals.

• Postbank Systems provides project management, application management and infrastructure support services to Deutsche Bank.

• TCS will acquire the shares of Postbank Systems and absorb its 1,500 employees.

• Larsen & Toubro(L&T) has emerged as the lowest bidder with Rs.3166 crores for the construction of the 20 kilometer(km) 4 lane road bridge across River Brahmaputra connecting Dhubri of Assam to Phulbair of Meghalaya on National Highway(NH) 127B.

• This will be India’s longest Bridge over a River in the northeast.

• National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) is the executing agency and is expected to be completed by 2026-27.

• This river bridge project is financed by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

• This project will enable better connectivity between the Northeastern states to the rest of India.

• The approach including the embankment and viaduct in Dhubri and Phulbari will be around 4.3 km and 2.3 km respectively.

• In accordance with the report titled “FDI in India: Now, Next and Beyond” by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY), India may attract foreign direct investment (FDI) of $120-160 billion per year by 2025.

• This is on the condition to increase the FDI to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio between 3-4% from less than 2% now.

• Notably, India’s GDP grew 6.8% in the past 10 years with FDI to GDP at 1.8%.

• India’s GDP growth could also improve to 7-8% growth if the investments come in.

• The investors ranked India third in terms of attractiveness and 80% of them have planned for investment in India in the next two to three years. Out of them 25% investments are worth over $500 million.

• States-wise Maharashtra remains the most attractive destination (28%), followed by Karnataka (19%), Delhi (16%) and Gujarat (10%).

• The U.S. has emerged as the second biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India after Singapore, replacing Mauritius, during the first half of the current financial year, according to data of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.

• During April-September 2020, India attracted FDI worth $7.12 billion from the U.S. and $2 billion from Mauritius, which slipped to fourth position, the DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) data showed.

• Singapore with $8.30 billion foreign inflows continued to be the top source of FDI for India in April-September 2020-21. The country has received $2.1 billion inflows from Cayman Isands.

• The islands was followed by Netherlands ($1.5 billion), U.K. ($1.35 billion), France ($1.13 billion), Japan ($653 million) , Germany ($202 million), and Cyprus ($48 million).

• The Government of India recently signed 133 million USD loan Agreement with the Asian Development Bank. Agreement was signed to strengthen the power distribution sector in the state of Meghalaya.

• Also, the loan is to be supplemented with a 2 million USD grant from the Asian Development Bank Japan fund for poverty reduction.

• This fund was basically allocated to finance renewable energy projects and support income generation activities for disadvantaged groups and women.

• It is to be used to finance renewable energy mini-grids to improve power quality.

• The loan is to be used to to modernize the power distribution network in Meghalaya and improve quality of power in industries, households and businesses.

• Manipal Hospitals, the multi-specialty healthcare providers, today announced its intent to acquire 100% stake in Columbia Asia Hospitals Private Limited for over Rs 2000 crore, sources told ET.

• The integrated entity will ensure improved access and address the growing demand for high quality tertiary and quaternary healthcare in the country.