Financial Inclusion/GSIII
India Post Payments Bank's customer base crosses 5 Crore Mark

What's the NEWS

• The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a ‘Digital-First Bank' built on the rails of wide physical distribution network of India Post under the Ministry of Communication, Government of India, has announced a major milestone since inception towards achieving its financial inclusion goals through digital banking.
• IPPB has crossed the five-crore customer mark in 3 years of commencement of operations to become one of the fastest growing digital payments bank in the country.
• IPPB opened up these five crore accounts in digital and paperless mode through its
• 1.36 lakh Post Offices, out of which 1.20 lakh are in rural areas with the help of about 1.47 lakhs doorstep banking service providers.
• With this, IPPB has achieved the world's largest digital financial literacy programme by building a financially aware and empowered customer-base leveraging the strength of 2,80,000 Post Office employees.

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by Government of India.
• IPPB was launched by the Hon'ble Prime Minister on September 1, 2018.
• The bank has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India.
• The fundamental mandate of IPPB is to remove barriers for the unbanked and under-banked and reach the last mile leveraging the postal network.
• IPPB's reach and its operating model is built on the key pillars of India Stack - enabling Paperless, Cashless and Presence-less banking in a simple and secure manner at the customers' doorstep, through a CBS-integrated smartphone and biometric device.

Know! about payments bank

• A payments bank is like any other bank, but operating on a smaller scale without involving any credit risk.
• It can carry out most banking operations but can't advance loans or issue credit cards.
• It can accept demand deposits (up to Rs 1 lakh), offer remittance services, mobile payments/transfers/purchases and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third party fund transfers.
• In September 2013, the Reserve Bank of India constituted a committee headed by Dr Nachiket Mor to study 'Comprehensive financial services for small businesses and low income households'.
• The objective of the committee was to propose measures for achieving financial inclusion and increased access to financial services.
• The committee submitted its report to RBI in January 2014. One of the key suggestions of the committee was to introduce specialised banks or ‘payments bank' to cater to the lower income groups and small businesses
• The main objective of payments bank is to widen the spread of payment and financial services to small business, low-income households, migrant labour workforce in secured technology-driven environment.

Prelims Factoids
Season 2 of Cycles4Change and Streets for People challenge launched

What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organised an online event wherein it announced eleven winning cities for the Streets for People Challenge, and ten winning cities for the pilot stage of the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge.
• These cities will now enter the scale up stage of the challenge wherein the projects undertaken in the pilot stage will now be scaled up in a sustainable manner.
• At the event, the Ministry also launched Season-2 of India Cycles4Change and Streets for People Challenges and a book titled ‘Nurturing Neighburhoods Challenge: Stories from the Field".

• Since 2020, the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) has been anchoring inter-city challenges to make public spaces more people-friendly.
• This is in line with the 2006 National Urban Transport Policy, which called for a paradigm shift from car-centric roads to people-centric streets.
• Over the past 18 months, these challenges vis. Cycles4Change and Streets for People, have transformed into a nationwide movement beyond the 100 Smart Cities.
• Under the ‘Streets for people Challenge', 38 cites piloted re-imaginations of an important street each by prioritizing them for pedestrians.
• 11 cities have been selected by a jury panel for the next phase of scale up and will be awarded Rs. fifty lakhs each by MoHUA.
• The challenge was conducted with technical support from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP India).

• Cities transformed 400+ kms of corridors through temporary solutions to make streets cycling friendly
• Received feedback from 60,000+ citizens through surveys
• Got 600+ Civil Society Organisations to support their cities
• had over 1800 design professionals, students and other organisations coming together to develop and test creative solutions to reclaim streets for people

• work towards adopting a progressive Healthy Streets & Parking Policy, creating area level parking plans and start on-street parking management
• Cites will work to bring institutional resilience through setting up a Healthy Streets Department.

• MoHUA announced ten winning cities for the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge, in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) and technical partner World Resources Institute (WRI) India.
• The Challenge is a 3-year phased initiative aimed at shaping early childhood-friendly neighbourhoods in Indian cities.

• It is an initiative of the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, to inspire cities to create walking-friendly streets through quick measures in response to COVID-19.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Challenge on 11th September 2020.
• The Challenge aims to create flagship walking initiatives in cities, which focus on placemaking and liveability.
• Cities will be required to reimagine their streets as public spaces through the lens of economic regeneration, safety, and child-friendly initiatives, in order to ensure a green recovery from COVID-19.

• It is an initiative of the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India to inspire and support Indian cities to implement quick cycling-friendly initiatives in response to COVID-19.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Challenge on June 25^th 2020.

• creating extensive cycling-networks through low-cost interventions
• to create community-led cycle rental schemes that increase the availability of cycles to citizens
• promote the usage of cycling through public events and outreach.

• In order to promote inclusive good governance, strengthening of local institutions and effective implementation of government programmes, the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Government of India and National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD & PR), Hyderabad signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday, 17th Jan'22.
• The main purpose of having this agreement is to focus on different collaborative activities by drawing upon the strengths of these two national institutions for bringing better good governance mechanisms into practice across all programmes and schemes.

• NCGC is an autonomous institute under the aegis of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India.
• Its head office is at New Delhi and branch office at Mussoorie.
• The NCGG has been set up to assist in bringing about governance reforms through studies, training, knowledge sharing and promotion of good ideas.
• It seeks to carry out policy relevant research and prepare case studies; curate training courses for civil servants from India and other developing countries; provide a platform for sharing of existing knowledge and pro-actively seek out and develop ideas for their implementation in the government, both at the National and International Level.
• The National Centre for Good Governance traces its origin to the National Institute of Administrative Research (NIAR).
• NIAR was set up in 1995 by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) the Government of India's apex training Institute for higher civil services.
• NIAR was subsequently rechristened with an expanded mandate, as National Centre for Good Governance, which was inaugurated on February 24th, 2014.

• It is an autonomous organisation under the Union Ministry of Rural Development, is a premier national centre of excellence in rural development and Panchayati Raj.
• Recognized internationally as one of the UN-ESCAP Centres of Excellence, it builds capacities of rural development functionaries, elected representatives of PRIs, bankers, NGOs and other stakeholders through inter-related activities of training, research and consultancy.
• The Institute is located in Hyderabad, Telangana. The NIRD&PR celebrated its Golden Jubilee Year of establishment in 2008.
• In addition to the main campus at Hyderabad, this Institute has North-Eastern Regional Centre at Guwahati, Assam to meet the NE-regional needs.

International Organisations/GSII
Activities of 2022 discussed at BRICS STI Steering Committee

What's the NEWS
India will host five events in 2022, namely

1. BRICS Startups Forum meeting
2. Working Groups meetings on Energy Biotechnology & Biomedicine
3. ICT & High-Performance Computing
4. STIEP (Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Partnership) Working Group Meeting
5. Launching of BRICS innovation Launchpad as a microsite( Knowledge Hub)

• The Calendar of BRICS STI activities and expected deliverables were discussed at the meeting organized virtually.
• India has successfully handed over the BRICS Chairmanship to China from January 2022.
• The theme for BRICS 2022 is "Foster High-Quality BRICS Partnership Usher in a New Era for Global Development".
• A series of sectoral events and meetings, including Minister level and BRICS Summit, will be organized during the year.
• The BRICS STI Steering Committee meeting was attended by representatives from BRICS scientific ministries, foreign Missions.
• A total of 25 events have been planned, of which India will host a total of five.
• DPIIT is the main executing agency for BRICS startups Forum and creation of innovation Knowledge Hub.
• The BRICS Young Scientist Conclave will be held in September 2022 in a virtual format, and thematic focus may be Carbon peak neutralization; Biomedicine, Artificial Intelligence, Material Science; Modern Agriculture.
• China has proposed to host the 10th BRICS S&T Ministerial meeting and Senior Official Meeting in September 2022.
• The meeting theme would promote Open, Inclusive, and Shared Science, Technology, and Innovation.

• Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) (DEPwD) is going to launch its first bi-monthly E-Newsletter during the inauguration of main building of Composite Regional Centre for Skill Development, Rehabilitation & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (CRC), Kozhikode on 18th January, 2022.
• Government of Kerala has allotted 3 acres of land at Chevayur, Kozhike in 2013 for establishment of CRC.
• The function is being organized at CRC Campus at Chevayur, Kozhikode, Kerala.
• CRC in Kozhikode was established in 2012 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India under the administrative control of National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai (an autonomous Institute under the administrative control of DEPwD) as its outreach/ extension centre.