इसुजु ने मोहाली में खोला अपना आउटलैट

By Tricitynews Reporter

Mohali,25^th February:- इसुजु मोटर्स इंडिया प्राइवेट लिमिटेड ने आज मोहाली में अपने नए आउटलेट कृष्णा इसुजु के उदघाटन के साथ ही पंजाब में अपनी नई 3 एस (सेल्स, सर्विस, स्पेयर्स) सुविधा को शुरू कर दिया है। लुधियाना और जालंधर के बाद यह इस क्षेत्र में तीसरी 3  एस सुविधा है। जहां से चंडीगढ़, मोहाली व पंचकूला के उपाभोक्ताओं को लाभ मिलेगा।

इसुजु मोटर्स इंडिया के डिप्टी मैनेजिंग निदेशक हितोशी कोनो ने कहा कि पंजाब में अपनी नई 3 एस सुविधा को शुरू हुए गौरवान्वित महसूस कर रहे हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि यह गाड़ी पंजाब के लोगों की जीवनशैली को ध्यान में रखकर बनाई गई है। उद्योग समूह पंजाब को महत्वपूर्ण बाजार मानता है। यह नया आउटलैट राज्य में हमारी उपस्थिति को मजबूत करेगा।

इस अवसर पर बोलते हुए कृष्णा ऑटोमोबाइल्स के प्रबंधकीय पार्टनर सचित पासी ने कहा कि मोहाली में यह सुविधा शुरू होने के बाद लोगों को काफी लाभ मिलेगा। इस सुविधा में लाइफ स्टाइल शोरूम भी शामिल है, जहां वी-क्रास एडवेंचर यूटिलिटी को प्रदर्शन किया गया है।

SIDBI to Handhold Newly Formed Capital Small Finance Bank

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 25^th February:- Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding  Capital Small Finance Bank (CSFB) whereby it will handhold the newly formed Small Finance Bank  to enable it  provide  concessional finance to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

The MoU is aimed at promoting and strengthening the MSMEs especially in the Micro & Small Enterprise segment through a multipronged strategy comprising concessional funding at MCLR of CSFB (presently 9.6%) under Refinance from SIDBI, Joint financing / Co-financing, Cluster Development and Capacity Building of CSFB officials. It is also envisaged that joint financing / co-financing of MSME for capital expenditure under "SIDBI Make in India Soft Loan Fund for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises”, popularly known as SMILE, at a concessional rate of 9.60% by SIDBI along with Working  Capital finance from CSFB at competitive rate, would be pursued proactively. The resources and expertise of SIDBI in MSME financing and outreach of CSFB in MSME clusters of Punjab are proposed to be leveraged. This initiative of SIDBI and CSFB will go a long way in creating a conducive ecosystem for MSME desirous of accessing concessional / composite funding in the State of Punjab. Further, SIDBI and CSFB shall also explore ways and means to enhance reach and use of facilities provided under the Government of India’s Stand up India scheme and the Stand up India / Udyami Mitra portals created by SIDBI for MSME sector.

Besides, the MoU also envisages that the Promotional and Developmental activities of SIDBI could be taken up jointly with CSFB for the benefit of MSME in areas of Skill development, technology and financial linkages, human resources development, adoption of best practices by MSME, including cluster based interventions in areas of technology, energy efficiency, energy saving, etc. and for promoting Digital Financial Inclusion initiatives. It may be pertinent to mention that SIDBI plays an important role in the promotional and developmental space for the benefit of the MSMEs.

Speaking on the occasion, S S Samra, Managing Director CSFB said that CSFB has taken several steps in the last year to proactively reach out to the micro and small enterprises and has accordingly been expanding it branch network continuously. The MoU with SIDBI shall give a further boost to the MSE segment by reducing cost of credit for the small borrowers.

Manoj Mittal, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI, while speaking on the occasion outlined the various initiatives taken in the recent past by SIDBI for enhancing credit flow to MSE Sector viz., Stand Up India Portal for providing an online market place for accessing finance and handholding support to SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs for setting up Greenfield projects with loan requirement from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 100 lakh, provide quasi-equity /equity to startup ventures under Fund of Fund operations, setting up of National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for guaranteeing loans in sectors such as skill development, education, MUDRA, factoring, etc. thereby boosting institutional credit flow to these sectors. Manoj Mittal also mentioned that SIDBI considers Small Finance Banks as natural partners of SIDBI in improving access to credit by MSME and expressed confidence that the MoU will go a long way not only in providing the much needed fillip to the objective of "MSME Credit @ Corporate Rates", but also improvement in the MSME ecosystem. He further added that SIDBI, as a proactive step has taken initiatives to handhold the Small Finance Banks for the overall benefit of the ecosystem.

Arya Samaj Celebrates Mahashivrstri as Rishi Dayanand Bodh Utsav

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 25^th February:- Arya Samaj Sec. 22, Chandigarh celebrated  Mahashivrstri as Rishi Dayanand Bodh Utsav.   All D.A.V. Schools, colleges & Arya samajs of Tricity participated in this program. Eminent personalities like Dr. RC Jeevan, Dr. Vikram Viveki and Narender Ahuja delivered their speeches on the contribution of Swami Dayanand for the society.  They said that Swami Dayanand got Bodh on this day. He drop out his all comforts to find out the real Shiva. Swami Ji was Brahmin not only by birth but also by birth. He said that we should try to follow the teaching and path of Vedas.  God is omnipresent and perfect. We should help the needy beyond the selfness.   Singer Kuldeep Vidhyarthi sung bhajans on this occasion.

शिव भक्त सेवा दल ने धूमधाम से मनाया शिवरात्रि का त्यौहार

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 25^th February:- शिव भक्त सेवा दल सेक्टर 56 चण्डीगढ़ द्वारा शिवरात्रि का त्यौहार बड़ी धूमधाम से मनाया गया।  इस मौके पर प्रधान वीर सिंह राणा ने बताया कि  शिवरात्रि पर्व में भक्तों को ढूध, बेर व केले का प्रसाद में बांटा गया। इस मौके शिव भक्त्त सेवा दल के सदस्य नरेश ठाकुर, राजू करियाना, विशाल संजीव शर्मा,भालचंद आदि भी मौजूद रहे।

Vodafone Marks 10 Years of Mobile Money Service"M-Pesa'

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 25^th February:- As Vodafone marks the 10th anniversary of M-Pesa, the world’s leading mobile money service, it was revealed that a record 614 million M-Pesa transactions were processed during December 2016.

Vodafone now offers M-Pesa services in 10 countries: Albania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Romania and Tanzania.  As of the end of December 2016, M-Pesa served almost 29.5 million active customers through a network of more than 287,400 agents.  During 2016, the service processed around 6 billion transactions, peaking in December 2016 at 529 transactions every second.

M-Pesa was launched by Vodafone’s Kenyan associate, Safaricom, on 6 March 2007. The service is designed to enable customers safely and securely to send, receive and store money via a basic mobile phone and, more recently in some markets, using a smartphone app. Customers visit an M-Pesa agent to top up their M-Pesa account and are then able to use their mobile phone to make purchases in shops and send money to other people who can then visit their nearest M-Pesa agent to withdraw their funds.

M-Pesa also reduces significantly the potential risks of street robbery, burglary and petty corruption within cash-based economies where only a small proportion of the population benefit from access to conventional financial services.

Vodafone Group Managing Director of M-Pesa, Michael Joseph, said: “M-Pesa is a revolution that has empowered tens of millions of people in some of the poorest communities in the world to start and grow businesses and gain greater financial resilience. All of us at Vodafone are very proud of how M-Pesa has enhanced our customers’ daily lives and helped them plan for the future with confidence.”

Andrew Dunnett, Director of the Vodafone Foundation, added that M-Pesa is a critical component of many of the Vodafone Foundation’s core health services, such as the Text to Treatment services we have launched in Lesotho and Tanzania. These services dramatically improve quality of life and in many cases, save lives – particularly in some of the remote and isolated areas that we serve.

According to a recent study conducted by MIT and published in the journal Science, M-Pesa has had a dramatic impact on the overall economy in Kenya – lifting some households above the poverty line and particularly benefiting families headed by women.  In one notable example, poverty fell 22% within a kilometre of where six M-Pesa agents opened between 2008 and 2010.   In Tanzania, financial exclusion was lowered by 50% as a result of mobile money services (source: Finscope 2013).

The M-Pesa Foundation, established in 2010, is an independent charitable trust investing in projects that improve the social and economic status of Kenyans. Funded by M-Pesa, it has supported a number of large-scale health, environmental, conservation, education and water projects - including the M-Pesa Foundation Academy, a boarding high school serving talented but disadvantaged Kenyan students with demonstrable leadership potential.