The University Grants Commission (UGC) approved a new initiative- Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India's Developing Economy (STRIDE) in order to boost research culture in India.

STRIDE will provide support to research projects that are socially relevant, logically need-based, nationally important and globally significant.

The objective is to identify young talent, strengthen research culture, build capacity, promote innovation, support trans-disciplinary research and to fund multi-institutional network high-impact research projects in humanities and human sciences.

Ola Electric vehicle arm, Ola Electric Mobility has secured a funding around $250 million from SoftBank.

With this, Ola Electric has become the newest unicorn of India, joining the list of companies like Flipkart, Zomato and Paytm.

About Ola Electric

CEO - Bhavish Aggarwal

About Softbank Corp.

CEO - Ken Miyauchi

Chairman - Masayoshi Son

Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of Rs 1.75 crore on four public sector banks, including PNB and UCO Bank for non-compliance with KYC requirement and norms for opening of current accounts.

Panjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, and UCO Bank have been fined Rs 50 lakh each, while the penalty of Rs 25 lakh imposed on Corporation Bank.

About RBI

Founded - 1 April 1935, Kolkata

Headquarters - Mumbai

Governor - Shaktikanta Das (25th)

About PNB

Tagline - The name you can bank upon

Founded - 19 May 1894

Headquarters - New Delhi

MD & CEO - Sunil Gupta

About Allahabad Bank

Tagline - A tradition of trust

Founded - 24 April 1865

Headquarters Kolkata

MD & CEO - Malikarjuna Rao

About UCO Bank 

Tagline - Honours yours Trust

Founded - 6 January 1943

Headquarters - Kolkata

MD & CEO - Atul Kumar Goel

State Bank of India has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to provide financing solutions to the infrastructure sector.

The tie-up helped in equity investments, project funding, bond financing, renewable energy support, and take-out finance for operating assets. 

The objective of this initiative is to fill the gap at a time when the availability of equity and debt financing for infrastructure has moderated,

About SBI

Founded - 1 July 1955

Headquarters - Mumbai

Chairman - Rajnish Kumar

About NIIF

Founded - February 2015

Headquarters - Mumbai

MD & CEO - Sujoy Bose

The Uttarakhand government has launched a one-time settlement scheme in a bid to recover stressed loans, for those who have taken a loan of up to Rs 60 lakh from co-operative banks.

Under the scheme, NPA account holders who have taken a loan of up to Rs 60 lakh will be offered concessions. The account holders who have died and already repaid the capital amount will get total interest wavier.

The 100-day scheme is effective from July 1, 2019, and continues till October 7, 2019.

The scheme has been launched to recover co-operative banks' non-performing assets (NPAs) of Rs 391.50 crore which have piled up over the last 25 years.

About Uttarakhand

Capital - Dehradun

Chief Minister - Trivendra Singh Rawat

Governor - Baby Rani Maurya

National Park

• Rajaji National Park
• Jim Corbett National Park
• Gangotri National Park
• Valley of Flowers National Park
• Gobind National Park
• Nanda Devi National Park

Indian pro boxer Vaibhav Yadav has become the World Boxing Council (WBC) Asia silver welterweight champion.

He defeated Thailand's Fahpetch Singmanassak in the title bout held in Pattaya, Thailand.

The fight was conducted by the Asian Boxing Council and approved by the World Boxing Council (WBC).

National Aluminium Company Limite (NALCO), an Odisha-based Navaratna Company has been selected for President's award for utilization of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund in social development.

NALCO started a scheme 'Alialijhia' in 2015 to promote the poor and talented girls for education.

The Indian and French Air Force has started Garuda VI exercise at Mont de Marsan in France.

This is the 6th edition of exercise which is taking place from 1 July to July 12, 201, in France.

This India-France air exercise is aimed at enhancing interoperability level of Franch and Indian crews in air defence and ground attack mission.

About France

Capital - Paris

President - Emmanuel Macron

World Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) Day is celebrated every year on 2 July to raise awareness, encouraging the government to reveal their files on UFO sightings and related information.

It is a day for everyone to pause and ponder the possibility that we are not alone in the Universe.

The first World UFO Day was celebrated in 2001.

Earlier, the day was celebrated on June 24, the date on which aviator Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine unusual objects flying over the state of Washington but WUFODO (World UFO day Organization) declared July 2 as the world UFO day to celebrate it on a large scale.

World Sports Journalists Day is observed every year on 2 July.

It is celebrated to mark the services of sports journalists for the promotion of sports.

It was established by the International Sports and Press Association (AIPS- Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive) in 1994 to mark the 70th anniversary of its foundation which was founded on July 2, 192, during Summer Olympics in Paris.

The objective of the day is to encouraged sports journalists to strive for excellence in their work.

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