The World Bank approved a 500 million USD credit to help Bangladesh improve disaster preparedness against inland flooding in 14 flood-prone districts benefiting over 1.25 million people.The credit has been approved under the Resilient Infrastructure for Adoption and Vulnerability Reduction (RIVER) project of the World Bank. It will fund the construction of 500 multipurpose flood shelters, access roads, and climate-resilient community infrastructure in the country.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank Indonesia (BI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Bali, Indonesia, to improve mutual cooperation between them.With this MoU, RBI and BI committed to deepening relations between the two central banks and strengthening the exchange of information and cooperation in the area of central banking, including payment systems, digital innovation in payments services, and regulatory and supervisory framework for Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT).

Kotak Mahindra Bank has completed technical integration with the new e-filing portal of the Income Tax department and has become the first private bank to fully integrate with the portal.Its customers can now pay their direct taxes through the e-pay tax tab on the portal using Kotak net banking or by visiting a branch. This will make the tax payment process simple, instant, and convenient for customers, said the bank.

Nasscom Foundation along with Google has set up a call centre 'DigiVaani' in collaboration with a not-for-profit body ISAP to help women farmers scale up their business.The project is being run on a pilot basis to initially reach out to 20,000 rural women entrepreneurs across six states — Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The IRDAI has formed two task forces to study issues the non-life insurance and life insurance industries face in reinsurance support. The two have to give reports in three weeks.Reinsurance support refers to insurance companies transferring a part of the risk they underwrite to other firms. The task force for the non-life insurance industry has nine members and it will be headed by Bhargav Dasgupta, MD&CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance. For the life insurance industry, a seven-member task force has been constituted under the chairmanship of Naveen Tahilyani, MD&CEO, TATA AIA Life Insurance.

SBICAP Ventures Limited (SVL), a subsidiary of the State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India for establishing the Trilateral Development Cooperation Fund (TDC Fund).The TDC Fund will route India’s commitment of approx. INR 175 Cr to the Global Innovation Development Fund (GIP Fund) – an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) proposed to be established in partnership with the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) under the India – UK Global Innovation Partnership (GIP).

The Reserve Bank of India unveiled a rupee settlement system for international trade, aiming to promote growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of global trading community in Indian Rupee.According to the new system, banks will need to seek prior approval to use. The new order takes immediate effect.

The defence ministry allowed three private sector banks to provide financial services to it for overseas procurement of military hardware. The banks are HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank.Till now, only authorised public sector banks were utilised to provide services like issuance of letters of credit and direct bank transfers to the ministry for overseas procurement.

Non-bank payment system operators (PSOs) will require prior approval of the RBI for any takeover or acquisition of control, which may or may not result in change of management.They would also require prior approval of the RBI for sale or transfer of payment activity to an entity not authorised for undertaking such an activity