Zuma sworn in as South Africa's President for second term

1.    Zuma sworn in as South Africa's President for second term

i. Jacob Zuma was on Saturday sworn in as South African President for a second term in the presence of thousands of guests in Pretoria.

ii. Mr. Zuma, whose African National Congress won the May 7 elections with 62 per cent of the vote, was sworn in by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng at the government complex Union Buildings.

iii. More than 40 foreign leaders in attendance included the Presidents of Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius, Madagascar and the Vice-Presidents of Gambia, Angola, Sudan and Gabon.

iv. The ceremony began with a gun salute and inter-faith prayers, followed by a recital of the preamble of the Constitution.

2.    Project Mobile Seva under DeitY won the 2014 United Nations Public Service Award

i. The project Mobile Seva under Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) won second rank in the 2014 United Nations Public Service Award. Department of Electronics and Information Technology comes under Ministry of Information and Technology.

ii. Mobile Seva has won the Second place in the Asian and Pacific Region in the Category 3: PROMOTING WHOLE OF GOVERNMENT APPROACHES IN THE INFORMATION AGE. It is the only project from India selected as the winner in 2014.

iii. This award is very unique and first of its kind to have been received by C-DAC Mumbai. The Mobile Seva initiative is lead by Dr. Rajendra Kumar, joint secretary (e-Governance), DeitY.

About United Nations Public Service Awards
The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promotes the role, professionalism and visibility of public service. 

About Mobile Seva
Mobile Seva aimed to provide government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets. It was developed as the core infrastructure for enabling the availability of public services through mobile devices. It was launched in December 2013.

3.    FICCI, IDBI sign pact for cheaper credit to MSMEs 

i. FICCI and IDBI on Friday signed an MoU for easy access to organised finance facility at competitive interest rates for micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME).\

ii. The FICCI-CMSME and IDBI partnership will grant best pricing offered at the relevant time by IDBI including concession of 100 bps and charging of processing fee as low as 0.10 per cent to the proposals referred by FICCI-CMSME, the industry chamber said in a statement.

iii. According to study by IFC in November 2012 titled “MSME Finance in India”, despite the increase in financing to MSMEs in recent years, there is still a considerable institutional formal finance gap of Rs 20.9 trillion.