Notes:
The book titled ”War over Words: Censorship in India, 1930-1960” has been authored by Devika Sethi, who teaches modern Indian history at IIT-Mandi. The book explores the diverse mechanisms and motivations for censorship and its role in the shaping of the modern Indian republic. It looks at state censorship in India in the transition period from colonial to national rule, when historical actors behaved in unpredictable ways. The book is divided into four parts – Guarding the State, Protecting the Public: Censorship Policies and Practices in the 1930s; Protests and Publicity: Banning Non-Indian Authors; Political or Military? Censorship in India during the Second World War; and The Censored Turn Censors: Freedom and Free Speech.

Notes:
Under Puducherry smart city development plan, the Union Territory government has decided to introduce Bi-cycle sharing scheme in a couple of months. The registered users or customers can use bicycles to hop from one place to another within the boulevard area. The bicycles can be left at any of the docking stations after use. For the scheme, 100 spots have been identified for cycle docking stations. To begin with, 20 docking stations with 10 to 15 cycles each, are to be set up in places like beach promenade, Bharathi Park, Gandhi Thidal, Aurobindo ashram and railway station. The novel scheme is a boon to tourists who throng to Puducherry in thousands whose number swells to several thousand on weekends. The project under the public-private partnership model will be operationalised after a suitable operator is found out through tender. This scheme is one among the 22 prioritised schemes of the Puducherry Smart City Project for which about 194 crore rupees would be spent.

Notes:
Arinjeeta Dey, a village girl from West Bengal, has won a silver under-12 age group category in the 2019 World Youth Cup in Umag, Croatia. The tournament was organised by World Karate Federation affiliated to the International Olympic Association. A total of 35 countries participated in this competition.

Notes:
Reliance Jio Infocomm has collaborated with Facebook to launch a countrywide digital literacy drive, christened as Digital Udaan, for its growing base of JioPhone users and other first-time internet users. Under the initiative, Jio will engage with users every Saturday to apprise them on features of its 4G VoLTE feature phone (called JioPhone), the use of various apps and internet safety, including the use of Facebook to connect with friends and family in a simple and secure way. The digital literacy engagement will be undertaken via audiovisual training in 10 regional languages. Digital Udaan will initially be launched in nearly 200 different locations across 13 states, and the initiative will subsequently reach over 7,000 locations, empowering millions of JioPhone users and other first-time internet users.

Notes:
The Punjab & Sind Bank has set up the Centralised MSME & Retail Group (Cen-MARG) for credit facilities at its head office in New Delhi. Now, all MSME and retail credit approvals will be performed at this centralised set up. This will help branches focus better on lead generation for retail and MSME lending and enhanced customer service. The Cen-MARG would be linked with pan-India branches in a phased manner. It has been envisioned to ensure a qualitative improvement in credit appraisal, improved turnaround time, uniform documentation and efficient monitoring.