The Centre  on Sep 20 said the country's tourism sector will strive to recover to the pre-pandemic level by mid-2024 and contribute USD 250 billion to the country's GDP by 2030.

The government also said the country intends to achieve USD 1 trillion through the sector -- the worst affected sector during the pandemic -- by 2047.

Gujarati film "Chhello Show", a coming-of-age drama about a young boy's love affair with cinema in a village in Saurashtra, is India's official entry for the 95th Academy Awards, the Film Federation of India (FFI) announced.

Titled "Last Film Show" in English, the Pan Nalin-directorial will release in theatres countrywide on October 14.

The film, which will represent the country in the best international feature film category at the Oscars, is produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur's banner Roy Kapur Films, Jugaad Motion Pictures, Monsoon Films, Chhello Show LLP and Marc Duale.

The last Indian film that made it to the final five was the Aamir Khan-led "Lagaan" in 2001.

"Mother India" (1958) and "Salaam Bombay" (1989) are the other two Indian movies to have made it to the top five.

The 95th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on March 12, 2023 in Los Angeles.

Iran faced international criticism on  Sep 20 over the death of a woman held by its morality police, which ignited three days of protests, including clashes with security forces in the capital and other unrest that claimed at least three lives.

The UN human rights office called for an investigation. The United States, which is trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, called on the Islamic Republic to end its “systemic persecution” of women. Italy also condemned her death.

Iran dismissed the criticism as politically motivated. The UN body said Iran's morality police have expanded their patrols in recent months, targeting women for not properly wearing the Islamic headscarf, known as hijab.

A similar patrol detained 22-year-old Mahsa Amini , taking her to a police station where she collapsed. She died three days later. Iranian police have denied mistreating Amini and say she died of a heart attack. Authorities say they are investigating the incident.

An American navy veteran detained in Afghanistan since 2020 was released in exchange for a Taliban ally imprisoned in the United States for heroin smuggling, US and Afghan officials announced .

The Taliban government freed Mark Frerichs, who was working as a civil engineer on construction projects in Afghanistan when he was detained 31 months ago.

The US government, meanwhile, released Bashar Noorzai, a former regional strongman who was sentenced to life imprisonment in an American court 17 years ago for smuggling large amounts of heroin.

Noorzai is the second Afghan inmate released by the United States in recent months. In June, Assadullah Haroon was released after 15 years of detention in the United States' notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie on Sep 20 arrived in Pakistan to support people affected by the devastating floods in the country.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has slashed India's economic growth projection for 2022-23 to 7 per cent from 7.2 per cent earlier, citing higher than expected inflation and monetary tightening.

India's economy grew 13.5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022-23, reflecting strong growth in services, ADB said in a supplement to its flagship ADO report on Sep 21.

The ADO expects the Chinese economy to expand by 3.3 per cent in 2022 rather than the 5 per cent forecast earlier.

After reports of government scrutiny of the claim of a mobile manufacturer under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the telecom ministry has clarified it will release the fund in the next 10-15 days

Telecom secretary K Rajaraman has said all the applications are under process and the government will give due consideration to all eligible applications. Nearly 32 beneficiaries had been approved under the PLI scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, of which 10 (5 global and 5 domestic companies) were approved for mobile manufacturing. 

As per the reports, Dixon Technologies and Samsung are said to have submitted the paperwork for claiming incentives, while others including Apple contract manufacturers Hon Hai (Foxconn) and Wistron are in the process of doing so.

Recently, Dixon Technologies became the first domestic company to receive incentives under the PLI scheme for the large-scale electronics manufacturing sector.

However, there were reports that a major mobile manufacturer’s application was stuck due to some discrepancies. On this matter, Rajaraman said if the company is eligible it is certainly going to be part of this scheme.

The scheme for large-scale electronic manufacturing, which includes manufacturing mobile phones and specified electronic components, was approved in March 2020, with an outlay of Rs 38,645 crore. The government believes the scheme will bring in additional production to the tune of Rs 10,69,432 crore and generate employment for 7,00,000 people. They had set a different target for the global and domestic mobile makers to be eligible for the scheme.

In the case of foreign companies, the manufacturer will have to make an investment of Rs 250 crore and manufacture goods worth Rs 4,000 crore over and above the previous year. Also, the device made by the manufacturers should have an invoice value of over Rs 15,000. For the Indian players, the investment target is Rs 50 crore and they are required to manufacture phones worth Rs 500 crore in the first year.

Manufacturer’s PLI application stuck

Recently, Dixon Technologies became the first domestic company to receive incentives under the government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the large-scale electronics manufacturing sector.

However, there were reports that a major mobile manufacturer’s application was stuck due to some discrepancies. The government believes the scheme is expected to bring in production to the tune of Rs 10,69,432 crore and generate employment for 7 lakh people 

The Reserve Bank of India on  Sep 20 raised concerns over the growing unethical loan recovery practices, usurious interest rates and data privacy issues. It also flagged certain material concerns regarding the mushrooming of digital lending apps.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the need of the hour is to ensure safety following a process of whitelisting and due diligence by the regulated entities.

Speaking at the Global Fintech Festival held in Mumbai, the RBI governor said, “While innovations are very much welcome, they must be responsible and should enhance the efficiency and resiliency of the financial system while benefiting the consumers.”

The level of due diligence and oversight exercised by the regulated entities on their outsourced activities needs to be strengthened further. This would help in proactive mitigation of risks at the incipient stage itself, he added.

The RBI has come up with digital lending guidelines that mandate digital lending platforms to disclose the names of the banks/NBFCs upfront on whose behalf they were providing credit.  He also said the pandemic accelerated the push toward digitalisation, especially in rural areas.

The period from March 2020 to August 2022 has seen a massive growth of 427 per cent in UPI transactions, which reached a new high of 657 crore transactions in August 2022 alone. 

The RBI governor also launched the RuPay credit card for UPI and cross-border bill payments.

As far as the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is concerned, the RBI is now working towards a phased implementation of it in both wholesale and retail segments. This is expected to give further fillip to the digital ecosystem.

Earlier, speaking at the fintech festival, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said inclusive financial programmes such as KYC via Aadhaar of the government and the UPI platform have helped revolutionise the network of the country.