Business briefs

Bank of Baroda opens innovation centre at IIT-B Mumbai, Feb 4 (PTI): State-owned Bank of Baroda has opened an innovation centre at IIT-Bombay. The centre is an initiative in the industry-academia partnership space and is focused on fintech, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.

The objective of the centre is to evaluate and adopt emerging technologies, develop a culture for innovation and foster the same in the financial hardware space and contribute to bank's digital strategy. The main focus of the centre will be fintech, open banking (sandbox), AR/VR, robotics, IoT, rural economy, social-tech, payments, cybersecurity, Big Data, blockchain, and cloud computing, among others.

The partnership will also lead to the setting up of a two-chair professorship positions at IIT-B on digital entrepreneurship and IT innovation.

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KVIC distributes 1,000 bee boxes to Arunachal farmers New Delhi: The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) on Tuesday said it has distributed 1,000 bee boxes to 100 farmers in Arunachal Pradesh.

It said that the state has abundance of flora and fauna, and has the untapped potential of becoming a truly honey producing state. "High altitude honey is rich in antioxidants and hence can be sold at a premium price," it said.

It added that not only honey, but products such as pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom are also marketable and can greatly help the farmers who otherwise migrate to cities for menial labour. As per a recent report, India has a potential of about 200 million bee colonies as against 3.4 million bee colonies today.

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ComMin upgrades divisional Spices Board office to regional office in Telangana The commerce ministry has announced upgradation of divisional office of Spices Board at Nizamabad in Telangana into a regional office with a special focus on turmeric and chilly.

This will promote exports and infrastructure to benefit farmers and MSMEs and boost development in the region, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a tweet. "Announced the upgradation of divisional office of Spices Board at Nizamabad into a regional office and extension centre with a special focus on turmeric and chilly," he said.

The move would help to implement export promotion activities in the region.

* * * APEDA organises programme in Port Blair to promote agri export

An awareness programme was organized by Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) in Port Blair last month to examine ways to promote agri exports, the commerce ministry said on Tuesday. The Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has a designated Department of Agriculture as the state nodal agency and has deputed an official as nodal officer for implementation of the agri export policy in a focused manner, it said.

The programme was attended by around 100 participants including concerned government agencies and some exporters from other states, it said in a statement.