1. Neeraj Chopra to be India's flag-bearer at Asian Games 2018
Star Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra (20-years) will be the flag bearer for the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
The Games will be held from August 18 to September 2 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.
The announcement was made by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra during the send-off ceremony organised for the contingent.
The 20-year-old Neeraj is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and won a gold in the Savo Games in Finland last month.
Neeraj had won the gold medal in the Asian Athletic championships in 2017 with a throw of 85.23 meters. He had also bagged a gold in the 2016 IAAF World U-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Note: Former hockey captain Sardar Singh was India's flag-bearer at the 2014 Asian Games.
Appointment
2. Gita Mittal sworn in as J&K Chief Justice
Justice Gita Mittal was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court today.
She is the first female Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
She was administered the oath of office by Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, NN Vohra at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar.
Justice Mittal is an alumna of Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, and began practising in 1981.
She was appointed as an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court in July 2004 and was confirmed in February 2006.
She has been serving as the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court since April 2017.
Summit & Conferences
3. President Kovind inaugurates ‘One District One Product’ Summit
The President Ram Nath Kovind has inaugurated the ‘One District One Product’ Summit in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
The tagline of the summit was 'Nayi Udaan, Nayi Pehchan’.
The Summit was organised by the Uttar Pradesh government to promote traditional industries in every district of the state.
Uttar Pradesh contributes around 44% of the total handicraft exports of the country.
Under the ‘One District One Product’ scheme, the state government has set a goal of providing employment to 25 lakh people in five years through the financial assistance of Rs. 25,000 crores.
The ODOP Summit is stated to be the first of its kind in the country and is expected to give a big boost to the MSME and handicraft in the state.
During the event, the state government will sign a memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with e-retailor giant Amazon for marketing of products of artisans, and Quality Control of India (QCI) that will ensure the quality of products.
Obituaries
4. Anant Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Electricals, passes away
Anant Bajaj, managing director (MD) of Bajaj Electricals, passed away after a heart attack. He was 41.
Bajaj, the only son of company chairman Shekhar Bajaj, took over as MD in June.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Anant Bajaj was associated with the firm for nearly 20 years, becoming joint MD in 2012.
National Affairs
5. Govt plans to open up to 100 islands for eco-tourism in the next 12 months
The government is willing to give key approvals upfront for investors who wish to invest in developing new islands in the Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands to reduce their risks, NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant said.
Addressing the first investors’ conference on re-developing new islands, Kant said foreign tourists in India would not need separate permission to visit these islands.
In Andaman and Nicobar, bids have been invited for developing beach resorts and tree-houses in Long Island, Aves Island, Smith Island and Neil Island, while in Lakshadweep beach resorts are to be developed in Minicoy, Suheli and Kadmat in the first phase.
Kant said the government was looking to offer 100 islands in Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep for developing eco-tourism on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
6.Nirmala Sitharaman, Yogi launched defence industrial corridor in Aligarh
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a defence industrial corridor in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
The move is part of the government's efforts to develop specialised zones dedicated to defence production in the state.
A Defence Ministry statement said in New Delhi that six nodal points, Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chitrakoot and Jhansi have been identified in the state for the corridor.
7. India gets first all-women SWAT team, all 36 commandos from the northeast
Ahead of the Independence Day, the Delhi Police inducted India's first all-woman Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team for anti-terrorist operations.
After rigorous training of around 15 months from specialists all across India and abroad, 36 women commandos from the northeastern states have been inducted into this squad.
While 13 members are from Assam, rest of them hail from Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Manipur.
Armed with MP5 submachine guns and Glock 21 pistols, all the members of the force are also well-versed in Israeli Krav Maga, an unarmed combat style.
The members of this all-women SWAT team received better ratings at the Police Training College in Jharoda Kalan than their male counterparts."
Banking & Finance
8. RBI should focus on streamlining credit pricing, monetary transmission: IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that bank credit growth to India’s private sector will touch 13.6 per cent by the end of the current financial year.
The IMF’s estimates suggest after that it will decrease by 30 basis points to 13.3 per cent by the end of FY20.
“The corporate sector has been deleveraging slowly and, while debt repayment capacity and profitability appear to have bottomed out, they remain weak in aggregate,” said the IMF in its Article IV report on India.
Bank credit growth grew to 12.94 per cent as of the end of June 2018 on a year-on-year basis.
At the end of FY18, bank credit growth to the private sector stood at 9.8 per cent, as compared to 8 per cent a year earlier.
Bank credit to the commercial sector stands at Rs 92 trillion as of July 20, 2018, which is a growth of 11.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.
9. Paresh Sukthankar resigns as HDFC Bank's deputy managing director
HDFC Bank’s Paresh Sukthankar has resigned from the board of the country’s largest private sector bank.
He will vacate the post of deputy managing director.
Sukthankar has been with HDFC Bank since its inception in 1994. Currently, he is overseeing the banks’ credit and risk management departments as well as finance and human resources.
He was appointed to the post of deputy managing director in March 2017.
He will be serving the 90-day notice period, effective from August 10.
He was recently appointed to an RBI Committee tasked with working out a medium-term action plan for improving financial inclusion.
Further, he was a member of the High-Level Steering Committee for Review of Supervisory Processes for Commercial Banks.
10. SBI posts third straight quarterly loss at Rs 48.76 bn on higher provisions
State Bank of India (SBI) reported a net loss of Rs 48.75 billion for the April-June 2018 period (Q1), its third straight quarterly loss, on account of huge provisions for erosion in the value of its investment in bonds and an increase in operating expenses due to wage revision and enhanced limits for gratuity.
The country's largest lender had posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss of Rs 77.18 billion in the March 2018 quarter, and a net profit of Rs 20.05 billion in April-June 2017 (Q1FY18).
Q1FY19 was the first comparable quarter for the merged entity after SBI integrated associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself in April 2017.
It has been in the red since the third quarter of the last financial year (Q3FY18), when it reported a loss of Rs 24.16 billion
11. Blockchain: Exim Bank signs MoU with BRICS development banks
Exim Bank of India has signed a multilateral cooperation agreement with member development banks of BRICS to undertake “collaborative research” in distributed ledger/blockchain technology.
The BRICS grouping comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Under this umbrella agreement, the signatories have agreed to constitute a joint research working group which will formulate the research agenda and targeted outcome.
The agreement, thus, is expected to contribute to enhanced cooperation among BRICS development banks, and would also speed up and simplify the processes, and thereby reduce the cost of cross-border payments using the blockchain technology.
Exim Bank of India is the nominated member development bank under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism.
12. Parliament passes a bill to amend Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
A bill to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016, allowing home buyers to be treated as financial creditors and seeking to set up a special dispensation for small sector enterprises, was passed by Parliament on 10th Aug 2018.
The bill, which was passed in Lok Sabha on July 31, was approved in the Rajya Sabha today by voice vote.
The legislation seeks to replace the June 6 ordinance that sought to put these amendments into the force to aid quick resolution of several bankrupt firms.
Replying to the debate on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second amendment) 2018 in the Upper House, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said its objective was to provide resolution to small bankrupt firms and, at the same time, take stringent action against big bankrupt businesses.
