1)Rio Olympic 2020 inaugurated in a grand ceremony
The Olympic games were inaugurated in a grand ceremony at Maracana Stadium in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Brazilian 2004 Athens Olympics marathon bronze winner Vanderlei de Lima lit the Olympic lamp.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) head Thomas Bach and UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon was also present at the ceremony.
2)Nita Ambani appointed to member of International Olympic Committee
Founder of Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani has been appointed as an individual member of International Olympic Committee (IOC).
She is the first Indian woman to be elected as an individual member of IOC.
Sir Dorabji Tata was the first Indian to be elected to the IOC.
IOC is the world body which governs Olympic sports.
3)Five new sports to be included in Olympic 2020, Tokyo
Five new sports will be included from Olympics 2020 to be held in Tokyo, Japan. The sports are as follows: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding.
In 2016, Golf and Rugby Seven have been included.
4)Sachet portal launched by RBI to curb illegal money collection by companies
RBI launched a portal to check illegal money collected by companies under dubious schemes called Sachet.
The Sachet portal which means ‘aware’ in Hindi will help citizens lodge complaints with regulators.
This will also help regulators share market intelligence among themselves through the State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) in real time.
SLCCs are state level committees which comprise of different regulator like SEBI, Registrar of Companies, IRDA among others.
5)Yousef Chahed is new PM of Tunisia
Yousef Chahed was appointed as Prime Minister of Tunisia.
He is an academic with a background in agricultural sciences.
Chahed replaced Habib Essid, after the latter lost a no confidence motion.
6)Tarun Ramadorai committee on household finance constituted by RBI
Objectives of Ramadorai committee are:
Whether, how, and why the financial allocations of Indian households deviate from desirable financial allocation and behaviour, such as why a large portion of household allocation goes to gold.
Assess role of financial technologies and products.
Will evaluate the design of new systems and the redesign of existing systems of incentives and regulations to encourage and enable better participation by Indian households in formal financial markets.
Tarun Ramadorai is a professor of Financial Economics at University of Oxford.
7)World Breastfeeding Week celebrated from August 1 to 7, 2016
World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is being celebrated from August 1 to 7, 2016.
The theme for the week was Breastfeeding: A key to Sustainable Development.
WBW celebrates the Innocenti Declaration made by WHO and Unicef in August 1990 to support and encourage breastfeeding.
8)Vinod Rai steps down from IDFC Bank’s Board
Vinod Rai stepped down from IFDC Bank’s Board.
This was done to avoid a conflict of interest as Rai is also Chairman of Bank Board Bureau (BBB).
But Rai will continue as non-executive independent chairman of IDFC, a private sector lender.
9)Gujarat HC scraps 10% quota for economically backward classes among unreserved category
Gujarat high court termed 10 % quota for economically backward class in unreserved category in higher education and state government jobs as unconstitutional.
The order termed the reservation as unconstitutional as total reservation exceeded 50 percent.
There has been no survey or report on the basis of which this quota was granted.
10)CSIR develops Nutrice cream
Nutrice cream is an Omega-3 and Vitamin-E enriched frozen nutritional dessert made from vegetarian source.
Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysuru has developed the cream.
The cream is made from Chia seeds which has highest content of Omega-3 fat from a vegetarian source.