Weekly Current Affairs August 2018: 2nd Week

Banking and Financial Awareness:

Axis Bank Introduced Iris Authentication for Aadhaar-Based Transactions through its micro ATM tablets.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and Vijaya Bank Entered into Bancassurance Deal
Exim Bank and BRICS Development Banks signed a MoU in distributed ledger/blockchain technology to undertake “collaborative research”.
PayPal & HDFC Bank partner to offer seamless payment experiences to card holders
In line with Budget estimate, RBI to pay Rs 50,000 cr dividend to govt. for FY18.

Ivan Duque was sworn in as the newly elected President of Colombia.
Emmerson Mnangagwa Wins Zimbabwe's 1st Post-Mugabe Election.
Justice Rajendra Menon was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.
Chile's Michelle Bachelet will be the next UN Human Rights Chief.
Harivansh Narayan Singh was elected the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.
Nikhil Nanda Appointed as Chairman and MD of Escorts.
Ajay Data, 1st Indian to Become Member in Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Senior Official’s special meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was held in Kathmandu. theme - theme "Towards a peaceful, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region".
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Peace Mission 2018 To Be Conducted in Russia.
To promote Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) forest produced for livelihood development of tribal people, Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd. (TRIFED) & National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), signed an MoU.
The ‘One District One Product’ Summit inaugurated by The President of India in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
The 3rd India-Nepal Coordination meeting was started in New Delhi.

National Handloom Day: 7 August.
World Biofuel Day: 10 August.
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples: 9 August. theme was ‘Indigenous peoples’ migration and movement’.

Israel has opened a Visa Application Centre in Kolkata for West Bengal and the north-eastern states’ tourists.
Japan has overtaken China as the world's number two stock market, as per Bloomberg report.

'Maitree 2018’: Indo-Thailand Joint Exercise Begins in Thailand.
To build an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship in defence sector, Defence Minister launched the Defence India Start-up Challenge in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Union Government Provides Rs 66,000 crore green funds to increase the country’s forest cover.
For monitoring the rejuvenation project of Ganga, National Green Tribunal constituted a committee headed by former Allahabad High Court judge.
Under the Impacting Research Innovation and Technology ‘IMPRINT-2’ scheme, Government has approved 122 new research projects of 112 crore rupees.
NITI Aayog Identified 117 Districts as Aspirational Districts for ashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) Scheme.

PayU India and Reliance Money entered strategic partnership to offer instant app-based personal loans, via LazyPay.

World's first-ever thermal battery plant was unveiled in Andhra Pradesh Manufactured by the Bharat Energy Storage Technology Private Limited (BEST).

Germany's Mario Gomez Retires from International Football.
Indian Golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar wins his maiden European Tour title at the Fiji International.
Netherlands Wins Women's Hockey World Cup 2018 for a record eighth time.
India Women Win first gold-medal Blitz Gold in Asian Nations Cup Chess Tourney.