Banking and Financial Awareness:
- DBS Bank has been named the world's best bank by Global Finance magazine, to invest in digital innovation while still maintaining stable operations for its customers.
- Chief executive officer - Piyush Gupta
- Headquarters – Singapore
- Punjab National Bank (PNB) has been rated as number one state-owned bank in terms of digital transactions.
Appointments
- Balesh Sharma Appointed Vodafone Idea's 1st CEO.
- Satya S Tripathi appointed as the Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the New York Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
- ICICI Bank reappointed Chanda Kochhar as director of ICICI Securities.
Important Dates
- The National Sports Day - 29th August, to mark the birthday of legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand.
- International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances – 30 August
- International Day against Nuclear Tests – 29 August
Obituary
- Neil Simon, a playwright and Broadway’s master of comedy, passed away.
- US senator John McCain passed away.
MOU’s, Agreement and Summits
- For enhancing connectivity and access to economic centres across 12 districts in Karnataka, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a $346 million loan.
- Indian Railways and GAIL (India) Limited signed a MoU to provide infrastructure facilities for supply of Natural Gas to Indian Railways Workshops, Production Units and Depots at Rail Bhavan, this is for replacing Industrial gases like Dissolved Acetylene, LPG, BMCG and Furnace Oil / High Speed Diesel (HSD) oil with environment friendly Natural Gas.
- For Enhancing Innovation for Clean Energy Transition, The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) signed a MoU.
- To double farming incomes in Madhya Pradesh by expanding irrigation networks and system efficiency, the government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $375 million loan agreement.
- To support Rajasthan in improving the performance of its Electricity Distribution Sector under the State’s ‘24x7 Power for All’ program, The Union Government, Rajasthan and the World Bank signed a USD 250 million Development Policy Loan (DPL) agreement.
- For India Energy Efficiency Scale up Programme, The Central government and the World Bank have signed 300-million-dollar loan agreements.
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Organizes 2-Day Conference On Motivating & Attracting Youth in Agriculture and meet the challenge of providing sustainable livelihoods for a rapidly growing population.
- 6th RCEP Ministerial Meeting Begins in Singapore, led by Union Minister of Commerce& Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu.
- Fourth Asian electoral stakeholders’ forum (AESF-IV) begins in Colombo to discuss the state of elections and democracy in the region.
- Theme - ‘Advancing Election Transparency and Integrity: Promoting and Defending Democracy Together’
Important News – World
- The 4th BIMSTEC Summit began in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- Main focus – on countering terrorism, enhancing regional connectivity and boosting trade.
- Theme - 'Towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region'.
- The G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting was held in Salta, Argentina, hosted by Argentina by end of 2018.
- Theme - 'Building consensus for fair and sustainable development'.
- With an aim to deepen India’s strategic cooperation with the two key nations in the ASEAN region, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj begun her four-day tour of Vietnam and Cambodia.
Important News- India
- India's first biofuel-powered flight landed in Delhi, developed by Indian Institute of Petroleum, covering the distance between Dehradun & Delhi.
- The third edition of World’s Biggest Open Innovation Model - Smart India Hackathon 2019 - was launched in New Delhi, by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar.
Defence
- INS Sahyadri entered the Port of Darwin, Australia to participate in Exercise KAKADU 2018, hosted by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and supported by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Sports News
- India won gold in the women's 4X400 metre event in Asian Games 2018.
- India’s Jinson Johnson won gold medal in the men’s 1500m event in the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
- With an effort of 16.77m, Arpinder Singh ended India's 48-year long wait for a gold in triple jump at the Asian Games.
- Swapna Barman becoming the first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold in Indonesia.
- Sebastian Vettel won the Belgian Grand Prix 2018 at Spa-Francorchamps Track in Belgium.
