1) Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj passes away
•Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj passed away. She was the 1st full time woman external affairs minister of India. She was also the youngest cabinet minister at 25 when she joined the Haryana government in 1977 and the first woman chief minister of Delhi.
2) National Handloom Day: 7th August
•India celebrates National Handloom Day every year on 7th August. The day is celebrated to honour the handloom weavers in the country and also highlight India’s handloom industry. Bhubaneswar has been chosen as the venue for the celebrations of the day for its rich tradition of Handlooms. The prime objective of holding the National Handloom Day in Bhubaneswar is to empower women and girls.
•National Handloom Day seeks to focus on the contribution of handloom to the socio economic development of the country and also increase the income of weavers.
3) Rajya Sabha passes Consumer Protection Bill
•The Rajya Sabha has passed the Consumer Protection Bill, 2019. The bill will lead to setting up of a Central Consumer Protection Authority to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class.
•The Bill seeks to strengthen the rights of consumers and provides a mechanism for redressal of complaints regarding defects in goods and deficiency in services. The bill will replace the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
4) India contributes USD 5 million to UN Palestine refugee agency
•India contributed 5 million USD to the UN Palestine refugee agency and called for ensuring sustained financial support for the organisation’s work. The amount was hand over to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees.
•UNRWA has been providing health, education, relief and social services, as well as emergency humanitarian assistance, across its five areas of operations in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip since 1950.
5) Government unveils draft e-commerce norms
•To protect consumers’ interest, the Centre has proposed guidelines for e-commercefirms that entail a 14-day deadline to effect refund request, mandate e-tailers to display details of sellers supplying goods and services on their websites and moot the procedure to resolve consumer complaints.
•The draft ‘e-commerce guidelines for consumer protection 2019,’ which adds that e-commerce firms need to ensure that personally identifiable information of customers is protected.
6) Bangladesh signs uranium supply deal with Russia
•Bangladesh signed a deal with Russia for the supply of uranium for its 2400 MW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP).
•The deal was signed in Dhaka between the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and Russian Nuclear Fuel Supply Company (TVEL). Under this deal, Russia will supply the nuclear fuel needed for the plant during its entire life cycle.
7) RBI to set up “Central Payment Fraud Registry”
•The Reserve Bank of India has decided to set up a “Central Payment Fraud Registry”. The registry will track frauds in the payment systems. Under this registry, payment system participants will be provided access to it for near-real time fraud monitoring. The aggregated fraud data will be published to educate customers on emerging risks.
•Currently, banks report all banking frauds to the Central Fraud Monitoring Cell of the Reserve Bank of India.
8) SEBI approves SGX and NSE to operate jointly in GIFT City
•Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved Singapore Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India Ltd to operate jointly in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, Gandhinagar. The two entities will create a new platform for trading called NSE International Financial Service Centre (IFSC)-SGX Connect.
•The new platform will allow trading in Nifty index derivatives, as well as single-stock derivatives of Nifty’s 50 constituent.
9) RBI reduces repo rate by 35 basis points in its 3rd Bi-monthly policy
In its 3rd Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the Reserve Bank of India has reduced the policy repo rate by 35 basis points (bps). The MPC has also decided to maintain the accommodative stance of monetary policy. The main decisions taken in the 3rd Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting are:
•The repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) was reduced from 5.75% to 5.40%. The benchmark rate is now at its lowest since April 2010.
•The reverse repo rate under the LAF stands revised to 5.15%.
•The marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate revised to 5.65%.
•RBI has also reduced the real GDP growth for 2019-20 from 7% to 6.9%.
