 Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu attended the 6th East Asia Summit- Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EAS-EMM) and 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) in Singapore. Singapore is currently holding the Chair of ASEAN. The 6th East-Asia Economic Ministers’ Meeting was chaired by Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Trade and Industry, Singapore, and was attended by Economic Ministers from 10 ASEAN countries and their eight dialogue partners, Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 India and Nepal have signed an MoU on Preliminary Engineering-cum-Traffic Survey on Broad Gauge Rail Line between Raxaul (Bihar) and Kathmandu. Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri and Nepal’s Secretary of Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Madhusudan Adhikari signed the MoU in Kathmandu. India and Nepal had agreed in April 2018 to construct a new electrified rail line with India’s financial support connecting the border city of Raxaul in India to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. has been entrusted to conduct a preliminary engineering-cum-traffic survey of the new rail line in consultation with the Government of Nepal. |
| Source- DD News |
 The 18th Asian Games came to a close, with India achieving its best-ever medal haul of 69 and equaling its best gold medal haul of 15 after 67 years. In the final few medal events on the 14th day, India added four medals to its kitty, two Gold, a silver and a bronze. Boxer Amit Panghal stunned the Olympic Champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the men’s 49 Kilogram category to win India’s only boxing gold. Indian men’s bridge team won bridge gold for India. The duo of Pranab Bardhan, Shibhnath Sarkar finished top of the table with 384 points. |
| Note: Apart from the 15 gold, India picked up 24 silver and 30 bronze medals for a brilliant show that helped them finish inside top-10 at eighth for the third consecutive time. |
| Source- Asian Games |
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a payments bank of the Department of Posts that will take banking to the doorstep of every citizen through an unmatched network of post offices and almost 3 lakh postmen and ‘Grameen Dak Sewaks’. The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) will be like any other banks but its operations will be on a smaller scale without involving any credit risk. It will carry out most banking operations like accepting deposits but won’t advance loans or issue credit cards. The payments bank will accept deposits of up to Rs 1 lakh, offer remittance services, mobile payments/transfers/purchases and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third-party fund transfers. The IPPB would be available through 650 branches and 3,250 access points. |
| Source- The Hindu |
 Binoy Kumar has taken over as Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India. He had been posted as Officer on Special Duty in the Ministry. Prior to this, Binoy Kumar held the post of Special Secretary, Logistics, in the Department of Commerce. He also held the post of Director General (Supplies & Disposals), where he developed the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) as a one-stop online public procurement platform, in line with the digital initiatives of the Government of India. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 The 4th BIMSTEC Summit has been successfully concluded in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The leaders of all seven member states including Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the importance of robust institutional arrangements to effectively steering the process of regional cooperation under BIMSTEC. The Prime Minister of Nepal K.P. Sharma Oli presented draft Kathmandu declaration which was unanimously adopted by the all member states. |
Key points of the Kathmandu Declaration:
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 Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated the Fourth International Ayurveda Congress (IAvC) at the Netherlands. The Minister is in Netherlands to participate in the Congress jointly organized by International Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation, Netherlands; All India Ayurvedic Congress, New Delhi and the International Academy of Ayurveda, Pune in association with the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands. The congress would focus on promotion and propagation of Ayurveda in the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries of Europe. A special Seminar is also organized by the Indian Embassy titled “India-Netherlands collaboration in Healthcare, including Ayurveda”. |
| Source- Press Information Burea (PIB) |
 Indian economy grew by 8.2% in the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal, the highest in over two years. This announcement was made by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. The manufacturing sector grew by 13.5% which signals very good turnaround in the sector. In a related development Reserve Bank of India stated Non-food credit growth in the system accelerated to 10.6% for July as compared to previous year, driven by loans to the services sector growing at the faster clip. Credit to the services sector grew 23% for the reporting period, up from the year-ago period's 4.9%. |
| Source- DD News |
 India's 22-year-old boxer Amit Panghal defeated 2016 Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the men's 49kg final to bag gold at the Asian Games 2018. Amit was the only Indian boxer who made it to a final at the quadrennial event. He had won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year and a bronze at Asian Championships last year. |
| Source- Asian Games |
 India's 60-year-old Pranab Bardhan and 56-year-old Shibnath Sarkar won the men's pair bridge event to bag the country's first-ever gold in bridge at the Asian Games. The card game has been featured as a sport at the Asian Games for the first time, in the 2018 edition. China won silver in this event. India has won 15 gold medals at the Asiad 2018 so far. |
| Source- Asian Games |
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