The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to dissolve the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) which was set up in February 2006 as an independent and autonomous body for formulating codes of conduct to be adopted by banks voluntarily for ensuring fair treatment of customers. BCSBI, in collaboration with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), has evolved two codes – Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers and the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Micro and Small Enterprises. The nodal department for BCSBI is CEPD (Consumer Education and Protection Department).

Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO on August 26, 2020, became the first person in the world to hit a net worth of $200 billion. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that affected the businesses and economies, the stocks of the e-commerce platform continue to soar.

Former Indian Oil Corp (IOC) chairman Sanjiv Singh has joined Reliance Industries Ltd as Group President for billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run firm’s oil-to-chemicals business.

Singh, who superannuated from the services of IOCL on 30 June, will lead and drive the group’s manufacturing services which is considered the backbone of RIL’s oil-to-chemicals business.

Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private sector bank, has introduced ‘Liberty Savings Account’ for the Indian Youth, to address the ever changing lifestyle needs of young and digitally interested Indians. It offers a complimentary hospital cash insurance cover of uptoRs 20,000 per year, which covers hospital expenses incurred under COVID -19, which makes this a 1st of its kind savings account to cover the pandemic.

Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash, a 21-year-old Hyderabad boy, has become the world’s fastest human calculator after winning the first gold for India in the Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London.

Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Rajiv Srivastava has resigned form the post.

India is planning to host BRICS Games in 2021 and may align it with Khelo India Games.

This announcement came after Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, attended a meeting of Sports Ministers of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

India will get the chairmanship of the five-nation independent international group in 2021.

BRICS Games 2021 will be held during the same time and at the same venues as of Khelo India Games 2021 so that our players from various parts of the country who will gather for Khelo India Games will have the benefit of witnessing BRICS Games from close quarters.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its Annual Report for 2019-20. It is Report of the Central Board of Directors on the working of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the year ended June 30, 2020 submitted to the Central Government in terms of Section 53(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 In the report, RBI projected that India’s growth at minus (-) 4.5% for 2020-21. It will be (-) 3.7% in the single hit scenario and (-) 7.3% in the double hit scenario in FY2020-21. On the global front, the growth is projected at (-) 6.0% in the single hit scenario and (-) 7.6% in the double hit scenario in FY20-21.

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has announced his resignation from the post, less than three months after his appointment. In an email to his employees, Mayer said that “It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company.”

A 13-year old boy from Manipur Baldeep Ningthoujam has developed a mobile game named Coroboi amid COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown which became a popular android based game worldwide.

Axis Bank Ltd (Axis Bank) to acquire 17% (17.002%) of the equity share capital in Max Life Insurance (Max Life), instead of 29%. After the transaction, the total ownership of Axis bank in Max Life will be 18%. The parties have executed definitive agreements. Axis Bank and Max Life will approach the respective regulatory authorities, with revised applications for their consideration and approval.

Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash Jonnalagadda of Hyderabad has bagged the first ever Gold Medal for India in Mental Calculations (MC) World Cup (MCWC) held on August 15, 2020 by Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO). Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash is a student of Mathematics (Honors) at Delhi University’s St Stephen College and holds 4 World Records and 50 Limca records for being the fastest human calculator in the world.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech had stated that the government would review ‘rules of origin’ requirements, particularly for certain sensitive items, “so as to ensure that FTAs are aligned to the conscious direction of our policy

NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness released the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020 on 26 August 2020. It is the first report to examine the export preparedness and performance of Indian states. The report was aimed to identify challenges and opportunities. Gujarat topped the Export Preparedness Index 2020.

Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), India’s first listed, national-level, electronic exchange, launched futures trading on the country’s first tradeable real-time bullion index, MCX iCOMDEX Bullion, or Bulldex. The index will track the real-time performance of the gold (1kg) and silver (30kg) futures contracts, the flagship future products on the Exchange. Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd: Headquarters-Mumbai, Maharashtra.

China launched its fifth Gaofen-9 Earth observation satellite and two smaller payloads from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert.

The India Pavilion at the Army-2020 International Military and Technical Forum was inaugurated by Secretary (Defence Production) Raj Kumar and Indian Ambassador DB Venkatesh Verma at Moscow, Russia.

Africa has been declared free of polio by the World Health Organisation in a significant public health milestone. WHO’s Africa Regional Certification Commission-certified 47 nations of Africa to be free of wild polio on August 25, 2020.

The final report of the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog Task Force headed by Ramesh Chand, NITI Aayog Member(Agriculture), “Sugarcane and Sugar Industry” recommended linking of Sugarcane prices to sugar rate to maintain the financial state and stability of the industry and to clear the arrears of the sugarcane farmers. This report of the task force was finalized in March 2020 and published on August 20. To support the sugar mills with the cost of production, including the interest and maintenance cost the report recommends a onetime increase in the minimum sugar price to Rs.33 per kilogram.

On August 21, 2020, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 16 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 (40 of 2019) the Central Government constituted the India’s first 30-member National Council for Transgender Persons to advice, monitor and evaluate measures for the protection of the rights of Transgender community.The 30-member council is consisted of 1Chairperson, 1 Vice-Chairperson, 13 members, 14 nominated members and 1-member secretary. The Chairperson of the council is Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment (SJ&E) (Thaawar Chand Gehlot at present) &Vice-chairperson: Minister of State (MoS), SJ&E.

The Naval Commanders’ Conference 2020, a biennial conference was held in New Delhi, India from August 19 to 21, 2020. Rajnath Singh, Union Defence Minister addressed the opening session of the conference. This is the 1st Naval Commanders’ Conference since the institution of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).Rajnath Singh reviewed the innovations by Indian Navy to combat COVID 19 pandemic with Naval Commanders along with Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Karambir Singh.

Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda has e-inaugurated “Tribes India Showroom” in Mumbai.

Google launched ‘The Anywhere School’ initiative in more than 250 countries around the world. The initiative is expected to benefit millions of students who have switched to learning from home, due to the pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom announced recently that nine COVID vaccines have been included in its COVAX global vaccines facility portfolio and a further nine candidates are under evaluation.

Private lender, RBL Bank has selected Accenture to enhance it’s IT systems and processes to support its objective of becoming a truly digital bank.

Hallmarking of precious metals will be mandatory from 1st June 2021.

Indian Air Force (IAF) launched the ‘My IAF’ mobile app on 24 August 2020. The app was launched by IAF Chief Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria in New Delhi as a part of the ‘Digital India’ initiative. My IAF app has been developed in association with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

The first ever Kerala State Dragonfly Festival 2020 aka “Thumbimahotsavam 2020” was launched by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-India State unit in collaboration with Society for Odonate Studies (SOS) and Thumbipuranam through a virtual ceremony from Kerala. Dr. Subramanian K.A., scientist at Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Southern Regional Center, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) addressed the inaugural session. The festival will culminate with the State dragonfly summit, most probably in January 2021. The official mascot of the festival is “Pantalu” which is the genus of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae commonly known as rainpool gliders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will confer the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration on Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, 31st October at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat. The Prime Minister’s Awards have been comprehensively restructured this year to recognize the contribution of civil servants in the strengthening of service delivery and redressal of public grievances.