In accordance with the “Cushman & Wakefield’s 2020 Global Manufacturing Risk Index (MRI)” India ranks 3rd in the Baseline Scenario,3rd in Cost Scenario & 30th in Risk Scenario.

Some of the Financial entities regulated by SEBI.

Investment Banks

Capital Markets

Stock Brokers

Real estate investment trusts (REITs)

Infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs)

Stock Exchanges

Commodities Futures / Options

Alternative Investment Funds

CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur, unveiled the COVID Protection System (COPS) for Workplace as a game-changer in the current Pandemic Scenario. Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur, while unveiling the COPS for Workplace conglomeration of technology at a Press Conference held on 17th July 2020, stated that, “apart from the Healthcare Workers, the frontline Security Guards of any organisation are also very vulnerable to COVID through infected individuals and contaminated objects.

Sahil Seth has been appointed as the honorary adviser to the steering committee of the BRICS Chamber of Commerce (CCI) young leaders for the period of 2020-2023

• The central government is planning to expand the reach of the Smart Safety Surveillance, or 3S, programme.
• This is being done to optimize post-marketing surveillance of priority drugs and vaccines, and ensure the vaccines distributed under the universal immunization programme are safe.

• ANASIS-2 is South Korea’s first military communications satellite.
  • It was recently launched successfully by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
  • The ANASIS-2 telecommunications satellite will operate in geostationary Earth orbit.
  • The Chinese Mars Mission, named Tianwen-1 was also launched successfully recently.

Antarctica has exceeded 20C for the first time, after researchers logged a temperature of 20.75C on an island off the coast of the peninsula.

This latest reading was taken at a monitoring station on Seymour Island, part of a chain of islands off the same peninsula, at the northernmost point of the continent

The 3rd Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting will take place as part of the Finance Track for the G20 Leaders Summit 2020, which is to be hosted by Saudi Arabia at the end of 2020

India and Israel have decided to work together to develop a set of COVID-19 tests that will bring the entire testing process down to 30 seconds, it will also be widely available and will help the open economies.

Appointment Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) approved the appointment of Sumit Deb as the Chairman and Managing Director of the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) till 28th February 2023, the date of his superannuation. Sumit Deb who is currently serving as the Director (Personnel) in NMDC, will take charge as the CMD of NMDC on or after August 1, 2020.

Greta Thunberg, a 17-year-old environment activist from Sweden, was named the winner of the first Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. She is a founder of a school strike for climate and is known as one of the most influential environmental activists.

The Reserve Bank is likely to pause at the upcoming policy review in August and cut rates by 25 basis points each in the October and December reviews, Japanese brokerage Nomura stated

Economic activity continues to remain weak and will lead to a 6.1% contraction in India’s GDP in the current fiscal, a foreign brokerage stated.

The Reserve Bank is likely to pause at the upcoming policy review in August and cut rates by 25 basis points each in the October and December reviews, Japanese brokerage Nomura stated in a report.

All the analysts expect a contraction in the GDP due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted both supply and demand forces in the economy since March. Official data also suggests a surge in inflation, which will further drag down the GDP in real terms.

Nomura stated the June quarter will be the ‘nadir’ from a growth perspective and the economy will contract by 15.2% and the GDP will never come into the positive territory in the remaining part of this fiscal.

The U.S.-India Business Council’s India Ideas Summit 2020 was held virtually recently. It provides a platform for views from leaders in business, government and society from across the United States and India.

The 2020 Summit Speakers include U.S. Secretary of State; India’s Prime Minister, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar among others. The theme for this year’s Summit is ‘Building a Better Future’.

The U.S.-India Business Council was formed in 1975 as a business advocacy organization to promote the private sectors of both India and United States to enhance investment flows.

Amazon.com Inc’s Indian unit announced on July 23, 2020 that it will begin offering auto insurance, making India the e-commerce giant’s first market for the service

In accordance with the 7th edition of “International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Global Rights Index 2020-The World’s Worst Countries for Workers”, India became the new entrant in the 10 worst countries for working people in the world, with a rating of 5 that states “No guarantee of rights”. The index ranked 144 countries on the basis of respect for workers’ rights.The other countries among the worst ten are- Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Turkey and Zimbabwe along with Egypt & Honduras being the other two new entrants apart from India.The headquarters of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) located at Brussels, Belgium

Melghat was declared a tiger reserve and was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under the Project Tiger. It is located in northern part of Amravati District of Maharashtra State in India. The Tapti River and the Gawilgadh ridge of the Satpura Range form the boundaries of the reserve

German technology major SAP has appointed Kulmeet Bawa as president and managing director for SAP Indian Subcontinent.

A committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India to review QR code-based payments has recommended that more payments system providers should make these codes interoperable. As part of its recommendations, the committee said that a closed loop QR codes, which only work within the ecosystem of one payment provider, will hold back the adoption of this means of payment.Currently, there are three types of QR codes operating. Bharat QR, Unified Payments Interface QR and proprietary QR codes. The committee recommended that the RBI must encourage use of interoperable QR codes such as the Bharat QR and UPI QR.

In a meeting with the 15th Finance Commission, the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, on Monday highlighted that the government aims at gradually increasing the public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the nation’s GDP by the year 2025.

Snapdeal’s co-founder and CEO, Kunal Bahl, has taken over as the Chairman of CII’s E-Commerce Committee for 2020-21. Urban Company’s co-founder Abhiraj Bhal will co-chair the committee

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on July 21, 2020 that his government has approved ‘Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana’. The scheme will enable all beneficiaries to avail doorstep delivery of ration

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who also holds the finance portfolio presented Rs 9000 crore tax free budget for the financial year 2020-2021 in the assembly. The budget is Rs 575 crore more than the previous year’s outlay of Rs 8,425 crore and Rs 1073 crore more than the revised budget outlay of Rs 7927 crore in 2019-2020. Note– The budget was presented amid objections from Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and without her customary address

World Day for International Justice, also referred to as Day of International Criminal Justice or International Justice Day, is an international day celebrated throughout the world on July 17 as part of an effort to recognize the emerging system of international criminal justice. July 17 is the date of the adoption of the treaty that created the International Criminal Court.

Assam Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal has announced, Poba Reserve Forest in Dhemaji district would be upgraded to a wildlife sanctuary. The announcement was made during a meeting with senior officials of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Majuli districts at Jonai. Poba Reserve Forest declared in 1924 with an area of 10,522 hectares is home to a large number of flora and fauna

Karur Vysya Bank (KVB)’s Board of Directors has co-opted Ramesh Babu Boddu as an Additional Director and appointed him as the Managing Director(MD) & Chief Executive Officer(CEO) for three years’ tenure. He replaces P R Seshadri, who resigned in January 2020 citing personal reasons

Crime writer, S Hussain Zaidi has penned a new novel “The Endgame” which talks of politics, betrayal, and unimaginable terror.

Former health minister of Goa, Dr Suresh Amonkar, died due to Covid-19 infection on Monday. Dr Amonkar was also the ex-president of the Goa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Karnataka Deputy CM C.N. Ashwathnarayan on July 21 inaugurated state’s maiden plasma bank at HCG Hospital, Bengaluru as a part of Mission COPE (COVID Plasma Endeavour)

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019, which has replaced old Consumer Protection Act 1986 has come into force w.e.f. July 20, 2020 aiming to enforce and protect the rights of consumers, and provide an effective mechanism to address consumer grievances. The act was briefed by Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan through video conference with media.The Act proposes the establishment of a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers, and make interventions in situations of unfair trade practices