The First Forum is an initiative that focuses on covering the latest happenings in a brief format. This is in lieu of the importance of knowledge about current happenings in this fast-changing world.
In the Fifty-ninth Edition of The First Forum we would be covering the following topics:
1. Politics
2. Science and Technology
3. Business
4. Economics
5. Finance
(By Mehak Gupta, Nikunj Gulati, and Kanika Meena)
Politics
Rajasthan political crisis is over
Congress’s Sachin Pilot is back in Rajasthan after ending his month-long revolt against CM Ashok Gehlot to whom Pilot had rebelled. He said that he had no hard feelings and was no longer part of the state government, but he expected the head of the family to resolve disputes and take everyone. Pilot met Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Vadra said the party had formed a three-member committee to look into the issues raised by him and some other MLA’s. Read More
Narendra Modi becomes the longest serving non-Congress PM
PM Narendra Modi becomes the fourth-largest serving Prime Minister of India suppressing Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s term. He has completed 2,272 days in Prime Minister Office(PMO), making him the longest-serving non-congress prime minister that India has ever had, joint with late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Read More
Philippines President Duterte will be vaccinated with Russia’s vaccine
The Philippines is looking to start clinical trials for a Russian coronavirus vaccine in October, President Rodrigo Duterte said. Russia has registered the world’s first vaccine for the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic. Duterte lauded Russia’s efforts to develop the coronavirus vaccine speedily. Duterte had volunteered to participate in trials for the Russian vaccine, even as scientists and health experts questioned the safety and effectiveness of the drug that has not been extensively tested. Read More
Kamala Harris hitting hard on the Trump Administration
The presumptive Democratic party’s vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris has said that once elected, Joe Biden’s administration will create millions of jobs, fight climate change, and build an affordable care act among various other vital initiatives for the welfare of Americans. During her speech, She mentioned a lot of sectors where the current administration has created a complete mess. Read More
Supreme Court finds Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court
The court had registered its verdict in the suo motu contempt case against senior advocate Prashant Bhushan for his two tweets allegedly against the judiciary. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai, and Krishna Murai rendered the verdict. The contempt proceedings were started against Bhushan last month after the senior lawyer had put on a tweet critical of the Chief Justice of India and the apex court. The two tweets in question were posted in June this year.Read More
Science and Technology
Using Air to Amplify Light in Hollow-Core Optical Fibers
Today’s optical fibers usually have a solid glass core, so there’s no air inside. Light can travel along the fibers but loses half of its intensity after 15 kilometers. It keeps weakening until it can hardly be detected at 300 kilometers. So to keep the light moving, it has to be amplified at regular intervals. The new approach is based on new hollow- core optical fibers that are filled with either air or gas. Read More
NASA Launched Laser Beams at the Moon – For the First Time, They Received a Signal Back
Dozens of times over the last decade NASA scientists have launched laser beams at a reflector the size of a paperback novel about 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) away from Earth. They announced on 12th August, in collaboration with their French colleagues, that they received a signal back for the first time, an encouraging result that could enhance laser experiments used to study the physics of the universe. Read More
Scientists Build a Better Nanoscale LED – A Tiny, Bright Light That Can Transform Into a Laser
A new design for LEDs developed by a team including scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may hold the key to overcoming a limitation in the light sources’ efficiency. The concept, demonstrated with microscopic LEDs in the lab, achieves a dramatic increase in brightness as well as the ability to create laser light; all characteristics that could make it valuable in a range of large-scale and miniaturized applications. Read More
Helium Structures Found in Sun’s Atmosphere by NASA Sounding Rocket
In 2009, NASA launched a sounding rocket investigation to measure helium in the extended solar atmosphere – the first time we’ve gathered a full global map. Previously, when measuring ratios of helium to hydrogen in the solar wind as it reaches Earth, observations have found much lower ratios than expected. Scientists suspected the missing helium might have been left behind in the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer or perhaps in a deeper layer. Read More
Scientists Monitor Brains Replaying Memories in Real-Time
In a study of epilepsy patients, researchers at the National Institutes of Health monitored the electrical activity of thousands of individual brain cells, called neurons, as patients took memory tests. They found that the firing patterns of the cells that occurred when patients learned a word pair were replayed fractions of a second before they successfully remembered the pair. The researchers analyzed the firing patterns of individual neurons located in the anterior temporal lobe, a brain language center. Read More


Business
Amazon, Flipkart see increased participation of small-town SMEs in 1st sale post lockdown
Both large e-commerce companies in India – Amazon, and Flipkart recently concluded their first major sale since the beginning of the financial season. While Flipkart had a five-day-long Independence Day Sale from August 6-10, ahead of other geographies, Amazon had a two-day Prime Day Sale between August 6-7. Read More
Fortis to be renamed Parkway to distance itself from Singh brothers
Leading hospital chain Fortis Healthcare will now have a new name — Parkway, a brand that Malaysian health care major IHH owns. Its diagnostic arm SRL will also look for a new brand name and logo. The current brand license agreements will expire in April-May 2021. The company clarified that the change of name would be subject to requisite approvals and directions from the Supreme Court and other regulatory authorities. FHL aims to complete this process before next April. Read More
Make in India boost: 2.3 mn PPEs exported to 5 nations in July, says govt
India exported 2.3 million personal protection equipment to five countries including the US, the UK, and the UAE in July after the government relaxed export norms and this has substantially helped the country to position itself in the global market of these kits, the Union Health Ministry said. According to the ministry, the Make in India spirit embedded in the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan has resulted in providing resilience and self-sufficiency” to the country for various medical equipment including PPE. Read More
AirAsia India offers 50,000 seats without base fares to armed forces
AirAsia India on Friday offered 50,000 seats without base fares to the armed forces personnel for the travel period between September 25 and December 31. On the eve of Independence Day, the airline said the travelers can submit their details online between August 15 and August 21 to avail of the offer. While the base fare will be waived off under the “RedPass” offer, airport fees, charges, and taxes would be borne by the personnel, it stated in a press release.Read More
Flipkart eyes alcohol delivery with Diageo-backed startup
Walmart’s e-commerce platform Flipkart has partnered with a startup backed by spirits giant Diageo to deliver alcohol in two Indian cities, according to government letters seen by Reuters, months after Amazon planned a similar foray. Flipkart and Amazon’s interest in delivering alcohol in India marks a bold move to make inroads into an alcohol market that is worth $27.2 billion, according to estimates by IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.Read More
Economics
Dutch economy shrinks by ‘unprecedented’ 8.5% as virus hits
The Dutch Central bureau for Statistics said that the economy suffered an unprecedented 8.5% contraction in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on spending, exports and investments. While the Dutch contraction compared to the first quarter was bad, it was not as severe as other major European countries like France and Germany. The 19-country eurozone, which the Netherlands is a part of, dropped by quarterly 12.1% while the U.K. reported a 20.4% decline Corona has caused unprecedented economic damage. Read More.
India to take equal, proportional measures if other countries impose trade barriers: Goyal
India will take “equal and proportional measures” to protect domestic manufacturing if other countries continue imposing restrictions or barriers on Indian goods, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. Many FTA countries do not allow access to Indian goods, even though they are part of FTA protocols. They put non-tariff barriers or other restrictive measures and Indian is no longer going to take this. He said India will have to plan its own measures whether it is by way of antidumping duty or some restrictions. Read More
July sees trade back in deficit as gold, pharma imports rise
India returned in July to a trade deficit of $4.83 billion, after posting a monthly trade surplus for the first time in 18 years in June. The flip was propelled by year-on-year growth in imports of gold, fertilisers, edible oil and medicinal and pharmaceutical products, according to data by the Commerce Ministry. Overall, merchandise imports declined more than 28%, a recovery from the June decline of 48%. Read More
Despite jobless claims milestone, US economic holes remain deep
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 1 million for the first time since the pandemic began in March, a milestone that underscores both the depth of economic damage and long road to recovery from the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression. The latest figure of 963,000 capped a steep two-week decline and is a fraction of the nearly 7 million filing. Read More
RBI to transfer Rs 57000 crore surplus to Centre for FY20
Amid falling tax collections and burgeoning fiscal deficit, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the transfer of Rs57,128 crore as surplus to the government for the accountear 2019-20, while deciding to maintain the Contingency Risk Buffer at 5.5%, the RBI said in a statement. The payout, will only partly bolster the Centre’s pandemic hit finances as it is lower than the government’s estimate of Rs60,000 crore and may not be of much help to the government, whose finances have been battered by the heavy-lifting needed to support the economy to tide over the economic crisis caused by COVID. Read More
Finance
Mahindra Finance rights issue subscribed 1.3 times.
Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services (Mahindra Finance), the NBFC arm of Mahindra Group, raised Rs. 3,089 crore through a rights issue. The issue was subscribed approximately 1.3 times resulting in a demand generation of over Rs. 4,000 crores said the company. The rights issue saw investor interest, including from small investors and institutional investors, both Indian and foreign, it said. Read More
New appointments in Indiabulls Housing
In board-level changes at Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IBHFL), Sameer Gehlaut, co-founder and chairman of Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IBHFL), stepped down from his current position in the mortgage lender. In a regulatory filing, IBHFL said that Gehlaut would be replaced by SS Mundra, former deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India, while Gehlaut will remain on the board as a non-executive, non-independent director. Read More
Standard Chartered and Airtel Africa entered into the partnership to drive financial inclusion in Africa
Standard Chartered Bank and Airtel Africa have entered into the collaboration to drive financial inclusion across key markets in Africa by providing customers with increased access to mobile financial services. Through the collaboration, both Standard Chartered and Airtel Africa will work together to co-create new and innovative products aimed at enhancing the accessibility of financial services and serve people across Africa better. Read More
Banks have plans to raise $14 billion
SBI, ICICI banks, Axis, Kotak, and others are on the hunt for capital, having raised $7 billion so far with plans to bring in another $7 billion in the coming days. Public and private banks alike are shoring up capital as the economy fears a fresh cycle of bad loans resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Read More
Second largest private sector lender closes QIP
The country’s second-largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has completed the allotment of equity shares under its qualified institutional placement (QIP) and raised approximately Rs15,000 crores through the issuance of 41.89 crore equity shares at an issue price of Rs358 per unit to fund its business growth and meet regulatory capital requirement. Read More
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