Important Current Affairs 6th August

• Vijay Rupani to be New CM of Gujarat
  • Gujarat BJP President Vijay Rupani will be the new Chief Minister of Gujarat.
  • State Health Minister Nitin Patel has been made Deputy CM of the state.
  • This decision was taken in the meeting of BJP state legislative party.
  • Union minister Nitin Gadkari announced the appointments after CM Anandiben Patel resigned earlier in the week.
  • The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for two decades.
• France not to Host European Road Cycling
  • The French city of Nice says it will not host the European Road Cycling Championships for security reasons.
  • The event was planned for 14th to 18th September.
  • Mayor Philippe Pradal said the event required a large police presence, but the southern city had not received any guarantees about their deployment.
  • It is the latest event in France to be called off after July’s lorry attack in Nice.
• Olympics Open with a Glittering Ceremony
  • The 31st Summer Olympic Games opened in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
  • Acting Brazil President Michel Temer declared the Games open.
  • Following the tradition, Greece led the athletes’ parade with the hosts country Brazil coming last.
  • India was led by flag-bearer Abhinav Bindra.
  • Brazilian 2004 Athens Olympics marathon bronze winner Vanderlei de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron.
• Govt Introduces Employees Comp Bill
  • A bill seeking to raise the cap on disputed amount of compensation for appeal in high courts was introduced in Lok Sabha.
  • Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya introduced the Bill  in the lower house of Parliament.
  • Section 30 of the Employees’ Compensation Act 1923 provides for appeal in high courts whenever the compensation is more than Rs 300.
  • The bill seeks to raise this to Rs 10,000.
• Anand Sinha Joins IDFC Bank Board
  • Private sector lender IDFC Bank has appointed former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Anand Sinha on its board as an independent director.
  • He will replace former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai & was appointed with effect from Aug 1.
  • Mr Rai was appointed as the Chairman of the Banks Board Bureau.
  • IDFC had received approval from RBI to start operations as a bank in April 2014.
• CARE Ratings Names Mokashi MD
  • The Board of Directors of Credit Analysis and Research Ltd (CARE Ratings) has appointed Rajesh Mokashi as the Managing Director & CEO of the company.
  • It will subject to approval at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.
  • Mr Mokashi, who has been with the company since inception.
  • CARE Ratings provides credit rating that helps the corporates to raise capital for their various requirement.
• S&P Global Affirms ‘BBB-’Rating on ICICI
  • S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its ‘BBB-‘ long-term rating and ‘A-3’ short-term rating on ICICI Bank.
  • ICICI credit profile has been lowered to ‘bbb-‘ from ‘bbb’ eariler.
  • About 53% of the bank’s loans on a standalone basis are to the corporate and small & midsized enterprise segments.
  • The rising stress in these exposures has led to an increase in the bank’s gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio.
• Sebi Proposes Framework for Algo Trading
  • SEBI has proposed a new framework for super-fast algorithmic trading & co-location facility.
  • Algorithmic trading or algo refers to orders generated at a super-fast speed by use of advanced mathematical models.
  • It involved automated execution of trade & co-location involves setting up servers on the exchange premises.
  • Sebi has sought public comments on the proposal till August 31.
• Forex Reserves Hit Life-Time High
  • Country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 2.81 billion to reach a life-time high of USD 365.49 billion in the week to July 29.
  • Foreign currency assets are a major component of the overall reserves.
  • It rose USD 2.79 billion to USD 341.04 billion.
  • Gold reserves remained unchanged at USD 20.58 billion.
  • The country’s special drawing rights increased by USD 8.5 million to USD 1.48 billion.
• Govt Sets Inflation Target at 4%
  • The govt has set an inflation target of 4% for the next five years.
  • Monetary Policy Committee to be set-up soon & will have to adhere to the target till March 31, 2021.
  • The govt & RBI had last year reached an agreement that had set the inflation target at 4%, plus or minus 2%.
  • Once the Committee is set-up, it will set policy interest rate with the objective of keeping inflation in this range.