The Daily Brief – 6th September 2018

The 6th East Asia Summit-Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EAS-EMM) and 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) was held in Singapore. Singapore is currently holding the Chair of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). EAS-EMM was attended by Economic Ministers from 10 ASEAN countries and their 8 dialogue partners – Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and United States. The 6th EAS–EMM was followed by the 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting. It was co-chaired by Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing and India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu,

Union Territory of Puducherry has bagged top position among 52 schools across the country in National Clean School Award after seven schools from Puducherry were awarded for their efforts in carrying forward Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. National Clean School Award ranking and the list were issued by Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and was prepared by National Institute of Cleanliness Education and Research (NICER).

India, Kazakhstan joint army exercise KAZIND will be conducted between Indian and Kazakhstan Army in Otar region, Kazakhstan from 10 to 23 September 2018. This will be third joint military exercise between two countries which have history of extensive cooperation in defence arena. The third edition aims at building and promoting bilateral army to army relations and exchange skills and experiences between armies of both countries. The first edition was held in Kazakhstan in 2016.

Asia Index Pvt Ltd has launched S&P BSE Private Banks Index to measure the performance of private banks. Asia Index Pvt Ltd is a joint venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE Ltd. This index is designed to provide market participants with transparent and rules-based benchmark that measures performance of private banks listed in India. It draws from constituents of S&P BSE Finance Index.

Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi (69) was elected as 13th President of Pakistan. He is close ally of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of founding members of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. He will take oath of office of President on September 9, 2018. Prior to his political career, Dr Alvi was dentist by profession. Dr Alvi will be third Pakistani president to have India connection prior to partition. In 2007, he became the first Pakistani to be elected as Councillor of FDI World Dental Federation.

Google announced on that it is employing a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to combat online spreading of contents involving child sexual abuse. The tool uses deep neural networks for image processing to help discover and detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. The quick identification of new images will lead to quicker identification of children, who are being sexually abused and will help protect them from further abuse.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered all scheduled commercial banks (except Regional Rural Banks) with more than 10 branches to appoint an Internal Ombudsman. The Scheme covers appointment and tenure; roles and responsibilities; procedural guidelines and oversight mechanism for the Internal Ombudsman. RBI issued revised directions under Section 35 A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 in the form of ‘Internal Ombudsman Scheme, 2018’. An ombudsman is a person officially charged with investigating and addressing public complaints or violation of rights.