India’s performance at Rio Olympics

India had to content itself with two medals in the Rio Olympics, although a larger number of sportspersons qualified for the 2016 Games than for the previous events. The medal tally, however, came down from six in London Olympics of 2012 to just two.

The following is the performance of Indian contingent at the Rio Olympics:

BADMINTON:

P V Sindhu secured a silver medal after losing to Carolina Marin in the women’s singles final.

Saina Nehwal failed to progress beyond the league stage in women’s singles.

Kidambi Srikanth lost in the men’s singles quarterfinals against Lin Dan.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa failed to advance to the knock—out stage of women’s doubles.

Men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also failed to make the knock—out stage.

WRESTLING:

Sakshi Malik won bronze in women’s 58kg freestyle.

Vinesh Phogat retired after suffering an injury in the quarterfinal of women’s 48kg.

Babita Kumari lost in the pre-quarterfinal round of the women’s 53kg freestyle.

London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt lost in qualification round of men’s 65kg freestyle.

Sandeep Tomar lost his pre-quarterfinal bout of men’s 57kg freestyle.

In Greco-Roman, both Ravinder Khatri and Hardeep Singh lost in the pre-quarterfinals of 85kg and 98kg, respectively.

Narsingh Yadav was ruled out from representing India in men’s 74kg freestyle category after he was slapped with a four-year ban by Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for flunking a dope test after WADA challenged the clean chit given to him by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

GYMNASTICS:

Dipa Karmakar finished fourth in Vaults final.

TENNIS:

Mixed Doubles: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna lost the bronze medal play—off to Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic.

Men’s doubles: Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost in the first round to Polish duo of Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot.

Women’s double: Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare lost in the first round to Chinese pair of Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng.

SHOOTING:

10m Air Rifle (Men): Abhinav Bindra finished 4th in the finals, while Gagan Narang failed to qualify.

10m Air Pistol (Men): Jitu Rai finished eighth in the finals, while Gurpreet Singh failed to qualify for the finals.

50m Pistol (Men): Jitu Rai and Prakash Nanjappa failed to qualify for the finals.

50m Rifle Prone: Gagan Narang and Chain Singh failed to qualify for finals.

Men’s Trap: Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai failed to qualify for finals.

25m rapid fire pistol (Men): Gurpreet Singh failed to qualify for finals.

Skeet: Mairaj Ahmed Khan failed to qualify for finals.

10m Air Rifle (Women): Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul failed to qualify for the finals.

10m Air Pistol & 25m pistol (Women): Heena Sidhu failed to qualify for both 10m and 25m finals.

ATHLETICS:

Women’s 3000m steeplechase: Lalita Babar finished 10th in finals. But Sudha Singh failed to qualify for the finals.

Women’s 100m: Dutee Chand failed to qualify for finals.

Women’s 200m: Srabani Nanda failed to qualify for finals.

Women’s 400m: Nirmala Sheoran failed to qualify for finals.

Women’s 800m: Tintu Luka failed to qualify for the semifinals.

Women’s Shot Put: Manpreet Kaur failed to qualify for finals.

Women’s Discus: Seema Punia failed to qualify for finals.

Women’s 20km Walk: Khushbir Kaur finished 54th, while Sapana Punia ‘did not finish’ the race.

Women’s 4x400m Relay: Indian team finished seventh in Heat 2 and overall 13th and failed to qualify for the finals.

Men’s 4x400m Relay: Indian team disqualified.

Men’s Discus Throw: Vikas Gowda failed to qualify for the finals after finishing 28th in the qualification round.

Men’s 800m Round 1: Jinson Johnson failed to qualify for the finals.

Men’s 400m: Muhammad Anas Yahiya failed to qualify for the finals.

Men’s Long Jump: Ankit Sharma failed to qualify for the finals.

Men’s Triple Jump: Ranjith Maheshwary failed to qualify for the finals.

Men’s 20km race walk: Gurmeet Singh, Manish Singh Rawat and Ganapathi Krishnan failed to qualify.

Men’s 50km Walk: Sandeep Kumar finished 35th.

Men’s Marathon: Gopi T finished 25th and Kheta Ram 26th.

HOCKEY:

Men: Lost to Belgium in the quarterfinals.

Women: Failed to qualify for the quarterfinals after drawing one and losing four of their league games.

BOXING:

Vikas Krishan lost in the quarterfinals of 75kg.

Manoj Kumar lost in the pre-quarterfinals of 64kg.

Shiva Thapa lost in the opening round of 56kg.

ARCHERY:

Women’s team: Indian team lost in the quarterfinals.

Women’s Individual: Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi lost in the pre-quarterfinals, while Laxmirani Majhi lost in the Round of 64.

Men’s Individual: Atanu Das lost in the pre-quarterfinals.

GOLF:

Men: SSP Chawrasia finished tied 50th and Anirban Lahiri tied 57th.

Women: Aditi Ashok finished 41st.

WEIGHTLIFTING:

Sathish Sivalingam finished 11th in men’s 77kg.

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu failed to complete her event in 48kg category after failing to lift the weight in all her three attempts in clean & jerk.

TABLE TENNIS:

All four players — Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Mouma Das and Manika Batra — lost in first round.

ROWING:

Men’s Single Sculls: Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished 13th.

SWIMMING:

Women’s 200m Freestyle: Shivani Kataria finished 28th.

Men’s 200m Butterfly (Heats): Sajan Prakash finished 41st among 43.

JUDO

Avtar Singh lost in the opening round.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the setting up of a task force which will help to plan for the “effective participation” of Indian sportspersons in the next three Olympics, to be held in 2020, 2024 and 2028.

RBI launches ‘Sachet’ Portal for Curbing Illegal Money

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched a portal to curb illegal collection of money by companies. This website will enable public to obtain information regarding entities who accept deposits, lodge complaints and also share information regarding illegal acceptance of deposits.

Initiating quick follow up and taking cases to logical conclusion by punishing the guilty is paramount to deterring entities in future from carrying out unlawful activity 'Sachet' would help regulators in doing this as much as it would help members of public in depositing their hard earned money with genuine companies by giving them timely information about them.

The website would also help enhance coordination among regulators and state government agencies. People can file and track a complaint on this website if any firm has illegally accepted money from them or defaulted in repayment of deposits. People can also share information regarding any such entity on this portal.

The website also incorporates regulations prescribed by all financial regulators that one has to follow. 'Sachet' also has a section for closed user group for State Level Coordination Committee (SLCCs) wherein they could share market intelligence and other information about their activities as well as agenda and minutes of meetings across the country in real time.

All states have SLCCs comprising of various regulators, including RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), National Housing Bank (NHB), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Registrar of Companies (ROC) and concerned state government departments, such as, home, finance, law and various police authorities. The website will act as a 'force multiplier' and go a long way in making the SLCCs more effective in curbing the menace of unauthorised money raising activities.

India Post Payments Bank Incorporated

The India Post Payments Bank Limited received the Certificate of Incorporation from the Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs under the Companies Act 2013. This would be the first PSU under the Department of Posts. This has happened in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address, raising the expectations of the people from the soon to be set up India Post Payments Bank. With this move the Department of Posts has cleared an important milestone on this journey.

With the incorporation, the Board of the India Post Payments Bank Limited is likely to be constituted soon. The incorporation of the IPPB Ltd is a significant step forward as this also paves the way for the bank to begin hiring of banking professionals to set up the bank and begin its operations in 2017. The Department of Posts is expected to complete the roll out of its branches all over the country by September 2017. This could be the fastest roll out for a bank anywhere in the world.

The aspiration for the India Post Payments Bank is to become the most accessible bank in the world riding on state of the art banking and payments technology. Coupled with the physical presence across 1.55 lakh post offices and the reach of “The Dakiya”, the India Post Payments Bank aims to become a powerful and effective vehicle of real financial inclusion in the country. It is poised to create a national payments architecture riding on a modern payments platform and ubiquitous information and communication technologies that can be accessed by all users and service providers like never before. The stakeholders of the India Post Payments Bank within the Government and outside are looking at this new entity as a catalyst to social and financial inclusion.