Indian Armed Forces scripted another success with the test launch of nuclear capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a Naval warship off Odisha coast as part of a secret mission.

By ensuring Germany’s economic ruin and political humiliation, the post-war settlement provided fertile ground for the rise of Nazism and its horrors.

The 25th edition of SIMBEX, an acronym for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise” is scheduled from 10th to 21st November 2018 off Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Bilateral cooperation between Singapore and India was first formalised when RSN ships began training with the Indian Navy in 1994.

India has been elected as a member of the International Telecommunications Union Council (ITU) for another 4-year term - from 2019 to 2022.

As the political controversy over the Rafale fighter jet deal continues in India, manufacturing of the aircraft customised as per specifications of the Indian Air Force (IAF) is making progress.

The 25th edition of SIMBEX, an acronym for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise” is scheduled from 10th to 21st November 2018 off Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Bilateral cooperation between Singapore and India was first formalised when RSN ships began training with the Indian Navy in 1994.

The Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka has achieved a historic feat.

The government has banned the construction of jetties, ports or “permanent hydraulic structures” in the Ganga, unless permitted by the National Ganga Rejuvenation Authority, according to a proposed ‘Ganga Act’

Indians believe strongly in their country's education system rating it 7.11 out of 10 the fourth-highest of any country polled, with only Finland (8), Switzerland (7.2), and Singapore (7.1) higher.

For thousands of communities across India, the process of getting drinking water is now the same as the process of getting cash: they head to an ATM.

Professor Veezhinathan from Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IITM went on and said, "The microprocessor will not get outdated as it is one of the few 'RISC V Microprocessors' in the world now".

Air quality in India’s haze-hit north, including the capital, New Delhi, deteriorated sharply on Monday because of unfavourable weather and an increase in smoke from stubble burning in fields across the region.

The Reserve Bank has initiated steps to set up a wide-based digital Public Credit Registry (PCR) to capture details of all borrowers, including wilful defaulters and also the pending legal suits in order to check financial delinquencies.

The plea, stating that the government cannot “frustrate” the process of appointment of judges in the apex court and high courts in “an oblique way” by sitting on collegium’s recommendations and not responding to names reiterated by it, came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today launched a historic support and outreach programme for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

India leads the world in the number of internet shutdowns, with over 100 reported incidents in 2018 alone according to a report titled 'Freedom on the Net' by a US think tank.

India has jumped 23 places to rank 77 in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 report. While improvement on quite a few parameters has pushed up its overall ranking, there are some in which it is lagging.

The Maharashtra state cabinet on Thursday cleared the decks for the Navy's longest-serving aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, now retired, to be converted into India’s first-ever moored maritime museum-cum-marine adventure centre.

ISA is an alliance of more than 121 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy so as to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The satellite was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern Sichuan Province, state-run Xinhua reported.

In case of older public service vehicles –those registered up to 31"December,2018, the respective State/ UT Governments will notify the date by which these vehicles have to install Vehicle Location Tracking Device and Panic Buttons.

The US plans to re-impose oil-related sanctions on Iran on November 4 to choke the Islamic Republic’s biggest source of income and pressure it to renegotiate a new nuclear deal.

This decision was taken in a meeting held here today under the Chairmanship of Shri C.K. Mishra, Secretary, EF&CC to discuss the urgent steps for air pollution mitigation and regulating fire crackers in the light of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s Order.

India leapfrogged to the 77th rank in the World Bank's latest Ease of Doing Business rankings, jumping 23 notches from last year, a news that is likely to bring cheer for the Narendra Modi-government that is caught in an apparent turf battle with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The government has sent letters to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking consultations on key regulatory issues under a never-before-used provision in the law, according to sources.

The launch of the surface-to-surface missile was undertaken as a part of periodic training activity by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) from Dr Abdul Kalam Island to consolidate operational readiness, the sources said.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu held a meeting with a Russian business delegation on raising investments and business between the two countries on Saturday, where he said "all issues may be resolved in order to operationalise the route as early as possible".

The Indian Navy has put out a proposal for its third aircraft carrier, tentatively titled the Vishal due to enter service in the latter 2020s.

The CAF World Giving Index 2018 finds that when it comes to donating money, volunteering time and helping a stranger among 146 countries, India ranks at 124 in 2018 as opposed to its position of 81 in 2017.

One in ten deaths in children across the world is being caused by air pollution, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.

The Supreme Court on Monday prohibited the plying of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the national capital region (NCR) and directed the transport department to announce that such vehicles would be impounded if found plying.

A look at the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), calculated by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and UNDP reveal the variations.

Narendra Modi along with Shinzo Abe reviewed developments in bilateral relations and explored new areas of cooperation, focusing on shared vision for peace & prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.

The UN Department of Field Support announced that the Indian government had donated about USD 300,000 for the 'Pipeline to Peacekeeping Command Programme' with a specific focus on issues of conduct and discipline.

Beijing-based Landscape said late Saturday that the first and second stage of its ZQ-1 rocket worked normally but something went wrong with the final of the three-stage rocket.

In March, the US dragged India to the global trade body's dispute settlement mechanism over export subsidies, saying that these incentives were harming the American companies.

Concerned over the “disappearance” of many intangible legacies of India over time, the UN will soon launch a project on creating an “inventory” of art forms, craftsmanship and other intangible cultural heritage of the country.

The capital Delhi is experiencing a number of difficulties due to poor environmental pollution. Pollution in the air is getting worse day by day.

The HD-1 missile test was a success and “verified the launch, power and flight control systems,” according to China’s Global Times.

Indian Railways is moving fast to connect Ladakh with New Delhi through rail lines by expediting work on the strategically significant Bilaspur-Manali-Leh broad-gauge rail line.

The moon lander, Vikram, named after the father of Indian space programme Vikram Sarabhai, will carry out various tests on the moon surface.

India and Myanmar held a national level meeting here today to chalk out strategies to crack down on insurgent groups operating in the region.

Russia on Thursday successfully launched a Soyuz rocket for the first time since the failure of a similar rocket aborted a manned take-off to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 11.

The two sides agreed to consider inclusion of Rupnarayanriver (National Waterway-86) from Geonkhali to Kolaghat in the protocol route and to declare Kolaghatin West Bengal as new Port of Call.

The association is guided by international leaders who believe in the value of networking, knowledge exchange and the promotion of good governance for the betterment of citizens in the Commonwealth countries.

Barak-8 is a long-range surface to air missile jointly developed by India’s DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries (which subcontracted the work to Israel’s Elta Systems and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems; the latter has a JV with Indian private firm Kalyani).

he Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved a Rs 7,522-crore Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) from which enterpreneurs, fishermen, cooperatives will get loans at subsidised interest rate and two years moratorium on repayment of principal amount.

Driven by a self-propulsion module sans a separate locomotive, the train, capable of running at a speed of up to 160 kmph, comes with technical features for enhanced quick acceleration.

Appointment of an Adjudicating Authority, along with the three additional Benches and to establish the Appellate Tribunal under the PBPT Act;

Unlike the first mission which carried only Chandrayaan orbiter and the Moon Impact probe, this mission will have a lander and a rover apart from the orbiter, which has been developed by Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).

The Indian delegation to the first meeting of the Coordination Council on Chabahar was led by T.S. Tirumurti, secretary, economic relations, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The award was presented by Armenian President Armen Sarkissian to Deepak Bagla, the CEO of Invest India, on Monday in Geneva at the inaugurations of the World Investment Forum organised by the UN Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The order passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S.K. Kaul came on a PIL filed by Anoop Baranwal seeking an “independent mechanism for appointment of ECs” outside the exclusive power of the government.

The Supreme Court has allowed use of fire crackers that are within permitted decibel limits and emission norms.

Recommends adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law of Cross Border Insolvency, 1997

A U.N.-backed fund has approved more than $1 billion for 19 new projects to help developing countries tackle climate change, officials said Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. would pull out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia.

The S-300 began development in the 1960s as a follow-up to a multitude of prior surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. The primary missile it planned to replace is the S-75 (SA-2) missile system, which was famously used against the U-2 spy plane and deployed in Cuba and Vietnam. The missile underwent testing in the 1970s and entered service in 1978.

The UNICEF said on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Chile President Michelle Bachelet and chair of PMNCH will deliver the keynote addresses.

India on Saturday (October 20) rejected reports in Pakistani media that New Delhi has refused "permission" to Pakistan from inspecting water projects being built on the River Chenab.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) may officially maintain that it is not in race with China so far as its space endeavours go, but the space programmes of the two leading economies cannot be viewed in isolation given that both are trying to make their mark.

India, Japan and the U.S. are set to elevate the bilateral ‘Cope India’ air exercise to a trilateral format. The three countries already conduct naval war games under the expanded Malabar naval exercise.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Monday in its ‘Investment Trends Monitor’ report that in South Asia, India attracted USD 22 billion of FDI (foreign direct investment) flows, contributing to the sub-region’s 13 per cent rise in FDI in the first half of the year.

RK Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy announced an award scheme under Saubhagya here today to felicitate the DISCOMs / Power Department of the States and their employees for achieving 100 per cent household electrification in their area of operations.

"It might be the wish of many people that Allahabad can be renamed Prayagraj. It will be a very good message. If everyone agrees, we should know this city as Prayagraj and it can be a good start," the Chief Minister had said earlier.

The Centre recently announced its plan to set up a panel of judges to look into the legal and institutional framework to curb sexual harassment at workplaces following the #MeToo campaign on social media.

“This will be the first of the 36 Rafale fighter jets ordered by India,” said a top Ministry of Defence source. The fighter jet has been numbered as RB 008, after Air Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria, who is Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Training Command of the Indian Air Force.

The system - called Air Quality Early Warning System - will have an in-built web-based dissemination tools to inform public and enforcement agencies about episodic high pollution events in advance.

The 2018 award announcement on Friday said: "Sikkim is the first organic state in the world. All of its farmland is certified organic. At the same time, Sikkim's approach reaches beyond organic production and has proven truly transformational for the state and its citizens."

This initiative will be a part of the drive to make cities across the country flood resilient. The urban affairs ministry will soon come out with the guidelines for this competition as cities face more threats of flooding because of blocked drainage system and dying natural water bodies, where rain water accumulates.

Enhancing its operational capabilities, the Navy has inducted its first deep submergence rescue vehicle which is deployed to rescue downed or disaster-struck submarines at high sea.

An understanding to launch a joint programme in Afghanistan was reached during an informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held in April at China’s Wuhan city.

The GSLV MK-III vehicle’s upper stage is powered by the CE-20, which operates on a gas generator cycle using a combination of liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) propellants.

India is planning a major mission to sequence the genes of a “large” group of Indians — akin to projects in the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Australia — and use this to improve health as well as buck a global trend of designing ‘personalised medicine.’

India was vying for a seat in the Asia Pacific category. Along with India, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji and Philippines had also staked a claim in the same regional group.

As a top US official headed to New Delhi for talks on Iran sanctions, a state department spokesperson said “it’s not helpful” to note India plans to continue buying Iranian oil and Russian S-400 air defense systems, both subject to secondary sanctions under separate legislations.

According to directions issued Wednesday, political parties too will have to give publicity to the criminal records of candidates fielded by them.

Noting that there are 102 cities where air quality does not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the panel formed an Air Quality Monitoring Committee (AQMC), comprising directors of environment, transport, industries, urban development, agriculture departments and member-secretary of state pollution control boards.

The Global Hunger Index report released on October 11 is the thirteenth edition. Welthungerlife and Concern Worldwide has been issuing reports on hunger levels in the world since 2006.

The World Bank Group unveiled a new system on Thursday to rank countries based on their success in developing human capital, an effort to prod governments to invest more effectively in education and healthcare.

Climate change is making development highly risky, particularly in lower-middle income countries like India. A study released by the UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on Wednesday said India suffered economic losses of $80 billion during the 20-year period of 1998 to 2017.

Stressing the treatment gap and high economic burden of mental illness, the report says the disease will cost the world economy $ 16 trillion by 2030.

In a gazette notification made public on Wednesday, the National Mission for Clean Ganga has laid down the flow specifications.

“These brand audits offer undeniable proof of the role that corporations play in perpetuating the global plastic pollution crisis,” said Global Coordinator of Break Free From Plastic Von Hernandez.

The earliest the first set of complete green data from the survey will be available is 2020, providing an important tool in the hands of policy-makers for decision making at all levels - district, state and national.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi said they are not on the suitability of the Rafale jets, but only on the decision making process. It further said that the information in this regard would be submitted in a sealed cover.

India was negotiating window out of these sanctions, similar to waivers under the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act, or CATSA on Russia to buy S-400 missile systems. Indian diplomats say the US is yet not clear about waivers on Iran.

Pakistan on Monday successfully conducted the training launch of Ghauri Missile System, which has a range of up to 1,300 km, reported Radio Pakistan.

In this connection, it is to be noted that vacancies from 9-Bellary(ST), 14-Shimoga and 20-Mandya Parliamentary Constituencies of Karnataka have occurred on 18 th  May, 18th May and 21 st  May, 2018 respectively,  whereas vacancies from the five parliamentary constituencies from Andhra Pradesh have occurred on 20 th  June, 2018.

The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018, published to coincide with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank annual meetings being held in Bali, analysed the countries` policy behaviour on social spending, tax and labour rights, particularly for women.

India’s decision to purchase the S-400 Triumf missile defence system from Russia has handed the US a unique strategic opportunity to distinguish India from China on their dealings with Russia: sanctions for Beijing, waiver for New Delhi.

The Japanese ships would be participating in the third edition of JIMEX under the command of Rear Admiral Tatsuya Fukada, commander of Escort Flotilla-4 (CCF-4).

Net human-caused emissions of carbon-dioxide must reach zero by 2050, says the new Inter-Government Panel on Climate Change, calling for urgent, unprecedented and collective action.

The surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, was launched from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore around 8.30 pm, they said.

To promote innovative cooperation between students of India and Russia, a Memorandum of Understanding was exchanged between India’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and the Russian Federation’s SIRIUS Educational Foundation in the presence of the Prime Minister of India Shri.

Recent extreme weather events, such as floods in Kerala, wildfires in Uttarakhand and heat waves in the north and east, have demonstrated how vulnerableIndia is to climate change.

The country's cooling energy demand will rise to 2.2 times the existing level by 2027 and interventions can help cut it down by 17 per cent in the next decade, a report said.

At end of delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladmir Putin, a MoU was inked between ISRO and the Federal Space Agency of Russia ‘ROSCOSMOS’ for joint activities in the field of Human Spaceflight Programme.

The southwest monsoon season officially extends from June 1 to September 30, but many cities in the country get almost their entire rainfall of the season in a small window that adds up to just a few days to a few weeks within this four-month period, official data going back more than three decades show.

The Delhi Declaration on Renewable Energy in the Indian Ocean Region calls for collaboration among IORA member states in meeting the growing demand for renewable energy in the Indian Ocean littorals, development of a common renewable energy agenda for the Indian Ocean region and promote regional capacity building.

India on Friday signed a deal for the purchase of the S-400 Triumf air defence system from Russia. The deal is worth around $5 billion.

On the occasion of Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi yesterday i.e. October 02, 2018, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), had launched a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign, Udyam Abhilasha in 115 Aspirational Districts identified by NITI Aayog in 28 States and reaching to around 15,000 youth.

A series of flight trials of Astra Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVR-AAM) was conducted by Indian Air Force during Sept 26 to Oct 3, at Integrated Test Range (ITR), Balasore as part of final development trials of the missile.

A missile defence system is intended to act as a shield against incoming ballistic missiles.

French minister of state for ecological and inclusive transition, Brune Poirson, is set to co-chair on Wednesday the first assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

“Operation Samudra Maitri’ for humanitarian assistance was launched after a telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo on October 1, and following Indonesia’s acceptance of international aid,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

An Indian astronaut may travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Soyuz spacecraft for a short training mission in 2022, a Russian media report said on Wednesday, citing a source in the Russian space industry.

In February 2016, the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi set itself a formidable target: to double farmer incomes by 2022. The announcement was made as a crippling drought year (2015-16) neared its end.

German deputy chief of mission to India Jasper Wieck, who on Monday signed an agreement on conservation of 17th Century Mughal-era bridge in Srinagar, said the move is aimed at reclaiming the part of our common identity.

Environment Secretary C K Mishra said India will not be adversely impacted in the wake of the Trump administration pulling out of the historic climate agreement.

India accounts for 29% of black spotted turtles (Geoclemys hamiltonii) seized from across seven countries in South Asia, states a recent report by TRAFFIC, an international network monitoring trade in wildlife.

A highlight on the sidelines of the upcoming India-Russia bilateral summit is likely to be the gifting of three MiG-21 fighter jets to Russia.

The 9,900 MW power plant that envisages to have six nuclear reactors of 1,650 MW each is slated to be the biggest nuclear power park in the country.

The per capita alcohol consumption in India increased two folds between 2005 and 2016, according to the Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday.

The awards were presented by Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons at a ceremony held at the Vigyan Bhavan.India's first World Heritage City Ahmedabad is well-known for Indo-Islamic monumental art and architecture, intricately carved wooden havelis.

Over the past decade, India has made significant strides in bringing down rates of child undernutrition and infant mortality. Yet, several parts of India continue to be weighed down by some of the worst health outcomes in the world, with rates of undernutrition and infant mortality much higher than some of the poorest parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed women entry into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. Girls and women of menstruating age—10-50 years—were not allowed in the premises of the temple, which houses Lord Ayyappan.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the "creamy layer test" would apply if reservatios in promotion are given to the SCs and STs. It said this was needed to prevent the creamy layer amongs SCs and STs from bagging all the coveted jobs in the public sector.

The missile was fired from a fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force in the afternoon and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle ‘Banshi’ which it successfully engaged, the sources said.

The judgment was welcomed by activists, who said the archaic law should have been dumped a long time ago to keep pace with the rest of world.

The G4 nations, India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, have been calling for the reform of the UN Security Council, and support each others’ bids for the permanent seats in the top UN body.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018) and re-designation of the Telecom Commission as the "Digital Communications Commission”.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared government's Aadhaar scheme as Constitutionally valid and also struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar Act permitting private entities to avail Aadhaar data.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar; albeit with riders. In a majority judgment of 4:1, a constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra affirmed its constitutionality, saying it involved “parting with minimal information” to fulfill the “larger public interest” of the marginalised and poor who can use it to obtain benefits and subsidies under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act.

Zhao Kezhi, China's Minister of Public Security, is expected to visit India next month and hold meetings with Home Minister Rajnath Singh during which they will discuss various aspects of security cooperation between the two countries.

The Supreme Court Tuesday said there were no restrictions on MPs and MLAs practicing law and that Rule 49 was not applicable to law-makers who are not full time salaried employees.

India is among the top countries to face maximum economic loss from climate change, says a new research, estimating the total price that emissions would have to the country’s economy.

“Our commitment to the Global Tiger Recovery Programme gains new ground with Nepal’s growing tiger numbers and a successful implementation of Nepal’s Tiger Conservation Action Plan,” stated Bishwa Nath Oli, Secretary of the Ministry of Forests and Environment.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is setting up a third launch pad at Sriharikota to undertake the Gaganyaan manned space flight programme, an ISRO official said on Friday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Centre's flagship Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) from Ranchi on Sunday, reported news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

Waris Pathan was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly for refusing to say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. Earlier, another AIMIM leader, Asaduddin Owaisi voiced similar opinion in the Parliament leading to a strong rebuttal (without naming Owaisi) by Jawed Akhtar.

ESIC has launched this Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana keeping in mind the change in employment pattern. The current scenario of employment in India has been transformed from long employment to fixed short term engagement in the form of contract and temping.

Official sources that the database will contain more than 4.5 lakh cases, including profiles of first-time and repeat offenders, based on details compiled from prisons across the country.

The project is aimed at improving the safety and operational performance of selected existing dams and mitigate risks to ensure the safety of the downstream population and property.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union Home Secretary said that with the introduction of online portal, the process has become standardized, resulting in a process which will be faster, transparent and easy to monitor.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Wednesday approved an ordinance making instant triple talaq a punishable offence with a three-year jail term.

India faces the highest number of cybersecurity threats in the Asia-Pacific region with over 500,000 alerts daily, which is nearly thrice the number of alerts at global companies.

A new UNIGME report said 6,05,000 neonatal deaths were reported in India in 2017, while the number of deaths among children aged 5-14 was 1,52,000.

The number of polluted stretches of the country's rivers has increased to 351 from 302 two years ago, and the number of critically polluted stretches — where water quality indicators are the poorest — has gone up to 45 from 34, according to an assessment by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted the first successful test firing of a new indigenously designed and developed man portable anti-tank guided missile (MPATGM) at the Ahmednagar test range in the western Indian state of Maharashtra on September 15, the Indian Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in a statement.

Indian farmers and US manufacturers of medical devices could be among the main winners in a trade package under negotiation, as Washington and New Delhi look to remove long-standing irritants to ties, sources familiar with the talks said.

The joint exercise Yudh Abhyas 2018 will simulate a scenario where both nations will work together in counter insurgency and counter terrorism environment in mountainous terrain under United Nation charter. The two week exercise will witness participation of about 350 personnel of the US Army and similar strength of the Indian Army.

“Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan’ (PM-AASHA). The Scheme is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce as announced in the Union Budget for 2018.

The Election Commission Tuesday withdrew the ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) option from ballot papers of the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council polls following a Supreme Court directive.

NITI Aayog, Intel, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) announced on 7thSeptember that they are collaborating to set up a Model International Center for Transformative Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI) towards developing and deploying AI-led application-based research projects.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up for a full commercial launch on Sunday (September 16) when its PSLV C42 will lift off with two British satellites from the Sriharikota launchpad.

In what is likely to fuel the reach of the indigenous fighter jet, the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday successfully tested the mid-air refuelling of the home-grown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas.

Nepal will not participate in the week-long joint military exercise of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries beginning Tuesday in Pune.

Engineers set to sea Saturday to deploy a trash collection device to corral plastic litter floating between California and Hawaii in an attempt to clean up the world’s largest garbage patch in the heart of the Pacific Ocean.

China and Pakistan have decided to speed up and extend the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor towards Afghanistan during foreign minister Wang Yi’s recent visit to Islamabad, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.

The launch of India Post Payments Bank or IPPB will help in bringing the unbanked into the banking system. The government aims to link over 1.5 lakh post offices with India Post Payments Bank.

A five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malohtra said that the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) violated the constitutional right to equality and dignity.

As the missile has to follow a manoeuverable trajectory, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has planned to evacuate people residing in three km area of the launching complex. This is for the first time that people are being evacuated from a large area.

The government Wednesday decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) an open-ended scheme and added more incentives to encourage people to open bank accounts.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Bengaluru Space Expo 2018, a biennial event organised by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Sivan said the agency was planning to open incubation centres at six places in the country to encourage innovation and start-ups.

India and the United States on Thursday began a new generation of military and security cooperation by signing Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA).

India and France Thursday announced a working group for Gaganyaan, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) first manned space mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day.

Diluting Section 377 by unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday said LGBTQ community has the same fundamental rights as other citizens. This marks the end of a long legal battle supporting homosexuality.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate MOVE: India’s ever first Global Mobility Summit organized by NITI Aayog at Vigyan Bhawan in the capital on 7th and 8th September.

The CJI has written to the Ministry of Law and Justice endorsing and recommending the name of Justice Gogoi, the senior-most judge, as the next CJI.

One in four people don’t get enough exercise, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). In the survey of 168 nations, Kuwait ranked as the world’s most inactive, while Uganda came out as the most energetic.

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will pronounce on September 6 its judgment on the constitutionality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial era provision which criminalises private consensual sexual acts between same-sex adults.

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), which was launched on Saturday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, does away with ATM cards and debit cards for both cash and cashless transactions.

The Nutrition Month will also focus on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers to eliminate the deficiencies prevailing in the Health sector.

The exercise, known as IOWave18, is being organised by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, which coordinated the setting up of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) in the aftermath of December 26, 2004 tsunami, an official release said here Monday.

A new joint UN agency study, ‘Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: 2018 Global Baseline Report,’ says that good hygiene facilities in schools provide the basis of a healthy learning environment, and that girls are more likely to attend when they are on their period.

The best-ever medal haul at the 2018 Asian Games is a leap forward for Indian sport after the Commonwealth Games medal spurt.

During the Indo-US Homeland Security Dialogue, held recently, senior officers deliberated on a draft work plan relating to the activities of the six sub-groups, an official privy to the development said Monday.

While FDI from Mauritius totalled USD 13.41 billion as against USD 13.38 billion in the previous year, inflows from Singapore rose to USD 9.27 billion from USD 6.52 billion. Even as FDI from Netherlands declined marginally to USD 2.67 billion as against USD 3.23 billion in the year-ago period.

The review round was launched by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of Trade Relations of Singapore S Iswaran.

The number of people travelling abroad hit record levels in 2017 with a total of 1,323 million international tourist arrivals recorded in destinations around the world, with India leading the growth in the South Asian region, according to data from the UN’s tourism organisation.

More than 25 years after the implementation of reservation for Other Backward Classes, based on the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Friday announced the first Census to count OBCs in 2021.

Ahead of the launch of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, the managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank, Suresh Sethi, spoke about IPPB’s objectives, goals and expansion plans.

The Supreme Court on Friday, August 31, 2018, sought responses from the Centre, six state governments and the BJP on a plea which has alleged that they have violated the apex court’s directions on issuance of public advertisements.

The matter was listed before a Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud. The Jammu and Kashmir government had written a letter to the Registrar of the Supreme Court on August 29.

Named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the ARRIA “will rank educational institutions for innovation output based on all major indicators and parameters used globally”, HRD minister minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Events during the week will see diverse groups - start-ups, academicians, corporations, policy analysts, NGOs and the government, as well as the civil society,engage in conversations on the mobility landscape, future possibilities and preparedness of the countrytowards meeting the opportunities and challenges.

The intense rainfall that unleashed widespread devastation throughout Kerala earlier this month could have extracted a heavy toll on the rich biodiversity and ecology of the Western Ghats region, according to experts.

“Headline inflation, which averaged 4.8% during Q1 FY19, is likely to face upside risks over the rest of the year from a number of sources, warranting continuous vigil and a readiness to head off those pressures from getting generalized,” RBI said in its 2017-18 annual report.

The first U.S.-India 2+2 dialogue next week in New Delhi will discuss regional and strategic issues of Asia and “will also have some real outcomes”, said a senior official of the Donald Trump administration.

The Russian military has successfully conducted a test launch of a new interceptor missile for Russia’s missile defense system, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service said on Thursday.

To increase banking connectivity, especially in rural areas, the government plans to open branches of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) all across the country.

The government, World Bank and state-owned EESL on Tuesday inked a $220 million loan agreement and $80 million guarantee pact to push energy efficiency programme in India.

The services rendered under the O-SMART will provide economic benefits to a number of user communities in the coastal and ocean sectors, namely, fisheries, offshore industry, coastal states, Defence, Shipping, Ports etc.

Long-term exposure to air pollution lowers brain function, which reflects in decreased verbal and mathematics scores, apart from causing heart disease and breathing problems, a new study from China has said.

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister, S&T and Vice President, CSIR on the occasion said that it is a historic day and the biofuel technology is going to be a game changer as the Biojet fuel is greenhouse gas neutral, carbon neutral, reduces air pollution and to cap it ,it would bring down import bill on crude oil.“

The TTZ is an area of about 10,400 sq km spread over the districts of Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.

Giving details of the programme at a press conference in New Delhi, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh said GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

Russian state-owned technology company Rostec has commenced the modernisation and upgrade of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya deployed into service with the Indian Navy.

Even the most sophisticated climate models struggle to simulate physical processes such as convection and evaporation that drive rainfall activity.

Ministerial resounds India’s concerns about data protection and individual privacy.

While these thematic areas are quite significant for the Himalayas. Mountain specificities require specific solutions for resilience building that address socio-economic and environmental challenges in the mountain setting. The reports from the five working groups discuss the significance, the challenges, the ongoing actions and a future roadmap.

The signing of the Second Protocol, amending CECA, will boost bilateral trade between India and Singapore.TheCECA was the first comprehensive agreement covering trade in goods, services and investments, which India had signed with any of its trading partners. The CECA was signed on 29th June, 2005 and its first review was concluded on 1st October, 2007.

Landslides triggered by human activities are on the rise around the world and India is among the most-affected countries, accounting for at least 28% of such events over last 12 years, according to a study published on Friday.

Nearly a year after the disengagement at Doklam, India and China have agreed to work towards full implementation of ongoing confidence building measures along the disputed border, besides drafting a new bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

As a part of this bid, M/s Ostro Kutch Wind Private Limited was issued letter of award on 05.04.2017 for a capacity of 250 MW, with commissioning period of 18 months. A part capacity of 126 MW, located in Bhuj (Gujarat) was commissioned by M/s Ostro on 24.08.2018, ahead of schedule.

To enhance security against misuse of Aadhaar authentication, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has instructed all telecom operators to ensure that they should start implementing a two-factor verification, which includes facial recognition.

“We should not really regard Quad in any comparative or in an exclusive context. This four-country meeting is an important modality. There are various modalities where India, Australia, Japan and the US interact, including on a bilateral and trilateral basis…,” said Hideki Asari, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Japan.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is a prestigious non-government organisation dedicated to promoting the application of theory, methodology and scientific techniques for conservation of architectural and archaeological heritage across the world.

A report sent to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and other security agencies by a department under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has said that the maximum number of cyber attacks on official Indian websites are from China, US and Russia.

In a turnaround, the Central government had on Tuesday decided that private retail chemists would be free to sell Oxytocin from September 1.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday appointed seven new governors, the most significant of which was the appointment of Bihar’s governor Satya Pal Malik as the new governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

The amendments had restored the legislative intent of the original Act of 1989, which barred anticipatory bail to a person accused of insulting or hurting a Dalit.

The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences has announced it will set up a cyclone warning centre in Kerala and boost weather forecasting in the state with another Doppler radar.

With enough ice sitting at the surface -- within the top few millimetres -- water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface.

“Europeans and other signatories of the deal [China and Russia] have been trying to save the deal ... but the process has been slow.

Even as the unprecedented floods and landslides have devastated most parts of Kerala in the last fortnight, technologically the most helpful support the authorities are getting in handling the situation was updates from Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and its various satellites which kept their eyes open up from the atmosphere.

The Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that the None of The Above (NOTA) option cannot be made available in Rajya Sabha elections. A three-judge bench of CJI Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud observed that the NOTA option is applicable only for direct elections and not indirect elections such as the Rajya Sabha polls.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells said that US Secretary of State Micheal Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis will travel to New Delhi on September 6th for the 22 dialogue with India.

AGRICULTURE GENERATES not even a quarter of rural household incomes in India. Even for so-called agricultural households, just over 43 per cent of their average income comes from cultivation of crops and rearing of animals, according to the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development’s (NABARD) All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17.

Reacting to the breakthrough, Science & Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “cracking of the bread wheat genome will go a long way in developing climate-resilient wheat and help tide over possible impact of climate change on farm output.”

India’s economy grew in double digits twice during the previous United Progressive Alliance government (UPA) under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 10.23% in 2007-08 and 10.78% in 2010-11, according to back series calculations by a committee appointed by the National Statistical Commission.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has finally announced a phased roll out of face recognition feature as an additional mode of authentication, starting with telecom service providers, from September 15.

The study took into consideration 78 indicators in 15 categories. All cities were evaluated out of 100. The 'physical' pillar (infrastructure) was given the highest weightage of 45, while institutional (governance) and social were weighted 25 each. Economy was weighted 5.

The 11th World Hindi Conference, an event aimed at expanding the reach of the Hindi language at a global level, will begin in Mauritius from Saturday.

South Asian countries including India have fared poorly in a ranking of the world's most liveable cities topped by Austrian capital Vienna, with New Delhi figuring at 112th and Mumbai 117th position in a list of 140 cities.

Singh has written a letter to Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an official statement said.

Accusing Iran of unleashing “a torrent of violence and destabilizing behavior against the United States, our allies, our partners and, indeed, the Iranian people themselves,” Pompeo announced the creation of the Iran Action Group, which he said would drive administration policy in Washington and overseas.

Attorney General K K Venugopal told a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, that there is no judgment which says that affluent people of the SC/ST community can be denied quota benefits by applying creamy layer concept.

In the wake of Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision for creating digital museums at stations using QR code, Ministry of Railway has made “digital screens” operational at 22 stations on this Independence Day (15.08.2018) as an innovative low cost solution to spread awareness among public about the opulent heritage of Indian Railways.

Monetary policy committee (MPC) members cited possible risks of inflation in the second half of the year as one of the key drivers for raising interest rates in August, according to minutes of the meeting released on Thursday. The committee also raised rates at its previous meeting, in June.

NITI Aayog has launched “Pitch to MOVE” - a mobility pitch competition that aims to provide budding entrepreneurs of India a unique opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a distinguished jury.

While there are no specific rules for regional origin, a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 by former chief justice J.S. Khehar suggests that they try to maintain regional representation.

Ayushman Bharat, the National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) or Modicare, will be launched on September 25 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Wednesday in his Independence Day Speech.

In order to ensure better implementation of the law against sexual harassment at workplace, the Centre has made it mandatory for companies to disclose whether they have constituted an internal complaints committee (ICC) to probe such allegations.

India has rejected a proposal of the United Kingdom to use DNA sampling to establish the nationality of illegal migrants living there, citing “privacy issues”.

Iran unveiled a next generation short-range ballistic missile on Monday and vowed to further boost its capabilities, Iranian media said, at a time of rising tensions with the United States.

Jodhpur and Marwar in Rajasthan were declared the cleanest railway stations, while Varanasi, the prime minister’s Lok Sabha constituency, slipped to the 69th position in the third cleanliness survey released on Monday (August 13).

Maharashtra’s main urban clusters in Mumbai and Pune raced the government’s first-ever attempt to rank India’s leading cities based on ease of living. While Pune topped the ranking, Navi Mumbai and Mumbai rounded out the top three.

India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 will now be launched in the January-March window in 2019 instead of later this year as the design was changed to enable it to land on the lunar surface, a top ISRO official said on Sunday.

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 3:31 a.m. Eastern.

In his reply to the brief debate, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad favoured creation of All India Judicial Service on the lines of IAS and IPS and said scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward sections should get benefit of reservation.

NITI Aayog, together with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the UT Administrations of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep hosted an Investors’ Conference on August 10, 2018 at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi for the Holistic Development of Islands.

The Lok Sabha today passed a bill which will help India become a hub for domestic and global arbitration for settling commercial disputes.

They include continuation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana beyond the 12th Five Year Plan period with certain changes, release of pulses to States a discount of Rs. 15 per kg for various Welfare Schemes among other decisions. Here's a round-up of the other decisions.

India has gained exponentially from the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal, said former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, at an event to mark 10 years since U.S. nuclear restrictions were lifted on India, as he listed permanent access to nuclear fuel and a change in international perception as the biggest benefits for India since the U.S. Congress passed the deal in September 2008.

The Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve has become the 11th Biosphere Reserve from India that has been included in the UNESCO designated World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR).

Average inflation likely to rise to 5.2% in 2018-19 from a 17-year low of 3.6% in 2017-18, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The star has a mass almost 1.5 times our sun.

A team of scientists showed that even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, there is a risk of Earth entering what the scientists call "Hothouse Earth" conditions.

The bill was moved for discussion and passage by social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot in the Rajya Sabha and passed unanimously with 145 ayes and no negative votes or abstentions.

The law to prevent atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes will remain as stringent as ever. The Prevention of Atrocities against SCs/STs amendment bill not only restores its provisions but also make them stricter.

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, heading a Bench, on Monday orally observed that the Supreme Court will consider whether Article 35A, which gives special status to the State and people of Jammu and Kashmir, is violative of the ‘Basic Structure’ of the Constitution.

During the debate on the Bill, which was introduced on Wednesday, N.K. Premchandran (RSP) asked what was the need for bringing an Ordinance. He said a university has to be autonomous in character but the provisions of the Bill defy this.

Delhi moved one spot up to replace Gujarat as the most investor-friendly state in the latest National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) State Investment Potential Index (N-SIPI).

India has become the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to get the Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status after the US issued a federal notification to this effect, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi, particularly in civil space and defence sectors.

India got the presidency of the organisation, servicing countries of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in the field of electronic media development, for the first time by defeating Iran in the election that took place in Sri Lanka, Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials said.

The study found that platelets bind to and kill parasites in patients infected with each of the major malaria parasite species which infect and kill humans -- Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and P. knowlesi.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed an amendment bill to give constitutional status to the OBC Commission. The Constitution (123rd Amendment) bill, passed by the Lower House, grants National Commission on Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status, par with National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (NCSC and NCST).

Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan have emerged as the 'front-runner' states as per an energy efficiency index.

The Gaofen-11 satellite was launched on a Long March 4B rocket at 11 am Beijing Time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province. It was the 282nd flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket.

The interceptor missile (it remains within the earth's atmosphere at an altitude below 100 km), fired from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast, hit a designated incoming dummy enemy missile at a distance of 40 km, said official sources.

The Ministry of Culture, Government of India has launched the new scheme namely Seva Bhoj Yojna starting today, with a total outlay of Rs. 325.00 Crores for Financial Years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s latest consumer confidence survey finds that more than half the respondents do not expect any improvement in their income, their employment prospects and general economic conditions in the next one year.

The Union Cabinet today gave its nod to a bill to restore the original provisions of a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals, acceding to a key demand of Dalit groups ahead of their call for a 'Bharat Bandh' on August 9, a top government source told PTI.

The Bill seeks to repeal the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959, the State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956 and further to amend the State Bank of India Act, 1955.

Accurate population projections could help India and its workforce catch up to more developed Asian countries with higher GDP per capita, researchers suggest.

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday increased the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5% and the reverse repo rate to 6.25%. This is the third bi-monthly policy review of the 2018-’19 financial year.

“This system will help in preventing 9/11-type attacks [when terrorists flew hijacked planes into New York’s World Trade Center] on Delhi. It is in the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) stage now,” an official source said.

The Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance to State Governments/Union Territory (UT) Administrations under the schemes of Swadesh Darshan, National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) and Assistance to Central Agencies for the development of tourism related infrastructure in the country.

The UN human rights experts have expressed arguments over the measures contained in the Trafficking of persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 stating that it is not in accordance with the international human rights laws.

These include positive features like broader definitions, horizontal application, extra-territorial jurisdiction and steep penalties for violations, as well as negative features like data localization requirements, many exceptions to state related processing.

That means India will have to develop a customised model that can issue advance warning of floods in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, according to Dr. Madhavan Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.

AIR correspondent reports that students and general public will take part in the contest to be held in Raisen, Sehore, Betul, Chhindwada, Panna and Satna towns.

The move would help mills divert cane juice for ethanol manufacturing during surplus years. So far, mills were allowed to manufacture ethanol from by-product called C-molasses, after sugar was taken out while processing raw cane juice.

The over $2 trillion economy, which surpassed France recently to become the world's sixth-largest economy, is expected to grow 7.4 percent in the fiscal year ending in March 2019 and 7.6 percent next, according to average forecasts in the latest poll of nearly 70 economists, taken July 19-24.

Launching the platform, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission said that the #InnovateIndia MyGov-AIM portal creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level.

The eclipse can be seen from all over the country when there are no clouds. The eclipse will also be visible from countries in Africa, Central Asia, South America, Europe and Australia.

The West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution today to rename the state as 'Bangla' in three languages -- Bengali, English and Hindi.

It also provides for the setting up of Anti-Trafficking Units (ATUs) at the district level which will deal with the investigation, prevention, rescue, and protection of victims and witnesses.

A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising the possibility that more water -- and maybe even life -- exists there, international astronomers said Wednesday.

As a part of Commonwealth countries, India and Australia have always enjoyed amicable bilateral relations. Air Forces of both the countries have participated in the Second World War.

CHILDLINE is India's first 24-hour, free, emergency phone service for children in need of aid and assistance. At present, it is operational at 450 locations.

A Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed today between NITI Aayog and Lupin Foundation to collaborate in Aspirational Districts Programme.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha today, Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda said infant mortality rate has also come down from 160 to 130 per one lakh births during the same period.

According to a release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on agriculture signed in May 2007 was amended on the cooperation in the field of agriculture and animal resources.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with the heads of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa, will be in Johannesburg to take part in the 10th BRICS summit starting Wednesday.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises consensual private sexual acts between adults. It came into force in 1862. Lawyers have argued that the notorious Criminal Tribes Act, 1871, which branded a number of marginalised population groups like transgenders as “innately criminal” before it was repealed, drew inspiration from Section 377.

Science& Technology, Earth Sciences; Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan unveiled a state-of-the-art Air Quality and Weather Forecast System– SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting)at ChandniChowkin Delhi today.

Kerala stands as the best governed state in the country and Karnataka is in the fourth position, said the Public Affairs Index 2018 released by the think tank Public Affairs Centre (PAC) in Bengaluru.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said dealing in cryptocurrency will encourage illegal transactions. The RBI has already issued a circular prohibiting use of these virtual currencies.

It is a phenomenon that is too familiar to North India in the winter, thanks to the accompanying respiratory ailments, headaches and allergic reactions.

NASA has launched an online toolkit to make it easier for users to find, analyse and utilise the most relevant satellite data for their research, business projects or conservation efforts.

The Indian delegation at the dialogue, held yesterday, was led by Pankaj Sharma, Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) in the MEA, while the Japanese side was led by Ambassador Kansuke Nagaoka, Policy Planning and International Security Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“In so many years, we saw that there is a law [to tackle fugitive economic offenders], but the time taken to carry out the due process showed us that there is a need for strict and speedy procedures,” Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said while responding to the Opposition’s objections to the Bill.

In a move aimed at providing relief to bankers and helping them take business decisions without fear, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2013.

Myanmar Minister for International Cooperation Kyaw Tin handed over the ISA Framework Agreement to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during a bilateral meeting here on the margins of this year's Delhi Dialogue, the premier annual track 1.5 event to discuss politico-security, economic and socio-cultural engagement between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc.

UN Environment Programme and the search engine giant Google have gone about and entered into a partnership to monitor the impact of human activities on how it affects the global ecosystem.

The European Union and Japan have signed one of the world's biggest free trade deals, covering nearly a third of the world's GDP. The agreement was signed in Tokyo yesterday.

The 7th Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, DTTI meeting was held between India and the US delegation in New Delhi today as part of Indo-US bilateral defence cooperation.

India accounts for one-fifth of global deaths due to floods, according to government data that lend perspective to a new World Bank study that says climate change will lower the standards of living ofnearly half of India’s population by 2050.

The first in the 300-satellite array -- known as the Hongyan constellation -- is set to be launched by the end of this year, it said.

Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore has said that the Central Government will soon launch an ambitious scheme to test sports ability of two to three crore children across the country.

The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, today co-chaired 8th session of India-Oman Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) along with Minister of Industry, Investment, Trade and Digital Economy of Oman, Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy.

BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired at 1017 hrs today, from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore, Odisha.

The MCA seeks to review offences under the Companies Act, 2013 as some of the offences may be required to be decriminalised and handled in an in-house mechanism, where a penalty could be levied in instances of default.

Hindi-speaking population in the country has increased by more than 10 crore between 2001-11, thus remaining India's most spoken language, followed by Bengali, which added more than 1.10 crore speakers in the 2011 census in comparison to 2001.

Being the Vice Chair of AP Region of WCO will enable India to take on leadership role. India is a wealth of experience inpromoting security and facilitation of cross border trade.

India’s first 2+2 dialogue with the US, which was postponed this month, would now take place in the first week of September, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the Centre on a plea by Trinamool Congress legislator Mahua Moitra and sought Attorney General K K Venugopal's assistance in the matter.

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation launches the Swachh SurvekshanGrameen 2018 (SSG 2018) in the capital today. An independent survey agency will conduct the survey in all districts from 1st to 31stAugust 2018, and the results will be announced in the form of a ranking of all districts and states on the basis of quantitative and qualitative sanitation (Swachhata) parameters. The top performing states and districts are expected to be awarded on 2nd October 2018.

India has come a long way from 2015 when it was ranked 81st, 66th in 2016 and 60th in 2017. Even though India is ranked 57th globally, it occupies the top spot in the central and south Asian region.

The Indian government had applied for EBRD membership in December 2017. The EBRD board of governors, which represents all the existing shareholders, voted unanimously in favour of the country's application in March 2018, with the entire membership process completed this week.

India's GDP in 2017 was USD 2.597 trillion, slightly ahead of France's USD 2.582 trillion, according to World Bank data.

The government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it would leave it to the wisdom of its judges to decide on the constitutional validity of Section 377 on the issue of criminalising homosexuality.

Andhra Pradesh has topped the government’s ease of doing business index for states, ahead of the industrialised states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jakarta in May this year, in a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, it was decided that New Delhi will develop the strategically important Indonesian port Sabang in the Indian Ocean, close to the Andamans.

Sh. Hardeep S Puri, MoS(I/C), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has stated that Smart cities fellowship and internship program will provide the youth an opportunity to experience the aspects of Urban planning and governance.

The centre on Monday announced the names of six “institutes of eminence”, three each from the public and private sectors, as part of its plans to create world-class universities to enhance research and improve global rankings of Indian educational institutions.

Two other MoUs were signed between Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and South Korean National Research Council for Science & Technology and IIT Mumbai and Korea Institute of Science &Technology,to further accelerate future-oriented cooperation in their respective sectors.

People with the knowledge of the matter told ET that the said Act was studied in detail since it answers several questions relating to fixed terms for Parliament and state assemblies.

The Telangana postal circle has been adjudged fastest in the rollout of Aadhaar country-wide. Punjab and Bihar were also rewarded in this category and bagged Aadhaar Excellence Awards, 2018.

More than 500 scholars and delegates from over 40 countries are participating in the five-day event. They will present papers on various subjects.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is looking to connect select stations under its flagship roads and highways project to cut infrastructure costs.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is “the master of the roster” and has the authority to allocate cases to different benches of the apex court, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

The Law Commission of India on Thursday submitted a report to the government, saying that since it is impossible to stop illegal gambling, the only viable option left is to “regulate” gambling in sports.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said that illegal mining is a serious problem in the country today, particularly in the areas where coal mining is carried out. Illegal coal mining not only causes a loss to the nation’s resources but is also harmful to the environment.

Moving a step closer to launching the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (NHPM), popularly known as “Modicare”, the union health ministry on Wednesday started the process of empanelling public and private hospitals for the scheme.

ISRO said the five-hour countdown was smooth. The crew escape system along with the simulated crew module with a mass of 12.6 tonne, lifted off at 7 am at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Cabinet has approved DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018. The primary intended purpose of the Bill is for expanding application of DNA based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system of the country.

The Supreme Court today held that Lieutenant Governor does not have independent decision making powers, and is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.

With no interim stay on the circular, all virtual currency transactions through banks would be blocked from 6 July, effectively resulting in a ban.

The celestial body would also be tinged with a reddish hue, a phenomenon popularly referred to as a blood moon.

This comes days after the Ministry put a draft Bill, to create a Higher Education Commission of India and repeal the UGC, in the public domain for suggestions.

A dozen years after introducing reforms to free the police from political influence, the Supreme Court on Tuesday restricted the choice of State governments in appointment of Directors General of Police (DGPs).

“The e-PAN facility is only for resident individuals and not for Hindu Undivided Family, firms, trusts and companies,” the advisory said.Once the PAN is allotted to an applicant through his electronic Aadhaar-based verification system in a few seconds, the applicant will be sent the PAN card by post, the official said.

On April 6, 2013, Commander Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy completed an epic solo circumnavigation around the world — a non-stop, round-the-world voyage in a small, Indian sailboat named Mhadei.

India is in the process of inducting the first batch of its intercontinental ballistic missile system—Agni-V—which will bring targets across China within its range, and is expected to significantly bolster the country’s military prowess.

India has moved up to 73rd place in terms of money parked by its citizens and companies with Swiss banks, while the UK remains on the top.

India has been successful in securing the inscription of the "Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai” on UNESCO's World Heritage List under Criteria (ii) and (iv) as defined in the UNESCO's Operational Guidelines.

The Aadhaar issuing authority Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Saturday said that its Virtual ID system is now operational as most of the authentication user agencies, including financial institutions have migrated to the new system.

The NITI Aayog today launched the first Delta ranking (incremental progress) for the Aspirational Districts, based on self-reported data of districts between March 31, 2018 to May 31, 2018, across five developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.

A third of Indians will be affected by 2050, says World Bank; 7 of 10 most vulnerable spots in Maharashtra.

The State Department's annual "2018 Trafficking in Persons Report" put North Korea in the lowest Tier 3 of its classification of countries, together with China, Russia and Iran.

In a landmark decision, a Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill 2018 which seeks to repeal UGC Act and provides for setting up of Higher Education Commission of India has been prepared by the Ministry of HRD and placed in public domain for comments and suggestions.

India’s next moon mission Chandrayaan-2 will land on the lunar surface to search for deposits of helium-3 and its potential for mining.

India said that ISA membership will be thrown open to all countries that want to join, with no criteria such as duration of sunlight and geographical location

MoU were signed for establishing cooperation in the fields of education, information technology, culture, and technology.

Aadhaar Virtual ID, a 16-digit random number mapped with the Aadhaar number, can only be generated, replaced or revoked by the Aadhaar card holder.

Sources said the government has decided to celebrate July 1 as the ‘GST-Day' and the mega-event is being planned at the newly constructed Ambedkar Bhawan in the national capital.

India face the worst water crisis in its history, and 21 Indian cities will run out of groundwater by 2020, a new report from the NITI Aayog–a government think tank– said, highlighting the need for “urgent and improved” management of water resources.

The power ministry is considering making the default temperature setting for air conditioners 24 degree Celsius. Power Minister R K Singh, during a meeting on Friday, said the mandate will benefit consumers, both from a health and financial point of view.

India has decided to train space scientists of countries that lack satellite-building capability.

The world’s first International Centre for Humanitarian Forensics was launched at Gandhinagar in Gujarat today. It is a joint venture of the Regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in India, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives and also Gujarat Forensic Science University.

This announcement also sets the final end date for the Mission as June 2023, as every city gets five years to complete its projects, according to a senior Mission official.

The government plans to warehouse stressed power projects totalling 25,000 megawatts (MW) under an asset management firm to protect the value of the assets and prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code till demand for power picks up.

The scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India. Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Shri Raghvendra Singh today said that under 'Adopt a Heritage' Scheme, three MoUs have already been signed and six are at an advanced stage and 31 more Adarsh Monuments are enlisted for coverage under the scheme.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkley managed to successfully extract clean, drinkable water at very low humidity and at a low cost using their newly built next-generation water harvester.

Latest statistics show the proliferation of privately owned guns is on the rise, with wealthy countries outstripping developing and war-torn countries.

Explosive volcanic eruptions that shot jets of hot ash, rock and gas skyward are the likely source of a mysterious Martian rock formation, a new study finds.

The United States Senate on Tuesday passed a $716 billion (Rs 48 lakh crore) defence bill which, among other things, seeks to strengthen Washington’s defence partnership with New Delhi.

Bitcoin mining was initially conducted on the CPUs of individual computers. Now, mining activity is dominated by advanced hardware Bitcoins or cryptocurrencies, in general, are like digital currencies and act like a tender or an asset class.

The Centre on Sunday stood by the controversial terms of reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsing its suggestion that the Census 2011 should be one of the parameters for devolving funds to states.

RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj wrote to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) last month demanding to know when were the amendments to the Act proposed and forwarded to the Union Cabinet.

A recent research published in Nature Geoscience, which used 10 global climate models to investigate large-scale changes in wind power generation across the globe, indicated that there will be changes in wind power across Northern Hemisphere, with substantial regional variations.

Putting a spotlight on the latest European cinema, the European Union Film Festival (EUFF) will premiere in New Delhi on 18th June, 2018 at the Siri Fort Auditorium. With a selection of 24 latest European films from 23 EU Member States, this years' film festival brings some unusual stories for the world cinema enthusiasts.

The Niti Aayog has asked the state to improve the access rate and the quality of drinking water in rural habitations while lauding its efforts in surface water restoration and participatory irrigation.

The 5,700-kg GSAT-11 satellite was slated for launch on May 26 from Kourou, a site in South America which India uses to launch its heavy-weight satellite.

At least 20 states signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ministry of health and family welfare on Thursday committing to launch the Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM).

THE indigenous Pinaka rocket system of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), known for firing a salvo of 12 rockets in just 44 seconds, is being evolved into a precision-guided missile, with enhanced range and accuracy to hit its targets.

India is suffering from 'the worst water crisis' in its history with about 60 crore people facing high to extreme water stress and about two lakh people dying every year due to inadequate access to safe water, Niti Aayog said in a report on Thursday.

Predicted environmental changes are likely to reduce average yields of vegetables by at least 35% globally, according to new research that highlights the need for the agriculture sector to build resilience to climate change.

India is among almost 90 countries in the world without national policies in place that ensure new fathers get adequate paid time off with their newborn babies, according to a new Unicef analysis.

The Solar Charkha Mission of the Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), will be launched by the President, Ram Nath Kovind on June 27, 2018 in New Delhi.

The sites are Raghavendra Swamy Temple of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, Hazardwari Palace of Murshidabad, West Bengal, Brahma Sarovar Temple of Kurukshetra, Haryana, Vidur Kuti in Bijnor and Nagvasuki Temple of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and Mana village in Chamoli and Kanvashram in Uttarakhand.

The selected schools shall receive a grant of Rs 20 lakh spread over the next five years to establish Atal Tinkering Labs for nurturing innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among secondary school children across India.

The exercise is scheduled to be held in Pune in the second week of September.“The aim of the exercise is to promote strategic alignment among the member-states and to share best practices in the area of counter-terrorism,” a defence source said.

This is according to the joint document which was signed by US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following their historic maiden talks at Singapore's Sentosa island.

Scientists have developed a low-cost solution to harvest high-quality distilled water from cooling towers of power plants to meet the increasing drinking water demand across regions.

"With this discovery India has joined a handful of countries which have discovered planets around stars," PRL's parent Indian Space Research Organisation has announced. Significantly, the discovery was made using a PRL-designed spectrograph, PARAS, to measure and confirm the mass of the new planet.

IMD Director General (DG) K J Ramesh told Bhasha that the national weather agency was preparing to launch this service from the next month by using the Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) for the first time in the country. "The service will be started for the first time with the help of this system," he said.

The museum - depicting the history, artefacts, uniforms and gear of central and state policeforces - will come up as an underground facility in the premises of the national police memorial in Chanakyapuri area of the national capital.

A statement issued by the ministry said that through mobilisation of rural communities, 7.4 crore toilets were built across rural India, and as an outcome, over 3.8 lakh villages and 391 districts were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

The report states that one in every three adolescent girls surveyed were “scared of traversing the narrow by-lanes of their locality, as well as the road to go to school or the local market”.

“The Quadrilateral format of U.S.-Japan-India-Australia is one of the many multilateral dialogues in the region, and not directed against any country. It is not part of the Indo-Pacific region concept outlined by Prime Minister Modi in Shangri-La,” Mr. Saran told the Russian TASS news agency in an interview made available by the Indian embassy.

The report that covers 99.7 per cent of the world's population and uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators grouped into three key domains -- ongoing conflict, safety and security, and militarisation, noted that "the world is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade".

IMF Spokesman Gerry Rice told this to reporters during his bi-weekly news conference in Washington. He said that the IMF thinks that this was an appropriate step by the RBI in present context of rising inflation and additional upside risks to the forecasts due to higher oil prices, exchange rate depreciation and other domestic factors.

The MMR has declined from 167 in 2011-2013 to 130 in 2014-2016, according to the special bulletin.

Three Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru are ranked among the top 10 cities globally for GDP risk from terrorism threats, a recent study has found out.

The Ordinance provides significant relief to home buyers by recognizing their status as financial creditors. This would give them due representation in the Committee of Creditors and make them an integral part of the decision making process.

Tourists are being asked to stay away from Shimla during peak holiday season, and schools have been shut for this week, as the city received nearly 60 per cent less water daily since May 18, 2018.

The Ministry of Agriculture and farmers’ welfare in line with the Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 has launched the Krishi kalyan Abhiyaan from 1st June, 2018 till 31st July, 2018 so as to aid, assist and advice farmers on how to improve their farming techniques and raise their incomes.

India’s environmental diversity and riches are universally recognised but have never been quantified. Starting this year, the government will begin a five-year exercise to compute district-level data of the country’s environmental wealth. The numbers will eventually be used to calculate every State’s ‘green’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The United Nations, aware that the protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue, which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world, designated June 5 as World Environment Day. The celebration of this day provides us with an opportunity to broaden the basis for an enlightened opinion and responsible conduct by individuals.

The Chandrabhaga beach on the Konark coast of Odisha will be the first in Asia to get the Blue Flag certification — the tag given to environment-friendly and clean beaches, equipped with amenities of international standards for tourists.

Almost lost in the din of the upcoming US-North Korea summit and fresh tension between Washington and Beijing last week, India cemented its diplomatic and security ties across Southeast Asia in a clear challenge to China.

India on Sunday test-fired surface-to-surface nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile Agni-V from Abdul Kalam island off the coast of Odisha, ANI reported.

The Ministry of Culture, Government of India has introduced a new scheme namely ‘SevaBhojYojna’ with a total outlay of Rs. 325.00 Crores for Financial Years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, made it to the top 100 universities in the Times Education World Reputation Rankings 2018, which were released on Wednesday. IISc Bangalore is the only Indian institution to make it to the top 100.

The advance prediction will provide more preparatory and emergency response time to disaster management authorities in the particular area of extreme weather events.

Known as the world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC this year involves 47 surface ships, five submarines, 18 national land forces, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel.

India finds space at 113 in Save the Children’s "End of Childhood Index 2018” which ranked 175 countries this year against indicators to determine the quality of childhood children have access to.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has extended by one month to 1 July the deadline for service providers and agencies like banks and telecom companies to fully deploy Virtual ID system and accept these IDs in lieu of Aadhaar number.

Following the Facebook data scandal perpetrated by Cambridge Analytica, 80% Indians are concerned about their Aadhaar data privacy, a study by market research and analysis company Velocity MR.

The minister, who was speaking of the achievements of the four-year-old Narendra Modigovernment, responding to media questions said, "We will soon start work on extension of optical fibre cable in the border areas.

According to the UN, of the 3,737 peacekeepers who have died since 1948, 163 have been from India, the highest total from any troop contributing country.

The Election Commission on Monday clarified that national political parties are public authorities under the Right To Information Act as declared by the Central Information Commission, PTI reported. This came a day after the poll panel had said that political parties are out of the RTI Act’s ambit.

President Ram Nath Kovind had conferred the Nari Shakti Puraskars on International Women's Day in Rashtrapati Bhavan. As the INSV Tarini team was sailing then, the award could not be presented to the team.

The team, led by researchers from Northumbria University in the UK, has mapped for the first time three vast, subglacial valleys in West Antarctica

Under a pilot project, the railways had last year installed Isro-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips on some train engines.

The Fifteenth Finance Commission of the Government of India is visiting the state of Kerala from 28th to 31st May 2018. The Commission led by the Chairman Shri N.K.Singh, Members – Shri Shaktikanta Das, Dr. Anoop Singh, Dr. Ashok Lahiri, Dr. Ramesh Chand and Secretary Shri Arvind Mehta along with other officials will assess the state of the finances of Kerala and the progress made in socio-economic field.

Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte, who is in India on a two-day visit, launched the ‘Clean Air India Initiative’ in the national capital on Thursday.

Nepal's achievement is commendable and results from a strong political commitment, intense community engagement and impressive leadership demonstrated by civil society," said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region.

India has the third largest number of billionaires in the world, and in the next decade, as many as 238 additional ultra high net worth individuals will join this elite club, says a report.

The Global Burden of Disease study, however, mentioned that India has seen improvements in healthcare access and quality since 1990.In 2016, India's healthcare access and quality scored at 41.2 (up from 24.7 in 1990).

Pakistan has raised with the World Bank the alleged violation of the Indus Waters Treaty by India, which inaugurated the Kishanganga hydro project in Kashmir, as the multilateral lender sought opportunities within the treaty to find an amicable resolution of the issue.

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was successfully fired from a test range along the Odisha coast to validate some new features.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked the department concerned to examine if the services can be allocated after the completion of the foundation course, according to an official communiqué.

According to the AfrAsia Bank Global Wealth Migration Review, the US is the wealthiest country in the world with a total wealth of $62,584 billion, followed by China ($24,803 billion) at the second place and Japan ($19,522 billion) at the third place.

The project is expected to be finished within five years. "I'm confident that it will be completed during your (Modi's) tenure as prime minister," Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said at the closing ceremony for the birth centenary celebration of the 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated two hydroelectric projects in Jammu & Kashmir, indicating his government's political will to respond to Pakistan's use of terrorism against India with every option at its command, including using in full India's share of water from western tributaries of the Indus, as possible leverage points.

Unless the culprit is found and stopped, the recovery of the ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from damaging UV radiation, could be delayed by a decade. The source of the new emissions has been tracked to east Asia, but finding a more precise location requires further investigation.

The step was taken to address the problem of people's inability to access diagnostic services, thus failing to receive the correct treatment.

Toughening its stand against a review of its ruling diluting the arrest clause in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not allow arrest of an innocent merely on a complaint even if Parliament made a law.

Jharkhand has emerged as the best-performing state in terms of cleanliness, while Indore in Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the cleanest city in the country, according to the government cleanliness survey released on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court will examine fervent pleas for a five-judge Constitution Bench to decide whether special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir is unconstitutional.

India emerged as the third largest solar market in the world in 2017 behind China and the US, Mercom Communications India said in a report.

A gender discrimination study has found that 2,39,000 girls under the age of five die in India every year because of society’s preference for sons. The study, conducted by the Austria-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, did not include the figures of female foetuses that are aborted.

The government is planning to bring an ordinance to overturn the Supreme Court verdict putting safeguards on arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and subsequently introduce a bill to insulate it from further judicial scrutiny.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has issued National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy here today. The objective of the policy is to provide a framework for promotion of large grid connected wind-solar PV hybrid system for efficient utilization of transmission infrastructure and land.

People in South Asian countries experienced at least 97 instances of Internet shutdown, a barometer on freedom of press and expression, between May 2017 and April 2018, with India alone accounting for 82 such cases, according to a UNESCO report.

Scientists have recorded a wave measuring 23.8 metres, the height of an eight-storey building, in the Southern Ocean near New Zealand’s Campbell Island, AFP reported on Thursday.

The government also plans to allow youth in the age bracket of 16-18 years to drive electric scooters, besides mandating taxi aggregators to have a certain percentage of e-vehicle fleet.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked chief justices or acting chief justices of all high courts to set up anti-sexual harassment committees in courts across the country within two months in accordance with a 2013 law.

The IMF's Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Outlook report said that India was recovering from the effects of demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax.

Despite United States President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal itself won’t be scrapped as long as Iran and the other signatories: the U.K., France, Russia, China, Germany and the European Union remain committed to it.

Awards from the 9th CGD licensing round would help bring gas coverage to 174 districts in 22 states and Union Territories, covering 29 per cent of the country's area and 24 per cent of the population, said Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launching the bidding round here.

The Lowy Institute Asia Power Index measures power across 25 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching as far west as Pakistan, as far north as Russia, and as far into the Pacific as Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The Press Council of India has rubbished the recently released Press Freedom Index, in which India slipped two places to rank 138th among 180 countries, saying there was a “lack of clarity” on the inputs that weighed in the rankings which were based on “opinion or perception”.

Time is running out for the seven-satellite Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), also known as NavIC (Navigation in Indian Constellation).

The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Saturday launched a spacecraft to Mars to study the deep interior of the Red Planet for the first time.

The POSHAN (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyaan was launched by the Prime Minister on 8th March 2018 at Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

A Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed to this effect by Ms. Anna Roy, Advisor, NITI Aayog and ShriRajanAnandan, Vice President, India and South East Asia, Google in the presence of the Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITIAayog.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who had for months questioned the private equity structure of GST-Network (GSTN), demanded transfer of Finance Secretary Hashmukh Adhia to a lesser important ministry for his alleged role in the "GSTN scam".

NITI Aayog and IBM signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) today to develop a crop yield prediction model using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide real time advisory to farmers in Aspirational Districts.

The NWIC will also collaborate with leading national and international research institutes to provide technical support to central and state organisations dealing with water emergency response of hydrological extremes.

Briefing media after chairing the 27th meeting of the council through video -conferencing today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the government will acquire the 51 percent stake held by private entities and subsequently the central and the state governments will hold a 50 percent stake each in the entity.

China launched a new communication satellite "APSTAR-6C" late on Thursday at the southwestern Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Only anti-Dalit atrocities' complaints which are felt “absurd” or “absolutely” frivolous need to be probed by the police before proceeding to arrest the perpetrator, Justice A.K. Goel qualified the apex court's March 20 judgment which led to widespread unrest and violence across the country.

Developing this integrated database with locally obtained and validated data is crucial for tracking our risks and progress towards resilience without which India will not be able to meet its developmental goals.

In what is set to aggravate concerns over climate change, a new joint Indo-US study has found that global warming is leading to large-scale fish kills in the Arabian Sea by fuelling the growth of harmful bioluminescent algae.

Responding to the air pollution data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday, the government claimed that various measures have led to pollution levels actually falling in 2017.

Accused persons usually move the High Courts in the middle of criminal proceedings in trial courts on various issues, ranging from quashing of charges to transfer of cases to appeal against interim orders, etc.

The 9th India Japan Energy Dialogue was held in New Delhi, today. Minister of State(IC) for Power and New &Renewable Energy, Shri R.K Singh, and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Mr. Hiroshige Sekosigned a Joint Statement at the conclusion of the meeting.

According to report, more than 90 per cent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, including India.

Even though ties between India and Pakistan continue to remain strained, the two neighbours will participate together for the first time in a multi-nation counter-terrorism exercise in Russia in September.

Manipur's Leisang village became the last non-electrified inhabited village to join India's mainline supply network at 5.30pm on Saturday, an important milestone in the country's journey towards universal electricity access.

The Supreme Court has asked a PIL petitioner to submit a representation to the government to reschedule office hours and provide drinking water and medical facilities to the public and in educational institutions to beat the heat wave sweeping across the country.

India is tying up with the United States and Finland to develop a pollution-forecast system that will help anticipate particulate matter (PM) levels at least two days in advance and at a greater resolution than what is possible now.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the government to respond to a plea by a hotelier to strike down the colonial Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting on May 1 will deliberate on the pros and cons of converting the GST Network (GSTN), the GST’s information technology backbone, into a government-owned company.

Diu had been importing 73% of its power from Gujarat until last year. It has now adopted a two-pronged approach whereby a 9 MW solar park spread over 50 hectares rocky barren land has been developed besides installing solar panels on the roof tops on 79 government buildings thereby generating 1.3 MW annually.

The Global Findex Report, 2017 released by the World Bank on Friday gives India more than one reason to cheer, as it notes the rapid increase in financial inclusion that has taken place in the country.

Every third city that failed to meet national air quality standards in India–where most people die of air pollution than any other nation–was in two of the country’s biggest states, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, in five years to 2015, according to government data.

A giant asteroid gave Earth a surprise close shave this week, flying by at a distance of 192,000 kilometers, just a day after astronomers discovered the object, scientists say.

An 11th- hour technical glitch prompted SpaceX to postpone its planned launch on Monday of a new NASA space telescope designed to detect worlds beyond our solar system.

The UN's Economic and Social Council held elections to a number of its subsidiary bodies on Monday. The ECOSOC focusses on advancing the three dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental.

The World Bank said on Sunday that India’s economy has recovered from the impact of demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax regime, and would grow at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% in 2019.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018.

It’s been well-established that steep mountain ranges can draw carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere. This is because erosion of the mountain exposes new rock, initiating a chemical reaction between the CO2 in the air and the minerals on the mountain face, weathering the rock and using CO2 to produce carbonate minerals such as calcite

Seven MoUs were signed at the Defence Expo 2018 by Indian private companies and Russian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manufacture and develop spares and sub-assemblies of identified Russian-origin platforms in use by the Indian armed forces.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the assistance of attorney general K.K. Venugopal on a petition challenging the administrative powers of the chief justice of India regarding allocation of cases.

TESS is take up the mantle of the Kepler Space Telescope, which is expected to run out of fuel by the end of this year. Kepler has found more than 5000 exoplanet candidates so far, and confirmed about half of them.

The International Monetary Fund has said that India should ensure privacy and security controls while implementing biometric identification programmes like the Aadhaar.

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the web-based application ‘e-FRRO’ (e-Foreigners Regional Registration Office) at a function here today.

Shrinking reservoirs in India, Morocco, Iraq and Spain could result in water taps going completely dry in these four countries, a study based on a new early warning satellite system has warned.

The five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra told Attorney General K.K. Venugopal that the supposed deemed consent for parting with biometric data can't be stretched to mean waiving of fundamental rights to privacy of the people.

The trade review released in the lead up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) next week. ‘Commonwealth Trade Review 2018: Strengthening the Commonwealth Advantage’, compiled by the Commonwealth secretariat, also found that India has moved into the top five providers of intra-Commonwealth services trade, surpassing Canada, and alongside Australia, Singapore and the UK.

The three-day event is being organised by the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, Govt of Nepal in association with the Society of Public Health Engineers Nepal (Sophen) and Nepal Engineers Association.

India and World Expo 2020 signed participants contract today for India’s pavilion in the prestigious World Expo 2020 held once in 5 years.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will on Thursday launch a navigation satellite, the eighth such satellite to be a part of a constellation, from Sriharikota, the space agency said on Tuesday.

India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer after the US and China, will host the 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial (IEF—16), that will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

Among the largest economies in the G-20 group, China, the US and India have been hit the hardest by protectionist measures in 2017, according to data from the Global Trade Alerts (GTA) database.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Monday following rival requests by Russia and the United States after a deadly chemical attack in Syria and a warning by US President Donald Trump that there would be a “big price to pay.”

Lending to the corporate sector, particularly small and medium enterprises, is becoming increasingly difficult with more than half the country’s public sector banks (PSBs) now under the RBI’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework, which restricts lending activities of the banks, government sources said.

As part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s neighbourhood-first foreign policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal’s premier K.P. Sharma Oli on Saturday remotely attended the ground breaking ceremony of South Asia’s first transnational petroleum pipeline, that will supply fuel to India’s land locked neighbour.

Black holes are hanging out at the centre of our galaxy by the thousands, according to scientists who have detected a bunch of them in the neighbourhood of a supermassive black hole already known to reside at the heart of the Milky Way.

A company has plans of launching a luxury hotel in space. The launching of Aurora Station aims at building affordable luxury hotel in space.

A dilution of the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is going to affect Dalit women far more than men.

WHO offices worldwide are organizing events to mark the day with WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joining celebrations in Sri Lanka.

An interdepartmental group has been constituted to study and provide guidance on the "desirability and feasibility" to introduce a "central bank digital currency" and will submit its report by June, the central bank said.

About 5.09% global threats were detected in India in 2017 as compared to 5.11% in 2016, according to ‘Internet Security Threat Report’ released on Wednesday by Symantec. The US was was most vulnerable to attacks at 26.61% followed by China at 10.95%.

Despite snapping of the communication link with its recently launched communication satellite Gsat-6A, Isro is gearing up for the scheduled launch of its next navigation satellite IRNSS-1I on April 12.

It proposes to include “National Commission for Protection of Child Rights” as deemed Member of the Commission; It proposes to add a woman Member in the composition of the Commission;

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched the much-awaited 'Virtual ID' which will be a random 16-digit number mapped to a person's Aadhaar number.

The observation came from a bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and R F Nariman on a petition by Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha, who sought a declaration that Article 370 was a temporary provision that lapsed with the dissolution of the J&K Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1957.

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, while announcing the rankings at an event in the Vigyan Bhavan, said the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has been adjudged the best engineering college and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) the best management institution.

Agricultural fires are to blame for about half of the pollution experienced in Delhi in October and November, a peak stubble burning season in Punjab, a Harvard study has found using satellite data from NASA.

New Delhi will host the strategically important trilateral dialogue between India, Japan and the US this week ahead of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago later this month, the State Department has said.

In the past five years, the Indian startup ecosystem has seen many ups and downs. While the years 2014 and 2015 saw a lot of investor activity, purse strings were being tightened towards the end of 2017.

The Centre moved the Supreme Court on Monday challenging a slew of directions passed under a ruling safeguarding government officials from arrest under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Ultra-clean Euro-VI grade petrol and diesel, at no additional price, supply has been started in the national capital from yesterday in a bid to combat alarming levels of air pollution.

Four minutes after executing the second orbit-raising operation, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan lost all contact with GSAT-6A, a mega communication satellite that was to provide mobile communications to both civilians and the armed forces.

Hyderabad and Bengaluru are at the top two positions in a list of 30 global short-term growth cities, according to property consultant JLL.

Cheap handsets and the proliferation of fourth generation, or 4G, services have helped India overtake the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market, trailing only China, according to a new report by analyst firm Canalys.

India’s antibiotics consumption has increased by 103 per cent from 2000 to 2015, the highest in low and middle-income countries, according to a new study.

The Indian banking sector reported 12,533 frauds worth Rs 18,170 crore in the 2016-’17 financial year, proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services said on Thursday.

Russia on Friday tested an intercontinental ballistic missile called the RS-28 Sarmat, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nicknamed “Satan 2”, CNN reported.

The preliminary analysis of cores obtained from Mohenjodaro in Pakistan in 2015-’16 suggested that the site in present-day Sindh was likely the world’s largest settlement of its time between 2600 and 1900 BC, the Dawnreported on Friday.

Our Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and India’s Act East Policy should be further merged,” said Mr. Kono, in remarks that appeared to target China’s actions in the South China Sea.

Background: The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 applies to establishments employing 10 or more persons. The main purpose for enacting this Act is to provide social security to workman after retirement, whether retirement is a result of superannuation, or physical disablement or impairment of vital part of the body.

Scheduled to launch on May 5, NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) -- a stationary lander -- will be dedicated to explore Mars' deep interior.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland regarding cooperation and exchange of information for the purposes of combating international criminality and tackling serious organised crime.

NITI Aayog has come up with a mechanism under which 101 most underdeveloped districts of the country termed as 'aspirational' would be competing with each other in terms of performance and they will be ranked on 49 indicators based on various data points.

Most Indians prioritise happiness and health over money with 72 per cent respondents in a survey defining success as 'being happy'.

An insect museum with the state-of-the-art amenities, a first of its kind in the country, opened in Coimbatore on Monday.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswamy unveiled the museum at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in the city, with the theme “Bugs are Kings”.

The six members of the monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are scheduled to meet next week to decide the future trajectory of interest rates.

The 27-hour countdown began on Wednesday for the launch of Isro’s GSLV-F08 mission carrying the GSAT-6A communication satellite from the space port of Sriharikota, about 110 kms from Chennai.

Mexicans, Russians and Chinese are the next big settlers of the lot after Indians. Pakistan remains among the top countries for Indian settlers because of the large post-Partition influx.

The agreement was signed by General (Dr.) V.K. Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs and Shri Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General, ISA in the gracious presence of Shri R K Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy.

The average download speed over the mobile increased to 9.01 mbps in February from the 8.80 mbps in November last year, but the country's rank continued to stay at 109th, Ookla's Speedtest index said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Saturday refuted reports about a fresh data leak of Aadhaar holders, and asserted that there has been “absolutely no breach” of its database.

he world's longest sandstone cave named Krem Puri was recently discovered in Meghalaya. It has a staggering length of 24.5 km, almost three times the height of Mount Everest, and contains some dinosaur fossils from 66-76 million years ago as well.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-2 mission, which was "originally scheduled for the April 23" will now be launched in the "first week of October".

The dictionary has been developed by Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre(ISLR&TC) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), M/o Social Justice & Empowerment. Ministers of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Krishan Pal Gujar and Shri Ramdas Athwale and Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar were also present on the occasion.

India is among 20 nations that have pledged a total of about $100 million to the UN relief agency charged with the well-being of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has entered into a technology transfer agreement (TTA) with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) under which it will pass on the technology for the manufacture of space grade Li-Ion cells.

India successfully tested the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Rajasthan’s Pokhran on Thursday morning.

The First meeting of the inter-departmental group of stakeholders on implementation of strategy on resource efficiency was held at NITI Aayog today. After detailed discussion,a road map for implementation of the RE in the country was evolved.

The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization on Thursday said that 2017 was the most expensive year on record for severe weather and climate calamities globally.

India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port.

Three Indian cities - New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, are among the cheapest cities in the world, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey, that named Singapore as the most expensive city.

The US argues that the subsidies violate WTO agreements.

As per a survey conducted by network security firm Sophos, around 67 per cent of Indian organisations were hit by ransomware and 38 per cent twice.

The overall list was topped by Sweden, followed by Norway at the 2nd position and Switzerland at the 3rd rank.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved an Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income between India and Iran.

The ISA has also inked joint financial partnership declarations with the African Development Bank (AfDb), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Green climate fund (GCF), and the New Development Bank (NDB).

The high-precision Kinzhal (Dagger) missile was launched from a MiG-31 supersonic interceptor jet that took off from an airfield in the South Military District in Russia's southwest, the defence ministry said.

The first-ever multi-nation naval exercise at sea, MILES-18, began at the Andaman sea. 11 naval ships of 8 countries and nine Indian ships are participating in the three-day exercise.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched new guidelines on the role that tobacco product regulations can play in reducing tobacco demand, saving lives and raising revenues for health services to treat tobacco-related diseases, in the context of a comprehensive tobacco control.

India and France on Saturday outlined concrete steps to broaden the scope of their 20 year-old strategic partnership, signing 14 pacts in areas ranging from defence, security, nuclear energy to the protection of classified information besides agreeing to hold biennial summits between top level leaders of the two countries and an annual bilateral defence dialogue.

For 17 years now, the Best Exhibitor Award (BEA) is considered as a quality indicator for an attractive performance at ITB. This year, the BEA was awarded to India at the Palais am Funkturm.

India, a founding member of the International Solar Alliance, on Friday said that membership of the body will be thrown open to all countries that want to join the grouping, with no restrictions on duration of sunlight or geographical location.

E-way Bill will be implemented from April 1 for inter-state movement of goods: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday announced that the e-way bill will be implemented from April 1 for inter-state movement of goods.

In a milestone verdict expanding the right to life to incorporate the right to die with dignity, the Supreme Court on Friday legalised passive euthanasiaand approved 'living will' to provide terminally ill patients or those in persistent and incurable vegetative state (PVS) a dignified exit by refusing medical treatment or life support.

The MoU will strengthen the existing relationship between UPSC and Public Service Commission of Mauritius. It will facilitate sharing of experience and expertise of both the parties in the area of recruitment.

India's ranking in gender diversity has improved with the representation of women in top leadership positions rising to 20 per cent in 2018, even as the country ranks fifth lowest in having women in such roles, says a report.

The Prime Minister also awarded ten districts for showing outstanding performance in the areas of effective community engagement, enforcement of PC&PNDT Act and enabling education of the girl child.

NITI Aayog launched the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), on the occasion of International Women’s Day today. The initiative is aimed at building an ecosystem for women across India to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk-out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses.

Eleven countries are expected to sign a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement in Santiago on Thursday, as an antidote to the increasingly protectionist bent of US, which last year pulled out of the pact.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energy between India and Hellenic.

India has imposed new restrictions on trade with North Korea, a government statement said on Wednesday, in line with United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang for its ballistic missile programme.

Speaking at the inaugural function through video message, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Shri Suresh Prabhu said that technology is driving all activities and that young minds are the incubators of new ideas.

India saw a sharp decline in child marriages over the last ten years with 27 per cent of girls getting married before their 18th birthday as against 47 per cent a decade ago, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

The Government constitutes a Steering Committee on Fintech related issues to consider various issues relating to development of Fintech space in India with a view to make Fintech related regulations more flexible and generate enhanced entrepreneurship in an area where India has distinctive comparative strengths vis-à-vis other emerging economies.

SpaceX carried out the 50th launch of its signature Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday, a swift ascent to a milestone which many aerospace giants take far longer to attain.

As the Centre plans to clean the air in 13 south Indian cities, 26 more cities spread across four south Indian states reported annual particulate pollution levels higher than the national safe standards, according to an analysis of government data.

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement body has agreed to set up a panel to determine whether India has complied with its ruling in a case against the US regarding domestic content requirements for solar cells and modules.

Myanmar has indefinitely deferred signing an agreement with India to streamline the free movement of people within 16 km along the border.

Wshington, Mar 4 (PTI) Indias exposure to US government securities rose sharply to a high of USD 144.7 billion at the end of 2017, according to latest official data.

A committee of the NITI Aayog has recommended drastic cuts in taxes on gold and also proposed a more liberalised approach towards the yellow metal to increase its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 3 per cent by 2022.

BS-VI fuel has 10 ppm (parts per million) of sulphur as against 50 ppm in BS-IV. Further, the BS-VI standards mandate PM emissions are reduced to 0.005 g/km from the BS-IV standard of 0.025 g/km.

India and Vietnam on Saturday inked three pacts, including one on nuclear cooperation, and resolved to jointly work for an open Indo-Pacific, while calling for a rules-based regional architecture.

Can carbon dioxide (CO2)—a greenhouse gas whose high emissions contribute to global warming—be turned into usable energy? Scientists believe this can be done.

The Rooppur project is the first initiative under an Indo-Russian deal to undertake atomic energy projects in third countries. This will also be the first time Indian companies will be able to participate in a nuclear power project abroad.

India and Jordan signed 12 agreements after the highlevel talks, covering areas as diverse as mass media, health, culture and tourism. But the area of interest for both countries is clearly defence and security.

India on Wednesday successfully test-fired Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) Nag in desert conditions, defence sources said. The Nag ATGM has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Wednesday’s flight tests have once again proved their capability, they said.

The moon will get its first mobile phone network next year, enabling high-definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to earth, part of a project to back the first privately funded moon mission.

The Union Cabinet on February 28, 2018 approved the signing of four Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) between India and Jordan on cooperation in various fields.

The 15th Finance Commission, set up to recommend the devolution of central pool taxes to states as well as a fiscal consolidation roadmap for government finances, will require to define what constitutes a "populist" measure in order to fulfil its terms of reference, Commission Chairman NK Singh said on Wednesday.

To warn people about pollution hotspots, the National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) — the policy arm of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research — is ironing out a project to install pollution sensors at Delhi’s traffic junctions.

The Inclusive Internet Index, which has returned for its second year, provides a rigorous benchmark of national-level Internet inclusion across four categories:

“Besides fostering co-operation through naval exercises and professional interactions, MILAN also provides an excellent opportunity to the participating navies to come together in a spirit of collaboration and mutual understanding to nurture stronger ties,” the Navy said in a statement on Sunday.

The MoU was signed by Prof. Anil Kumar Tripathi, Director CSIR-CIMAP and Dr. A. Sedrpousan, Director, IORA-RCSTT. The Indian delegation was led by Dr. Girish Sahni, DG, CSIR and Secretary, DSIR.

The unanimous vote followed a Russian veto of a Britain-drafted text that contained language of Iranian "non-compliance" with the UN sanctions regime against individuals and entities deemed to be engaging in or providing support for acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Yemen.

The Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains, are getting warmer, according to a study published in science journal Current Science.

The Sustainable Biofuel is one of the Seven Mission Innovation Challenges and India Co-leads this along with other countries Brazil, Canada and China.

The Dokalam standoff behind them, India and China have agreed on calendar for bilateral engagement in the coming months.

An Indo-German MOU has been signed for an “Implementation Agreement in Sustainable Urban Development and Smart Cities in India”, here today.

The surface-to-surface missile, a naval variant of the indigenously-developed 'Prithvi' missile.India today successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable 'Dhanush' ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 kms from a naval ship off Odisha coast, defence officials said.

ISA, a brainchild of India and France launched at the Paris climate summit in 2015 with the aim to efficiently exploit solar energy in the countries that lie between the tropics, expects to ink a host country agreement just ahead of the big day.

A team of scientists has identified a new shark species residing in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Union Government has issued order setting up the ‘Niti Forum for North-East’. The forum will be co-chaired by the Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER).

India has been ranked 81st in the global corruption perception indexfor 2017, released by Transparency International, which named the country among the "worst offenders" in terms of graft and press freedom in the Asia Pacific region.

The Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Radha Mohan Singh today launched six new features of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Platform to make it more users friendly.

This was the second of the 20 test flights planned for SARAS PT1N, before freezing the production version. The first successful test was carried out on January 24, this year.

Nearly 40 per cent of over 53,000 cyber attacks in India occurred in the financial services sector during 2017, placing it at the seventh spot in the list of targeted countries for Web Application Attacks (WAA), a new report said on Wednesday.

India has been ranked 12th-worst among 52 low-middle income countries based on the number of children dying within the first month of their birth, which is 25.4 per 1,000 live births.

India on Tuesday test-fired its medium range nuclear capable Agni-II missilewith a strike range of 2,000km from Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast, defence sources said.

“India will be a great global host of 2018’s World Environment Day celebrations,” said Erik Solheim, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Head, UN Environment at the announcement on Monday.

UK-India research projects on ‘Water Quality Research’ and ‘Energy Demand Reduction in Built Environment’were launched today by Dr V K Saraswat, Member, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST) India and Daniel Shah, Director, Research Councils UK (RCUK) India.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM- In a first in Kerala, the state government will soon be utilising the services of Robots to clean sewer holes. The trial runs of the robot, developed by a startup company, Genrobotics, have been successfully held recently and the product will be launched next week, Kerala Water Authority (KWA) Managing Director, A Shainamol said.

Senior officials from the US, Japan, India and Australia are discussing establishing a joint infrastructure plan, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, amid reports it could act as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

WhatsApp will roll out its payments service in India, its biggest market, initially for one million users, National Payments Corporation of India said on Friday.

India and Iran signed nine agreements on Saturday, including in areas such as double taxation avoidance, extradition, agriculture and traditional medicine.

The Global Connectedness Index 2016, the fourth since it was first released in 2011, prepared by Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman (both teach management at New York University Stern School of Business, US), was released on November 15, 2016.

The first phase of the Chabahar port in south-east Iran, which India is developing, was inaugurated in December last year. The port opened a new strategic transit route between India, Iran and Afghanistan that bypassed Pakistan.

The Supreme Court of India on February 16, 2018 reduced Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water by 14.75 tmcft water per year, diverting the same to Karnataka.

PM Modi while addressing the gathering at the inaugural speech laid emphasis on the major current environmental problems that are being faced by the developing nations.

The Economic Survey 2016-17 pushed for universal basic income (UBI).The survey discussed various arguments that may be put forth for implementing UBI. It was noted that the case for UBI has been enhanced because of the weakness of existing welfare schemes which are riddled with misallocation, leakages and exclusion of the poor.

India has called for a comprehensive political settlement and reconciliation in Iraq at the International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq in Kuwait, where major world powers are meeting to chalk out a plan of recovery for the country.

India overtook the UK as the fifth-largest defence spender in the world in 2017 at $52.5 billion, up from $51.1 billion in 2016, according to the 'Military Balance 2018' report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The two-week-long campaign, will continue till February 23.Over 300 challans were issued on Tuesday under the 'Clean Air Campaign' - a joint venture of the Environment Ministry and the Delhi government to combat air pollution in the national capital.

India’s financial capital Mumbai has been ranked the 12th richest city in the world with a total wealth of $950 billion (approximately Rs 61.11 lakh crore) and is home to 28 individuals with net assets worth $1 billion (approximately Rs 6,433 crore) or more.

Half of the mountain springs in the Himalayan region are drying up, a NITI Aayog draft report has said. The report, which the organisation’s working group on “Inventory and Revival of Springs of Himalaya for Water Security” prepared, has asked all stakeholders to comment on it by February 19 to decide what can be done to save the water bodies, Mintreported.

While overall green cover, including tree patches outside recorded forest areas, reported an incremental 1% increase (8,021 sq km) over the last assessment year in 2015, the quality of forests remain a hotly debated subject even as satellite monitoring has increased availability of data.

India and Oman on Monday signed a key pact that extends dry docking and other facilities to Indian naval ships in the strategically located Gulf country.

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Sunday made a strong case for setting up an independent debt management office, saying better servicing of loans could lead to substantial reduction in India's interest payment.

Amid continuing volatility in bitcoin prices and growing concerns about investors’ safety, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Ajay Tyagi on Saturday said the regulations on cryptocurrencies should be out soon and the role various regulators will play is being finalised.

India could see a six-fold increase in the population exposed to the risk of severe floods by 2040–to 25 million people from the 3.7 million facing this risk between 1971 and 2004–according to a new studypublished in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal.

Among a slew of directions to ensure protection of child rights, the Supreme Court has asked the national and state child rights commissions to ensure that all their vacant positions are filled up well in time.

Judiciary must be “very cautious and circumspect” in diluting or setting aside an economic policy of the government, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday.

Kerala has topped the health index report prepared by NITI Aayog while Uttar Pradesh appeared at the bottom among larger states, though it has shown improvement in the recent past.

The report ranks economies based on 40 indicators that benchmark activity critical to innovation development surrounding patents, trademark, copyright and trade secrets protection.India’s overall score was 12.03 out of 40 in the latest edition.

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides five major categories known as "preferences" of green cards for people to immigrate to the US for employment reasons.

The banks-Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and UCO Bank-recently reported the matter to the Union government. The staff of four public sector banks (PSBs) has been alleged to have salted away depositors’ money by misusing the latter’s Aadhaar-based authentication.

In New Delhi, India’s capital and its most polluted city, eight of every 10 children and youth below 20 years of age living in areas with constantly polluted air have poor lung capacity, according to a study by Hazards Center, a Delhi-based advocacy.

The European Union (EU) is committed to negotiating a broad-based trade and investment treaty with India with the next round of talks between the chief negotiators expected soon, the EU’s ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski said on Tuesday.

Anticipating an upswing in inflation, led by oil prices, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) changed its monetary policy stance from accommodative to neutral in February 2017. Given the uptick seen in inflation, it was a prudent decision.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been ranked the top environment policy think tanks in India while it has secured the 16th position in global rankings, climbing up two positions from the last year.

Days after the Centre announced an ambitious healthcare scheme to provide up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, the Supreme Court on Monday reminded the government that such programme would not be effective till pollution crisis is effectively tackled first.

The Supreme Court decided to refer to a fresh Constitution Bench pleas to examine the validity of various aspects of a provision of the Citizenship Act 1955, including the cut-off date for awarding citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam.

India on Tuesday test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Agni-I ballistic missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range off the Odisha coast.

People living in eight of every 10 Indian cities breathe toxic dust particles, PM 10, at levels exceeding national safety limits, according to a recent report.

Gearing up for its most challenging space mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is leaving no stone unturned to make the Chandrayaan-2 (lunar-2) mission a success. Unlike the first lunar mission when a PSLV rocket carried the spacecraft to the moon's orbit, this time heavy-payload lifter GSLV Mk II will launch the spacecraft weighing 3,290kg as the module will carry an orbiter, a rover and a lander to the moon.

Multinational companies continue to produce and sell unregulated antibiotics in India, worsening the problem of antimicrobial resistance in the country and impeding efforts to fight drug resistance globally, a UK study said.

The alleged diversion of water of Tsangpo-Bramhaputra river by China does not pose any threat to India, Former Army chief General (retd) Shankar Roy Chowdhury said.

India and the Wassenaar Arrangement.India is now a member of three of the four international export control groups. What does membership into the Wassenaar Arrangement mean and why does it matter?

With the much-awaited Chandrayaan-2 mission, India's second flight to the moon, Isro is attempting to pull off a daredevil manoeuvre. It will be the first-ever mission to soft land near the moon's south pole, which poses a number of challenges.

The Supreme Court on Friday referred a batch of petitions challenging the law passed by the Tamil Nadu legislature allowing the practice of the bull-taming sport, Jallikattu, to a Constitution bench.

Accession to the Agreement would diversify India's connectivity options with central Asia and have a positive influence on India's trade and commercial ties with the region," the ministry said in a statement.

Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley presents general Budget 2018-19 in Parliament.Budget guided by mission to strengthen agriculture, rural development, health, education, employment, MSME and infrastructure sectors.

Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone Pvt. Ltd—promoted by Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani, Jai Corp. India, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd and City and Industrial Development Corp (CIDCO)—will be developed in phases and be open to industrial units in 2019, two officials aware of the development said.

India has slipped to 42nd place on an annual Global Democracy Index amid "rise of conservative religious ideologies" and increase in vigilantism and violence against minorities as well as other dissenting voices.

A mere 28% of India’s city dwellers live in a rented house, which is a steep decline from the scenario in 1961 when a majority of them (54%) used to live in a rented house instead of owning one, according to a longitudinal analysis of India’s housing pattern undertaken by the Economic Survey 2017-18.

In an initiative to improve India’s weather forecasting, the ministry of earth science (MoES) on Tuesday launched a high performance computer (HPC) system named Mihir.

India has been ranked sixth in the list of wealthiest countries with total wealth of $8,230 billion, while the United States topped the chart, says a report.

It said Delhi remained the worst impacted city with annual PM10 levels exceeding approximately five times the national ambient air quality standards.

China on Monday offered to open talks with India to resolve differences on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), opening the door for removing a major irritant in New Delhi-Beijing ties.

This month is heading to be the driest January in the country as a whole since record-keeping began in 1901. Just 2.2mm of average rain was recorded across India till January 24. IMD officials said the figure is unlikely to change much as it has hardly rained since then and there's little in store in the next few days.

India is also in the trust zone as far as how the public sees business, media and NGOs. Though its position slipped to number three this year from first last year, its rating remains at 'trust level' with Indonesia and China ahead of it.

Hun Sen was on an official visit to India and had joined his Asean colleagues at the Republic Day parade.

The government will make a fresh push for the passage of the contentious triple talaq bill in Parliament's Budget Session starting on Monday but is likely to meet strong resistance from the Opposition, which had stalled it in the last session, political leaders here said.

The Supreme Court will hear a petition to exclude the affluent members, or the creamy layer, of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the benefits of reservation.

India and Seychelles on Saturday signed a revised agreement for the development of facilities on Assomption and held productive bilateral cooperation meetings.

The UN embarked on fresh efforts on Thursday to jump-start Syrian peace talks that Western countries and the opposition fear are being undermined by a separate Russian diplomatic push.

India is ranked second only to South Africa as the cheapest country to live or retire, according to a recent survey of 112 countries.

China’s urban-registered jobless rate fell to 3.9 per cent in 2017 — the lowest since 2002 — as the country witnessed its first economic rebound in seven years, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Friday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has welcomed India’s positive role in the Indo-Pacific region and described it as an important factor for peace and stability, a senior Indian official said on Friday.

Changes in ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean influence rainfall in the western hemisphere and the two systems have been linked for thousands of years, according to a study published on Friday.

The Rotavac vaccine, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited last year, was included in India’s national immunisation programme. To be “pre-qualified” means that the vaccine can be sold internationally to several countries in Africa and South America.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to give India's 'Act East' policy a push as he rubs shoulders and holds bilateral meetings with the leaders of Asean nations on Thursday. New Delhi will hold the Commemorative India-Asean Summit to mark 25 years of India-Asean partnership on Thursday. The heads of state or government of all 10 southeast Asian nations will be in attendance at the summit, which has a theme of "shared values, common destiny".

India is among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index 2018, plummeting 36 points from 141 in 2016, according to a biennial report by Yale and Columbia Universities along with the World Economic Forum.

The gradual repatriation of more than 680,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been delayed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said Monday.

Global growth will accelerate to the fastest pace in seven years as US tax cuts spur businesses to invest, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

The Supreme Court (SC) collegium has sent to the centre the names of senior advocate Indu Malhotra and Uttarakhand high court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph for their appointment as judges of the apex court, people in the know said on Friday.

US President Donald Trump will formalize his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by transferring the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in 2019, vice president Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, railways and coal minister Piyush Goyal, actor Shah Rukh Khan, director Karan Johar and a handful of Indian origin business executives will shape the dialogue on key economic, social, cultural and developmental issues confronting the world on the first day of the four-day World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit, which begins at Davos in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Even as climate change sceptics rubbish rising global temperature, a latest report by US-based Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has said that Earth’s global surface temperature in 2017 ranked as the second warmest since 1880 when global estimates became feasible.

Having cancelled investment treaties with about 50 foreign governments last year, India is struggling to convince some to accept new terms that make it harder to seek international arbitration for disputes, sources familiar with the talks said.

India today successfully test-fired its nuclear capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-5 - the most advanced missile in the Agni series with a strike range of over 5000 kms -- from a test range off Odisha coast.The user associate test-flight of the missile has further boosted indigenous missile capabilities and deterrence strength of the country.All radars, tracking systems and range stations monitored the flight performance, defence sources said.Describing the trial as "fully successful", the sources said, the sophisticated missile travelled for 19 minutes and covered 4,900 km.The sleek missile was test-fired from a canister launcher, mounted on a mobile platform, at about 9.54 am from No. 4 launch pad of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Abdul Kalam Island, earlier known as Wheeler Island, they said.After four successful developmental trials, this was the first user associate test of Agni-5 missile, the sources added.'Agni-5 is most advanced missile in the Agni series with new technologies incorporated in it in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine.

Ahead of the Mumbai visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 18 January, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israeli company Mekorot Development & Enterprise Ltd to develop a water grid in the drought-prone Marathwada region. The state cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday approved signing of the MoU to seek Israeli expertise at drought management and cost-efficient use of water in regions vulnerable to chronic droughts.

A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court began hearing petitions against the Aadhaar programme on Wednesday, with one lawyer describing it in opening arguments as a “giant electronic mesh”.

Delhi high court on Wednesday reserved its order on the extension of the production sharing contract (PSC) between Cairn India Ltd and state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd for the Barmer block in Rajasthan after it expires in 2020.

The two-day "Bengal Global Business Summit 2018" organised by the state government has so far received new investment proposals worth Rs 2.19 trillion, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on a six-day visit during which he will hold extensive talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, who received him at the airport, setting aside protocol.

Pakistan is examining a proposal for a DGMO-level meeting with India after a gap of four years to reduce tensions along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary through fresh confidence-building measures, a media report said on Tuesday.

Bangladesh said on Tuesday it would complete the process of returning within two years many of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled a conflict in Myanmar, following a meeting of the neighbours.

Global economic winds have begun to shift. What does this mean for the Indian economy?

The National Security Advisers (NSAs) of India and Pakistan met on December 26 in Bangkok, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Thursday.

Under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the government has mandated the linking of Aadhaar with all banking and financial instruments by March 31

Indu Malhotra will be the first woman lawyer to be directly recommended from the Bar to Supreme Court judgeship.

Government think tank NITI Aayog is working to revamp the existing system of identifying medicines for price control, two persons aware of the matter said.

The US on Tuesday asked Pakistan to take decisive action against terror groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani network, operating from its soil, and said it was ready to work with it to combat terrorism.

India and China held a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) last week to resolve the incident of road building by Chinese civilians at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a larger Bench a writ petition filed by five petitioners to quash Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin linked the measure to recent anti-government protests, arguing that Iran ought to spend more on public welfare rather than banned weapons.

The NITI Aayog on Friday said India’s transportation architecture should comprise a mix of fuel sources, in what could provide relief to automobile manufacturers, under the pump with the government’s push for an all-electric fleet of vehicles by 2030.

Taking the strictest action against Pakistan, the US has announced that it was freezing most security aid and the delivery of military equipment because Islamabad continues to shelter terrorists despite several warnings from President Donald Trump and other leaders.

Strong collaboration between the government and the private sector can help close the gap between Indian and Western manufacturers faster

The passing of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill 2017 will make the resolution process more efficient.

One hundred and forty-five Indian fishermen on Friday crossed the Wagah border into India after Pakistani authorities released them from jail.

India on Thursday successfully test-fired an Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile, capable of destroying enemy ballistic missiles at low altitude, from a test range in Odisha.

The project for setting up the Naval Alternate Operating Base involves diversion of 676.12 hectares of forest land in Rambilli and Kalavalapalli regions of Visakhapatnam.

The government argued that the exclusion of bamboo from the definition of "tree" would promote bamboo cultivation

The 2018 edition of the historic Indian Science Congress will be held at Manipur University, Imphal, in March.

China will maintain communication with India to deal with massive lakes formed by landslides on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet following an earthquake, which caused concerns of a sudden flooding on the Indian side, a Foreign Ministry official said today.

Indian security forces hit back at Pakistan, hard, overnight Monday, killing three Pakistani soldiers across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), and separately, neutralising a wanted Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist in J&K's Pulwama district.

AWACS aircraft deal has been stuck for a over a year due to Israel quoting higher price than the permissible level.