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The United Nations has unanimously declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The 193 member UN General Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by India and supported by over 70 nations declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti said it is a big step to promote nutritional and ecological benefits of millets in the world as a key component of food basket and effect policy changes. He expressed gratitude to all co-sponsors. He also expressed delight that all Member States enjoyed the delicious millet "murukku" distributed by Indian Mission.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed gratitude to all the nations who initiated and co-sponsored the resolution on International Year of Millets at the United Nations. In a tweet, Mr Modi said, India is honoured to be at the forefront of popularising Millets, whose consumption furthers nutrition, food security and welfare of farmers. He said, it also offers research and innovation opportunities for agriculture scientists and start-up communities. The Prime Minister said, the distinguished delegates were also served delicious Millet Murukku. Mr Modi said, this is one snack he also relished and urged everyone to try it as well.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual summit with his Swedish counterpart Stefan Löfven tomorrow. During the Summit, the two leaders will hold comprehensive discussions on the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and global issues including further strengthening of cooperation in the post COVID era. This will be the fifth interaction between the two leaders since 2015. In April last year, the two Prime Ministers had a telephonic conversation to discuss the situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
CERAWeek was founded in 1983 by Dr. Daniel Yergin. CERAWeek Global Energy and Environment Leadership Award was instituted in 2016. It recognizes the commitment of leadership on the future of global energy and environment and for offering solutions and policies for energy access, affordability and environmental stewardship.
The BJP Central Election Committee meeting is underway in New Delhi to finalise the party's first list of candidates for five assembly polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President J P Nadda and other senior party leaders including Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh are attending the meeting at the party headquarters. In the meeting, the party is expected to clear the names of BJP candidates for the first phase of the polls in Assam and West Bengal.
External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar was on a day long visit to Bangladesh today. The visit was intended to prepare for the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh to participate in the birth centenary celebration of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, 50 years of the liberation of Bangladesh and Establishment of diplomatic ties with India. Our Dhaka correspondent Rajesh Jha has sent this report-
"The day long visit of the External Affairs Minister External Dr. S. Jaishankar to Dhaka started off with a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Dr. A K Abdul Momen. Addressing media after the meeting Dr. Jaishankar said that Bangladesh is central to India’s neighbourhood first policy. He said that the importance of Bangladesh is growing in India’s Act East policy. The External Affairs Minister said that India and Bangladesh are working hard to expand their relationship in all dimensions ranging from security, trade, transport and connectivity, culture, people to people ties, energy, joint development of shared resources to defence. He said that the comfort level of the two countries is so high that there is no issue which they can't solve by amicable discussion. Speaking about cooperation between the two countries during the COVID pandemic, Dr. Jaishankar said that Bangladesh is the largest recipient of 9 million doses of made in India vaccine. The External Affairs Minister also paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during his Bangladesh visit. Rajesh Jha, AIR news, Dhaka"
Addressing the Ministerial-Level opening session, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said, the shift in the fulcrum of global economic growth towards Asia is creating unprecedented opportunities for connectivity in the region.
"Today’s event reflects India’s strong commitment to work together with all regional stakeholders to enhance connectivity in the region and to provide unhindered access to the sea to landlocked Central Asian countries through Chabahar. Today’s event also commemorates five years of the signing of the Tripartite Agreement on the establishment of a Trilateral Transport and Transit Corridor. This agreement is a fitting tribute to the rich civilisational, cultural and trade links between India, Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia."
The Central Board of the EPFO today recommended 8.5 per cent annual rate of interest for the financial year 2020-21. The decision was taken in the 228th meeting of Central Board of Trustees, EPF which was held today in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir under the chairmanship of Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar. The Minister informed that the interest rate would be officially notified in the government gazette following which EPFO would credit the rate of interest into the subscribers’ accounts. Since the year 2014 EPFO has consistently generated returns not less than 8.5 percent. EPFO over the years has been able to distribute higher income to its members, through various economic cycles with minimal credit risk. Considering the high credit profile of the EPFO investment, the interest rate of EPFO is considerably higher than other comparable investments avenues available for subscribers.
The social security coverage of establishments under EPFO in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has increased by 38 percent, from 3458 on 31st October 2019 to 4754 on 31st January 2021. The benefits of social security schemes of EPFO in these UTs have been extended to 2.11 lakh subscribers by January this year as compared to 1.29 lakh in October 2019, registering a remarkable growth of 63 percent.
The rankings under Ease of Living Index-2020 were announced for cities with a population of more than a million and cities with less than a million people. In all, 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted last year.
Bengaluru emerged as the top performer in the Million Plus category, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore and Greater Mumbai. In the Less than Million category, Shimla was ranked the highest in ease of living, followed by Bhubaneshwar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere and Tiruchirappalli.
The Municipal Performance Index examined the sectoral performance of 111 municipalities with Delhi being assessed separately for NDMC, and the three Municipal Corporations across five verticals which comprise of 20 sectors and 100 indicators in all totality. The five verticals under Municipal Performance Index are Services, Finance, Policy, Technology and Governance. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Puri said,
India received the highest ever Foreign Direct Investments of over 67 billion US dollars for the first nine months of a financial year, last year. During the period of April to December 2020, FDI equity inflow grew by 40 percent as compared to the corresponding period in the last financial year.
As per Ministry of Commerce & Industry, these trends are an endorsement of India’s status as a preferred investment destination amongst global investors. Measures being taken by the Government on the fronts of policy reforms, investment facilitation and ease of doing business have resulted in tremendous FDI inflows into the country.
The Supreme Court today said that some kind of screening is needed for shows and web series being telecast on Over The Top, OTT platforms and asked the government to place recently framed regulation before it by tomorrow. Here is a desk report:
"The Supreme Court's observation came during the hearing of a petition filed by Amazon India head Aparna Purohit. Aparna Purohit has challenged the Allahabad high court order denying pre-arrest bail to her in criminal cases registered in connection with web series 'Tandav'. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said, few OTT platforms are showing some kind of pornographic content. The bench, also comprising Justice R S Reddy, said that a balance has to be struck. The Apex Court posted the matter for hearing tomorrow, asking the Centre to submit before it the regulations on OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Swati Rakheja, News Desk."
In a tweet, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar criticised Mr. Gandhi for giving lessons on media freedom and reminded the Congress of the gagging act against the media during the Emergency. He wondered how a party run by a single family is lecturing on democracy.
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The Offer For Sale of IRCON International Ltd closed with good interest from retail investors and 2.06 times subion. Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management said in a tweet that with this, IRCON is now Minimum Public Shareholding compliant. Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey thanked all investors for their participation.
More than one crore 66 lakh 16 thousand doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to beneficiaries in the country so far. The Health and Family Welfare Ministry today informed that a total of nine lakh 94 thousand 452 doses of vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the country's COVID-19 recovery rate presently stands at 97.03 per cent with a total recovery of more than 14 thousand patients within 24 hours.
Two special observers are expected to reach poll bound West Bengal by this weekend. According to sources in the state CEO office, Special Observer Ajay Nayek and Special police observer Vivek Dubey are scheduled to arrive in Kolkata tomorrow. They will be meeting with the CEO and other poll officials of the state before moving towards the poll bound districts according to phases.
BJP today demanded the Election Commission to remove TMC leaders who are still heading municipal corporations despite their term ending a year back. A delegation of party leaders met the Commission in New Delhi over the issue. Talking to reporters after the meeting, senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav said there are 125 local bodies in West Bengal which are being led by TMC leaders unconstitutionally and their appointment is against Municipal Corporation Act of West Bengal.
In Tamilnadu, the Chief electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo has said that Voter information slip would be issued in place of photo voter slip. This will include information like polling station, date and time of the poll among the others. All the district election officers have been directed to distribute the voter information slip at least five days before the date of poll to all enrolled electors.
The United States yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to the Indo-US Global Strategic Partnership. Speaking to media, Spokesperson of the US State Department Mr. Ned Price said, the US has authorized over 20 Billion Dollars worth of defence sales to India.
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th of March. All India Radio News honors Women Achievers from diverse fields by bringing their stories. Today we will bring to you the stories of women who have done exceptional service to society. Dr. Kriti Bharti and her trust Sarthi trust are working relentlessly against child marriage. She is known for child marriage annullment. Dr. Bharti from Jodhpur, Rajasthan has till now annulled 41 child marriages in Rajasthan and has prevented 1400 child marriages across the country. Apart from working against child marriages, she is also working on all the issues related to juvenile justice act. Talking to All India Radio News, Dr. Bharti says till now more than 7000 children have been rehabilitated.
"The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange declined 599 points, or 1.2 percent, to close at 50,846. The Nifty slipped 165 points, or 1.1 percent, to 15,081. Key indices at other Asian markets ended mostly lower. Global crude oil prices rose for the second straight day, on the possibility that OPEC producers might decide against increasing output at a key meeting later in the day. So, Brent crude futures rose 53 cents, to trade at 64.60 dollars a barrel.Back Home, at the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold futures for April were trading 87 rupees lower, at 44,861 rupees per ten grams. And... at the forex market, the rupee weakened 12 paise, to 72 rupees and 83 paise, against the US dollar. Arjun Choudhary, for AIR News.
Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth and Ajay Jayaram advanced to the quarterfinals of singles competition at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament. Reigning women's world champion Sindhu cruised into the last eight with a straight games win 21-13, 21-14 over USA's Iris Wang while Jayaram stunned Swiss third seed Rasmus Gemke 21-18, 17-21, 21-13 to reach the quarter-finals. World championships bronze medallist Sai Praneeth beat Spain's Pablo Abian 21-12, 21-17 while Kidambi Srikanth defeated France's Thomas Rouxel 21-10, 14-21, 21-14 to enter the quarter-finals. Indian mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also progressed to the quarterfinals. However, Saina Nehwal, Paruppalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma have crashed out of the tournament. In Cricket, India were twenty four for one in their first innings at stumps on day one of the fourth and final Test match against England at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Rohit Sharma on 8 and Cheteshwar Pujara on 15 were at the crease when stumps were drawn this evening. Opener Shubman Gill was removed for a duck by James Anderson. Earlier, England were bowled out for 205, as local boy Axar Patel again troubled the visitors by removing four wickets for sixty eight runs. Veteran Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets while Mohammed Siraj claimed two wickets. For the visitors, Ben Stokes scored fifty five runs while Dan Lawrence made forty six runs. England won the toss and opted to bat first. India have made one change, Siraj replaced Jasprit Bumrah. Skipper Virat Kohli's team needs a win or a draw to book a slot with New Zealand in the inaugural World Test Championship final. An England win would put Australia into the decider at Lord's in June. In that case, Australia will face its trans-Tasmanian neighbour New Zealand. Asian champion pugilist Pooja Rani entered the semifinals to secure a medal in 75 kilogram category at the 35th Boxam International Boxing Tournament in Castellon, Spain. Pooja Rani is a three-time Asian medallist and also a 2014 Asian Games bronze-winner. In late-night bouts yesterday, Olympic-bound Rani defeated Italian Assunta Canfora to join the seasoned M.C. Mary Kom (51kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg) and debutant Jasmine (57kg) in the last-four stage. Mary Kom enters semis of Boxam International, assured of medal. With report of Paras Chouhan,
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Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley has lauded India for providing COVID-19 vaccines. In a tweet, she said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it possible for more than 40 thousand people in Barbados and tens of thousands elsewhere, to recieve their first dose of COVISHIELD via Vaccine Matri. Ms Mottley called it a genuine demonstartion of generosity.
In Uttarakhand, budget of 57,400.32 crores for the year 2021-22, was presented by Chief Minister Mr. Trivender Singh Rawat today in Bhararisain. Chief Minister declared Garasain as the third commissionary of the state which will include Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Almora and Bageshwar districts.