Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Jayant Chaudhary inaugurated a new National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) extension centre at the Andhra Medical Tech Zone (AMTZ) campus in Visakhapatnam today. Sharing details Mr Jayant Chaudhary informed that the extension centre will provide training in Computer Software Applications (CSA) under the Crafts Instructor Training Scheme (CITS), starting from the 2024-25 academic session. The Minister said it will also offer short-term courses on various applications of computers, under the Advanced Vocational Training scheme, implemented by the Directorate General of Training (DGT).

Mr Chaudhary expressed his gratitude to the state government for its support and reaffirmed the central government’s commitment, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, to strengthening skill infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh.

The Kerala Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Monday, October 14, urging the central government to withdraw the controversial 2024 Waqf Amendment Bill. Minister for Waqf, Haj pilgrimage, and sports, V Abdurahiman, presented the resolution, stating that the bill undermines the federal principles enshrined in the Constitution.

Abdurahiman argued that the bill infringes on state rights regarding Waqf matters, effectively weakening the authority of Waqf boards and tribunals, which are tasked with overseeing Waqf properties. “This bill not only violates the secular principles outlined in the Constitution but also threatens democratic values by replacing elected representatives with a board of nominated members and a nominated chairman,” he said.

Nasa has launched a groundbreaking mission to investigate Jupiter and its moon, Europa, one of the prime locations in the search for life beyond Earth.

The spacecraft, named Europa Clipper, launched on Monday, is designed to study the moon’s icy surface and the subsurface ocean believed to exist beneath.

It was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, with the mission costing $5.2 billion.

Europa Clipper will not directly search for life, but will assess whether Europa's environment could support it. The spacecraft will examine the moon’s ice-covered ocean, located relatively close to the surface. Although it won't hunt for microorganisms, its findings may pave the way for future missions aimed at detecting life.

The Election Commission (EC) is set to announce the poll dates for assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand on Tuesday. The announcement will be made during a press conference at 3.30 pm.

With several upcoming festivals, including Diwali from October 29 to November 3, Chhath, and Dev Deepawali, the EC is likely to schedule the polling in the second week of November.

This will allow voters, particularly those temporarily migrating for the festivals, ample time to return to their registered voting locations.

The elections will cover bypolls of over 45 assembly as well as Lok Sabha seats across various states including Wayanad and Basirhat. Wayanad's seat became vacant following Rahul Gandhi's resignation, while the Basirhat bypoll is due to the death of Trinamool MP Sheikh Nurul Islam.

Karnataka can become the gaming and animation capital of India, and Asia said Priyank Kharge, Minister of Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka, addressing the second edition of the Indian Gaming Convention (IGC) in New Delhi, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India. He announced plans to set up a gaming accelerator by the end of this financial year.

“Karnataka is the fourth largest technology cluster in the world. We run over 27 centres of excellence (COE) and are setting up a COE specifically for gaming. I am keen to host India’s first government-sponsored eSports Olympics to ensure we remain the leaders in this sector and be the most disruptive innovation capital in the world,” he added.

Speaking on the scale of India’s gaming sector, Shri Kharge said, “The global AVGC market is estimated to be more than $366 billion with animation and visual effects constituting 46per cent share and gaming 54per cent share. The country boasts as the world’s second-largest gaming community, comprising 42.5 crore gamers, and from 2020 to 2023, the online gaming segment in India experienced a rise of 28per cent which was a market size of 16428 crore in 2023 and in the next four years, it should double.”

A week after Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s first official bilateral visit to India after he was voted to power late last year following a campaign centred on an ‘India out’ policy, senior diplomat Aishath Azeema is set to replace Ibrahim Shaheeb as Maldives’ top envoy to India.

The decision to appoint a new ambassador to New Delhi comes as the island nation looks to strengthen and restore its relationship with India, which the news portal Sun.mv described as one of the Maldives’ “closest bilateral partners.”

On Monday, Muizzu sent a letter to the Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee seeking approval for Azeema’s appointment. The Committee granted its approval on Tuesday, the PTI reported.

India was on Sunday awarded the hosting rights of ISSF junior world Cup next year by the international shooting federation, with its president Luciano Rossi saying the sport's world governing body will back the country if it is interested in hosting more big-ticket tournaments in near future.

Rossi is in the national capital to attend the season-ending World Cup Final of the International Shooting Sport Federation, in which the year's top performers compete against each other.

"I would like to congratulate India for their stellar performance at the recently concluded Junior World Championship in Peru. I would also like to inform that we at ISSF will support India's application to host the Junior World Cup in 2025 and other future international events as and when we are approached by NRAI," Rossi told the media.

Navi, a fintech company owned by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, has become India's fifth-largest ecosystem player on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), clocking 120.41 million transactions amounting to Rs 6,549.1 crore in September.

The Bengaluru-based company, which surpassed Amazon Pay’s UPI volumes in August, was just shy of 20 million transactions from the fourth-largest player, Cred, which processed 140 million transactions last month, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows.

In August, Navi processed 88.71 million transactions with a cumulative value of Rs 4,651 crore, reflecting a 35.7 per cent growth in volumes on a month-on-month basis.

India has surged to become the second-biggest supplier of restricted critical technologies to Russia, US and European officials said, highlighting the challenge in efforts to choke off exports fueling President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Indian exports of restricted items such as microchips, circuits and machine tools surpassed $60 million in both April and May, about double from earlier months this year, and leaped to $95 million in July, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing private assessments. India is exceeded only by China.

Even more frustrating to Ukraine’s allies, some of them said, is that envoys who raise the issue have received little response from their Indian counterparts. India’s Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment when asked about the trend.

SpaceX in its fifth Starship test flight on Sunday returned the rocket’s towering first stage booster back to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant mechanical arms, achieving another novel engineering feat in the company’s push to build a reusable moon and Mars vehicle.

The rocket’s first stage “Super Heavy” booster lifted off at 7:25 a.m. CT (1225 GMT) from SpaceX‘s Boca Chica, Texas launch facilities, sending the Starship second stage rocket toward space before separating at an altitude of roughly 70 km (40 miles) to begin its return to land – the most daring part of the test flight.

The Super Heavy booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent back to SpaceX‘s launch site, as it targeted the launch pad and tower it had blasted off from. The tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, is fitted with two large metal arms at the top.

With its engines roaring, the 233 foot (71 metres)-tall Super Heavy booster fell into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air.