Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit France on 14th of July to attend this year’s Bastille Day Parade as Guest of Honour in Paris. Mr. Modi today said he is looking forward to celebrating July 14 and India- France strategic partnership with President of France, Emmanuel Macron and the people of France. Mr. Modi said this in reply to a tweet by the French President in which Mr. Macron said he is looking forward to Mr. Modi's upcoming visit to Paris.

External Affairs Ministry said that to mark this important milestone of 25th anniversary of India-France Strategic Partnership, an Indian armed forces contingent will participate in the Parade alongside their French counterparts. Prime Minister’s visit is expected to herald the next phase in the India-France Strategic Partnership by setting new and ambitious goals for strategic, cultural, scientific, academic, and economic cooperation.

Buddha Purnima is being celebrated today. It not only marks the day when Gautam Buddha was born but also the day when he attained Nirvana under the Mahabodhi tree at Bodh Gaya.  Lord Buddha was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama on the full moon day in 563 BC at Lumbini in Nepal. In Hinduism, Buddha is considered as the ninth avatar of Lord Vishnu. His birth anniversary is also known as Vaisakhi Buddha Purnima or Vesak. 

This day is commemorated by Buddhists and Hindus all over the world and is a major festival in countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Tibet, China, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

India will launch its own heat index next year to quantify the impact of heat on its population and generate impact-based heatwave alerts for specific locations.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) began issuing an experimental heat index for different parts of the country last week, taking into account air temperature and relative humidity to determine how hot it really feels.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on 3rd May 2023, Wednesday distributed the appointment letters on regularisation of 4,400 employees of NDMC at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.

In February the Union Home Ministry had cleared the proposal of the regularisation of jobs of around 4,400 regular muster roll (RMR) employees of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

Around 12000 employees are currently working in NDMC, out of which around (RMR) 4,500 employees are working at contractual positions.

Indian origin Ajay Banga was confirmed as the next President of the World Bank. The World Bank’s 25-member executive board last night elected former Mastercard CEO to a five-year term as president.

The Indian-born finance and development expert was charged with revamping the lender to tackle climate change and other global crises.

India and Israel today signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Industrial Research and Development Cooperation with focus on several key technology areas. These are aerospace, Electronics Instrumentation, Civil, Infrastructure and Engineering, Environment, Mining, Chemicals, and Petrochemicals and Agriculture. The Multi-Sectoral Agreement was signed between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR and Directorate of Defense Research and Development, Ministry of Defense of Israel in New Delhi.

Chief of Air Staff Air Marshall VR Chaudhuri presented AN-32 Spares to Commander of Sri Lankan Air Force for operationalisation of the Aircraft held by Sri Lanka. The presentation of spares is in line with India's commitment towards capacity building of Sri Lanka's Armed Forces and will ensure high operational readiness of the aircraft. He also visited Sri Lankan Air Force base at Katunayake and interacted with the SLAF officers. Mr. Chaudhari interacted with students at the National Defence College where he presented books worth 1 crore Lankan rupees as a gift from Government of India. Mr. Chaudhuri called on the commanders of Sri Lanka Air Force and Sri Lanka Navy.

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi celebrated its Diamond Jubilee on its 60th Foundation Day today. On the occasion, Vice-Chancellor of IIFT Prof. Satinder Bhatia released the commemorative issue of Foreign Trade Review (FTR) Journal.
 
Addressing the gathering Prof. Bhatia said that today we should honour those who have contributed to achieving the vision that IIFT was founded with and reaching IIFT's height among top B-schools in India. She said that IIFT has achieved many milestones and it is serving the nation in the field of international business. She underlined that IIFT has become the place to attract industries, students, and other stakeholders. Remembering the founding Director General of IIFT Late HD Shourie, Prof. Bhatia mentioned that he was the father figure to IIFTians, who laid the foundation of IIFT with the motto, ‘Excellence is a way of life’. IIFT was established in 1963.

In Rajasthan, on the occasion of the 50 days countdown to the International Day of Yoga (IDY), a grand program organized at Shri Bhawani Niketan College in Jaipur. The program was organized by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga and was supported by the National Institute of Ayurveda, the state government of Rajasthan, local authorities, and various institutions. 

Addressing the program, the Governor of Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra said that the basic foundation of Indian culture is yoga. He said that yoga is not a medicine but it is the biggest medium of self-development. Union AYUSH Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that to make life successful, one should move forward with yoga. He said that the whole world is adopting Yoga as a method of science. 

The government has decided that all the states shall celebrate not only their own statehood day but also the statehood days of other states in order to promote Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. Therefore, from now onwards, Raj Bhawans across the nation will commemorate statehood days of all the states.

Gujarat and Maharashtra are celebrating their statehood days on 1st May 2023. States and Union territories are celebrating statehood day of Gujarat and Maharashtra in their respective Raj Bhawans.