Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will reach Maldives on 1^st May 2023 as part of his 3 day visit to the archipelago nation. He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Maldivian counterpart to review the entire gamut of defence relations between the two countries. During his stay, Mr. Singh will gift a Fast Patrol Vessel ship and a Landing Craft to the Maldives National Defence Forces, highlighting India's commitment to capacity building of friendly countries and partners in the region.
 
The visit is also an important landmark in building strong bonds of friendship between the two countries. India and the Maldives are working closely to effectively address shared challenges, including maritime security, terrorism, radicalisation, piracy, trafficking, organised crime and natural disasters. India's vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) along with its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy as well as Maldives’ ‘India First’ policy seek to work together to jointly develop the capabilities within the Indian Ocean Region. The minister will also visit ongoing project sites and interact with the Indian diaspora during his visit to the Maldives.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched the first of its kind ‘Millets Experience Centre (MEC)’ at Dilli Haat in New Delhi today. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) has established the Millets Experience Centre in collaboration with the Agriculture Ministry. It aims to raise awareness of Millets and encourage its adoption among the general public.

 In his inaugural address, Mr Tomar praised India’s dynamic role in celebration of International Year of Millets 2023 led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said India is gearing towards becoming a ‘Global Hub’ for Millets and added that the setting up of the MEC is a step in that direction.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today commissioned FM Transmitters of 100 Watt capacity at 91 locations across the country. These transmitters have been installed in 85 districts of 18 states and two Union Territories. With this, the network of transmitters with All India Radio has increased from 524 to 615. The addition will further boost the coverage of AIR to 73.5 percent of the population of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today inaugurate 91 FM transmitters to boost radio connectivity across the country through video conferencing. These transmitters have been installed in 84 districts across 18 States and two Union Territories.

As the government is committed to enhance FM connectivity in the country, a special focus has been given through this initiative to enhance the coverage in the aspirational Districts and in border areas particularly. With this expansion of All India Radio’s FM service, an additional two  crore people, who did-not have access to the medium, will now be covered.  It will result in expansion of coverage in about 35 thousand sq km area.

The ‘City Beauty Competition’ portal, launched by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry recently, has been made live. Urban Local Bodies across the country can participate in the competition through an online process at www.citybeautycompetition.in. The objective of the competition is to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards across the country to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.

The Ministry said, under the competition, wards and public spaces in cities would be judged against five broad pillars like- Accessibility, Amenities, Activities, Aesthetics and Ecology. The competition would felicitate the most beautiful wards and public spaces in the cities. While selected wards would be felicitated at the city and State levels, the top most beautiful public spaces in the cities under four categories.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar today inaugurated the Summit on Farm Machinery Technology, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tractor and Mechanisation Association (TMA) in New Delhi. In his address, Mr. Tomar said, there are about 85 percent of small farmers in the country, who should get the benefit of technology and machinery. He said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government is continuously working in this direction at its level.
 

The Union government has approved the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023. The medical devices sector in India is a sunrise sector that is growing at a fast pace. The market size of the medical devices sector in India is estimated to be nearly 90 thousand crore rupees in 2020 and its share in the global medical device market is estimated to be 1.5 percent. The policy is expected to help the Medical Devices Sector, grow from the present 11 billion US dollars to 50 billion US dollars in the next five years

Amit Shah today launched IFFCO Nano DAP (Liquid) in New Delhi. In his address, Mr. Shah said that the launch of IFFCO Nano DAP (Liquid) product is an important beginning to make India self-reliant in the field of fertilizers. He said that this effort of IFFCO is an inspiration for all the national cooperatives to research and venture into new areas. He expressed confidence that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the launch of IFFCO Nano DAP (Liquid) product will bring a paradigm shift in the agriculture sector of India. The Minister said that it will also make farmers prosperous and India self-reliant in the field of production and fertilizer. Mr. Shah said that the use of liquid DAP, through spraying on the plant, will help increase both the quality and quantity of production as well as conservation of the land.

India has shown improvement in the logistics ranking of the World Bank by jumping 6 places to rank 38 out of 139 countries in the 7th edition of Logistics Performance Index (LPI 2023).

India has been taking numerous initiatives since 2015 under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve its logistics efficiency. Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement said that the World Bank has acknowledged India’s efforts towards increasing logistics efficiency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered Ramanujacharya on his birth anniversary on Tuesday. In a tweet, Mr. Modi said illuminating thoughts of Ramanujacharya continue to give strength and wisdom to millions. He added that Ramanujacharya was always proud of Indian cultural roots and worked towards building a society that is modern and harmonious.