The IndiaAI Independent Business Division, under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has announced the IndiaAI Innovation Challenge. The challenge is part of the Applications Development Initiative within the IndiaAI Mission. The Ministry, in a statement, said the Innovation Challenge is open to Indian innovators, startups, non-profits, students, and academic and research and development organizations. The deadline for application submission for this challenge is the 30th of this month.

.The winners will receive up to one crore rupees as an award and an opportunity to showcase their solutions on a national scale. Applicants can apply on the official website, www.indiaai.gov.in till 30th of this month.

The AI India Mission seeks to develop and adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in critical sectors. The innovation challenge aims to promote impactful AI solutions to enable socio-economic transformation. The focus areas of this challenge are healthcare, improved governance, agriculture, assistive technology for learning disabilities, and climate change and disaster management.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday flagged-in a first-of-its-kind Open Water Swimming Expedition to the 21 Islands of the Andaman & Nicobar archipelago named after the Param Vir Chakra (PVC) Awardees, in New Delhi.

The Andaman & Nicobar Command Tri-service launched ‘Expedition Param Vir’, wherein a team of personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard swam to all the 21 islands as a tribute to the gallantry awardees and unfurled the national flag on each island. The 11-member expedition team was led by Wing Commander Paramvir Singh.

The expedition was formally flagged-off on World Water Day on March 22, 2024 from Shri Vijayapuram, with an inaugural swim to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Dweep.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Wardha, Maharashtra, on Friday to participate in several key events, including the ‘PM Vishwakarma’ programme, marking one year of the initiative. The programme aims to support and uplift traditional artisans and craftspeople across the country.

During the programme, PM Modi will distribute certificates and loans to beneficiaries of the scheme. As a gesture of the government’s continued support for artisans, he will extend credit to 18 beneficiaries from 18 different trades. In recognition of their contributions to society, the Prime Minister will also release a commemorative stamp, celebrating one year of the scheme’s impact.

In a move to boost India’s textile industry, PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for the PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) Park in Amravati, Maharashtra. The 1,000-acre park, being developed by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), is one of seven PM MITRA Parks approved by the Government of India. The initiative aims to position India as a global hub for textile manufacturing and exports by creating world-class infrastructure to attract large-scale investments, including foreign direct investment (FDI), and drive innovation and job creation in the sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to launch the online vaccine management portal U-WIN in October, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said on Friday. The portal is currently operational on a pilot basis. The portal has been developed to maintain a permanent digital record of vaccination and medicines of pregnant women as well as children from birth up to the age of 17, Nadda said.

Nadda, addressing a press conference on the first 100 days of the third Modi government, also said the expanded Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) would include all people aged 70 and above, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

To be launched in October, the expanded scheme will benefit an estimated six crore citizens in about 4.5 crore households, he added. He also listed several other achievements during the Modi government's third term.

India's third home-built 700 MWe nuclear power reactor has achieved criticality and is expected to start commercial electricity generation soon, operator NPCIL said on Friday. The nuclear power reactor that achieved criticality on Thursday night is the first of a new series of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) to be built at Rajasthan Atomic Power Project in Rawatbhata.

Earlier, two 700 MWe PHWRs started commercial operation at Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat.

"The Unit 7 of the 2 X 700 MW Rajasthan Atomic Power Project 7&8 (RAPP 7&8) at Rawatbhata, achieved the important milestone of criticality (start of controlled fission chain reaction) on September 19, 2024, at 22:42 hrs," the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said in a statement on Friday.

The largest known black hole jets, 23 million light years across, have been discovered in the distant universe. This pair of particle beams launched by a supermassive black hole is over a hundred times larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way.

In 2022, we announced the discovery of one of the largest black hole jets in the night sky, launched from a (relatively) nearby galaxy called NGC2663. Using CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia, we confirmed that NGC2663’s jet is one of the largest in the sky. In other words, it appears to be the largest when viewed from Earth.

The new jet, announced in the journal Nature, has been dubbed “Porphyrion” (a giant in Greek mythology) by its discoverers at the California Institute of Technology in the United States. It dwarfs NGC2663’s jet in actual size and is over 20 times larger – a true colossus.

LIC Mutual Fund has launched the LIC MF Manufacturing Fund, an open-ended equity program designed to capitalize on manufacturing themes in India. The new fund offer (NFO) is already open for subscriptions and will end on October 4, with units distributed on October 11.

The scheme is managed by Yogesh Patil and Mahesh Bendre, the scheme will be benchmarked against the Nifty India Manufacturing Index (Total Return Index). Its primary objective is to achieve long-term capital appreciation by predominantly investing in equity and equity-related instruments of companies involved in manufacturing.

The scheme requires a minimum investment of Rs 5,000, with future investments allowed in multiples of Re 1. The LIC MF Manufacturing Fund seeks to construct a diverse portfolio of companies from a variety of industries, including automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, heavy engineering, metals, shipbuilding, and petroleum products.

Homegrown automaker Tata Motors, on Friday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ESAF Small Finance Bank to deliver tailored financing solutions for its commercial vehicle customers.

According to $44 billion company, this collaboration will initially focus on Small Commercial Vehicles (SCVs) and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs), with plans to extend financing options across Tata Motors' entire commercial vehicle range.

Vinay Pathak, Vice President & Business Head – SCV&PU at Tata Motors, in a company statement, said, “Our partnership with ESAF Small Finance Bank enhances access to seamless financing solutions for our customers in deeper pockets of the country.”

PayU, one of India's leading digital financial services providers, has introduced an industry-first biometric authentication solution for card payments - Flash Pay. Designed to simplify the payment experience, increase transaction success rates, and significantly enhance security, FlashPay was unveiled at the prestigious Global Fintech Festival (GFF) 2024. This cutting-edge solution combines the ease of seamless payment experience with robust security measures, meeting both customer aspirations for convenience and banks' stringent authentication requirements.

Flash Pay leverages advanced device-based biometric technology, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, to authenticate payments swiftly and securely. With transactions completed in under 10 seconds, customers no longer need to rely on traditional OTP-based authentication. This removes the wait for OTP delivery, reduces the potential for manual errors, and eliminates the risk of frauds associated with OTP sharing.

Gujarat — also the host state — won the maximum number of awards during the three-day 4th Global Renewable Energy Investors Meet and Expo. This is the first time the meet was organised outside Delhi.

Gujarat was ranked among the top three states in multiple categories such as overall renewable energy capacity, solar power capacity and wind power capacity among others.

While Gujarat was ranked on top under overall renewable energy capacity achieved and overall wind power capacity achieved categories, it was ranked second under overall solar power capacity achieved as Rajasthan pipped Gujarat to be at the top.