The India-Japan partnership is set against a larger context of a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific and it will continue to grow, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday as the two sides held a fresh edition of "2+2" dialogue amid China's increasing military muscle-flexing in the region.

The Japanese delegation at the talks in Delhi was headed by Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defence Minister Kihara Minoru. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh headed the Indian team.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Indian company ‘Petronet LNG limited’ and a Sri Lanka based private company for infrastructure development and supply of Liquified Natural Gas in Colombo. Sri Lanka’s Minister for Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara and Deputy High Commissioner of India Dr. Satyanjal Pandey witnessed the signing of the MoU. The agreement will give a major boost to the island nation’s efforts towards sustainable energy generation. The MoU would allow for development of LNG based power plants with capacity of over 1000 MW at Kerawalapitiya near Colombo as well as supply of the fuel from Kochi LNG Terminal. Speaking at the event, Mr. Wijesekara thanked the Indian Government for the support it extended Sri Lanka during the crisis. He added that the MoU would also provide for use of LNG as a fuel in households and other domestic requirements.

Two days after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) issued advertisements for lateral recruitment into government service for 45 posts of Joint Secretary, Director, and Deputy Secretary levels, the government on Tuesday moved to cancel these planned recruitments, citing lack of quotas for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Later in the day, the UPSC issued a notification cancelling the recruitments as advertised, citing a request by “the requisitioning authority”.

Minister for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Jitendra Singh wrote to the Chairperson of the UPSC Priti Sudan on Tuesday, asking that the advertisements be withdrawn and the plans for lateral recruitment cancelled, with norms for recruitment from outside the government to be reviewed keeping equity and social justice in mind.

This follows not only protests by the Opposition against the move, but National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) declaring that entry into government service without quotas set aside for SCs and STs was “unacceptable”.

The vice-president of the Paris Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), Satya Prakash Sangwan, was named as the chef de mission of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Paris Paralympics 2024. Meanwhile, Bhagyashree Jadhav and Sumit Antil have been named India's flagbearers for the Paris Paralympics, leading the nation's contingent of 84 athletes. This will also mark a special moment for India, as it will be the country's largest-ever contingent of 84 athletes, a significant increase from the 54 who competed in Tokyo.

"It is a great honour to be entrusted with this responsibility. I am committed to ensuring that our athletes have everything they need to succeed and make India proud at the Paralympics," Sangwan told the media after the announcement. He brings with him over a decade of dedicated service and experience within the Paralympic movement. As the chef de mission, he will be leading India's largest-ever contingent of 84 para-athletes, who will be competing across 12 sports.

Skygazers will be in for a treat on August 19 since they will get to see a supermoon, one of the largest and brightest moons of 2024. A supermoon is called so because the moon appears significantly large in the sky since it is the closest to Earth at a time when it is full. The combination of a Supermoon and a Blue Moon, which only occurs a few times per few decades, will make for a highly uncommon astronomical event tomorrow. Since the full moon that occurs in August is traditionally referred to as a "Sturgeon Moon," this Supermoon blue moon is also termed a "Sturgeon Moon." 

Though it's called a blue moon, it doesn't have anything to do with colour. There are two types of blue moon - seasonal and monthly - according to Space.com.

China approved 11 nuclear reactors across five sites on Monday, a record amount of permits as the government leans even more heavily on atomic energy to support its push to cut emissions.

The State Council greenlighted the new reactors in sites spread across Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Guangxi, state-run China Energy News reported. The total investment for all 11 units will be at least 220 billion yuan ($31 billion) with construction taking about five years, according to financial publication Jiemian.

China has more nuclear reactors under construction than any other nation in the world, and approved 10 new reactors in each of the last two years. The country is expected to surpass France and the US to be the world’s leading atomic power generator by 2030, according to BloombergNEF.

Maria Branyas, world's oldest person, passed away at the age of 117 in a Spanish nursing home, as confirmed by her official X account on Tuesday.

“Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” read a post on her X account, which is managed by her daughter.

Guinness World Records (GWR) also issued a statement confirming that she passed away at the age of 117 years and 168 days. “Maria passed away peacefully at the nursing home in Catalonia, Spain, where she had lived for the past two decades,” the GWR statement read, noting that she died on Monday.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is chairing the meeting to review the performance of public sector banks on various parameters in New Delhi. Secretary, Department of Financial Services Dr. Vivek Joshi, Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Public Sector Banks, and other senior officials are attending the meeting.

During the meeting, Ms. Sitharaman, along with other participants, will review deposit growth, the credit-to-deposit ratio, and asset quality, which are vital indicators of the banks’ health.

The Finance Minister will also evaluate the performance of public sector banks under government initiatives such as PM Awas Yojana, PM Surya Ghar, and PM Vishwakarma schemes. This is Ms. Sitharaman’s first review meeting of such banks after assuming charge as Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister in the Modi 3.0 government. In the evening, Finance Minister Sitharaman will also review the performance of regional rural banks.

Ashok Kumar Singh, IAS, took over charge as Director General of Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Govt of India at its headquarters in New Delhi on Monday.

Ashok Kumar Singh is an IAS Officer of the 1999 batch of Kerala cadre. Earlier, he worked as a Principal Secretary, the Water Resources Department, Govt. of Kerala.

He has vast experience in governance and management of District and State level organisations.

At the centre level, he has served as the Executive Director in the National Mission for Clean Ganga, as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence and as Director of Ministry of Finance in the Govt. of India also.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilisers, JP Nadda inaugurated the 'First Policy Makers' Forum', here on Monday, which will run until August 22.

To elevate India's position in the global pharmaceutical sector, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry of External Affairs, hosted an international delegation of policymakers and drug regulators from 15 countries.

The forum featured the launch of innovative digital platforms for pharmacopoeia and drug safety monitoring.