R Sampanthan, a veteran Sri Lankan politician and a moderate Tamil leader, passed away last night while receiving treatment in a hospital, the Tamil National Alliance has announced.

Sampanthan, 91, led the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) from 2004 and became only the second Tamil to become the main opposition leader in the Sinhala-majority country.

He was ailing for a long time and was missing the current parliamentary sessions for a long time. He was a moderate Tamil who had been leading the political movement to achieve a negotiated political settlement to the Tamil demand for political autonomy.

Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani on Monday took over as the army’s vice chief, succeeding General Upendra Dwivedi who took charge as the army chief on Sunday.

Subramani was the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Central Command in Lucknow before he assumed the new appointment.

An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, he was commissioned into the Garhwal Rifles in December 1985.

Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday launched a web portal for faster bank settlements of interest subvention claims under Agriculture Infrastructure.

Chouhan launched the web portal developed jointly by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare (DA&FW) and NABARD to automate and speed up the process of settlement of interest subvention claims of banks submitted under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), a press release by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers said.

During the launching event, Chouhan said, "PM Modi government is committed to increase farmer's income by taking various measures. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund was launched by PM Modi with Rs 1 lakh crore funding in a bid to increase storage capacity for crops and reduce losses for farmers."

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has launched the eSankhyiki portal, an online platform providing real-time data to planners, policy-makers, researchers and the general public.

The portal has two modules, Data Catalogue and Macro Indicators, said a press statement issued by the ministry Sunday.

The Data Catalogue module provides a catalogue of major data assets of the Ministry, making them easier to access for users. The module allows users to search within datasets and download data of interest. At present, it contains more than 2291 datasets with metadata and visualization for each dataset.

In a significant development aimed at advancing the field of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences – Captain Srinivasa Murthy Central Ayurveda Research Institute (CSMCARI), Chennai, under the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India and the Commissionerate of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (CIM&H), Arumbakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The ceremony was held on 29 Jun 2024 at the Kalaignar Centenary Multi-Speciality Hospital, Guindy, in the esteemed presence of Health and Family Welfare Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shri. MA. Subramanian, and Additional Chief Secretary & Health and Family Welfare Secretary, Shri. Gagan Deep Singh, IAS.

Indian multi-role stealth frigate INS Shivalik, mission deployed in South China Sea and North Pacific Ocean, has reached Pearl Harbour in Hawaii to take part in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, which is world's largest naval exercise. INS Shivalik sailed into Pearl Harbour on Thursday on completion of JIMEX 24, a bilateral exercise between India and Japan.

The harbour phase of the exercise from 27 Jun to 07 Jul 2024 will see participation in multiple symposiums, exercise planning discussions, sports competitions and reciprocal deck visits. The sea phase of RIMPAC – 24, divided into three sub-phases will witness ships undertaking basic and advanced level integration exercises during the first two sub-phases. The event will conclude with a theatre level large force tactical exercise. The exercise will witness the participation of an Aircraft Carrier Battle Group, submarines, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely piloted surface ships and also an amphibious force landing operations including joint operations with special forces of multinational navies.

Popularly known as DS, Srinivas served as minister for rural development and information and public relations in the then Congress-led central government between 1989 and 1994 and again as higher education and intermediate education in the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government between 2004 and 2009

Telangana veteran Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Dharmapuri Srinivas passed away due to prolonged illness at his residence in the early hours of Saturday, his family members said on Saturday.

Releasing three books on the life and works of former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu through video conferencing on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the journey of Mr. Naidu’s life is a source of inspiration for the younger generations. The programme was organised in Hyderabad on the eve of Mr. Naidu’s 75th birthday.

Mr. Modi said the life of Mr. Naidu was a perfect glimpse of the amalgamation of ideas, vision and personality. “No one can match the level of Mr. Naidu’s wit, spontaneity, quick counters and one-liners,” the Prime Minister said, remembering his long association with Mr. Naidu in the BJP and in the Union Cabinet.

Mr. Modi released three books on the occasion — Venkaiah Naidu: Life in Service, a biography authored by the former resident editor of The Hindu’s Hyderabad edition, S. Nagesh Kumar; Celebrating Bharat: The Mission and Message of Shri M Venkaiah Naidu as 13th Vice-President of India, a photo chronicle compiled by I.V. Subba Rao, former secretary to the Vice-President of India; and Mahaneta: Life and Journey of Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, a pictorial biography in Telugu authored by Sanjay Kishore .

India has become the first country in the world to prepare a comprehensive checklist of its entire fauna, covering 104,561 species, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced on Saturday. He was speaking at the Animal Taxonomy Summit-2024 organized by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).

Yadav also launched the Fauna of India Checklist Portal on the occasion of the 109th Foundation Day of the ZSI in Kolkata. He emphasized that India is a global leader in biodiversity conservation, highlighting that the country’s tradition, ethos, and values respect nature and promote biodiversity conservation.

“India has become the first country in the world to prepare a checklist of its entire fauna, covering 104,561 species, positioning itself as a global leader in biodiversity documentation,” Yadav stated. The Fauna of India Checklist Portal is the first comprehensive document detailing the faunal species reported from India.

Senior IAS officer Manoj Kumar Singh took over as the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, an official statement said.

The 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, replaces Durga Shankar Mishra, it added.

Singh has been holding the charge of the agriculture production commissioner, infrastructure and industrial development commissioner and the additional chief secretary of the Panchayati Raj department of Uttar Pradesh till now.