The sixth meeting of the UAE – India High Level Joint Task Force on Investments (‘the Joint Task Force’) was held today in Mumbai to review the progress being made in addressing the agreed actions of the previous meeting held in Abu Dhabi in January 2018 and to elaborate a number of new key issues of mutual importance.

The meeting was co-chaired by H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court, and H.E. Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Government of India. Senior officials from both countries also took part in the meeting.

The two sides noted the positive outcomes achieved by the Joint Task Force to date, expressed satisfaction at the level of bilateral trade and investment between the two countries, and agreed upon the need to further explore ways to facilitate investment in key Indian and UAE sectors with the potential for economic growth.

New Delhi: The government has increased the rate of interest for General Provident Fund (GPF) and other related schemes by 0.4 percentage points to 8% for the October-December quarter.

The rate is in line with that for Public Provident Fund (PPF).

The interest rate on GPF was 7.6% for the July-September quarter of 2018-19.

“... during the year 2018-2019, accumulations at the credit of subscribers to the General Provident Fund and other similar funds shall carry interest at the rate of 8% with effect from 1 October 2018, to 31 December 2018,” a Department of Economic Affairs’ notification said. The interest rate would apply on Provident Funds of central government employees, railways and defence forces.

Last month, the government announced that the interest on small savings, including NSC and PPF, will be hiked by up to 0.4 percentage point for the October-December quarter, to align it with rising deposit rates in the banks.

Neeraj Panwar had not visited home for more than an year now. But moments after his brother Suraj Panwar won a silver medal in the men’s 5000m race walk at Youth Olympics in Argentina, he boarded the first bus to Delhi from Jaipur and then to Dehradun where his family lives in Kaarabari village.

“I used to go to home close to Diwali but this year I think Diwali has arrived early, thanks to Suraj. I don’t think anyone at my home watched his race but I saw the live telecast on YouTube. I cannot wait to reach home. There are no celebrations but it will be great to be with the family,” Neeraj says.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu released a biography of late Anumolu Ramakrishna, a pioneer in the application of innovative systems and construction techniques in the Indian constuction sector.

The biography titled 'Building a Legacy' is authored by city-based Chartered Accountant V Pattabhi Ram.

Complimenting the biography, the Vice President Friday said it was in many ways an acknowledgement and recognition of Ramakrishna's tremendous contribution towards finding the rightful place for the Indian construction industry in the world.

Ramakrishna, former president and Managing Director at Larsen and Toubro, was posthumously awarded Padma Bhushan in 2014.

He was instrumental in constructing several path breaking buildings including Tirumala queue complex, Hitech city, and Nehru Indoor Stadium, a release said.

Ramakrishna was born in December 1939 and died on August 20, 2013 at Hyderabad.

Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri laid the foundation stone for Museum on Prime Ministers of India at Teen Murti Estate in New Delhi today.

The museum will depict modern India through collections relating to Prime Ministers of India, their lives, works and significant contributions made towards nation building. It will bring India's democratic experience alive to the visitors.

The proposed museum will include an orientation space, souvenir shop, space for organising talks, seminar halls and auditorium. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sharma said, the new museum is expected to cost 271 crore rupees.

He said it will be constructed within one year.

The city was known as Prayag before 16th-century Mughal emperor Akbar built a fort near the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna and named it “Ilahabad”. His grandson Shah Jahan renamed the entire city “Allahabad”. An area near the confluence of the river continues to be known as Prayag.

On Monday, Chief Minister Adityanath said Governor Ram Naik had approved the proposal to rename the city. “Prayag is where Lord Brahma performed the first yagna [ritual sacrifice],” Adityanath told reporters. “The confluence of two rivers is a ‘prayag’, and in Allahabad three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet. Hence, it is the king of ‘prayags’. That is why it is ‘Prayagraj’.”

State Congress spokesperson Onkarnath Singh said the proposal was an attempt to play around with the history of the nation. Former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said the proposal “mocks tradition and belief”. “Raja Harshvardhan made ‘Prayag Kumbh’ great by offering donations, but today’s rulers are trying to take credit for the work just by renaming the city to ‘Prayagraj’,” Yadav tweeted. “They have even re-named ‘Ardh Kumbh’ Kumbh.”

A memorandum of understanding, aimed at expanding and strengthening economic and trade ties as well as business relations between azerbaijan and India, will be signed within a business forum on March 13, Indian Ambassador to Baku Sanjay Rana said at a press conference in Baku on March 12.

The chambers of commerce and industry of Azerbaijan and India, the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) will sign the document, the ambassador noted.

The Secretary General of the Indian Commerce and Industry Chamber Saurabh Sanyal, in turn, noted that Azerbaijan and India need to expand trade turnover. Noting that this figure was $462 million in 2017, he said that it does not correspond to the available potential.

India and Azerbaijan enjoy close friendly relations based on historical links and growing bilateral cooperation. Data of Azerbaijani State Customs Committee shows that of $462.5 million trade turnover last year, export from Azerbaijan to India amounted to $365.5 million. As for India’s export to Azerbaijan, it rose by more than 60 percent in 2017. The items of imports from India are mainly clothes and textiles, information technologies, food items and heavy machinery.

Rana also said that Indian companies are interested in establishing joint ventures with Azerbaijan in the field of pharmaceutics.

“India is famous for its pharmaceutical industry. Indian companies are interested in opening joint ventures in the field of pharmaceutics, in particular in the territory of the Pirallahi Industrial Park,” he noted.

The diplomat said that negotiations are already underway in order to establish such an enterprise in Azerbaijan by India’s Sun Pharma and Azerbaijan’s Gilan Holding.

India has a “serious” hunger problem and ranks 100th out of 119 countries on the global hunger index — behind North Korea, Bangladesh and Iraq but ahead of Pakistan, according to a report.

The country’s serious hunger level is driven by high child malnutrition and underlines need for stronger commitment to the social sector, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said in its report.

India stood at 97th position in last year’s rankings.

“India is ranked 100th out of 119 countries, and has the third highest score in all of Asia — only Afghanistan and Pakistan are ranked worse,” IFPRI said in a statement.

“At 31.4, India’s 2017 GHI (Global Hunger Index) score is at the high end of the ‘serious’ category, and is one of the main factors pushing South Asia to the category of worst performing region on the GHI this year, followed closely by Africa South of the Sahara,” it added.

As per the report, India ranks below many of its neighbouring countries such as China (29th rank), Nepal (72), Myanmar (77), Sri Lank (84) and Bangladesh (88). It is ahead of Pakistan (106) and Afghanistan (107).

India was elected with the highest number of votes by the General Assembly to the influential Human Rights Council on Friday with a pledge to combat intolerance.

India received 188 votes, the highest polled by any of the 18 countries elected in the voting.

This is the fifth time India has been elected to the Geneva-based Council, the main body of the UN charged with promoting and monitoring human rights.

India's presence on the Council will be important because the previous UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein asked the body to facilitate an international commission of enquiry into allegations of human rights violation in Kashmir.

JAMMU: The Indian Space Research Organisation will set up a centre at the Central University Jammu (CUJ) to expand its presence to the northernmost state of India.ISRO Chairman K Sivan signed memorandums of understanding with CUJ Vice Chancellor Ashok Aima and officials of Central Space Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO) to set up the centre Thursday.
Union minister Jitendra Singh was present during the signing of the MoUs at CUJ campus in Samba.

The centre, named Satish Dhawan Center for Space Science, is proposed to be spread on an area of about 1,150 square metres.

The area of space application is of particular interest to Jammu and Kashmir as its economy and human lives are affected by vegetation cover, forest area, snow, landslides, avalanches, ground water, cloud cover, which can be monitored from space through remote-sensing.

Also, considering the recurring natural calamities, requirement of strengthening ground-based observational capabilities of this region for weather and atmospheric research is of utmost important.

The centre will take care of the emerging geospatial and space technology requirements for the development of the region.

Union minister Singh said the collaboration between ISRO and CUJ was a landmark achievement for Jammu and Kashmir.

Saying that ISRO would become a pan-India organisation with the establishment of the centre, he urged the youth to develop scientific temper and interest in space research.