The third edition of Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2019 was launched by the Minister for Human Resources Development, Prakash Javadekar, here on Wednesday. It is a product development competition, where problems are posed to students to come up with innovative solutions.

“Students from IISc, IITs, NITs and AICTE/UGC approved institutions will compete to solve problems and offer technical solutions,” Javadekar said.

He added: “This year we are expecting around 1,50,000 students from over 3,000 institutes to register for it. Those students, who want to be part of the initiative, can register for SIH 2019 from October.’’

Like last two years, SIH 2019 would also have two sub-editions - software edition (a 36-hour software product development competition) and hardware edition (a five-day-long hardware product development competition).

While taking about some of the previous years’ solutions which were taken forward, he said, “Secured pen-drives, and development of robotic equipment for safety on unmanned railway gates are some of the innovative solutions which students have come out with”.

The rupee's fall against the dollar continued with the currency hitting fresh lows against the dollar for the second straight day.

The currency which opened 70.57 a dollar on Thursday as compared to previous close of 70.59, slipped to 70.82 a dollar. The fall in the currency is attributed to month-end dollar demand by oil importers. On Wednesday, rupee touched a low of 70.65 a dollar.

The rupee, the worst Asian currency this year, has depreciated over 9%.

The currency was trading at 70.76 a dollar at 11.30 a.m.

Swapna Barman fought off a toothache and a stiff challenge from China's Wan Qingling to claim gold in the heptathlon event with an aggregate of 6026 points, which is also a landmark as she crossed the 6000-point mark in the event. Swapna was ahead of Wang Qingling at the end of the penultimate event, the javelin throw, which was completed on Tuesday. Swapna's triumph in the women's heptathlon is the first-ever gold for India in the event at the Asiad. Swapna posted a score of 6026 points. Wang Qingling of China scored 5954 to take silver while Japan's Yuki Yamasaki produced her personal best of 5873 to bag the bronze medal.

Wang had been leading after the initial events of the heptathlon but Swapna was in great form in the javelin throw. Barman, who has six toes in both her feet, battled a severe toothache during her event and competed with a tape on her right cheek. Still, she produced her career-best performance by logging 6026 aggregate points from the seven events. Before Barman, only Bengal's Soma Biswas and Karnataka's J J Shobha and Pramila Aiyappa had returned with a medal from the Asian Games.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Nepal today to attend the 4th BIMSTEC Summit that will focus on enhancing regional connectivity and boosting trade.

Modi said yesterday that his participation in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Kathmandu signals India's highest priority to its neighbourhood and a strong commitment to continue deepening ties with the "extended neighbourhood" in South-East Asia.

In a statement before leaving for Nepal for the two-day summit, Modi said he will interact with the leaders of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand on the margins of the summit whose theme is 'Towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region'.

This was Dutee's second bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games as she earlier won the same medal in the Women's 100m Final event. It was India's first medal in 20 years in the 100m dash. Running in lane number 7, Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds, a tad below her national record of 11.29 seconds

With her second Asiad medal, Dutee joined her illustrious compatriots such as PT Usha in the list of athletes who have won more than one medal at the Asian Games.

It has been an outstanding show by the 22-year-old Odisha sprinter who was not allowed to compete in 2014-15 under the IAAF's hyperandrogenism policy due to which she missed the 2014 Commonwealth and Asian Games. She fought and won a case against this policy at the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

In a recent revision of the hyperandrogenism policy of the IAAF, Dutee has been left out of its purview.

Legendary Usha had swept four gold medals at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games, winning 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay. Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, (800m 1500m) had also won two medals at the at 1998 Bangkok Games.

Nearly 99.3 percent of India’s banned currency during demonetisation in November 2016 has come back to the Reserve Bank of India, says the central bank’s annual report for 2017-18.

The completion report comes after almost two years after the demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016.

“The total value of SBNs (Specified Bank Notes) in circulation as on November 8, 2016, post verification and reconciliation, was Rs 15,417.93 billion (Rs 15.44 lakh crore). The total value of SBNs returned from circulation is Rs 15,310.73 billion (Rs 15.31 lakh crore),” RBI’s annual report said.

India on Wednesday said it hoped that the new Pakistan government, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, will help in ensuring that the South Asian region is free of terror and violence. Addressing a debate on ‘Mediation and Settlement of Disputes’, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said, “regurgitating a failed approach, which has long been rejected, is neither reflective of pacific intent nor a display of Pacific content. We hope that the new government of Pakistan will, rather than indulge in polemics, work constructively to build a safe, stable, secure and developed the South Asian region, free of terror and violence.”

Referring to Pakistan’s repeated references to the disputed territories along the border, Syed Akbaruddin said, “I take this opportunity to remind Pakistan, the one isolated delegation that made unwarranted references to an integral part of India, that pacific settlement requires pacific intent in thinking and Pacific content in action.”

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra Police arrested some of India’s finest human rights activists from five cities across the country on completely fabricated charges under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the IPC. The activists arrested are Sudha Bharadwaj, a civil rights activist and labour lawyer from Chattisgarh, presently teaching at the National Law University, Delhi, Gautam Navlakha, former president of the People’s Union for Democratic Reforms, Varavara Rao, a poet-activist, Vernon Gonsalves, human rights activist, and Arun Ferreira, a civil rights activist and lawyer based in Mumbai.

Residences and offices of other activists were raided, and laptops and mobiles seized. These include pro-democracy activists who have been leading peoples’ resistance movements for several years, such as Father Stan Swamy, an Adivasi rights activist based in Ranchi, Anand Teltumbde, a management expert, intellectual and writer, and Susan Abraham, civil liberties lawyer and a member of the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights. The arrests and raids are outrageous attempts to stifle voices of dissent and curb peaceful struggles against this government’s anti-people ideology. Democracy is under siege in India.

In what was a surprising revelation, a video footage from a drone introduced us to the members of an isolated Amazon tribe that had no known contact with the outside world and were not discovered till the footage was noticed.

The video showed a land with felled trees in the Javary River valley, near Brazil’s border with Peru, and people walking through it. One of them is seen carrying a spear or pole. The images were captured by an expedition by a government agency called Funai. Funai also released photos taken by a team on the ground – photos of canoes made of palm tree trunks and an axe with a stone blade tied to a wooden handle, along with an aerial photo of a thatched hut.

Kochi airport, which had been rendered non-functional since August 14 due to flooding and torrential rains in Kerala, reopened around 2 pm today. Indigo flight 667 from Ahmadabad to Kochi, was the first flight in two weeks to land at the CIAL. A number of 33 flights are scheduled to arrive and 30 others are scheduled to depart from the airport on Wednesday. The number includes both domestic and international flights.

Due to flooding of key areas of the aerodrome such as runway, taxiway, parking bays and apron, the Kochi airport has lost almost 2,600 meters of the perimeter wall. The airport suffered an estimated loss of over Rs 220 crore due to floods.

The airport was scheduled to commence operations on August 26, but extended the date by three days after most stakeholders, including airlines and ground handling agencies, expressed concern over mobilising manpower by that date.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is on a two-day tour of flood-affected areas in Kerala. On Tuesday, he visited flood relief camps in Chengannur, Chalakudy and Paravur, some of the worst affected areas. Addressing nearly 200 people at the St Francis Assissi school in Athani, Rahul said, “I want all of you to know that you are not alone, we are with you. We are not in government either in Delhi or in Kerala. We cannot do very big things, but we are going to do whatever we can. In its own limited way, the Congress is collecting funds to help you.” He is scheduled to visit several places including Kochi today.