The Punjab Assembly today passed the Police (Amendment) Bill 2018, which would pave way for setting up of a State Security

Commission for selection of the director general of police.

The Punjab Police Act 2007, enacted on February 5, 2008, which this Bill amends, did not provide for selection of the DGP from the panel as prepared by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The development assumes significance as the present Director General of Police Suresh Arora is set to retire by end of the next month.

The National Sports Day is celebrated every year on August 29 on the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his tributes to one of the greatest field hockey players of all time and urged people to give priorities to sports and fitness related activities.

Every year on this day, Arjuna and Khel Ratna awards are conferred by the President of India to celebrate the achievements of exceptional athletes in the country. This year, though, the date has been postponed to September 25 so the Indian athletes could return from Asian Games 2018 taking place in Indonesia.

Often called a ‘magician’ on the Hockey field, Dhyan Chand had such an aura that even Adolf Hitler offered him money to play for Germany. The man known for his extraordinary goal-scoring skills, has won three Olympic gold medals during the time Indian hockey was the most dominant.

The central government on Tuesday constituted a new 21-member advisory panel on science, technology and innovation under the chairmanship of Principal Scientific Advisor, K VijayRaghavan, that will also co-ordinate the implementation of programmes through various bodies.

“This gives a fresh direction to the country’s science and technology sector. The council will advise the PM on science, technology, as well as innovation, but also coordinate the implementation of the PMs vision,” said VijayRaghavan.

The council must “actively aid in the formulation and timely implementation of major science and technology missions” and “evolve interdisciplinary technology development programmes,” the government order announcing its formation said.

The new council has nine members, including Dr VK Saraswat, member of NITI Aayog and former director general of Defence Research and Development Organisation, Dr AS Kiran Kumar, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, and Maj Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, dean of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune.

The government, World Bank and state-owned EESL today inked a USD 220 million loan agreement and a USD 80 million guarantee pact to push energy efficiency programme in India. To be implemented by EESL, the programme will help scale up the deployment of energy saving measures in residential and public sectors, strengthen EESL's institutional capacity, and enhance its access to commercial financing.

The USD 220 million loan, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ..

New Delhi: The process for selecting three astronauts for India’s first manned space flight will begin at the earliest to give them enough time to train for the 2022 mission, which is slated to cost less than ₹10,000 crore.

“We need to select our astronauts at the earliest as they would require at least three years for training. They could be from the air force or Isro (Indian Space Research Organisation), or even a common man. Since it’s our first mission, we would prefer a pilot. The initial training will be done at the Institute for Aerospace Medicine in Bengaluru,” Isro chairman K. Sivan said at a press conference that was attended by the minister of state for atomic energy and space, Jitender Singh.

“We are confident and we have had a good start. We will try to execute the project within 40 months. Prior to this we will send two unmanned missions, the first in next 30 months,” Sivan said.

The second unmanned mission will be undertaken six months after the first, he said.

he Government of India, the Government of Rajasthan and the World Bank igned a $250 mn development policy loan (DPL) to support the state improve the performance of its electricity distribution sector under the state’s 24x7 Power for All program.

The Second Programmatic Electricity Distribution Reform Development Policy Loan for Rajasthan is the second in the series of two operations planned for a comprehensive turnaround of Rajasthan’s electricity distribution sector. The first loan closed in March 2017.

The electricity distribution utilities (DISCOMs) in Rajasthan provide electricity to about 9.5 mn customers.

The key areas that the program will support include: strengthening governance in the distribution sector in the state by establishing annual performance MoUs between the DISCOMs and the state government; putting in place a performance management system; providing incentives to employees for improving performance; financial restructuring and recovery in the sector by transferring considerable amounts of the DISCOMs debt to the state; bringing in more discipline in the revenue requirements of DISCOMs; taking initiatives in reducing the costs of energy procurement; and improving the operational performance of the DISCOMs through initiatives like publishing feeder level energy audits and increased usage of IT among others.

Manjit Singh won the gold in the men's 800 metres event while Jinson Johnson clinched the silver medal in men's 800 metres on Tuesday. With these two medals, India's medal tally now stands at 49 with 9 gold, 18 silver and 22 bronze. Manjit Singh finished the race in 1:46.15 minutes while second-placed Jinson Johnson clocked 1:46.35 minutes. Qatar's Abdalla Abubaker came third with a time of 1:46.38 minutes. Manjit was trailing early on but he sprinted real fast in the final stages to win the race. Johnson also kept pace throughout the race and eventually finished second. India also added to their medal tally after bagging two medals in Kurash, a form of wrestling indigenous to central Asia, with Pincky Balhara and Malaprabha Yallappa Jadhav winning silver and bronze respectively in the women's 52kg category. 19-year-old Pincky lost 0-10 to favourite Gulnor Sulaymanova of Uzbekistan in the gold medal clash to settle for the silver

In a bid to help flood affected students studying in CBSE affiliated schools in Kerala, whose board exam academic documents such as marksheets/ migration certificates/ pass certificates have been lost or destroyed, the board has decided to provide the same in digital form. Over 1,300 schools are affiliated to the CBSE in Kerala. The same is being provided because these documents are important for obtaining admission for higher studies, employment etc.

CBSE had developed first-of-its-kind digital academic repository called ‘Parinam Manjusha’ which has been integrated with DigiLocker. The digital academic documents are digitally signed using digital signature of Controller of Examinations of CBSE which make them legally valid digital document as per the IT Act. These documents are also having PKI based QR codes and they can be verified using the DigiLocker mobile app.

Asian Games 2018 Live Streaming Day 11 Live Updates and Results: On Day 11, we will see the Indian boxers trying book a berth in the semi-finals in various categories. The woman hockey team, who have routed their opponent previous encounters, will look to seal its berth in the final of the tournament. India’s star duo of Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will pair up for the event. India will also play Indonesia in Men’s Handball match while Women’s Squash team will face China. After winning medals in Kurash on Tuesday, Vijay Kumar Yadav and Kalpana Devi Thoudam will also be in action on Wednesday. Catch Live action and updates of Asian Games 2018 Day 11 Live.

New Delhi: Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with six states for the construction of the Lakhwar multi-purpose project in the upper Yamuna Basin to deal with the water crisis.

The MoU was signed by the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh (Yogi Adityanath), Rajasthan (Vasundhara Raje Scindia), Uttarakhand (Trivendra Singh Rawat), Himachal Pradesh (Jai Ram Thakur), Haryana (Manohar Lal Khattar) and Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal).

Under the agreement, the 204-metres high project will be constructed near Uttarakhand's Lohari village with a live storage capacity of 330.66 million cubic metres (MCM).