Nikita Porwal from Madhya Pradesh was crowned Femina Miss India 2024 on October 16 in Mumbai. The dazzling event held at Famous Studios, marked the 60th edition of the beauty pageant.

Nikita's poised presence and radiant smile won over the judges and earned her the coveted crown, passed on by last year's titleholder, Nandini Gupta. Neha Dhupia added a touch of nostalgia as she gracefully placed the Miss India sash on the beauty pageant winner.

Born and raised in Ujjain, a city steeped in spiritual heritage, Nikita credited her upbringing for shaping her curious mind and critical thinking.

She completed her schooling at Carmel Covent Senior Secondary School before moving on to higher education at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman recently concluded their bilateral naval exercise, 'Naseem Al Bahr' off the coast of Goa.

The exercise lasted from October 13 to October 18. The Indian Navy highlighted the details of the naval exercise on the social media platform, X.

As per the press statement, the exercise was conducted in two phases, with the harbour phase that lasted from October 13 to October 15, which was followed by the sea phase which was conducted from October 16 to October 18 onwards.

As part of harbour activities, personnel from both Navies engaged in professional interactions, including Subject Matter Expert Exchanges and planning conferences. In addition to this, sports fixtures and social engagements were also held.

The unheralded Indian pair of Rithvik Choudhary Bollipalli and Arjun Khade won the Almaty Open men’s doubles title on Sunday.

It was a dream-come-true moment for Bollipalli and Khade the Indian duo fought tooth and nail for one hour and 41 minutes to get the better of Colombia’s Nicolas Barrientos and Skander Mansouri of Tinusia 3-6 7-6 14-12 to win their first ATP 250 title.

India’s Sumit Nagal crashed out in the second round of qualifying at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.

Nagal, an Olympian and India’s top singles player lost 6-4 7-6(2) against James Duckworth of Australia in the qualifiers in Basel.

Pakistan's amendment-draft">26th constitutional amendment draft was approved by the federal Cabinet on Sunday during a meeting presided over by the country's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as per ARY News.

Prior to this, the prime minister updated the cabinet on his meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), also sent his response to the cabinet members, ARY News stated.

The Attorney General and Federal Minister of Law, Azam Nazir Tarar, also informed the cabinet of the constitutional amendment proposal. A few suggested revisions to the draft of the constitutional amendment were also discussed throughout the session.

Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated Sunday as the eighth president of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, completing his journey from an ex-general accused of rights abuses during the dark days of Indonesia's military dictatorship to the presidential palace.

The former defence minister, who turned 73 on Thursday, was cheered through the streets by thousands of waving supporters after taking his oath on the Quran in front of lawmakers and foreign dignitaries. Banners and billboards filled the streets of the capital, Jakarta, where tens of thousands gathered for festivities.

India’s candidates have been elected in leadership positions in all 10 Study Groups of the International Telecommunication Unions’ (ITU) Standardization Sector (ITU-T) in the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) which is underway in New Delhi. The study groups include Operational aspects, Economic & policy issues, security, future networks among others.

The Ministry of Communications in a statement said, India has retained its Chair position in one group and secured Vice-Chair positions in all other 9 Study Groups. With this India has enhanced its leadership position in ITU-T to 11 positions in WTSA-2024 from 7 in WTSA-2022. India is currently hosting the International Telecommunication Unions’ (ITU) World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) 2024 at Bharat Mandapam. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th October and will continue till the 24th of this month. It is for the first time that WTSA is being conducted in the Asia-Pacific region and it would set the direction of standardization activities ITU-T and its work for the next four years. This year’s WTSA-24 has witnessed more than 3700 delegates from over 160 countries, the highest ever for any WTSA assembly.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had a net addition of 18.53 lakh members to its subscriber base in August. The payroll data, which was released on Sunday (October 20, 2024) said that in August this year, the growth in subscriber base was 9.07% when compared with August 2023. The Union Labour Ministry said in a release that the growth in enrolments reflects increased employment opportunities and heightened awareness of employee benefits.

9.30 lakh new members were added in August 2024, representing an increase of 0.48% in new members when compared with August 2023. “This surge in new memberships can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO’s successful outreach programmes,” the Ministry said.

Alok Verma is set to be the next Director in-charge of Steel Authority of India’s (SAIL) Rourkela Steel Plant. He has been recommended for the post by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) Panel on Thursday. Presently, he is serving as Executive Director (Works) in the same organisation.

Verma has been recommended for the post of Director in-charge of SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant from a list of 12 candidates, who were interviewed by the PESB panel in its selection meeting held on October 17. Out of 12 candidates, 11 candidates were from SAIL and the candidates was from Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).

As Director-in-charge of Rourkela Steel Plant, Verma will be a member of the Board of Directors and will report to the Chairman. He will be the overall in-charge of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and be responsible for the efficient functioning of the Plant and the concerned mines for achieving the corporate objectives and performance parameters. He will also be responsible for project implementation at the plant or concerned mines and for marketing or sales of products from the plant or concerned mines.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has introduced a new visa-on-arrival policy, easing entry for people holding permanent resident cards or visas from the United States, United Kingdom, or any European Union country.

This update was shared by the Indian mission in the UAE on Thursday via a social media post on X. As per the new policy, Indian citizens and their family members who hold ordinary passports will be granted a visa on arrival at all ports of entry in the UAE. This applies to holders of:

A valid visa, residence, or green card issued by the United States of America.
A valid visa or residence issued by the European Union countries and the United Kingdom.
The passport’s validity period shall not be less than (6) months.

The above-mentioned persons have the option of obtaining a visa on arrival for 14 days, extendable for a similar period, or obtaining a visa on arrival for 60 days, non-extendable, after paying the prescribed fees in accordance with the applicable norms in the UAE.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia from October 22-23 to attend the BRICS summit, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Friday (October 18, 2024) during which he is also “expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BRICS member countries and invited leaders.”

The big question is if Mr. Modi will hold a meeting on the sidelines with Chinese President Xi Jinping, on which official sources said there is “no clarity” as yet.

The BRICS respect “civilisational diversity” and is “free from pressure, double standards and interference in domestic affairs,” Russian Envoy in India Denis Alipov said while stating that it was natural for the grouping to expand one way or another. Stating that the “geopolitical and practical relevance of BRICS grouping was growing”, Mr. Alipov said it promotes the agenda of the global south. He was speaking at an online conference on BRICS organised by India Writes Network.