Scientists on Tuesday unveiled a new species of pterosaur, the plane-sized reptiles that lorded over primeval skies above T-rex, Triceratops and other dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous.

With a wingspan of 10 m and weighing 250 kg, Cryodrakon boreas rivals another pterosaur as the largest flying animal of all time, researchers reported in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

“This is a cool discovery,” said David Hone, lead author of the study and a researcher at Queen Mary University in London.

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh has said that abrogation of Article 370 is the biggest achievement of the Modi government in the first 100 days of it is the second term. Addressing media in Jammu, Mr. Singh said that it is the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir who know the importance  and value of abrogation of the Article 370. He  said, abrogation of Article 370 will help in industrial growth, employment generation and improvement in the health sector and people will get freedom from family rule.  Dr. Jitendra Singh said that common man in the streets of Kashmir is rejoicing over the abrogation of Article 370 and it is a handful of families who are crying over it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch today the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) for eradicating the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis in the livestock from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. The programme aims at vaccinating over 500 Million Livestock including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs against the disease. It will be  implemented for a period of five years till 2024 at a cost of 12, 652 crore rupees.
 
National Animal Disease Control Programme is a hundred per cent  Centrally funded programme. It also aims at vaccinating 36 million female Bovine Calves annually in its fight against the Brucellosis disease. The objective of the programme is to control Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis by  2025 and their eradication by 2030. Both the diseases have a direct negative impact on the trade of milk and other livestock products. The launch of the scheme will give  a major push towards government's efforts in doubling the Farmers' Income.

Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that all 440 schemes of Centre and State government related to direct benefit transfer, DBT should ride on India post payment Bank. Presently only 40 DBT schemes are available on the payment bank. Addressing a function to commemorate 1st Anniversary of India Post Payments Bank in New Delhi, Mr Prasad said, it has opened one crore accounts in the last one year and directed the payment bank to work on opening five crore more accounts in the next one year. The Minister said, the postal payment bank should be more accessible to the people of underprivileged section.

Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that all 440 schemes of Centre and State government related to direct benefit transfer, DBT should ride on India post payment Bank. Presently only 40 DBT schemes are available on the payment bank. Addressing a function to commemorate 1st Anniversary of India Post Payments Bank in New Delhi, Mr Prasad said, it has opened one crore accounts in the last one year and directed the payment bank to work on opening five crore more accounts in the next one year. The Minister said, the postal payment bank should be more accessible to the people of underprivileged section.

Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that all 440 schemes of Centre and State government related to direct benefit transfer, DBT should ride on India post payment Bank. Presently only 40 DBT schemes are available on the payment bank. Addressing a function to commemorate 1st Anniversary of India Post Payments Bank in New Delhi, Mr Prasad said, it has opened one crore accounts in the last one year and directed the payment bank to work on opening five crore more accounts in the next one year. The Minister said, the postal payment bank should be more accessible to the people of underprivileged section.

Microsoft has appointed Rajiv Kumar as the new Managing Director of Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited (MIRPL), replacing Anil Bhansali, who held this role for six years.

Rajiv, who is currently the Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices (E+D) Group, has a 27-year long career with the company.

Anil will continue to be the Corporate Vice-President of Cloud and Enterprise. He will be relocating to Redmond, Microsoft’s headquarters in the USA.

An IIT Roorkee alumnus and a master’s in Computer Science from the University of Texas (the US), Rajiv joined Microsoft in Redmond in 1992 as a campus-hire.

The sixth India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, SED, concluded in New Delhi today.

Both the sides agreed that SED has emerged as a crucial mechanism to facilitate bilateral trade, investment and enhance economic cooperation.

According to an official release, the two sides held in-depth discussions to review trade and investment climate, and harness synergies for future engagement.

Potential areas of collaboration across innovation and investment focusing on fintech and related technologies were highlighted.  

Senior representatives from policymaking, industry and academia participated in the dialogue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal's Prime Minister K.P.Sharma Oli will jointly inaugurate Motihari-Amlekhgunj cross border petroleum products pipeline through video conference today. This is the first transnational petroleum pipeline form India and first South Asian oil pipeline corridor.

The landmark pipeline will ensure smooth, cost-effective and environment-friendly supply of petroleum products to Nepal. The 69 kms long pipeline from Motihari in Bihar to Amlekhgunj in Nepal has been constructed by India in just 15 months, half of its 30 months deadline. It has been constructed at the cost of around three hundred fifty crore rupees which are entirely borne by Indian Oil Corporation.

Addressing the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD) in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh today, Prime Minister  Narendra Modi said, augmenting water supply, enhancing water recharge and retaining moisture in the soil are all parts of a holistic land and water strategy. In his speech Mr Modi proposed initiatives for greater South-South cooperation in addressing issues of climate change, biodiversity and land degradation. He called upon the leadership of UNCCD to conceive a global water action agenda which is central to the Land Degradation Neutrality strategy. He said, India will be happy to help other friendly countries to develop land restoration strategies through cost effective satellite and space technology.