IV Subba Rao will continue as secretary to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu as per an order issued by the Ministry of Personnel on Tuesday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the continuation of Rao, a retired IAS officer, as secretary to the vice president on a contract basis in the rank and pay of a secretary of the Government of India, it said.

His tenure will be co-terminus with the tenure of the Vice President, the ministry said.

International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) has released India’s first Type Approval Certificate (TAC) for BS VI emission norms for the two-wheeler segment. The aforementioned certificate was awarded to Hero MotoCorp for the Hero Splendor iSmart. Here's an interesting fact: Hero designed and developed the Splendor iSmart bike at its Centre for Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

For those who do not know, in order for an automobile manufacturer to receive BS6 certification for their vehicles, first a prototype must be tested and approved by government agencies like ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India), GARC (Global Automotive Research Center), ICAT, etc.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust and the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to facilitate direct port entry (DPE) of cargo on Monday, which would help cut down on dwell time and costs.

Chairman of V.O.C Port Trust T.K. Ramachandran and Managing Director of CWC Arun Kumar Shrivastava signed the MoU that would allow the CWC to operate and manage the truck terminal located opposite to the Fisheries College and Research Institute on an annual lease rental basis for 30 years. The terminal has an area of 18,357 sqm.

The DPE facility would be created at the terminal to enable direct movement of containers from factories without intermediate handling at any container freight station, allowing shippers to bring their factory-stuffed (self-sealed) goods directly to the container terminal round the clock.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), which retails brands such as Louis Philippe, Peter England and Van Heusen, has acquired ethnic apparel and lifestyle retailer Jaypore for 110 crore, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange on Monday.

The deal will help ABFRL that also retails men and women’s western wear to tap into the fast-growing ethnic apparel market.

“Ethnic wear is the largest segment in the Indian fashion apparel market. While ABFRL has built a diversified portfolio of brands across different segments, ethnic wear space is currently under-represented in our bouquet of offerings to consumers," Ashish Dikshit, managing director, ABFRL said in a media statement.

Rafael Nadal might have won a 12th Roland Garros title on the weekend, but he remains well behind Novak Djokovic, a semi-finalist in Paris, in ATP rankings released today.
 
Austrian Dominic Thiem, whom Nadal beat in yesterday's final, keeps his fourth place behind Switzerland's Roger Federer, who went down to the Spaniard in the last-four on his first appearance in Paris since 2015.

Russian Karen Khachanov jumped two spots into a personal best of ninth thanks to his achievement in reaching the French Open quarter-finals.

Italy's Fabio Fognini, also a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros and winner in Monte-Carlo in April, also moved up two places to 10th.

The biggest mover in the top 20 was Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka, whose quarter-final defeat by Federer in Paris was enough to see him go up nine places into 19th.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked top bureaucrats to prepare a  five-year plan document for each Ministry with well-defined targets and a significant impactful decision in each Ministry for which approvals will be taken within 100 days.  

Interacting with all Secretaries to the Union Government at his residence in New Delhi yesterday Mr Modi said all departments of the government must seek to leverage the upcoming milestone of 75 years of independence.  He said it can inspire people to make a contribution to the betterment of the country.

During the interaction, the Prime Minister said, the recent General Elections mandate reflects the will and aspirations of the people to change the status quo and seek a better life for themselves. He said, the huge expectations of the people should not be viewed as a challenge, but an opportunity. 

India's automobile major Mahindra won the Gold Award for fairing on various indicators, including level of satisfaction among its network of dealers and the manner of allocation of vehicles to them.

Mahindra, which has been in South Africa for the past 16 years, received the award on June 7 from the country's National Automobile Dealers' Association (NADA) which tests dealers' satisfaction with the way a brand supports and communicates with them.

The automobile giant, which has more than 60 dealers in South Africa, secured the top position out of the 29 vehicle brands surveyed for the awards.

With Assam’s National Register of Citizens as the backdrop, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has laid out specific guidelines to detect, detain and deport foreign nationals staying illegally across the country.

The MHA has amended the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and has empowered district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not. Earlier, the powers to constitute tribunals were vested only with the Centre.

The tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, unique to Assam, to determine if a person staying illegally is a “foreigner” or not. In other parts, once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying illegally, he or she is produced before a local court under the Passport Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, with the punishment ranging three months to eight years in jail. Once the accused have served the sentence, the court orders their deportation, and they are moved to detention centres till the country of origin accepts them. The 1964 order on Constitution of Tribunals said: “The Central Government may by order, refer the question as to whether a person is not a foreigner within meaning of the Foreigners Act, 1946 (31 of 1946) to a Tribunal to be constituted for the purpose, for its opinion.” The amended order issued last week says – “for words Central Government may,’ the words ‘the Central Government or the State Government or the Union Territory administration or the District Collector or the District Magistrate may’ shall be substituted.”

Yuvraj Singh brought the curtains down on his decorated cricket career on Monday as he announced his retirement from international cricket in a press conference in Mumbai.

The celebrated cricketer and one of the biggest match-winners the country has ever produced, ended a career which spanned 19 years after he made his debut in the ICC KnockOut Trophy in Kenya and impressed in his the very first match he got to bat against Australia, scoring a match-winning 84 against the likes of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie.

Ganguly and the Indian team management had noticed Yuvraj after he was named the Player of the Tournament in the 2000 Under-19 World Cup in which he scored 203 runs and picked up 12 wickets as Mohammad Kaif's team lifted the trophy after beating Sri Lanka in the final.

Noted actor, dramatist and Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad passed away in Bengaluru this morning due to multi-organ failure. 

He was 81. 

Coming to fame as Kannada playwright in the 1960s, he went on to become a critically acclaimed actor and filmmaker during the later years. Besides the Jnanpith award, Karnad was also conferred the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. 

Vamsha Vruksha, Ek tha Tiger, Nagamandala and Malgudi Days are some of the movies and TV serials in which he played a role and Odakalu bimba, Taledanda and the fire and the rain are some of the plays written by him.