The Reserve Bank of India will today announce its first bi-monthly monetary policy of current financial year. 

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will meet in Mumbai for the third consecutive day today ahead of the policy announcement. RBI is expected to go in for 25 basis points rate cut to provide thrust to the economic growth.

The consumer price inflation being well within the RBI’s target will also provide an elbow room to the central bank to lower the interest rates

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has said that online education is the best mode of learning as it has the potential to reach every nook and corner of the country through the Internet. 

Addressing 32nd convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University, IGNOU in New Delhi today, Mr Naidu said, online education also helps in increasing literacy rates. He said, IGNOU has made knowledge acquisition accessible to many learners, who otherwise were unable to attend regular institutes of higher learning.

The Vice President expressed happiness that IGNOU has set up eleven regional centres separately for the security forces like Indian Army, Navy and Assam Rifles. He expressed confidence that with this distance education facility, the officers and soldiers of the security forces can continue their studies. 

On the occasion, Mr Naidu awarded degrees to over 2 lakh students of the University across the country.

The US has approved the sale of 24 multi-role MH-60 ‘Romeo’ Seahawk helicopters to India at an estimated cost of USD2.4 billion, the State Department has said.

India has been in need of these formidable anti-submarine hunter helicopters for more than a decade now. Designed for hunting submarines as well as knocking out ships and conducting search-and-rescue operations at sea, the Lockheed Martin-built helicopters, would replenish India’s aging fleet of British-made Sea King helicopters.

The Trump Administration on Tuesday notified the Congress that it has approved sale of 24 MH-60R multi-mission helicopters, which will provide the Indian defence forces the capability to perform anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions. In its notification, the State Department told the Congress that this proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the US by helping to strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship.

A day after NASA claimed that debris from India’s anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test has increased the collision risk to the International Space Station (ISS) by 44 per cent, Tapan Misra, senior advisor to ISRO chairman said on Tuesday that Indian scientists will not do anything to shame India and that the debris from “Mission Shakti” will burn out in the next six months.

“It has happened at about 300 kilometres in space where the wind pressure is low, but it is enough to burn them (the debris) down in another six months,” Misra said, in response to a question about the risk to the ISS raised by a student at the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), where the scientist was present for an open house session on the topic “Indian Human Space Programme and its legal implication”.

Misra was former director of Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a crucial arm of ISRO that is working on India’s plans for human space flight Gaganyaan.

China and India together were responsible for half of the total global attributable deaths from air pollution in 2017, a new global study released Wednesday has revealed. Long-term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution is estimated to have contributed to nearly 5 million deaths in 2017, of which China and India reported 1.2 million deaths each. China’s “major regulatory reforms appear to be driving substantial reductions in PM2.5 exposure,” it notes.

The State Of Global Air report 2019, produced by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI), noted that air pollution collectively reduced life expectancy by 1 year and 8 months on average worldwide, rivalling that of smoking. “This means a child born today will die 20 months sooner, on average, than would be expected in the absence of air pollution,” the SOGA2019 noted.

Theatre in Odisha would never be the same again. Its lone crusader is no more. 
The man who brought in new genres and concepts to the theatre scene and put Cuttack on the global theatre map, eminent dramatist and organiser Kartik Chandra Rath passed away on Monday following a heart attack. He was 70 and is survived by wife, a son and two daughters. 

Rath single-handedly organised one of the biggest theatre festivals in the world - India Theatre Olympiad - in Cuttack for the last two decades. The Olympiad came to become a prestigious feature in the world amateur theatre calendar. Every autumn, Cuttack transformed into a throbbing theatre stage with scores of international theatre groups from all over the world and over a hundred groups from the country converging in the city to perform at the festival.

Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is resigning after weeks of mass protests, state media report.

Mr Bouteflika, who has been in power for 20 years, had already dropped plans to seek a fifth term as opposition to his rule grew.

The powerful Algerian army had called for the 82-year-old to be declared incapable of carrying out his duties.

The ailing leader suffered a stroke six years ago and has rarely appeared in public since.

Google South East Asia and India Vice-President Rajan Anandan will leave the company by April-end and join Sequioa Capital India as a Managing Director.

Rajan will leave Google by April end and joining Sequioa Capital India as an an investment advisor and mentor to Surge founders. He will join six other Managing Director in his new role.

Surge is a scale-up programme for startups in India and South East Asia.

Rajan tweeted: "8 amazing years. 850million internet users across India and SEA. Many billions of revenue and fastest growing region in the world. Incredible team that thinks big and executes superbly."

One of the most prominent faces of Tamil cinema, director J Mahendran breathed his last on Tuesday morning at his residence in Chennai. He was 79.

Last week, he was hospitalised after brief illness. His son and filmmaker John Mahendran shared the news on Twitter. He wrote, “Director Mahendran passed away this morning.”

Mahendran became a prolific screenplay writer before turning to direction. His first directorial Mullum Malarum (1978) was an instant hit that had impact beyond the box office. The film had Rajinikanth, Sarath Babu and Sobha in the lead roles. Later, Mahendran and Rajinikanth worked in films like Kaaliand Johnny. Many believe that Mahendran contributed significantly to the rise of Rajinikanth as the superstar we known him today.

India and Chile have agreed to work together to strengthen the global response to defeat and destroy terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. President Ram Nath Kovind who was on an official visit to Chile said this after a brief Tete-a-Tete with his Chilean counterpart. President said that both countries committed themselves to further strengthen the economic partnership.
  
India and Chile signed three MOUs for cooperation in the fields of mining, culture and Empowerment of persons with disabilities. The agreements would further enhance engagement in economic, social and cultural fields between the two countries. Chile is the sixth largest trading partner of India in the Latin American region. 

Later President participated in India-Chile Business Forum and interacted with young scientists at the University of Chile. Mr Kovind was on a three-day visit to Chile on the third leg of his three-nation tour including Croatia and Bolivia.
On his journey back home, the President will make a transit halt in South Africa, where he will pay tribute to the late former South African president Nelson Mandela and interact with the Indian community.