India and Chile exchange three MoUs for cooperation
President Ram Nath Kovind has concluded the his visit to Chile, the last leg of her three nation visit to Bolivia, Croatia and Chile.
He will be reaching New Delhi on Thursday after a transit visit to South Africa.
Earlier on Monday, the President discussed wide ranging issues of mutual interest with his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera as the two sides signed three MoUs in the fields of mining, culture and disability.
India offered training slots to Chilean armed forces in the premier defence institutions including for courses in mountain warfare and peacekeeping.
The two countries also agreed to explore opportunities for other cooperation in the defence sector.
The President welcomed Chile's decision to allow visa-free entry to Indian nationals holding a valid US visa, saying the step would promote both cultural and business ties between the two countries.
Yash Vardhan, Shreya Agrawal Win Three Gold Each As 12th Asian Airgun Championships Concludes
India ended the 12th Asian Airgun Championships 2019 in Taiyuan, Taipei, with an overall tally of 25 medals including 16 gold, five silver and four bronze to completely dominate the championships. Both established and the new budding faces in the squad performed equally admirably to win all but two gold medals on offer.
On the concluding day on Monday, Yash Vardhan in the 10m Air Rifle Men’s junior event and Shreya Agrawal in the women’s junior event won individual gold medals. They also won the team gold in the events with their respective partners to win three gold medals each at the championships. Yash and Shreya have earlier combined to win the Mixed Team Rifle junior event in the competition.
In the junior men’s 10m Air Rifle event, India made a clean sweep of all medals with Keval Prajpati and Aishwary Tomar following Yash’s finals effort of 249.5 with silver and bronze medals for themselves. Keval shot 247.3 in the finals while Aishwary ended with 226.1.
In the women’s event as well, Mehuli Ghosh added an individual bronze with a finals effort of 228.3. Shreya’s gold-winning 24-shots ended on an impressive 252.5.
Zuzana Caputova becomes Slovakia's first female president
Ms Caputova, who has almost no political experience, defeated high-profile diplomat Maros Sefcovic, nominated by the governing party, in a second round run-off vote on Saturday.
She framed the election as a struggle between good and evil.
The election follows the murder of an investigative journalist last year.
Jan Kuciak was looking into links between politicians and organised crime when he was shot at home alongside his fiancée in February 2018.
Vijay Chandok appointed as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities
ICICI Securities on Saturday appointed Vijay Chandok as an additional director and as a Managing Director and CEO of the company with effect from May 7, 2019.
"The board of directors of the company have approved the appointment of Vijay Chandok as an additional director and as a Managing Director and CEO of the company with effect from May 7, 2019 subject to the approval of the members at the ensuing annual general meeting of the company and other regulatory approvals," ICICI Securities said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Vijay Chandok, presently Executive Director of the ICICI Bank, has tendered his resignation from the board of the bank to take effect at the end of day on May 6, 2019.
A subsidiary of ICICI bank, the company said that Shilpa Kumar has tendered her resignation as the Managing Director and CEO and also a director of the company with effect from May 6, 2019.
She will be taking up a senior level position at ICICI Bank Limited, the company said.
Miami Open: Roger Federer lifts 101th career Title
Roger Federer has lifted his fourth title at the Miami Open with an emphatic 6-1, 6-4 win over defending champion USA's John Isner on Sunday.
The 37-year-old world number five took the first set in 24 minutes. In his 50th Masters final, the Swiss fourth seed produced some typically sublime groundstrokes and wrapped up the match in an hour and three minutes.
It is Swiss player's 28th Masters title and the 101st overall for a player who has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Federer is now behind only America's Jimmy Connors with 109 career singles titles.
President Kovind participates in community reception at Santiago
President Ram Nath Kovind participated in a community reception at Santiago, the capital of Chile last night. The event was organised by Indian community and Friends of India.
Addressing Members of the Indian Diaspora and Friends of India, President said that as the world around us is increasingly falling prey to negative forces of terrorism, of violence, of greed and intolerance, the universal messages of peace and tolerance preached by Guru Nanak Dev ji and Mahatma Gandhi are increasingly relevant.
Also relevant are the examples of constitutional democracies based on the rule of law, equality and fundamental freedoms, represented by both India and Chile, he said.
Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank to merge with Bank of Baroda today
Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will merge with Bank of Baroda (BoB) today to create the third-largest lender of the country.
The government-forced merger, announced in September last year, creates the third largest bank in the country after State Bank of India and HDFC Bank.
In a release, BoB chief PS Jayakumar said the new unified entity will work for the success of the amalgamation by effective execution of all the activities to build a stronger organisation and collectively deliver more to the stake holders than that of sum of individual entities.
All customers of Dena Bank, which is under prompt corrective action (PCA) framework of the RBI, will have renewed access to credit facilities immediately.
To make merger a smooth affair, the government last week decided to infuse 5,042 crore rupees in Bank of Baroda to enhance its capital base to meet additional expense.
ISRO's PSLV C45 places DRDO intelligence satellite EMISAT along with 28 nano satellites in orbit
ISRO's PSLV C45 lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Monday, carrying India's EMISAT satellite along with 28 nano satellites of global customers.
As the 27-hour countdown concluded, the nearly 50-metre tall rocket, a new variant of ISRO's trusted work horse PSLV-QL, blasted off from the second launch pad at the spaceport of Sriharikota at 9:27 am. The EMISAT satellite is aimed at electromagnetic measurement.
The mission would witness the ISRO placing payloads in three orbits and conducting space experiments for the first time. The mission marks several firsts to the credit of the space agency as it would manoeuvre satellites in various orbits and orbital experiments, including on maritime satellite applications.
GAIL, BHEL sign pact for development of solar power projects
State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd Friday said it has signed an agreement with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for cooperation in the development of solar power projects.
"GAIL shall be the project developer and BHEL shall act as an engineering, procurement, construction and project management contractor," the company said in a statement.
BHEL shall also provide operation and maintenance services during the initial period upon becoming successful bidder.
"This development will help both the companies to leverage their competitive strengths to build a substantial portfolio in solar power projects.
"The memorandum of understanding (signed Friday) aims at building a closer strategic partnership between the two Maharatna PSUs for jointly pursuing commercial solar power projects through participation in tariff / Viability Gap Funding (VGF) based competitive bidding process," it said.
GAIL is India's biggest natural gas company with diversified interests across the value chain of trading, transmission, LPG production and transmission, LNG re-gasification, petrochemicals and city gas.
India, US urge Pakistan to take action against terrorism
India and United States have jointly urged Pakistan to take meaningful, irreversible and verifiable action against terrorists and terror groups operating from its soil.
Indian and US officials met in Washington on Friday for the sixteenth meeting of the US-India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group and the second session of the US-India Designations Dialogue.
The Counter Terrorism Joint Working Group exchanged views on threats posed by international terrorist organisations as well as ongoing concerns over cross-border terrorism in the South Asia region.
A statement released by US state department said that both sides underlined the urgent need for Pakistan to take meaningful, irreversible, and verifiable action against terrorists and terrorist groups.
There was discussion of strengthening cooperation on information sharing and other steps to disrupt the ability of terrorists to travel, consistent with the important provisions and obligations outlined in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2396.