The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would attend the swearing-in ceremony of Maldives President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on November 17, signalling New Delhi’s attempt to reset ties with Male. This will be Modi’s first visit to the Maldives after assuming office. In March 2015, his visit was cancelled owing to the volatile political situation in that country.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted Maldives President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s invitation to attend the swearing-in ceremony on November 17,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. PM’s official advance teams have already reached Male to begin preparations for his visit. The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to take place at the national stadium in Male.

Less than four hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8, 2016, the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave its approval to the scheme but also rejected, in writing, two of the key justifications — black money and counterfeit notes — that he would make in his televised address to the nation.

The minutes of the 561st meeting of the RBI’s Central Board, which was convened hurriedly in New Delhi at 5.30 pm that day, reveal that the central bank’s directors described the move as “commendable” but also warned that demonetisation “will have a short-term negative effect on the GDP for the current year”.

Sugar stocks got a boost and rose up to 7% on Friday following the government’s recent announcement that India is planning to export 2 million tonnes of sugar to China from early 2019. With this step, India will resume exporting raw sugar to China after a decade. Shares of domestic sugar manufacturing companies like Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd, Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd, Shakthi Sugars, Ugar Sugar Works Ltd, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Mawana Sugars and E.I.D-Parry (India) Ltd, among others, posted gains in the range of 3-7% following the report.

E.I.D-Parry (India) Ltd rallied higher by nearly 7% to a high of Rs 239 per share on the BSE today, while Sakthi Sugars share price rose by 4.8% to an intra-day high of Rs 14.45 per share. Dwarikesh Sugar Industries shares edged higher by 4.5%, Balrampur Chini Mills stock by 5.3%, Mawana Sugars by 4.09% and Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd by 5.83%. Ugar Sugar Works Ltd posted the biggest intraday gain in a month, up 5% intra-day.

Their run to the World Cup final last year brought them to the limelight, but the Indian women’s cricket team has been largely relegated to the background since then. A good performance at the ICC World T20 would point to the good work being continued and prove that the side can be counted among the top three or four in the world.

The shortest format has not been too kind to the Indian team — they have made the semifinals twice in five editions, with the last three events only bringing group-stage exits. But the tournament starting in the Caribbean on Friday could well be different. The portents are encouraging, as Harmanpreet Kaur’s team got the better of 50-over world champions England and holders West Indies in warm-up games.

It is the first big test for head coach Ramesh Powar, who was put in charge after something of a player revolt got rid of Tushar Arothe. It will be the first major tournament for India since pace spearhead Jhulan Goswami quit the T20 scene. The other veteran of Indian women’s cricket, Mithali Raj, is still going strong and it will be up to her, along with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana to give the batting the required ballast. Taniya Bhatia is another batswoman who can make a mark. Jemima Rodrigues and Veda Krishnamurthy are other mainstays in the line-up, but in the absence of an experienced seam attack, Harmanpreet, true to the Indian tradition, will bank on her spin options. Ekta Bisht, Anuja Patil and Poonam Yadav would be assigned the responsibility on controlling opposition batsmen.

Two years after demonetisation of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in November 2016, retail digital payments have soared with a total of 16.7 billion cashless transactions in 2017-18 up 127 per cent from 7.33 billion in 2015-16. The total value of such transactions in 2017-18 stood at Rs 299.3 lakh crore up 64.64 per cent from Rs 181.7 lakh crore in 2015-16.

Retail digital transactions include paper clearing or cheques, retail electronic clearing such as NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer), IMPS (Immediate Payment Service), card transactions that happen at point of sale (POS) including online transactions, pre-paid instruments (PPIs) and mobile banking.

According to data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monthly bulletins, the volume of mobile banking transactions have grown by 380 per cent to 1.87 billion in 2017-18 from 389.49 million in 2015-16. The value of these transaction too have grown from Rs 4 lakh crore to Rs 14.7lakh crore in 2017-18. The data on mobile banking transactions include Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. UPI is the payment platform of National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) — promoted by RBI .

The Ekana International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow was renamed as the "Bharat Ratan Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium" on Monday ahead of hosting its first-ever international match.

The India-West Indies T20I that will be hosted at the venue will be the first game the stadium will host under the new name as well as overall.

It was renamed as a token of acknowledgement towards the late Vajpayee, who represented Lucknow in the parliament.

The game has already generated a lot of interest among the locals and it is expected to be a full house on Tuesday.

UP Governor Ram Naik approved the government proposal to this effort after orders were issued for the change of name by Principal Secretary (Housing) Nitin Ramesh Gokaran late on Monday.

After the intervention of a Delhi court, counterfeit products of Puma — a multinational company that manufactures footwear, apparel and accessories — worth Rs 20 lakh were identified and sealed in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, on November 3. The matter came to fore after counsel for Puma, Shashi P Ojha, approached the court seeking ex-parte injunction and ex-parte appointment of local commissioner on account of “infringement of trademark”.

On October 29, Ojha approached court and said that if the relief is not granted, the company will “suffer irreparable loss and injury” as the defendant was selling goods using the company’s trademark. “Thus causing substantial loss to the business of the plaintiff, Puma…” the lawyer submitted.

After listening to the submission, Additional District Judge Anil Antil said: “The plaintiff has been successful in making out a good prima facie case in its favour for grant of ex-parte injunction and for ex-parte appointment of local commissioner. Accordingly, the defendant is hereby restrained from manufacturing, supplying, selling and offering for sale counterfeit goods, including shoes/slipper other accessories….under trademark Puma logo…or any identical deceptively similar trademark/logo.”

India pledged contributions of $13.36 million for the various UN agencies and development activities, emphasising that the world organisation should have the necessary resources to finance its activities in a balanced manner.

During the 2018 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities Monday, First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Mahesh Kumar said India has been a regular contributor to the UN since its founding and believes that the UN should have the necessary resources to finance its activities, in an appropriate and balanced manner.

India’s pledged contributions include $4.5 million to the UN Development Programme, five million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Near East, $1.92 million to the World Food Programme.

$790,000 to United Nations Children’s Fund, $500,000 to UN Population Fund, $150,000 to UN Commission on Human Settlements Programme and $100,000 each to UN Voluntary contribution for Financial and Technical Assistance for the implementation of Universal Periodic Review, UN Environment Programme and UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

As bobbing heads popped out of sunroofs of cars whizzing past Signature Bridge, which opened to the public on Monday after a long wait, Jitender Jha (50) cycled with his five-year-old grandson Basu across its length and breadth. While Basu marvelled at the cable-stayed structure, Jha, a construction worker from Khajuri Khas, said, “I’ve never seen anything like this before. I wanted my grandson to see it on the first day. Maybe now he will understand a little about what I do.”

From two septuagenarians who saw the bridge being built from scratch to a family that showed up after a political scuffle made news a day earlier, day one saw the bridge turn into a tourist spot. Many rushed to take selfies against the view of the Yamuna on both sides and the under-construction viewing gallery, which is at least 40 storeys high.

“I reviewed the bridge personally at 10.30 am and 4.45 pm… traffic was running smoothly on the Signature Bridge as well as the Wazirabad Bridge which is usually very congested,” said Shurbir Singh, managing director of Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC).

Ravi Sharma (29), a Karawal Nagar-based businessman, was accompanied by a friend — on a video call. “We’ve been waiting for this bridge to open for eight years now. To go anywhere, I would take the Wazirabad Bridge which would mean losing at least an hour to the traffic,” he said.

Even as the bridge was inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday, work on the viewing gallery is pending. “We hope to complete it by March 2019. The gallery will be able to accommodate 20-25 people in one go. This week, the bridge is open 24×7. After that, it will be shut from 11 pm to 5 am to complete the work,” said Singh.

The DTTDC is also working on a plan to introduce eating joints in the vicinity. “If that is approved, then washrooms will come up too,” said Singh.

On the name of the bridge, Singh said that from the day it was conceptualised, it was called Signature, “maybe because it’s a unique feature of Delhi”

AS a child, Adil Diwecha (57) would use the red packaging cartons of a popular toothpaste brand to fashion models of suburban trains. Then when he received pocket money for the first time, he rushed to Chor Bazaar to get spare parts of engines to make a train model.

An electrician, Andheri resident Adil said he has been fascinated with the railways since childhood. “I was not good at studies and I could not dare to take an entrance exam to get a railway job. I have always thought of myself as a creative person and so, I tried to make as many railway models as I could,” he says.

Adil is one of many railway lovers in Mumbai who make paper and electric models of trains and tracks. Over the past 40 years, he has also created models of many railway stations, signalling systems and overhead wires, to give his models a realistic feel. His trains run manually.

On Monday, he along with two other train modelists, presented their creations at the Churchgate station on Western Railway as part of the railway’s celebrations, as it turns 67 years on November 5.

“My mother encouraged me to make these models and the presentation. I would not spend the little money I earned by eating or hanging out with friends. I would go to Chor Bazaar where I would get the train engine spare parts. I enjoy making coaches of suburban trains,” says Adil.

He has made models of more than 250 coaches of trains, including the Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Mahamana Express and the recently introduced AC local trains on the Mumbai suburban section. He has also made more than 60 models of steam engines and diesel engines as display pieces.

He says, “I do not even remember the number of wagon models I have created. I have presented my models at many stations in Mumbai, including Andheri and Churchgate. I have also made train models to be displayed at Delhi and Gujarat. The working of trains is pure engineering, which I cherish.” He adds that his dream is to do a stint in the motorman’s cabin once. “I want to drive an entire train all by myself.”