India's most ambitious deep-space mission to date, Chandrayaan 2, recently completed the most complex and challenging manoeuvres in its journey to the Moon. The mission successfully entered the Moon's orbit and then received congratulatory messages not only from the scientific community but Prime Minister Modi himself. 

And now, en-route to the Moon, Chandrayaan 2 has sent back its first images of Earth's closest lunar object. As Chandrayaan 2 inches closer to the Moon with ISRO finally inserting it in the lunar orbit with the help of liquid engine boosters, expect more such images in the coming days. 

Earlier, Chandrayaan 2 released the first set of images of the Earth captured by Chandrayaan 2 Vikram Lander. The images were released on August 4.

With the insertion into the Moon's orbit using liquid engine boosters, Chandrayaan 2 has finally inched closer to its eventual goal. The information of the insertion was first shared with the world by the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, K Sivan, who announced that the space agency had "crossed a major milestone" and is now on track for successful completion. 

Ajay Kumar Bhalla, currently serving as an officer on special duty in the home ministry, was appointed as the new Union home secretary on Thursday, an official order said.

The Appointments Committee of the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved Bhalla's appointment as the new home secretary. He replaces Rajiv Gauba, who was appointed as the new cabinet secretary on Wednesday.

Bhalla, a 1984-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer, served as the Union power secretary, before being appointed as an officer on special duty on July 24. He will have a fixed two-year tenure till August 2021 as the home secretary.

Russia on Thursday launched an unmanned rocket carrying a life-size humanoid robot that will spend 10 days learning to assist astronauts on the International Space Station.

Named Fedor, short for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, the robot is the first ever sent up by Russia.

Fedor blasted off in a Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft at 6:38 am Moscow time (0338 GMT) from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is set to dock with the space station on Saturday and stay till September 7.

The government has appointed Ajay Kumar as Defence Secretary. Ajay Kumar, is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre and is currently serving as Secretary, Department of Defence Production. 

He will succeed Sanjay Mitra, upon completion of his term. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the appointments yesterday.

Brij Kumar Agarwal has been appointed as Secretary to the Lokpal and Subash Chandra as Secretary of Department of Defence Production. 

Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel will today launch the book - the Diary of Manu Gandhi at a function in New Delhi. 
The book has been brought out by National Archives of India, on the occasion of 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in collaboration with Oxford University Press. The first volume covers the period 1943-1944. 
An official release said, the Diary of Manu Gandhi originally in Gujarati has been edited and translated by Dr Tridip Suhrud, a well known scholar engaged in understanding the Gandhian Intellectual tradition. Manu Gandhi (Mridula) was a grand niece of Mahatma Gandhi, and stayed with Gandhiji till his assassination. She was an aide to Kasturba Gandhi during her imprisonment in the Aga Khan Palace in 1943.

The Modi government on Wednesday appointed outgoing Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba as Cabinet Secretary for two years. His tenure will be effective from August 30, 2019, as per the official order.

The order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training has stated that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had also approved his appointment as Officer on Special Duty in the Cabinet Secretariat with immediate effect till he takes over as Cabinet Secretary from August 30.

A 1982 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, Mr. Gauba will replace P.K. Sinha, who was appointed Cabinet Secretary in 2015 who continues since then, getting several extensions beyond his two-year tenure.

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and former India football captain Baichung Bhutia flagged off the Delhi leg of Op-Blue Freedom yesterday. This is an initiative in which a group of armed forces veterans train sports enthusiasts in survival training and self-defence. Op-Blue Freedom is a nation-wide adaptive scuba diving programme for people with disabilities as well as the able bodied. 

After the success of the Chandigarh leg, the group of eight veterans, including from the elite special forces of PARA regiment and MARCO, dived yesterday at SPM Swimming Pool Complex in Delhi.

The dive sessions for civilians will be kept open from August 22-25, from 9 am-5pm, for the civilians. The program aims to train adventure enthusiasts in special forces skills like survival techniques, emergency first response skills, unarmed combat, endurance and fitness.

B.N.S. Reddy, a former Additional Commissioner of Police and a current member of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit, beat Bruce Barrios of the U.S. 7-6, 6-3 in the men’s singles final to win the gold medal at the World Police and Fire Games in Chengdu, China, recently.

In doubles, Reddy had to be content with silver as he and Surinder Mohan Sharma lost to the pair of Sabandon Eduardo (Phi) and Helminen Risto (Fin) 5-7, 6-4, [10-7] in the final.

This is the third consecutive time Reddy has won a gold medal at the World Police and Fire Games.

With an aim to cater to the busy route between Visakhapatnam and Vijaywada route, a special double decker train will soon become operational. Railways'second double-decker Uday Express will run between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, news agency Press Trust of India reported. But the date of operation of the train has not been decided yet. The first Uday Express was a specially-designed air-conditioned chair car which started service between Coimbatore and Bangalore in June 2018. The trains are primarily allocated to routes with heavy passenger traffic.

Here are the features, timing, schedule and stoppages of Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada double-decker Uday Express

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior BJP leader Babulal Gaur passed away on Wednesday morning at a private hospital here after prolonged illness.

Gaur (89) passed away due to cardiac arrest, Narmada Hospital Director, Dr Rajesh Sharma, told PTI. He was suffering from various old-age related ailments and was hospitalised for quite some time.

The veteran BJP leader served as Madhya Pradesh chief minister from 2004-2005 and represented his traditional Govindpura Vidhan Sabha seat 10 times.