Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Award- 2019 in 23 languages yesterday.

In Hindi, Nand Kishore has been awarded for his Poetry ‘ Chheelate Hue Apne Ko’ and in English Dr Shashi Tharoor has been awarded for his Non-Fiction ‘An Era of Darkness’.

In Tamil, Cho Dharman has been awarded for his Novel ‘Sool’ and in Gujarati, Ratilal Borisagar has awarded for his Essays ‘Mojama Revu Re’.

In Sanskrit, Penna Madhusudan will get the award for his Poetry ‘Prajnachakshusham’ and in Urdu, Shafey Kidwai will be awarded for his Biography ‘Sawaneh-E-Sir Syed: Ek Bazdeed’.

India and the United States have agreed to deepen the bilateral cooperation and increase defence trade.

They also agreed to intensify their coordination with like-minded countries like Japan for a peaceful Indo-Pacific region and put up a decisive fight against terrorism.

The second 2 plus 2 India US ministerial dialogue in Washington chalked out a pathway to take the bilateral relationship between the two countries in 2020 to a new level.

A number of agreements ranging from greater interaction between elected representatives, Industrial Security Annex (ISA), for collaboration in space, science and water and people-to-people contact were signed.

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was successfully test-fired from a base in Odisha’s Chandipur on Tuesday, defence sources said.

The land-attack version of the missile was test-fired from a mobile autonomous launcher at Launch Complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here at around 8.30 am, they said.

The trial of the surface-to-surface missile was successful, meeting all the parameters, a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) source said.

The BrahMos missile is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, ships, fighter jets or land.

In Turkey, the last remaining historical artifact has been removed from the ancient southeastern town of Hasankeyf ahead of its submergence as part of a dam project. 

The main body of the 610-year-old Er-Rızk mosque was removed from the 12,000-year-old town in a four-hour operation and transported to a cultural park where the town's artefacts will be displayed.

The Ilisu Dam will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity, making it Turkey's fourth-largest dam in terms of energy production. But it has been criticised by activists who say the dam, once completely filled, will have displaced over 78,000 people from 199 surrounding villages.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the National Broadband Mission which aims to fast track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all

The government yesterday launched the National Broadband Mission which aims to fast track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all. The main objective of the NBM is to provide broadband access to all villages by 2022. The ambitious project will involve laying down around 30 Lakhs kilometre route Optical Fiber Cable, increase tower density from 0.42 to 1.0 tower per thousand of population by 2024 and significantly improve quality of services for mobile and internet. The mission envisages Rs 7 lakh crore investment in next 3 to 4 years.

While launching the mission, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that this mission will provide internet connectivity to 1 lakh villages which will push our economy to 5 trillion dollar milestone.

Laura Marsh, the most successful spinner in the history of England women's cricket, has announced her retirement from international duty after a 13-year career.

Marsh, 33, won the World Cup in 2009 and 2017, and was also in the squad that lifted the World Twenty20 in 2009.

She made her debut in 2006 as a seam bowler before changing to off-spin.

She took 217 wickets for England across all formats, and is their third-highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals.

"Laura has been a fantastic servant to English cricket and we're so grateful for everything she has contributed," said the England and Wales Cricket Board's director of women's cricket Clare Conor.

Veteran actor Shriram Lagoo passed away in Pune last night. The 92-year old actor died due to age-related ailments. Lagoo played important role in the growth of theatre movement in Maharashtra in the post-Independence era.

His roles in Marathi plays such as “Natsamrat” and “Himalayachi Saoli”, and films such as “Pinjra” made him popular. In Hindi, he essayed memorable roles in films such as “Ek Din Achanak”, “Gharonda” and “Lawaris”, to name a few.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has paid his tribute to all-time great artist Shreeram Lagoo. In a tweet, Mr Javadekar said, country has lost a versatile personality.

Government e-commerce portal GeM has launched a national outreach programme, GeM Samvaad, to bring on-board more local sellers. The outreach programme will take place with stakeholders across the country and with local sellers to facilitate on-boarding of local sellers on the marketplace.

The programme was launched by Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan in New Delhi yesterday.

 The programme will take place from tomorrow to 17th February next year and will cover all the States and Union Territories of the country.

Our Correspondent reports that GeM has more than 15 lakh products and around 20,000 services, more than 3 lakh registered sellers and service providers and more than 40 thousand government buyer organizations.

Yemen is ranked the worst (153rd), while Iraq is 152nd and Pakistan 151st

India has slipped four places to rank 112th globally in terms of gender gap amid widening disparity in terms of women’s health and survival and economic participation -- the two areas where the country is now ranked in the bottom-five, an annual survey showed on Tuesday.

While Iceland remains the world’s most gender-neutral country, India has moved down the ladder from its 108th position last year on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report to rank below countries like China (106th), Sri Lanka (102nd), Nepal (101st), Brazil (92nd), Indonesia (85th) and Bangladesh (50th).

Yemen is ranked the worst (153rd), while Iraq is 152nd and Pakistan 151st.

Nagaland Governor R N Ravi has been given additional charge of Meghalaya, a statement issued by the Rastrapati Bhavan said. "The President of India is pleased to appoint R N Ravi, Governor of Nagaland to discharge the functions of the Governor of Meghalaya, in addition to his own duties, during the absence on leave of Tathagata Roy, Governor of Meghalaya," it said, without citing further details. 
Ravi is also the Centre's interlocutor for talks with Naga insurgents.