More than half the world’s population is active on the internet, with India accounting for about 12% of them, retaining its second position, an annual report on internet trends by venture capitalist Mary Meeker said on Tuesday.

China has the largest base, accounting for 21% of all internet users globally, and the US comes third at 8%.

The number of people active online in 2018 was approximately 3.8 billion, or 51% of the world’s population. That compares with the previous year’s 3.6 billion people, or 49% of the world’s population.

The growth in internet users in India was driven by cut-price data plans introduced by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and cheaper smartphones, the report said.

Jawaharlal Nehru University on June 12 said it would confer its Distinguished Alumni Award to Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

The award will be presented at JNU’s third convocation to be held in August.

“The Executive Council of the JNU approved a proposal to bestow the award on Finance Minister Ms. Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Mr. Jaishankar, during the third convocation of the university to be held in August this year,” Registrar Pramod Kumar said in a statement.

“Their highly distinguished career and achievements have made the university very proud and they are a great source of inspiration for JNU students and researchers. They will be the first recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award,” Mr. Kumar added.

In Gujarat, cyclone Vayu is likely to hit the Veraval coast by today afternoon with a wind speed of 155-165 kmph.

The state government along with security agencies have geared up to reduce the damage of cyclone. So far, 2 lakh 75 thousand people have been shifted to safer places. Meanwhile, many parts in Saurashtra and south Gujarat witnessed rainfall in the morning ahead of the landfall of the Cyclone.

AIR correspondent reported that Chief Minister Vijay Rupani visited the Gandhinagar control room yesterday midnight and held a meeting with district collectors of Saurashtra and Kutch through Video Conference.

He asked the officials to ensure 100 per cent evacuation of people and cattle living up to 10 kilometres from the sea shore.

Union Cabinet has approved the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill 2019 to replace Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019.

This will enable UIDAI to have a more robust mechanism to serve the public interest and restrain the misuse of Aadhar. After the amendment, no individual will be compelled to provide proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo authentication for the purpose of establishing his identity unless it is so provided by a law made by Parliament.

For the convenience of the general public in the opening of bank accounts, the proposed amendments will allow the use of Aadhaar number for authentication on a voluntary basis as an acceptable KYC document. The Bill will be introduced in the ensuing session of Parliament.

Giving a major push to reforms in the education sector, Cabinet has approved the introduction of Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Bill 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan this morning to attend the meeting of Council of Heads of States of Shanghai Cooperation Organization -SCO.

Presidents and Prime Ministers of 8 member countries will participate in this multilateral international forum which will also be attended by 4 head of states as observers.

The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc.  In July 2015 in Ufa, Russia, the SCO decided to admit India and Pakistan as full members and both the countries officially joined SCO as full members during the Astana Summit in 2017.

Important issues including global security situation, multilateral economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and topical issues of international and regional importance will be discussed during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit.

British consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser named PepsiCo executive Laxman Narasimhan as its Chief Executive Officer on Wednesday. Narasimhan was serving as PepsiCo's global Chief Commercial Officer. He will be join the company as CEO-deignate and will be appointed to the board on July 16.

The company said in a statement that he will become group CEO on September 1.

Reckitt Benckiser said in the statement that Narasimhan's initial priorities will be to focus on delivering outperformance, especially in the health business unit, and to drive the Lysol maker's plan to split the firm into two business units under the same company.

The Reserve Bank has constituted a high-level committee under IBA Chief Executive V G Kannan to examine ATM charges and fees by banks amid demands for reviewing the levies. The use of automated teller machines (ATMs) has been growing significantly and there have been persistent demands to change ATM charges and fees.

The six-member panel will review the existing structures and patterns of costs, charges and interchange fees for ATM transactions, the RBI said June 11.

The committee will also review the overall patterns of usage of ATMs by cardholders and assess the impact, if any, on charges and interchange fees.

The government will provide scholarships to five crore minority students in the next five years to ensure their socio-economic-educational empowerment. The scholarships include pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means. 

Of the five crore students, 50  per cent will be girls students. Union Minister for Minority Affairs  Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said this while chairing the Governing and  General Body meetings of Maulana Azad Education Foundation in New Delhi yesterday. 

He said the NDA government is committed to inclusive growth with trust. 

The Minister also announced that Padho-Badho Awareness Campaign will be launched across the country. The campaign will be launched in 60 minority concentrated districts during the first phase. 

Nripendra Misra and PK Mishra were on Tuesday re-appointed as Principal Secretary and Additional Principal Secretary, respectively, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with cabinet minister rank.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved both the appointments with effect from May 31, according to orders issued by the Personnel Ministry.

During the term of their office, they will be assigned the rank of Cabinet minister, the ministry said.

Nripendra Misra was on May 28, 2014 appointed the Principal Secretary to Modi. He is a 1967-batch retired IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Nripendra Misra, who has served in various capacities in the government, retired as the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2009.

The Jnanpith award for the year 2018 will be given to the noted English writer Amitav Ghosh. Former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi will present the award to him at a function in New Delhi today. The award is given for outstanding contribution in literature.