The government has effected changes in the Committees of Union Cabinet and included Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in most of the Committees. On Wednesday, the government had reconstituted eight Cabinet Committees. These are, Appointments Committee, Cabinet Committees on Accommodation, Economic Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Security, Investment and Growth and Employment and Skill Development.
 
According to a release issued by Cabinet Secretariat, Rajnath Singh's name has been included in four more committees which are Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Investment and Growth and Employment and Skill development. Earlier, Mr Singh was the part of only two Committees-Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Security. 

Sunil Chhetri became the most capped India player today by surpassing Bhaichung Bhutia's 107 international matches. 

In his milestone match of the King's Cup football tournament in Buriram, Thailand, he scored the lone goal for his side in the 31st minute from a spot kick for his 69th goal. His effort, however, did not make any difference as India, ranked 101, lost 1-3 to higher ranked Curacao. 

The 82nd ranked Caribbean island nation has two players associated with English Premier League and some others in European leagues. They scored three goals in the space of 18 minutes through Roly Bonevacia, Elson Hooi and Leandro Bacuna. 

The Government has reconstituted eight Cabinet Committees. These are Appointments Committee, Committees on Accommodation, Economic Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Security, Investment and Growth and Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development.

Cabinet Secretariat said in a press release that the Cabinet Committee on Security will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar.

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has Prime Minister Modi and Mr Shah. While Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth will have the Prime Minister and Ministers of Home, Road Transport and Highways, Finance and Corporate Affairs and Railways and Commerce and Industry. 

In the ICC Cricket World Cup, India began its campaign with a victory. Men in blue defeated South Africa by 6 wickets in their opening match at Southampton in England last night. 

India achieved the target of 228 runs, with 15 balls to spare. Opener Rohit Sharma hit a blistering unbeaten 122 while Mahendra Singh Dhoni contributed important 34 runs. Rohit was adjudged man of the match.

Earlier, electing to bat first, South Africa were restricted at the score of 227 runs for 9 wickets in stipulated 50 overs as Indian Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal grabbed four wickets. For Proteas, Chris Morris was the highest scorer at 42.

In Russia, the first tourist train traveling through Russia's Arctic region and on to Norway, set off from St. Petersburg station yesterday with 91 passengers aboard for the inaugural trial journey. 

The tourists came from seven countries including the US, Germany, Norway and Russia.

The train, named, Zarengold, complete with two restaurant cars will travel from Saint Petersburg through according to the organisers, the whole trip will take 11 days and allow passengers to discover areas difficult to access by other means.

The Swachh Bharat initiative of the government has led to reduced ground water contamination. A study by the UNICEF said the substantial reductions may potentially be attributed to the improvement in sanitation and hygiene practices. 

It said, supportive systems such as regular monitoring and behaviour change messaging, which have all been critical aspects of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), also helped reduce ground water contamination.

While another study by Gates Foundation said that Swachh Bharat leverages 23 thousand crore rupees for behaviour change.

These studies were aimed at assessing the environmental impact and communication footprint of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).

Reserve Bank of India will announce its second bi-monthly monetary policy for current fiscal year in Mumbai this morning. 

The three day meeting of the monetary policy committee (MPC) began on Tuesday amid expectations of a third straight rate cut of 25 basis points. 

The key lending rate or the repo rate currently stands at 6 percent. AIR reports correspondent that it is believed that RBI has enough room to cut rates further as inflation has remained below the RBI's medium-term goal at 4 per cent. 

The CPI inflation for April 2019 stood at 2.92 percent. 

The rate cut is also likely to revive the economy that is going through a slowdown. 

The only constraining factor for the apex bank could be the unwillingness of banks to pass on the rate cut benefits to customers.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has urged the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal to join Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. 

In a letter written to the CMs, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, 32 states and Union Territories have accepted the scheme running successfully in providing financial protection to crores of people. The Health Minister made it clear that financial resources will be made available to the States with adequate flexibility in the spirit of cooperative federalism.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also spoke with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. Dr Harsh Vardhan said, he will also speak to Chief Minister of Telangana K. Chandrashekar Rao. He said, it is important that the benefits of the visionary scheme like Ayushman Bharat should reach all deprived and vulnerable people in the country. 

Under the health protection scheme, over 10.7 crore families from poor and vulnerable section will get the health cover of five lakh rupees annually for treatment.

The Centre, the Tamil Nadu Government(GoTN) and the World Bank have signed a $287-million loan agreement for the Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme (TNHSRP).

TNHSRP aims to improve the quality of healthcare, reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and fill equity gaps in reproductive and child health services in the State, according to an official statement.

Despite impressive gains made by the State pertaining to maternal mortality rate, certain challenges in healthcare remain, including quality of care and variations in reproductive and child health among districts.

Tamil Nadu is also dealing with a growing burden of NCDs as they account for nearly 69 per cent of deaths in the State.

“Tamil Nadu can serve as a model for how to take health system performance to the next level by investing in the public sector and offer lessons to other States. We are happy that the World Bank is helping the state in this journey,” said Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday said it has joined hands with BMW to develop next generation electric drive systems.

The collaboration seeks to advance development of electrification technology to support transition autonomous, connected, electric, shared (ACES) future, Jaguar Land Rover said in a statement. The two partners will invest jointly in research and development, engineering and procurement with an aim to provide the necessary economies of scale to support increased consumer adoption of electric vehicles, it added. The strategic collaboration will build on the considerable knowledge and expertise in electrification at both the companies.

“We’ve proven we can build world beating electric cars but now we need to scale the technology to support the next generation of Jaguar and Land Rover products. “It was clear from discussions with BMW Group that both companies’ requirements for next generation EDUs (electric drive units) to support this transition have significant overlap making for a mutually beneficial collaboration,” JLR Engineering Director Nick Rogers said. JLR’s has already demonstrated its capability field through its premium battery electric SUV Jaguar I-PACE, as well as plug-in hybrid models.