Kolkata: Indian and Japanese air forces will be carrying out a joint military exercise Shinyuu Maitri between October 17-23. The exercise will be held at Air Force Station Arjan Singh in Panagarh, West Bengal. 

The seven-day exercise will witness the participation of C-130J aircraft of the Indian Air Force aircraft as well as C-130H of the Tactical airlift squadron of Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF). The exercise will focus on joint mobility and tactical interoperability between the two forces. 

According to news reports citing Eastern Air Command sources, the exercise will set the stage for an army exercise between the two countries. Shortly after the conclusion of Shinyuu Maitri, another exercise — Dharma Guardian 2019 will be conducted at the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram's Vairengte between October 19- November 2.

It may be noted that Dharma Guardian is an annual training exercise conducted in India since 2018. According to the Indian Army's Eastern Command, the exercise with Japan is crucial in light of the global challenge of terrorism. The exercise will involve platoon-level training on counter-terrorism (CT) operations in jungle scenario.

Global body World Steel Association (worldsteel) on October 16 said it has elected JSW Steel Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Sajjan Jindal as its vice chairman.

The association has also appointed Tata Steel CEO and MD T V Narendran and ArcelorMittal Chief L N Mittal as its members.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel yesterday inaugurated Shirui Lily Festival, 2019 at Shirui Vangayan Ground of Ukhrul in Manipur. Mr Patel along with State Chief Minister N. Biren Singh inaugurated the Strength of Unity Statue as a mark of opening the third edition of the four-day state festival.  

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Patel said, such cultural events reflect the beauty and treasure of our culture. He said that joint efforts of the State Government and Central Government can only promote tourism and culture of a region to the level of people’s expectation. 

Mastercard, along with cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on Wednesday announced the launch of a nationwide initiative to accelerate the acceptance and adoption of digital payments.

Titled ‘Team Cashless India’, the initiative brings consumers and merchants to the forefront of the digital payments dialogue. The campaign encourages all Indians to nominate one or more merchants who currently do not accept digital payments. Mastercard will work together with Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), acquirer banks and fintech companies to support nominated merchants to deploy digital payments acceptance infrastructure.

New Delhi: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday flagged off nine trains connecting small towns to major cities and said one of those, the Vadnagar-Mehsana train, was the railways' gift to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sold tea at the Vadnagar station during his younger days.

Goyal said the nine "Sewa Service" trains were launched without any additional investment by the railways and it was an example of how to use existing resources to the maximum.

"Without spending anything, without investing, we have started these nine trains from the available resources.... Among these trains, there is one that goes from Vadnagar to Mehsana. A tea seller at the Vadnagar station has become the prime minister of the country and by connecting Vadnagar with Mehsana, the railways has given a gift to the prime minister today," he said.

Of the nine "Sewa Service" trains, those between Delhi and Shamli, Bhubaneswar and Nayagarh town, Murkongselek and Dibrugarh and Coimbatore and Palani will run daily.

The other trains — from Vadnagar to Mehsana, Asarya to Himmatnagar, Karur to Salem, Yesvantpur to Tumkur and Coimbatore to Pollachi — will run six days a week.

The flagging off of the Kota-Jhalawar City "Sewa Service" train has been postponed.

"There has been a demand from people that trains should reach smaller cities and for this, we have the Sewa Service trains concept," Goyal said.

Barcelona captain Leo Messi received his sixth Golden Shoe as the top scorer in the European leagues on Wednesday.

Messi won the trophy for a third straight year after scoring 36 goals, three more than his closest challenger, Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain.

Messi’s sons Thiago and Mateo, presented their father with the trophy supervised by his wife, Antonella Rocuzzo and watched by team-mates, including Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba.

Messi dedicated the award “to my family, to my colleagues who are here. There are Luis and Jordi, who are two of the men to blame for this award.”

“Without my team, I could not even have won the award once.” Messi now has two more Golden Shoes than his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo. Luis Suarez is one of nine players on two. The award was created in 1967 when it was won by Eusebio.

New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said India's longest Chenani-Nashri tunnel that links Kashmir with Jammu will be rechristened after Bhartiya Jansangh founder Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017 had dedicated to the nation this 9.2 km long tunnel that reduces the distance between Jammu and Srinagar by 31 km.

Terming the decision historic, the road transport and highways minister Gadkari said this will be a humble homage to the Jansangh founder given his battle for Kashmir's integration to the nation.

"Historic! Chenani- Nashri Tunnel on NH 44, in Jammu and Kashmir to be named after Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. This is our humble homage to Shyama Prasad Ji whose battle for Kashmir, One Nation One Flag has immensely contributed in national integration," Gadkari said in a tweet.

The decision comes over two months after abrogation of the provisions of Article 370. President Ram Nath Kovind on August 7 had declared abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution after both houses of Parliament had passed a resolution in this regard.

Mumbai opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed his way into record books on Wednesday. At 17 years and 292 days, Yashasvi Jaiswal became the youngest in the world to score a double hundred in 50-overs cricket including List A and ODIs. He broke the record by almost 3 years in the Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Jharkhand. The youngest before Yashasvi was Alan Barrow, who scored a double ton at age of 20 years, 273 days in South Africa’s domestic cricket way back in 1975.

Yashavi scored 203 off 154 balls which included 12 sixes and 17 fours. The left-hander’s blistering innings propelled Mumbai to 358 for 3 batting first against Jharkhand at Alur, Bengaluru in a Vijay Hazare trophy Elite Group A match.

On October 17, 1987, thousands of people congregated at the Trocadero in Paris, where in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. Those gathered, proclaimed that poverty is a violation of human rights and confirmed that people need to come together to ensure these rights are honoured. These rights were inscribed in a commemorative stone unveiled that day by Father Joseph Wresinski, founder of the International Movement ATD Fourth World. Since then, people have gathered on October 17 every year to renew their commitment to the poor, a day which has come to be known as International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The General Assembly declared October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, through resolution 47/196 adopted on December 22, 1992.

Islamabad: In a major development, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Tuesday decided "in principle" that Pakistan will remain on its grey list till February 2020 and directed the country to take "extra measures" for the "complete elimination" of terror financing and money laundering.

The meeting of the international watchdog reviewed the measures taken by Pakistan to control money laundering and terror financing, and observed that Islamabad will have to take further steps on the two parameters in these four months, reported Dawn.

The formal announcement of these decisions will be made on 18 October.