Six Indian-origin students are among the eight participants who won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee after defeating over 550 other contestants in an unprecedented competition in the US.

It is the first time in the 94-year history of the competition that more than two co-champions have been named.

Rishik Gandhasri, Saketh Sundar,  Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali,  Rohan Raja, Christopher Serrao and Erin Howard were named as co-champions. Each will receive the full winner's prize of 50,000 US Dollar in cash.

The six boys and two girls combined to spell the final 47 words correctly over five consecutive perfect rounds.

The 565 contestants ranged in age from 7 to 14 and came from across the US and several other countries, including Canada, Ghana and Jamaica.  

Binny, India’s only orangutan, has died at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Odisha.

The 41-year-old primate’s death on Wednesday is being attributed to respiratory complications, The Indian Express reported.

She was undergoing treatment for infected wound on her throat since the last two years.

“Binny also had a wound on her pouch that would not heal because she was constantly scratching it,” veterinary assistant surgeon Dr Sarat Sahu, was quoted as saying.

Binny was brought from the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Pune to the zoo in 2003. “Prior to that, we think she was sourced from Singapore,” Express quoted Alok Das, Sanctuary Manager at the zoo, as saying.

A senior official from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) said Binny was already old and every effort was made to cure the infection, “including a teleconference with veterinarians from outside the country.”

The first meeting of the new Union Cabinet will be held this evening. The possible date of convening the Parliament session could be decided in the meeting. The newly-elected Lok Sabha members have to be administered the oath during the ensuing session.

In the coming days, the Prime Minister would also decide on the various Cabinet Committees such as Cabinet Committee on Security, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.

The country's median GDP is forecast at 7.1 per cent for FY20 and 7.2 per cent for FY 21.

The industry body FICCI's economic outlook survey said that the minimum and maximum growth estimate stood at 6.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent, for 2019-20.

The survey was conducted in May 2019 among economists belonging to the industry, banking and financial services sectors.

Inflation is expected to remain moderate and the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate is projected at 3.1 per cent in 2019-20, While, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation has a median forecast of 4 per cent for 2019-20.

National Democratic Alliance leader Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second consecutive term yesterday. 

President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of Office and Secrecy to him and a team of 57 ministers at a glittering ceremony on the forecourts of the Rashtrapati Bhawan just before sunset. 

Besides 24 Cabinet ministers including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal, nine were sworn in as Minister of State with Independent charge and another 24 as Minister of State.

One-third of the total ministers in the Cabinet are first-timers,  including BJP president Amit Shah and former Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Two former Chief Ministers - Ramesh Pokhriyal from Uttarakhand and Arjun Munda from Jharkhand - have taken oath as Union ministers for the first time. 

This will be the first innings for six Cabinet ministers and 13 Ministers of State. BJP's Prahlad Joshi and Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant will also become Union ministers for the first time. 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a six-member committee on the Development of Secondary Market for Corporate Loans to come up with recommendations to increase the efficiencies of the debt market and aid in the resolution of stressed assets.

As per its terms of reference, the committee, headed by TN Mahoharan, Chairman, Canara Bank, will make recommendations on required policy/regulatory interventions for facilitating the development of secondary market in corporate loans, including loan transaction platform for stressed assets.

It will create a loan contract registry to remove information asymmetries between buyers and sellers, its ownership structure and related protocols, such as standardisation of loan information, independent validation, and data access.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will begin today. England will open the tournament at The Oval in London when they will take on South Africa. The match will begin at 3 PM Indian Time. 

Australia will launch their title defence on June 1 against the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier champions Afghanistan in a day/night match in Bristol. 

India, the 1983 and 2011 world champions, will play their first match on June 5 against South Africa at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton. 

Their feature match against arch-rivals Pakistan will be on June 16 at Old Trafford in Manchester. 

The World Cup will span 48 matches in all, of which 45 will make up the group stage. Each team will play nine group stage matches, and the top four will progress to the semifinals, similar to how the 1992 World Cup was held.

YSR Congress party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken oath as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh today.

Governor ESL Narasimhan administered him the oath of office and secrecy at Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium in Vijayawada. Mr Reddy is the second Chief Minister of the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh.

In the presence of a large number of his followers who came there to witness his swearing-in-ceremony, Jagan Mohan Reddy has put his first signature on the file hiking social security pensions from next month.

In his maiden address as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, he announced that he would create one lakh  60,000 jobs by October this year and fill up 4 lakh gram volunteers from August 15th. Jagan assured that he would implement Navaratnalu - a total of nine promises  - a key aspect in his election manifesto in letter and spirit. Earlier, as soon as Jagan rose to take oath as second chief minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, the joy of his followers and YSR congress workers knew no bounds.

NDA leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take the oath of Office and Secrecy along with a new Council of Ministers for his second consecutive term at a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening.

The function will be attended by Governors, Chief Ministers, Opposition leaders, corporate heads, film stars, a galaxy of leaders from BIMSTEC countries and foreign envoys.

Meanwhile, President of Myanmar U Win Myint and President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena have already reached Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Over 6,000 guests are expected to attend the ceremony beginning at 7 PM at the forecourt of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of Office and Secrecy to the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers.

US-based retail chain Walmart Tuesday said it has appointed Suresh Kumar, an IIT Madras graduate and former Google executive, as chief technology officer and chief development officer. He will directly report to President and Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon, Walmar said in a statement.

The appointment comes at a time when Walmart is transforming its customer and associate experiences. He brings over 25 years of technology leadership experience coming from Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM, it said. "The technology of today and tomorrow enables us to serve our customers and associates in ways that weren't previously possible. We want to take full advantage of those opportunities," McMillon said.