Metro services resumed this morning in different cities across the country after a gap of more than five months. These cities are Delhi, Lucknow, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Durga Shankar Mishra said that passengers will have to follow preventive measures against COVID-19 by maintaining social distance and wearing face masks.

In the first stage, Delhi Metro will operate in two shifts 7 AM to 11 AM and 4 PM to 8 PM. Normal operations will start from the 12th of this month. Metro Stations and entry-exit gates in containment zones will be closed. Only asymptomatic persons will be allowed to travel after thermal screening at entry into the stations. Sanitizers will be made available at entry points of stations for use by passengers.

In Chennai, the Metro Rail Services resumed this morning. Tamil Nadu Industries Minister MC Sampath inaugurated the services at 7 am by travelling by a train on Airport to Washermanpet route.

Teachers' Day is being celebrated throughout the country  today. The day is celebrated on the birth anniversary of educationist and former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

President Ram Nath Kovind will virtually confer National Awards to Teachers in New Delhi today. AIR Correspondent reports that Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre will also be present on the occasion.

The national level awards are given to teachers on Teachers' Day to celebrate the unique contribution of some of the finest teachers in the country. President will honour 47 teachers, who through their commitment have improved the quality of school education.

The selected awardees have also enriched the lives of their students and community through various activities like improving enrolment and reducing dropouts, adopting joyful and experiential teaching-learning practices, promotion of nation building and national integration.

National Awards to Teachers will be broadcast live on AIR News, DD News and streamed live on https://webcast.gov.in/mhrd.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted, with IPS Probationers during the Dikshant Parade Event at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVP NPA) on Friday, through video-conference.

131 IPS probationers including 28 Lady Probationers have completed 42 weeks of Basic Course Phase-I training at the Academy.

They joined the Academy on 17 Dec 2018 after completing their Foundation Course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Mussoorie and at Dr Marri Channa Reddy HRD Institute of Telangana. Hyderabad with other services like IAS, IFS etc.

During the Basic Course Training at SVP NPA, probationers are imparted training in various indoor & outdoor subjects like law, investigation, forensics, leadership & management, criminology, public order & internal security, ethics & human rights, modern Indian policing, field craft & tactics, weapon training & firing.

The Government has blocked 118 mobile apps including PUBG which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order. The move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace. The 118 banned mobile apps include PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work, WeChat reading, Cyber Hunter, LifeAfter and Warpath.
 
The decision to ban such Apps was taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as it has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India. The Ministry in a statement  said, the compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.
 
It said, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, of Home Ministry has also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps. It said, there have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India. The Ministry said, there has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against Apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of citizens.

The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its nod to Mission Karmayogi - National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building. The scheme will lay the foundation for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian culture while they learn from best practices across the world.
 
Mission Karmayogi aims to prepare the Indian Civil Servants for future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled. Briefing media yesterday, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, the Karmayogi scheme will be the biggest Human Resource development programme of the government.
 
The institutional framework will consist of Prime Minister's Public Human Resources (HR) Council, Capacity Building Commission, Special Purpose Vehicle for owning and operating the digital assets and the technological platform for online training, and Coordination Unit headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

Today is World Coconut Day. The main objective of celebrating this day is to create awareness across the globe about the importance of the coconut and its benefits. The day is especially marked in countries under Asian and Pacific regions by the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) as they house most of the world’s coconut growing production centres.
 
The first celebration of World Coconut Day was in the year 2009. The occasion is to commemorate the foundation day of APCC, which operates under the flagship authority of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP). The theme of World Coconut Day this year is – ‘Invest in Coconut to save the world’.
 
In India, Kerala tops the production in coconut, but Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are also picking up in this sector. In Tamil Nadu, the annual production is around two crore 17 lakh nuts and the productivity is being further increased by such initiatives like the Integrated Coconut Plantation Scheme.
 
The National Coconut Board is also overseeing the production and development of value-added varieties from coconut like soft drinks, chips and jams.Handicrafts based on coconut shell and wood are also being given further encouragement. 

Coal India Ltd (CIL) will invest over 1.22 lakh crore rupees on development of nearly 500 projects related to coal evacuation, infrastructure, project development, exploration and clean coal technologies in the country. The investment aims at making India self-reliant in terms of coal and achieve the production target of 1 billion tonnes by 2023-2024.
 
Addressing a stakeholders meet organized by CIL, Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi said involvement of all concerned stakeholders in company’s affairs will reduce and uncover the project risks. He informed that the national miner, CIL, will be investing around 14 thousand 200 crore rupees over the next 3 to 4 years, in two phases for its 49 First Mile Connectivity projects. First Mile Connectivity is the transportation of coal from pitheads to dispatch points. Computer-aided loading technology of coal is being developed to replace the existing methodology of transportation via road.
 
Coal India has also identified 15 greenfield projects which will be operated under the Mine Developer and Operator (MDO) model. Overall nearly 34 thousand 600 crore rupees will be invested through this route. In the meeting, Coal India also announced an array of measures for relaxations and exemptions for greater participation of its stakeholders. The experience criteria has been brought down from 65 per cent to 50 per cent for mining tenders, while work experience criteria are relaxed by 50 per cent in turnkey contracts.

Foreign minister S Jaishankar held wide-ranging discussions with his Nigerian counterpart Geoffrey Onyeama on Tuesday.

The discussion on the entire gamut of India-Nigeria bilateral relations was held in virtual mode.

The foreign ministers' discussions covered a wide spectrum of cooperation on political, economic and trade, defense and security, developmental assistance, and cultural cooperation. India and Nigeria have extensive cooperation in the field of defense training and capacity building, and it is expanding to newer areas such as defense equipment support, medical and maintenance services, sharing of R&D expertise for counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. India-Nigeria will also be holding the next meeting of the Joint Defense Cooperation Committee later this year in Abuja.

With a bilateral trade turnover of USD 13.9 billion in 2019-20, India is Nigeria’s largest trading partner, and Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner in Africa. Nigeria is a leading energy security partner of India, and both sides have agreed to strengthen their cooperation in this sector including at Government to Government level. 

Amid Covid 19 pandemic, Keralites across the globe is celebrating Thiruvonam today, the biggest cultural festival of the State.
 
AIR correspondent reports, Thiruonam is the most auspicious day of Onam festival. This annual harvest festival of the State celebrates the visit of mythical and righteous King Mahabali.
 
Onam is being celebrated by all Keralaites irrespective of religion symbolising secularism and harmony.
 
Onam marks the season of plenty, but this time the Covid pandemic had taken the sheen out of the festivities.
 
As authorities had urged to follow strict guidelines for a safer onam, people at large will be celebrating the festival in their homes.
 
As large gatherings are prohibited onapookalam, onakalikal, onasadhya, will all be restricted to one's own home, as safety remains the primary concern.

India and Russia were declared joint winners of the 2020 Online FIDE Chess Olympiad after the final was marred by internet disconnection last night.
 
Russia were initially declared winners after two Indian players, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh, lost out on time in the final after suffering a disconnection with the server.
 
India had appealed against the controversial decision. 

However, the international chess federation Fide's president Arkady Dvorkovich decided to award the gold medal to both the teams.
 
This was the first time Fide was holding the Olympiad in an online format. 

India had reached the finals of the FIDE Chess Olympiad for the first time.