Defence Ministerial meeting between India and Japan is presently underway in Japan's capital Tokyo. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is heading the Indian side while Japanese side is led by Japan's Minister of Defence Takeshi Iwaya. The Ministerial Dialogue will aim to further strengthen India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and include wide-ranging discussions to enhance the bilateral defence and security engagements between the two countries. 

The two sides are also expected to deliberate on the long-pending issue of supply of the US-2 amphibious aircraft by Japan to India.
Earlier, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached Tokyo today during the first leg of his five-day visit to Japan and South Korea to enhance strategic ties and explore possibilities of collaboration of major military platforms. 

The 14th Conference of Parties, COP14, to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification will get underway in Greater Noida today. The Conference will focus on desertification and degradation of land and will go on till 13th of this month. Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar had earlier this week highlighted India’s resolve to combat desertification. Mr Javadekar asserted that India will lead from the front to combat desertification and move the world in a positive direction. AIR correspondent reports the main objective of the convention is to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought in countries experiencing serious drought or desertification. 

India will host over 3000 participants and take the responsibility of leading 196 nations towards Sustainable Development for the next two years in COP14. This Conference will provide framework for countries to restore the land and protect human health. It will present sustainable solutions for better land management. The Conference is expected to agree on about 30 decisions to ramp up and elaborate further actions needed on the ground. Different industries will showcase their latest products, and innovations associated with reduction of land degradation. Land is the lifeline for all living beings, and the impact of land degradation is ultimately on human health and well-being. 

The stage is all set for the crucial separation of lander Vikram from Chandrayaan 2 Orbiter this afternoon. According to ISRO, the separation is scheduled between 12:45 PM and 1:45 PM. The separation will allow the lander to travel towards the lunar surface, leaving the Orbiter to continue to revolve around the moon.

Yesterday evening, ISRO successfully carried out fifth and final orbit manoeuvre of Chandrayaan 2 to refine its circular path around the moon. The orbiter will remain in its orbit for a planned one year. The composite Chandrayaan-2 has the orbiter, the lander and the rover. The 1.5-ton lander carries in its belly the 27 kg rover. The mission of the lander is to soft-land on the lunar South Pole and to safely unleash the rover. The lander and the rover have a mission life of a single lunar day or 14 days of the earth.

A complete ban on the use of polythene bags will come into force in Uttar Pradesh from tomorrow. 

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said, local police station and its in-charge will be held responsible for non-compliance of the government order in this regard. 

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had vowed last year to make Uttar Pradesh plastic and polythene-free. 

Allahabad High Court had also banned the use of polythene in the state. Government has said that alternative things will be made available to the people.

A delegation from the 59th course of National Defence College (NDC) India comprising 15 senior officers from civil services and defence forces of India, UK, Japan, Mongolia and Bangladesh visited Nepal. 

During the three-day visit which was concluded on Wednesday, the team led by Vice Admiral Srikant, AVSM, Commandant NDC called on Nepal’s Chief of Army Staff, General Purna Chandra Thapa and discussed matters of mutual interest. 

The delegation was briefed about various functions of the Nepali Army during its visit to Nepali Army headquarters. The team also visited Western Division Headquarters at Pokhara as well as the prestigious Mountain Warfare School at Jomsom. 

The delegation also paid a courtesy call on Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali and Defence Secretary Reshmi Raj Pandey. 

The government has announced the merger of ten public sector banks into four banks. It announced the merger of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank with Punjab National Bank as well as the merger of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank.

The merger of Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank and the consolidation of  Indian Bank with Allahabad Bank was also announced. Briefing media in New Delhi yesterday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that government wants a strong financial system to make the country a five trillion economy. 

The Finance Minister said, after the merger of banks, the country will now have 12 public sector banks instead of 27. She said, the profitability of public sector banks has improved and total gross non-performing assets have come down to  7.9 lakh crore rupees in March this year from 8.65 lakh crore rupees in December last year. 

The CBI has carried out joint surprise checks at 150 places across the country with the vigilance teams of the central government departments, Union Territories and public sectors undertakings. 

It was conducted in places including Delhi, Jaipur, Guwahati, Srinagar,  Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Goa, Bhopal, Nagpur, Patna, Ranchi, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Dehradun. 

Official sources said, the exercise aimed to take forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message of ease of living. The departments covered during the surprise checks include the railways, coal mines, coalfields, medical and health care organisations, customs and FCI. 

The drive will sensitise all stakeholders about possible avenues of corruption and difficulties common citizens face while seeking services from such departments.

The final National Register of Citizens, NRC of Assam will be published at 10 AM today. 

The state government has made necessary arrangements to provide free legal aid to those whose names do not figure in final NRC. 

They can represent their case in front of foreigners tribunals. 

Talking exclusively to AIR, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said his government is ready to extend support to needy people. He appealed to the public to maintain peace and tranquility in the state. 

It is for the first time since 1951 that the NRC is being d in Assam to identify bonafide residents. The entire project is headed by the State Coordinator of National Registration, Assam, under the strict monitoring of the Supreme Court. 

NTPC Ltd has commissioned country’s first ultra-super critical power generation unit having a capacity of 660 MW at Khargone in Madhya Pradesh.

“This plant operates at efficiency of 41.5 per cent which is 3.3 per cent higher than the conventional super-critical ones, with steam parameters of 6000 degrees C temperatures and 270 kg/cm2 pressure,” NTPC said.

“The high efficiency will result in less coal consumption for generating same amount of electricity vis-à-vis super critical plants and will result in reduction of 3.3 per cent carbon dioxide emissions,” the company added.

NTPC said that the Khargone plant will have a total capacity of 1,320 MW - 2 Units of 660 MW each. The required facilities such as fuel handling and transportation systems for sustainable running of the plant are ready and will start its commercial operation very soon.

In a report published by Fitch Solutions Macro Research, it has been stated that India will overtake China as the largest importer of coking coal by 2025.

“We forecast India’s coking coal consumption to grow at an annual average rate of 5.4 per cent between 2019 and 2028, driven by an equally robust expansion in steel production in the country,” it said in a report.

“As a result, we expect India to overtake China as the largest importer of global coking coal by 2025, despite the country only importing half as much as China in 2017,” it added.

While China will remain dominant in terms of overall market share, India will become increasingly important in terms of seaborne demand, it said.