The Modi government on Wednesday reshuffled over a dozen Secretaries.

A 1984 batch IAS officer and currently Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ajay Kumar Bhalla has been appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Ministry of Home Affairs with immediate effect. He will take over as Home Secretary from incumbent Rajive Gauba.

Mr. Bhalla will have a fixed two-year tenure as Union Home Secretary till August 2021.

In another significant change, Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Economic Affairs, and designated as Secretary, Finance, in the Ministry of Finance, has been shifted to the Power Ministry as Secretary, while Gujarat cadre IAS officer Atanu Chakraborty has been made new Economic Affairs Secretary.

Asian Development Bank has sanctioned 1,925 crore rupees project for upgradation of power generation and distribution in Tripura.

Deputy Chief Minister and Power Minister Jishnu Dev Varma told reporters in Agartala that the amount was recently sanctioned to the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited after the state government had sought the ADB's assistance.

Mr Varma said that the project has been sanctioned for upgrading capacity of 63 MW Rokhia Project to 120 MW at an estimated cost of over 699 crore and modernising Gumti Hydro Electric Project at an estimated cost of nearly 1225 crore rupees.

Rokhia project is located at West Tripura district whereas Gumti project is in Gomati district.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Indian origin Priti Patel as the country Home Secretary.

The Prime Minister named former Home Secretary Sajid Javid to take over from Philip Hammond as the Finance Secretary or Chancellor.

Mr Javid, a former banker from a modest background, was a contender for the premiership but endorsed Johnson when he failed to get enough support from fellow Conservative MPs.

Mr Johnson has also named Brexit hardliner Dominic Raab as the country's Foreign Secretary.

Assam has added to India’s botanical wealth a plant that yields dragon’s blood — a bright red resin used since ancient times as medicine, body oil, varnish, incense and dye.

A trio of researchers led by Assam forest officer Jatindra Sarma has discovered Dracaena cambodiana, a dragon tree species in the Dongka Sarpo area of West Karbi Anglong. The team’s report has been published in the latest issue of the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

This is for the first time that a dragon tree species has been reported from India.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is celebrating the 159th Income Tax Day today. 

It was on 24th July, 1860 that Income Tax was introduced for the first time in India by Sir James Wilson to compensate for the losses incurred by the British regime during the first war of independence against British Rule. 

In a release, Finance Ministry said, the week preceding the Aaykar Diwas has been marked by various activities undertaken by the regional offices of the department across the country. Finance  Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend an event to mark Income Tax Day in New Delhi. 

The event will include release of departmental publications, e-journal, publicity kit for outreach programmes among other things.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday lowered the growth estimate for India by 30 basis points (100 basis points means 1 percentage point) for the current as well as the next financial year.

“India’s economy is set to grow at 7 per cent in 2019, picking up to 7.2 per cent in 2020. The downward revision of 0.3 percentage point for both years reflects a weaker-than-expected outlook for domestic demand,” the multilateral agency said in its update on “World Economic Outlook” (WEO). The revision is relative to the April WEO.

However, the good news is despite the revision, India’s growth rate will still be the fastest in the world followed by China. The WEO update says that in China, the negative effects of escalating tariffs and weakening external demand have added pressure to an economy already in the midst of a structural slowdown.

With policy stimulus expected to support activity in the face of the adverse external shock, China’s growth is forecast at 6.2 per cent in 2019 and 6.0 per cent in 2020, which is 10 basis points lower each year relative to the April projection.

Abhay Singh of Tamil Nadu and Asian Games medallist Tanvi Khanna clinched the men's and women's titles respectively in the sixth Bengal Open squash tournament in Kolkatta today.

Second seed Singh defeated top seed Abhishek Pradhan 11-6 11-6 11-4, while Tanvi fought her way past Tamil Nadu's Aparajitha Balamurukan 11-7 11-6 5-11 13-11.

Earlier, the under-15 category witnessed a thrilling battle with fifth-seeded Tamil Nadu girl Shameena Riaz upsetting top seed Soniya Bajaj from Maharashtra 9-11 11-7 11-5 7-11 11-8.

Daughter of former India hockey captain Mohammed Riaz, Shameena recently won the U-15 title at the Goregaon Sports Club All India Squash Open in Mumbai.
 

Former Chinese Premier Li Peng, who ordered martial law during the 1989 Tiananmen protests, has died at the age of 90, state media have announced.

Li died on Monday evening in Beijing of an unspecified illness.

He served in several top positions in China in the 1980s and 1990s.

But he was best known as the "Butcher of Beijing" for his role in the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989. Soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians.

Li later defended his actions as a "necessary" step.

In its obituary, the official Xinhua news agency says Li "took decisive measures to stop the unrest and quell counter-revolutionary violence" during the Tiananmen protests.

China has consistently censored the massacre for the last three decades, and avoids making reference to any atrocities that occurred during it.

he uncertainty over Dejan Papic's joining as the new head coach of the Indian table tennis  team came to an end on Tuesday when the Canadian accepted a one-year contract offered by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

The Indian paddlers haven't had a head coach since the Asian Games last year, and have lost crucial time ahead of the qualification events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) had short-listed Papic back in March but it was only a couple of weeks ago that SAI sent him the contract. And there was a further delay in the process as Papic took time to sign the contract owing to administrative issues.

he government has set a target for the installation of Rooftop Solar projects of forty thousand MegaWatt by 2022 in the country. 

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha today, New and Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh said, the projects include installation of solar panels on the rooftop of houses. He said, over 1700 Mega Watt of grid-connected rooftop systems has been installed in the country till 18th of this month. 

Mr. Singh said his ministry is implementing Grid Connected Rooftop Solar programme. The Minister said on an average it is estimated that 1.5 million units per MegaWatt per year are generated from solar rooftop plants.