AS THE visiting US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday, New Delhi will stay firm on the S-400 deal with Russia and seek waiver under the US law.

Jaishankar and Pompeo will prepare the groundwork for the Prime Minister’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka. Though the timing has not been finalised yet, it is likely to be held on June 28.

Jaishankar is scheduled to accompany the Prime Minister for the G-20 summit, just like Pompeo will join Trump in Japan. This is a departure from the past, as then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not accompany the PM on his overseas visits. Both Jaishankar and Pompeo are likely to be present at the Modi-Trump meeting.

Jaishankar, who will be meeting his American counterpart Pompeo for the first time, is also likely to counsel the US interlocutor that both US and Iran should “de-escalate” the situation, diplomatic sources said.

The Reserve Bank of India, on Monday, launched a ‘Complaint Management System (CMS)’, which will enable members of the public to lodge their complaints on its website against any of the regulated entities with public interface such as commercial banks, urban co-operative banks, and non-banking financial companies, among others. The system will be accessible on desktop as well as on mobile devices.

The system, which was inaugurated by Governor Shaktikanta Das, provides features such as acknowledgement through SMS/e-mail notification(s), status tracking through unique registration number, receipt of closure advises, and filing of appeals, where applicable. It also solicits voluntary feedback on the customer’s experience.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to modify the format of driving licenses to smart card type driving licences. 

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha that his Ministry has prescribed a common standard format and design of the Driving Licence for the whole of the country. 

This Ministry, through its flagship application called SARATHI developed by NIC, has a common countrywide database of all driving license holders. Almost 15 crore driving license records are available in its central repository. 

The SARATHI application has the feature to identify duplicate records online in real time and access information about the challans if any. 

The Centre has chalked out a plan to provide CNG and PNG infrastructure in 406 districts of the country. Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, till 2014, only 66 districts of the country were covered under Compressed Natural Gas and Piped Natural Gas infrastructure. 

He said the government is expanding it in other cities. Mr Pradhan said, after expanding this facilites, 70 per cent of the population will get clean energy. Mr Pradhan also informed the House that one lakh twenty thounsand crore rupees will be invested in the next eight years in the energy sector.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be on a three-day visit to India from today. 

This will be the first high-level engagement with the US after the General Elections in India.  Mr Pompeo's visit will be an important opportunity for both sides to explore ways to further strengthen the India-US Strategic Partnership.

It will also continue the high-level engagement on matters of mutual interest including bilateral, regional and global issues. The visit will deepen and broaden the bilateral relationship and kick-start a dialogue towards the resolution of some of the key issues in trade ties.

During the three days visit, Mr Pompeo will hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and call on other dignitaries in the government.

RBI Deputy Governor Viral V Acharya has resigned from his post, six months before the scheduled end of his term, sources have confirmed to The Indian Express, adding that he was not expecting his term to be renewed in any case.

Acharya joined the central bank in January 2017 and was RBI’s youngest deputy governor, post economic liberalisation. Acharya will be returning to New York University as CV Starr Professor of Economics.

This is the second high profile resignation in the past six months at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In December, governor Urjit Patel resigned nearly nine months before the end of his schedule term over differences with the government. The RBI is now left with three deputy governors N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.

Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) mountaineers have discovered the seven dead bodies believed to be of the missing mountaineers near an unnamed peak near Nanda Devi East in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand yesterday. 

The seven bodies include of a women also. The search for the 8th missing mountaineer will be carried out today. These bodies were traced at an altitude of appx 21000 feet near the peak from where the mountaineers were reported missing on 26th May 2019. 

The ITBP had launched search operation last week from Pithoragarh to search the missing mountaineers in which 4 were British, 2 were Americans, and 1 each from Australia and India. The team reached at the spot at 1030 AM yesterday. After analyzing the incident site search team started search of missing mountaineers and recovered bodies of seven mountaineers including one women and one Indian Mountaineer. 

The government has developed a National Strategic Plan with the goal for ending Tuberculosis (TB) by 2025.

In his reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey said, India accounts for 27.4 lakh estimated new TB cases annually, which is the highest in terms of absolute numbers. 

He said, the estimated cases of TB in the country is 204 per lakh population for the year 2017 as per the last year's Global TB report. However, India ranks 35th in the world in terms of TB cases per lakh population. Over 5 lakh 62 thousand patients were cured of TB last year.

Both the Houses of Parliament will take up the Motion of Thanks on the President's address today. President Ram Nath Kovind addressed the joint sitting of both Houses on the 20th of this month.

While newly appointed BJP working president J P Nadda will open the debate in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi will lead the charge in the Lok Sabha. 

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is scheduled to be introduced in the Lok Sabha today. The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is also likely to be introduced. The Parliament session will continue till 26th of July. 

NASA has revealed its first cube-shaped 'Astrobee' robot, called Bumble, flew under its own power in space for the first time on June 14. Astrobee is a free-flying robot system designed to help astronauts reduce time spent on routine duties. The system comprises two more robots 'Honey' and 'Queen', software and a docking station used for recharging.