The Income Tax Department has busted a nexus of hawala operators who were running a money laundering racket in Delhi estimated to be worth over 20 thousand crore rupees. Official sources said, a series of raids and surveys were conducted by sleuths of the Delhi investigation unit of the I-T Department over the last few weeks in different business areas of old Delhi. The operations led to unearthing of illegal financial activities by three groups of operators.
 
A survey was conducted on one such group in the Naya Bazar area, that led to detection of bogus billing of about 18 thousand crores. The sources said, the group had floated a dozen bogus entities for providing fake bills.
 
In the second case, a money laundering racket was unearthed where current transactions in shares were fraudulently camouflaged as being sales of old shares held for years. The magnitude of the purported scam is estimated to be over one thousand crores.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay foundation stone of several development projects at Kurukshetra in Haryana today. He will dedicate to the nation the National Cancer Institute at Bhadsa in Jhajjar district. The institute is the state-of-the-art tertiary cancer care-cum-research centre constructed at the AIIMS Jhajjar campus. The 700-bed hospital will have facilities like surgical oncology, palliative care and nuclear medicine, besides hostel rooms for doctors and attendants of cancer patients.
 
An official release said, Mr Modi will also inaugurate Employees' State Insurance Corporation's (ESIC) medical college and hospital in Faridabad. This will be the first ESIC medical college and hospital in north India. The 510-bed hospital will have state-of-the-art facilities. ESIC provides social security to the insured persons and their beneficiaries, especially to worker population and their dependents.
 
The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of National Institute of Ayurveda in Panchkula which is being set up at Shri Mata Mansa Devi Temple Complex. It will be a national-level institute for Ayurveda treatment, education and research.
 
Foundation stone of Sri Krishna Ayush University in Kurukshetra will also be laid by Mr Modi. It will be the first university related to Indian system of medicine in Haryana as well as the first of its kind in India.

Abu Dhabi has decided to include Hindi as the third official language used in its courts, alongside Arabic and English, as part of a move designed to improve access to justice. 

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) said, it has extended the adoption of interactive forms of statement of claims filed before courts by including Hindi. 

Our West Asia correspondent reports that an estimated 3.3 million Indian expats live in UAE, and a large number of them are blue collared workers.

The move will help the Hindi speakers to learn about litigation procedures, their rights and duties without a language barrier. 

In a tweet, Ambassador Navdeep Suri 

Welcoming the move, Ambassador Navdeep Suri said in a tweet “this is an excellent step by Abu Dhabi that will certainly improve access to justice for India's blue collar workers. It also fits perfectly into the wider agenda of UAE's Year of Tolerance”. 

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been elected chairman of the African Union at the continental body's summit in Ethiopia.

The rights group Amnesty International warned that el-Sisi's chairmanship might undermine the African Union's human rights mechanisms.

The rights group said Egypt since 2015 has orchestrated a sustained political attack against the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the body that aims to monitor African states' human rights records. 

"Dozens of cases alleging serious human rights violations have been lodged against Egypt at the ACHPR," it said.

Three-time World Cup-winning former Australian captain Ricky Ponting will be part of Australia’s coaching staff for the 2019 ICC World Cup. 44-year-old Ponting, who has earlier worked as assistant for Australia’s t20 side in 2017 and 2018, was confirmed by Cricket Australian as assistant coach to Justin Langer for the tournament.

The news comes a day after David Saker resigned as Australia’s fast-bowling coach, effective immediately. Cricket Australia also stated that the appointment will help batting coach Graeme Hicks focus on the preparation for the Ashes which will be held in England after the World Cup.

“This appointment also provides an opportunity for Graeme Hick to focus on preparation for the Ashes,” said interim Team Performance Executive General Manager Belinda Clark. “With two major events back to back we believe it is important to focus a number of staff specifically on one event. The appointment of Ricky is a part of this overall strategy.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said there is a need to move towards responsible pricing of Oil and Gas to balance the interests of both the producer and the consumer. He was inaugurating the 13th International Oil and Gas Conference - PETROTECH-2019 in Greater Noida. 

The three-day biennial event began at India Expo Mart yesterday. The Prime Minister stressed on the need to move towards transparent and flexible markets for oil and gas to serve energy needs in an optimal manner. 

The Prime Minister said, winds of change are evident in the global energy arena. He said supply, sources and consumption of energy patterns are changing. Mr Modi said, there is a shift in energy consumption from West to East.

He said, there are signs of convergence between cheaper renewable energy, technologies and digital applications. He said, it may expedite the achievement of sustainable development goals. Prime Minister expressed happiness that  nations are coming together to tackle climate change. 

He said, the petrotech has served as a platform to discuss the challenges the world  is facing in the energy sector. Prime Minister said, energy is a key driver of socio-economic growth and energy justice is a top priority for India. 

He said, a Blue Flame Revolution is under-way in the country and LPG connections have been given to over 64 million house-holds in just three years under Ujjwala Scheme. 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said, India has made tremendous strides in providing energy justice. He said, UJJWALA scheme and expansion of City Gas Distribution Network have provided clean cooking gas to people. 

In Table Tennis, India's young paddlers clinching four medals, including a gold, at the Bahrain Junior and Cadet Open tournament in Manama. 

Besides the gold, India won two silver and a bronze. India fielded three teams in the cadet girls' team event and swept all the three medals on offer.
 
India-A team won the gold, India-B - Silver and India-C - Bronze.
   
The India-B team of Yashaswini Ghorpade and Kavya Sree Baskar beat Egypt in the first semifinal, while India-A defeated India-C in the other semifinal.
 
 In the final, the India-A team of Suhana Saini and Anargya Manjunath proved too strong for India-B and clinched the Gold.
 
In the Junior girls' competition, the Indian team of Manushree Patil and Swastika Ghosh beat three teams before losing to eventual champions Russia to settle for a Silver.

Union Environment minister Harsh Vardhan Sunday said the entire world is concerned about the dangers posed by global warming and climate change, and urged people to undertake “green good deeds” to protect the environment.

Launched by the Environment Ministry last year, the ‘Green Good Deeds’ campaign — aimed at protecting the environment and promoting healthy living — mentions a list of 500 activities for protecting the environment.

Addressing a global summit on ‘Science, Spirituality, Education and Environment’ organised by the Brahma Kumaris at Talkatora Stadium here, Harsh Vardhan, who also holds the science and technology and earth sciences portfolio said the global community has started believing that India can provide the right leadership and direction to deal with the challenges of pollution and global warming.

“Small behavioural changes and nature-friendly activities can be a great step towards saving the environment. India has made great progress in all spheres of science and technology.

“To develop environmental-friendly values, both science and spirituality work together. We must do small greed good deeds, and adopt green good behavior and green good social practices, ” he said.

Prayagraj is all set to host the third ''shaahi snaan'' of the ongoing Kumbh on Basant Panchami during which more than two crore devotees are expected to take a holy dip.

All the roads from the neighbouring districts led to Sangam city as devotees from different parts of the state and country arrived here to participate in the bath.

Kumbh Mela Adhikari Vijay Kiran Anand told PTI Saturday that more than two crore people from different walks of life are likely to arrive here to take a dip on the occasion of Basant Panchami on Sunday.

Security personnel, including Uttar Pradesh Police and central paramilitary forces, were deployed at different crossings and parts of the city.

Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP) president Narendra Giri said, "There are three shahi snaans (royal baths) and three ''parv snaans'' during the Kumbh Mela."

The Mela commenced on January 15 on Makar Sankranti, the first bathing day, and the Mahashivratri on March 4 will mark its last bathing day.

''Shahi snan'' is the central highlight of the Kumbh Mela and the most important part of the celebration. It is only after the completion of ''shahi snaan'' that people are allowed to take the holy dip, he said.

India on Sunday received the first four of 15 Boeing Co.’s Chinook helicopters that are expected to bolster the heavy-lift capabilities of its air force and further strengthen the fast-expanding defence ties with the US.

The acquisition, which was in the works for several years, is also expected to give a significant boost to infrastructure development along India’s borders given the Chinook has the capability to ferry heavy cargo like road construction equipment over difficult terrain.

The four helicopters arrived by sea and were handed over to Indian authorities at the Mundra port in Gujarat, Boeing India said in a statement.

India had in 2018 signed a $3 billion contract for the purchase of 15 Chinook and 22 Apache attack helicopters, three years after first deciding to buy the equipment.

The Boeing platforms would replace the Russia-made Mi-17 medium-lift helicopters, the Mi-26 helicopters and Mi-35 attack helicopters.

India has rapidly scaled up purchases of defence equipment from the US as it sought to diversify from its biggest supplier, Russia, and to keep pace with the military modernization plans of China and Pakistan. In the past, India has ordered military hardware worth billions of dollars from the US including anti-submarine warfare planes, aircraft and missiles.