President Ram Nath Kovind today paid tributes to freedom fighter Punjab Kesari Lala Lajpat Rai on his birth anniversary. In a tweet, Mr Kovind said, Lala Lajpat Rai inspired the nation to fight colonialism and encouraged social reform and domestic enterprise.

President Ram Nath Kovind also paid tributes to first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa on his birth anniversary. In a tweet, Mr Kovind said,a great son of Kodagu (Coorg), Karnataka and above all India, Field Marshal Cariappa  is cherished as one of India's finest military commanders and remains a much loved national hero.

A Pakistani delegation arrived in India on Sunday to visit the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for inspection, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty, sources said.

"This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 between India and Pakistan. Under the treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years," a senior official said.

Since signing of the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both the sides have been undertaken. The last tours of the commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014, respectively.

No tour could be held in the current five years block, which ends in March 2020. This tour will be followed by a visit of India's Indus Commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date, the official added.

Authorities have issued avalanche warning in Himachal Pradesh. Snow & Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) Manali has advised people not to venture in avalanche prone slopes for the next two days. This advisory has been issued for Shimla, Chamba, Lahaul- Spiti, Kullu and Kinnaur districts for today and tomorrow. 

Met Department has predicted heavy snowfall and rains in the state from Wednesday. It said, cold wave conditions will continue over the three days north and northwest parts of the country including Delhi and NCR. 

Cold wave conditions continued in most parts of Punjab and Haryana, with Adampur being the coldest place in the region at 1.8 degrees Celsius yesterday.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has called the heads of all public sector banks for a meeting on Monday when he is expected to take stock of banking sector's performance and discuss ways to improve their financial health.

According to sources, the meeting is part of a pre-budget exercise and was supposed to take place last week but got delayed after Arun Jaitley, who was handling the Finance portfolio, suddenly left for the US for medical treatment.

Goyal, who was given charge of the Finance and Corporate Affairs ministries on Wednesday till the period of Jaitley's "indisposition", would take the stock-taking meeting which would also be attended by Financial Services Secretary Rajeev Kumar.

Sources said the full-day meeting would be led by Kumar for the most part, with the Finance Minister joining towards the evening to take a broader view of the banking sector and their action plan for near future.

The Minister is expected to discuss ways to improve financial health of state-owned banks, their non-performing assets (NPA) position and improving lending to priority sectors including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and agriculture, sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Centre aims at making Tamil Nadu a hub for aerospace and defence industries. Addressing a rally in Madurai, Mr Modi said, Tamil Nadu is among the country's most progressive industrial states and also a leading player in the Centre's Make in India initiative. 

Prime Minister said, the Defence Industrial Corridor will also help generate employment. The corridor was launched by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week. Addressing another rally at Thrissur in Kerala, Mr Modi reiterated his government's commitment to fight against corruption. 

Mr Modi urged the opposition not to put barriers in the country's progress and stop misleading the people. Prime Minister said, the opposition parties are not having any regard for the constitutional institutions. Referring to the Sabarimala issue, Prime Minister said, the cultural fabric of Kerala is currently under severe attack. 

Mr Modi said, the ruling LDF Government is undermining the cultural heritage of the State and also criticised the Congress-led opposition for its double standards on many issues. Mr Modi said that the opposition parties have no genuine concern for women empowerment as was evident from their varied stand on Triple Talaq and other important issues. 

With approval from the Defence Minister, it has been decided that disability or war injury pension for armed forces personnel shall be minimum Rs 18,000 per month, the ministry said Thursday.

"With approval from Smt @nsitharaman, it has been decided that the disability/war injury pension, special family pension and liberalised family pension shall be minimum Rs 18,000 per month for Defence Forces pensioners/family pensioners, with effect from 1/1/2016," the Defence Ministry said in a tweet.

The Defence Ministry last July had said armed forces personnel would continue to get disability pension based on percentage system till the Anomaly Committee came out with a report on the issue.

There was widespread criticism from opposition parties and the military establishment over a letter issued prior to that which had introduced a slab-based system, as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission, for determining the disability pension for defence forces.

Following this, the ministry had referred the matter to the Anomaly Committee.

The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched the PSLV C 44 carrying kalam sat and Microsat R last night at 11.37 precisely. 

Speaking after the launch, ISRO chairman, Dr.K.Sivan termed the mission as a grand success. 

He said that the rocket precisely injected the Microsat R in its designated orbit. He said that Kalamsat was a great gift on the Republic Day for the Nation.
AIR correspondent reports, the midnight sky with a bright shining moon at the backdrop was a spectacular sight to those gathered at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota. 

Whistles and applause reached a crescendo even as the vehicle took off with a roar into the skies pushed by orange flames. 

The scientists patted each other even as the successful separation stages took place as per the scheduled time. 

Kalamsat is a ten cm cube weighing one kilogram communication satellite with a life span of two months. 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the space scientists for another successful launch of PSLV. 

In a tweet, Mr Modi said, this launch has put in orbit Kalamsat, built by India's talented students. 

He said, with this launch, India also becomes the first country to use the fourth stage of a space rocket as an orbital platform for micro-gravity experiments. 

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the Centre has issued an advisory to release undertrial prisoners who have served half of their maximum punishment provided under the law. 

He said, some state governments have started with the compliance on the advisory. There are about four lakh prisoners in jails and out of them about half are undertrials. 

He was speaking at a function at the district court in Lucknow yesterday to administer oath to newly elected office bearers of the Central Bar Association. 

The minister said, centre has abolished nearly 1,500 obsolete laws which have lost their efficacy.

India and Maldives have agreed to continue their traditionally close cooperation on issues of maritime security, counter-terrorism and medical cooperation. 

This was decided during the meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Maldivian counterpart  Mariya Ahmed Didi in New Delhi on Thursday. 

Both sides held substantive discussions on further strengthening bilateral defence cooperation. 

Ms  Sitharaman reiterated India’s commitment to contribute towards capacity building and training requirements of the Maldives National Defence Forces.

Ms  Didi is in India on an official visit and she will witness the 70th Republic Day Parade at Rajpath. 

She will also visit various Indian defence institutions such as the Indian Maritime Analysis Centre in Gurugram and Army Training Command in Shimla. 

She will also interact with National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets, including those from the Maldives, at the NCC Republic Day Camp. 

President Ram Nath Kovind will address the nation today on the eve of the 70th Republic Day. 

The address will be broadcast from 7 PM on the entire national network of All India Radio and telecast over all channels of Doordarshan in Hindi followed by the English version. 

Broadcast of the address in Hindi and English on Doordarshan will be followed by broadcast in regional languages by regional channels of Doordarshan. 

AIR will broadcast regional language versions from 9:30 PM onwards on its respective regional networks.