China's economy grew at 6.6 per cent in 2018, its slowest rate in almost three decades. The world's second biggest economy was grappling with the effects of the current trade war with the US and declining exports.

In the three months to December, the economy grew 6.4% from a year earlier, down from 6.5 per cent in the previous quarter. The data was in line with forecasts but underlines recent concern about weakening growth. China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  said today that last year's growth rate was down from 6.8 per cent in 2017 and was the lowest since 1990  when growth rate  was 3.9 per cent. 

China's rate of expansion has raised worries about the potential knock-on effect on the global economy. The trade war with the US has added to the gloomy outlook. The US and China have been locked in an escalating trade spat since early 2018, raising import tariffs on each other's goods. 

India is among the most trusted nations globally when it comes to government, business, NGOs and media.

The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer report, which was released today, ahead of the World Economic Forum meet in Davos, noted that the Global Trust Index witnessed a marginal increase of 3 points to 52.
 
China topped the Trust Index among both the informed public and the general population segments. 
 
India was at the second place in the informed public category and third place in the general population category.
 
The Index is the average per cent of trust in NGOs, business, government and media.
 
The findings are based on an online survey in 27 markets covering over 33,000 respondents. The fieldwork was conducted between October to November last year.
 
In terms of trust in companies headquartered in each market, the most trusted are those from Switzerland, Germany and Canada. 

However, as per the report, companies headquartered in India, Mexico and Brazil are the least trusted, followed by China and South Korea.

President Ram Nath Kovind will confer the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhawan today. The Award will be given in two categories- Bal Shakti Puraskar and Bal Kalyan Puraskar. 

AIR correspondent reports that The Bal Shakti Puraskar will be given to 26 shortlisted children including one joint award in the field of innovation, scholastic, sports, arts and culture, social service and bravery. Two individuals and three institutions will be awarded the Bal Kalyan Puraskar. 

The award under Bal Shakti Puraskar carries a cash prize of one lakh rupees, book vouchers worth ten thousand rupees, a certificate and a citation. Under Bal Kalyan Puraskar, the award for individual consists of a cash prize of one lakh rupees, a medal, a citation and a certificate while the award for institution consists of a cash prize of five lakh rupees. Women and Child Development Ministry revamped the scheme of National Awards for children in 2018 to include Bravery as an additional component in the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said India's economy is poised to pick up this year. IMF's World Economic Outlook Update, released yesterday by its chief economist Gita Gopinath in Davos, projected that India will grow at 7.5 per cent this year and 7.7 per cent in 2020, an impressive over one percentage point ahead of China's estimated growth of 6.2 per cent in these two years. 

The IMF attributed the pick up to lower oil prices and a slower pace of monetary tightening. IMF said India would remain one of the fastest growing major economies of the world. Despite fiscal stimulus that offsets some of the impacts of higher US tariffs, China's economy will slow down due to the combined influence of needed financial regulatory tightening and trade tensions with the US.
 
China which grew at 6.9 per cent in 2017, as compared to 6.7 per cent by India, had a growth rate of 6.6 per cent in 2018.  The IMF said while, the Chinese growth rate has been on a downward slope India has experienced an upward trajectory in these years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Tuesday in this temple town and hold talks with his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth after the inaugural session. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Monday, along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and said the Indian diaspora has dramatically changed the world's perception of Indians and India.

Mauritian Premier Jugnauth arrived here in the afternoon and was received by Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh. Later, Swaraj called on the Mauritian PM and exchanged views on a range of issues, including strengthening bilateral cooperation.

For the first time, the three-day-long convention is being organised from January 21 to 23 instead of January 9 to allow participants visit the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and attend the Republic Day parade here.
The theme of this year's convention is 'role of Indian diaspora in building new India', a statement from the prime minister's office said. Varanasi in Modi's parliamentary constituency.

Nepal's central bank has announced the ban of Indian currency notes with denominations above Rs 100. The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on Sunday issued a circular for the institutions licensed by it notifying them about the ban, reports Xinhua news agency.

Nepal's cabinet in December had decided to ban the use of these currency notes. The decision to ban these notes has come a time when the NRB has requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) arequesting the latter to allow Nepal to use currency notes with all denominations. Currently, only the notes with a denomination of Rs 100 and below are freely exchangeable in Nepal.

The Moon, the Earth and the Sun will line up this morning for the only total lunar eclipse of this year and the next. At the same time, Earth will also witness a supermoon as the satellite will be closer to the planet. The moon will appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual. 

The eclipse will begin with the partial phase around 9:04 AM (Indian Standard Time). Totality, when Earth's shadow completely blankets the moon, will last 62 minutes, beginning at 10:11 am. During totality, the moon will look red, also known as a blood moon, because of sunlight scattering off Earth's atmosphere. This total lunar eclipse is the 18th total lunar eclipse since 2001. 

If the skies are clear, the entire eclipse will be visible in North and South America, as well as Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom, and in most parts of Europe. Africa will have partial viewing before the moon sets. The Indian subcontinent will not be able to view the phenomenon.

’World's oldest man’ Masazo Nonaka, who was born just two years after the Wright brothers launched humanity's first powered flight, died on Sunday aged 113, Japanese media said.

Nonaka was born in July 1905, according to Guinness World Records — just months before Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity.

Guinness officially recognised Nonaka as the oldest living man after the death of Spaniard Francisco Nunez Olivera last year. "We feel shocked at the loss of this big figure. He was as usual yesterday and passed away without causing our family any fuss at all," his granddaughter Yuko told Kyodo News.

Nonaka had six brothers and one sister, marrying in 1931 and fathering five children.

Hosts Maharashtra walked away with the Overall Trophy at the Khelo India Youth Games, as they amassed a mammoth 85 gold, 62 silver and 81 bronze for a total of 228 medals. Their sportspersons and officials received the trophy from Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and Maharashtra Sports Minister Vinod Tawde at the closing ceremony in Pune, a media release said.

Javadekar said the performances of the athletes at the Games had underlined the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of “5minute aur” for sports. He added that the government was determined to bring in a compulsory one-hour daily sports period in every school across the country.

Tawde said he wanted not just five minutes, but 50 minutes and encouraged all the sportspersons. Maharashtra finished ahead of Khelo India School Games 2018 winners Haryana, who were second with 62 gold, 56 silver and 60 bronze for a total of 178 medals.

Indian tennis player Ankita Raina on Sunday won her first singles title of the 2019 season and eighth overall after trampling top seed Arantxa Rus in straight sets in the final of the USD 25,000 event in Singapore. Coming into the tournament after competing at the Australian Open Qualifiers, Ankita demolished world number 122 and the Dutch top seed 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes.

Ankita toppled four seeded players in the tournament starting with Dutch eighth seed Lesley Kerkhove in the second round. The gritty 25-year-old followed that up with wins over second seed Uzbek Sabina Sharipova and third seed Conny Perrin from Switzerland.

The 50 points earned from the title triumph are likely to catapult Ankita to a career-high singles rank of 168 when the new WTA list is issued on Monday. “I’ve been working on my serve for a long while now and I think it’s starting to help. I also feel there’s more power in the strokes. It definitely helped playing the Grand Slam as the first tournament of the year. It gave a lot of positivity and self belief,” Ankita told PTI from Singapore.