NHAI today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to find alternative sources to fund highway projects.

While NHAI has been working on debt markets for long term financing, the highway major plans to tap into sovereign bonds and pension funds through this MoU.

It is also an attempt to attract international investors and fund houses who are willing to invest in road projects in India but not very keen to take risk related to the project execution.

The upgraded version of the homegrown BrahMos missile with an enhanced range of up to 500 km is ready, the CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, Sudhir Kumar Mishra, has said. Mishra, in an interview broadcast on Doordarshan News Sunday, said it is possible to increase the range of this missile because India is now a part of the elite Missile Technology Control Regime

(MTCR).

"India has successfully test-fired a vertical deep dive version of BrahMos, the world's fastest supersonic cruise missile, that can now change the dynamics of conventional warfare...the upgraded version of the missile with enhanced range of up to 500 km is also ready," he said.

He said India is now the only country in the world to integrate long-range missiles onto fighter jets after the BrahMos missile was test-fired from a Sukhoi 30 aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

Then Indian Naval Ship Tarkash arrived at Tangier, Morocco today for a three-day visit. The visit is part of an ongoing Overseas Deployment by the Indian Navy to the Mediterranean Sea, Africa and Europe. The visit seeks to strengthen the bonds of friendship between India and Morocco.

INS Tarkash, commanded by Captain Sathish Vasudev, is a state-of-the-art stealth frigate of the Indian Navy, equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors capable of addressing threats in all three dimensions. The ship is a part of the Indian Navy's Western Fleet and is under the operational Command of Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.

During the port call, various dignitaries and government officials of Morocco including senior naval officers are scheduled to visit the ship. The ship would also take part in numerous professional, social and sporting interactions planned with the Royal Moroccan Navy. On departing the port, INS Tarkash will carry out a Passage Exercise at sea with ships of the Royal Moroccan Navy.

Putting up a dominating show, India's top wrestler Vinesh Phogat won her first gold medal after shifting to 53kg category while Divya Kakran claimed the top honours in the 68kg category at the Grand Prix of Spain.

Vinesh, one of India's medal hopefuls at the 2020 Tokyo Games, was competing only in her third tournament in the new category.

In the eight-wrestler 53kg draw, Vinesh comfortably beat Peru's Justina Benites and Russia's Nina Minkenova before getting the better of Dutch rival Jessica Blaszka in the final.

Gold medal winner at the Jakarta Asian Games, Vinesh did not lose a single point against Justina and Nina but Jessica did take six points from the Indian in the final.

India vice-captain Rohit Sharma is in the form of his life. He has been breaking records for fun in ICC World Cup 2019. 5 centuries – the most by any batsman in a single edition of World Cup – most runs (647), you name it and he has it all. On Tuesday, in the India vs New Zealand first semi-final of ICC World Cup 2019, Rohit has a chance to once again rewrite the record books.Such has been Rohit’s brilliance with the bat in this showpiece event that for once, the spotlight has shifted away from India captain Virat Kohli and is firmly on Rohit. It is expected to remain the same when India take on New Zealand Tuesday at Manchester.

Rohit is on verge of breaking two World Cup records and both of them belong to Sachin Tendulkar. Rohit, who has 647 runs to his name in just 8 innings in this World Cup is just 27 runs away from eclipsing Tendulkar to become the highest run-scorer in a single edition of the world event.

Star Indian sprinter Hima Das claimed her second international gold in women’s 200m with a top finish at the Kutno Athletics Meet in POLAND. 

Hima, who has been struggling with a back problem for the past few months, clocked 23.97 seconds to clinch the gold while V.K. Vismaya bagged the silver in 24.06 on Sunday.

National record holder Muhammed Anas also won the gold in men’s 200m race with a time of 21.18 seconds.

NITI Aayog has said that it can consider Tamil Nadu’s objections to its poor ranking on the ‘Healthy States Progressive India Report (2017-18)’, released on June 26, only next year.

The states were judged on parameters such as institutional deliveries and immunisation coverage, and functional 24X7 Public Health Centres. Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat were among the top-ranking states.

Tamil Nadu has alleged discrepancies in NITI Aayog’s assessment and called it based on wrong methodology and indicators. It has also said that a senior state officer had reported these errors to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant during consultation and preparation of the draft report.

The Hong Kong government has approved over $900,000 for relief and rehabilitation work in cyclone-hit Odisha that could benefit around 45,100 victims, China's official media reported on Friday.

'Very severe cyclonic storm' Fani battered Odisha in May and killed 64 people and damaged more than five lakh dwelling units in the state's coastal districts.

Three grants totalling 7.032 million Hong Kong dollars (about $902,278) from Hong Kong's Disaster Relief Fund to three agencies has been approved for the cyclone victims in Odisha, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported quoting a spokesperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government as saying.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee voted on Friday to list the sprawling Mesopotamian metropolis of Babylon as a World Heritage Site after three decades of lobbying efforts by Iraq.

Iraq had been trying since 1983 to have the site — a massive 10-square-kilometre complex of which just 18 pe rcent has been excavated thus far — recognised by UNESCO.

Straddling Iraq's Euphrates River about 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, the city was the centre of the ancient Babylonian empire more than 4,000 years ago.

"What is the world heritage list without Babylon? How to tell the history of humanity without the earliest of old chapters, Babylon?" said Iraq's representative to UNESCO's World Heritage Committee ahead of the vote.

Eighteen hundred Bangladeshi mid-career civil servants will be trained at the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) in Mussoorie between 2019-2025.

The first batch of 30 civil servants leaving for a two-week long training programme in Mussoorie paid a visit to the  Indian High Commission in Dhaka yesterday.

The Bangladeshi civil servants are being trained at the National Centre for Good Governance based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in February this year in the Fifth meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission (JCC).