Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked top bureaucrats to prepare a  five-year plan document for each Ministry with well-defined targets and a significant impactful decision in each Ministry for which approvals will be taken within 100 days.  

Interacting with all Secretaries to the Union Government at his residence in New Delhi yesterday Mr Modi said all departments of the government must seek to leverage the upcoming milestone of 75 years of independence.  He said it can inspire people to make a contribution to the betterment of the country.

During the interaction, the Prime Minister said, the recent General Elections mandate reflects the will and aspirations of the people to change the status quo and seek a better life for themselves. He said, the huge expectations of the people should not be viewed as a challenge, but an opportunity. 

India's automobile major Mahindra won the Gold Award for fairing on various indicators, including level of satisfaction among its network of dealers and the manner of allocation of vehicles to them.

Mahindra, which has been in South Africa for the past 16 years, received the award on June 7 from the country's National Automobile Dealers' Association (NADA) which tests dealers' satisfaction with the way a brand supports and communicates with them.

The automobile giant, which has more than 60 dealers in South Africa, secured the top position out of the 29 vehicle brands surveyed for the awards.

With Assam’s National Register of Citizens as the backdrop, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has laid out specific guidelines to detect, detain and deport foreign nationals staying illegally across the country.

The MHA has amended the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and has empowered district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not. Earlier, the powers to constitute tribunals were vested only with the Centre.

The tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, unique to Assam, to determine if a person staying illegally is a “foreigner” or not. In other parts, once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying illegally, he or she is produced before a local court under the Passport Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, with the punishment ranging three months to eight years in jail. Once the accused have served the sentence, the court orders their deportation, and they are moved to detention centres till the country of origin accepts them. The 1964 order on Constitution of Tribunals said: “The Central Government may by order, refer the question as to whether a person is not a foreigner within meaning of the Foreigners Act, 1946 (31 of 1946) to a Tribunal to be constituted for the purpose, for its opinion.” The amended order issued last week says – “for words Central Government may,’ the words ‘the Central Government or the State Government or the Union Territory administration or the District Collector or the District Magistrate may’ shall be substituted.”

Yuvraj Singh brought the curtains down on his decorated cricket career on Monday as he announced his retirement from international cricket in a press conference in Mumbai.

The celebrated cricketer and one of the biggest match-winners the country has ever produced, ended a career which spanned 19 years after he made his debut in the ICC KnockOut Trophy in Kenya and impressed in his the very first match he got to bat against Australia, scoring a match-winning 84 against the likes of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie.

Ganguly and the Indian team management had noticed Yuvraj after he was named the Player of the Tournament in the 2000 Under-19 World Cup in which he scored 203 runs and picked up 12 wickets as Mohammad Kaif's team lifted the trophy after beating Sri Lanka in the final.

Noted actor, dramatist and Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad passed away in Bengaluru this morning due to multi-organ failure. 

He was 81. 

Coming to fame as Kannada playwright in the 1960s, he went on to become a critically acclaimed actor and filmmaker during the later years. Besides the Jnanpith award, Karnad was also conferred the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. 

Vamsha Vruksha, Ek tha Tiger, Nagamandala and Malgudi Days are some of the movies and TV serials in which he played a role and Odakalu bimba, Taledanda and the fire and the rain are some of the plays written by him.

In Tennis, world number two Rafael Nadal has lifted the French Open Men's Singles title for the 12th time. 

In the summit clash played at Paris last night, the Spaniard defeated Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to win at the Roland Garros for the third straight year. 

The 33-year-old became the first player to win 12 Singles titles at the same Grand Slam and has now won 18 majors overall.

Nadal is now just two titles behind Roger Federer's all-time record of 20 majors and is three ahead of world number one Novak Djokovic. 

Nadal also took his Paris record to an astonishing 93 wins and just two losses. The win also gave Nadal an 82nd career title and 950th match win.   25-year old Thiem suffered his second Grand Slam final defeat after he lost to Nadal in three sets in last year's title clash.

With an eye on China’s pro-active moves in the Indian Ocean region, India will strengthen defence partnerships with at least two key projects in the Maldives as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the island nation in his first bilateral visit in the second term. Modi and Maldives President Ibrahim Solih will jointly inaugurate two projects – the Coastal Surveillance Radar System and the Composite Training Centre of the Maldives National Defence Forces.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale described the two as “important projects”, valued at about Rs 180 crore, which will be remotely inaugurated by the two leaders. This is part of weaning away Maldives from Beijing, as China has made deep inroads into the Maldivian establishment during the Abdulla Yameen regime.

A massive fire broke out at a chemical factory in Jagannath Ghat near Howrah Bridge in Kolkata at around 2.30 am Saturday. At least 20 fire tenders were deployed to the spot. There are no reports of injuries or casualties so far.

West Bengal fire and emergency service minister Sujit Bose is present at the spot.

The New Orleans-born musician died on Thursday, according to a message posted on his official Twitter account.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer combined the genres of blues, pop, jazz, boogie woogie and rock and roll.

A statement said: "Towards the break of day June 6, iconic music legend Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr, known as Dr John, passed away of a heart attack."

The musician "created a unique blend of music which carried his hometown, New Orleans, at its heart, as it was always in his heart," it continued.

"The family thanks all whom shared his unique musical journey & requests privacy at this time. Memorial arrangements will be announced in due course."

IT Industry icon Azim Premji will retire as Executive Chairman of Wipro with effect from 30th July this year. He led the company for 53 years. 

The company said in a statement that he will continue to serve on the board as Non-Executive Director and founder Chairman.

His son Rishad Premji, Chief Strategy Officer and a board member, will take over as the Executive Chairman of the company. 

The board announced that Chief Executive and Executive Director Abidali Z Neemuchwala will be re-designated as CEO and Managing Director of Wipro.