Former ISRO chief Dr. Kasturirangan led Committee submitted the draft National Educational Policy (NEP) to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in New Delhi yesterday. 

The policy draft recommends incorporation of Indian knowledge systems in the curriculum, constituting a National Education Commission and curbing arbitrary fees hikes by private schools. 

The expert panel also proposed massive transformation in Teacher Education by moving all teacher preparation and education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities or colleges. It added that the topics will include Indian contribution to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, psychology, yoga, architecture, medicine, as well as governance, polity, society, and conservation course on Indian knowledge systems. 

The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.

The newly-sworn in NDA government at the Centre has taken four major decisions related to farmers' and traders welfare in the first meeting of the Union Cabinet.

It has approved the extension of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) to all the farmers in the country. Earlier the benefit of the scheme was applicable to farmers having two hectares of land. 

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting in New Delhi last evening, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, nearly 14 crore 50 lakh farmers will be now covered under the revised scheme. The Minister said, total burden on the exchequer will be over 87,000 crore rupees for the year 2019-20. He said, over three crore farmers have been benefited so far. Six thousand rupees per year is being given in three instalments to the farmers, under the scheme. 

Admiral Karambir Singh took over as the Chief of Naval Staff today. With a career spanning over 37 years, Karambir Singh served as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff at the headquarters in New Delhi before moving to Vishakhapatnam last year as the Eastern Naval Commander. 

After his appointment as Navy Chief, Karambir Singh said that his endeavour would be toward providing the nation a Navy that is strong, capable and which is ready to meet any security challenge in the maritime domain.

Admiral Sunil Lanba relinquished his command of the Indian Navy on completion of his tenure and retirement from service after over four decades of distinguished service.

Six Indian-origin students are among the eight participants who won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee after defeating over 550 other contestants in an unprecedented competition in the US.

It is the first time in the 94-year history of the competition that more than two co-champions have been named.

Rishik Gandhasri, Saketh Sundar,  Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali,  Rohan Raja, Christopher Serrao and Erin Howard were named as co-champions. Each will receive the full winner's prize of 50,000 US Dollar in cash.

The six boys and two girls combined to spell the final 47 words correctly over five consecutive perfect rounds.

The 565 contestants ranged in age from 7 to 14 and came from across the US and several other countries, including Canada, Ghana and Jamaica.  

Binny, India’s only orangutan, has died at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Odisha.

The 41-year-old primate’s death on Wednesday is being attributed to respiratory complications, The Indian Express reported.

She was undergoing treatment for infected wound on her throat since the last two years.

“Binny also had a wound on her pouch that would not heal because she was constantly scratching it,” veterinary assistant surgeon Dr Sarat Sahu, was quoted as saying.

Binny was brought from the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Pune to the zoo in 2003. “Prior to that, we think she was sourced from Singapore,” Express quoted Alok Das, Sanctuary Manager at the zoo, as saying.

A senior official from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) said Binny was already old and every effort was made to cure the infection, “including a teleconference with veterinarians from outside the country.”

The first meeting of the new Union Cabinet will be held this evening. The possible date of convening the Parliament session could be decided in the meeting. The newly-elected Lok Sabha members have to be administered the oath during the ensuing session.

In the coming days, the Prime Minister would also decide on the various Cabinet Committees such as Cabinet Committee on Security, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.

The country's median GDP is forecast at 7.1 per cent for FY20 and 7.2 per cent for FY 21.

The industry body FICCI's economic outlook survey said that the minimum and maximum growth estimate stood at 6.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent, for 2019-20.

The survey was conducted in May 2019 among economists belonging to the industry, banking and financial services sectors.

Inflation is expected to remain moderate and the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate is projected at 3.1 per cent in 2019-20, While, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation has a median forecast of 4 per cent for 2019-20.

National Democratic Alliance leader Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second consecutive term yesterday. 

President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of Office and Secrecy to him and a team of 57 ministers at a glittering ceremony on the forecourts of the Rashtrapati Bhawan just before sunset. 

Besides 24 Cabinet ministers including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal, nine were sworn in as Minister of State with Independent charge and another 24 as Minister of State.

One-third of the total ministers in the Cabinet are first-timers,  including BJP president Amit Shah and former Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Two former Chief Ministers - Ramesh Pokhriyal from Uttarakhand and Arjun Munda from Jharkhand - have taken oath as Union ministers for the first time. 

This will be the first innings for six Cabinet ministers and 13 Ministers of State. BJP's Prahlad Joshi and Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant will also become Union ministers for the first time. 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a six-member committee on the Development of Secondary Market for Corporate Loans to come up with recommendations to increase the efficiencies of the debt market and aid in the resolution of stressed assets.

As per its terms of reference, the committee, headed by TN Mahoharan, Chairman, Canara Bank, will make recommendations on required policy/regulatory interventions for facilitating the development of secondary market in corporate loans, including loan transaction platform for stressed assets.

It will create a loan contract registry to remove information asymmetries between buyers and sellers, its ownership structure and related protocols, such as standardisation of loan information, independent validation, and data access.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will begin today. England will open the tournament at The Oval in London when they will take on South Africa. The match will begin at 3 PM Indian Time. 

Australia will launch their title defence on June 1 against the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier champions Afghanistan in a day/night match in Bristol. 

India, the 1983 and 2011 world champions, will play their first match on June 5 against South Africa at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton. 

Their feature match against arch-rivals Pakistan will be on June 16 at Old Trafford in Manchester. 

The World Cup will span 48 matches in all, of which 45 will make up the group stage. Each team will play nine group stage matches, and the top four will progress to the semifinals, similar to how the 1992 World Cup was held.