World Red Cross Day, also known as World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day which is observed every year on May 8 is a gentle nod to all the volunteers who have made unparalleled contribution to people in need

Incidentally, the day is also the birthday of Henry Dunant, who had generated the Red Cross Committee of the International (ICRI) in 1863 in Switzerland, Geneva. He was born on May 8, 1828 and was also the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The government has decided to reduce the qualifying marks for NEET-PG for 2019-20 by six percentile. 

An official statement said, general category candidates with a minimum mark of 44 percentile, persons with disabilities category with a minimum of 39 percentile and SC/ST and OBC category candidates with 34 percentile will become eligible for admission to postgraduate medical courses. 

The statement said, all states and Union Territories were requested to make necessary arrangements for allowing students as per revised qualifying marks in any further rounds of counselling this year. 

Mastercard on Monday announced a $1 billion investment in India over the next five years aimed at converting India into a vital node in the company’s infrastructure, and also to continue business expansion.

“There is a very large presence that Mastercard has built, and now, after having seen the last five years, we are very bullish on the overall Indian economy and what the future looks like, and clearly very excited about the digital payments ecosystem and payments ecosystem in general,” Ari Sarker, co-president, Asia Pacific at Mastercard told The Hindu.

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Papua New Guinea early this morning, officials said. 

The quake struck at a depth of 127 kilometres about 30 kilometres from the town of Bulolo according to the US Geological Survey. It was felt in the capital Port Moresby about 250 kilometres away. 

Officials said there were no immediate reports of major damage and the depth of the tremor meant there was no tsunami threat.

There are currently no tsunami warnings in the region, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has said that Central Govt will provide manpower,  machine, material and money for restoration work in cyclone FANI affected areas in Odisha.  

Visiting the cyclone-affected areas today in Odisha, Prime Minister said that 1000 crore rupees financial assistance will be given to Odisha. Before the cyclone, 381 crore rupees assistance in advance was declared by the  Prime Minister. 

After an areal survey of the cyclone-affected areas today Prime Minister said that whatever will be required for restoration and rehabilitation work, Center will not hesitate to provide it as assistance. 

India and the United States have agreed to strengthen economic co-operation and bilateral trade by ensuring greater collaboration amongst stakeholders, including government, businesses and entrepreneurs. 

A bilateral trade meeting was held between the two countries in New Delhi yesterday. Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross co-chaired the meeting. 

An official release said, both leaders appreciated the strong, robust and growing bilateral ties across the entire spectrum of trade and commerce. Both sides also expressed satisfaction over last year's progress, with bilateral trade in Goods and Services registering a growth of 12.6 per cent.

India and US also discussed various outstanding trade issues.

Krishna Das (39) works at the office of the station manager at Bhubaneswar railway station. With Cyclone Fani throwing train schedules off the track, Das has been helping passengers with information about train movement for the past couple of days.

Das is among many government employees working relentlessly to restore order in Bhubaneswar and other parts of Odisha hit by the cyclone.

Thousands of passengers stranded at Bhubaneswar station say uncertainty bothers them more than the delay in departures and arrivals. Das, a resident of Jharkhand, calmly fields hundreds of queries from such passengers.

He has every train’s timing, every cancellation and diversion at the tip of his tongue.

A young girl walks in and says that she remembers her train, but not her coach and seat numbers. She says she cannot board other coaches as they are oveloaded and the stressed passengers are shouting at “trespassers”. This time, Das has no solution.

If Das is engaged in spreading information and preventing confusion, Sumanta Bhoi (24) is working to restore power supply across the city.

A personnel of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force, Sumanta is on the frontline of efforts to disentangle power cables from branches of trees uprooted in the cyclone.

Clad in bright orange uniform, Sumanta’s task is tedious and intricate. He has to balance a 20-inch motorised blade at one end of a fifteen-foot-long pole and saw away at small twigs while trying his best not to slice the cable.

Britain's opposition Labour Party on Wednesday called for "real action" after parliament became the first in the world to vote to declare a climate emergency.

"Thanks to pressure from the Labour Party, the UK just became the first country to declare an environment and #climateemergency," the party said on its Twitter page.

State-owned telecom firm BSNL has become the first operator to start optical fibre-based high-speed broadband service in Pulwama with the launch of 'Bharat Fibre', the company said Thursday.

"This is the first such FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) service deployment in the (Kashmir) Valley under this unique revenue share model. Since the Bharat Fibre services are provided on the optical fibre right up to the customer premises, reliable and high-speed internet services are delivered to the customers," BSNL Director (Consumer Fixed Access) Vivek Banzal said in a statement.

He added that the services are generally not affected even during adverse weather conditions.

BSNL provides FTTH service with a monthly charge in the range of Rs 777-16,999 in over 160 telecom districts with a minimum speed of 2 megabit per second (mbps).

"We have plans to roll out this service in all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir. People looking for business opportunities to partner with BSNL should contact local BSNL authorities and our team shall explain the ease of network integration and revenue sharing process," Banzal said.

Former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar was Thursday conferred with France's highest civilian award - Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Lgion d'Honneur - for his contribution to India-France space cooperation.

According to an official statement, on behalf of the President of France, Ambassador of France to India, Alexandre Ziegler conferred Kumar with the highest civilian honour of France.