Air Force Chief Birender Singh Dhanoa left on a five-day goodwill visit to Japan on Monday. 

During his visit, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa will call on Japanese Minister of Defence Takeshi Iwaya, Chief of Staff of Japan Air Self Defence Force General Yoshinari Marumo, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano.

This visit of the Indian Air Chief will provide further impetus towards expanding defence cooperation between the two countries and pave the way for greater interaction and cooperation in future.

Raising Indian government hopes of bringing home fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, a UK court Monday ordered his extradition to India to stand trial on the charges brought by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate. He has 14 days to appeal the order in a higher court.

Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered the extradition, saying there was “no evidence which allowed me to find that if extradited, Dr Mallya was at real risk of suffering a flagrant denial of justice”.

Holding that Mallya’s conduct “would constitute the offences of making false representations to make a gain for himself, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering”, she said, “I am sending Dr Mallya’s case to the Home Secretary of State for a decision to be taken on whether to order his extradition”.

The indigenously built Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile Agni-5 has been test-fired successfully from Abdul Kalam island under  Chandipur Interim Test Range on Monday.

This is the fourth successful test of this missile. Previously the test of  Agni 4 was unsuccessful.  Having 17 meters length and 2 meters diameter the missile can hit the target from a distance of 5 thousand kilometres. 

It can carry both nuclear and traditional weapons. The first test was conducted in 2012 from  ITR Chandipur in Balasore district.

Today is Human Rights Day and the year when Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turns 70. Apart from going through the theme and objective of Human Rights Day, let us visit the time when Hansa Mehta of India changed the phrase 'all men' with 'all human beings' in UDHR.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on December 10, the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This year marks the 70th anniversary of the document which declared inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being -- regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the most translated document in the world-- available in more than 500 languages.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the prime minister's office and senior journalist Jagdish Thakkar passed away on Monday.

Thakkar, 72, who was unwell for some time, passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled his demise, saying he was awonderful person who loved his work. "Extremely saddened by the demise of Shri Jagdish Thakkar, the PRO in the PMO. Jagdishbhai was a veteran journalist and I had the pleasure of working with him for years, both in Gujarat and in Delhi. He was known for his simplicity and warm-hearted nature," the PM tweeted.

He said several journalists would have regularly interacted with Jagdishbhai over the years.

He had previously served with many chief ministers of Gujarat, "We have lost a wonderful person, who loved his work and did it with utmost diligence. Condolences to his family and well wishers," Modi said.

Khelo India Youth Games-2019 will be held in Pune of Maharashtra from the 9th to 20th of January. 

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today, Sports Minister Col Rajyavardhan Rathore said, nine thousand youth will participate in this edition of the game. 

Last year around 3500 school children had participated in the event. He said, in this edition of Khelo India Youth Games university players will also take part.

Col Rathore said, his Ministry is trying to develop a sports system that connects local talents to global podiums. He said, the government will also involve private organisations to supplement its efforts to groom the talents in various disciplines. 

The Minister said, under Khelo India programme, the government is providing scholarships to 1500 students from across the country. 

In a major push to kickstart listing of start-ups in India in a big way, capital markets regulator Sebi has lined up a slew of relaxations for new-age ventures. 

The proposed changes include renaming the Institutional Trading Platform that the regulator had created for such listings as Innovators Growth Platform. 

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had set up an expert group in June this year to review the start-up platform. 

The Group held extensive consultations with other stakeholders including start-ups, investors, bankers and wealth management firms and submitted its report to Sebi on the proposed changes. 

The changes include doing away with the requirement of at least 50 per cent of pre-issue capital being held by qualified institutional investors.

In a landmark decision, UAE has increased the representation of Emirati women in the Federal National Council to 50 per cent from the coming Parliamentary term.

A decree passed by the UAE President has directed the doubling of the current percentage of women's representation in the Federal National Council from 22.5 per cent to 50 per cent in the coming parliamentary term.
 
The Emirati News Agency reported that the decision aims to rank the UAE in the top positions worldwide in terms of representation of women in parliament. This will enable the UAE women to achieve in a record time, what has been achieved by their counterparts globally in decades.

Last week the UAE Cabinet had adopted a new package of national legislative policies and initiatives to empower the Emirati women and make them partners in the country’s progress.

India is expected to receive a total remittance of $80 billion in 2018, said the latest edition of the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief, released on Saturday.

"Among major remittance recipients, India retains its top spot, with remittances expected to total $80 billion this year, followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each), and Egypt ($26 billion)," the brief said.

"As global growth is projected to moderate, future remittances to low and middle-income countries are expected to grow moderately by 4 per cent to reach $549 billion in 2019. Global remittances are expected to grow 3.7 per cent to $715 billion in 2019."

Government has notified commonly used medical devices nebulizers, blood pressure monitors, digital thermometers and glucometers as drugs under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. It will enable the government to ensure their quality and performance. 

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) will regulate the import, manufacture and sale of these devices from January 2020.

 The DTAB, the country's highest drug advisory body, had approved the proposal to include them under the purview of the Drug law. Currently, only 23 medical devices are monitored for quality by the country's drug regulator. 

With four new devices being notified, 27 medical devices now fall under the definition of drugs under the Act.