Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday, as many as 3 lakh poor people have benefited from Ayushman Bharat health scheme in the last one-and-a-half months.

Speaking at the function to release the book 'Making of New India: Transformation under Modi Government', Jaitley said that the NDA Government is both pro-business and pro-poor as the country needs greater resources to fund the poverty alleviation programmes.

Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday became the first Indian state to launch a single emergency number "112" which will connect to police, fire, health and other helplines through an Emergency Response Centre (ERC) in the state.

Under the project, one ERC has been established in Shimla along with 12 District Command Centres covering the entire state.

"The ERC has been integrated with police (100), fire (101), health (108) and women helpline (1090) services to provide emergency services via single emergency number 112," said a Union Home Ministry statement.

The service is part of the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) which includes a '112 India' mobile app integrated with panic button of smartphones and ERSS state website for ease of citizen in availing immediate assistance.

Global leaders will gather in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires this week for the Group of 20 summit, a meeting of the world’s largest economies responsible for 85% of global economic output and two-thirds of the world’s population.

While leaders will try to build consensus on key issues, the talks will be overshadowed by trade tensions between the United States and China.

 IT czar and philanthropist Azim Premji was bestowed with the highest French civilian distinction Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) here on Wednesday.

Premji, who is the chairman of Bengaluru-headquartered IT major Wipro, received the distinction from the Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler here, Wipro said.

"The award was bestowed on Azim Premji for his outstanding contribution to developing the information technology industry in India, his economic outreach in France, and his laudable contribution to society as a philanthropist through the Azim Premji Foundation and Azim Premji University," Ziegler said.

In his acceptance speech, Premji said, "I am extremely honored by the award bestowed on me. The vibrancy of the French democracy and its diversity is an inspiration to all across the world."

New Delhi: Hospitality firm OYO on Tuesday said it has appointed Max Healthcare Executive Director Rohit Kapoor as the chief executive officer (CEO) of its new real estate businesses, effective 6 December.

Kapoor will be entrusted with the responsibility to drive new real estate business opportunities which will include exploring new domains and categories and other strategic initiatives, OYO said in a statement.

He will also be responsible for growing OYO’s business in India as well as across international markets, through strategic partnerships and investment opportunities, it added.

Kapoor will be reporting to OYO Hotels & Homes Founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal, the statement said.

The BCCI on Tuesday announced that a cricketer guilty of age fraud will be barred from all its recognised tournaments for two years. “The BCCI has a zero-tolerance policy for age fraud in sport and has taken strict action against cricketers found guilty of manipulating their date of birth certificates while registering for BCCI tournaments,” said the BCCI in a statement.

“As conveyed to state associations at the start of the season, BCCI wishes to reiterate that from the 2018-19 season, any cricketer who is found guilty of tampering his/her date of birth will be disqualified and barred from participating in any BCCI tournament for a period of 2 years i.e. 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons,” it added.

Earlier, a cricketer faced a ban of one year. In September, the BCCI had banned a Meghalya-bound Delhi player, Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva, for producing a fake birth certificate to play in an Under-19 tournament.

Jack Ma, co-founder of China’s most valuable company, was officially confirmed as a member of the Communist Party in a state-backed newspaper recognizing business leaders for their contributions to the country’s development.

The lines between business and politics have become increasingly hazy in China as President Xi Jinping has led a campaign to ensure the Communist Party plays a leading role across all aspects of society. That has at time created tensions when the interests of private business people and the state have conflicted.

US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said Tuesday.

The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings Trump would have later this week on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Argentina. The annual meeting is being attended by leaders of the top 20 economies of the world.

However, all eyes are expected to be on two meetings that Trump would have with the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that Trump will also have meetings with President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, President Moon Jae-In of South Korea, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

A blast near a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou city in China’s northern Hebei province early on Wednesday killed 22 people and injured at least 22 others, the local government said.

A video of the blast scene shared by state media showed billowing black smoke and flames, while photographs showed rows of burnt-out cars and trucks lining the streets on Wednesday morning.

The fire engulfed 50 vehicles, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing sources from the government. Production at the nearby Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co was shut down, said a woman who answered the plant’s telephone. A spokesman at ChemChina, owner of Hebei Shenghua, confirmed that the blast did not occur at Shenghua.

State media said all fires at the blast site had been extinguished. Zhangjiakou, a city about 156 km (96 miles) northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics alongside the capital.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be invited to Islamabad for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Dawn reported.

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The previous summit in 2016 was cancelled after India backed out following the terrorist attack on an Army camp in Uri where 19 soldiers died.

The last summit of the leaders of the eight SAARC countries was convened in Kathmandu in late 2014. Recalling Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal pitched for dialogue with New Delhi to solve all contentious issues.

“We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly,” Faisal said. So far, India’s refusal to engage Pakistan unless Islamabad addressed its concerns on cross-border terrorism has remained a sticky issue for holding the 19th SAARC summit.

SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. Besides India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the 2016 Islamabad meet. The Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative.