The 28-hour countdown for the launch of Cartosat-2 series satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh began at 5.29 am on Thursday.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), would launch the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 243 kg at lift-off into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at 09.20 hours on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The total weight of all these satellites carried onboard PSLV-C38 is about 955 kg.

The co-passenger satellites, comprise 29 Nano satellites from 14 countries - Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America besides a Nano satellite from India.

PSLV-C38 will be launched from the First Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

This will be the 40th flight of PSLV and 17th flight of PSLV in 'XL' configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).

The space agency said the 29 international customer Nano satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), commercial arm of ISRO and international customers.

Nation pays homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 122nd birth anniversary today.

President, Vice President and Prime Minister today paid tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary.
In a tweet, President Ram Nath Kovind said, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose remains one of the most beloved national heroes and an icon of India's freedom struggle.

He said, Netaji is cherished, remembered and missed to this day all over the country.

Paying his tributes Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said, he bows to the heroism, vision and dedication of Netaji towards the country.
He urged citizens of every generation to study the personality and work of patriotic leaders like Netaji and respect their contribution in the history of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet said, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was a stalwart who committed himself towards ensuring India is free and leads a life of dignity.

The Prime Minister said the Government is committed to fulfilling his ideals and creating a strong India.

The Union government on Monday formed a committee housed in its think tank NITI Aayog to recommend medicines for price control, diluting the central role of the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA) in setting drug prices.

Currently, NPPA functions as an autonomous body regulating prices of medicines and health products such as stents under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), besides monitoring prices of those that are not on the list. The new order also ends the existing mechanism in which drugs declared essential would automatically come under price control. From now, the NITI Aayog committee will decide which drugs should be under price control.

A 21 January order from the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers announced the formation of a standing committee on affordable medicines and health products (SCAMHP) led by member (health), NITI Aayog, and including the chief economic adviser in the ministry of finance; secretary of the department of health research; NLEM vice chairman; joint secretary of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP); director general of health services and a subject expert on biomedical devices/pharmaceuticals.

“The committee should be housed in the NITI Aayog and will be serviced by it," said the order.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli created history by winning all three top awards at ICC Awards 2018.

Virat Kohli bagged all the major laurels during the ICC Awards 2018 that were declared Tuesday by becoming the first to win the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) cricketer, test and one-day international (ODI) player of the year awards. Kohli became the first player in history to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year awards following an extraordinary 2018. In addition to these, he was also named the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year for 2018.

Indian cricketers and fans went all out to celebrate this occasion online and dubbed him as ‘King Kohli’. The 30-year-old from Delhi finished the year as the top-ranked batsman in Tests and ODIs. The highest scorer in both forms of the game in 2018, he was one of only two batsmen to score more than 1,000 runs in Tests and only among three to do so in ODI cricket. He scored 1,202 ODI runs in 2018 at a stunning average of 133.55. He also became the fastest to reach the milestone of 10,000 runs in the format.

Nepal's central bank has announced the ban of Indian currency notes with denominations above Rs 100.

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on Sunday issued a circular for the institutions licensed by it notifying them about the ban, reports Xinhua news agency.

Nepal's cabinet in December had decided to ban the use of these currency notes.

The decision to ban these notes has come a time when the NRB has requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) arequesting the latter to allow Nepal to use currency notes with all denominations.

China's economy grew at 6.6 per cent in 2018, its slowest rate in almost three decades. The world's second biggest economy was grappling with the effects of the current trade war with the US and declining exports.

In the three months to December, the economy grew 6.4% from a year earlier, down from 6.5 per cent in the previous quarter. The data was in line with forecasts but underlines recent concern about weakening growth. China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  said today that last year's growth rate was down from 6.8 per cent in 2017 and was the lowest since 1990  when growth rate  was 3.9 per cent. 

China's rate of expansion has raised worries about the potential knock-on effect on the global economy. The trade war with the US has added to the gloomy outlook. The US and China have been locked in an escalating trade spat since early 2018, raising import tariffs on each other's goods. 

India is among the most trusted nations globally when it comes to government, business, NGOs and media.

The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer report, which was released today, ahead of the World Economic Forum meet in Davos, noted that the Global Trust Index witnessed a marginal increase of 3 points to 52.
 
China topped the Trust Index among both the informed public and the general population segments. 
 
India was at the second place in the informed public category and third place in the general population category.
 
The Index is the average per cent of trust in NGOs, business, government and media.
 
The findings are based on an online survey in 27 markets covering over 33,000 respondents. The fieldwork was conducted between October to November last year.
 
In terms of trust in companies headquartered in each market, the most trusted are those from Switzerland, Germany and Canada. 

However, as per the report, companies headquartered in India, Mexico and Brazil are the least trusted, followed by China and South Korea.

President Ram Nath Kovind will confer the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhawan today. The Award will be given in two categories- Bal Shakti Puraskar and Bal Kalyan Puraskar. 

AIR correspondent reports that The Bal Shakti Puraskar will be given to 26 shortlisted children including one joint award in the field of innovation, scholastic, sports, arts and culture, social service and bravery. Two individuals and three institutions will be awarded the Bal Kalyan Puraskar. 

The award under Bal Shakti Puraskar carries a cash prize of one lakh rupees, book vouchers worth ten thousand rupees, a certificate and a citation. Under Bal Kalyan Puraskar, the award for individual consists of a cash prize of one lakh rupees, a medal, a citation and a certificate while the award for institution consists of a cash prize of five lakh rupees. Women and Child Development Ministry revamped the scheme of National Awards for children in 2018 to include Bravery as an additional component in the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said India's economy is poised to pick up this year. IMF's World Economic Outlook Update, released yesterday by its chief economist Gita Gopinath in Davos, projected that India will grow at 7.5 per cent this year and 7.7 per cent in 2020, an impressive over one percentage point ahead of China's estimated growth of 6.2 per cent in these two years. 

The IMF attributed the pick up to lower oil prices and a slower pace of monetary tightening. IMF said India would remain one of the fastest growing major economies of the world. Despite fiscal stimulus that offsets some of the impacts of higher US tariffs, China's economy will slow down due to the combined influence of needed financial regulatory tightening and trade tensions with the US.
 
China which grew at 6.9 per cent in 2017, as compared to 6.7 per cent by India, had a growth rate of 6.6 per cent in 2018.  The IMF said while, the Chinese growth rate has been on a downward slope India has experienced an upward trajectory in these years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Tuesday in this temple town and hold talks with his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth after the inaugural session. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Monday, along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and said the Indian diaspora has dramatically changed the world's perception of Indians and India.

Mauritian Premier Jugnauth arrived here in the afternoon and was received by Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh. Later, Swaraj called on the Mauritian PM and exchanged views on a range of issues, including strengthening bilateral cooperation.

For the first time, the three-day-long convention is being organised from January 21 to 23 instead of January 9 to allow participants visit the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and attend the Republic Day parade here.
The theme of this year's convention is 'role of Indian diaspora in building new India', a statement from the prime minister's office said. Varanasi in Modi's parliamentary constituency.