Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a convention of traders at Talkatora stadium in New Delhi today.

The convention has been organised by traders supporting the BJP to express gratitude for various measures promised in the party manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls.

Union minister Vijay Goel said, traders want to express their gratitude to the Prime Minister for the BJP's Sankalp Patra promising measures like accident insurance of 10 lakh rupees, pension after 60 years, traders credit card, simplification of GST and also exemption from income tax up to 5 lakh rupees.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari claimed that only the saffron party can permanently solve the problems of traders.

New technology is being put to the test fighting floods this year as rivers inundate towns and farm fields across the central United States. Drones, supercomputers and sonar that scans deep under water are helping to maintain flood control projects and predict just where rivers will breach their banks.

Together, these tools are putting detailed information to use in real time, enabling emergency managers and people at risk to make decisions that can save lives and property, said Kristie Franz, associate professor of geological and atmospheric sciences at Iowa State University. The cost of this technology is coming down even as disaster recovery becomes more expensive.  

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is going to have her mission on the International Space Station (ISS) extended to 328 days. This would set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.  

The US space agency and its ISS partners have set a new schedule and new crew assignments. Koch arrived at the space station on March 14 and now is scheduled to remain in orbit until February 2020. She will eclipse the record of 288 days set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17. 

She will be part of three expeditions -- 59, 60 and 61 -- during her current first spaceflight. Her extended mission will provide additional data for NASA's Human Research Program and continue to support future missions to the Moon and Mars. The longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut is 340 days, set by former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly during his one-year mission in 2015-16.

Sri Lanka’s first satellite ‘Raavana-1’ was launched into space today from NASA’s Flight Facility on Virginia’s east shore. ‘Raavana 1’ weights around 1.05 kg and the lifespan of the satellite is around one and a half years.

The launch marks Sri Lanka’s entry into the global space age. The satellite was designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan by two Sri Lankan research engineers. Its camera mission is to capture images of Sri Lanka and its neighbouring countries. 

Indian weightlifters will make their bid to gain a 2020 Olympic qualification at the 10-day Asian Weightlifting Championships in Ningbo, China starting today.

Former World and reigning Commonwealth Games champion Mirabai Chanu will be the biggest star of India's 12-member squad. Among male lifters, there will be hope riding on 16-year old Mizo teen Jeremy Lalrinnunga, who became India's first-ever gold medallist at the Youth Olympic Games last year. Commonwealth Games champion Satish Sivalingam,  will also be expected to make a medal-winning comeback.

India's squad for Asian Weightlifting Championships includes following:

Men: Sathish Sivalingam (81 kg), Vikas Thakur (96 kg), Jeremy Lalrinnunga (67kg), Gurdeep Singh (101 kg), M Raja (61 kg), Pradeep Singh (102 kg), Achinta Sheuli (73 kg), Ajay Singh (81 kg).

Women: Mirabai Chanu (49 kg), Jhilli Dalabehera (55 kg), Swati (59kg), Rakhi Halder (64kg)

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that Jet Airways has informed it that it is temporarily ceasing its operations. In a series of tweets, the Ministry said, the bank-led resolution process is still underway and it is expected to end by the 10th of next month.

During this time, the Ministry will support the resolution process within the existing legal and regulatory framework. 

The Ministry said, the Directorate General of Civil Avaition and other regulators are monitoring the situation carefully to ensure that all existing rules regarding refunds, cancellations and alternate bookings are followed strictly. 

Civil Aviation Secretary will convene separate meetings with airport and airlines today to coordinate and address any emerging issues on capacity, slots and passenger convenience.

Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat on Monday commissioned the Indian Coast Guard Ship Veera at a ceremony held at Naval Jetty at the dockyard in the city. Veera, third in the series of offshore patrol vessels of the Coast Guard, was built by L&T at its shipbuilding facility at Kattupalli in Chennai. 

Speaking on the occasion, General Rawat said the induction of the OPV will give a fillip to the maritime protection of India’s vast coastline of Eastern Seaboard. He said the commissioning of Veera will enhance the Indian Coast Guard’s operational capability to discharge its multifarious maritime tasks. 

General Rawat said there was good cooperation and synergy between Indian Army and Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has been pursuing the first ever joint case for the acquisition of vehicles for shallow water operations. The Coast Guard, being experienced in such operations, has played a lead role as lead agency in the project, he said. General Rawat was all praise for the Coast Guard, which was formed in 1978, has emerged as the fourth largest force in coastal security in the world.

ACI Worldwide, a global provider of realtime electronic payment and banking solutions, announced that Canara Bank has successfully rolled out major new functionality to support EMV card acquiring across its ATM network and Aadhaar Authentication, leveraging ACI’s UP Retail Payments solution to achieve market firsts.

Canara Bank, one of India’s largest public sector banks with nearly 6,300 branches and a network of more than 10,000 ATMs, is the first public sector bank to shift to EMV chip and PIN for card present transactions across the country’s vast ATM network. The EMV shift, as in other major global markets, is aimed at reducing lost and stolen card fraud and making counterfeit card fraud more difficult. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had set a deadline of December 31, 2018 for the switch, mandating use of an embedded chip to replace the traditional magnetic stripe card.

Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank on April 16 said it has received approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the proposed acquisition of Gruh Finance. Gruh Finance, the affordable housing finance arm of HDFC Ltd, was taken over in January by Bandhan Bank in a share-swap deal.

Last month, the private sector lender received a nod in this regard from the Reserve Bank of India.

"The Competition Commission of India has by way of its letter dated April 15, 2019, intimated that CCI, at its meeting held on April 15, 2019, considered the proposed combination and approved the same," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Ace cricketer Mithali Raj has been named as the goodwill ambassador of the Indian team for the Street Child Cricket World Cup.

Captain of India's woman ODI side, Mithali joins former captain Saurav Ganguly and IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals in supporting the team.

Mithali said, "I am excited to join the Street Child Cricket World Cup as a goodwill ambassador for Team India.

As an athlete, I know the true potential that sports can play in not just changing a child's reality, but also garnering public support for children who live on the streets.

"India has over 20 lakh street connected children and there lies our nation's untapped potential.