Cisco, a U.S.-based firm, that makes networking telecommunications equipment, has signed two agreements with the NITI Aayog and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to speed up its Country Digital Acceleration programme in India. “The current set of investments will focus on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship through the Atal Innovation Mission and in developing use cases to showcase the possibilities of 5G in citizen services and application of innovative digital technologies in transportation modernisation,” according to a statement from Cisco.

Cisco has made over 25 strategic investments in growth stage companies in India. To further support the start-up ecosystem in India, Cisco signed an agreement with NITI Aayog to boost connectivity and collaboration across all 100 Atal Incubation Centers in the country. These solutions converge voice, chat, video meetings, group messaging, file sharing, and whiteboarding securely, all in one platform.

Cisco Webex Teams and Cisco Sparkboard will facilitate information exchange and collaboration among all Atal Incubation Centres in India and Cisco’s other incubation and innovation centers across the world enabling entrepreneurs to build businesses, innovate and go global with digital solutions. To facilitate new citizen services, especially in government and public sector, Cisco signed an

State Bank of India on Monday said Prashant Kumar has taken charge as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Bank.

Before Kumar, Anshula Kant, who has been promoted as Managing Director of SBI, was the CFO.

Prior to this appointment, Kumar was designated as Deputy Managing Director (HR) & Corporate Development Officer of India's largest bank.

Kumar has earlier worked as DMD and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Bank.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is slated to inaugurate the first ‘smart fence’ pilot project of the country along the India-Pakistan international border in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. The pilot project will be inaugurated by the Home Minister during his one-day visit to the state.

According to news agency ANI, the Home Minister will reach Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters at Paloura on Monday morning and formally launch the initiative taken by the force.

The BSF had taken up the initiative as part of the comprehensive integrated border management system.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar will confer the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2017-18 in New Delhi tomorrow. An official release said, the Department of School Education and Literacy had launched the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar to honour the schools that have done exemplary work in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene.

These awards are given to ensure long term sustainability and behaviour change towards cleanliness. It also provides a benchmark and roadmap for schools to make further improvements. The Ministry said, this year, first time the awards have also been extended to private schools besides government and government aided schools.

This award was launched as a follow up to the Swachh Vidyalaya Initiative launched in 2014. In his Independence Day in 2014, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared that all schools in the country should have toilets with separate toilets for girls within a period of one year.

Under Swachh Vidyalaya Initiative, a record number of over four lakh 17 thousand toilets were constructed in over two lakh 61 thousand schools.

State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Friday bagged the "Rajbhasha Kirti" award for outstanding performance in implementing the Official Language Policy during 2017-18, the bank said.

The award, under the category of 'Nationalised Banks and Financial Institutions in Region A', was presented by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu to PNB Chief Executive and MD Sunil Mehta, the bank said in a statement here.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh was among Union Ministers and senior bank officials present on the occasion of Hindi Divas, the statement added.

Billed as the countrys first, an exclusive and certified ‘Dog Park’ boasting of facilities including a walking track, off leash areas and a clinic is all set for inauguration at Kondapur in Hyderabad.

Spread over 1.3 acres, the park has been developed by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) at a cost of Rs 1.1 crore on a site which was earlier a dump yard.

It also has dog training and exercise equipment, splash pool, two lawns, an amphitheatre, loo cafe, separate enclosures for big and small dogs among other facilities, a senior GHMC official said.

“This is the countrys first exclusive and first certified Dog Park. There will also be a Vet on site apart from dog trainer, protocols for cleaning as per standards and free vaccination will be administered (to the pets)”, GHMC Zonal Commissioner D Harichandana told PTI.

Harichandana, a dog lover himself, said she had seen similar dog parks abroad and thought why not have such an international standard park here.

“We called up the landscape designers, pet consultants and put in place proper equipment. We developed this park over the past one year,” she said.

MC Mary Kom lived up to her favourites tag to clinch gold in the 13th International Silesian Women's Boxing Championships in Gliwice, Poland. Manisha (54kg), the other India boxer, lost in her final bout to settle for a silver.

Mary Kom (48kg) prevailed 5-0 against Kazakhstan's Aigerim Kassanayeva in the final of the boxing event to win her third gold medal this year.

The five-time world champion returned to the ring after recovering from some niggles that kept her out of the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Simranjit Kaur (64kg), Monika (48kg) and Bhagyabati Kachari (81kg) claimed gold medals as Indian boxers notched up an impressive seven podium finishes at the Ahmet Comert Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey.

Simranjit, a former national medallist, defeated Turkey’s Sema Caliskan to fetch the top honours.

Competing in the light fly category, Monika beat Ayse Cagirer of Turkey to win the gold medal, while Bhagyabati got the better of Selma Karakoyun, who is also from the host nation, in the light heavyweight category.

However, Pinki Jangra (51kg), a former Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist, had to be content with a silver as she lost to another local hope Busenaz Cakiroglu to sign off second in the tournament.

World Championship silver medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) too, settled for a bronze.

Bhagyabati was declared the most scientific boxer of the tournament, and the Indian women’s team finished third.

Sudan's new 21-member cabinet was sworn in on Saturday, with Prime Minister Moutaz Mousa Abdallah also assuming the finance portfolio in a bid to revive the country's ailing economy.

Sudan has been grappling with an acute foreign exchange shortage and inflation above 65 per cent for several months, prompting President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday to sack the previous 31-member cabinet to "fix the situation".

Bashir had initially nominated Abdallah Hamdok as the new finance minister, but Sudan's official news agency SUNA reported earlier on Saturday that Hamdok had "apologised" and declined to accept the post.

"After consultations with Prime Minister Moutaz Mousa Abdallah, President Bashir decided that the prime minister will hold the finance portfolio," the presidency said in a statement on Saturday.

To accommodate those travelling from around the world to attend the Kumbh Mela and Republic Day, the date for the 15th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas convention has been moved from January 9 to January 21 to 23.

While Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) has been celebrated on January 9 every year, the decision to move the date this time was done as PBD 2019 will be held in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency of Varanasi.

The Indian diaspora attending the event will also get an opportunity to participate in the 'Kumbh Snan' and attend the Republic Day parade.

The website for the 15th PBD 2019 was jointly inaugurated by Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath in New Delhi on Saturday.

The event also launched the commencement of online registrations for participation in the PBD Convention 2019. The government of Uttar Pradesh is the partner state for the convention.