To promote innovative cooperation between students of India and Russia, a Memorandum of Understanding was exchanged between India’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and the Russian Federation’s SIRIUS Educational Foundation in the presence of the Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi and the President of Russia H.E. Vladimir Putin, in New Delhi on 5th October 2018. The AIM and SIRUS Education Foundation were represented by Mission Director Shri. R Ramanan and Ms. Elena Shmeleva respectively.

The MoU hopes to remove cultural and language barriers between students of Russia and India, share the best practices in the promotion of educational, scientific, innovative achievements, promote innovative cooperation, and search and develop talented youth of both countries fostering a knowledge driven innovation ecosystem in both the countries.

“The Atal Innovation Mission continues to grow steadily in its effort to spread the joy of innovation throughout the country. This MoU with SIRIUS Educational Foundation is a step in the right direction. International collaboration will broaden our students’ minds, deepen curiosities, and sharpen their intellect”, said Mr. Ramanan.

As many as 21 countries in the Indian Ocean Rim Association, IORA, adopted the Delhi Declaration on Renewable Energy in the Indian Ocean Region.

These nations adopted the Delhi Declaration post the second IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting held in Greater Noida, near Delhi.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy yesterday said that the Delhi Declaration calls for collaboration among IORA member states in meeting the growing demand for renewable energy in the Indian Ocean littorals.

It also calls for the development of a common renewable energy agenda for the Indian Ocean region and the promotion of regional capacity building.

The Google Doodle on Saturday, October 6, 2018, celebrates the start of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With over 200 countries taking part, the event marks the start of young athletes’ career before they go on to bigger and better things. The event will see thousands of athletes, aged 15-18, compete in various categories.

500 households inside the Assam Petro Complex will be the first pilot project, scaling it to 40,000 households in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Goa and Karnataka. The project is a natural extension of our Prime Minister's vision of reducing import of crude and an effort to provide clean, import substitute, cost effective and pollution free cooking medium. Assam Petrochemicals Limited has been manufacturing methanol for the last 30 years and is in the process of upgrading their 100 TPD methanol plant to 600 TPD by Dec 2019.

The safe handling cannister based cooking stoves are from Swedish Technology and through a Technology transfer a large-scale cooking stove manufacturing plant will come up in India in the next 18 months producing 10 lakh Cookstoves and 1 Crore Cannisters per year. This technology is very unique, it handles methanol extremely safely, does not need regulator or any piping system.

The cooking medium can directly substitute LPG, Kerosene, Wood, Charcoal and any other fuel for cooking. The gaseous form, Methanol - DME, can be blended in 20% ratio with LPG. LPG-DME blending program is expected to kickstart in the country by next year.

NEW DELHI: Pankaj Sharma has been appointed as the ambassador and India's permanent representative to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, an official statement said.
Mr Sharma is currently the joint secretary (Disarmament and International Security Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

He will replace Amandeep Gill.

The Election Commission Saturday will announce dates for the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram Assembly elections. The EC is expected to make the announcement in a press conference at 12.30 pm. The Model Code of Conduct will come into force after the announcement is made.

Mizoram’s 50-member House expires on December 15, 2018. Chhattisgarh’s Assembly, comprising 90 members, ends on January 5, 2019. The tenure of the Madhya Pradesh 230-member House expires on January 7, 2019. The 200-member Rajasthan House expires on January 20, 2019.

The Congress has been in power in Mizoram since 2008. It won the 2013 Assembly election after securing 34 seats in the 40-member House. Lal Thanhawala was elected CM of the state.

The BJP is in power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Rajasthan, the party has 160 seats in the 200-member House. Vasundhara Raje in the CM of Rajasthan. In Madhya Pradesh, it won 166 seats in the House and elected Shivraj Singh Chouhan as CM. The BJP won the Chhattisgarh polls in 2013, securing 49 seats in the 91-member House. The Congress came a close second with 39 seats. Raman Singh was elected CM.

The combined net worth of the world’s 500 richest people fell the most in six months on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The group shed 1.2 per cent of its combined net worth as luxury stocks tumbled following reports of a Chinese trade crackdown, and as US equities slid on concerns over rising Treasury yields.

Europe’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, saw his fortune fall about $3.5 billion, the most of anyone on the index. The founder of the world’s biggest luxury goods maker, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, is now worth $73.5 billion.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its fourth bi-monthly meet today left the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent while the reverse repo rate remains at 6.25 per cent. The monetary policy stance has changed from neutral to ‘calibrated tightening’. The RBI stated that headline inflation is estimated to accelerate to 4.5% by March 2019 quarter with upside risks.

The central bank also stated in its policy document that FY19 GDP growth target remains unchanged at 7.4 per cent. CPI inflation is seen at 4 per cent in July-September and 3.9-4.5 per cent in October-March.

Following the RBI announcement, the rupee breaches 74-mark against US dollar for the first time. The rupee has been performing poorly for the past few months and the rise in repo rate is seen as an attempt by the RBI to curb further price fall. The rupee closed at 73.77 against the US dollar on Thursday.

On the effect of crop price rise, the RBI said that in September the government had announced measures aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to farmers for crops, but there’s still uncertainty about their exact impact on food prices.

The RBI said that oil prices “remain vulnerable to further upside pressures, especially if the response of oil-producing nations to supply disruptions from geopolitical tensions is not adequate.” It observed that the central government’s decision to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel will moderate retail inflation.

India’s overall ranking on the Government’s adoption of e-payments has moved up to 28th in 2018, from 36th in 2011, but it needs to do more on digital infrastructure access and socio-economic factors, a survey said on Wednesday.

The country is taking “rapid strides” in advancing government e-payments capabilities and is is one of the top- performing countries in terms of citizen-to-Government (C2G), business-to-Government (B2G) and government-to-business (G2B) transactions, the survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit commissioned by payments company Visa said.

The country holds the top ranking on B2G and G2B, and comes third on C2G jointly with Argentina.

Norway leads the pack in the 73-country ranking, followed by France and Denmark.

The 73-country survey, which was last conducted in 2011, looks at availability of government electronic transaction services and the underlying environment of mechanisms that support digitisation for all transactions in a market, such as policy and infrastructure.

“(India) could further improve its standing by focusing on expanding access to digital infrastructure, investing in socio-economic development, and promoting a healthy, competitive market,” the survey said.

More than 8,000 delegates from across the country will take part in the fourth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) starting Friday, where an attempt would be made by about 500 students to “isolate DNA”, said Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan.

The IISF, to be held from October 5 to 8, is being organised in the state for the first time. It will be inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind, whereas Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will attend the valedictory session, said Vardhan. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath assured all help for the event. While about 800 women scientists and entrepreneurs are expected to take part in IISF, outreach programmes for the same were carried out in 77 cities across the country where 5,000 to 15,000 children and scientists participated, Vardhan said.