Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Oct 04 (ANI): The Indian and Vietnamese Coast Guards kicked off joint exercise at the Chennai coast today. The exercise aims to promote interoperability between two maritime forces.

Three ships a chopper are participating in the exercise from India and a ship from Vietnam. Vietnam Coast Guard ship CSB 8001 is on its maiden visit to India and arrived at Chennai port on Tuesday.

A six-member delegation of Vietnam Coast Guard also arrived in Chennai for interaction.

India and Kazakhstan agreed to step up military cooperation, especially in the areas of defence production, as Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met her counterpart Nurlan Yermekbayev during her three-day visit to the central Asian country. A Defence Ministry statement said this today.

During her Kazakhstan visit, which commenced on October 2, Sitharaman also met Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov.

They discussed a wide range of issues relating to defence and military technical cooperation and took stock of the progress of the bilateral relationship, especially in the defence sector.

The two countries had renewed the Memorandum of Cooperation on defence in January 2017. Both countries are 'strategic partners' since 2009.
Smt Nirmala Sitharaman also discussed regional developments with the Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Mr Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the statement said.

Over 200 Kazakh defence forces personnel have undergone military training in India till date. Both countries successfully conducted a company-level joint military exercise 'KAZIND-2018' in south Kazakhstan last month.

Sitharaman and Yermekbayev presided over the flag off ceremony of the Kazakhstan contingent that will join the Indian contingent at the United Nations International Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon.

The statement said the Kazakh contingent will join the Indian contingent at Lebanon by the end of this month. She also invited Yermekbayev Atamkulov to visit India and to attend Aero India 2019 to be held in Bengaluru in February 2019, the statement added.

Sitharaman also visited the National Defence University where she was shown the Indian Military Art Room (IMAR), which has been established with Indian assistance.

The much-delayed 36th National Games in Goa will be held from March 30 to April 14 next year. Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) Executive Director V M Prabhudesai made the announcement in Panaji today after a meeting with visiting officials of the Indian Olympic Association. The Games were earlier scheduled to be held next month.

Prabhudesai said at a media conference that Opening and Closing ceremonies will be held at PJN Stadium, Fatorda. The Opening ceremony will be on March 30 and closing ceremony will be on April 14.

Prabhudesai said shooting and cycling events will be held in New Delhi as Goa does not have facilities for these two sports.
He said five sports -- Rugby, Wushu, Modern Penthatlon, Lawn Bowl, and Billiards and Snooker -- will be added in the Games programme.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed state-owned oil companies to borrow long term working capital from overseas. RBI relaxed the policy on borrowing up to 10 billion US dollar from the overseas by the state owned fuel retailers.

Till now oil marketing companies including Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, were not allowed to raise external commercial borrowing (ECB) for working capital needs on a long-term basis. Now, the RBI has allowed them to raise ECB of minimum maturity of 3 or 5 years.

The move comes at a time when international oil prices have hit four-year high of near 85 US dollar per barrel and the rupee plummeted to close at an all-time low of 73 rupee and 34 paise to a US dollar

Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani on October 4 was named India's wealthiest for the 11th consecutive year with a net worth of $47.3 billion, according to Forbes’ annual India's Richest 2018 list.

Wipro’s Azim Premji came second with a net worth of $21 billion. Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, followed with a net worth of $18.3 billion.

Hinduja brothers – Ashok, Gopichand, Prakash and Srichand – were ranked fourth on the list of richest Indians for 2018 with a net worth of $18 billion.

New Delhi, Oct 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with a group of about 40 enthusiasts with experience in mountaineering, who are embarking on an expedition to raise awareness on cleaning the River Ganga. The group includes 8 mountaineers who have successfully climbed Mount Everest, and is led by Ms. Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Besides, professionals from backgrounds as diverse as engineering, environmentalists, science etc. are part of the expedition team that is prepared to meet all challenges that they may encounter during the expedition. The team during its stay in the towns will carry out cleanliness drives at ghats and surrounding areas by engaging and motivating more and more people.

Prithvi Shaw at 18 years and 329 days became the youngest Indian to score a hundred on Test debut against West Indies in Rajkot. Overall, he is the 15th Indian batsman to score a hundred in his first Test and the second youngest Indian to score a Test century. The record is still held by Sachin Tendulkar (17 years, 107 days).

With his scintillating hundred on debut, Shaw has joined the likes of famous Indian batsmen: Lala Amarnath, Deepak Shodhan, AG Kripal Singh, Abbas Ali Baig, Hanumant Singh, Gundappa Vishwanath, Surender Amarnath, Mohammad Azharuddin, Pravin Amre, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma.

Shaw is now the seventh youngest player in Test cricket history to score a hundred on debut.

In a sudden development, Chanda Kochhar today quit as CEO of ICICI BankNSE 3.44 % after her plea for early retirement was accepted by the bank. ICICI bank has appointed Sandeep Bakhshi as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. His appointment will be for a period of five years until October 3, 2023, subject to various approvals.

The bank also clarified that Kochhar's post retirement benefits would be subject to inquiry outcome.

The bank also said that the enquiry pr ..

A day after farmers demanding higher MSP prices and uniformity in loan waivers clashed with police at the UP Gate-Delhi border, the Cabinet on Wednesday hiked the minimum support price of Rabi crops for 2018-19.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in its meeting approved the hike in minimum support prices (MSP) of wheat by Rs 105 per quintal, masaur Rs 225,/quintal, safflower by Rs 845/quintal, and gram by Rs 220/quintal.

The MSP has been increased in accordance to the recommendations of farm advisory body CACP and is in line with the government’s announcement to provide farmers a 50 per cent profit over the cost of production.

“It will give additional return to the farmers of Rs 62,635 crore by way of increasing MSP of notified crops to at least 50 per cent over cost of production and will aid in doubling farmers’ income,” the Cabinet said in a statement.

As part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi, the state government has planned various activities that will commence from next month. These include organising a khadi festival in all the 35 districts — sale and promotion of khadi clothes on two days of every week on roads named after Gandhi in major cities, one teacher adopting one student for improvement, a mobile app to spread Gandhiji’s literature and setting up a Mahatma Gandhi Resource and Training Centre in Wardha.

Besides, the government has also planned to put up banners with the tagline, Mujhme hai Gandhi, at prominent locations. “So far, we have held three meetings to chalk out plans for celebrations,” said an official from the Rural Development Department.

The official further said the Union government had planned national and international-level celebrations to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhiji. “We are working on some of the activities suggested by the Union government’s culture ministry in July,” added the official.