Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, laid foundation stone for the six lane, access controlled National Highway that will act as interchange for Delhi-Mumbai expressway.

"Work on the highway will begin within two months and the entire project will be completed in two years' time" Gadkari said, adding that projects worth Rs 5,000 crore are being implemented to decongest the national capital, including 3 km signal free corridor from Dhaula – Kuan to Airport (Rs 280 crore), 22 km elevated corridor on Gurugram-Sohna Road (Rs 2,000 crore), 8-lane Delhi-Panipat highway on NH-1 (Rs 2300 crore), 29 km long Dwarka Expressway (Rs 9,500 crore) and remaining part of Delhi-Meerut Expressway (Rs 5,900 Crore) among other projects.

The project will be 59 kilometers long and will start at ring road-DND junction in Delhi and will pass through Kalindi bypass and Faridabad-Ballabhgarh bypass to finish at the interchange of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at KMP.

The Rs 3,580 crore project is expected to reduce vehicular pollution by "decongesting Delhi with at Ashram-Badarpur-Faridabad-Ballabhgarh region".

President Ram Nath Kovind issued an order extending the benefits of reservation to economically backward sections in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday night.

A notification in this regard was issued after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took a decision on Thursday to issue the order, a Home Ministry official said.

With this, the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections has been made applicable in Jammu and Kashmir also.

This would pave the way for reserving state government jobs to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir who are from economically weaker sections belonging to any religion or caste, the official said.

Ten per cent reservation to economically weaker sections was introduced in the rest of the country through the 103rd Constitutional Amendment in January 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Construction Technology India-2019 Expo-cum-Conference in New Delhi this morning. Our correspondent reports that technology providers, researchers, start-ups, developers, academia, public sector agencies and other domain experts will participate in the two-day event. 

The Construction Technology India Conference will provide avenues for stakeholders to open up new areas for collaboration and facilitate conversion of ideas into market-ready products. Proven technologies which are identified during CTI - 2019 will be further invited to design and build lighthouse projects of nearly one thousand housing units each in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.The conference will also identify innovative and globally established technologies for use in the Indian context.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the government is committed for welfare of farmers and fishermen. A separate department is being set up with 7,500 crore rupees for fulfilling the various needs of fishermen. 

Speaking at a public meeting in Visakhapatnam last evening, Mr Modi said assistance for buying fishing related tools and other infrastructure will be provided to the fishing community. Explaining other welfare measures taken up by his government, the Prime Minister said that health insurance up to five lacs is provided under the Ayushman Bharath, zero percentage tax to those who have five lakhs annual income and affordable houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Expressing the NDA government’s commitment for the welfare of the Andhra Pradesh, Mr Modi said long pending demand for separate South Coast Railway Zone has been fulfilled, which will facilitate people and trade of the region.

In Jammu and Kashmir, three members of a family were killed due to heavy shelling by Pakistan troops in Solatri village of border district of Poonch. People residing in Jhulas, Solatri Bhera have started migrating to safer places. Due to prevailing situation, all the educational institutions falling within five km area along the Line of Control in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch will remain closed today.

It may be mentioned here that Pakistan Army on the 8th consecutive day continued violating the ceasefire in border districts of Poonch and Rajouri by targeting Indian posts and civilian areas. Indian troops are giving effective and befitting reply to Pakistan's indiscriminate firing and heavy shelling.

Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthman arrived in New Delhi last night after he was handed over to Indian authorities by Pakistan at Attari-Wagah border. Air Vice Marshal R G Kapoor said Abhinandan was handed over as per standard operating procedure and Indian Air Force is happy to have him back.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed Wing Commander Abhinandan back to the country, saying the nation is proud of his exemplary courage. In a tweet, Mr Modi said that the country's armed forces are an inspiration for 130 crore Indians. 

Several leaders have also welcomed and lauded Abhinandan for his poise and courage. In a tweet, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, the entire nation appreciates the Wing Commander's valour and grit and he is an inspiration to youth. 
 
Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani too lauded the pilot for his bravery. BJP president Amit Shah wished him continue to serve the nation and the IAF with unparalleled passion and dedication.

National champion Deepak Singh was the lone Indian boxer to notch up a gold while five others claimed silver medals in the Makran Cup in Chabahar, Iran. 

Deepak (49-kilogram) defeated Jaafar Naseri in the finals held last night. 
However, none of the other five Indian finalists could win their summit clashes. 

Finishing second on the podium were P Lalitha Prasad (52kg), Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Manish Kaushik (60kg), Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg), Sanjeet (91kg) and Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Satish Kumar (91kg). 

Manish, also a national champion, lost to Danial Shah Baksh, while Satish was beaten by Mohammad Mlias. Sanjeet, a gold-medallist at the India Open last year, went down to Eldin Ghossoun in his final bout. 

Prasad could not put it past Omid Safa Ahmedi and settled for the second position. Duryodhan lost to Sajjad Zadeh Kezim in the welterweight final.

The Cabinet has approved the Memorandum of Understanding between India and the USA to access tipline reports on Missing and Exploited Children. 

The MoU has been signed between the National Crime Record Bureau, India and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, USA. 

The MoU will provide access to more than one lakh tipline reports available with NCMEC, USA and enable law enforcement agencies in India. 

It will pave the way for setting up of an innovative mechanism for sharing information about child pornography and child sexual abuse material and taking legal action against offenders. It will further enable law enforcement agencies to remove child pornography and child sexual abuse material from cyberspace, thereby enhance human dignity.

The Cabinet gave ex-post facto approval to the MoU between India and Argentina on cooperation in the field of Medical Products Regulation. 

The approval would facilitate a better understanding of the regulatory aspects between the two sides and help in increasing India’s export of medical products to Argentina and better coordination in the international fora.

The Centre has banned the Jamat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir for five years under anti-terror law on grounds that it is in close touch with terror outfits and is expected to escalate secessionist movement in the state. 

A notification, banning the group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday after a high-level meeting on security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The notification said the Centre is of the opinion that the Jamaat is in close touch with terror outfits and is supporting extremism and terrorism in Jammu and Kahsmir and elsewhere. 

The notification comes barely a few days after the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested around 100 cadres of the group in the state. I

t said, Jamaat has been indulging in activities intended to disrupt the territorial integrity of India. 

The crackdown come after February 14 terrorist attack in Pulwama, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. 

Indian Air Force has said that it is looking forward to the return of its Wing Commander Abhinandan from Pakistan's custody. 

In a joint briefing with Officials of Army and Navy last evening in New Delhi, Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor said that IAF learnt that Pakistan has announced that Wing Commander Abhinandan will be returned to India today. 
He said, IAF is happy and looking forward to it.

During his address in the Pakistan National Assembly, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had yesterday announced to release the fighter pilot as a peace gesture.