Present Union Health Secretary and 1991 batch IAS officer, Sudhansh Pant has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Rajasthan. Pant is currently the Secretary, health and family welfare in central government and has served as the Shipping secretary earlier.

His vast experience in strategic planning, particularly in the health sector, played a pivotal role in his selection for this crucial administrative role.

Pant's contributions to the ministry included playing a key role in controlling the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak, showcasing his leadership during the challenging times of the pandemic.

The Union Government has extended the term of Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra for the third time and appointed Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant as the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan, one of the three states where the BJP won a resounding victory in the recent Assembly polls.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Saturday evening, just days after the Conference of Chief Secretaries was held in Delhi, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mishra, a 1984-batch UP cadre IAS officer, was due to retire December 31; his tenure has been extended for a period of six months until June 2024.

L-G V K Saxena Saturday presided over the formal launch of ‘Samvaad @Raj Niwas’, an interactive dialogue initiative that has been in practice since he took over last May. Nearly a hundred imams, aalims and muezzins from mosques across the city were part of the programme, where they interacted with the L-G, Raj Niwas officials informed.

“In the 18 months since Saxena took over, he has met more than 50,000 people belonging to varied sections in formal and informal gatherings at Raj Niwas, averaging about 3,000 per month,” an official said.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik started the new year with a 26-km roadshow in Bhubaneswar followed by inaugurating phase 1 of the Bhubaneswar Metro Rail project worth Rs 6,000 crore.

Addressing the gathering after laying the foundation stone, Patnaik said: “This new year day will always remain special in the history of Odisha’s development journey.”

“The metro project will usher transformation in the urban transportation. It will connect Bhubaneswar with Cuttack, the old capital of Odisha. I have promised for metro project which I have been fulfilling today,” Patnaik added. The metro project is expected to be completed in four years.

Gujarat has set a Guinness record for performing mass Surya Namaskar simultaneously at 108 places in the state on the first day of the new year today. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, and Minister for Home Affairs Harsh Sanghavi attended the State level event that took place at the iconic Sun Temple in Modhera in Mahesana district.

People of Gujarat scripted history by performing mass Surya Namaskar simultaneously at 108 places in the state with the first ray of Sun on the first day of the new year, today. The places include 51 historic sites of the state. More than 2500 people performed Surya Namaskar at the state-level function held at the iconic Modhera Sun Temple. The function also witnessed the felicitation of the winners of the state-level Mega Surya Namaskar Competition. This month-long competition was organized for the first time in the state by the Gujarat State Yog Board and the state government to popularise Surya Namaskar practice among people.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday flagged off 200 electric buses from Guwahati. He termed the initiative as the government's one of the biggest push towards a pollution-free environment.

"In one of our biggest pushes towards a pollution-free environment in Assam, I dedicated 200 AC e-Buses today which will ply across Guwahati and adjoining areas," CM Sarma said while addressing the media.

"By 2025, we want to establish Guwahati as the country's first city to be powered by a 100 per cent green public transportation system. This new fleet builds upon the 100 CNG buses dedicated to the New Year," he added.

Raipur Smart City is developing a green corridor system for timely organ donation and transplantation.

A platform has been prepared by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Government of India and IISc Bangalore in which complete data will be collected to make it easier to manage the green corridor system.

During an emergency, the green corridor system will prove to be very useful in taking the patient from the accident site to the hospital or from one hospital to another. In this way, hospitals and traffic departments work together to transport organs from one hospital to another in the shortest possible time.

Ashish Mishra, General Manager of the Communication Department of Smart City Raipur, said, "Like every metropolitan city, in Raipur too, sending patients from their home to the hospital or from the hospital to their home is always challenging due to traffic."

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday inaugurated the country’s first all-girl Sainik School at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district and termed it as a “golden moment in the history of women empowerment” since the institution would become a beacon of light for female students who aspired to join the armed forces to serve the motherland.

With a strength of nearly 870 students, Samvid Gurukulam Girls Sainik School has been established under the initiative of opening 100 new Sainik Schools in partnership mode with NGOs/private/state government schools in all states/union territories, of which 42 have already come up, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Training at the CBSE-affiliated school will be given by ex-servicemen, officials said, adding that the institution will have 120 seats.

The Gujarat government is set to introduce India's first submarine tourism. It has joined hands with the Mazgaon Dock Limited (MDL) in a project to explore the marine life surrounding Bet Dwarka, a small island off the coast of Dwarka city, which has a mythological significance in the Hindu religion.

The project is on the lines of the Titanic submersible expedition, which recently made news after one of its vessels tragically imploded in the Atlantic Ocean.

The payloads will be accommodated on the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM-3) during the launch scheduled at 9.10am from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

In a significant development, space technology startups Dhruva Space, Bellatrix Aerospace, and TM2Space are poised to launch their payloads on the upcoming Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - C58 XPoSat Mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on January 1, 2024.

The payloads will be accommodated on the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM-3) during the launch scheduled at 9.10am from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.