Anusha Shah has made history as the first Indian-origin president of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), a UK-based professional association with a 205-year legacy and 95,000 members. In her inaugural address at ICE's London headquarters, Shah, a specialist in water and environmental engineering with over 22 years of experience, focused on the theme of nature-positive civil engineering.

“My presidential year will be about how we become a nature and people-positive profession at heart,” Shah stated.

“We have failed to understand the interrelationship between infrastructure and nature. We are implementing nature-based and green solutions globally but in pockets. It’s not the norm yet,” she said

A song on millets featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been nominated for a Grammy award in the best global music performance category. The song highlights the health benefits and the government's efforts to promote the nutritious cereal. The song "Abundance in Millets" celebrates the International Year of the Millets, which was declared by the United Nations this year. It is composed by Mumbai-born singer-songwriter Falguni Shah and her husband and singer Gaurav Shah.

The track features parts of a speech rendered by Prime Minister Modi at the inauguration of the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in March this year in New Delhi. The Abundance in Millets was released in June this year marking the celebration of the International Year of Millets-2023.

THDC India Ltd (THDCIL) is planning to set up 3,270 megawatts (MWs) of clean energy projects, including pumped storage and floating solar, in Karnataka, its chairman and managing director R K Vishnoi has said.

In this regards, the Uttarakhand-based company on Thursday signed two memoranda of understandings with Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) and Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) in Bengaluru.

"These collaborative efforts encompass the development of a diverse range of projects, spanning ground-mounted, floating solar projects, and hybrid projects including pumped storage projects (PSPs) with a cumulative capacity of around 3,270 MW," Vishnoi said in a company statement.

Colombo, Nov 10 (PTI) The World Bank has approved USD 150 million to strengthen Sri Lanka's financial and institutional sectors, the Central Bank of the debt-trapped island nation said here on Friday.

“Sri Lanka’s economic crisis highlights the need for strong safety nets to support the financial sector. Stable and reliable banking sector is essential for the economy, businesses and individuals, small businesses and poor households,” Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka was quoted as saying in the Bank’s statement.

The World Bank Executive Board approved the USD 150 million assistance on Thursday.

On the back of a series of memorable knocks in the group stages of the ICC World Cup 2023 in India, New Zealand's young gun Rachin Ravindra claimed the ICC Men's Player of the Month award for October 2023.

Ravindra beat India's speedster Jasprit Bumrah and South Africa opener Quinton de Kock for the prestigious accolade after a scorching start to the 2023 World Cup, claiming his maiden Player of the Month award.

West Indies captain Hayley Matthews bagged her second ICC Women's Player of the Month award after starring in her side's T20I series against defending world champions Australia.

After a strong month of play against Australia, Matthews held off determined bids from Bangladesh spinner Nahida Akter and New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr to win the ICC Women's Player of the Month award for October 2023.

In a significant stride towards nurturing Kho Kho talent in the state, in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Odisha Government inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS India) to establish a High-Performance Centre in Kho Kho.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said " We want to support our indigenous sports like Kho Kho. This partnership with AMNS to establish the Kho Kho HPC will set a new bench mark for support towards Indian sports."

State-run National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Friday said that for the first time, it has accepted an insurance surety bond for the monetisation programme of the upcoming bid of Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) Bundle 14.

“This will be the first time this innovative instrument is being utilised as a bank guarantee (BG) in the road infrastructure sector for monetisation of bids. NHAI has been working closely with Highway Operators Association of India (HOAI), SBI General Insurance and AON India Insurance to implement this initiative,” NHAI said.

Insurance surety bond has been issued for NHAI monetisation bid of TOT bundle 14 at 0.25 per cent by the insurer without any margin money. This will translate into big savings for concessionaires, which will further enhance liquidity in the market, thereby fostering an environment conducive to the growth and development of the road sector, it added.

The MSME sector has achieved a significant milestone by generating over 15 crore employment opportunities. This remarkable achievement was announced by Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Shri Narayan Rane in a recent social media post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Shri Rane highlighted the important role of the Udyam portal in facilitating this achievement with the registration of over 3 crore MSME units on the Udyam portal, including 99 lakh informal MSME units registered on the Udyam Assist portal. Out of these 3 crore registered MSMEs, more than 41 lakh are women owned MSMEs.

The Minister also emphasized the significant contribution of women workers in the MSME sector. He noted that among the 15 crore employment opportunities generated, over 3.4 crore are held by women. This reflects the government's commitment to promote women entrepreneurship and empower women through the MSME sector.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has approved a path-breaking Digital Advertisement Policy, 2023 to enable and empower the Central Bureau of Communication, CBC, which is the advertising wing of the Government of India to undertake campaigns in the Digital Media Space. This policy marks a pivotal moment in CBC's mission to disseminate information and create awareness regarding various schemes, programmes and policies of the Government of India in response to the evolving media landscape and the increased digitalization of media consumption.

The Policy will enable CBC to empanel agencies and organisations in the OTT and Video on Demand Space. CBC will also be able to leverage the growing number of listeners to Podcasts and Digital Audio platforms through empanelment of Digital Audio platforms. Apart from rationalising its process of empanelling Internet Websites, CBC now for the first time will be able to channelize its public service campaign messages through Mobile Applications too. With Social Media Platforms becoming one of the popular channels of public conversations, the policy further streamlines the process through which CBC can place advertisements for government clients on these platforms. The policy also empowers CBC to empanel Digital Media Agencies to enhance its outreach through the various platforms.