The ‘City Beauty Competition’ portal, launched by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry recently, has been made live. Urban Local Bodies across the country can participate in the competition through an online process at www.citybeautycompetition.in. The objective of the competition is to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards across the country to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.

The Ministry said, under the competition, wards and public spaces in cities would be judged against five broad pillars like- Accessibility, Amenities, Activities, Aesthetics and Ecology. The competition would felicitate the most beautiful wards and public spaces in the cities. While selected wards would be felicitated at the city and State levels, the top most beautiful public spaces in the cities under four categories.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar today inaugurated the Summit on Farm Machinery Technology, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tractor and Mechanisation Association (TMA) in New Delhi. In his address, Mr. Tomar said, there are about 85 percent of small farmers in the country, who should get the benefit of technology and machinery. He said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government is continuously working in this direction at its level.
 

The Union government has approved the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023. The medical devices sector in India is a sunrise sector that is growing at a fast pace. The market size of the medical devices sector in India is estimated to be nearly 90 thousand crore rupees in 2020 and its share in the global medical device market is estimated to be 1.5 percent. The policy is expected to help the Medical Devices Sector, grow from the present 11 billion US dollars to 50 billion US dollars in the next five years

Amit Shah today launched IFFCO Nano DAP (Liquid) in New Delhi. In his address, Mr. Shah said that the launch of IFFCO Nano DAP (Liquid) product is an important beginning to make India self-reliant in the field of fertilizers. He said that this effort of IFFCO is an inspiration for all the national cooperatives to research and venture into new areas. He expressed confidence that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the launch of IFFCO Nano DAP (Liquid) product will bring a paradigm shift in the agriculture sector of India. The Minister said that it will also make farmers prosperous and India self-reliant in the field of production and fertilizer. Mr. Shah said that the use of liquid DAP, through spraying on the plant, will help increase both the quality and quantity of production as well as conservation of the land.

India has shown improvement in the logistics ranking of the World Bank by jumping 6 places to rank 38 out of 139 countries in the 7th edition of Logistics Performance Index (LPI 2023).

India has been taking numerous initiatives since 2015 under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve its logistics efficiency. Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement said that the World Bank has acknowledged India’s efforts towards increasing logistics efficiency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered Ramanujacharya on his birth anniversary on Tuesday. In a tweet, Mr. Modi said illuminating thoughts of Ramanujacharya continue to give strength and wisdom to millions. He added that Ramanujacharya was always proud of Indian cultural roots and worked towards building a society that is modern and harmonious.

The 11th High Level Meeting between the Indian Coast Guard and the Korean Coast Guard was held in New Delhi on Tuesday. A seven-member delegation of Korean Coast Guard held a meeting with the team of Indian Coast Guard. Both sides discussed the modalities to strengthen the existing relations in accordance with the provisions of the MoU for sharing best practices, conducting joint exercises and enhancing training collaborations.
 
The High Level Meeting between the two Coast Guards was organised under the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006. The High Level Meeting was focused at augmenting the operational level interaction and capacity building in the areas of Maritime Search & Rescue, Marine Pollution Response and Maritime Law Enforcement.

The Y20 Pre-Summit under India's G20 Presidency will start today and will continue till 28th April in Ladakh. It will bring together over 100 delegates from 30 countries to discuss issues concerning the youth of the world. 

The meeting will focus on five Y20 themes, including climate change, peace-building, and health. The event will provide a platform for open discussions and interactive sessions to address the challenges faced by young people and formulate a roadmap for their development. The Summit will also have parallel Deliberation and Negotiation sessions on each of the Y20 themes. It is the second Y 20 Pre-Summit after the first was held at Guwahati in February this year.

Parkash Singh Badal was born on December 8, 1927, in Abul Khurana near Malout. He entered the state Assembly from Malout in 1957 as the Congress nominee and in 1969, entered the Assembly from Gidderbaha seat on the SAD ticket. He was elected as MLA for 11 times, losing only twice. 

Badal became the Chief Minister for the first time in 1970. He was the youngest Chief Minister and headed a coalition government. But the government did not complete its term. Later, he became the Chief Minister four times, from 1977 to 1980, 1997 to 2002, 2007 to 2012, and 2012 to 2017. In 1977, he briefly joined Morarji Desai's government as the Agriculture minister at the Centre. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has acknowledged the success of the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Replying to a tweet by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, the Prime Minister said that it is an example of the government's efforts to provide top-quality and affordable healthcare. He added, it is contributing towards a healthier India and helping several people. In another tweet, Mr. Modi also praised the people of Thrissur for the warm reception it extended to Kerala's first Vande Bharat Express with traditional folk music at the railway station.