As part of its commitment to reduce carbon footprints, Indian Railways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with United States Agency for International Development/India (USAID/India) for collaboration on renewable energy and energy efficiency in the railways. The MoU was signed on June 14, 2023, by Naveen Gulati, Member (Traction and Rolling Stock), Railway Board and Isabel Coleman, Deputy Administrator - USAID, in the presence of Anil Kumar Lahoti, Chairman and CEO, Railway Board.

IIT-M presented the idea at the 55th IIT council meeting, minutes of which were released by the union ministry of education on Thursday. Currently, the IITs don’t have a sports quota. Many of the country’s premium universities, including Delhi University, do.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras, IIT-M has proposed a sports quota in IITs with an aim to boost diversity in the country’s premier engineering institutions and to provide an opportunity to students performing well in the field of sport at state, national and international levels, to study at the IITs.

Union Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday virtually inaugurated the Silica Reduction Plant at Steel Authority of India Limited's (SAIL) Bhilai Steel Plant's Dalli Mines. On the occasion, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia highlighted the Indian steel industry's prowess and how India has emerged as an economic superpower at the global level.

The Minister mentioned that the steel sector has played a prominent role in the growth story of India through employment generation and providing foundational infrastructure.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a monetary penalty on three private and public sector lenders on Friday. The central bank charged Jammu & Kashmir Bank with ₹2.5 crore penalty, while the BSE-S0003537" data-name="Bank of Maharashtra">Bank of Maharashtra faced a fine of ₹1.45 crore. Axis Bank received the least amount of penalty among them to the tune of ₹30 lakh.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the 'Vitasta Mahotsav' in Srinagar, said that this cultural festival has witnessed many kinds of research in Kashmir for thousands of years and also has the privilege of being an amalgamation place of many cultures. Amit Shah was addressing the Vitasta Mahotsav organised by the Ministry of Culture as the chief guest in Srinagar on Friday as part of his 2-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir.

Ruby Sinha takes over from Shabana Nasim, who has become the Executive Director of BRICS CCI and Chief Patron of BRICS CCI WE.

BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BRICS CCI) has appointed Ruby Sinha as the president of BRICS CCI WE, the women’s vertical of the body, for three years.

The UK-based Lloyds Banking Group has decided to invest in a new technology centre in Hyderabad. The Lloyds Technology Centre is a part of the group’s £3 billion strategic investment over the next three years to transform its digital offering, it said in its statement.

Indian and American startups will now be able to co-develop and co-produce advanced technologies, including in areas of space artificial intelligence, under the India-United States Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) which was launched at an event in Washington Thursday.

The launch coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day State visit to the US. What makes the launch critical is that it comes within months of operationalising the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) – NSA Ajit Doval met his US counterpart Jack Sullivan in February. Several startups of both countries are working in areas of critical technologies.

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today launched the PM Kisan Mobile App with a face authentication feature. Through this App, remote farmers can do e-KYC by scanning their faces without OTP or fingerprint.
 
Speaking on this occasion, Mr Tomar said that PM-Kisan is an innovative scheme whose benefits are being given by the central government to the farmers without any middlemen.

The former Urdu newsreader of Akashvani, Kausar Rizvi passed away in Dubai today. He was 79.
 
Kausar Rizvi was associated with the Urdu unit of the News Services Division of Akashvani in New Delhi for about 30 years from 1975 to 2004. He began his career as an announcer in Akashvani Varanasi. He will be laid to rest in his home town Lucknow.