The Ministry of Defence (MoD) appears to be pushing peddle, with Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR) signing two MoUs with private industry in less than a fortnight to generate employment for ex-servicemen.

The DGR, which comes under Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare of MoD, signed an MoU with Adecco India Private Ltd on Wednesday as it explores job opportunities for its ex-personnel whose numbers are set to multiply in future due to contractual employment of constabulory under the Agnipath scheme.

Writer and activist Arundhati Roy has been awarded the 45th European Essay Prize for lifetime achievement on the occasion of the French translation of her latest essay, 'Azadi'. The French translation 'Liberte, fascisme, fiction' appeared in Gallimard, a leading French publishing group.

"The jury of the Prix European de I'Essai wishes to highlight an enriching work in terms of reflection on the construction of the world and the relationship with language. Arundhati Roy uses the essay as a form of combat, analysing fascism and the way it is being structured. This is an issue that is increasingly occupying our lives. Her essays offer shelter to a multitude of people. In awarding the prize for her literary work, the jury is also acknowledging the author's commitment to political action," said a release here.

PTC India Financial Services Ltd (PFS), on Wednesday informed the exchanges that its newly appointed Director (Finance) Mahendra Lodha will take over the responsibilities of the MD & CEO till the appointment of a regular MD & CEO.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Yoga celebration at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday created a Guinness World Record for the participation of people of most nationalities.

PM Modi, who is in New York on the first leg of his maiden state visit to the US at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, led a historic event at the UN Headquarters to commemorate the 9th International Day of Yoga, attended by top UN officials, diplomats and prominent personalities.

The Yoga celebration led by Prime Minister Modi at the UN headquarters created the Guinness World Record for participation of people of most nationalities, officials said.

Financial institutions have long relied on human judgment to calibrate systems that help spot potentially risky transactions and customers. Now, Google Cloud wants them to let its artificial intelligence technology take greater control of that process.

Odisha Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik have approved the revised cost of Rs. 4224.22 Crore (with an additional outlay of Rs 1016.22 crore) under Augmentation Basic Amenities and Development of Heritage and Architecture (ABADHA) Scheme for the development of Puri into a world-class heritage city and to preserve and revitalize the city and its heritage. "The State Cabinet had earlier approved the scheme with a cost outlay of Rs.3208 Crore. A number of projects are under implementation under the scheme. During the course of execution of the projects, some changes were effected to the approved projects and some additional projects have been taken up, which has resulted in an increase in the total cost outlay of the scheme to Rs.4224.22 Crore." said a statement from Odisha government.

President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Justice (Retired) Umesh Kumar of Allahabad High Court as the chairperson of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC). Notably, this is also the first such order after the promulgation of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023.

Delhi’s ruling AAP government had earlier proposed the name of Justice (Retd) Rajeev Kumar Shrivastava of the Madhya Pradesh HC for the position.

While the L-G House said Justice Kumar was appointed after Justice Shrivastava expressed his inability to take up the job, Delhi’s power minister Atishi Wednesday called the move “illegal and unconstitutional.”

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Tuesday approved the appointment of State Bank of India’s (SBI) Managing Director Swaminathan Janakiraman to the post of Deputy Governor (DG) of the Reserve Bank of lndia (RBI) for a period of three years. He will succeed M K Jain, who will retire on June 21, 2023.

At SBI, Swaminathan is in charge of corporate banking and subsidiaries. He has vast experience in the areas of retail and international banking, trade finance, digital banking and transaction banking products.

Estonia has become the first Baltic nation to legalise same-sex marriage.

The Estonian parliament voted in favour of a government bill that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry and win the same rights as heterosexual couples in a landmark ruling on Tuesday.

“Everyone should have the right to marry the person they love and want to commit to. With this decision we are finally stepping among … all the rest of the democratic countries in the world where marriage equality has been granted,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in a statement.

In a move to ease the rules for setting up submarine (undersea) cable landing stations (CLS) in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released its recommendations on the licensing framework and regulatory mechanism for the sector.
On Tuesday, Trai recommended amending the existing system of permits to include two categories of CLS locations. These include the main facility and the fibre distribution point, known as the ‘point of presence’ (PoP) in the industry.