Chinese President Xi Jinping will host a virtual summit of the leaders of the BRICS countries on June 23, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The Summit will be held in virtual format under the theme of “Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa in the virtual meet next week, which will mark the first summit of the leaders following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin on Wednesday held a second phone conversation since the invasion, with Beijing saying it would support Russia’s sovereignty and security.

Seventy-five beaches of the country will be cleaned up to commemorate 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'. The coastal clean-up drive will be carried out in the country for 75 days from 3rd of July to 17th of September of this year. The drive is aimed at removing one thousand 500 tonnes of garbage from the coasts.

This was disclosed by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh yesterday, while chairing a meeting to preview preparations for International Coastal Clean-up Day-2022 in New Delhi.

Speaking about this unique drive, Dr. Singh said, it will be the first-of-its-kind and longest-running coastal clean-up campaign with highest number of people participating in it.

He said, the participation of people is essential to convey the message of 'Swachh Sagar, Surakshit Sagar' for the prosperity of the country.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has emphasized on maintaining equilibrium between ecology, environment and development.

Inaugurating Industrial Decarbonization Summit 2022 in New Delhi today, Mr Gadkari said, in the coming days, we have to strengthen the country's economy and at the same time save the environment.

He said the government's priority is green hydrogen and by using biotechnology we can increase the productivity of Biomass. He said, by using Biomass we can make Bio-ethanol, Bio-LNG and Bio-CNG. 

The Director General of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Arun Chawla has said that Agnipath Scheme is innovative scheme which will strengthen the Armed Forces.

Under the scheme, over forty six thousand youth will be recruited this year. Talking exclusively to All India Radio News, Mr Chawla said, Industries will get readymade pool of highly skilled and disciplined manpower for their operation.

India and Japan today held Finance Dialogue in New Delhi to exchange their views on the macro-economic situation, financial system, financial digitalization and investment environment in both the countries.

Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs of Japan Masato Kanda and Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance Ajay Seth led their sides in this first India-Japan Finance Dialogue. In view of the growing importance of India-Japan relations in recent years, the dialogue was upgraded to the level of Vice Minister and Secretary.
         
During this bilateral dialogue, the participants confirmed that both sides will continue to work closely together as they hold Presidency of G-20 and G-7 next year.

Jal Shakti Ministry will organize National Workshop on Dam Safety Act, 2021 in New Delhi tomorrow. The workshop is aimed at sensitizing all stakeholders about the provisions of the Act and Brainstorm on Dam Safety Governance.

There are around five thousand three hundred and thirty-four large dams in the country and four hundred and eleven large dams are under various stages of construction. Maharashtra leads with two thousand 394 dams while Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are at the second and third spots in terms of the number of dams.

A successful training launch of a Short-Range Ballistic Missile, Prithvi-II was carried out from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha last evening.

The missile is a proven system and is capable of striking targets with a very high degree of precision. The user training launch successfully validated all operational and technical parameters of the missile.

Government has issued draft guidelines for operationalization of Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferry services along the coast of India for Stakeholder Consultation. The guidelines encompass the two aspects of ferry operation namely - concessions for terminal operation and license for operation of Ro-Pax vessels.

These guidelines will homogenize and streamline the development and operations of ferry services, along with, promoting ease of doing business by eliminating unnecessary delays. The suggestions can be sent to sagar.mala@gov.in within 21 days from the date of publication.

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, under its Sagarmala Programme, has embarked on developing an ecosystem for the promotion of Ro-Ro ferry and waterway transportation in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the first national conference of chief secretaries at Dharamshala on Thursday and Friday to prepare a common development agenda for higher economic growth, ahead of the Governing Council Meeting of Niti Aayog later in the year.

The conference of chief secretaries will be held at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association stadium with more than 200 people in attendance, representing the central government, all states/Union Territories and domain experts.

New Delhi, Jun 14: The government has appointed industrialists Anand Mahindra, Pankaj R Patel and Venu Srinivasan, and former IIM (Ahmedabad) professor Ravindra H Dholakia as non-official directors on the central board of the Reserve Bank. The nominations have been made for four years by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), the RBI said in a notification.

RBI’s affairs are governed by the central board of directors. The members of the board, chaired by RBI Governor, are appointed by the government of India as per the Reserve Bank of India Act. Anand Mahindra is the chairman of the Mahindra Group, the non-executive chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra and Tech Mahindra.

His tenure has seen the Group expand domestically and internationally into a range of major industrial sectors from automobiles and agriculture to IT and aerospace. Mahindra has served on several bodies globally, including the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York and the International Advisory Council of Singapore’s Economic Development Board.