Three Chinese astronauts in the core module of the country's under-construction space station have for the first time successfully completed the manual rendezvous and docking experiment with the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft, China's national space agency said on Saturday. The astronauts in the core module teleoperated the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft to leave the front docking port of the core module's node cabin and move to the planed parking point, with the coordination of ground control engineers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

World Hindi Day is observed to commemorate first anniversary of World Hindi Conference that took place in 1975, while Hindi Divas is celebrated to mark the day Hindi was adopted as official language of India.

Millions of people around the world are observing the World Hindi Day 2021 or the Vishwa Hindi Divas today (January 10). The basic aim of observing this day is to promote the Hindi language worldwide.

However, there are some people who confuse World Hindi Day with the National Hindi Divas which is celebrated annually on September 14.

While National Hindi Divas is observed to commemorate the day the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as the official language of the Republic of India in 1949, the World Hindi Day is aimed at promoting Hindi at the global level.

Every year on Jan 10, World Hindi Day is marked to commemorate the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference that took place in 1975 in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, had inaugurated the conference.

The Union government has restored the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of Jawahar Lal University (JNU), Delhi University (DU), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT- Delhi), Ramakrishna Mission and 70 other non-government organisations (NGOs). The NGOs are said to have submitted documents and annual returns - mandatory requirements for renewal of licences, after which the licences were restored, said officials.

To receive foreign grants, NGOs have to register with the ministry of home affairs (MHA), which assigns a unique FCRA registration number, to be renewed every five years. Earlier, West Bengal-based Missionaries of Charity (MoC)'s FCRA licence was restored by the MHA after denying it citing "adverse inputs". Officials familiar with the process told ET that applications of several other prominent NGOs, including Oxfam, were under consideration but were yet to be processed. A home ministry official ..

Today is Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. It was on this day in 1915, Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi Bharatiya, returned to India. India is proud of its largest diaspora across the globe which consists of around 31 million people.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted people, especially the Indian diaspora on the day.

The Prime Minister said that Indian diaspora has distinguished itself all over the world and has excelled in different spheres. He said India is proud of their accomplishments.

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar also greeted the Indian diaspora.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 25th National Youth Festival on Wednesday, 12th January which is Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary. In a tweet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has urged people to register to join this grand event. People can register at the website -
pmevents.ncog.gov.in
. More than 20 thousand people have already registered for the event.

Mr Thakur said, youth across the country can share suggestions and innovative ideas for the Prime Minister’s speech on the occasion. The Prime Minister may include some of the suggestions in his speech. National Youth Festival aims to galvanize, ignite, unite and activate the young citizenry towards nation building, to unleash the true potential of our demographic dividend. A National Youth Summit will be organised on 13th January that aims to bring diverse cultures of India and integrate them into a united thread of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is organizing the first-ever Startup India Innovation Week from today to 16th of this month. This virtual week-long innovation celebration aims to commemorate the 75th year of India’s independence ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and is designed to showcase the spread and depth of entrepreneurship across India.

Interestingly, in the startup world, 2021 has been recognised as the 'year of unicorns,' with 40 Plus unicorns added in the year.

India is emerging as a global innovation hub, boasting the world's third-largest startup ecosystem. DPIIT has recognised more than 61 thousand startups as on date. The startups representing 55 industries, spread across 633 districts with at least one startup from every State and UT of the country have created over 6 lakh jobs since 2016. 45 per cent of the startups are from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and 45 per cent of them are represented by women entrepreneurs.

The week-long event will be launched today by Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal.

On 15th January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to interact with startups and address Startup India Innovation Week at 10.30 AM via video conferencing in closed-door event.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday flagged-in India’s first multi-dimensional adventure sports expedition conducted by National Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in France. The expedition was conducted in November last year and the team comprising 12 people - eight Army personnel and four youths of Arunachal Pradesh. Mr Singh interacted with some of the members of the team present in New Delhi. He distributed appreciation certificates and commended the team for completing the expedition without any injuries to the members.
 
The expedition team carried out over 250 kilometres of winter trekking in the Alps Mountain Ranges, which included Tour De Mont Blanc trek covering the French, Swiss and Italian Alps. The expedition was organised as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Legendary Hollywood Actor, Sidney Poitier, who broke through racial barriers as the first black winner of the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Lilies Of The Field' in 1963 and inspired a generation during the civil rights movement, has died at the age of 94, an official from the Bahamian Ministry of foreign affairs said on Friday.
 
Former US President Barack Obama said Poitier epitomised dignity and race and had singular talent. His other notable movies were To Sir, With Love, In the Heat of the Night, and  ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’.  Born in Miami on February 20, 1927, he was raised on a tomato farm in the Bahamas, and had just one year of formal schooling.
 
He struggled against poverty, illiteracy and prejudice to become one of the first Black actors to be known and accepted in major roles by mainstream audiences. In 2009, Poitier was awarded the highest U.S. civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama.

The Sports Ministry’s Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) has approved the inclusion of Alpine Skiing athlete Md Arif Khan in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) Core group, until the Winter Olympics, scheduled this February in Beijing, China.

Khan will take part in the Winter Olympics in the Slalom and Giant Slalom events. He has also been approved an amount of Rs 17.46 Lakh under TOPS towards training in Europe and procurement of equipment, ahead of the grand event in China. Khan’s current training base is in Austria, where he is accompanied by his coach and physio.

The MOC approved the European training camp for Khan for a total of 35 days, which started since his qualification for the Winter Olympics. He won the quota in giant slalom in a competition in Montenegro in December last year. A month prior, he earned the quota place for the Slalom event. The feat earned Khan the unique distinction of becoming the first Indian to win direct quota spots in two different Winter Olympics events, besides being the first athlete from the country to seal a berth at the Winter Olympic games 2022.

Level Up Citizen Experience with Passport Seva Programme V2.0

- E-Passports for Enhanced Customer Experience Soon

With an aim to enhance customer service and give a major tech upgrade for the delivery of passport related services to citizens, the ministry of external affairs has signed an agreement with TATA Consultancy Services for second phase of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP-V2.0).
The ministry has appointed them as the Service Provider for the project.

The PSP-V2.0 is a continuation and enhancement of PSP-V1.0 with focus on having a transparent, more accessible and reliable platform.