Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the seventh edition of Raisina Dialogue on 25th of April. President of the European Union Ursula Von Der Leyen will be the chief guest at the Dialogue. Several former Prime Ministers of different countries and other dignitaries will also participate in this virtual event.

Briefing media in New Delhi on Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs' Spokesman Arindam Bagchi said, this three-day event is based on the theme - Terranova, impassioned, impatient, imperilled. He said, there are six broad thematic pillars of the dialogue including Rethinking Democracy, End of Multilateralism, Water Caucuses, Achieving Green Transitions. He said, Raisina Dialogue will have around 100 sessions with over 210 speakers from 90 countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India is not just a country but a great heritage and a great tradition and everyone should have to be proud of the country’s identity. India has never posed a threat to any country or society and even today, it thinks for the welfare of the whole world. He said,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today participated in the celebrations of the 400th Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji at Red Fort in New Delhi. On this occasion, the Prime Minister also released a commemorative coin and postage stamp. Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri were present on this occasion.  

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate DefConnect 2.0 organised by Innovations for Defence Excellence, Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX-DIO) in New Delhi today.

The event will attract a large number of innovators and investors from country’s leading industries in the defence sector. It will include sessions with stalwarts of the industry, various announcements and static exhibitions of an array of start-ups supported by iDEX-DIO.

The DefConnect will provide a unique opportunity for innovators associated with iDEX-DIO to showcase their capabilities, products and state-of-the-art technologies to the target audience of the industry leaders. The start-ups get to leverage this opportunity to generate investments and leads for future operations. This will be a unique opportunity to meet iDEX start-ups and understand their innovative technologies being developed with requisite support from iDEX and the associated partners.

NITI Aayog and UNICEF India signed a Statement of Intent on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on children yesterday. This seeks to formalize a framework of cooperation to launch the first report on the State of India’s Children - Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development.

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar said, this new initiative is built on the ethos of SDG attainments for children and ensuring that no child is left behind. He said the child-focused initiative builds on government's effort of monitoring progress through the SDG India Index and Dashboard, which continues to be a unique data-driven initiative for triggering policy action.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will confer Awards for Excellence in Public Administration 2021 on Civil Services Day today. The awards have been instituted with a view to recognize the extraordinary and innovative work done by districts and organizations of the Central and State governments for the welfare of people. Ten awards for five identified Priority Programmes will be given this year, while six awards will be given to organizations of Central and State Government and Districts for innovations. Inaugurating the two days event to mark the Civil Service Day in New Delhi yesterday, Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said, earlier the PM Awards for Excellence in Public Administration was based on the individual profile of the officer but now it is based on the flagship programme performance of the individual district. He said, the Narendra Modi government is preparing a vision document for India – 2047. Dr Singh said, during the last eight years, the government has taken a number of revolutionary decisions. He said, this government is not only framing new rules but doing away with the earlier rules and nearly one thousand five hundred rules have been done away with.

President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, which empowers the police to obtain physical and biological samples of convicts and of those accused of crimes.

The Act, which replaces the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 was passed by Lok Sabha on April 4 and Rajya Sabha on April 6.

Digit Insurance has appointed Jasleen Kohli as the new managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. The appointment will come into effect from 20 April, 2022. Kohli will take over from Vijay Kumar who held the position since the company was founded in 2017, and will superannuate from the organisation on 19 April, 2022.

Prior to this appointment, Kohli held the position of chief distribution officer (CDO) in Digit and overlooked all sales and distribution channels of the company. With nearly 19 years of experience in the life and general insurance industry, Kohli has been with the company since its inception and is also the first employee of Digit. Prior to this, Kohli was a director at Allianz Technology. “While it will be hard to fill Vijay Kumar’s experienced shoes, I am looking forward to this challenge,” Jasleen Kohli, MD and CEO, said.

The senior Asian Wrestling Championship will begin today in Mongolia. 30 Indian wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia, will participate in the event. A total of 20 wrestlers from the men’s team across the Freestyle and Greco-Roman categories and 10 from the women’s team are participating in the event. Sports Authority of India has sanctioned 1.28 crore rupees for the participation of the Indian wrestlers.

The ‘morning practice group’ won’t be the same again. The cream of the crop of youngsters from table tennis clubs in Chennai practised under one roof three times a week. The select few were handpicked by senior pro Achanta Sharath Kamal, an Olympian and medallist at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. Training sessions with Sharath started during the lockdown and continued till date. The trainees shared a close bond with their mentor.

On Sunday noon, the ‘morning practice group’ lost a member. Vishwa Deenadayalan, 18, a cadet and sub-junior national champion, died in a road accident when travelling from Guwahati to Shillong for the Senior Nationals and Inter-state championships.

In her new role, Ms. Sethi coordinates National Security Advisor documentation across the Office of the Vice President.

Shanti Sethi, a trailblazing Indian-American Navy veteran, has joined US Vice President Kamala Harris's office as her executive secretary and defence advisor, according to a media report.

Ms. Sethi, the first Indian-American commander of a major US Navy combat ship, recently joined Vice President Harris’ office, Politico news website quoted vice president's senior advisor Herbie Ziskend as saying.