India has announced the launch of Phase-IV of the High Impact Community Development Projects in Afghanistan. It envisages more than 100 projects worth  80 million dollars that India would undertake in Afghanistan. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said this during the  2020 Afghanistan Conference organized in Geneva through video- conference. The two day conference began from yesterday and was co-hosted by the United Nations, the Government of Afghanistan, and the Government of Finland.
 
Dr Jaishankar also announced that India had just concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot dam, which would provide safe drinking water to two million residents of Kabul city. He said, India had earlier built the 202-kilometer Phul-e-Khumri transmission line that provided electricity to Kabul city.
 
In his statement, Dr Jaishankar emphasized India’s long term commitment to the development of Afghanistan and the benefit of it’s people as a contiguous neighbor and strategic partner. He said, India’s development portfolio in Afghanistan has to-date amounted to over 3 billion US dallars. He highlighted that no part of Afghanistan today is untouched by the 400 plus projects that India has undertaken in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces. He said, more than 65 thousand Afghan students have also studied in India.

A two-day All India Presiding Officers' Conference will begin at the Statue of unity in Kevadia Gujarat from today. The theme of this year's conference is Harmonious Coordination of Legislative, Executive and Judiciary - Key to a Vibrant Democracy.
 
The Conference will be inaugurated by the President Ram Nath Kovind this morning. Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha M. Venkaiah Naidu will be present on this occasion. Lok Sabha speaker and Chairperson of the Conference Shri Om Birla will grace the two day conference.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the valedictory session of the conference on 26th to mark the celebration of the constitution day. Governor of Gujarat Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and other dignitaries will also attend the conference. AIR correspondent reports that the Presiding Officers of all State Legislative Assemblies and legislative councils have been invited to the conference. 27 presiding officers have already confirmed their participation. Secretaries of State Legislatures and other senior officials are also expected to participate in the conference.
 
All Presiding Officers and Secretaries of Legislatures shall take a pledge to make legislatures more accountable, while strengthening and empowering them according to constitutional values.The Conference will conclude with the adoption of a Declaration.

To mark the occasion of 3 years of UMANG and 2000 plus services milestone, an online conference was organized under the chairmanship of  Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad.

On this occasion,  Mr Prasad launched the UMANG’s international version in coordination with Ministry of External Affairs for select countries that include USA, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. It  will help Indian international students, NRIs and Indian tourists abroad, to avail Government of India services, anytime. It will also help in taking India to the world through ‘Indian Culture’ services available on UMANG and create interest amongst foreign tourists to visit India.

The international version of the UMANG App can be downloaded from Play Store of specific countries. The Union Minister also launched an e-Book which presents major milestones of UMANG and major services available on UMANG App classified into various categories. Mr Prasad also unveiled the newly instituted UMANG Awards for Partner Departments of Centre and States based on the highest number of transactions across services. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Pasad said that Digital India must lead to digital inclusion and it must bridge the digital divide. He said, it must be achieved by technology which is home grown and also inclusive.

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has received the Aditya Vikram Birla Kalashikhar Puraskar at Sangit Kala Kendra Awards, which was recently held virtually.

Two emerging stars, Neel Choudhary and Irawati Karnik, were awarded the Aditya Vikram Birla Kalakiran Puraskars.

"We rejoice, the spirit of our, founder president, Aditya Vikram Birla and his love for the performing arts. The Sangit Kala Kendra's, 'Aditya Vikram Birla, Kalashikhar Puraskar' and the 'Kalakiran Puraskars', were instituted in 1996, as a befitting memorial to, Adityaji and through it, create a significant pathway, for a singular recognition, of exemplary talent, in this domain," said Rajashree Birla, President, Sangit Kala Kendra.

On November 11, India became the fourth country in the world to have its independent regional navigation satellite system recognised by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) as a part of the World Wide Radio Navigation System (WWRNS).

The navigation system can now replace GPS in the Indian Ocean waters upto 1500 km from the Indian boundary. The process of getting the recognition for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System based on satellites of the Indian Space Research Organisation took about two years. Merchant vessels in Indian waters can now use the “modern and more accurate” system as an alternative navigation module, said Director General of Shipping, Amitabh Kumar.

In Tennis, Daniil Medvedev beat Dominic Thiem to win ATP Tour Finals, the biggest title of his career.

Medvedev fought back from losing the first set to beat Thiem 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in a thrilling final in London last night.

Thiem was denied the title second year in a row.

In the doubles final, Dutch-Croatian duo Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic claimed their first title together edging Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 3-6, 10-5.

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan yesterday inaugurated the Seismic Survey Campaign by Oil India Limited. The survey under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy, OALP, will be undertaken in 5 blocks of 8 districts of Odisha in the Mahanadi basin and nearby areas.
 
Declaring the campaign open through virtual mode, Union Minister Mr Pradhan said that the commercial production of oil and gas from the Mahanadi basin will be a game changer in the socio-economic development of Odisha. He said, this will also thrust Odisha and the eastern India on the path of progress and prosperity in sync with the vision of Purvodaya.
 
Wishing success to Oil India in their exploration efforts, Mr Pradhan hoped that the Mahanadi basin would emerge as an established and important hydrocarbon reserve in the oil map of India.

Scottish writer Douglas Stuart has won the 2020 Booker Prize for fiction with his debut novel Shuggie Bain, which described a boy growing up in Glasgow in the 1980s with a mother battling addiction.

The awards ceremony saw six shortlisted authors joining virtually and included messages from former US President Barack Obama, the Duchess of Cornwall and former Booker winners Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo.

Stuart, 44, who won the 50,000 Pound prize after being announced the winner by chair of the judges Margaret Busby, delivered an acceptance speech.

Based on his own childhood, Stuart’s book is described as a searing account of the boy growing up in Thatcher’s Glasgow. He dedicated the book to his own mother, who died of alcoholism when he was 16. The Booker Prize shortlist also included Indian-origin writer Avni Doshi’s novel ‘Burnt Sugar’.

First awarded in 1969, The Booker Prize is considered one of the leading prizes for literary fiction written in English. The list of former winners features several of the literary giants of the last five decades: from Iris Murdoch to Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro to Hilary Mantel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has virtually inaugurated five state-of-the-art facilities to mark the eighth convocation of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University - PDPU at Gandhinagar today.
 
These include 45 MW production of monocrystalline solar photo-voltaic panels set up by GEDA at the cost of Rs. 17 crore. Mr. Modi has also launched the PDPU - technology business incubator with the fund of Rs.22 crore.
 
He has inaugurated the Sports complex set up by Sports of Authority of Gujarat at the cost of Rs. 15 crore. Prime Minister has also inaugurated the Indo-EU bilateral project under horizon 2020 “India-h2o” for industrial waste & desalination and PDPU’s Translational Research Centre.
 
Gujarat Chief Minister  VijaybhaiRupani was present as the Guest of Honour on the occasion. Shri Mukesh Ambani, the President of the Board of Governors of PDPU and Chairman of Reliance Industry presided over the function.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Tech Summit in Bengaluru on Thursday via video conference.

The summit is organised by the Government of Karnataka along with Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), Karnataka government’s Vision Group on Information Technology, Biotechnology & StartUp, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications. The theme of this year’s summit is "Next is Now". Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Electronics & IT, Communications and Law & Justice and Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yeddyrupa were present on the occasion.

The Prime Minister expressed happiness that today Digital India is no longer being seen as any regular Government initiative rather it has become a way of life particularly, for the poor, marginalised and for those in Government.

Addressing the Tech Summit, the Prime Minister said due to Digital India, our nation has witnessed a more human centric approach to development. He said using technology on such a large scale has brought about several changes for the citizens and the benefits are clearly visible. He said the government has not only created a market for digital and tech solutions, but also made it a key part of all schemes. He added his governance model is technology first and through technology human dignity has been enhanced like crores of farmers receiving monetary support in one click and successfully operating the world's largest Healthcare scheme, Ayushman Bharat. He stressed that technology ensured India’s poor received proper & quick assistance even at the peak of the lockdown. He said the scale of this relief has few parallels.