In the early hours of Monday morning, when the announcement was made for legendary drummer Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej to receive the Grammy for Divine Tides (Lahiri Music) for the Best New Age Album, life for the Bengaluru musician seemed to have come full circle. Dressed in a navy blue bandhgala, Kej bent down on stage to touch Copeland’s feet and expressed gratitude to have joined him on his “musical journey”. “I grew up with his (Copeland’s) posters on my wall and today I have won a Grammy along with him. It’s amazing,” said 40-year-old Kej on stage. “In India, we have a saying – Vasudev Kutumbhkam – the world is one family… living in peace with the human species, and also with all entities on this planet. Divine Tides is about that co-existence,” added Kej.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur today launched the Broadcast Seva Portal in New Delhi. The portal will provide a single point facility to the stakeholders to request for required permission, registrations and licences. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Thakur said, government has harnessed technology to bring transparency in the system and make it more accountable.

He said, the Broadcast Seva Portal will reduce the turnaround time of applications and at the same time help applicants track the progress. This portal will reduce the human interface and will be a major step towards Ease of Doing Business. Mr Thakur added that the 360-degree digital solution will facilitate the stakeholders in seeking permissions, applying for registration, tracking applications, calculating fees and executing payments. This portal will provide its services under the wider umbrella efforts of Digital India to all stakeholders to private satellite TV channels, teleport operators, community and private radio channels.

The Lok Sabha has passed Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022. The bill seeks to authorize for taking measurements of convicts and other persons for the purposes of identification and investigation in criminal matters and to preserve records. It provides legal sanction for taking appropriate body measurements of persons who are required to give such measurements which include finger-impressions, palm-print and foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples, and their analysis among others. It will make the investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious and will also help in increasing the conviction rate.

The legislation also empowers the National Crime Records Bureau of India to collect, store and preserve the record of measurements and for sharing, dissemination, destruction, and disposal of records. The bill provides for empowering police or prison officer to take measurements of any person who resists or refuses to give measurements.

University Grants Commission (UGC) has clarified that when Universities adopt Central Universities Common Entrance Test for UG admissions, they only need to register on National Testing Agency (NTA) Website. UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar said, Universities do not have to pay fees to National Testing Agency and UGC to adopt it. He also said, there is no need to sign an MoU with NTA and UGC. Mr Kumar said, Universities can verify the scores against NTA data which will be made available to them when students submit their Central Universities Common Entrance Test scores during admission.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba held delegation-level talks in New Delhi yesterday.

During the talks, the two leaders reviewed the progress in India-Nepal partnership and discussed ways to further their cooperation agenda. Prime Minister Modi and Nepalese Prime Minister Deuba jointly launched several projects on the occasion. They flagged off the 35-kilometer long cross-border passenger train services between Jaynagar of Bihar in India and Kurtha in Nepal. Both the leaders also jointly inaugurated Solu Corridor 132 KV Power Transmission Line and Substation in Nepal built under the Government of India's Line of Credit. The two Prime Ministers launched RuPay Card in Nepal. Following the talks, four MoUs were signed in the presence of both Prime Ministers.

The government has said that it is in the process of setting up  Anytime-Anywhere Post Office Savings scheme, which will allow online transfer of funds between postal and bank accounts. Around 96 percent of post offices across the country have been brought under the core banking system (CBS), in order to implement the "Anytime-Anywhere Post Office Savings" service. There are a total of 1,58,526 post offices in India, out of which 1, 52,514 post offices, or 96 percent of them have already been brought under the CBS, official sources informed. This will not only help the existing post office savings account holders but also encourage new individuals to open up a savings account with ease, sources said.

The government is also working towards providing national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) facilities for online transfer of funds from post office accounts to bank accounts and vice versa, official sources said.

Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur launched six new and rare Reference Materials (RMs) developed by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL). Speaking at an event, Mr. Thakur said that this development will make India self-reliant in anti-doping science.

He said the availability of these RMs would help the entire anti-doping community to strengthen their testing capabilities. Mr. Thakur said that this would also help in mutual cooperation among countries for promoting fair play in sports policy the world over.

The Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, has said that the country’s goods exports have now crossed the 418 billion US dollar mark. Addressing the media in New Delhi on India's historic export figures for the financial year 2021-22, Mr Goyal said, that it is an important milestone in the journey towards an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. 

He said, that every sector of the economy, be it Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; farmers, entrepreneurs, or state governments, all have worked together to achieve this lucrative goal. Mr Goyal said that India has truly gone from local to global in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call. The Minister said, that the export of wheat in 2019-20 which was only two lakh tonnes, has increased to 21.55 lakh tonnes in 2020-21.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur will launch the Broadcast Seva Portal this afternoon in New Delhi. Keeping in view, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative for Ease of Doing Business, Digital India and Make in India, the Broadcast Seva portal will provide a single point facility to the stakeholders to request for required permission, registrations, licences, etc. issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

This portal will provide easy communication between the applicant and different stakeholders for faster processing of applications.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated four National Highway Projects worth 1466 Crore rupees in Raigad district of Maharashtra yesterday. While addressing the ceremony, Mr Gadkari said that the Mumbai-Goa National Highway is a heartline project and his ministry has been giving special emphasis for the timely completion of the project.

However, Mr. Gadkari said that Mumbai- Goa National Highway work got delayed because of multiple factors; one of the main reason being land acquisition.

Stating that the problems will remain, the Union Minister promised to complete much-awaited Mumbai- Goa National highway within a year. He also assured to build advanced technology rope ways for all the forts in Maharashtra. He stated that the Raigad district is one of the major junction points from Mumbai to Goa and other southern states and in view of this consistent development work is being undertaken here.