Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted qualification tests of the Cryogenic Engine for Gaganyaan human space programme. The ISRO Propulsion Complex in Tamil Nadu conducted the test for 720 seconds duration yesterday and met the test objectives. A release by ISRO said, the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test. This successful long duration test is a major milestone for the Human Space programme Gaganyaan.
 
The successful test has ensured the reliability and robustness of the cryogenic engine for induction into the human rated launch vehicle for Gaganyaan. The engine will further undergo four more tests for a cumulative duration of 1810 seconds. Thereafter one more engine will undergo two short duration tests and one long duration test to complete the cryogenic engine qualification for the Gaganyaan programme.
 

His major literary works include 'Daria Parira Kabita', 'Astaragara Kabi', 'Di Dhara Luha', 'Agnisambhaba' and 'Ananya'. The prolific writer's 'Bhukha' was later adapted into an award-winning film.

Eminent Odia litterateur Manglu Charan Biswal, on whose story the first Sambalpuri film ‘Bhukha’ was based, died after a prolonged illness on Tuesday.

He was 86, and is survived by his wife Shailabala, three sons and a daughter.

Biswal died at his residence at Baradungri in Sambalpur district, his family said.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile today. The indigenously developed anti-tank missile is low weight and fire & forget missile. The missile successfully destroyed the target during the test flight.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO for the consistent performance of the anti-tank missile saying that this is an important step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat in advanced technology-based defence system development. DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy congratulated the team for the excellent performance of the missile during the test.

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today launched Artificial Intelligence-driven Start-Up by IIT alumni for water purification through innovative technology. The facility aims to provide clean drinking water at a price much lesser than the market price. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said, the Artificial Intelligence-driven Start-Up initiative should be motivating for other Start-Ups as well.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said, Science and Technology Ministry is committed to reach out to potential small and viable start-ups having skill and talent pool, but lacking in resources. He asked private sector to come forward with tech solutions to cover nearly 14 crore households where clean drinking water is yet to reach.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 25th National Youth Festival today in Puducherry via video conferencing. The 12th of January is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda and is observed as National Youth Day every year. Briefing media about National Youth Festival, Secretary, Youth Affairs, Usha Sharma said that the Festival aims to shape the minds of India's youth and transform them into a united force for nation-building.

In view of the emerging COVID situation, the two-day festival has been scheduled to be held virtually. The inauguration will be followed by the National Youth Summit which aims to galvanize, ignite, unite and activate the youth towards nation-building, to unleash the true potential of our demographic dividend. During the summit, the youth will get an opportunity to express their views on current issues like Environment, Climate Change, SDG Led Growth, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Indigenous and Ancient Wisdom, National Character, Nation Building among others.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate 11 New Government Medical Colleges across Tamil Nadu and the new campus of Central Institute of Classical Tamil in Chennai today.

The new medical colleges are being established at an estimated cost of about 4 thousand crore rupees. Of this amount, around 2 thousand 145 crore rupees have been provided by the Union government and rest by the Tamil Nadu government.

The districts in which the new Medical Colleges are being established are Virudhunagar, Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur, Ramanathapuram, and Krishnagiri.

The establishment of these medical colleges is in line with the Prime Minister's constant endeavour to promote affordable medical education and improve health infrastructure in all parts of the country. The new medical colleges, with cumulative capacity of 1 thousand 450 seats, are being established under the Centrally Sponsored scheme of ’Establishing of New Medical Colleges attached with existing district and referral hospital’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary. In his message, Mr. Modi said Swami Vivekananda's life was devoted to national regeneration. He said he motivated many youngsters to work towards nation building and asked everyone to keep working together to fulfil the dreams Swami Vivekananda had for the nation.

South Korean actor O Yeong-su claimed the country’s first Golden Globe Award on Sunday for his role in the hit Netflix drama “Squid Game,” drawing cheers at home and abroad despite criticism for ceremony organizers over a lack of diversity.

O, 77, won for his portrayal of Oh II-nam, besting, among others, Billy Crudup of “The Morning Show” and Kieran Culkin of "Succession."

National Stock Exchange on Monday said it got approval from Securities Exchange Board of India(SEBI) to launch derivatives on Nifty MidCap Select Index and will start from January 24.

"Nifty Midcap Select index aims to track the performance of a focused portfolio of 25 stocks within the Nifty Midcap 150 index. All the index constituent stocks are individually available in derivatives. The weight of the stocks is based on free-float market capitalization methodology", NSE said in a statement.

Exchange will offer futures and options with a trading cycle of 7 weekly expiration contracts (excluding the monthly expiration contract) and 3 serial monthly expiration contracts. Index options will be European style with strike interval of 50 and strike scheme of 30–1–30 (OTM-ATM-ITM), the exchange added.

Indian born Engineer Vaibhav Ghadiok has architected the first autonomous traffic management platform in the world.

This young 36-year-old is a pioneer in the field of robotics with multiple inventions and patents to his name. He is the Executive VP of Engineering at Hayden AI (Silicon Valley, USA), where he is using his expertise in AI and robotics to enhance transit systems across the world.

His latest work has applications in building smarter cities and modernizing and optimizing traffic management that will have an impact on millions of people. He is currently working with major US state governments to implement this technology with plans to expand globally.