Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the Inaugural Address at the ‘Conclave on Transformational Reforms in Higher Education under National Education Policy’ today.

The conclave that is being organised through video conference, will have sessions dedicated to significant aspects of education covered under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. These include holistic, multidisciplinary and futuristic education, Quality Research, and Equitable use of technology for better reach in Education.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and Union Minister of State for Education, Sanjay Dhotre will also participate in the event. A number of dignitaries including the Chairman and Members, Committee for Draft NEP as well as eminent academicians and scientists will speak on different aspects of the National Education Policy.

Vice-Chancellors of universities, Directors of Institutions and Principals of colleges and other stakeholders will also participate in the programme. 

National Institute of Disaster Management in collaboration with India Meteorological Department organised a webinar series on “Hydro-Meteorological Hazards Risk Reduction”. The webinar series include four webinars focusing on Thunderstorms and Lightning, Cloudburst and Floods, Cyclones and Storm Surges and Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events. The webinar series exhorted on enhancing human capacity in terms of better understanding of Hydro-Meteorological Hazards Risk and effective collaborative actions.
 
Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai inaugurated the first webinar on “Thunderstorms and Lightning”. He highlighted the major interventions carried out by the Government departments and agencies for reducing the adverse risks of Hydro-Meteorological disasters. He also emphasised on focusing on collaborative short and long term mitigation and reduction measures to diminish the adverse impacts of these disasters.

The President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Manoj Sinha as the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. 

The President accepted the resignation of Girish Chandra Murmu as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Mr Murmu, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer was appointed as the LG in October last year. Our correspondent quoting sources reports, Mr Murmu had sent his resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar  has congratulated Manoj Sinha for being appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the Bhumi Poojan function for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya today. He will unveil a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone and also release commemorative postal stamp on Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir. The Bhumi Poojan ceremony will start at 12.30 PM and culminate at 12.45 PM. 175 guests including 135 Saints belonging to 135 spiritual traditions have been invited for the ceremony.

Mr Modi will first have Darshan at Shri Hanumangarhi Mandir, after which he will perform puja of Bhagwan Shri Ramlalla at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi. It will be followed by the Bhumi Pujan.

Heavy security arrangements are in place in view of the Prime Minister's visit.

Shri Ram Janm Bhumi Teerth Shetra Trust and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have appealed to all Ram-Bhakts across the world to organise Bhajan, Kirtan and Prasad distribution in all villages and cities while taking all necessary precautions to prevent spread of Corona.

Members of the Indian men's and women's hockey teams bound for Tokyo Olympics will join the National Camp at National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Bengaluru today. The decision was taken by Sports Authority of India (SAI) after formal permission was received from the State Government to begin training in Bengaluru.  
 
The athletes, coaches and support staff, who were on a home break, will join the camp and undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine inside the campus. Considering the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru, the permission from the State Government has been given subject to all arriving athletes, coaches and support staff adhering to institutional quarantine protocols issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health and Government of Karnataka.

Defence Ministry has formulated a draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 (DPEPP-2020). The policy aims to provide impetus to self-reliance in defence manufacturing under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Scheme.

The DPEPP-2020 is envisaged as overarching guiding document of Defence Ministry to provide a focused, structured and significant thrust to defence production capabilities of the country for self-reliance and exports.

Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 has marked out clear goals and objectives to be undertaken by the Defence Ministry.

First and foremost amongst all is to achieve a turnover of Rs. 1 lakh 75 thousand Crore including an export of Rs. 35 thousand Crore in the Aerospace and Defence goods and services by the year 2025.

Developing a dynamic, robust and competitive Defence industry, including Aerospace and Naval Shipbuilding industry to cater to the needs of Armed forces with quality products has also been clearly laid out in the new draft policy.

Union Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar, India could provide platform wherein all best practices in environmental management in BRICS countries could be showcased at 6th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting.

Environment Ministers of the five BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa participated in the 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting on Thursday through a video conference under the presidency of Russia.

Representing India, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said, India attaches great importance to the BRICS. Saying that the aspirations of the grouping are similar, the Minister called for sharing of best practices among the BRICS nations towards attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.

Javadekar also stressed upon the need to implement various initiatives under the BRICS and for the speedy implementation of the BRICS MoU. He also offered that India could provide the platform wherein all the best practices in environmental management in BRICS countries could be showcased.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2020 on Saturday via video conferencing.

He will also be interacting with students on the occasion.

The Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. It has proved to be extremely successful in promoting out-of-the-box thinking in young minds

The first edition of Smart India Hackathon 2017 saw participation of 42,000 students which increased to 1 lakh in 2018 and to 2 lakh in 2019.

The first round of Smart India Hackathon 2020 saw participation of more than 4.5 lakh students. The Grand Finale of the software edition this year is being organized online by connecting all the participants throughout the nation together over a specially-built advanced platform.

More than 10,000 students will be competing to solve 243 problem statements from 37 central government departments, 17 state governments and 20 industries.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has said that the new National Education Policy is a major step forward to enhance access to quality education to all the children and youth. In a series of tweets, Me Naidu expressed happiness that the new education policy has been approved by the government. He said, the Policy’s emphasis on mother tongue and multilingualism, for diversity and respect for the local context as well as a recognition of the importance of India’s classical languages. It will give learners a holistic world view. Mr Naidu said, the focus of education policy on ethics and human and Constitutional values will go a long way in the creation of an enlightened citizenship essential for deepening our democratic roots.

The Vice President said, the vision of new education policy is truly global and essentially Indian. It exemplifies India’s timeless quest for welcoming noble thoughts from all over the world. He said, setting up a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy is a much needed, timely step to improve the quality of education at the primary level. Mr Naidu said, the policy's sharp focus on research, multidisciplinary approaches and use of technology as well as professional upgradation of teachers’ competence has the potential to qualitatively transform the education landscape of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth will jointly inaugurate the new Supreme Court building of Mauritius today.

The inauguration is scheduled to take place through video conference in presence of senior members of Judiciary from Mauritius and other dignitaries from both the countries. The building has been constructed with Indian grant assistance and will be the first India-assisted infrastructure project within the capital city of Port Louis after the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic.

The new Supreme Court building project is one of the five projects being implemented under the Special Economic Package of 353 million dollars extended by Government of India to Mauritius in 2016. The project has been completed within schedule and below expected costs. The building is spread over an area of more than 4,700 square metres with over 10 floors and a built up area of around 25 square metres.

In October 2019, Mr Modi and Prime Minister of Mauritius had jointly inaugurated the Phase-I of the Metro Express Project and the new ENT Hospital project in Mauritius, also built under the Special Economic Package. Under Phase-I of Metro Express project, construction of 12 kilometres of metro-line was completed in September last year, while work on its Phase-2 envisaging 14 kilometres of metro-line is ongoing. Through the ENT Hospital project, India assisted in construction of a 100-bed state of the art ENT hospital in Mauritius.