A ten day long art exhibition commemorating 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi was inaugurated on Tuesday in Dhaka. The art exhibition has been organised by the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh in association with the Bangladesh Shilpkala Academy.

The exhibition was inaugurated with a floral tribute paid by MP from Noakhali H.M. Ibrahim and MP from Jamalpur Mirza Azam. The two Gandhi Ashrams in Bangladesh are located at Jamalpur and Noakhali. Leading thinker on Gandhian ideals, Syed Abul Maksud was the Special Guests of the Ceremony.

Welcoming the dignitaries and artists on the occasion Deputy High Commissioner to Bangladesh Bishwadip Dey said that the exhibition will promote appreciation of Mahatma Gandhi’s life of simplicity and devotion to truth.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday granted in-principle approval to Uttar Pradesh-based Shivalik Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd to convert to a small finance bank (SFB), becoming the first urban cooperative bank (UCB) to make the transition since the guidelines came out nearly two years ago.

“The Reserve Bank of India has today granted in-principle approval to Shivalik Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd (the applicant) for transition into a small finance bank under the scheme on voluntary transition of urban co-operative bank into a small finance bank issued on September 27, 2018," an RBI notification said.

India's P Magesh Chandran lifted the title in the 95th edition of the prestigious Hastings International Chess Congress at  Hastings in England.

He remained unbeaten in all the nine rounds. The 36-year old Grand Master with a FIDE rating of 2479, finished in clear first place with 7.5 points from nine games after securing a 33-move draw in the final round yesterday against compatriot G A Stany, also a Grand Master. He beat fellow Indian GM Deep Sengupta in the eighth round.

Stany took the sixth place with 6.5 points while India's woman GM R Vaishali obtained six points to finish 10th. Two other Indians Deep Sengupta finished 13th and Swayam Mishra 14th with identical six points.

France's Romain Edouard, who was the only player to end the tournament a half-point behind Chandran, took the second spot. Four players shared third to sixth places with 6.5 points.  

Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal has said that Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will contribute one trillion dollars by the year 2035.

He said, artificial intelligence-powered learning ecosystem will assist the banking, financial services and insurance sector.

The Minister today inaugurated the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Knowledge Hub in New Delhi.

He said, this is a good beginning by NSE to tap the potential of artificial intelligence and use it as a tool to create a workforce in the financial sector. He said, India is a safe investment destination for investors.

The second phase of Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 rolled out yesterday at block level in 35 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The aim of the program launched by central government in 2017 is to achieve 90 percent vaccination coverage in children of less than 2 years in state.
 
AIR correspondent reports that under the program the immunization activity will be in four rounds over seven working days excluding the Regular immunisation days, Sundays and holidays. First round was completed in December last year while present round started yesterday. Next rounds will be in February and March months and will cover 425 blocks of 73 districts of state.

Home Minister Amit Shah today laid the foundation stone of Delhi Cycle Walk project at Tughlakabad in the National Capital. It is aimed at making the city most walkable and environment friendly. 

This 36 kilometre project is first phase of Delhi Cycle Walk which will have whole network of over 220 km. This cycle walk will cover abundant forests, dense residential areas and work places in close proximity in the city. The project will be based on green strategies and universal accessibility and security have been given due care in it.

Indian-origin Goa-born scientist, Vithal Tilvi-led NASA team has discovered a never-seen-before group of galaxies, which is said to be the farthest to have ever been sighted. The international team of astronomers labelled the group galaxies as EGS77, which took over four years to be found. The group of galaxies is estimated to be over 13 billion light-years away from the Earth.

This is not the first time that Tilvi made an unprecedented discovery in the world of astronomy. In 2013, with his team, Tilvi discovered the farthest single galaxy ever sighted. In 2017, he led a team of astronomers that discovered the earliest black hole candidate in the Universe.

With this recent discovery of EGS77, astronomers will be able to find out about the chemicals that were present when the Universe was just born. On January 5, the team first time presented its findings of the discovery of EGS77 at the American Astronomical Society conference in Hawaii. 

The Women Science Congress was inaugurated at the ongoing Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru today. DRDO Aeronautical Systems Director General Dr.Tessy Thomas who is known as Missile Woman of India graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Recalling the contribution of women in different spheres, she said, the status of women in the country is changing as their growing presence is seen in many areas of expertise. 

Speaking about the contribution of Science and Technology, Dr. Thomas said, they are an essential tool for the rapid development and effective means to growth and socio-economic development of the country. She said that technology development has a profound and long term impact on the economic growth and security of the country. 

Young Indian paddler Manav Thakkar today became world no.1 in the latest International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings in the Under-21 men's singles category. With this, Thakkar became the fourth Indian to achieve the feat after Harmeet Desai, G Sathiyan and Soumyajit Ghosh. 

Among other Indians, G. Sathiyan has managed to retain his 30th spot in the senior category. Achanta Sharath Kamal has climbed a spot to 33rd position. Top woman paddler, Manika Batra was static at the 61st position.

The 19-year-old  Manav Thakkar achieved the top spot after clinching the Under-21 men's singles title at the ITTF Challenge Plus Benemax-Virgo North American Open in Markham, Canada in December last year. Thakkar was also world no. 1 in the Under-18 category in February 2018. He was part of the Indian men's team which won a bronze medal in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

The world Braille Day is being celebrated today. The day is marked remembering the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille - for people with visual disabilities. Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809 in the town of Coupvray in northern France. 

At the age of just 3, he lost both his eyes in an accident. This resulted in the invention of the language of 6 dots- which is popularly known as braille.

As a part of World Braille Day Celebration, Regional News Unit of All India Radio Ahmedabad has organized the special live Braille News reading by a visually impaired person. Shri Yahaya Sapatvala - a visually impaired teacher will read the 7.10 PM evening regional news bulletin of All India Radio Ahmedabad through Braille Script.