Senior diplomat Indra Mani Pandey has been appointed as the next Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva.

Mr Pandey, a 1990 batch IFS officer is presently additional secretary in the External Affairs ministry. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced free food grains to 80 crore people across the country for five more months. The Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana has been extended till the end of November this year. Under the scheme announced in the wake of COVID- 19 pandemic, 5 kg free wheat or rice along with 1 kg whole chana will be provided to each member of a family per month. Its extension will cost over 90 thousand crore rupees.
 
Addressing the nation last evening, Mr. Modi noted that in the last three months, 31 thousand  crore rupees have been transferred to the Jan Dhan accounts of almost 20 crore poor families,18 thousand crore rupees have been transferred to the bank accounts of more than 9 crore farmers and 50 thousand crore rupees are being spent on PM Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, which has been started to provide employment opportunities. He stressed that the country is moving towards the institution of ‘one nation, one ration card’, which will be of immense benefit to the poor who travel to other states in search of work.

National Doctor's Day 2020: The Indian Medical Association organises the day in India on the birth and death anniversary of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy. This year's theme is 'Lessen the Mortality of Covid-19'.

India celebrates the National Doctor’s Day on July 1 every year. This year is even more special as our doctors have turned Covid-19 warriors, trying to fight the disease in the primary and secondary care setups as well as the dedicated COVID care hospitals. The day is an opportunity to offer our thanks and express our gratitude to doctors and medical professionals working round the clock to serve us.

She was the first woman writer to bag Kendra Sahitya Academy and Nadoja awards and serve as the chairperson of Karnataka Sahitya Academy.

Kannada novelist Geetha Nagabhushan, whose works were known for the resistance to patriarchy and gender stereotypes, has died of cardiac arrest at a private hospital here on Sunday night. She was 78.

National Statistics Day is celebrated on June 29 across the country. The day is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, a world-renowned statistician whose invaluable contributions led to the establishment of National Statistical System in India. He is also called the father of Indian Statistics. Let us know some interesting facts about PC Mahalanobis

The theme this year for the day is Sustainable Development Goals -3 -Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all and Sustainable Development Goals-5 - Achieving gender equality and empowering all women. This year the day will be celebrated virtually due to the pandemic outbreak. 

Australia and New Zealand were handed the right to host the 2023 Women's World Cup football tournament by a comfortable margin after a vote by the FIFA Council on Thursday.

Their joint proposal beat a rival bid from Colombia to host the tournament which is being expanded to 32 teams.

Japan, who had also put forward a bid to stage the event, pulled out on Monday after they were ranked below the joint bid by world governing body FIFA's evaluation report.

The report highlighted the infrastructure and organisational advantages of the Australia/New Zealand bid which FIFA believed would make for a commercially successful tournament.

India has moved down three places to 77th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks at the end of 2019, while the UK has retained its top position, as per the latest data from Switzerland’s central bank.

India was ranked 74th in the previous year.

An analysis of the latest annual banking statistics released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) showed that India remains ranked very low when it comes to money parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks, including through their India-based branches, accounting for just about 0.06 per cent of the aggregate funds parked by all foreign clients of Switzerland-based banks.

In comparison, the top-ranked UK accounted for close to 27 per cent of the total foreign funds parked with Swiss banks at the end of 2019.

Sqn Ldr Parvez Jamasji (retd), who was awarded the Vir Chakra for gallantry during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, has died, family sources said. He was 77.

Jamasji, who used a walking stick due to the injuries he sustained as a helicopter pilot while conducting heli-borne operations during the war, is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter.

The former Air Force officer, a resident of the Parsi Colony in Dadar here, died on Thursday night after a brief illness.

His Vir Chakra citation read, “During the operations against Pakistan in December, 1971, Flight Lieutenant Parvez Rustom Jamasji was serving with a helicopter unit. His Helicopter flown by him was attacked twice by machine gun and twice by mortars. He showed great presence of mind and brought back his aircraft to the base.

Rahul Dravid is the greatest Indian Test batsman, according to a poll conducted on social media by Wisden India. Dravid beat Tendulkar by a narrow margin of votes in the final round of voting.

Dravid got 52 per cent of the votes, with as many as 11,400 fans taking part in the final round of voting. “Much like Dravid batted during his playing career, he dug in and fought back in the poll, eventually crossing the line with a decent lead at the very end,” said the Wisden India report.

The poll initially had 16 Indian batting greats, with Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli being the two others to have made it through to the ‘semi finals’. Gavaskar beat Kohli in the ‘third-place play-off’ by a narrow margin.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Aatma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan will providing employment opportunities to migrant workers and promote local entrepreneurship. Mr Modi yesterday inaugurated Aatma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan through video conferencing.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Modi said that UP will benefit immensely from clusters of industries being created to promote such local products across the country under the AatmaNirbhar Rojgar Abhiyan.

Prime Minister said that everyone will be able to surpass the difficulties owing to the COVID-19 Pandemic. He stressed that until a vaccine is found, maintaining Do Gaj ki Doori, covering the face with the mask are the best precautions.
 
PM expressed satisfaction in the manner in which Uttar Pradesh has turned the disaster into an opportunity, the way people were engaged during this pandemic. He said that other states will also get to learn a lot from 'AatmaNirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan' and will be inspired by it.