The AYUSH ministry has signed an MoU with the Defence ministry to provide traditional medicine services at the armed forces’ hospitals and dispensaries. Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik on Monday inaugurated an Ayurveda Palliative Care Unit at the Base Hospital in the Delhi Cantonment.

“Our soldiers work in challenging environmental conditions right from glaciers of Siachin to the deserts of Thar, which takes a toll on their physical as well as mental health,” the minister said.

He said ayurveda and yoga can help them to attain the best of physical and mental health, and improve their endurance. Naik said ayurvedic medicines and ‘panchkarma’ procedures such as ‘snehana’ and ‘swedana’ are effective in treating the work related musculoskeletal disorders.

Under the MoU, ayurveda units will also be established at palliative care centres at the Army Research and Referral Hospital, Air Force Hospital, Hindon in Ghaziabad and five identified ex-service men Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinics in Delhi –NCR.

Indian Railways has installed the most advanced Electronic Interlocking System on the Grand Chord route. The measure is expected to help Indian Railways speed up trains and achieve the objective of reducing the travel time between Delhi and Howrah to about 12 hours from the existing 17 to 19 hours. 

Grand Chord is part of the Howrah-Gaya-Delhi line and Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line. It acts as a link between Sitarampur in West Bengal and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Uttar Pradesh, and covers a stretch of 450 kilometres falling in North Central Railway Zone. The new Electronic system has replaced outdated 65-year old mechanical signalling system at Tundla Junction in Uttar Pradesh on the route.

BrahMos test-fired successfully! In a huge boost for India’s defence preparedness, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has conducted two consecutive successful tests of the formidable BrahMos missile. The back-to-back tests on October 21 and October 22 prove the pinpoint accuracy of the BrahMos missile system, defence sources told Financial Express Online. Today’s launch was carried out in combat mode in the morning at 9:30 AM at Trek Islands in Car Nicobar Islands. According to IAF the twin successful launches were carried out by Indian Air Force’s user unit in operational configuration. The aim of the two tests was to assess the mission readiness and swift deployment capability of the surface-to-surface BrahMos cruise missile over the long-distance range of 300 kilometres.

Last October, in the opening round of Chess.com Isle of Man International at Douglas, Viswanathan Anand escaped to a 74-move win over a 12-year-old Raunak Sadhwani, an International Master rated 2438.

“I was very, very lucky to win,” admitted Anand as he reflected on the game where the youngster temporarily gained a winning position. “When I saw the pairing, I knew it could be tough because Sadhwani was ridiculously under-rated. And of course, over the board, he played much stronger than his rating. So I feel relieved to have won.”

In fact, a couple of weeks before this game, Anand in an interview had named Sadhwani as one among the country’s incredibly talented youngsters. “My words almost came to haunt me during my game against him,” said Anand in good humour.

Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ruling Liberals will form a minority government, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp projected on Monday after polls closed across the country.

The Liberals were leading or elected in 146 out of 304 electoral districts that had reported results by about 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 GMT on Tuesday), the CBC said. Trudeau needed to win 170 seats to secure a second majority government.

A minority government in the 338-seat House of Commons would leave Trudeau in a weakened position and needing the support of left-leaning opposition parties to push through key pieces of legislation.

Ahead of the vote, polls showed a neck-and-neck race across the country as Trudeau, who took power as a charismatic figure promising "sunny ways," battled Conservative leader Andrew Scheer for the chance to form the next government.

Trudeau, 47, the Liberal Party leader, was endorsed by former U.S. President Barack Obama in the final stretch of the campaign and is viewed as one of the last remaining progressive leaders among the world's major democracies.

K P Sharma Oli will be accompanied by his spouse Mrs. Radhika Shakya. The Nepali delegation will include Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Chief Adviser to Prime Minister Bishnu Rimal, Foreign Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Rajan Bhattarai, Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi and senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Oli will address the general debate of Summit on October 26. The theme of general debate is “Upholding the Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of contemporary world”.

Nepali Prime Minister will attend the official dinner to be hosted by the President of Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in honour of the heads of delegation on 25 October 2019. Mr. Oli will also hold bilateral meetings with the Heads of Delegations of different countries on the side-lines of the Summit. 

The 18th NAM Summit will be preceded by the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting on 23-24 October and Senior Officials Meeting on 21-22 October 2019.

The Summit will consider report of Preparatory Ministerial Meeting, review the progress achieved in implementation of  outcomes of 17th Summit held in 2016 and conclude with the adoption of the Baku Declaration.

Riya Bhatia beat Nastja Kolar of Slovenia 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the final of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday.

Except for losing her way in the second set, it was a dominant performance by the 22-year-old Riya, ranked 516, against the Slovenian, who had reached a career-best rank of 178 in singles and 140 in doubles.

Riya led 5-3 in the first set, in which she struggled with nine double faults, and led 5-2 in the decider, before closing it out in style with her only ace in the match, on match point. Riya converted all the four breakpoints that she forced, and saved 12 of 16 break points that she faced. Both the players won an identical 86 points each in the match.

NEW DELHI : The Siachen Glacier in India, which is the world's highest battlefield, has now been opened to tourists, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Ladakh on Monday.

The Defence Minister was in Ladakh, along with Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat, to inaugurate a strategically located bridge across the Shyok River which will provide easy connectivity with the Daulat Beg Oldi sector along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

"Ladakh has tremendous potential in tourism. Better connectivity in Ladakh would certainly bring tourists in large numbers. The Siachen area is now open for tourists and tourism. From Siachen Base Camp to Kumar Post, the entire area has been opened for tourism purposes," Rajnath Singh said in a tweet.

Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel today launched the E-Portal of Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, CCRT ‘Digital Bharat Digital Sanskriti' and CCRT YouTube Channel in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Patel said that this will enable dissemination of cultural education through digital interactive medium into the classrooms all over the country. 

The Minister specifically stressed that each and every child has a latent talent which needs to be identified. He said CCRT should provide a platform for specifically dropout children so that they can join the mainstream and pursue their dreams.

The IT Ministry on Monday unveiled a slew of new initiatives and programmes, including BHIM 2.0 that packs-in new functionalities, supports additional languages and has increased transaction limits.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also launched a StartUp Hub portal and Indian Software Product Registry at IT Ministry’s MeitY Start-up Summit.

BHIM app, a UPI based payment interface developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that allows real time fund transfer, was launched in December, 2016.

“In order to make BHIM app more feature-rich and effective it has been enhanced with a bunch of new functionalities. Some of the striking features marking BHIM 2.0 include a ‘Donation’ gateway, increased transaction limits for high value transactions, linking multiple bank accounts, offers from merchants, option of applying in IPO, gifting money...,” an official release said.