India's ace cueist Pankaj Advani beat compatriot Aditya Mehta in the quarterfinals of the Asian Snooker Championship in the Qatari capital Doha today. 

With this victory, Advani assured himself of a medal. Mehta was one frame away from ousting the 21-time world champion from the tournament but Pankaj's resilient efforts saw him enforce the decider. 

Pankaj is now the only Indian in the fray. His semifinal opponent is Pakistan's Asjad Iqba

As a major initiative towards Make in India, the government has issued the Expression of Interests for shortlisting of potential Indian Strategic Partners for construction of six conventional submarines for P-75(I) Project of the Indian Navy. The project cost is about 45 thousand crore rupees.

It is the second project being undertaken under the latest Strategic Partnership Model, with the first being the procurement of 111 Naval Utility Helicopters. 

The Ministry of Defence in a statement said, the decision will provide a major boost to the indigenous design and construction capability of submarines in India, in addition to bringing in the latest submarine design and technologies as part of the project. 

The mortal remains of all the 13 people, who were onboard the crashed Indian Air Force AN 32 helicopter, have been recovered from the accident site at Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Defence sources told AIR that a team of 19 trekkers recovered the bodies. The team, which included Garud commandos and Special Forces of the Army, started the mission to recover the bodies last week on Wednesday, a day after the wreckage was spotted. 

The mission was affected due to inclement weather. Helicopters including Mi17, Cheetah were unable to reach the site.

The sources said, the mortal remains are likely to taken to Jorhat first and follow up action will be taken after that. The helicopter lost contact on its way to Mechuka from Jorhat on the 3rd of this month.

The government is planning to waive off the registration charges for electric vehicles to boost the battery-operated vehicles in the country. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a draft notification in this regard and has sought comments and suggestions from stakeholders.

The exemption will apply to all category of vehicles, including two-wheelers. Suggestions have been sought within a month and these can be sent at jspb-morth@gov.in.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of Presidents of all political parties having representation in Parliament on the issue of One Nation One Election. 

Briefing media persons after the meeting, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that Prime Minister will form a committee to look into the various aspects of One Nation One Election in the country. Within a time frame, the committee will submit its report. Mr Singh said that in the meeting, most of the political parties supported the idea of One Nation One Election. 

However, there are differences of opinion from political parties like CPIM and CPI on the issue about implementation of the idea, but they did not oppose it. He said, 40 political parties were invited for the meeting yesterday, out of which 21 attended and 3 including AIADMK sent their views.

President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint sitting of both the houses of Parliament today. He will deliver the address at the Central Hall of Parliament.

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha began on Monday in which the newly elected members took oath and election of the Speaker was held.

The Rajya Sabha will begin its proceedings from today after the address of the President.

The Parliament session will continue till 26th of next month. The Economic Survey will be presented to Parliament on 4th July and the Union Budget for 2019- 20 will be presented to Lok Sabha on 5th July.

Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan Tuesday endured the ignominy of becoming the most expensive bowler in World Cup history during their match against hosts England at Old Trafford here.

Rashid Khan, the world’s No.3 ODI bowler, leaked 110 runs off nine overs as England racked up a gigantic 397 for six after electing to bat.

The 20-year-old spinner, who plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad in Indian Premier League, was in the firing line of English batsmen Eoin Morgan (148), Jonny Bairstow (90) and Joe Root (88) on a flat pitch here.

The record earlier belonged to New Zealand’s Martin Snedden, who had conceded 105 runs for two wickets against England in the 1983 World Cup.

Om Birla, a two-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament from Rajasthan, was elected Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The motion to choose Birla as the speaker was moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also Leader of the House, and passed by a voice vote. His candidature was supported by Congress, DMK, Biju Janata Dal, AIADMK, YSR Congress among other parties.

Birla, 56, will take over from eight-term MP Sumitra Mahajan, who did not contest the Lok Sabha elections. Birla’s election to the post was certain given the numbers of the ruling NDA in the House and the absence of any other candidate.

Congratulating Om Birla, Modi in Lok Sabha recounted his contribution in the progress of the country. “I on behalf of the government and the treasury benches assure you full support in conducting the House. I also assure you that your order will prevail and you must be tough even if anyone from our side (treasury benches) crosses the limit,” Modi said. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary also extended whole-hearted support to Birla, urged him to be impartial and give enough time to the opposition to raise issues of public interest.

India Russia business tie has been hugely tilted favouring defence sector traditionally. With changing times, both the countries are exploring new avenues of collaborations.

The business program of the outreach session in Mumbai provided participants with information on existing investment opportunities in the region and preferences for investors. This time Prime Minister Modi is expected to be the Guest of Honour at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), scheduled between 04-06 September at Vladivostok, Russia. 

Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Yury Trutnev will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today. The Russian delegation includes the heads of ministries, senior officials, as well as leading business figures in the field of mining, woodworking, pulp and paper, food and beverage industries, agriculture and transport logistics.

About 17 countries have invested in the far east of Russia. India has now started investing and as of now 3 more companies from India have expressed interest to invest in the far east besides Tata Power, KGK Diamond among others.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a 1-crore penalty on private sector lender HDFC Bank for non-compliance with directions on ‘Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering norms and on reporting of frauds.

“The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of Section 47A(1)(c) read with Section 46(4)(i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, taking into account failure of the bank to adhere to the aforesaid directions issued by RBI,” the central bank said on Tuesday, adding that the action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance. The issue pertains to a reference to the RBI from customs authorities regarding submission of forged bill of entries (BoEs) by certain importers for remittance of foreign currency.

Further examination revealed violations of directions on ‘KYC/AML norms’ and on reporting of frauds, after which a notice was issued to HDFC Bank advising it to show cause as to why monetary penalty should not be imposed for non-compliance with RBI norms.