Indian-origin Anita Bhatia has been the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships. 

A veteran in strategic partnerships, resource mobilisation and management, she was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the global body's agency focussed on women empowerment and gender equality. 

She has had a distinguished career at the World Bank Group, serving in various senior leadership and management positions, both at the headquarters and in the field.

Veteran Indian diplomat and a gender equality champion Lakshmi Puri had previously served as the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.

The key appointment comes less than a week after Guterres appointed Indian Army officer Lieutenant General Shailesh Tinaikar as his new Force Commander of the UN Mission in South Sudan.

The new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her first Union Budget (for FY20) on 5 July, the government decided on Friday.

A day before the Union Budget, Sitharaman will table in Parliament the Economic Survey 2018-19 authored by chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramaniam and his team. The date of presenting full budget for FY20 by the NDA government was finalized at a meeting of the union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, according to an official announcement.

The Parliament session will begin on 17 June and President Ram Nath Kovind will address a joint session of both the Houses on 20 June prior to budget presentation in the first week of July. In February, the previous NDA government had presented an interim budget and Piyush Goyal was entrusted with that job.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has removed all temporary restrictions on all air routes in the Indian airspace. The IAF made the announcement on Twitter. The IAF had imposed restrictions following air strikes on a terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan on 27th February. 

India had imposed restrictions which did not allow any aircraft flying over Pakistan airspace to use entry or exit points into India.

Since February 27, flights on these sectors were taking longer routes leading to an increase in flying time by up to three hours. 

Former ISRO chief Dr. Kasturirangan led Committee submitted the draft National Educational Policy (NEP) to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in New Delhi yesterday. 

The policy draft recommends incorporation of Indian knowledge systems in the curriculum, constituting a National Education Commission and curbing arbitrary fees hikes by private schools. 

The expert panel also proposed massive transformation in Teacher Education by moving all teacher preparation and education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities or colleges. It added that the topics will include Indian contribution to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, psychology, yoga, architecture, medicine, as well as governance, polity, society, and conservation course on Indian knowledge systems. 

The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.

The newly-sworn in NDA government at the Centre has taken four major decisions related to farmers' and traders welfare in the first meeting of the Union Cabinet.

It has approved the extension of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) to all the farmers in the country. Earlier the benefit of the scheme was applicable to farmers having two hectares of land. 

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting in New Delhi last evening, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, nearly 14 crore 50 lakh farmers will be now covered under the revised scheme. The Minister said, total burden on the exchequer will be over 87,000 crore rupees for the year 2019-20. He said, over three crore farmers have been benefited so far. Six thousand rupees per year is being given in three instalments to the farmers, under the scheme. 

Admiral Karambir Singh took over as the Chief of Naval Staff today. With a career spanning over 37 years, Karambir Singh served as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff at the headquarters in New Delhi before moving to Vishakhapatnam last year as the Eastern Naval Commander. 

After his appointment as Navy Chief, Karambir Singh said that his endeavour would be toward providing the nation a Navy that is strong, capable and which is ready to meet any security challenge in the maritime domain.

Admiral Sunil Lanba relinquished his command of the Indian Navy on completion of his tenure and retirement from service after over four decades of distinguished service.

Six Indian-origin students are among the eight participants who won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee after defeating over 550 other contestants in an unprecedented competition in the US.

It is the first time in the 94-year history of the competition that more than two co-champions have been named.

Rishik Gandhasri, Saketh Sundar,  Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali,  Rohan Raja, Christopher Serrao and Erin Howard were named as co-champions. Each will receive the full winner's prize of 50,000 US Dollar in cash.

The six boys and two girls combined to spell the final 47 words correctly over five consecutive perfect rounds.

The 565 contestants ranged in age from 7 to 14 and came from across the US and several other countries, including Canada, Ghana and Jamaica.  

Binny, India’s only orangutan, has died at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Odisha.

The 41-year-old primate’s death on Wednesday is being attributed to respiratory complications, The Indian Express reported.

She was undergoing treatment for infected wound on her throat since the last two years.

“Binny also had a wound on her pouch that would not heal because she was constantly scratching it,” veterinary assistant surgeon Dr Sarat Sahu, was quoted as saying.

Binny was brought from the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Pune to the zoo in 2003. “Prior to that, we think she was sourced from Singapore,” Express quoted Alok Das, Sanctuary Manager at the zoo, as saying.

A senior official from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) said Binny was already old and every effort was made to cure the infection, “including a teleconference with veterinarians from outside the country.”

The first meeting of the new Union Cabinet will be held this evening. The possible date of convening the Parliament session could be decided in the meeting. The newly-elected Lok Sabha members have to be administered the oath during the ensuing session.

In the coming days, the Prime Minister would also decide on the various Cabinet Committees such as Cabinet Committee on Security, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.

The country's median GDP is forecast at 7.1 per cent for FY20 and 7.2 per cent for FY 21.

The industry body FICCI's economic outlook survey said that the minimum and maximum growth estimate stood at 6.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent, for 2019-20.

The survey was conducted in May 2019 among economists belonging to the industry, banking and financial services sectors.

Inflation is expected to remain moderate and the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate is projected at 3.1 per cent in 2019-20, While, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation has a median forecast of 4 per cent for 2019-20.