The World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body has agreed to set up a panel to examine America's allegations against certain alleged export subsidy measures in India.

Last month, the U.S. dragged India to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism over export subsidies, saying that these incentives were harming the American companies. “At its meeting on 28 May, the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body agreed to a request from the United States for the establishment of a dispute panel to examine certain alleged export subsidy measures in India,” the WTO said in a statement.

The U.S. has stated that all WTO members, including India, are required to provide subsidies consistent with provisions of the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, including refraining from providing subsidies contingent upon export performance.

Credit rating agency Moody's on Wednesday cut its forecast for India's GDP growth in 2018 to 7.3 percent from 7.5 percent earlier.

The government will release GDP data for the quarter ended March on Thursday at 05:30 pm. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Monday said it was expected that annual growth was between 7.3 and 7.5 percent in the March quarter.

• Vikas Gowda's retirement was announced by the Athletics Federation of India on its twitter page

• Gowda, who holds the national record of 66.28m, is one of the most decorated Indian athletes

• His retirement came just a few months before the Asian Games in Indonesia

NASA scientists have discovered a special kind of neutron star for the first time outside of the Milky Way galaxy, and released a stunning image of the stellar body located 200,000 light years from Earth.

Neutron stars are the ultra-dense cores of massive stars that collapse and undergo a supernova explosion.

The newly identified neutron star, discovered using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, is a rare variety that has both a low magnetic field and no stellar companion. 

LUCKNOW: The 13th edition of bilateral annual military Exercise Surya Kiran, between India and Nepal Army commenced at Pithoragarh on Wednesday.

Over 300 soldiers from both the countries will take part in this exercise, which will ensure better coordination between armies of both the countries in disaster management, anti-terrorism operations and strengthening of the bilateral relations.

The aim of the exercise is a joint training of troops in counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism operations in both jungle and mountainous terrain and disaster management.

Surya Kiran can be termed as the facade of long-standing strategic ties between India and Nepal.

With the focus on the implementation of key India-assisted projects and building the trust between two countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal, after which it was assumed that battalion level military exercise will strenthen the Indo-Nepal relations in many aspects.

The Papua New Guinean government will ban Facebook for a month in a bid to crack down on “fake users” and study the effects the website is having on the population.

The communication minister, Sam Basil, said the shutdown would allow his department’s analysts to carry out research and analysis on who was using the platform, and how they were using it, admits rising concerns about social well-being, security and productivity.

“The time will allow information to be collected to identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed,” Basil told the Post Courier newspaper. “This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”

• PM Modi said India and Indonesia have agreed to upgrade their ties to comprehensive strategic partnership.

• He also said that India and Indonesia will double their efforts to take bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2025.

Awards: CEAT International Cricketer of the Year Virat Kohli

CEAT International Batsman of the Year Shikhar Dhawan

CEAT International Bowler of the Year Trent Boult 

CEAT T20 Bowler of the Year - Rashid Khan

CEAT T20 Batsman of the Year - Colin Munro

CEAT Outstanding Innings of the Year - Harmanpreet Kaur

CEAT Domestic Player of The Year - Mayank Agarwal

CEAT U 19 Player of The Year - Shubhman Gill

CEAT Popular Choice Award - Chris Gayle

CEAT Lifetime Achievement Award - Farokh Engineer.

New Delhi: Banking activities in public sector banks across the country have been interrupted as employees go on two-day nation-wide strike against the meagre two percent salary hike offered by the management - Indian Banks Association.

However, operations in the new-generation private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank were almost normal, barring few activities including cheque clearance.

A Web portal and an App namely PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators), www.praapti.in, has beenofficially launched today by Hon’ble Minister of State (I/C) for Power in the presence of Secretary, Shri A.K. Bhallaand other senior officials of Ministry of Power, Chairman & Managing Director, PFC, CMDs of other Power Sector PSUs and various officials of Power Sector.

PRAAPTI App and web portal has been developedto bring transparency in power purchase transactions between Generators and Discoms.

The App and Web Portal will capture the Invoicing and payment datafor various long term PPAs from the Generators. This will help the stakeholders in getting month-wise and legacy data on outstanding amounts of Discomsagainst power purchase.