World's longest River Cruise MV Ganga Vilas will reach Patna in the afternoon today. The Cruise on way to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh is in Bihar. AIR Correspondent reports that 32 tourists from Switzerland relishing the Varanasi to Dibrugarh journey and before arriving in Patna the tourists will visit Chirand archaeological site in the Saran district. It is the first known site of the Neolithic age.

The Director of Bihar Tourism Department Yashaspati Mishra told AIR that elaborate arrangements have been made for the tourists. The cruise will be in Bihar till the 22nd January. MV Ganga Vilas was flagged off from Varanasi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. The Cruise will cover a 3,200 km voyage being pitched as the world's longest. 

The regular services of the 8th Vande Bharat Express train connecting Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam will start from today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off Vande Bharat express connecting Telangana and Andhra Pradesh yesterday virtually. The inaugural train reached yesterday evening. The train will cover a distance of about 700 km.

The train comprises 14 AC Chair car coaches and two Executive AC Chair car coaches with the capacity of 1128 passengers. The train will have stoppages at Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and Vijayawada stations in Andhra Pradesh and at Khammam, Warangal and Secunderabad stations in Telangana. People at several places expressed their happiness on the introduction of the Vande Bharat Express. 

Indian Railways will launch its Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train during a special tour between India and Nepal on 17th of next month from New Delhi. The tour Shri Ram-Janaki Yatra: Ayodhya to Janakpur will cover pilgrimage and heritage sites at Ayodhya and Janakpur Dham (Nepal) along with Nandigram, Sitamarhi, Varanasi and Prayagraj. The guests will be travelling around 25 hundred Kilometres during this tour. This will be a seven-day all inclusive tour package at a price range starting from 39 thousand 775 rupees. To make this tour affordable, IRCTC has kept the provision of EMI payment as well.

The Makar Sankranti festival is being observed across the country today. This day is dedicated to Lord Surya. It is the day when Sun travels from Sagittarius to Capricorn. Makar Sankranti is also known as Uttarayan which means that the Sun moves towards the north.

With the onset of Uttarayan, the effect of cold also starts reducing gradually. The festival has different names in different parts of the country. It is celebrated as Pongal in Karnataka, Lohri in Punjab and Uttaryan, Maghi and Khichdi in some other parts of the country.

The country is observing 7th Armed Forces Veterans Day today. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan, three service chiefs paid tributes at National War Memorial in New Delhi. The Armed Forces Veterans Day is being celebrated at nine locations across the country including Juhunjhunu, Jalandhar, Panagarh, New Delhi, Dehradun, Chennai, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar and Mumbai. 

Congress MP from Jalandhar Santokh Singh Chaudhary passed away today in Ludhiana after suffering a cardiac arrest while participating at the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Mr. Chaudhary was 76. He had been representing the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency from 2014 and had held a position as a minister in the Punjab cabinet previously. He was rushed to the hospital and there he breathed his last. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off World’s Longest River Cruise-MV Ganga Vilas and will inaugurate Tent City at Varanasi on Friday at 10.30 AM via video conferencing. He will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for several other inland waterways projects worth more than 1000 crore rupees during the event. AIR correspondent reports, MV Ganga Vilas will begin its journey from Varanasi today and travel around 3,200 km in 51 days to reach Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh, sailing across 27 river systems in India and Bangladesh.

Former Union Minister and RJD leader Sharad Yadav passed away on Thursday.  His daughter confirmed the news through a social media post. The 75-year-old veteran politician was ailing for sometime and breathed his last at a private hospital in Gurugram.

President Droupadi Murmu expressed sadness at his passing away. In her message, President said Sharad Yadav was a student leader of the seventies who fought for democratic values.

The festival of Lohri is being celebrated with traditional fervour and gaiety on Friday. It is celebrated in North India especially in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Chandigarh. The festival is mostly associated with crop harvesting and happiness.

President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar have greeted citizens for Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Magha Bihu, Pongal and other festivals. Ms. Murmu said these festivals are symbols of India’s unity in diversity and are the carriers of culture.

The Union Cabinet today gave its nod to the incentive scheme for the promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions. The scheme has a financial outlay of two thousand six hundred crore rupees. The decision will help in building a robust digital payment system.

Besides, the Cabinet also gave ex-post facto approval of renaming the National Centre for Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Quality at Joka, Kolkata as Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee National Institution of Water and Sanitation.