THE HEADLINES:

• Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar calls meeting of floor leaders this morning to break logjam in Parliament.

• Home Minister Amit Shah to inaugurate Vedic Heritage Portal in New Delhi today.

• G20 Research and Innovation Initiative Gathering under India's Presidency to begin in Assam's Dibrugarh today.

• US Federal Reserve hikes interest rate by 25 basis point to curb inflation despite banking turmoil.

• In Sports; Ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy advance to second round of Swiss Open Badminton tournment in Basel.

• And, Pugilists Lovlina Borgohain, Nikhat Zareen, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora confirm four medals for India at Women's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.

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Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhanakhar has  called a meeting of the floor leaders of different political parties to deliberate on securing orderly functioning of the House. The Chairman will try to find a solution to break the logjam in the House over issues raised by both ruling as well as Opposition parties. The Parliament has witnessed continuous disruptions since the start of the second part of the budget session on 13th of this month. While  the BJP is demanding apology from Congress leader  Rahul Gandhi for his remarks  on democracy, the opposition parties are insisting on Joint Parliamentary Committee probe on Adani Group issue. The two Houses did not meet yesterday  due to various festivals incluidng  Ugadi, Gudi Padava and Chaitra Sukladi.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the Vedic Heritage portal today with the twin agenda of helping researchers in deeper understanding of the Vedic knowledge tradition and help the common people to have a general understanding of the ancient scriptures. The portal is hosted by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts or (IGNCA). It is being launched during the week-long IGNCA Foundation Day celebrations that began on Sunday. IGNCA Member Secretary, Dr Sachchidanand Joshi said, the centre is working on a project “Vrihattar Bharat” wherein the cultural linkages of India with 40 other countries is being compiled. Some of the countries connecetd with this project are SouthEast Asian nations like Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia and others.

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The two-day G20 Research and Innovation Initiative Gathering Conference will begin at Dibrugarh in Assam today. It will deliberate on ways towards building a sustainable and circular bio-economy.

About a 100 delegates from G20 members, guest countries and International organizations, along with invited participants from the scientific community will be present on the occasion.

The area of focus will include challenges and opportunities in agriculture, de-carbonization of industry as well as bio-energy and bioresource management.

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The second G20 Sustainable Financial Working Group meeting under India's Presidency will conclude at Udaipur in Rajasthan today. The three-day meeting focused on the identification of relevant policies and best practices for mobilizing sustainable finance to help ensure global growth and stability.

A workshop on enabling finance for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was held on the second day yesterday. The workshop had three sessions focussing on existing approaches to finance SDGs as well as identifying new methods to mobilise greater finance for SDGs.

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The Income Tax Department has launched a free of cost Mobile app namely AIS for Taxpayer. It will facilitate the taxpayers to view their information as available in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary. In the app, they can view various information related to TDS, interest, share transactions, tax payments, Income Tax refunds and GST Data among others. The taxpayers will also have the option and the facility to provide feedback on the information displayed in the app.

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The Padma Awardees will pay homage at the National War Memorial in New Delhi today. They will also visit the Amrit Udyan and Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya. President Droupadi Murmu confered 54 Padma Awards, out of 106 Padma Awards for the year 2023 at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday. She confered three Padma Vibhushan, four Padma Bhushan and 47 Padma Shri award.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh tomorrow. Apart from addressing the One World TB Summit, the Prime Minister will also dedicate and lay the foundation stone of various projects worth more than 1,780 crore rupees on the occasion. The projects includesthe integrated pack house which has been constructed at Karkhiyaon near the Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport in Varanasi. It will give a boost to exports of agricultural products from Varanasi and surrounding regions to other countries.

"State of the art facility at pack house will pave way for export of vegetables and fruits particularly the Langda variety of mango of Varanasi to countries like Japan, Korea, England and Australia. Talking exclusively to AIR News, C.B Singh, the General Manager of Agricultural and Processed food products export Development authority APEDA said that this facility will be a boon to the farmers of the region and is likely to double the current export of fruits and vegetables.

This Integrated pack house will be third in UP after Saharanpur and Lucknow and first of the Purvanchal region. Constructed in around 4461 square feets area with 15.78 crore rupees the pack house is an excellent example of make in India campaign which will also have single window clearance. With Manish Singh, this is Sushil Chandra Tiwari, AIR News, Varanasi."

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All India Radio is presenting a vignette of select quotes of the Prime Minister from Mann ki Baat as the program completes its 100th episode in April this year.

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The US central bank has raised interest rates again, despite fears that the move could add to financial turmoil after a string of recent bank failures. The Federal Reserve increased its key rate by 0.25 percentage points and said more action could be appropriate as consumer prices continue to climb. The Federal Reserve has been raising borrowing costs to try to slow the economy and ease pressures pushing up prices. But sharp rate rises have led to strains in the banking system. Two US banks - Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed this month, buckling in part due to problems caused by higher interest rates. But authorities around the world have said they do not think the failures threaten widespread financial stability and need not distract from efforts to bring inflation under control.

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In Badminton, ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy have advanced to the second round of Swiss Open tournment in Basel.

Two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed, Sindhu defeated Jenjira Stadelmann in the first round of the Women's Singles last night. In Men's Singles, Srikanth beat China's Weng Hong Yang to set up clash with Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu in second round. Prannoy edge past China's Shi Yu Qi.

Another Indian Shuttler, Mithun Manjunath also progressed to the second round with a win over Joran Kweekel of Netherlands.

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In Boxing, star Indian pugilists Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghanghas, Nikhat Zareen and Saweety Boora confirmed at least four medals for India by advancing to the semi-finals in the Women's World Boxing Championships being held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi yesterday.

Lovlina added a third World Championship medal to her kitty with a 5-0 win over last year’s World Championships bronze medallist Rady Gramane of Mozambique in 75 kg category. Squaring off against the two-time Worlds bronze medallist Madoka Wada of Japan, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion Nitu secured a scintillating win in the quaterfinals of 48 kg category with the Referee Stops Contest verdict. Nikhat successfully continued her title defence by recording a hard-fought 5-2 win against the two time World Championships bronze medallist Chuthamat Raksat of Thailand in 50 kilogram category. Saweety recorded a dominating 5-0 win against Viktoria Kebikava of Belarus in the 81 kg event.

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In Cricket, Australia defeated India by 21 runs in the third and final ODI at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium last night. With this win, Australia clinch the series 2-1.

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The holy month of Ramzan will begin from tomorrow. The Ruet-e-Hilaal or moon sighting committee announced in New Delhi that the Ramzan moon was not sighted last evening.

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India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a fresh spell of rainfall and thunderstorm activity from today evening in Northwest India including over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, West Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It said, isolated heavy rainfall is expected tomorrow over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab.

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TODAY'S NEWSPAPERS HEADLINE:

• All the dailies have widely covered on today's India moving towards the next step of digital revolution. Hindustan Times writes "Modi unveils 6G test bed with 2030 target."

•  Prime Minister takes stock of the spike in Covid and influenza cases and calls for tracking new variants.The Hindu cites the Prime Minister's caution saying "Covid Pandemic is far from over."

• " High Commission in London responds to stir by pro-Khalistan protesters by putting up bigger Tricolour" writes The Pioneer.

• " 44 Indian courses make it to Top 100 QS World University Rankings" reports The Times of India.

• And Finally, The Statesman says " Varanasi to be India's first city to have ropeway for public transport."

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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN:

• Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar calls meeting of floor leaders this morning to break logjam in Parliament.

• Home Minister Amit Shah to inaugurate Vedic Heritage Portal in New Delhi today

• G20 Research and Innovation Initiative Gathering under India's Presidency to begin in Assam's Dibrugarh today.

• US Federal Reserve hikes interest rate by 25 basis point to curb inflation despite banking turmoil.

• In Sports; Ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy advance to second round of Swiss Open Badminton tournment in Basel.

• And, Pugilists Lovlina Borgohain, Nikhat Zareen, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora confirm four medals for India at Women's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.

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