THE HEADLINES ::
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold meeting with his Mauritius counterpart, Navin Chandra Ramgoolam today.
- President Droupadi Murmu to attend convocation ceremonies of Central University of Punjab and AIIMS, Bathinda this afternoon.
- Northern Railway to operate more than 400 special trains during Holi festival.
- India signs MoU with Armenia for cooperation in field of medical products regulation.
- And, World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2025 to kick off at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi today.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached Port Louis this morning on a two-day visit to Mauritius. He will take part in various programmes during the visit. Today, the Prime Minister will visit the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden to pay tribute to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and Sir Anerood Jugnauth. Mr Modi will also plant a sapling in this complex. After this, he will meet President of Mauritius, Dharambeer Gokhool. The Prime Minister will participate in a community event this evening. A large number of people of Indian origin living in Mauritius will be present on this occasion. After this, Prime Minister Mr. Modi will meet his Mauritius counterpart, Navin Chandra Ramgoolam. The Prime Minister will attend the Mauritius National Day celebrations as the chief guest tomorrow. Several pacts in areas of maritime security, capacity building and trade are likely to be signed during the trip. Our correspondent reports that the visit of Prime Minister Mr. Modi is considered very important from the point of view of further strengthening the relations between India and Mauritius.
There is a lot of enthusiasm among the people of Indian origin living here along with the government here for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. About 70% of Mauritius population is of people of Indian origin, due to which the basis of strong relations between India and Mauritius is also shared history and common culture. The Prime Minister will attend the community event on the first day of his visit today in which a large number of people of Indian origin will be present. The Prime Minister’s visit will take relations between the two countries to a new height. Vikalp Shukla, Akashvani news, Mauritius.
Earlier in his departure statement, the Prime Minister said that Mauritius is a close maritime neighbour, a key partner in the Indian Ocean, and a gateway to the African Continent. Mr Modi said both nations are connected by history, geography and culture. He said deep mutual trust, a shared belief in the values of democracy, and celebration of diversity are the strengths of both the countries.
The Prime Minister said he is looking forward to the opportunity to engage with the Mauritius leadership to elevate the partnership in all its facets and strengthen the enduring friendship for the progress and prosperity of people, as well as for security and development in the Indian Ocean Region. He expressed confidence that this visit will build on the foundations of the past and open a new and bright chapter in the India and Mauritius relationship.
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President Droupadi Murmu will be on a two-day visit to Punjab and Union Territory Chandigarh starting today. During her Punjab visit, she will be gracing two convocation ceremonies of the Central University of Punjab (CUP) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Bathinda. The President will be accompanied by Punjab Governor, Gulab Chand Kataria at both the events besides other dignitaries. Our correspondent reports that elaborate security arrangements have been put in place at all the venues.
“At the Central University of Punjab, the President will confer 1,031 postgraduate degrees and 60 Ph.D. degrees, while 43 Gold Medals will also be awarded to meritorious scholars for their academic excellence. At AIIMS, the President will present 72 degrees and medals in MBBS, Doctor of Medicine, Master of Surgery and Master of Dental Surgery. During the evening, the President will attend a civic reception at Mohali which has been hosted by the Punjab Government in her honour. Governors and Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana and other dignitaries will be present there. On March 12th, the President will grace the 72nd convocation ceremony of Punjab University at Chandigarh. Rajesh Bali, Akashvani News, Jalandhar.”
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Northern Railway is operating more than 400 special trains for smooth travel of passengers ahead of the Holi festival. Talking to media in New Delhi, Chief Public Relations Officer of Northern Railways Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay informed that comprehensive arrangements have been made to facilitate the passengers. He highlighted that security arrangements, mini control rooms and waiting areas have been set up for passengers at the New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Stations in the National Capital. Mr Upadhyay said that on demand special trains will also be operated if the need arises.
Mr Upadhyay also said that platform entry will only be allowed to passengers holding valid train tickets for travel.
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The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has released Second Advance Estimates of production of Major Agricultural Crops for the year 2024-25. The estimated Kharif food grain production stands at approximately one thousand 664 lakh metric tons, while Rabi food grain production is projected to exceed one thousand 645 lakh metric tons.
Kharif rice production is estimated at over one thousand 206 lakh metric tons, marking an increase from around one thousand 132 LMT in 2023-24. Production of tur and gram is estimated at 35.11 lakh metric tons and 115.35 lakh metric tons, respectively.
Releasing the data on major agricultural crops, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central Government is continuously working towards the development of the agricultural sector.
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Government has informed that that over 30 crore 68 lakh unorganised workers have been registered on e-Shram Portal. The portal was launched in 2021 for creation of a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha yesterday, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje said that of the total registered workers, more than 53 per cent are women.
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The central government has said the water in the Ganga at Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj was fit for bathing during the recently concluded Maha Kumbh. Citing a report from the Central Pollution Control Board, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav informed the Lok Sabha that the water quality at all monitored locations during the Maha Kumbh was fit for bathing. Mr Yadav said, the government had provided a total of over seven thousand 421 crore rupees to the National Mission for Clean Ganga for cleaning the river in the three financial years.
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In Telangana, candidates from the Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) have filed nominations for the upcoming biennial election to the state Legislative Council under the MLA quota. The nominations are scheduled for scrutiny later today. Deadline for withdrawal of nominations is 13th of this month and if necessary, polling for five vacancies will be held on 20th of this month.
The vacancies arose due to the upcoming retirement of four sitting BRS MLCs and one Majlis MLC on 29th of this month. Considering the strength of the MLAs of respective parties, all the nominees are likely to win the seats comfortably.
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India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Armenia for cooperation in the field of medical products regulation. The MoU was signed in the presence of External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar and Foreign Minister of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan in Delhi yesterday. The two ministers agreed to explore cooperation in digital technologies and pharmaceuticals. They also reviewed the whole range of growing India-Armenia bilateral cooperation including in the areas of political exchanges, trade, economic, connectivity, education, culture, and people-to-people contacts. The two nations also signed an MoU on Cooperation between Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service and Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. During the meeting, Dr Jaishankar said that India aims to strengthen its ties with Armenia that are deeply rooted in history. He said that both countries share good political co-operation, and have seen an increase in bilateral trade and defence collaboration.
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The World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2025 will kick off at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi this afternoon.
The three-day event will feature a total of 250 para-athletes from the world, who will compete in 90 athletics competitions, making it one of the largest para-athletics events ever hosted by India. The Indian contingent will be led by Paris 2024 Paralympics gold medallists Praveen Kumar, Navdeep Singh and Dharambir. Moving onto Badminton, the All England Open Badminton Championships will kick off in Birmingham today. Two time Olympic medalist P V Sindhu, Malvika Bansod, Lakshya Sen, Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand and others are among the Indian contingent.Next we have from the Women’s Premier League (WPL) Cricket, where Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat Giants by 9 runs in Mumbai last night. With this win, Mumbai Indians joined Delhi Capitals at 10 points but stayed at second position due to a lower net run-rate. Today, they will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the same venue to strengthen their chances of finishing on top of standings. In Indian Super League (ISL) Football, Mohammedan SC and Punjab FC rounded off their campaigns in this season with a 2-2 draw in Kolkata last night. Today, Bengaluru FC will host Mumbai City FC at 07:30 PM. CHIRAG JHA, AKASHAVNI NEWS, DELHI.”
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In Jammu & Kashmir, the athletes performed well in different competitions on the second day of 5th edition of the ongoing Khelo India Winter Games at Gulmarg in Baramulla district.
At Kangdoori Slopes, Siddhartha Gadekar from Pune Maharashtra was crowned with Gold Medal in Vertical Ski Mountaineering. Shardul Thapliyal from Himachal Pradesh clinched Gold. Tenzin Dolma from Himachal Pradesh secured her first Gold medal in Vertical Ski Mountaineering event of women’s category.
In the Nordic Ski Sprint for men, Army athletes including Manjeet, Shubam Parihar and Sunny Singh took away Gold, Silver and Bronze medals respectively.
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Syria’s interim government reached a landmark agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to integrate the group into state institutions. As a result of this agreement, SDF which controls the oil rich northeast Syria will now integrate its civilian and military institutions with the state. The deal will implemented by the end of the year. It will bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the Syrian government’s control. Prisons where about 9,000 suspected members of the Islamic State group are also expected to come under government control.
Photos showed interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi shaking hands in Damascus. In a social media post, SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdî said that the agreement is a real opportunity to build a new Syria that embraces all its components and ensures good neighborliness.
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Social Media platform X faced a major cyber attack resulting into multiple outages last night. The attack restricted thousands of users across the world from accessing their handles. Major impact of this cyber attack was seen in United States and United Kingdom. Reacting over it, Elon Musk confirmed that there was a massive cyberattack against X. He further suspected that the attack was done with a lot of resources and either a large, coordinated group or a country is involved.
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TODAY’S NEWSPAPERS HEADLINE,
- News of Walkouts, Sharp Clashes on the first day of the second part of Budget Session of Parliament has been reported widely by all the leading dailies.
- Prime Minister begins Mauritius visit today, he will sign key deals, is the headline in The Asian Age.
- India’s agricultural production surges to record high in 2024 – 25, is the top story in The Statesman.
- Mark Carney set to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada, says The Hindu.
- SEBI mulls rejig of short selling regulations to cover all stocks, reports The Hindu Business Line.
- ED searches premises of former Chattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel in connection with an alleged liquor scam, is the headline in The Indian Express.
- And finally, the Delhi International Airport has been adjudged the best in over 40 million passengers category in Asia Pacific region for 2024, according to a report in The Times of India.
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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold meeting with his Mauritius counterpart Navin Chandra Ramgoolam today.
- President Droupadi Murmu to attend convocation ceremonies of Central University of Punjab and AIIMS, Bathinda this afternoon.
- Northern Railway to operate more than 400 special trains during Holi festival.
- India signs MoU with Armenia for cooperation in field of medical products regulation.
- And, World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2025 to kick off at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi today.
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