Morning News -

THE HEADLINES:

Odisha BJP Legislature Party to meet in Bhubaneswar today to elect its leader.
Union Cabinet approves construction of three crore additional houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
Centre releases over one lakh 39 thousand crore rupees in tax devolution to support state finances and spur economic development.
India welcomes Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia joining BRICS.
UN Security Council approves US proposed Israel-Gaza ceasefire plan.
In Sports, India’s Gulveer Singh clinches silver medal in Men’s 5000 metre race at Portland Track Festival High Performance Meet in US.

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In Odisha, the BJP Legislature Party will meet in Bhubaneswar today to elect its leader. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupender Yadav have been appointed central observers to oversee the process. Our correspondent reports that a new BJP-led government will assume office in Odisha tomorrow.

“The newly elected BJP MLAs of Odisha will meet at the party headquarters at Bhubaneswar this afternoon to elect their leader who will be the next chief minister of the state. The first BJP chief minister and the council of ministers are scheduled to take the oath tomorrow evening at the Janata Maidan at Bhubaneswar. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupender Yadav will hold discussion with the BJP legislators and come to a consensus on the name of chief minister. A number of names are being speculated for the next chief minister of Odisha including senior party MLA Suresh Pujari, KV Singh Deo and Mohan Charan Majhi. State party leaders anticipate that the BJP leadership might unveil a surprise announcement, as seen in previous instances in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

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Union Cabinet has approved construction of three crore additional rural and urban houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. A decision in this regard was taken in the first cabinet meeting of the newly-formed NDA government in New Delhi yesterday.

The central government has been implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana since 2015 to provide assistance to eligible rural and urban households for the construction of houses with basic amenities. Under the scheme, a total of 4 crore 21 lakh houses have been completed for the eligible poor families in the last ten years.

All the houses constructed under the scheme are also provided with other basic amenities, including household toilets, LPG connections, electricity connections, functional household tap connections, and others through convergence with other schemes of the Central Government and State Governments.

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The Centre has released over one lakh 39 thousand crore rupees in tax devolution for states for the month of June to support state finances and spur economic development. The Finance Ministry said that this amount will enable State Governments to accelerate development and capital spending. Uttar Pradesh got the largest share of over 25 thousand crores, followed by Bihar with over 14 thousand crores, Madhya Pradesh with around 11 thousand crores and West Bengal, which has received over 10 thousand five hundred crore rupees. With this instalment, the centre has transferred over two lakh 79 thousand crore rupees to states till 10th of June 2024.

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Several Union Ministers of newly formed Union Council of Ministers will assume their office today. They include External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, Information and Broadcasting and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Mansukh L. Mandaviya . Along with them, Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi, Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh, Power Minister Manohar Lal, Minister of Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil will also assume charge today. Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Dr Jitendra Singh is also slated to take charge as the Minister of Science and Technology.

Portfolios of the Union Ministers were announced yesterday evening.

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Rashtriy Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Dr. Mohan Bhagwat has said that both ruling and opposition parties are equally important for the healthy democracy. He said politics should run with consensus. Dr. Bhagwat was addressing the concluding ceremony of Sang Shiksha Varg and Karykarta Vikas program at Resimbhag in Nagpur yesterday. Emphasizing on the importance of diversity in the country, he said unity in diversity is our identity and we should respect mutual religious sentiments.

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Director General of the National Testing Agency (NTA) Subodh Kumar Singh has assured the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test–Under Graduate (NEET-UG) aspirants that their rankings would not be affected due to the on-going revisit of the results of 1,563 candidates, from 6 exam centres. These students were awarded compensatory marks in the NEET UG 2024 exam, held for admission to undergraduate medical programmes. In an exclusive interview with the Akashvani News, Mr Singh said that the four-member high power committee constituted to look into the matter will submit its recommendation within a week.

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The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) issued a cautionary advisory, urging students and parents to beware of misinformation about the syllabus, study materials, and sample question papers for the 2024-25 academic session. While urging students to avoid being deceived by online platforms spreading unverified information, the Board said that certain online portals and websites are circulating outdated links and unverified news. It said that the information from unauthorized sources can be misleading and may cause unnecessary confusion among schools, students, parents, and other stakeholders. The Board advised students to refer only to CBSE website for authentic information and updates.

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India has wholeheartedly welcomed Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia joining the BRICS as their representatives attended for the first time a key meeting of the grouping hosted by Russia. The BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting in Nizhny Novgorod yesterday was the first ministerial meeting following BRICS expansion in 2023 when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE joined the grouping as full-fledged BRICS members.

Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Dammu Ravi led the Indian delegation at the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. Usually, the External Affairs Minister attends such meetings. Since Dr S Jaishankar was reappointed as External Affairs Minister only yesterday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, he could not make it to Russia to attend the meeting. The MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal termed the meeting significant and welcomed the new BRICS members.

Meanwhile, BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs have expressed their concern about ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world and reiterated commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes through diplomacy, inclusive dialogue and consultations.

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The United Nations Security Council has approved a US-proposed Israel-Gaza ceasefire plan. It sets out conditions for a “full and complete ceasefire”, the release of hostages held by Hamas, the return of dead hostages’ remains and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners. Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members, including the US, voted in favour of the resolution Russia abstained. The resolution states that Israel has accepted the ceasefire proposal, and urges Hamas to agree to it, too.

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In Malawi, an aircraft carrying its Vice-President Saulos Chilima and nine others has gone missing. According to a statement from the Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera’s office, the Malawi Defence Force aircraft went off the radar after it left the capital, Lilongwe, yesterday. The craft was carrying the 51-year-old Vice President, his wife and eight other individuals. It left the capital, but failed to make its scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport, 45 minutes later. Search and rescue operation is underway.

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Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released stunning images of the Sun captured by the Aditya L1 satellite during a major geomagnetic storm in May. The two remote sensing payloads, namely the Solar UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) and the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), along with other payloads, captured these images from the Lagrange point in space. The images released by the ISRO clearly show magnetically active regions with large solar flares on the Sun’s surface. It said these images will assist astrophysicists in studying solar flares, their energy distribution among others. The images can be viewed on the ISRO website.

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In athletics, India’s Gulveer Singh has clinched the silver medal in the Men’s 5000 metre race at the Portland Track Festival High Performance Meet in Portland, United States. The Asian Games bronze medallist yesterday also became the fastest Indian in the men’s 5000 metre race. Gulveer clocked the national record timing of 13 minutes 18.92 seconds to surpass the previous record of 13 minutes 19.30 seconds, set by Avinash Sable last year. With this achievement, Gulveer now holds the national records in both the 10,000 metre and 5,000 metre races.

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In Football, the Indian men’s team will take on the reigning Asian champions Qatar in a do-or-die match in the second round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 AFC qualifiers in Doha today. The match will start at 9:15 PM, IST. To advance to the third round of the qualifiers, India must clinch one of the top two spots in Group A.

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In tennis, India’s Yuki Bhambri and his partner, Albano Olivetti of France will start their campaign in the Stuttgart Open Tournament in Germany today. Bhambri and Olivetti will take on the second seeded pair of Michael Venus of New Zealand and Neal Skupski of United Kingdom, in the Men’s doubles pre-quarters.

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In the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Cricket, South Africa defeated Bangladesh by four runs at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, US last night. Opting to bat first, South Africa scored 113 for 6 in the stipulated 20 overs.

While chasing the target of 114, Bangladesh could score only 109 for seven in 20 overs.

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The India Meteorological Department has issued a red warning for heatwave in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for the next three to four days. Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail in some pockets of Jammu Division, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha during the next five days.

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TODAY’S NEWSPAPERS headline

Most newspapers today open with spelling out details of the newly formed Union Council of Ministers.”PM Modi opts for continuity in picking team for NDA 3.0″ writes The Hindustan Times. “Top 4 retain posts; agri for Shivraj; power for Khattar” headlines The Asian Age.
With IMD issuing warning for North-west India, The Pioneer on its front page states “get ready for second-degree burns.”
“Centrists humbled, far-right surges as 4-day European Union polls end” states The Hindu.
As Investors move to Mutual Funds, ELSS, “SBI, Other PSBs Suggest steps to Boost Deposits” writes The Economic Times.
With the city’s tech-savvy workforce and subsidised electricity for EV charging “Bengaluru takes top spot in electric car registrations” writes The Business Standard.
The Times Of India headlines, Signing up together: Parents in US are pledging to keep kids phone-free.

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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN

Odisha BJP Legislature Party to meet in Bhubaneswar today to elect its leader.
Union Cabinet approves construction of three crore additional houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
Centre releases over one lakh 39 thousand crore rupees in tax devolution to support state finances and spur economic development.
India welcomes Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia joining BRICS.
UN Security Council approves US proposed Israel-Gaza ceasefire plan.
In Sports, India’s Gulveer Singh clinches silver medal in Men’s 5000 metre race at Portland Track Festival High Performance Meet in US.

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