Outgoing US Envoy Receives A Rare Reception At Blair House

Outgoing Indian Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla was felicitated with a rare reception at the Blair House. Also, he called on US President Donald Trump in the White House to thank him for his support.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla combing to New Delhi

MrShringla has been promoted as the next foreign secretary of India on December 23. He will succeed Vijay Gokhale whose two-year terms would be completed on January 28. MrShringla will join the new post the next day.

Mr. Shringla’s US tenure

The “Captain of India-US relationship” is how Ambassador Alice Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia described MrShringla. Ms Well said that Mr. Shringla would be instrumental in taking the India-US relations to their potential.

Reception of Mr. Shringla

US Chief of Protocol Can Henderson host the rare reception in the honor of MrShringla. This kind of reception is given to outgoing envoys of selected countries and India became one of those countries.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla thanked US President Trump for his “steadfast support” while meeting the president at his White House office. MrShringla said that the president’s support was necessary for strengthening the India-US strategic partnership.

Source: https://bit.ly/2Nk4Rf0

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Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo: Allu Arjun And Pooja Hegde Starrer Promise High-Octane Entertainment

Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo has drama, romance, comedy, action, emotions and little bit of everything needed to hold attention of the viewers.

Story

The story cuts across the lives of two sons. The first one is Bantu (Allu Arjun) whose cold-hearted father Valmiki (Murli Sharma) leaves no chance to put his son down. The second one is Raj Manohar (Sushanth A) whose millionaire father Ramchandra (Jayram) wants his son to be assertive. But fate has something different from both the sons. Bantu’s life intersects with that of the other father-son duo.

Highlights of the movie

• Trivikram Srinivas is a versatile director who proved his skills even after being accused of copying scenes and plots

• Allu Arjun failed to impress the audiences in his last two movies but his fans are still waiting for him to come in the form

• Pooja Hegde gave a spectacular performance in 2019. Also, she described her character in Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo as strong

• The movie boasts of an ensemble cast including Tabu, NivethaPethuraj, Rajendra Prasad and Sachin Khedekar

• Thaman S music is also a highlight. He has promised that OMG Daddy would be a feast to watch

• It is a light-heated movie with a generous dose of comedy

Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo First Look & Poster

The beautiful poster has the lead protagonist Allu Arjun is seen walking in the storm. Dressed up like a next-door-boy, he looks worried. He has a piece of cloth in red color and it looks like a scarf. He seems to be walking towards the city that is visible in the backdrop.

Why watch the movie?

Trivikram’s direction is an attraction. Also, Allu … Read the rest

Commemorating Swami Vivekanand On His 157th Birth Anniversary

Swami Vivekanand was morn on January 12, 1863 in an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family. His original name is Narendranath Datta but he is better known as Swami Vivekanand due to his role development and expansion of Hinduism.

Swami Vivekanand on Hinduism

In the late 19th century, he brought Hinduism to the status of major world religion on a global platform. He is credited for being instrumental in introducing the Indian Vedanta and philosophies of yoga to the western world. His preaching put India on the spiritual map of the world.

World’s Parliament of Religions

The first parliament of religions of the world was held in 1893 in Chicago. Swami Vivekanand attended the parliament from India and impressed the religious leaders of the world with his speech on Hinduism. It is his speech that brought a sea-change in the way the world looked at India. After that parliament, Swami Vivekanand became a ‘messenger of Indian wisdom to the western world’.

Source: https://bit.ly/30c09oE

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Khelo India Youth Games: 3rd Edition To Kickstart In Guwahati From Today

Third Khelo India Youth Games 2020 in Guwahati will begin today. Chief Executive Officer of the event, Avinash Joshi said that all preparations had been made for the inaugural ceremony. The Assam Chief Minister SarbanandSonowal with Union Sports minister Kiren Rijjju would grace the ceremony, added Mr. Joshi.

Third edition of the games

Around 6,800 athletes from teams of 28 states and 9 union territories will participate in a total of 20 sports events. Also, only electric cars will be used at the venue under the Go-Green Programme. The games will be held in Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium. The 3rd edition of Khelo India Youth Games will conclude on January 22.

Torchbearer of the games

The opening ceremony of the Khelo India Youth Games would see the female ace sprinter Hima Das bearing the torch. The CM Sonowal said in a release that the competition had started a sporting revolution in India and that people couldn’t more proud of the fact that tournament was being held in Assam.

Special incentives for Assam athletes

Athletes from Assam are expected to get Rs. 1 lakh, 75,000 and 50,000 for gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. It would be an incentive for the Assamese people. Also, the capital Guwahati is made sports capital of the country and a budget of Rs. 104 crores are earmarked to host the games.

According to the Khelo India Youth Games, its objective is to establish India as a sporting nation by reviving sports culture in the country as the grass-root level.

Source: https://bit.ly/2R61lWK

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PUBG Mobile 0.16.5 Updates: Highlights And Advantages

PUBG Mobile has added new Domination game mode, Arena map, a vehicle and Royale Pass Season 11 among others in the latest 0.16.5 update. The new updated is available on Google Play and App Store for downloading.

New PUBG update

The update requires only 0.14 GB space on Android and 0.17 GB on iOS. The new updated Royale pass Season 11 Operation Tomorrow will have no downtime.

With the new update, the players will enter the new Arena map taking advantage of the new Domination mode and try capturing the bases with a 4×4 battle. They will be assigned either the blue or red team. They require obtaining new bases. A random base would be activated at the start of the game and the second base would be activated with either team capturing the first base. Either team that captures 2 out of 3 bases is declared a winner. Additionally, the players can take advantage of Super Weapon that blow out enemies and enjoy exciting backstreet firefights.

Firearm training with the new update

Paying heed to requests from players, PUBG Mobile has agreed to provide firearms training. The Warehouse map would be used for the Arena Training map. It has been restored and converted into a training area where can choose any weapon and take training on that weapon.

Highlights of the new update

• New gameplay mode with new maps

• All-new Operations Tomorrow with new missions and rewards

• High-quality futuristic outfits

• Light Snowmobile

• Firearm Balancing

• Season Recap

• Royale Pass improvements

• Advanced security features

Source: https://bit.ly/37VeybC

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Mamata Banerjee Will Meet PM Modi In Kolkata Today

PM Narendra Modi is likely to share stage with the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during his two-day visit to Kolkata. He’s in Kolkata for inaugurations and celebrations.

PM in Kolkata

PM Modi will first inaugurate the four recently refurbished heritage buildings of Kolkata – Currency Building, Belvedere House, Metcalfe House and a Victoria Memorial Hall. The event is scheduled for today at 5:30 pm at the Old Currency building.

At 7 pm, the PM would attend the celebrations of 150 years of the Kolkata Port Trust on the banks of river Hooghly. Ms. Banerjee has been invited for the function. At the function, Modi will felicitate two 100-year old Kolkata Port Trust pensioners – Nagina Bhagat (105) and Naresh Chandra Chakraborty (100). Also, he will give Rs. 501 crores to meet the deficit pension fund of retired and existing employees of the Kolkata Port Trust that is the oldest operational port trust in India.

In the evening, Modi could take a naval boat from Kolkata to Belur to visit the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission.

On Sunday, the PM will inaugurate a Kaushal Vikas Kendra and Pritilata Chhatri Avas for 200 Tribal girl students in the Sunderbans. Also listed is the inauguration of the up-gradation of a ship repair facility at Haldia. The upgraded infrastructure includes a berth for smooth cargo movement and mechanization.

Mamata Banerjee meeting PM Modi

Ms Banerjee has been very critical of PM Modi’s policies especially CAA. But she will call on the PM at Raj Bhawan where Modi will be staying overnight.

Source: https://bit.ly/2Nf27zo

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World Hindi Day: Why Is It Celebrated On 10 January?

Every year 10 January is celebrated as World Hindi Day I India and across the globe. It was the UPA government under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh took the decision of celebrating the World Hindi Day in 2006. 10 January was chosen for celebrations with the objective to aid in the expansion and development of the Hindi language.

Chhattisgarh CM congratulated on World Hindi Day

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel congratulated the world on the World Hindi Day and said that out culture and development were recognized by Hindi. He quoted a Hindi poem to highlight the role of language in the growth and development of a nation. Bhupesh Bhagel said that it was our responsibility to give respect to our language. Children should be taught moral stories in Hindi so that they develop a liking towards Hindi. Also, Hindi should be introduced and developed at the international level.

Importance of 10th January

In order to make Hindi acceptable for communication at an international level, the government started World Hindi Seminars and the first seminar was held on 10th January 1975 in Nagpur. It is for this reason that Dr. Manmohan Singh declared January 10 as the official date for celebrating the “World Hindi Day”.

Hindi in universities

Today Hindi is taught in over 130 universities across the globe. Fiji, an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, has even given the official status to Hindi. Also, the Indian embassy celebrated the first World Hindi Day in Norway.

Source: https://bit.ly/2tIBFYe

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Soon Twitterati Will Be Allowed To Choose Who Can Reply To Their Tweets

Twitter will introduce a new feature to prevent trolls from hijacking conversations. Users will be allowed to choose who can replay to their tweets before they send their tweets. It will be rolled out for testing later this year.

New Twitter feature

The company has adopted an aggressive approach to prevent trolls and stop targeted harassment on its platform. The feature allows users to select people that can reply to their tweets from given options that include:

• Everyone
• Followers-only
• People only that are mentioned in the tweet
• Nobody

The tweets from public accounts would be visible to everyone but only the chosen viewers would be allowed to reply. But people can quote tweets from public accounts. According to Twitter’s director of product for conversations, Suzanne Xie, this new format for conversation didn’t exist before.

Twitter’s new move

The new feature is considered the boldest experiment to improve conversational health on social media. Earlier, it introduced “hide replies” feature to contain trolling but the users were required to manually hide replies and that was very unpractical especially when there were hundreds of replies to hide.

The ability to limit replies would help Twitter users from unwanted and unwelcome abuse and harassment out of nothing. It would dramatically improve their experience as they could choose the person that can add value to their tweets.

The feature is now available only to selected users and it will be made available for all after studying the findings of the experiment. If it is found to be useful, it would be provided to all.

Source: https://bit.ly/30cYTls

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Trump Offers Talks For Peace with Iran

US President Donald Trump said that all American soldiers were safe during the Iranian missile strikes on US bases in Iraq. Also, the damage to military equipment was minimal. He further said that the outcome of the strike was that Tehran didn’t want war or escalation of the conflict.

Trump on Iranian attack on US bases

He said on Wednesday that Iran appeared to be standing down that was a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world. He further said that US has military and smart equipment but America didn’t want to use the equipment. He was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and military officers at the time of speaking to the press.

Trump suggested new talks with Iran

He urged the world to quit the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and work on a new deal. US has already left that deal in 2018. He said that it was that deal that was in the center of the Iran-US conflict but Iran rejected the offer of new talks.

Iran on the US offer

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the attacks on US bases in Iraq were a slap on the face of US and that the US troops should leave the region. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the attacks concluded Iran’s response to the killing of its supreme commander.

Source: https://bit.ly/30aF4uT

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IPL 2020 Begins On March 29 And Final On May 24 With No-Double Headers

The start date of IPL 2020 is fixed on March 29 and the final would be played on May 24. This time, IPL got an extended window for more entertainment. It would be 57 days of cricket with no double-headers this time.

IPL 2020 edition

Starting from March 24 to May 24, this season of the IPL is going to be lengthier by 12 days. Earlier IPL tournaments used to be up to 45 days but this time, the tournament is extended to 57 days.

IPL 2020 match timings

During previous seasons, it was noticed that matches started at 8 pm and went well past midnight. But this time, the games would start at 7:30 pm. The hosts felt that going back home a midnight was quite an issue for the audiences. But hosts have another issue with an early start. It is difficult for audiences living in metro cities to reach stadiums after leaving from office at 6 pm.

No-double headers in IPL 2020

Another important thing about IPL 2020 is that there would be no double-headers this time. The hosts received a lukewarm response today matches last season. This time, they want to make sure that the audiences enjoy cricket to the full and the TRP remains on top.

The extended window provided to IPL 2020 is to accommodate single matches. With 57 days of cricket, the hosts can easily plan the game. Last year, franchises had a problem with empty stands. Outdoing with double-headers would solve that problem.

Source: https://bit.ly/2R54E06

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